Why did I do this?

Hullo

2008-12-08T23:59:00.001Z

Hullo thar Phil. Checking my blog now are you?

Back In Edinburgh

2006-08-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

Hello, I am back in Edinburgh now and have been for a few days. I thought I should post something just because... I'm in my new flat now and we're just getting things sorted now. Don't know why I posted this and I think I might cave my blog in soon.

David

Summer Days

2006-07-03T17:29:00.000+01:00

Hello, not doing a whole lot this summer. Returned from Canada a few days ago and am off to Ireland at the end of this week. I can't think of much else to say except that I am still playing a great game called Albatross18.

David

Albatross18

2006-05-20T21:13:00.001+01:00

Hey, I was looking at my magazine yesterday when I saw a game review in the freeplay section. It sounded good, so I stuck the demo disc in the computer and, wahey, it's amazing! It's called Albatross18, and is an online multiplayer golf rpg. Basically you play golf, and get points for good shots, as well as getting experience for playing (and more for winning). The best thing is that it's absolutely FREE, no catches (well, for some items of clothing you need to fork out real cash for, but that's easily ignored). Give it a go here. Oh, you have to register on the site first, and it takes a little while to update the first time you play it, so be patient. Also, I heard you get something extra if you complete the training, which I didn't do, so try that out too.

David

Hot or Not?

2006-05-20T11:52:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd post something seen as it is the second last day of term for me this year. It's gone very quickly but it's been good. I can't wait for next year when I move in with four of my friends. I don't know how I remembered it, but I thought of www.hotornot.com and decided to put a picture of Fraser up on it. Click here to vote for Fraser (be nice). I haven't yet put up a picture of myself, but maybe some day. Can't think of any else to say really, oh, Thierry Henry has signed a four year contract at Arsenal which is pretty good on the whole for English football. Also, the world cup is coming soon and I can't wait. Oh, and there's also Big Brother if you're into that sort of thing. Finally, a good site for funny football-related t-shirts here.

David

Honour and Pride

2006-05-11T20:27:00.000+01:00

I was made aware of the presence of this picture by my friend Fraser. It seems they made a film in my honour, but apparently it was not that good. The word "Garv" also brought up some other strange results, some of which I did not dare to touch.

David

Flatmate Watch Part 2

2006-05-10T13:21:00.000+01:00

All of my flatmates are currently studying, or at least trying to. I have now finished my exams so I now have to try not to distract them by asking for games of pro ev. Phil spent yesterday cleaning up his room and washing the dishes, and I had a fairly nice chinese takeaway with him for dinner last night. Henry has been doing his usual sporting endeavours and working as well as playing pro. Andy was doing some rowing test yesterday which, despite getting a P.B., he felt very depressed about. Oli is revising and doing his normal stuff and probably right now getting quite excited about The Apprentice on TV tonight. I know that was boring, but I was asked by Phil to put some thing up about flatmates. Oh, I just remembered, last night Phil, Henry and spruce Bruce were being very annoying by saying "saying that though!" repeatedly in Irish tones. That is all,

David

Cheap and Cheerful

2006-05-08T21:15:00.000+01:00

I was talking to my friend Fraser today about the phrase "cheap and cheerful" which he labeled Greggs (the bakers) sandwiches. I explained to him that my idea of cheap and cheerful is a Tesco Value chocolate bar, which I then went on to buy. I decided that while I was at it, I may as well do a brief review of it as well as another of my things of the moment, Coca-Cola in arabic glass bottles from the mosque.
Tesco Value Dark Chocolate Bar

Here goes. The chocolate is wrapped in a very classy package considering its price (£0.25). The fierce red of this particular dark chocolate bar contrasts to the less passionate blue of the milk chocolate bar, clearly indicating that the dark variety has a strong flavour and perhaps only suitable for those serious about their chocolate. The wrapper also helpfully points out key nutritional information on the bottom right hand corner so as to entice those watching their weight. Be warned though! The information is done on a "per square" basis and so eating one of these provides just under half of your RDA of fat!
I move on the the chocolate itself. As You lift the glittering silver foil, an aroma of fresh cocoa beans is wafted towards your nasopharynx (provided you open it the correct way, it needs to be treated with care). Oh, what a scent! The chocolate itself is fairly hard, and therefore quite difficult to break into its pre-designated squares. Unfortunately the chocolate doesn't really have that "melt in the mouth" quality initially, but upon soft chewing and tongue massaging, it begins to release its true potency. The flavour is strong, and not that sweet, with a very slight bitterness. Despite this, I feel most people could probably enjoy the chocolate, without needing much of an aquired taste. It does not leave me craving for more sadly, and for this reason I think it might last me a few days, thus robbing Tesco of potential extra revenue. i can see I'm drifting into Economics, so time to end the review. Overall, a 7 out of 10 for a product that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Coca-Cola (Arabic Stylee)

This is basically very similar to normal coke, but the glass bottle offers a slight sense of novelty and tradition to it, as well as having cool arabic (or something else) writing on one side of it. They also make nice decorations for your room. The taste is somewhat fizzier than the usual canned and bottled stuff in the shops, therefore leaving you very bloated after only 250ml (the size of the bottle). The volume is another negative, leaving you with a product which is not as good value for money on a ml per £ scale. On the whole though, I really like it, and would give it a fairly pleasing 8 out of 10, with a can of UK coke being about the same.

