Just a little home sick
I expect it may be some time before I get online so I'm dating everything.
2004-09-19
I moved in today. I packed the car full of things. Then we went at about 11 something in the morning. I got my key and my mailbox (no, a physical mailbox - yes, I was confused too ;) key. That took several hours. I qued for ages and saw the person on the Shearbridge Green place. They said I needed to a yellow reciept. We found somebody from the Student Union who was very helpful - so I went to another table in the Small Hall in the Richmond Building and filled out some form and got the yellow reciept. I then qued for the Shearbridge Green keys again. And I discovered I didn't need the yellow recipet (turns out the guy on before was just there because the usual people were on a lunch break). Then I went over and got my mailbox key - not sure how useful the concept is as there's one box per first letter of surname in Shearbridge and Longside. It seems the other halls residents get a better service as they have individual addresses. So we went to the refectory (it's where they serve you school lunch-like food, apparently) where we'd booked a traditional sunday lunch and we mentioned we wanted vegan Sunday lunch, but they didn't get our order. So we went off to South Square for lunch (potato wedges, SSQ Special burger, plum and apple sice).
We came back and had a look at my room. The lock didn't work so we changed the key and then they had the joiner come up and fix it as the new key didn't work. Then we moved everything in from the car. Then Davina left.
Then I set my computer up. Even though this hall doesn't have broadband, there's a Cat5 hole in the wall... but no standard phone hole. I think Cat5 plugs are bigger than American telephone holes, so it's probably not that Bradford Uni has moved to America... Hmm, very strange.
My room's much bigger than my old one. A desk, two chairs, a bed, a sink, a wardrobe, a window. It's nice.
So, I got my computer set up and read some incredibly useful documents (``Don't cook when you're drunk''). Then... I went out on a big adventure.
First stop - that place near the cashier's office where the Student Private Telephone Service and dial-in/ResNet (ethernet from halls) people were. They were no longer there. Then I went under some building (Horton, I believe) and found a weird place with a cylindrical thing and stuff. Then I went past the Library to the Student Union place. Bars and stuff there. Then I came back via the road that's near UniPol.
I'm glad I saved a copy of the top 200 IRC quotes from bash.org. It's fun.
I also remembered to bring The Naked Sun and my vegan cook books.
I photoblogged my day. I shall certainly upload the pictures at some point. This depends on a number of factors the most important of which being when I get my uni login (i.e. take pictures to uni and upload them to my webspace, or dial-in and upload them slowly).
I also photographed the programmes from the Student Union and opening times of things. Easier than stealing them or writing them down.
Some of the events looked interesting, such as the Allsorts night which is an LGTB event. I think I'll go. Maybe drag Summer or somebody along.
It's weird... I have all my stuff but I'm not at home... I'm sure it'll get better when I get the dial-in access.
It's very light compared to my old room. Like the computer's drowned in light. It was under my bed before.
I think I'm going to have a nice, minimal effort, anti-social tea tonight. The minimum effort refers not to the food-preperation, but to the lack of social interaction - I've had a long day and I need to relax and be alone. I don't think I can cope talking to people right now, I'm kind of tired (not least from the physical and psychological effort required to move and maybe from the psychological trauma of not having had Internet access for at least 23 hours - yes I will continue counting).
It's going to be quite a strain this week. I don't start my course (Computer Science) until next Monday but meeting all these new people (being social is good in small doses, but too much of it is painful) and being in a new place (granted it's only a couple of miles up the road but it's scary) and then on top of it all, I won't have 'Net access in my room till Thursday or something. I'm not sure I'll cope very well without 'Net access. I rely on it almost completely as a fantastic place to learn and to socialise (in a completely non-stressful way).
I hear there's a Cyber Cafe not far from here so I may have to find it and use it at some point soon. The Library (I think) is offering one free phone call or email home (as most first-years have no logins yet). But that's no good, I need to spend a good few hours online to blog this, upload the photos (note: I won't have anywhere to upload them if I use a Cyber Cafe as the webspace (50MB) needs a login (I think you have to apply for it seperately too).
Maybe I should buy a techy book to help me calm down. Although I'm not sure a physical book store would have anything incredibly interesting in stock and ordering would take a while. We'll see. Maybe I should have a wonder round town tomorrow. I should go to the Goth Shop at some point. It's up near Morrisons and the Blood Donor Clinic. I also need to do some food shopping and I should find out what my local shops are and which has what for the cheapest, etc..
