Words of Wisdom

I had a lovely curry at the Edinburgh Central Mosque (on potterow) and walked back home and into my room. Looking around, I suddenly remembered my George Bush poster with his great quotations on it. How stupid is he? I am still amazed to this day that he was "elected" to be the President of the USA. I have not met one single person who likes George Bush. Saying that, I don't live in America and so the opinions will differ. Anyway, looking at his words of wisdom I was inspired to change the sub-text of my blog title, so here goes. I will post some George Bush (and perhaps David Brent) quotes from time to time on the blog. Here is the first one;

"I think war is a dangerous place"

David

Results

Here are tonights football results, some surprises in store;

Ajax 2 Inter Milan 2
Chelsea 1 Barcelona 2
Rangers 2 Villareal 2
Werder Bremen 3 Juventus 2

David

Karl Pilkington is an Idiot

Just finished listening to yet another episode of the legendary Ricky Gervais podcast (get it here) and it was great! If you listen to the show you will realise that the third member of the team, Karl Pilkington, is a braindead freak. However, it is this that provides most of the comic relief in the production and is amusing to hear the other two mocking him constantly. Unfortunately, if I'm correct, the series is now over, so get the shows now before they are taken down.
In other news, there's more Champions League football games on tonight. Of most interest is Chelsea versus Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. I found it quite amusing that a few days after most of the Barcelona team complained about the sogginess (is that a word?) of Chelsea's pitch, they decided to water it again. I'm not usually a big fan of Chelsea, but I would love to see them thrash Barcelona. Anyway, dinner time now so I'm off.

David

Videos and Stuff

I just added a video player to my blog which I got from www.videocure.com and I really like it. It's pretty simple to get it up and running so feel free to copy my idea and get one yourself. Watched a bit of the football last night so for those of you who are still uneducated about the results, here they are;
Real Madrid 0 Arsenal 1
Benfica 1 Liverpool 0
Bayern Munich 1 AC Milan 1
PSV Eindhoven 0 Lyon 1

Watch out for tonight's fixtures, there are some good games lined up.

David

General Update

Hello there people. I had a fairly boring day today, doing work and not doing work in between that. However, I did meet Fraser for lunch which was good. During dinner I had a discussion with my flatmates about the label "lazy rich English students" or something similar (meaning students who are from England). They though that I was being unfair to suggest that their forgetfulness was the cause of Boris failing to win the Rectorial Election. I argued that it was likely that most of Boris' supporters were English, That some of them would have been rich and would have forgotten the event and that some of them are lazy. In this way, I feel I am justified in saying what I said.

Later on, I had a pretty awful game of Pro Evolution Soccer (pro ev) due to me playing very badly and having not played it for about 2 weeks. If you do not have the game, but like football, I would strongly recommend that you buy it. On a similar note, the champions league football is on as I type and I don't know why I'm not watching it. I really hope all of the British teams (perhaps except Chelsea) get through to the next round, I hear Arsenal are 1-0 up now.

When I was thinking what to write here I thought about flyers and how they were a waste of the earth's resources and that although they probably work to some extent for the organisation, hardly anyone actually remembers the event, or even reads them. If you don't like flyers, don't take them and then, hopefully, because demand dries up, some companies will stop producing them. I was talking to my friend Faisal about this the other day and he agreed saying that last week some guy was almost forcing a flyer into his hand and begging and pleading with him to go to some show or other. This is the sort of attitude which makes me dislike this whole thing.

Finally I realised that I hadn't put up a bit of information about Phil and Andrea, so here goes. Phil is a really genuine guy who has a serious passion for computers and gaming and all things similar. He is amazing at Unreal Tournament and some other games. Andrea is basically a Germo-Italian version of Phil with an interest for anime and that sort of stuff. He's keen on his food and his monster of a laptop which I have yet to see. They are both poker sharks and thoroughly thrash me and Fraser anytime we play ;) Anyway, seems like a good place to stop, now to put in the pictures and run a spell check, uuuurrrggghhh

David

Lewis

Lewis is a very interesting guy, and knows a lot of stuff. He's also very cynical and opinionated as well as being objective and argumentative. Apart from that he's a really decent guy, and having only me him about 5 months ago, I feel it very easy to talk to him. He got me into this blogging lark, and you can see his blog in the links panel at the side. I have nothing against Lewis and I really hope to be able to stay in touch with him for the forseeable future.

