Friday, December 02, 2005

Friday, 8th Week: The End

5.00, and I had finally finished my first term at Oxford! This last week has been the busiest of all - last night I was up until 2, working. Mostly...

There is a tradition of the CU here that involves root vegetables. It started with Weetabix (I am aware that this does not fit the whole root vegetable theme) then moved to potatoes... And so, at midnight last night, I was creeping around the college planting onions outside CU members' doors, accompanied by Numbers 11 verse 15:

" We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic."

Soph and Tim, who both prefer the KJV version, had specially-printed verses from that translation.

After I had returned to my room, I heard a slight rustling outside. After opening the door, I found I had been delivered some garlic... I immediately suspected Benj, my partner-in-vegetable-delivering-crime; he denied involvement, claiming to be in bed. However, the fact that he had hung the carrier bag I had given him on my doorknob at the same time was a bit of a clue...

Anyway, that was very early this morning. Since then, a vast quantity of events have occurred. These include, but are not limited to, the last 8am prayer meeting of 2005; bacon for breakfast in Tim's room; a lot of rain; a lecture and three tutorials; and my room being decimated by the process of packing everything, ready to move back to Portsmouth tomorrow.

Will I get any sleep tonight? Will I be able to fit everything into the boxes I have available? Will this rain ease off? Can I conclude without a question?

Other news - I hear my ex-girlfriend has a new interest. Which is fine, but why does she boast to me about him?

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

NEWS UPDATE: Laundry crisis

Early reports indicate that the laundry crisis is now resolved. At 16.10 today, I entered the North Quad Laundry Room and cried "They're free!" This is the sight that lay before me:

Note again the prominence of my jeans (foreground) and boxer shorts (top). A dinner shirt is also visible, though sadly no longer identifiable as such.

After extracting those items not suitable for tumble-drying (whatever good that will do after they've been immersed for 18 hours), the remainder of the items were moved to the TD for recovery. One non-tumble-driable item is the brand-new SJC Hoodie, essential wear for the Christmas holidays. The next user of Washing Machine One was said to be "a bit nervous" as she had heard of the dilemma.

Latest Pictures: Laundry Crisis


Clearly visible on the left is Washing Machine #1 of North Quad Basement. Contained within is my washing, still part immersed in water. Just visible at the bottom right of the row of LEDs (just left of the programme dial) is a flashing red light, signifying that there is a problem draining the water.











Here on the left, you can clearly see parts of my jeans, and indeed my boxer shorts, still trapped inside.





In reaction to this news: environmental groups may be pleased to note that I was washing at 40 degrees Celsius, and not 60 as some people do. Domestic Stores have been informed of the situation.

Tuesday, 8th Week: Laundry

BREAKING NEWS
Thirteen hours after my washing cycle began, my laundry is still trapped in the machine in North Quad. If anyone from Domestic Stores is reading this - please help!

It seems to be a drainage problem - water is not draining from the machine, and so it will not allow the door to be opened. More updates as things develop between lectures and tutorials today!

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Sunday, 8th Week: Time flies (or, Falling out the end of the Trousers of Time)

A little song to start us off:

"Seventh has come and passed,
The Oxford terms, they never last.
Wake me up, when Friday 8th Week ends,
Wake me up, when Friday 8th Week ends."

It's a wet start to my last Sunday in Oxford before the new year. But never mind - CU Breakfast in but a few short minutes (even here, it's fairly safe to approximate the passage of time in minutes rather than OxMinutes of Oxford Time) will help to wake me up.

Highlights of 7th Week have to include St. Aldate's black-tie Student Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday (see right). The church was transformed into a sea of red, orange and yellow balloons, with around 250 students being extremely well fed with turkey, sweet potato and marshmallow (a strange combination for us Brits, but something I could get used to), and other food-type goodies.

More mundane matters: Tomorrow is the deadline for my Functional Programming practical work. Just as well, then, that it's already finished... I'm not looking forward to (last day of term) Friday - as it gives our tutor a chance to set a marathon of tutorials to catch up on any sheets we've missed. (What do I mean when I say sheets? Take a look for yourself: you can get some of them at http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~earl - and enjoy the wonder of calculus!)

Yes, it's not the traditional lazy last week of term - this is an Oxford term, and the work keeps going until the bitter end (literally, 6pm of the Friday...) This time next week, I'll be getting ready to go to my home church for Catherine, Katherine, Rachel, Lisa and Anna get baptised. What a service to come home to!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Saturday, 5th Week: The End Of 5th Week!

It is true what they say about 5th Week. It's all true. 5th Week Blues are almost unavoidable... but I have survived!

It's been a very long week. It already seems like I've been here for years - at least three of which have been this past week. I slept until 11.30 this morning - late even for me! Tonnes of work at the beginning of the week, but somehow managed to get it mostly done on time.

An amazing week spiritually, too... We've started 10.30pm prayer meetings in the chapel. It's been challenging, encouraging, and many other adjectives ending in ing. I'm sure I remember telling someone that I'm sure I've learnt more about God in the past five weeks than I have about computers, and it's pretty much true.

For one reason or another, I haven't been to bed before 1am most of this week - and with 9am lectures, that's never a good thing. 6th Week should be easier: our tutor is in Europe, so we only have one tutorial. (We'll regret this come the last day of term, when we have a solid afternoon to catch up...)