I hope you liked the reviews and please leave any comments or corrections on the blog. i couldn't be bothered runny the shoddy American spellcheck over it so I probably have made some mistakes.

David

Nearly There

2006-05-08T18:24:00.000+01:00

My last exam is Accounting on Wednesday and at the moment I'm feeling fairly confident about it. The past papers aren't that bad so I just hope they will follow suite this year. My days are fairly boring, mainly consisting of revision and procrastination. I've discovered that the Mosque kitchen has recently started selling glass bottles of Coke which I really like. One label is in the standard english logo, whereas the other side is in Arabic or some other such language (I'll try and get a picture up soon). I have also just ordered a new mouse because the pads on my current one are falling off and it's becoming harder and harder to use, though that could be something to do with my desk being a dust magnet. There's not much else to say except from that I have suddenly started playing and enjoying games of backgammon on msn messenger. It's annoying how you always think of a thousand and one pointless things you want to do when you have your exam just around the corner.

Anyway, I need to go out now and buy a birthday card for my big sister and post it out to her. I have put up a picture of backgammon for your pleasure.

David

More Films

2006-05-07T12:53:00.000+01:00

Finally saw The Constant Gardener on Friday night. I thought it was a very good plot, good performances by the actors, and it was pretty gripping too. Overall, 8 out of 10.
Went to see Mission Impossible 3 last night and it was also pretty good, but mainly because of the action. I can't say I came away from it wanted to discuss it with anyone, but maybe that is because the plot was fairly easy to understand. I'd give it 7 out of 10.

David

Hilarious

2006-05-05T18:01:00.000+01:00

I heard something really funny today so I thought Iwould share it with you. I'm not that good at stroytelling but here goes;

Me: Hey how are you
Friend: Oh I'm fine, and you?
M: Yeah I'm good too
F: Did you see the bbc website
M: No?
F: Oh it was really funny, they had a picture of Charles Kennedy

I found that so funny and I'm sure you will too, let me know any funny jokes you have.

David

The New Fraser

2006-05-03T13:50:00.001+01:00

This is what fraser will soon look like.

New News

2006-05-03T13:24:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've made a valuable contribution towards this blog. A few things have happened that I haven't really mentioned. Firstly, Arsenal will be playing Barcelona in the Champions League final on the 17th of May (I think). Who do you think will win, please leave a comment below. Secondly, I'm in the middle of my exams but I have my next and final one on the 10th of May, so expect much banter after that. The last significant thing that has happened is that Fraser McNab, my friend, is about to be inaugurated into the ranks of the Postman club. You can expect to see Fraser delivering his little packages on your doors by late May (Lanark only). Fraser has often been compared to Harry Potter, but may now have to take on the nickname of "Postman Pat", whom he bears an uncanny resemblance to. Finally, myself and my friends have managed to eventually find a flat in Edinburgh for next year, Hurrah!

David

Point of Vue

2006-04-29T11:18:00.000+01:00

Went to see the film "16 Blocks" last night. It was better than I expected amd so I would give it 7 out of 10. Bruce Willis was quite good in it, though he looked beyond his years with the moustache on. I must remember not to eat so much salted popcorn next time, it's very sore on your lips.

Long Time, No Blog

2006-04-10T14:16:00.000+01:00

Well, I realise I haven't "blogged" in quite a while now so I thought it my duty to at least attempt to keep this page interesting. I have been at home for the last two weeks so that is my main excuse for the lack of content. I am really into a computer game called Call of Duty 2, but I won't bore the common reader with the details, so I'll leave it to you to Google for it if you are interested.
I went to see some of the Davis Cup tie between Great Britian (the person who named this person must have been pretty vain, eh?) and Serbia and Montenegro. It was good, with a fairly high standard of tennis, given that Greg Rusedski is still somewhere around number 60 in the world. Anyway, that is all I can think of at the moment so I shall try to update this more often in the near future.