David

Fraser

Fraser is my friend and a good friend at that. He is a very humourous chap and his witticisms often kill me. Fraser has started a blog and it's going very well so far I hear. As Fraser says, in the words of Tony the Tiger; "it's grrrrreat!!!". So, there you go, that's Fraser for you, a very nice person. On the other hand...there's Lewis...but that's another story, maybe some other time (only joking Lewis, you aren't really horrible). Now look at the picture of Fraser above, or maybe you already have. Look at it again, ok, that's all folks.

David

Why?

Since I have started this blog I have somehow felt the necessity to update it very regularly to give you, the viewers something new to read about. However, at the moment, I have run out of things to talk about, which may be a good thing. I want to keep this blog going and I feel one way to do that is by making myself continually edit or modify it. I would love suggestions for the blog so feel free to leave a comment anywhere on the main page.
Seen as I've started this, I think I may as well give you some diary-like information. Currently I am working on two essays due in on the 28th February and the 4th March respectively. Now I've just remembered I have an online test to do for tomorrow so I'm going to do that then get back to this...
...Back, and got a fairly bad mark due to me only picking answer "A". But at least it doesn't count and it means I don't have a chance of getting any marks deducted for failure to complete 80% of all online tests. Anyway, I'm getting bored of this so I'm off to tinker with photoshop. If you are bored, got to www.i-am-bored.com and you should be able to alleviate it. More later.

David

Support Scotland

Scotland is soon going to be launching a bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. They need a lot of people to put down their names in favour of the games before the government will take it seriously. Please sign up to support the bid and help us bring the games to Scotland. If you want to sign up, click here. You only get one email and it only takes 5 minutes. Thank you all very much.

David

A Breath of Fresh Air

Fresh Air radio is the University of Edinburgh's only student radio station. They currently broadcast on the internet due to the unavailability of an FM broadcasting license. Despite this, they are most definitely, a very professionally organised and well run station. The quality of features is very good for a student station especially when you consider that these guys have to schedule two months of radio and study at university at the same time. It's definitely worth a look at www.freshair.org.uk. The Doug and Ed show at 10:30pm on a Friday is great and includes some brilliant music. It would be brilliant to see Fresh Air back on the airwaves and I wish them the best of luck in the future.

David

Fun Stuff

Hmmm? What could it be?

While I was surfing the net I came accross some cool features you could get really easily for msn messenger. You trick msn passport into thinking you're from the US and it unlocks a huge range of fun games and activities in messenger. My favourite game so far has to be wheel of fortune. It's the American version of the show where you spin, and then guess letters a la hangman. To be brutally honest it's all about luck, but that doesn't make it less satisfying when you win. Try it out yourself, it's free and it's fun, what more could you ask for?

David

Ballard Wins

Mark Ballard has just won the post of Rector of the University of Endinburgh. I am slightly surprised but by no means disappointed that he won. I really thought Boris Johnson would win but maybe most of his supporters were lazy rich english students who probably completely forgot about the elections. Anyway, I support the Green party and am quietly satisfied that Mr. Ballard has won. I don't dare mention this to my flatmate as he is very pro Boris and very anti everyone else. I hope you were all happy with the result. Now to find something interesting to put on this blog, uurrggghhh.