TODO list for tomorrow:
I like the whole sink in my room thing, I can do `things' (like stretch piercings then rinse them after or getting myself a drink) without leaving my room. If I was feeling really anti-social I could pee in it rather than leave my room (it's nice and low down ;).
One thing I've noticed is that even though this room is larger than my last bedroom, (I keep wanting to say `my room') it seems there are fewer places to put things so it seems like there's less space. Annoying. At the moment it shall just have to be messy.
It certainly seems easier to get into bed when it's half a metre off the ground as opposed to 2 metres. The stains on my sheets are easier to see, too. I just put my light blue bed thing on the bed (the thing that goes on the matress below the douvet) and it's covered with stains. Mostly suspicious-looking stains but some blood, which is either apadravya blood or cat tumour blood.
I think I'm going to go to bed now and read a chapter or two of The Naked Sun. I set my alarm for 8am as I have to attend the offical welcome meeting at 10.
It's just starting to sink in that this is my home now and I no longer live with Davina :( It's scary).
Night night, avid readers (or not as this hasn't been published yet).
2004-09-20
I went to the Offical Welcome Meeting held by the Student Union. Boring.
I saw Davina and Roisin and we went to Cafe East for lunch. Rice, chips and samosas. Yummy. I'm going to Davina's tomorrow for tea with the kids then I'm going online and setting the VCR. She also gave me my toothbrushes (which fell out of the bag at home) and my wheely chair. The chairs they gave me were useless for computing - arm rests, no wheels, legs kept catching on the carpet so it tilted when I tried to push it back.
Then I went home for a bit and read another chapter of The Naked Sun. Then I went to explore the library. It's big. Really big. So unimaginably big... (Yes, I'm rewriting the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Where was I? Yes, well, the Library is big. First I went to see the person sitting infront of a `telephone and networking' banner and got a free adaptor for my Cat5-shaped phone hole.
I found one book about Python (of the two existing in the library - I used the computer to locate the second one). It was good. It said it was a beginner's book (Davina said she wanted to learn a programming language at some point, it seems like a good book on a good language) but it got really in-depth by the end. The last two chapters were on Tkinter and LiveWire (a PyGame wrapper), respectively.
Near the entrance to the library were eight locked-down Windows PCs with only Internet Explorer available for first-year students whose Internet connections hadn't been set-up yet (i.e. everybody) and nobody has logins yet so nobody can use the library computers (except the catalogue ones). I was surprised that there was no que whatsoever. I used one for a short while to check my Gmail account - Warbutons had emailed me about my enquiry as to the source of the calcium in their bread. They were incredibly defensive about it. It went something like ``We can only divulge such information for legitimate reasons.'' So I went to their website and told them my reason (being vegan and needing to know if it came from an animal product) and told them I'd take my business elsewhere if they don't care to tell me exactly what could enter by body (I didn't actually eat it - I was waiting to hear from them). Proprietary bastards.
I checked Slashdot and Newsforge too. There was a link on Slashdot to an interesting blog. Somebody had found a keydrive or similar and were making up a life of the person who lost it by posting one photo each day and writing something about it. Teehee. I have a README in the root of my dongle with my name and address and other contact details, etc. so nice people can email me and say ``I have your dongle here, in my hands. It's very big.''
One thing I noticed was that the page full of photos loaded in seconds. VERY impressed. Also VERY jelous. Fucking bastards not in Shearbridge Green with their ethernet connectivity. I may go back to the library and email some people later on, like after it's stopped pouring it down outside.
I was just thinking of visiting Cat's and Owen's boards then I remembered I couldn't remember their URLs because ezboard are morons and use stupid subdomains then I remembered I could write them down as I had my bookmarks in Firefox. ezBoard is so crap. I Googled for the two boards but I found no good results. Rediculus.
I briefly flirted with the idea of posting my blog from the library computers. I decided it may be too much hassle and I'd already spent a while emailing and Slashdotting. I'm not even sure it would work - opening a local UNIX-ended file on a mass storage device from a locked-down IE.
I'm planning on plucking up the courage to warm my tin of curry in one of my sourcepans... in the kitchen. I suppose I'll have to go to the kitchen at some point...
