MaW’s Blog

A lot has been going on which I needed to think about, and I’m not sure I can coherently say anything on here about some of it. The big thing of course is Hurricane Katrina, and its effects on the USA. I don’t know how to write about what I feel when I see the footage from New Orleans. Despair, hope, worry, joy, fear, relief… this and more, varying as reports have come in, both during the storm and after it. Mostly now I’m feeling relief, because it doesn’t look like it’s necessarily going to be as bad as was initially feared. It’s still bad of course, but the city’s probably not going to end up a stinking wasteland.

Although that really does remain to be seen. They’re still talking about a forced total evacuation, so we’ll see. Some are kicking up a fuss about the police confiscating guns from the citizens so they can’t resist the evacuation — personally, I don’t think they should have them in the first place so I’m really not bothered about that. I am not particularly pleased with the way the whole affair has been handled, but there’s really nothing for me to do — other than rant about it occasionally from an uninformed perspective, and give frequent thanks that I don’t have to move to America. Britain has its flaws — plenty of them — but on the whole it works out pretty well at the moment.

I have of course been preparing to go back to Nottingham to start my PhD. Sort of scary really — I’ve done this all before, to the same University, but it’s been two years and I’m really completely unprepared for the necessary organisation to get this all sorted. Oh well, it’ll come together at some point — no doubt not to Mum’s satisfaction, but I’m not very good at that lately. We do need to get out of each other’s hair, and this should sort it quite nicely. Were I not going to Uni, I’d be looking to move out I think. That’s no secret — I’ve told Mum that myself.

Just life, really. Things will get more interesting once I get back to Nottingham — although I’ve been doing some things which could turn out rather interesting. I’m just not going to talk about them right now.

Doesn’t that add a nice aura of mystery to the whole affair?

Well, almost everyone already knows, but I’ve not posted it here yet so I’m going to, because this is a major change in my life.

A few weeks ago I was informed that I have been granted full funding to do a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. Last week I handed in my notice, and will be finishing work on the last Friday in August. Term starts on the 26th of September.

It’s really quite exciting.

So today was the graduation ceremony. Everything ran very smoothly, I was rather impressed, although those hoods are an absolute nightmare and I really don’t like the colours. Still, I was efficiently gowned and hooded and hatted, then had to stand outside to have pictures taken by Mum and Dad. Here’s one of them. I’m hoping the official photography is better than this, it’d certainly better be for the price!

Anyway, there’s another picture of me looking like a total idiot, but Mum and Dad dressed up for the occasion and looked rather good I thought.

Before the ceremony many pictures were taken, here’s one of Nigel, myself and John which is one of the better ones. The digital camera didn’t seem to like the sunlight, and Mum didn’t know how to compensate for it. I suspect Dad’s pictures will have come out better, but since they’re on film it’ll be a while before we get to see those.

Anyway, here’s a final picture of me and Dad after the ceremony. After all this we went back to the house, I nearly coughed up my insides and then we went home. Don’t you just love being ill on these occasions? At least I don’t look it in the photos.

My parents got me a graduation teddy bear, which is incredibly cute. Thanks Mum and Dad!

…and it kind of ended well. Results are in, the marks have been counted and the Powers that Were have awarded me a 2:1 BSc in Computer Science. What fun.

I’m just going to sit here in the corner and gibber for a bit…