Trying to determine what to write my dissertation on for Open Universities’ SXP390 course.
Serenity showing for Charity
Well I can’t believe my luck…
I’ve become, almost overnight, a browncoat. (No, not a tramp…)
Browncoats are what fans of Firefly/Serenity call themselves, and in the last few weeks when I started watching the show I’m definately one of them. Even now when I’ve got a pile full of Open university work to get through, I’m surfing the web for info on the show…
…and I’m glad I have because I came upon something I think is an amazing coincidence. Apparently, there’s going to be a charitable showing of Serenity AND the firefox pilot just 20 minutes up the road from where I live! This is a global event happening across 51 cities throught out the world.
Here’s the website with the full listing:
http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/index.html
But the one I’m interested in, in oxford at the the “Ultimate Picture Palace”:
http://www.spiritofwash.com/2/SNEN/Home.html
And as a bonus, all proceeds will be going to the charity “Equality Now”:
http://www.equalitynow.org
I must say, I can’t wait! (And of course, my girlfriend is sure to want to come too…)
UPDATE: Also, as your already no doubt a fan of Firefly, go here and vote:
http://richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html Come on, we can beat those Xena pushovers… (!)
It's been a while…
…and a lot of things have happened over the last month and a half.
Firstly, the biggy, I’ve moved house, and was the first time I’d moved with stuff I couldn’t fit all in my car. Not moved far though, just nearer the town centre, for a little less money with a little less space (and unfortunately a lot more noise…)
Secondly, I never finsihed my November story, but had very little time with all the moving.
Thirdly, went to amsterdam for a long weekend with Sharon was very enjoyable. Ann Frank’s house is certainly worth a trip, just be prepared to get a little emotional.
Fourthly, today I should get my results for the OU course I’ve been doing… but not had courage to look yet.
Fifth, just got a new Phone, it was the N93 I think I’ve mentioned before – got a cool Wi-fi connection on it which means I can surf the web for free in any open wi-fi access point. (But unfortunately not at home because I can’t transfer my web access as my new place has NTL and not BT, so I have no broadband access… I think I’m having withdrawel symptons!)
And there’s probably some other things I haven’t mentioned yet, but hopefully I’ll have time to write later and expand on the things I’ve mentioned above.
Finished! Now I need some new deadlines…
It’s finally the end of another academic year – thats right my OU courses have now all been completed. Just sent my last assignment off yesterday – now I’m free to do nothing.
Well not nothing – I have to find a place to live soon as I’m moving out my flat – so that’s one deadline there.
However, that’s not really enough so I’ve signed myself up for a little challenge – to write a novel by the end of November, that’s “only” 50’000 words or about 1700 words a day. And the good news is I’m well on my way already, only 49,800 words to go now (which means I’m behind by about 4000 words…
#flag: OU, Novel, Flat
OU Planetary Science End
At last, my OU course is completed – not that I didn’t enjoy doing it, it just means I have much more free time and I don’t have to worry about revision or pending exams.
Just took the exam yesterday after a couple of solid days at home revising. It didn’t go to badly me thinks but to be sure I’ll have to wait a couple more months for my results to come in – no doubt they’ll be posted as soon as I know.
If I do pass it, it does means I’ll be able to claim a certifcate in (something like) “Space Physics” which should be handy for my CV and look cool (if nerdy) on my wall.
#flag: OU, “Planetary Science”, Exam
Mallorca Astronomy Week
Its been quite a holiday, if I can call it that.
I spent a week in Mallorca studying astronomy and planetary science with the Open University.
Sharon kindly drove me to the airport early in the morning and I caught the plane on to Mallorca. (Actually I only just made it to the plane as I was queing through security for an hour and a quater, I actually arrived at the plane five minutes after it had flown… or at least should have…)
The flight was uneventful apart from quite a lot of stomach turning drops as we flew over the Mallorca mountians, then over an hour wait for my luggage but after that a half hour trip to “Hotel Horizonte“
Just time for a quick walk into the centre to have a look around and get some essentials (Snickers and coke…) before the first coach ride into the heart of Mallorca and towards the “domes of knowledge” (telescope domes…). The coaches follow an ever narrowing road, eventually bearly much wider than the bus itself. (And we learned days later that the coach company uses the run as a “initiation test” and actually there’s a perfectly good motorway just up the road.)
After about an hour drive into the centre of the island we arrived at the observatory, I was expecting a panarama view of the island, but even though we were pretty high up the observatory was completely surrounded by trees, a problem we encoutered as some times the telescopes had to look right through the branches. (Apparently, this was all part of planning permission, to be able to build the observatories a certain number of rare and local plants had to be planted – unfortunately plants grow and had begun to crowd over the telescopes)
Check out some of my photo’s here
#flag: “Open University”, Mallorca, SXR208, Astronomy, “Planetary Science”, links
August
Well, I’ve been slacking again, no post for several weeks.
Apparently July has been the hottest month ever (since records began anyway), and I mean the hottest of any month, not just the July ones… I really should get around to finishing my Green website… but SO busy…
Work is also offering some new challenges, I’m currently working on Flash, I’m supposed to be creating a installer menu thing, but actually I’m just playing with it – I’ve never used it before!
OU work is also catching up on me, I’m supposed to finish reading a 300 page assignment book by end of August… which now seems pretty impossible… still, I’m sure I’ll be able to blag it! :0)
Also, around bank holiday in August I’m going camping and surfing – really looking forward to the surfing… not so sure about the camping… I’m going here.
#flag: work, OU, camping, green, links
Oh you, story teller….
I’ve been working though the OU story writing course over the last few weeks and I’ve been really enjoying it. The course is here.
I may post some of my stories online if I’m feeling brave… although thinking about it…. that’s probably unlikely… Forget I mentioned it…
Boxing day.
Its technically not boxing day any more, but I’m going to pretend it is.
Today I made a valiant attempt to get everything I own in to some kind of order, so I can then take everything down to my new flat. So far I’ve cleared a meter space of the floor of my bedroom… Unfortunately, I put it all over my bed and now I want to get some sleep so the only choice I have is to put it all back on the floor! I’ll start again tomorrow…
Also went shopping today, first day of sales. And I was out in my old local town centre, Alfreton. There was only about five shops open which probably explains why it wasn’t very busy. However, we still managed to spend quite a bit of money. I went with my Mum and Dad as they said they’d like to buy me some stuff for my new flat. (My mum said “Its not every day we get rid of our son…”, Nice!)
I bought (or rather my mum and dad did) a lot of cool stuff. Mostly for the kitchen – bread bin, kitchen towel holder, that kind of stuff, mostly all chrome looking, except bread bin which is made of wood – also got some bits and pieces I’d need for the Open University courses I am taking this year – just some note pads and printer paper – looking forward to the courses but also a bit apprehensive about the time it might take…
Anyway, getting far to far into tomorrow so better start clearing the stuff off my bed.
#Flag: Flat, “About me”, “Open University”, links