I checked just now with my modem and there's no dial-tone. I assume the phone line in this block/hall isn't connected yet. That's okay, I haven't got my login. I overheard the receptionist tell somebody in front of me that we can get our logins when we have our uni cards or something... Which reminds me, they said there was a passport booth at the Student Union (it's just a big hole in the ground - it's cool, I'll have to take a photo at some point) and I need about 8 passport photos this week (and I need photos and my passport tomorrow morning to enroll).
I stretched the other half (top) of my apadravya late last night when I couldn't get to bed. It now has my 10ga acrylic purple captive in it. Soo painful. I'm sure it'll get better soon. It's mostly okay when I'm sitting down but walking is a problem.
I need a coaster (of the plastic, rather than roller variety). I wonder if ThinkGeek will have any. That'll be something to check next time.
I can't wait to get my login. I'll be able to log into library computers and in theory they will be less locked down and I'll be able to publish this (or later bloggings as I'm going to Davina's tomorrow). And I certainly can't wait to get access to the dual-booting PCs. While the Windows lusers are still figuring out what Linux is I'll be happily transferring my dotfiles from my dongle and exploring what's on the system.
I'm planning on playing with GMOME when I get access to the dual-booting machines. It didn't come with Knoppix as it's a KDE-based distro. Maybe I should order a copy of Gnoppix (like Knoppix but based on GNOME rather than KDE).
I may go explore the Student Union again (but this time actually go in somewhere - i.e. the shop to get change and maybe a small ammount of food, like apples, and then find this photo booth.
Maybe in a minute... it's started raining again. It's nice having a usable window, I can watch the rain fall. So pretty. I'm starting to enjoy this... rain outside (yes, I love rain) and music inside (relatively loud because of the traffic).
Nah, it never happened. Now it's 8:21pm and it's dark.
So. I'd say about 80% of my socialising goes on via the Internet. For two days now I have been deprived the Internet (or more specifically - Instant Messaging).
I'm dreading actually going downstairs and preparing food in the kitchen. Or for that matter, meeting more than one person I'm sharing accomodation with at once. I'm sure I could live off warmish (rather than cold or hot) food that doesn't require cooking and eat out every day. If I meet anybody I'm sharing accomodation with there's a kind of assumption that we should introduce ourselves (as far as I can see at least). I know the name of one person and he lives next to me and Davina's talked to him more than I have.
I have a terrible headache right now. Presumably for some reason related to me moving house. I'm not enjoying this at all. I'm sure it'll be better when I get Internet access. I'll be able to have a conversation with a human being other than my mother again.
So, of the TODO list I made yesterday, I fulfilled the following:
I did less than half of the things I planned.
I didn't actually manage to go to the kitchen and warm some tinned curry up today. I'm planning on having a sandwich... again. The same type of sandwich... again. I hate this. Oh yes, and on the same plate using the same knife.
I hope to be able to get to sleep soon after eating my sandwich. I think I mentioned earlier that it took the stretching of the top half of my apadravya (an incredibly painful procedure whether using `proper' equipment of not) to get me to sleep.
It's so depressing not having Internet access. I was depressed when I went to my dad's for a week. He wouldn't let me use the Internet because I didn't do enough manual labour for him, which he didn't once thank me for (not mentioning the fact that I'm not used to manual labour). I bet Emma's so happy, she's probably at whatever university she went to being very happy about the fact that she's away from my father, or genetic contributor as I like to call him.
I may have to go to Rios on Wednesday. I don't think I can stand another night here alone. I'll be seeing a film with Davina tomorrow night but Rios is good too. I have no idea if anybody else I know is planning on going or not. I'll ask. But I think I'll go whether or not anybody else goes. I have to get back to a familiar situation. I also have to find this cybercafe Davina told me about tomorrow. I have to. Then I'll spend as much as is neccessary, in time and in money.
I think I'm going to read as much of The Naked Sun as I need to before I start falling asleep... then fall asleep. I hope it works.
2004-09-21
I'm much happier today. Probably because I've been doing lots of things.
