| Slightly incoherent ramblings |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|12:42 am] |
I have gone 280posts back on my friends page. It won't let me go any further back. Maybe I've neglected this a little bit. Sorry for not commenting, I've not been the most awake/organised person recently. In news:
Depot placement has started. Over the past two weeks I have done earlies (get up at 4:30a.m. for 7a.m. at Tyseley) and nights (leave Derby at 8:30p.m., get back at 7:30a.m.) during which period any time I've had not at the depot has been spent sleeping, cooking, eating or wandering around in a zombie like daze. Phil & Barry have been very nice to me though with emergency cooking help.
I've very nearly bought my bungalow! An obscene amount of money has gone to the solicitor and a much less obscene but still sizeable amount to Direct Line for insurance. I now feel very poor, especially as Gladys broke a front suspension spring the other week that required even more money shelling out. Oh, and I'm already paying tax, although I'm only just over half the personal allowance limit. Need to ask Dad about that as the tax website is too confusing for this time of night. *grumble* Unfortunately I'm sure there's a really sensible reason for that. :( Anyway, I pick up keys tomorrow. SO EXCITING! :D
Really am looking forward to having my own place. Hate the bathroom here - no proper shower, stand alone bath with no shower curtain, mirror in the most awkward place possible bar the ceiling. I'm always cold and having to put on more clothes - Phil & Barry, whilst lovely people, have a much lower optimum temperature than me and I don't think the radiator in my room works. Washing clothes takes a lot of advance planning. If I slack off slightly, my room immediately becomes a complete tip as there's almost no space. Parking is a right nuisance. But for all that it's made life a lot easier the past couple of months. Just... very ready to move out now, not that it'll happen for another couple of weeks at least.
Last but never least, I miss ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mansunite terribly during the week and treasure the time we get at weekends. Last weekend was fantastic, stayed with him in Oxford and didn't have to share him with parents or friends at all! *is selfish* |
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| MORE news! |
[Oct. 22nd, 2009|08:45 pm] |
More really exciting news! It's all go go go!
On Sunday, I'm flying out to SWEDEN!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!
I've been sorting out a business case to get some test equipment for work, and it turns out the Swedish office have some and are using it on Monday in Kiruna, right at the top of Sweden. Brrr! Anyway, work says I can go have a look at it and note down how they perform the test as long as I do a lunchtime presentation when I get back. I think that's fair. :D
SOOOOOO EXCITED!!! *bouncebouncebounce*
Been out to Trespass and bought some extra-warm clothes. Coincidentally I also bought a Teach yourself Swedish thing last week (as I want to get a placement at the Test centre or one of the offices there) which is lucky. :) Man the pronunciation of k's and g's is hard to remember. Hopefully I'll get the vowel groups sorted soon (need a better memory card obviously).
*doublebounce*
:D |
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| News! |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|01:42 am] |
O HAI THAR! I do believe I have neglected this somewhat. But I have news! Life news follows, but more importantly I shall be in Cambridge from Saturday morning till some time on Sunday and up for meeting people if they're about. :) I'll be heading over to see mansunite, razornet and assorted airsofty types on the Friday night before. If you are in this select group of people, or you feel like commenting, tell me what your favourite sweet(s) is/are e.g. Rhubarb and Custards or Foam Prawns or Rosy Apples or Sherbet Lemons... you get the idea. ;) There's an awesome old style sweet shop in Derby y'see.
Anyway, life news in short:
* I've been in my job for 7 weeks and not been fired yet! Still enjoying it too. :)
* I'm going on depot in Birmingham week Tuesday to play with Turbostars (Class 170s) up until Christmas. :D
* I've put in an offer on a bungalow and had it accepted. Just got the paperwork from the bank today saying they'll give me MONIES! Now I have to sort out the solicitor-y bit and become very poor but then I'll have MY VERY OWN HOUSE! :D
* I'm currently stealing the spare room in a house rented by two other grads, Phil and Barry (who is currently on depot at Ashford, Kent, where they look after the shiny shiny Class 395s (or Javelins) - basically the new awesome 140mph Olympic trains!).
* Mr. Phil and I spend lots of time in the Brunswick Inn (best pub in Derby which is 2 mins from the house!), watching DVDs or going to the cinema on Orange Wednesdays with various grads from Interfleet/Rolls Royce/Balfour Beatty/Porterbrook.