David

Windows Live Messenger 8

In the early hours of this morning, I received an invitation to download the beta version of the new messenger from Microsoft. After 5 or so minutes, I had got it up an running, but it did not run completely smoothly at first. Initially, it included some contacts in my list that I had not used for months, or even years. Apart from that, it looks quite nice, with the main new features being file sharing (an elaborate and easier way to send files) and the ability to write messages to offline contacts so that they receive them when they sign on (basically an answering machine). The main niggles I had with it were;

1. The fact that the interface was bulky and dull, with the room allocated for advertisements taking up more room than in messenger 7(the adverts aren't bigger, it's just that there is a lot of free space around them).
2. A contact expansion thingy which gives more details about the contact you are hovering over. This doubles the space it takes and makes it very dizzy especially when scrolling, as when scrolling, you have to hover over the contact list, thus making it very annoying

Apart from those, it's not too bad. I'd give it a 6/10 at the moment, but I know that one of the niggles mentioned abouve is going to be changed. It's a good program, but I wouldn't rush out to download it just yet. When I receive invitations to send to other people, I will be giving away some here, though currently I have none. You can find out more about Windows Live Messenger and other products here.

David

Vote Now

The Rectorial Elections begin today from 9am and will take place on the staff and student portal MyEd. You can vote online at www.myed.ed.ac.uk providing you work or study at the University of Edinburgh. I urge you all to go out and vote to make the most of this opportunity to elect someone you like. It's argued that the Rector is just a figurehead, and I believe that, so I am supporting Boris Johnson for his extraordinary wit and because I'd love to see him at my graduation. Anyway, the voting closes tomorrow, the 16th, so get moving!

David

Ice Dancing

I was watching the Winter Olympics on BBC2 whilst on the phone to my friend this evening, when, all of a sudden, the figure skating came on. We coined the phrase "Ice Dancing" for this particular "sport" and started to make fun of the dancers. When you watch their dances and ignore the reason or setting, they begin to look a bit psycho. They keep spinning madly and slashing their hands through the air as if to murder a child. I found myself making weird noises through the phone in order to share this image with Lewis. He started laughing down the phone when he heard this. We came to the conclusion, as stated on Lewis' Blog, that the dancers either had no Father, or that their Dad was also an Ice Dancer.

What they do is very creative and looks like it takes a huge amount of skill and practice, but you do wonder how it came about. Who decided to suddenly start madly spinning and slashing around on a frozen lake and then thought; "this is good fun, we should have a competition to see who is best at it". Anyway, I'm sure the so-called "sport" will continue to be a major event in Olympics to come, but I felt like taking a feeble and uncomposed potshot at it.

David

Bike News: Day 4

In writing this I bring you some solemn news. Our bicycle is gone. At around 10am this morning I looked out of my window to see that the bike had disappeared. I can only presume it was either stolen (again?), or removed by the council.
The bike had lasted 4 days and it was glorious whilst it was still there. We will remember it fondly and move on to the next novel thing that I notice. Thank you for being a part of Bike News.

David

Conversation

Whilst talking to my friend over the phone, I remembered a short conversation I overheard during the Christmas holidays. I was over at my local deli, waiting to be served when an elderly lady in front of me reached the counter. The server there is a really nice lady and being polite, she said to the old woman; "Had a nice New Year?". This seemed a perfectly normal question. Imagine my surprise when the woman replied "No, lasagne please!". What the hell?! I think the woman might have been slightly deaf or maybe very transfixed on what she wanted to buy. I hope you find it as funny as I did, I just had to share that with you.

David

Rector

The Edinburgh University Rectorial elections are coming up soon and, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the position of Rector entails. I've been made to understand that they have no real power and are just a figurehead, but most of the candidate's posters show details of what they are "campaigning for". If I were to vote now, I would vote for Boris Johnson, solely because he seems a nice, funny, sensible man. I have not heard of the others and I like watching Boris Johnson on TV, so it seems like the logical choice. The elections start on the 15th of February and take place on MyEd online. My flatmate is very enthusiastic about Boris and has met him a few times. He has been urging everyone in sight to vote for Boris, which is sometimes a bit annoying. I've just realised that this has been a boring post, probably because I actually had to think about what to write, so hopefully more interesting material will come in the near future. Find out more about Boris here.