Music news: Delirious?'s new album came through the post today. The Mission Bell is almost completely different in sound to World Service. I read somewhere: "Where World Service was about grace, The Mission Bell is about mission... a call to arms". My personal favourite tracks are Solid Rock and Now Is The Time; lyrics from which I will leave you with.

"Now is the time for us to shine,
Shine with the face of Christ divine;
No compromise, for all heaven cries,
Now is the time."

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Tuesday, 4th Week: Sacrifice



(Right) I had to say goodbye to a close friend.






(Left) Too late to turn back now... or is it?








(Right) Goodbye, old friend.









Saturday, October 15, 2005

Saturday, 1st Week: M is for...

...Matriculation: the word on the lips of everybody in Oxford today: student, don or resident. What is this strange word, you ask? Well, simply put, it's the entrance ceremony here at Oxford University. Even more simply put, it is a most bizarre experience...

Firstly, yes, there is Latin. But there is not much Latin. I counted two sentences. One was the Senior Dean saying (roughly) "These are the new students at the University." The Vice-Chancellor then replies by saying (very roughly) "OK, I accept them into the University. They must follow the University's rules and stuff."

Before and after this briefest of exchanges, there is lots of hat-waving and doffing. At the start of the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor arrives behind a man carrying a staff, accompanied by the organ. He waves his mortarboard in the general direction of other important-looking people, and makes his way to a lectern. We sit. The Latin bit goes here. Then, the briefest of addresses welcoming us to the university. We stand. More hat-waving, and the Vice-Chancellor departs (again with Staff Man leading the way). And that is it.

And of course, through all of this we are in sub fusc - that is, academic dress (as ably demonstrated by friends of mine, left). Note the mortarboards are held, not worn - such an act is a finable offence! (At least, so rumour has it.)

And that was matriculation, Michaelmas 2005. And then, the photographs. Oh! the endless photographs.

Actually, the photographs themselves took no time at all. The waiting for the photographs is what got me (and all of us). Here's another photograph. I was getting a little fed up of both fighting my way past tourists, and having my photo taken by them... plus these people seemed really nice. So I turned the tables on them, and took their photo for a change!

Whilst in the hour-long (or more!) queue for the individual photographs, we took some unofficial subject photographs. With great difficulty, we managed to collect all the Computer Scientists together in one place, and fit them all into a single photograph... I'm the one with the less exciting hair, and I don't normally look that evil (apart from when I do my Emperor Palpatine impersonations). Enjoy.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

1st Week, Sunday: Free Food For Freshers!

It occurred to me last night that I've probably eaten about twice my body weight in free food since I arrived in Oxford...

  • Thursday - President's Dinner (3 courses, free)
  • Friday - Curry with college parents (free for the "children"!)
  • Saturday - OICCU freshers' dinner
  • Sunday - CU breakfast, free lunch from St. Aldate's
Tomorrow - free lunch at college. I like studentdom.

Today, visited St. Aldate's church - the first of three or four I'd like to try before settling somewhere. Worship was excellent (led by Martyn Layzell, of published-songs-that-we-sing-at-Cosham-sometimes fame), and it seems a really great place.

Anyway, today was the one and only RAGstonbury at SJC! The best and biggest free music festival to be held today at St. John's! My college "parents", Kelly and Steve, were one of the better acts (see photo)... and the ukelele man (I think his name was James) will go down in the history books.

Apparently, I might actually have to go to things called "lectures" tomorrow. I wonder if there's food there...

Friday, October 07, 2005

0th Week, Friday: Freshers' Fair

What madness that was... a ridiculous number of stalls for all manner of societies. Most of them were foreign societies - the Polish Society, Indian Society, and probably even the Abydos and Tulak Societies. (SG-1 fans, you'll get this. Everyone else, well... tough.)

Free stuff list:
  • The Oxford Student (newspaper)
  • Blackwell's mug
  • Blackwell's term planner
  • The new Oxford Tube inflatable cushion
  • Oxford Tube pen
  • Royal Bank of Scotland mug
  • RBS sweets
  • RBS pen
  • RBS bottle opener
  • SpecSavers keyring bottle opener
  • Toshiba keyring bottle opener (I get a pattern here...)
  • Vouchers to get The Guardian cheap (though the JCR buys it in anyway!)
  • UV security marker pen
Plus an approximately infinite amount of paper (yay! more paper!) offering free or cheap things, telling me when things are, or not telling me very much at all.

I'm hungry.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

0th Week, Thursday: A New Blog

Well, today my computer was connected to the network for the first time. And for the first time I have a fast Internet connection! I measured it as 1.6Mbps. Nice.

It's incredible how much paper is distributed in the first few days. How many trees per student, I wonder? And *every* Fresher gets a copy of a 1141-page book entitled "Examination Regulations 2005"... If you've read it, don't tell me how it ends...

Met loads of people, including several from the CU here. Had a debate with one of them about which Star Wars film is best (V, by a narrow margin from III. Controversial? I will return to it in time...)

There's only one other guy doing Computer Science, and he's right across the hall from me (well, through a few doors... I'm not going to try and explain the geometry of the Tommy White building).

This evening is the President's Dinner for Freshers... time to get my suit out. Not cap&gown time yet though!

Life is pretty manic right now, but with Freshers' Week it's to be expected. SJC is a really great place, everyone is friendly (everyone I've met at least) and they like watching Neighbours. No, really.