* I GOT PAID! :D And was ever so briefly out of my overdraft, but now I'm firmly back in it.
* I may have bought lots of cool but unnecessary items to put me there... but Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman!!! Tis teh awesomes!
* I GET TO SEE mansunite TOMORROW! :D :D :D
Hopefully once I'm set up in my own place I'll get better with posting. I do still at the very least skim read everything but can't always comment, sorry. :( |
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| House hunting |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|01:11 am] |
I went round a house today! Wow. Not impressed enough for a second viewing though, which is sad as the people who own it look like they really need the cash - there was a car on the drive with two tyres completely flat, not been moved in a while methinks. But the place would need a lot of work and it's not in the nicest of neighbourhoods. My Dad asked if there were any problems with burglary and there was a significant pause before it was stated very firmly, "No, they all go up the road to Oakwood" (a more prosperous part of Derby).
Still we drove around a bit and saw some better places that I now have to look up. I can only stand this house hunting online in short bursts. There's loads and they're all really similar with lots of very boring descriptions that need to be read very carefully to work out what exactly it is they mean. For example, a dining kitchen could mean enough space to seat a family for tea OR it could mean there's enough space to jam a coaster sized table and chair into the alcove just behind the door.
Narrowing down continues. Oakwood is very nice but you don't get that much for your money. Chaddesden is like the curate's egg. You can get an extra bedroom and a decent sized garden but you have to be careful which bit you're in. One road can start off as gorgeous detached housing with lovely front gardens and by the end be pebble dashed council semis/terracing with teenagers hanging around on corners and grass high enough to hide a decent sized giraffe. To be fair, the road in question was a pretty long road but you get the idea. The difference just from going one street over can be astonishing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 28th, 2009|01:29 am] |
My Mum is back from Hong Kong in one piece! Yay!
Rovers lost 5-1 to Spurs! Not so yay! But, to quote someone on the BBC 606 forums, it was the most entertaining 5-1 thrashing I've ever seen. And we should've been 2-0 up after 5mins. ;) Given that we have possibly the shortest squad in the Championship, having our shortest player mark Peter Crouch for a corner possibly wasn't the best plan in the world (last estimates put Crouchy at 8ft and rising...).
I start work on Tuesday at Interfleet in Derby. Doesn't feel like it though, I'm still very much in holiday mode. Haven't even thought much about temporary accomodation until I can sort out something more permanent. So far the plan is to stay at my Uncle's house in Nottingham while I find a room I can rent on a month by month basis, i.e. on a less than 6 month contract. Think I might see if there's a room going back on Campion St. at the house I was in last summer much as the landlords were non-existant.
Actually this weekend I should probably unpack my suitcases from Cambridge and Hong Kong. Yes I'm a very lazy bugger. Instead I'm going to look round some houses on the way to watch AFC Telford Utd host Ilkeston Town. It's only fair as my Dad did buy the Spurs tickets.
Question for you all: Would it be good if I made a football filter? I do realise that it's of very limited interest to most people other than myself and epa101. I could just try not to write about it but really, that'd never work. Especially now I can get to matches again! For the WHOLE SEASON! Ah, happy days. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|12:50 am] |
From the BBC: Smoking shisha is as harmful as cigarettes
I can feel justified in my niggling suspicion of it now!
Today I went on a sightseeing tour of various Derby suburbs with my Dad. Oakwood and Allestree were really nice places and Chaddesden was pretty good too. Hopefully I can now narrow down the house search to something meaningful.