I woke up at 8 or something, had a shower and then went to the Student Union Shop to get a couple of padlocks for the personal cupboards in the kitchen, then I got some photos using the change from the padlocks. Then I went to the Horton Building to fill out a form. Then I took that form to the Small Hall in the Richmond Building and they gave me a piece of paper with my name and a barcode on it. I then took that to the Great Hall and they took my picture and I had my card printed out for me! How amazing. They clicked a few buttons and yellow, magenta, cyan and black later, out popped my card. It has a magnetic strip too. I was impressed, I thought they'd have to send it off to have a batch printed... but enough of my thoughts on card-printing. Then I went and got my NUS card. I accidentally gave the guy both my 4x4 photos and so I have two photos in my NUS card.
Then I went to the library and swiped my card to get in. I went down one floor to floor 01, the one with all the computers. I spent about 20 minutes there, just wandering. I checked if I could register for a login on one of the computers, but alas, the piece of paper I got telling me I had to wait 24-48 hours after registering as a student was correct. I noticed a huge room full of server boxes. Then I came home, had that tinned curry for lunch (yes, I went downstairs and cooked it) and I had apricots in juice and Multigrain hoops in Rice Dream brand rice milk for pudding. Oh, and not to forget the Kernel Peanut brand bombay mix. I did a little Python/Tkinter programming - my Os and Xs game is starting to take shape (in the sense that I managed to get the boxes to go in the right places). Then I finished The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov, fantastic book. And now I'm off to visit my lovely mother to eat her food and use her Internet.
Toodles.
Yahaha! I'm logged-in at the Computer Centre in the Library now!
2004-09-19
I moved in today. I packed the car full of things. Then we went at about 11 something in the morning. I got my key and my mailbox (no, a physical mailbox - yes, I was confused too ;) key. That took several hours. I qued for ages and saw the person on the Shearbridge Green place. They said I needed to a yellow reciept. We found somebody from the Student Union who was very helpful - so I went to another table in the Small Hall in the Richmond Building and filled out some form and got the yellow reciept. I then qued for the Shearbridge Green keys again. And I discovered I didn't need the yellow recipet (turns out the guy on before was just there because the usual people were on a lunch break). Then I went over and got my mailbox key - not sure how useful the concept is as there's one box per first letter of surname in Shearbridge and Longside. It seems the other halls residents get a better service as they have individual addresses. So we went to the refectory (it's where they serve you school lunch-like food, apparently) where we'd booked a traditional sunday lunch and we mentioned we wanted vegan Sunday lunch, but they didn't get our order. So we went off to South Square for lunch (potato wedges, SSQ Special burger, plum and apple sice).
We came back and had a look at my room. The lock didn't work so we changed the key and then they had the joiner come up and fix it as the new key didn't work. Then we moved everything in from the car. Then Davina left.
Then I set my computer up. Even though this hall doesn't have broadband, there's a Cat5 hole in the wall... but no standard phone hole. I think Cat5 plugs are bigger than American telephone holes, so it's probably not that Bradford Uni has moved to America... Hmm, very strange.
My room's much bigger than my old one. A desk, two chairs, a bed, a sink, a wardrobe, a window. It's nice.
So, I got my computer set up and read some incredibly useful documents (``Don't cook when you're drunk''). Then... I went out on a big adventure.
First stop - that place near the cashier's office where the Student Private Telephone Service and dial-in/ResNet (ethernet from halls) people were. They were no longer there. Then I went under some building (Horton, I believe) and found a weird place with a cylindrical thing and stuff. Then I went past the Library to the Student Union place. Bars and stuff there. Then I came back via the road that's near UniPol.
I'm glad I saved a copy of the top 200 IRC quotes from bash.org. It's fun.
Jakefeb3: if i duck tape 2 turtles together they are unstoppable
I also remembered to bring The Naked Sun and my vegan cook books.
I photoblogged my day. I shall certainly upload the pictures at some point. This depends on a number of factors the most important of which being when I get my uni login (i.e. take pictures to uni and upload them to my webspace, or dial-in and upload them slowly).
I also photographed the programmes from the Student Union and opening times of things. Easier than stealing them or writing them down.
Some of the events looked interesting, such as the Allsorts night which is an LGTB event. I think I'll go. Maybe drag Summer or somebody along.
It's weird... I have all my stuff but I'm not at home... I'm sure it'll get better when I get the dial-in access.
It's very light compared to my old room. Like the computer's drowned in light. It was under my bed before.
