#80 Good as new

It's best not to say things I'll regret later. Now I have to wonder, is a regret for a thing said an easier burden than a regret from a thing unsaid?

I went to my first assembly language class today. It went well. I managed to get the first section of the assignment done. All I have to do now is learn how to code up for loops and if-else statements. Then I have to figure out how to serialise pixels in from an external source. A simple case of boil down work the problem. Plenty of good questions for the lab on Friday. I hope the chaps in the Engineering block has spare PCs.

Turns out I do need a laptop though. The LG 30" screen I have my eye on costs a grand. Chickens, eggs, hatch. I'd prefer to wait until SSD drives are common in laptops (about 2011), but there's no question that there'd be benefit. Mo money mo problems. I'm getting by without it so I should continue thus. Things owned, things own you. All trades are their tools, without which they are but men (and women). Doctors are helpless without modern pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals? Yep, got it first time. So too are mechanics found wanting without the tools of their trade. I sought to become better by knowing, and having the means to know, to garner, inquire, ascertain. To learn. So I became a computer nerd.


I'll hate myself in 5-10 years reading this. I just know it. Sincerest apologies to mine future self. It's my fault you didn't turn out the way you wanted to be.

I guess regret works in both directions.

Are brainwaves a field or a particle?

My exam results. poo. D-. Tailstrike scrape-by. 230 quid for to do the resit. poopoo.And I know I can do better. A costly mistake. I hope benevolence can pick up the tab.

Not time critical thankfully. For problems in life I think perhaps it important to distinguish between those with a critical time component and those that don't. You could easily argue that all problems (which are sometimes solutions to other problems that we don't see) have a time component of one kind or another.

I'll be alright. It's just that the waiting game sucks. Folks are working my case and deserve thanks. I think they know who they are.

#77 Diplopia

I have 5 days to get 15 questions done. Time to get going. It's a 100% exam assessed subject this time so every mark counts.

Turns out I have something called diplopia. I reckon a new pair of specs should fix it, but I'll have to fix what's causing it first. Shame really. I've got a lot of expensive plasting on the end of my nose at the moment. Hopefully I can just get new lenses, although these specs are rimless, so I'm thinking wishfully. St. Lucy is busy helping with cases of trichoma in sub saharan Africa for the rest of the year. Should stop it getting much worse though for which I'm grateful.

Dad jokes are bad, but worth remembering.

Online Christmas shopping seems to be just as stressful as actual real life outdoorsy shopping. I'll just have to get a 3V voucher. Proxying off someone elses credit card isn't going to do it. I just hope I don't suddenly realise it's a way of financing an MMO habit. That would be most certainly counterproductive.

1. Fix eyes
2. Study for exams
3. Work
4. Visit friends (likely you, the reader)
5. Christmas shopping and christmas cards.
6. Write a program to find my USB key (yes, it's still stinging me from time to time. The sooner I accept it's gone the better)
7. What was 7 again? I think I only had 6. Usually can't remember past 6 anyway. Oh yeah, find SNES. It's probably right behind me.

Ok, now I'll start writing. With a pen. That's how learning works.

#56 Setbacks

All the fineries of this world ultimatley cost time. Some more than others. This monitor is very nice, but it will soon be useless. It goes against the new way of thinking. Reality offers more, so spending money undermining reality makes no sense. It would be nice to have, yes, but I can get by without it.

I wish I could guarantee at least partial completion of the grand objective. Sadly, it's a chip away per day affair. Some parts will hopefully be simpler than others. Maybe I didn't expect myself to go out walking every day, but I had hoped to lose a few pounds. Any day now. The problem now is keeping things interesting. The same old route has become tiresome. I'll need something fun with incidental weight loss.

Time for sleep now. There's nothing on the Internet really worth 4am. Not really.

#31 Users manual

This week, I've mostly been writing my users manual. For me. That's right, it's a users manual all about how I work. I think it's a good idea. We used to write short documentation schrifts in college for the odd programmes we made. None of my code ever worked really, but I made up the marks on the documentation sections. Overall, I tended to break even.

