She rides on the wind...

I want up town today for the first time for around a month. And bought a video game and bunch of CDs. Then went home, played the games and listened to the music. Well, it was raining outside. The game; "Soul Calibur II" for the XBOX. As I've mentioned earlier, I quite like fighting games, having enjoyed "Dead or Alive 3", and so I thought I'd get another when I saw it at half price. Not a bad buy. The graphics aren't as good as DOA, but there is a lot more to the game, in terms of weapons and moves during fighting, and secrets to unlock. It also has some of the funniest lines I've ever heard. Each character has a tag line which is solemnly intoned by the announcer at the start of a bout. My favourite is "She rides on the wind, singing her wind song". Indeed.

I'm not sure why I like fighting games so much, I'm generally a bit of a wimp in this respect. I think it is because in these games the action is so obviously over the top that it can't be mistaken for any kind of real life.

Oh, the power.

Yesterday I got a new set of tools. Ten pounds for 141 piece toolkit. Who cares if 100 of the pieces are washers. Just think of all the things I can do with this lot. I'm not sure why they fix on 141 as being the proper number of tools to provide. Was there a meeting where they went "No - 140 is not a good number, put in an extra washer and we'll ship it". Perhaps 141 is a lucky number for someone. I doubt it is a lucky age although I suppose you'd have to be pretty lucky to get that far...

Anyhoo, found a use for my lovely kit. The pliers are great for getting the tops off those little bottles of Baileys Irish Cream. I've just been to their web site. You have to put your age in before you can see the content. I'm sure that will stop the kiddies from breaking in..

 

Giving it all away for love

I thought I'd distribute my "Big Scrolly Thing" (tm) via a Smartphone site. It is not much, it lets you scroll messages across the screen, but I learnt a lot about programming the device while I wrote it:

I thought it might be fun to drop it onto the Modaco Smartphone pages in the Valentines day thread, so that Smartphone users could send messages of lurve to each other. This I duly did. I even used the Blog as a cunning way to distribute pictures onto the forum (which explains the rather strange entries in the blog earlier this week). Any strangeness present at the moment is entirely intentional.

 

Software Engineering Swansong

I gave my last lecture on the Software Engineering module today. I'm really going to miss those 9:15 lectures on Thursday morning. Next week it is over to Warren who is going to do all the difficult bits...

We had another Admissions Open Day Experience (tm) which went well. I managed to find some people who were actually impressed by my Smartphone games and "Big Scrolly Thing" (tm).

 

Dress Shop

The First Year students are presently creating a Dress Shop management program in Java. All around the place you can hear earnest conversations about how dress sizes are expressed, and what is special about trouser suits. We are using windows and buttons, which make the programs a lot more interesting and fun to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results.

Some say her dress is actually made of nylon - but I think it is just a viscose rumour.

 

Filling in Time

Had my filling today. Ugh. However, my dentist is very good. Minimal pain and all over very quickly. Apparently, the proper way to deal with dentists (although I would never do this of course) is to wait until they lean over you to begin the painful bit and then grab them by the nearest sensitive part of their anatomy (if you see what I mean) and say quietly "Now, we aren't going to hurt each other, are we......."

 

Back in touch

Typical. I worry about being out of touch and most of the emails that I receive when I finally get connected are courtesy of MyDoom and friends. And nobody seems to want a Preston Foster sweatshirt.

Still writing stuff for the .NET Virtual Machines course. And the big scrolly thing for the Smartphone is coming along nicely. I've decided I like writing simple programs for small devices.

 

Disconnected Sunday

Spent some of today fretting about all those important emails which I couldn't read. I kind of get used to being on the internet and it is slightly disconcerting when I can't contact anyone. And then there is the issue of keeping all the blog readers happy...