David

Funny

2006-03-24T13:16:00.000Z

Just had a short humourous conversation on googletalk so I thought I'd share it with you;

David Garvey: hi
David Hiscock: this is gig
using dave's machine
David Garvey: it is?
haha
David Hiscock: thanks tard you just broke oblivion
David Garvey: oh well
David Hiscock: oh well f**k you
David Garvey: happens to me too sometimes
bye

I don't know if blogger has a policy about swear words so I'd rather play it safe and censor it out, not that it makes any difference, most of you still know what the word is. Not much other news, going home tomorrow and really looking forward to playing Call of Duty 2 online. Have a good holiday,

David

Blogging Hell

2006-03-20T15:24:00.000Z

As you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging in a little while. I have been busy with work and a few other things. Nothing much has happened in the last while (as usual), though I did manage to get onto the Gamesoc commitee as Publicity Rep. I hope this will be a step forward for me in all departments. Had a good lan on Saturday and a great game of ET last night on the Gamesoc server. Going home in a few days so I might get more time to update this then.
Phil News: Phil has not done much in the last few days apart from sleeping, eating, drinking (mainly alcohol I figure), smoking and doing a bit of work. He is his usual cheery self but he has taken to using an old copy of the Financial Times as toilet paper!

David

Flatmate Watch

2006-03-16T13:54:00.000Z

I feel like doing another sort of item log so I think I'm going to monitor anything of interest in my flatmates. First on the watch is Phil, stay tuned. I'm happy at the moment, so here's a pointless picture.

David

Last Night

2006-03-12T10:05:00.001Z

Oh my God, I had a pretty strange time last night (very early this morning). The first part was very average; I went out with a couple of friends and then we went back to Pollock and watched "The 40-year-old Virgin" starring Steve Carrell. It was a good film, I'd give it 8/10, go and see it some time. When I got back into the flat (at about 2:30am), I realised that the party was still in full swing. I was shortly embraced by Phil and asked several times "Do you want some booze?", "Do you want a smoke?", "Do you need some alcohol?". I turned these gracious offers down as, quite frankly (or earnestly if you prefer that), I was exhausted. I think Phil was having a good time and he decided to liven the mood by stealing my listerine and taking a huge gulp of it. I think he was regretting that decision shortly afterwards as I saw him throw it into the sink.

At this point I went to bed, using the conversation between Greta and Jude (Jude jude) to send me to sleep (It was actually pretty interesting though, I'm not mocking the conversation, oh forget it). It took me ages to get to sleep, hearing conversations of people right outside my door. The best thing I can remember hearing is a conversation where one of the two girls had gone to the toilet. Here is what I think I heard;

Girl in Toilet: "there's no paper, is there any paper in my bag or the other toilets?"
Other Girl: "wait, I'll go check" -pause- "no there's no paper anywhere!"

GiT: "oh no!"
OG: "erm, just use the towel"
GiT: "I can't do that"
OG: "don't worry, we'll never be seing these people again"
GiT: "no, I shouldn't"
OG: "use the towel. If you don't tell, I won't tell"
GiT: "erm, well..."
OG: "yeah, just use the towel, nobody will know!"
GiT: "oh ok, hold on"

Yeeuch! When I heard this last night, I was laughing my head off. I knew I wanted to tell Andy (I think he owns the towel in question) the next day, so I jumped out of my bed and wrote some of this down. I hope I get to him before he uses it.

Anyway, It's snowing right now and I woke up about 40 minutes ago. I'm not feeling that tired and that's really interesting isn't it. I was thinking of making signs for some of the doors so people would know where to get out of the flat. Also, I want to get on the commitee for Gamesoc in the AGM on the 18th, so that's something to aim for.

David

The Weather Man

2006-03-11T01:48:00.000Z

The film "The Weather Man" is average in my opinion. I would recommend that you avoid it unless you are bored or there is no alternative. 5/10

David

George Bush

2006-03-10T15:30:00.000Z

Thought that I'd bring you another of George Bush's legendary quotations, so here goes;

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure"

Thoroughly inspiring words in my opinion. Anyway, In other news, I had a great conversation with my friends last night whilst eating curry at the Mosque. It started off with two of them debating whether Bill Gates was still the richest man in the world when I interjected "a stupid way to lose all of that at once would be to make a long term investment in a large batch of canned peas". I got some weird looks, but then the discussion sparked into life. We figured it may not actually be as bad as previously thought, as surely supply for peas would suddenly drop, and then the peas could be sold at an inflated price. Saying that, peas are not essential to life and you may find out that you'd lose the money anyway. If someone has a lot of money, please try this option when investing your funds and let me know how it works out. If you make a profit, make sure you mention me, and I want 20% of the profit. If you lose the money, I don't know you. Why the hell am I talking about this? I think my blog has sunk to an all-time low thanks to this.
I think it's time to change my music video and I'm disappointed that nobody has made a recommendation. Oh well, at least now I can pick one that I like.

