Revision 2011

It’s that time of year again – May/June is the bane of most students’ lives.

I have 7 exams this year, 2 of which I sat last week: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and Continuum Mathematics. The first exam was bearable, the second much less so. Luckily, I had some friends from church who live round the corner from the venue and very kindly invited me for dinner. This gave me a chance to calm down and have a bit of time completely away from work, refreshing me for the revision to begin again on Saturday.

This Tuesday will see me sit exam number 3 – Optimisation Theory and Applications. Really, I should be revising for that now, but the progress seems to be going well enough that I have decided to call today my ‘day of rest’ to attempt to shake this headache in time for a blitz day tomorrow. To be honest, the likelihood is that I will actually return to work later this evening, but for now I’m just focusing on feeling better and not feeling guilty.

If anybody reading this is also going through exams at the minute or in the near future, I wish you all the best.

Quick Competition:
You may just be able to see in the photo that my pen is very kindly being held by a little man. This is my mascot, Dave the Spaceman, and his name has been carefully chosen for two specific reasons – if you can tell me what they both are, there may be a prize. It may possibly something as amazing as the smug feeling that comes from being right – like when you shout at the telly! Or perhaps something more tangible, like chocolate or something…

(More pictures of Dave ‘helping’ with my revision may well follow on Picasa, but for now, if you’re itching for more, you can check out my Facebook album ‘Revision 2011’)

Oh Christmas Tree... (Christmas Competition)

Two posts in one day! I'm making up for a few lost days.

I know that it's still quite early, but since I will be going to London next Friday I am, as always, having one week's Christmas in Bristol. I don't go mad, but I do draw my own tree on my whiteboard. This year, I decided to let out my tree's inner 'anorak' and have highly symbolic, uber geeky decorations. To make it a little more exciting, I've decided to set you guys a challenge:

• There are 13 'baubles' and a 'star' on my tree, and each one is a reference to something I love and am considered geeky about.
• You will earn a point for each of the 14 symbols you can recognise, and hopefully everyone knows what points mean - Prizes!
• The first 3 people, if any, to get over 10 points (without help) will receive a prize, hopefully related to their own personal area of geekiness, but possibly just chocolate...

Small Print:

Don't put your answers in a comment as this will help others and render the game somewhat pointless. It's probably best to email me, or send me a message on Facebook where the game will also be posted. Some of the pictures, are really obscure/rubbish, since they were drawn by me - who is a bit of an obscure person at the best of times, and I'm also not known for my artistic skill. As such, if I get lots of complaints, I will lower the prize threshold; I'll keep you posted on that.