Bike News: Day 3. A new bike accompanied our featured one, perhaps giving it some company. It remained firmly on the ground though it departed soon after with a human mounted upon it. More Bike News soon.

David

Me

I realised that although I had posted a few different things, I hadn't told you much about myself. My name is David and I'm a first year student studying Business and Acounting at Edinburgh University where I'm staying in university accomodation. I'd rather not say exactly where I live for fear of stalkers. I'm expecting them shortly now that I'm well known (well anyone can be a celebrity these days eh? As shown by "Celebrity Big Brother". More on that some other time). Here is a picture of my room as it was a few months ago;

Of course that is only my desk, but it's quite hard to get the whole room in, so maybe I'll display them some other time when I've run out of material. I'm determined that this blog will not be a photo gallery as then it just gets boring for anyone that doesn't know you. Anyway, there we go, a little about me so you know what you're dealing with.

Bike News: Update, Day 2. The bike has now been put back on the top of the wall but leaning on the post at a more obtuse angle. I'd imagine it's position may well change tonight knowing how rowdy the homeless people below us can be. More later...

David

Facebook

I discovered Facebook a couple of months ago, but now I'm really starting to bore of it, I don't see the attraction. All you seem to be able to do is share photos and write messages on people's pages. Admittedly it is a little interesting to see who you know and through whom, but I don't think the content would be suffice enough to distract anyone for more than half an hour. Maybe I don't have enough friends? Anyway, I'm finding a thing called IRC (Internet Relay Client) far more interesting at the moment as it enables me to converse with friends from different societies all together in one place.
Well, that was my complaint post for the day so hopefully I'll bring you all some more interesting stuff soon.

Bike News: Day 2. The bike has moved slightly with the front wheel facing the other way and the back wheel further down the wall. I noticed some people giving it strange looks yesterday as if to share in my thought of "what is that doing there?". Still there though, watch this space for any further exciting Bike News.

David

Bike News

This morning I woke up and looked out of my window down on to the street below to see this;

Now I didn't know where it had come from, or what it was doing there, but I did think "what on earth?". I wonder if someone, presumably a child, decided to lock their bike to a lampost and maybe some drunk homeless person (I live 2 floors above a homeless shelter) decided it would be funny to but the bike up on the wall, where it had slid slightly down from. I'm curious why the person has not come back for the bike as it seems reasonably decent, UNLESS, it's a stolen bike? But who would want to steal a child's bicycle. This mystery baffles me and I will do my best to track the movements of the bike and what or who has caused its presence half way up a wall on Holyrood Road. Thinking about it, I am in an area of ever present street litter. Last semster, I saw two drunk people riding a sofa down the road, and on Drummond Street, we have had, two fridges, a cooker and a couch in under 5 months. Watch out for further Bike News at the bottom of new posts.

David

Soldat

The other week whilst at a LAN party (not that it's really a party but it's called that anyway) I discovered a great new free game called Soldat. I've shared it with my friends and they all seem to really like it. here is a picture;


It's basically a 2D shooter with various game modes and great Internet/Network play. I think the game was mainly designed for online play as although there are bots, the real fun comes when blowing friends apart. I'd recommend you all to go and download it here. It's currently on version 1.3.1 and is great fun with huge explosions all in full. More coming soon.

David

Hassle

This thing is starting to annoy me now. It won't update my blog when I change things in the code such as my links and hasn't removed the picture of me in my profile. I was quite excited when I thought how good this would be but at the moment it's just not behaving. I'll see if this message posts and then take it from there. They say on their site that this happens occasionally so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

David

Setting up

Just set up this blog after seeing my friend's one and admiring it. Setting up is a hassle, but this Google Adsense thing looks like a great way to make money. Once I get this up and running I will post more interesting things.

David