I think I'm going to have a nice, minimal effort, anti-social tea tonight. The minimum effort refers not to the food-preperation, but to the lack of social interaction - I've had a long day and I need to relax and be alone. I don't think I can cope talking to people right now, I'm kind of tired (not least from the physical and psychological effort required to move and maybe from the psychological trauma of not having had Internet access for at least 23 hours - yes I will continue counting).
It's going to be quite a strain this week. I don't start my course (Computer Science) until next Monday but meeting all these new people (being social is good in small doses, but too much of it is painful) and being in a new place (granted it's only a couple of miles up the road but it's scary) and then on top of it all, I won't have 'Net access in my room till Thursday or something. I'm not sure I'll cope very well without 'Net access. I rely on it almost completely as a fantastic place to learn and to socialise (in a completely non-stressful way).
I hear there's a Cyber Cafe not far from here so I may have to find it and use it at some point soon. The Library (I think) is offering one free phone call or email home (as most first-years have no logins yet). But that's no good, I need to spend a good few hours online to blog this, upload the photos (note: I won't have anywhere to upload them if I use a Cyber Cafe as the webspace (50MB) needs a login (I think you have to apply for it seperately too).
Maybe I should buy a techy book to help me calm down. Although I'm not sure a physical book store would have anything incredibly interesting in stock and ordering would take a while. We'll see. Maybe I should have a wonder round town tomorrow. I should go to the Goth Shop at some point. It's up near Morrisons and the Blood Donor Clinic. I also need to do some food shopping and I should find out what my local shops are and which has what for the cheapest, etc..
TODO list for tomorrow:
- Scheduled: Offical Welcome Meeting
- Scheduled: Meet Davina
- Scheduled: Register with the Health Clinic (it's open all week but I want to go on monday and get it over with)
- Locate the Cyber Cafe Davina told me about
- Buy some food
- Wonder round town
- Browse for techy books (and maybe non-techy)
- Socialise (argh! I don't want to, I want to stay at my old home and program or something)
- Do some more photoblogging
- Find out about the Cat5 hole in my wall
- If I do use the Cyber Cafe I shall blog this file and continue my search for the blog of a first-year student here. Then I'll try and contact them and make friends (to me this seems a very good way of meeting people)
- Learn about the options available to me in terms of local syncronysation between two block devices (i.e. sticking files on and off my keydrive)
I like the whole sink in my room thing, I can do `things' (like stretch piercings then rinse them after or getting myself a drink) without leaving my room. If I was feeling really anti-social I could pee in it rather than leave my room (it's nice and low down ;).
One thing I've noticed is that even though this room is larger than my last bedroom, (I keep wanting to say `my room') it seems there are fewer places to put things so it seems like there's less space. Annoying. At the moment it shall just have to be messy.
It certainly seems easier to get into bed when it's half a metre off the ground as opposed to 2 metres. The stains on my sheets are easier to see, too. I just put my light blue bed thing on the bed (the thing that goes on the matress below the douvet) and it's covered with stains. Mostly suspicious-looking stains but some blood, which is either apadravya blood or cat tumour blood.
I think I'm going to go to bed now and read a chapter or two of The Naked Sun. I set my alarm for 8am as I have to attend the offical welcome meeting at 10.
It's just starting to sink in that this is my home now and I no longer live with Davina :( It's scary).
Night night, avid readers (or not as this hasn't been published yet).
2004-09-20
I went to the Offical Welcome Meeting held by the Student Union. Boring.
I saw Davina and Roisin and we went to Cafe East for lunch. Rice, chips and samosas. Yummy. I'm going to Davina's tomorrow for tea with the kids then I'm going online and setting the VCR. She also gave me my toothbrushes (which fell out of the bag at home) and my wheely chair. The chairs they gave me were useless for computing - arm rests, no wheels, legs kept catching on the carpet so it tilted when I tried to push it back.
Then I went home for a bit and read another chapter of The Naked Sun. Then I went to explore the library. It's big. Really big. So unimaginably big... (Yes, I'm rewriting the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Where was I? Yes, well, the Library is big. First I went to see the person sitting infront of a `telephone and networking' banner and got a free adaptor for my Cat5-shaped phone hole.
I found one book about Python (of the two existing in the library - I used the computer to locate the second one). It was good. It said it was a beginner's book (Davina said she wanted to learn a programming language at some point, it seems like a good book on a good language) but it got really in-depth by the end. The last two chapters were on Tkinter and LiveWire (a PyGame wrapper), respectively.
