I've just had a SPAM with the subject line "Larger & Sexier L|ps Guaranteed". Larger and sexier LPs? So, 13" records, made of something sexier than vinyl? Excellent!

This week's work:

* Huuuuge SPSS Assignment of Duuuuume (using, surprisingly enough, SPSS, a Statistics program)
* Maple assignment (using Maple, a "computer algebra" package or sommat)
* C assignment (everyone knows what C is, right?)
* Dynamical Systems assignment, which is made easier by the usage of Maple.

That's funny, I didn't think I was doing Computer Science . . .

Now, I fully understand the need for computing in Maths, and I've no objection to it. I would, after all, have a B.A. (yes, seriously) in Computer Science by now, if my body hadn't decided there was no way it was going to three hours of lectures on the other side of Cambridge on a Saturday morning.

The only trouble is:

Often computer programs are confusing.
So you have to consult some sort of manual.
Seeking help via the Internet rather than buying and carrying around expensive always-out-of-the-library heavy textbooks is a good idea.
But work? On a computer connected to the Internet, where you don't have to pay for access? Why do that, when you could be refreshing your Livejournal friends page every two minutes?

My dissertation, 95% of which had to be done on Internet-connected computers, took at least three times longer to complete than it was supposed to as a result. And so, it seems, will this year's work.

Farewell, sweet social life! Twas nice knowing you!

My course is called MILE (Mathematics In The Living Environment, so acronymed because Yorkshire folk pronounce "in the" as one word, "int", and because MITLE's harder to pronounce). I have rechristened it SUICIDE (Statistics Using Irritating Computers Int Dying Environment).


Friday 17 October 2003

Last night I dreamed the UKC rock soc put on The Pit, but since the PA wasn't loud enough, we decided to hold another one the following day . . . in a pub in Oxford. Loads of thirtysomething goths turned up, but before the night started, I went to the woods beside Naworth Castle (where I used to live), because my Dad was bringing me a bottle of literally white wine called Arch Enemy, which I wanted to try on account of the name. (Arch Enemy being my second favourite band - in the dream it was also a brand of superglue.) It tasted horrible, and in order to make it taste better, you had to kiss people. Since the only people around were my family, I was very glad my alarm woke me up before the incest could turn multi-generational, at any rate.

Despite being told I could definitely learn Russian, the powers that be prevented me from it for no apparent reason. However, since I get free language lessons this year, I decided I had to sign up to something else. The only beginners' classes with places left were Dutch and Greek; since I know two words of ancient Greek ("anthropon" and "helios") and only one of Dutch ("spoorweg"), I decided my Dutch was in more need of improvement.

This evening, I saw "Delicatessen" which the World Cinema Society were showing. Interesting dreams will no doubt occur tonight too.