Archive for November, 2007

Well, i had the general knowledge table quiz today in a team that was thrown together literally 5 mins before the quiz

We did well, coming joint 3rd out of about 14 teams. Most of the other teams had a lecturer in their team, so that was perhaps an unfair advantage as there were quite a few questions about the actual college/campus on there which none of us had a clue about

For a lot of questions we’d narrowed it down to 50/50 answers, and NONE went our way… here’s some examples…

• When was the original jungle book created? We said it was post 1966 as that’s just when colour tv came in, so we wnt with 1968, it was actually 1967 How close was that?

• What is the capital of South Africa? We were torn between Johannesburg and Victoria, we said Johannesburg, the answer was Victoria.

• How many wives did Henry 8th have? We said 6, then changed it to 7, and it was of course 6

• How many states in the EU – we said 26, it was 27.

• Who won the Champions League 2006/7? I knew it was either Barcelona or AC Milan. Barcelona played Arsenal in the final, and Milan played Liverpool, but i couldn’t think in what order did they come…. I changed this so many times and just couldn’t think what year each side won it… in the end i went with Barca, and it was of course AC Milan. Still kicking myself

So there’s 5 questions which we touched on the answer, but when it came down to 50-50 between 2 potential answers, we got them all wrong! Had we got 2 or 3 right, it would have been enough to finish 2nd.

The runaway leaders apparently had one of the quiz writers on their side so that would explain why they were runaway leaders Anyway it was good craic and at least i came away learning a bit

Tomorrow morning, i’m in a table quiz team with 4 other people from the class, up against other teams of 1st years in the college.

I won’t be happy unless we win. Anything else is failure in my eyes. It’s 4 students, one lecturer per team so between 5 of us, i’ll be disappointed if we don’t nail every question. Sport, Music, TV, Technology i’d be well up on. History/Politics/Science would be my weak areas.

I also watch ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’, ‘Egg Heads’, ‘The Weakest Link’ etc.. so my general knowledge is ok too.

It’ll be a good laugh, but i’m in it to win it There are prizes on offer – ‘good prizes’ whatever that means

Hopefully i’ll return home to this blog tomorrow evening victorious

The past few years or so have been pretty huge for myself and most other people my age. We’re faced with a life changing decision – what do we want to study?

I’d imagine most people don’t know what they want to do. Some are in it just for te sake of it, doing a course they don’t really like… others are in it for the grant money… then others know exactly what they want to do… but it’s not too often i’d come across someone who definitely wants to do ‘x’ or ‘y’.

So moving on to me, i can’t put an ‘x’ marks the spot on my future career. I know i want to be an IT professional, preferably running my own business. But that’s pretty vague. I’m still not sure what exact area – software development, web development? Probably the latter. But i can’t say for definite. I could end up in either and i’m letting time sort that one out for me.

So what else could i be if i decided to pack it all in and change direction completely? Well, i’ve always had an eye on journalism. Just look at this blog! I love writing, and sticking the knife into people or things, so tabloid journalism would suit me. Forget the broadsheets – too strict, too boring, too limited and neutral. Never read them. That said, i don’t read half of the trash in the tabloids, but they keep me entertained and that’s what it’s all about.

I want to be entertained, not bored. I want blood and guts in the text, with hard hitting images. ‘Sack Him Now’ -v- ‘Time to go?’ is a much more cut throat headline and that’s why i love tabloids. No handbrakes on.

So if i didn’t have/love computers, i’d probably be a journalist of some sort. I’d never rule it out, even now. Another area i’d be interested in is Psychology, purely for self gain, not as a career. If i had the time and money, ideally i’d want a degree in IT, Journalism and Psychology

Today, i decided to do something productive, rather than let the day slip past, as i’d ‘wasted’ the morning going to college only to find hardly any of my lecturers were in.

So i tidied my bedroom. It needed cleaning 2 hours, 2 full bags of rubbish, lovely dust-free furniture and my room is as clean as it’s ever been.

I love that feeling. It’s just like my blog. Passing all the validation tests (almost!) and all lovely, new and clean. It allows me to just focus on what i do best – writing. I don’t have to worry about bugs or scripts etc.. (well, there’s still a sidebar issue in earlier IE versions, but i’m working on it)

It’s a great feeling coming on to this blog every day as i know it’s now 100% mine and something i can be proud of

I’ve spoken about this before, but it deserves another mention today. A few times this has happened, and there’s no reason for it.

I was supposed to have classes from 9-5 today. Maths lecturer was out, he told us last week he’d be out – no problem.

So i then thought i’d be in from 9-4.

Why then, am i sitting at home blogging at 11.50am, you’re wondering?

Well, 2 more of our lecturer’s didn’t turn up today. One emailed us at 9.50am saying he wouldnt be in for the 11am lecture

The result; a very pissed off smemon. I could have stayed in bed, not wasted 2 hours driving up and down, plus saved a few quid on petrol.

Not on. All it takes is an email sent out Sunday night – not monday morning by which stage we’re all feckin in anyway

I don’t care if lecturers are off for whatever reason – in fact, im usually glad they are But it’s not on when you could save people time, money, confusion, hassle with one little email laying it all out on the table.