Near the entrance to the library were eight locked-down Windows PCs with only Internet Explorer available for first-year students whose Internet connections hadn't been set-up yet (i.e. everybody) and nobody has logins yet so nobody can use the library computers (except the catalogue ones). I was surprised that there was no que whatsoever. I used one for a short while to check my Gmail account - Warbutons had emailed me about my enquiry as to the source of the calcium in their bread. They were incredibly defensive about it. It went something like ``We can only divulge such information for legitimate reasons.'' So I went to their website and told them my reason (being vegan and needing to know if it came from an animal product) and told them I'd take my business elsewhere if they don't care to tell me exactly what could enter by body (I didn't actually eat it - I was waiting to hear from them). Proprietary bastards.
I checked Slashdot and Newsforge too. There was a link on Slashdot to an interesting blog. Somebody had found a keydrive or similar and were making up a life of the person who lost it by posting one photo each day and writing something about it. Teehee. I have a README in the root of my dongle with my name and address and other contact details, etc. so nice people can email me and say ``I have your dongle here, in my hands. It's very big.''
One thing I noticed was that the page full of photos loaded in seconds. VERY impressed. Also VERY jelous. Fucking bastards not in Shearbridge Green with their ethernet connectivity. I may go back to the library and email some people later on, like after it's stopped pouring it down outside.
I was just thinking of visiting Cat's and Owen's boards then I remembered I couldn't remember their URLs because ezboard are morons and use stupid subdomains then I remembered I could write them down as I had my bookmarks in Firefox. ezBoard is so crap. I Googled for the two boards but I found no good results. Rediculus.
I briefly flirted with the idea of posting my blog from the library computers. I decided it may be too much hassle and I'd already spent a while emailing and Slashdotting. I'm not even sure it would work - opening a local UNIX-ended file on a mass storage device from a locked-down IE.
I'm planning on plucking up the courage to warm my tin of curry in one of my sourcepans... in the kitchen. I suppose I'll have to go to the kitchen at some point...
I checked just now with my modem and there's no dial-tone. I assume the phone line in this block/hall isn't connected yet. That's okay, I haven't got my login. I overheard the receptionist tell somebody in front of me that we can get our logins when we have our uni cards or something... Which reminds me, they said there was a passport booth at the Student Union (it's just a big hole in the ground - it's cool, I'll have to take a photo at some point) and I need about 8 passport photos this week (and I need photos and my passport tomorrow morning to enroll).
I stretched the other half (top) of my apadravya late last night when I couldn't get to bed. It now has my 10ga acrylic purple captive in it. Soo painful. I'm sure it'll get better soon. It's mostly okay when I'm sitting down but walking is a problem.
I need a coaster (of the plastic, rather than roller variety). I wonder if ThinkGeek will have any. That'll be something to check next time.
I can't wait to get my login. I'll be able to log into library computers and in theory they will be less locked down and I'll be able to publish this (or later bloggings as I'm going to Davina's tomorrow). And I certainly can't wait to get access to the dual-booting PCs. While the Windows lusers are still figuring out what Linux is I'll be happily transferring my dotfiles from my dongle and exploring what's on the system.
I'm planning on playing with GMOME when I get access to the dual-booting machines. It didn't come with Knoppix as it's a KDE-based distro. Maybe I should order a copy of Gnoppix (like Knoppix but based on GNOME rather than KDE).
I may go explore the Student Union again (but this time actually go in somewhere - i.e. the shop to get change and maybe a small ammount of food, like apples, and then find this photo booth.
Maybe in a minute... it's started raining again. It's nice having a usable window, I can watch the rain fall. So pretty. I'm starting to enjoy this... rain outside (yes, I love rain) and music inside (relatively loud because of the traffic).
Nah, it never happened. Now it's 8:21pm and it's dark.
So. I'd say about 80% of my socialising goes on via the Internet. For two days now I have been deprived the Internet (or more specifically - Instant Messaging).
I'm dreading actually going downstairs and preparing food in the kitchen. Or for that matter, meeting more than one person I'm sharing accomodation with at once. I'm sure I could live off warmish (rather than cold or hot) food that doesn't require cooking and eat out every day. If I meet anybody I'm sharing accomodation with there's a kind of assumption that we should introduce ourselves (as far as I can see at least). I know the name of one person and he lives next to me and Davina's talked to him more than I have.
