Yes today is a fine and sunny day, and I feel good about myself 🙂
Settling in to finish off my Advanced Software Assignment. Its kind of crept up on me that its exam period, but saying that only 1.5 months and then its over and I can let my hair down abit.
Had a good drinking and gaming session last night with Claire/Speedy/Cal/Dave/Linda and Rachel. Had a good but plodding game of Illuminati…the christening of the set I got at Gen-con last year. Which has really raised sprits.
Got the first of my assignments for my Masters finished yesterday, which was cool seeing as I am now handing in at least one a week, and then exams…then a quick holiday at the end of June…and then working on my project until Mid September.
However things are going 2000% less stressfully than last time round (Jan/Fe).
Today has been strange, half aware due to fighting of this viscous cold that is going round at the mo, Rachel has come down with it and is not at all pleasant. So been taking it easy with a bit of reading for the course and a redesign of my homepage. Adding some groovy Java applets (guess who is doing a course in Java this term) and have drastically modified the look, well got rid of the annoying background. Well it was driving even me nuts. Also sorting out the loading time problems. Part of which seems to be the fact that all the content is in one table on the index page, and that the news is fetched from the www.Livejournal.com site (I don’t use a New script, I have a Web log which I can pull here using some Java script). Therefore the index page takes ages to load, since everything in the table has to be loaded before it is displayed. Solution is to break up the table, in fact only the Title picture & banner (in one) and the buttons(in another) are in tables now. The next thing I need to look into is sorting out either a client program to write to a text or XML file on my web page, to take the place of Live Journal . Then the latest round of web slowness should be over.
BTW I’ve had 4.5 cloves of garlic in my tea tonight
Mixed Nuts and Vegetables Szechwan style (i.e. HOT!!!)
Ingredients
1 hand full of mixed nuts chopped.
1 onion
2 cloves of Garlic
1 Carrot
1 handful of peas
half a head of Broccoli
2 hand fulls of chopped mushrooms
3 hand fulls of whole wheat pasta
1 teaspoon of Chllipowder
half a stock cube
soy sauce to taste
Method
1 .Boil kettle, place pasta in pan and cover 1.5 times with water. Bring to boil simmer for 12 mins.
2. Roast nuts in pan for about 1-2 minutes.
3. Add about 1cm depth of boiling water add onion/carrot/garlic and chilli powder. Braise for 1-2 mins then add the rest of the vegetables
4. Add 3 cm depth of water, stock cube and soy sauce. Allow to simmer for 30 seconds and then add drained pasta, which should be cooked by now.
5. Serve!!
Notes
Hand fulls-my hands are very small, so you may wish to reduce amounts if you are some genetically engineered Mr Big Hands.
Braising-I’m a fat bastard so I’m not allowed use fat in cooking at the moment. And to be honest now that I’ve discovered a 1cm depth of boiling water will do the job…can’t say I miss it much.
Having a good productive day on the work front, getting lots of articles for the Literature Review I’ve got to get done by the end of the week. Also found out that the 1st album by Dog Fashion Disco is available for download at mp3.com. So having a jolly time downloading it and listening to it. Click here if you want to do the same. Along with Rammstein’s latest “Mutter”, which I picked up last week, DFD’s 2nd album is one of the best things I’ve heard all year.
Returned from Battlemasters‘ which was held over last weekend. Had an absolute cracking time…and have recovered more rapidly than I expected.
Now got to get my head down, since its assignments and exams all the way upto mid-June, and my Masters Project until mid-September.
Many personal projects have been put on hold as a result and my latest phrase is “When I finish my degree 1 will…..”
Been a long time since I’ve had a dedicated Day of Me, so that’s what I’ve done today. Wrote two reviews for Frag-enegy…and spent a grand total of 8 hours so far in front of the computer…..
That’s right here in Sunny Leeds and most of the rest of the UK, its snowing outside. Its that God again taking the mikey because I said on Friday that Spring was finally here. Bah!
Wonderfully tired now, after a weekend at Eurolog central in Northampton (aka Chirs and Justine’s). Had a meeting about the upcoming Battlemasters convention, the farce that will be UK Gencon this year, and the future of the association in general. Managed to get some concrete things sorted out…one of which is that I am now officially Eurolog Man in the North ….let the nonsense commence!
Seemed to have reached the stage where I realise that give focus and energy I can achieve anything. The support network…i.e. Friends…kicking in..now all I have to do is chose which projects to carry forward for the six months or so.
The Masters is a mandatory option + one or two personal projects….one of which should be gaming related…to keep Game Designer Aspirations alive.
