Odd Thomas Odd Blog

I didn't appreciate just how geeky I was until last Wednesday - now I know what everyone else knows! There is an extra-curricular project, called EPiCS , being run by one of the lecturers at the Uni.  Unfortunately, despite wanting to sign up for it, I was worried about the time it would take up when there is so much to do study-wise . However, a few weeks ago, the tutor announced a trip to The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, the same place where the Enigma machine was decoded in the Second World War.  For the discount price of £5, forty students had the opportunity to see Colossus , the Harwell Decatron Computer (also known as WITCH) and a range of machines from history that made me realise just how much I have seen things change: I am not old ... I've just seen a lot!  :-) The trip was originally to be booked for the second year students but they wanted to see if some of us first years wanted to go: needless to say, the little group I'm p...

If you're not into boring, reflective posts, navigate away from here now !!! Hello? You all gone? Thought as much! Well, here I go anyway... I have spent the last twelve years working in IT, slowly building up my skills but totally lacking any kind of formal structure; a case of learning what was needed to get the job done (thank you, Google!).  This has meant that on paper I look good, but when I have the interviews and get asked techie questions, I fail miserably because I can't use the words or demonstrate the techniques that employers want to hear.  The end result is that you become so dejected about your skills that you stay in the same place and stagnate ... both in skills and in attitude!!! When I first seriously considered coming to University, it is totally fair to say that I didn't really think things through as much as I should have done; if anything, it was more of a reaction to the situations I found myself getting into at work, but I felt that if I di...

Moment 1: My family are sitting round the garden table and my Mum decides it's time to have a smoke . With barely a break in what he is doing, my five-year-old nephew pipes up: "Grandma, how many cigarettes do you have to smoke before you die?" Priceless.  Shame it hasn't stopped her... Moment 2: My Dad is browsing the web for anniversary ideas and gets distracted by a video of large women having a makeover.  Cue my Mum walking in to see what he is doing... Mum: "Why are you looking at fat birds having a make-over?" Dad: "I'm looking for something for you" Even after 40 years of marriage, he still hasn't learned!!!! Moment 3: Actually, this is still pretty fresh as it is the reason I am currently writing blog posts at 2am! After deciding to study late in order to try and get a little ahead, I finally left the Uni buildings at some point after 11pm.  As expected, the park and ride buses were no longer running, so I decide...

Whoa, has it really been 7 weeks since I last posted?  I know I don't have that many readers, but sorry for the silence, things have been a bit hectic here! In fact, so much has been happening, that it's probably easier to give a quick bullet point of the main events, otherwise, this would be something of an epic posting which I guarantee you won't reach the end of! Firstly, I should say congratulations to my parents who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at the beginning of September.  They were intending to go away to celebrate together, but decided they would rather have a nice meal with family.  Unfortunately, The Woolpack , where the meal was booked didn't do a very good job of the booking, so the meal wasn't as nice as it could have been. After the rather unfortunate and ironic drowning of my little iPod Nano I wrote about in my last post , I ended up ordering a replacement directly from the Apple site: a nice little fifth generation orange one,...

After a week of not running, it was well past time to head back out and get some more training in now that the Great North Run is looming almost overhead. With the incredible deluge of rain passed (and my flat still dry ... for now), I decided to risk a run, knowing it would be hard and that I would quite possibly get wet.  I didn't realise just how wet I would get so was a little unprepared for the second deluge that fell, my shirt proving that it could wick moisture in both directions. Unfortunately, I also discovered that the amount of rain was a tad too much for my little iPod Nano, which couldn't keep going and finally drowned ... right in the middle of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now .  Hmmmm.  

I've never been particularly clued up when it comes to music, it's more a case of if I happen to hear something I like, I usually end up buying the album.  The end result is a music collection that is more eclectic than the spirit collection on top of my fridge - though far less potent! The latest addition to the collection is a bit of a departure to the more upbeat tones of Train 's Hey, Soul Sister or V V Brown 's Shark in the Water .  After hearing just a clip of Islands, I've ended up with The xx being played to death on the way to and from work: Okay it's a bit on the dark side , but this one has managed to get into my head and won't shift, like an itch that can't be scratched ... which is fine at the moment, but if I start wearing black clothes, looking moody and dying my hair black , someone come and slap some common sense into me!  

At what point do you draw the line when you advertise your every thought and feeling on the social web?  Before or after you realise that it impacts on others? Like it or not, the social web has obviously caught on in a major way: Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Bebo, Twitter and many, many more like them waiting in the wings, hoping to be the next big thing.  People are sharing everything from the most mundane aspects of their lives to their most personal thoughts and feelings; as a means of self-expression and narcissism, there is nothing else like it . Combine this with an 'always-on' culture and the ease and speed of information spread is quite phenomenal. However, this freedom of expression and near-instant feedback comes at a price: we are now so eager to tell everyone our current thoughts and feelings that we forget, or do not consider, that what we say may have an impact on others. Perhaps I am being old-fashioned, but there are some things that should not be expres...