The manual is going well so far. It appears I am woefully lacking in social skills. Not sure how to address this. I've been writing a lot. No change there though. I crank out 1500 words on video games easily enough. Used to be the way. I sure hope www.gamerseurope.com comes back soon.

There's a problem though. I lost faith in computers after my hard drives failed. I knew they were going, but the real issue is security. I just can't cope with the darn things breaking all the time. I can't imagine how much time and grief... It's pretty awful. I'm still stuck for something else to do. Best alternative so far is music. Mostly, writing has filled the time. I'll keep working on the few stories and the users manual. Sticktoitiveness would be nice if I could get it.

Big issue now is how to achieve success without leaving the couch. Do I have to get up? I sure hope not. Still battling with common despair of course. I've always had Christmas to look forward to. I think perhaps a fine vintage of writing will be uncorked on that day.

The sum total of my existance now appears to be one where I do nothing but fill in forms and wait for things to happen. Heaven forbid I should take action. I haven't even really been outside nor can I gauge the last time I went out. A long time ago no doubt. Net total nights out is abysmally low.

In sooth, I have yet to live.

#19 The future will be here tomorrow

Cows in slippers! Genius!

Hang on, all cows are free range, right? The fence keeps the predators out.

TV is very silly.

I got my work nickname today - Bundy - from the odd laugh I get when something odd happens. Show me a picture of a Hadron supercollider and you'll see why.

Oooh, the weather. Seems there's a storm on the way. There goes the weekend! Plenty of weather on the way.

Dreadful joke: What do you get when you cross the titanic with the atlantic ocean? Half way.

I really ought to start podcasting. It's probably easier than I think too.

Seems the company I work my job for doesn't pay overtime. Work the timeclock? What would you do?

#15 Shopping around

Looks can be deceiving.


I mentioned before that time buys money.

I thought about this. Money has value. There are many different types of money. The type of money I earn has a much higher value in places like Eastern Europe. In fact, as I go east, the value of my money goes up. There are plenty of factors at play here, far too many to quantify within the system of my blog.

In a similar way, time has value. Just like money, where you are determines what it's worth. What's my time worth right now? Not a lot really. I'm spending it watching TV. Successful people don't watch TV (apparently). Tomorrow morning at work my time will be worth a wage, because I'll be spending it pushing paper.

SO, I suppose economics determines what my money is worth. Does free will determine what my time is worth?

The other thing is that you need both time and money to survive. When you run out of time, you don the wings and head up to the pearly gates (hopefully) . But when you run out of money, bad things happen.

Money buys time, time buys money. Money can buy happiness, or at least the means to attain it. Whoever said otherwise obviously never heard of buying tickets to a comedy gig, or a nice holiday, or even a rigamarole PA to find a date. Courtship can be expensive. The grand objective appears to require significant amounts of time and money, but the return on investment is well worth it.

I'm trading time for money. It's working out. Now I need to find a way of spending my time towards the current objective: Stat increases.

#12 Halfway from the start is halfway to the finish

I'm getting the hang of this. As to work, my theory was right. I was vindicated too, so I'm glad I came clean and let everyone know where I was. Being in Ireland seems to mean you can call someone or leave them a voicemail and they won't call me back. I'm just as guilty as everyone else. I took down the voicemails this morning from the night before. Wanna know how many I called back? 2. I think. Boss wasn't happy about that. 'Course if you only leave a name and number then hang up, will I think it's important? Probably not.

Why am I putting up with this? Well, I need money. I have plenty of time, so I figure I can trade some of it for money. Time is money, remember? That also means money is time, which explains why people hire plumbers, electricians, computer repair men, driving instructors and other things, like water, gas, oil, electricity, transport and groceries.

Economics described in 2 lines. Take that Wikipedia!

Oooh Peggle!