Yesterday we went to Middlesbrough where we saw Rovers lose 2-0. Boohoo. I'm going to blame that on the LJ curse that seems to have carried over from last season - never mention a match before it's been played! Oh and Mills scored today for Reading. Damn clubs with money stealing our best players! :(
Still, I didn't expect Rovers to win as Middlesbrough are ex-Prem and still have a lot of their old players. Afterwards we went to Staithes on the East coast and had a fish supper which made up for things. Then I watched the Football League show and as usual there was bugger all analysis of the match but a lot of discussion about Middlesbrough. Today's Telegraph neglected to mention Doncaster at all (but had 3 paragraphs on Middlesbrough and Gareth Southgate, their manager). Also, the entire Football League was given one column compared with 5 or 6 pages of Premiership coverage. I AM SO FUCKING SICK AND TIRED OF THE SHODDY PRESS COVERAGE OF NON-PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL!!! Rovers barely get any more press than they did when in the Conference! We've been promoted 3 times since! GYAAAAH! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 22nd, 2009|02:25 am] |
PS: The winner of the "How long did it take Thunderbird to download the bazillion emails in my Hermes account" competition is epa101 with his answer of four hours! I have to think of a prize now besides the everlasting glory that comes with getting the right answer. ;)
Also anyone who replied to that post I did ages ago saying I'd make them summat, I haven't forgotten! Will hopefully get round to it once I've moved out. Wow, I'm moving out soon. That's a scary thought. Soon there will be responsibility! :s (which I will probably just ignore, can't see me becoming a responsible member of society!) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 22nd, 2009|01:37 am] |
I should write about/review stuff. So much stuff. Or upload the hundreds of photos residing on various cameras. Instead though I'm going to moan about my teeth aching as I went to the orthodontist yesterday and had a brace put on my top row of teeth. Dammit I want to eat things that arn't mush! Toast crusts defied me today, I had to cut them off. :( Hopefully by the end I won't have a sticking out front tooth though, something that has been bugging me for years and years. Also they have tooth coloured brace components now, woohoo! Though the wire isn't, but it's much better than the braces I had in school.
Also today I went to see a man about a mortgage. Turns out I need to see a different man, but he did increase my overdraft limit by 200 pounds! Yay! Also I got tickets to see Rovers vs. Spurs next Weds, and it looks like my Dad and I will be going up to watch Rovers away at Middlesbrough tomorrow if there's any tickets left. :) Haven't seen Rovers play in SO LONG. I hate the off season, it sucks so damn much. No football, just endless transfer rumours and other teams buying all the players you want, including your own. Lost both Mills and Wellens, two of our best players, to other Championship teams that have loads more money than us. :( We just can't pay the same level of wages as the bigger teams.
In other news I finished watching Cardcaptor Sakura today, just the two films left. As a result when I was in town earlier everyone on the edge of hearing distance sounded like they were talking in Japanese. I keep hearing random Japanese words like "Kawaii!" and "Yatta!" in my head too. *sigh* I did enjoy it lots though; ok it's incredibly cute and sweet with some more lashings of cuteness but tbh right now I just want to watch stuff that's nice with a happy ending.
Although, saying that, I did watch "Let the Right One In" on the plane back from Hong Kong. It's a Swedish vampire film who's plot sounds horrifically like that of Twilight but is in fact one hundred billion times better. Very highly recommended by me. The story revolves around a young lad who's getting bullied at school and his burgeoning relationship with his next door neighbour, a mysterious 12yr old girl. More black comedy in places than horror I'd say and definitely well worth watching. ( Cut for spoilers ) |
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| BACK! |
[Aug. 13th, 2009|07:20 am] |
Back from Hong Kong yesterday! I got into Doncaster train station about 11a.m. where I met my Dad. He then took me to Bullcroft cars as a friend from his work (who's Dad runs the garage) had recommended a car they'd used while theirs was being mended. Half an hour later after a test drive along the A1, mildly scary due to jet lag and the fact I've not driven since January, I'm now the proud owner of Gladys the 2003 Ford Focus 1.8l TDDi diesel! Then Dad took me home and I intended to do lots of things but instead slept for 7 hours. Oops.
Anyway, last night I had a weird dream in which I was a cardcaptor (like Cardcaptor Sakura) and everyone was being sucked into this sort of spirit stealing Clow Card. After rushing through loads of strange 'rooms' inside, I found the only way out was to locate Wallace and Gromit, get them to build a dirigible and cut a hole in the sky with the rod of sealing. No more cheese and onion crisps whilst watching anime before I go to bed...
Hope everyone's well and that anyone going to Wacken had a great time! :) I haven't checked my friendlist properly since the end of June and seeing as it takes me several hours to catch up if I miss 3 days, I don't think I'll have time to catch up on 6 weeks of posts, sorry. If anything important's happened, please please please let me know in a comment - e.g. I suspect now has a job? And how was Wacken/Sonisphere/any other festivals people have been to? And arghs, oml404 has been deleted?!?