David

Footie-ball

2006-03-09T16:12:00.000Z

Just realised that I hadn't given you the results for the 2nd leg games of the round of 16. Basically, Arsenal were the only British team to go through and Barcelona, Lyon, Juventus, Villareal, Benfica, AC Milan joined them, with Inter Milan to play Ajax next week. Full results here. I hope that's helped my large number of readers. I found out that I was top result in an msn search for "tonights football results", wow! That is all for now, I really need to think of something interesting to talk about...

David

Tech Wizardry

2006-03-07T21:04:00.000Z

Talk about consistent blogging, that's twice in an evening. Watching the football at the moment but just saw this amazing site here. It kept me entertained for ages and now I have a sudden need for technology. Someof the stuff on it looks great, such as the Microsoft Origami and GDrive from Google.

David

Publicity

2006-03-07T17:32:00.000Z

Call me a sucker for favours. Someone put a comment on my last post asking me to publicise his site on my blog so here goes:

Go and have a look, I'm sure it's great. Also, If you want to help me then please click on my ads above. It takes hardly any time and I get money, so you can feel pleased with yourself that you've helped someone today. Still been looking at all the speculation about this game called "Spore" and I honestly can't wait for it to be released. Her is a video courtesy of www.gamingsteve.com to get your teeth into;

I found a provisional date of "Autumn 2006" but apart from that there isn't much confirmed. Lecturers had their strike which meant that one or two of my classes today were cancelled, much to my annoyance (not!). Saying that, I saw hardly any picketers. Maybe they had sheltered from the rain, or had gone home briefly to watch neighbours. Got some walkie talkies at the weekend (don't ask me why) and I'm a bit disappointed that one has run out of power already. It was the one with the tesco batteries in it, hmm...
I've started thinking about making a PC sometime in the future (probably in about a year) as I can see that my fairly high power laptop may begin to struggle in some departments in the next while. I've been told that it's expensive and difficult to upgrade a laptop and the size restricts what can be done.
Football is on tonight with the encounter between Chelsea and Barcelona being the one I'm most interested in. I would love to see Chelsea lose. I really dislike Jose Mourinho, Didier Drogba and Arjen Robben. The latter's face is always wrinkled up as if he's in some sort of eternal discomfort or pain. I can't stand the diving, admittedly Ronaldo (of Man Utd) used to do it a bit, but never as artisticly (is that a word?) as the Chelski pair. That's enough rant for now, anyway, I'm trying to do a bit of work to prepare myself for what's to come in the next few weeks so I best get back to that. Click my ads.

David

Stuff

2006-03-06T22:32:00.000Z

Wow! I've really slowed down haven't I? Had an okay day today and tried to record the third episode of the show before my computer crashed just after we had finished, oh well! I was doing my regular check of "I am bored" when I saw this great video for a game in development called "Spore". From what I saw I can say it's mainly about creating creatures and developing them through evolution (if you believe in that) and then through their respective societies. I'm not quite sure when it's due out but I'm definitely going to get it. Also, had thoughts today about maybe building a Desktop PC sometime in the next 18 months depending on how things go, but for now I have to focus on accomodation for next year. Whew! Now I can leave you for another 5 days.

David

Finished

2006-03-01T13:18:00.000Z

Just finished the second of two essay about 10 minutes ago so I thought I'd write on my blog to update it. Sorry it's been a while but I felt that I should dedicate my time to my work. I'm feely fairly good about the essays though I always have lingering doubts about assignments and these sort of things. I discovered this great Rodney Mullen video where he's doing some amazing tricks. I also just realised that I haven't changed the video for about a week so I'll get onto that. Please post suggestions as to what videos you would like on the site. Anyway, that's all for now, oh wait, check this out.

Oh, by the way, it's my saints day today!

David

Words of Wisdom

2006-02-23T18:47:00.000Z

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

2006-02-22T22:15:00.001Z

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

2006-02-22T17:57:00.000Z

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

2006-02-22T09:46:00.000Z

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

2006-02-21T20:44:00.000Z

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

2006-02-20T17:48:00.000Z

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

2006-02-20T17:36:00.000Z

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?

2006-02-19T23:41:00.000Z

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

2006-02-18T11:12:00.000Z

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

2006-02-17T22:53:00.000Z

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

2006-02-16T21:00:00.000Z

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

2006-02-16T19:19:00.000Z

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

2006-02-15T10:36:00.000Z

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;

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).
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

2006-02-15T08:26:00.000Z

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

2006-02-14T23:09:00.000Z

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

2006-02-14T16:00:00.000Z

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

2006-02-13T23:33:00.000Z

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

2006-02-13T22:36:00.000Z

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

2006-02-12T16:23:00.000Z

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

2006-02-12T10:16:00.000Z

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

2006-02-11T15:22:00.000Z

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

2006-02-11T09:46:00.000Z

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

2006-02-11T09:39:00.000Z

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

2006-02-11T00:48:00.000Z

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