I have a terrible headache right now. Presumably for some reason related to me moving house. I'm not enjoying this at all. I'm sure it'll be better when I get Internet access. I'll be able to have a conversation with a human being other than my mother again.
So, of the TODO list I made yesterday, I fulfilled the following:
- Scheduled: Offical Welcome Meeting - done
- Scheduled: Meet Davina - done
- Scheduled: Register with the Health Clinic (it's open all week but I want to go on monday and get it over with) - didn't do
- Locate the Cyber Cafe Davina told me about - didn't do
- Buy some food - didn't do
- Wonder round town - didn't do
- Browse for techy books (and maybe non-techy) - done
- Socialise (argh! I don't want to, I want to stay at my old home and program or something) - didn't do
- Do some more photoblogging - didn't do
- Find out about the Cat5 hole in my wall - done
- If I do use the Cyber Cafe I shall blog this file and continue my search for the blog of a first-year student here. Then I'll try and contact them and make friends (to me this seems a very good way of meeting people) - didn't do
- Learn about the options available to me in terms of local syncronysation between two block devices (i.e. sticking files on and off my keydrive) - done
I did less than half of the things I planned.
I didn't actually manage to go to the kitchen and warm some tinned curry up today. I'm planning on having a sandwich... again. The same type of sandwich... again. I hate this. Oh yes, and on the same plate using the same knife.
I hope to be able to get to sleep soon after eating my sandwich. I think I mentioned earlier that it took the stretching of the top half of my apadravya (an incredibly painful procedure whether using `proper' equipment of not) to get me to sleep.
It's so depressing not having Internet access. I was depressed when I went to my dad's for a week. He wouldn't let me use the Internet because I didn't do enough manual labour for him, which he didn't once thank me for (not mentioning the fact that I'm not used to manual labour). I bet Emma's so happy, she's probably at whatever university she went to being very happy about the fact that she's away from my father, or genetic contributor as I like to call him.
I may have to go to Rios on Wednesday. I don't think I can stand another night here alone. I'll be seeing a film with Davina tomorrow night but Rios is good too. I have no idea if anybody else I know is planning on going or not. I'll ask. But I think I'll go whether or not anybody else goes. I have to get back to a familiar situation. I also have to find this cybercafe Davina told me about tomorrow. I have to. Then I'll spend as much as is neccessary, in time and in money.
I think I'm going to read as much of The Naked Sun as I need to before I start falling asleep... then fall asleep. I hope it works.
2004-09-21
I'm much happier today. Probably because I've been doing lots of things.
I woke up at 8 or something, had a shower and then went to the Student Union Shop to get a couple of padlocks for the personal cupboards in the kitchen, then I got some photos using the change from the padlocks. Then I went to the Horton Building to fill out a form. Then I took that form to the Small Hall in the Richmond Building and they gave me a piece of paper with my name and a barcode on it. I then took that to the Great Hall and they took my picture and I had my card printed out for me! How amazing. They clicked a few buttons and yellow, magenta, cyan and black later, out popped my card. It has a magnetic strip too. I was impressed, I thought they'd have to send it off to have a batch printed... but enough of my thoughts on card-printing. Then I went and got my NUS card. I accidentally gave the guy both my 4x4 photos and so I have two photos in my NUS card.
Then I went to the library and swiped my card to get in. I went down one floor to floor 01, the one with all the computers. I spent about 20 minutes there, just wandering. I checked if I could register for a login on one of the computers, but alas, the piece of paper I got telling me I had to wait 24-48 hours after registering as a student was correct. I noticed a huge room full of server boxes. Then I came home, had that tinned curry for lunch (yes, I went downstairs and cooked it) and I had apricots in juice and Multigrain hoops in Rice Dream brand rice milk for pudding. Oh, and not to forget the Kernel Peanut brand bombay mix. I did a little Python/Tkinter programming - my Os and Xs game is starting to take shape (in the sense that I managed to get the boxes to go in the right places). Then I finished The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov, fantastic book. And now I'm off to visit my lovely mother to eat her food and use her Internet.
Toodles.
Yahaha! I'm logged-in at the Computer Centre in the Library now!
posted by holizz at 11:49
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