Otherwise, off to Bloodstock this afternoon, see you there if you're going! :) Mobile number is here if you want to meet up. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|07:37 pm] |
Still alive, Europe awesome, in Hong Kong until 12th August then BLOODSTOCK then sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. ;) |
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| Offski! |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|03:29 pm] |
Alright, in an hour I'll be on my way on an EPIC journey for three weeks from Doncaster to Doncaster via:
Oxford
Metalcamp
Ljubljana
Budapest
Kaltenbach festival
Vienna (Dum... du du dum...)
mostly with sophia_fred, although her version of this EPIC journey is from near Cardiff to near Cardiff and won't take in Oxford.
Hoorah! I shall post the winner of the "Guess the time it takes to download 4700 emails" game when Eddie's had a chance to decide whether to stick or twist with his entry. Obv. I'm less contactable by phone but I'll probably get hold of emails from time to time. Love you all, terrah fer nah! |
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| Thunderbird |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|04:25 pm] |
Sooooo I've set up Thunderbird so I can save all my hermes emails on to my computer. This is pretty damn technical for me as I'm not great with computers by any stretch of the imagination (and yes I realise there's probably half a dozen easier ways to go about this, please don't tell me what they are as I'd rather live in blissful ignorance! ;) ). Anyway, I clicked the "Get mail" button about half an hour ago and it's still thinking. I realise I have over 6500 emails sitting in webmail so what's your guess on how long it should take? :) It hasn't told me how many emails there are or produced any sort of meaningful progress bar (apart from the scrolly thing in the bottom that just lets you know it's still doing things) and I don't know if it's supposed to. There will be a prize for the nearest comment as long as it doesn't just fail utterly instead... |
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| Graduation! |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|01:11 am] |
I am now officially Gemma Louise Johnson BA MEng. :D
( Photos! )
So that's it. I've now left Cambridge University forever. Nice to be back in Donny though, even for only a few days. :) |
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| :) |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|12:57 am] |
I passed my MEng! :D
Need to email Interfleet now to check I just needed a pass, not a Merit. The offer was for 2:2 or higher, I'm not sure how that translates. I'm fairly optimistic anyway.
Other things of note during my lack of posting:
* I saw a real live grass snake in the back garden in Doncaster! It was over a foot long! And made a rustling noise!
* I have a colour printer! It makes me want to print things off, but I don't have anything that needs printing off so that's a bit sad. :(
* I went to Hellfest with sophia_fred, caught a really bad stomach bug which I still have in a thankfully reduced form, saw about a third of the bands I would normally have seen, didn't really enjoy them as much as I could have and got back to Cambridge today. Bigger write up later.
* mansunite and I saw Gary Numan in Oxford. Fun was had. He's not bad live either.
* We also went to St. John's May Ball which was the best ball I've been to for enjoyment, probably not acts wise. Not sure if the breakfast was quite worth £25 but it was nice to be warmer. There are photos on facebook. I think I look hideous, my Mum assures me it's not the case.
* I tested my alternator with my supervisor and mansunite (after everything was handed in) and he's emailed back to say it's about 87% efficient, yay! There are definitely more efficient alternators out there of that size, but they probably didn't cost ~£250.
* I went to the CURAS garden party, drank way too much beer and suffered a bit during the Rocksoc May Brawl that same evening. Fury UK were excellent and metalfeast666 has much to be proud of.
* Provided I remember to pay my bill before 10am tomorrow, I graduate on Thursday. :S I also LEAVE CAMBRIDGE on Thursday. On the one hand, yay I get out of this fucking awful house. On the other hand, it's sad to be leaving a lot of friends. Mind you, if I stayed they'd mostly be leaving themselves.
On that note, anyone up for the pub tomorrow evening? I'm thinking Pickerel but am open to suggestions if you're quick. |
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| Fucking great |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|12:19 pm] |
This is a link to a BBC iPlayer episode of Toby Foster's Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Sheffield. At 1:57:20 he interviews Doncaster's new Mayor, Peter Davies, representing the English Democrats.
ARGHS WE'RE STUCK WITH THIS COMPLETE MORON FOR FOUR YEARS!!!!!
And no, I didn't vote, but then I'm not sure where I'm registered any more and I got distracted by finals/project/stress.
In short, he was so utterly unprepared for the interview that a local radio DJ asking fairly routine questions about how he'll put his policies into effect made him storm out. Apparently his slot on Look North didn't go too well either. It sounds like he wrote down his policies on the back of a fag packet after a few bevvies and didn't bother to check if any of them were actually legal. Like stopping translation services, or reducing the number of councillors. Oh, and he'll reduce the number of "PC jobs" in the council. What PC jobs? Oh wait, he hasn't bothered to find out which ones or bothered to think about the impact of removing them.
*RAGE*
One the one hand, for the first time in living memory Doncaster's been that disillusioned with Labour that they lost out to not just one but TWO independent candidates. However both independents sound like complete fuckwits who would do an even worse job than the previous incumbent, Martin Winter, a man famous for overseeing failing social services that resulted in the deaths of seven children ("Haringey of the North"), being regularly ridiculed in Private Eye, being expelled from the Labour party and repeatedly ignoring no confidence votes aimed at ousting him from office. Woohoo! |
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| Pub! |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|01:58 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | pub | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 16PP | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
I'll be in the County Arms from 7:30-8ish if anyone fancies it. :) Until then I think I might catch up on me sleep a bit zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
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| General Engineering |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|10:21 am] |
It's finished and handed in. :) All I can do now is while away the time until the results come out. Owt going on tonight? |
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| It's the final countdown... |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|10:53 pm] |
Final report word count: 7671
Technical abstract word count: 488 <- counted separately otherwise I'd be over the magical 8000 mark.
Page count: 37
My Mum phoned my supervisor for me after her attempt to get me to do it turned me into a gibbering wreck. Apparently I can hand it in tomorrow and I should stop worrying myself sick. *biggest sigh of relief in the world* I have the best supervisor and Mum ever! The report length is finally coming up to something not entirely disgraceful, however there's so many pictures and diagrams in it that I had to split it into 3 to email it home and my poor laptop feels like it's trying to spontaneously combust.
Still to do: Copy out equation derivation into an appendix, insert end equation and an explaining paragraph or two into main report, describe bearing life calculation, describe spreadsheet and possibly create another appendix for that if I feel like it (unlikely), number all figures and references, print two copies and an extra one of my technical abstract. Ooh, and print a cover sheet for my log book which is currently tied together with string. It's neatly tied at least... |
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| Bahahaha! |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|08:44 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | lol | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 16PP | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
(Edward being the incredibly annoying looking vampire twat from Twilight.) Ok the one hour nap turned into a 3 hour snooze. Oh well, at least I'm more functional! :S |
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| Ongoing project report stuff |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|01:33 am] |
0135
Word count: 5003
Page count: 17
Aiming for 8000 - 12000 words, no more than 50 pages. I've only put in about 3 diagrams though and there's lots of highlighted text that says, "FIGURE!".
Random question: What's bigger, a table spoon or a dessert spoon? I've always thought a table spoon was the big one for serving and a dessert spoon was the smaller one for eating your puddings with, but mansunite thinks different and now I'm confused.
EDIT1: 0330
Word count: 6023
Page count: 20
Man this is taking FOREVER!!! Still, 40% of the way there overall, and over half written, 75% if I stop at 8000 words woohoo! I still need to put in formulas (formatting nightmare so left for now), hopefully those plus diagrams/photos will help. Oh, and Appendices. Not done those yet, that's got to be at least 5 pages. And yeah, I know, 1000 words in 2 hours isn't exactly speedy. Oh well...
EDIT2: 0500
Word count: 6077
Page count: 24
I added some photos. They took up fewer pages than I expected. Mind you, I could just make them a bit bigger to change that - I have shrunk them a fair bit. I was aiming for a 0900 hand in, but that's looking a tad unlikely now. However the extension I applied for was until today so I can hand it in any time before 5pm, possibly later seeing as the technicians go home at 4pm so how would they know if you handed it in at 4:59pm or 9pm? Still, before 4 is probably best. Should check with my supervisor. Of course this is always assuming that I actually get granted this extension. *sigh* Think I might nap for an hour... |
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