I've managed to work pretty hard on the past two nights. Interestingly I've found that I am more productive when I have my Rock playlist on (Foos, Blink, Greenday, Eels, Franz, Linkin Park, Zutons, Travis, James). This productive streak has meant I'm making good progress on my user research for the two big design projects in my life (MDP1 and RSA Design Directions).

I had one 'proper' lecture today. Strictly I had two, but the second was not attended for my own sanity. I have spent this evening making preparations for my Dragon's Den encounter tomorrow. I have Ian Storer as the leading tutor and I'm hoping that I will get some positive feedback. DDS phoned me as I was cooking earlier, and aglow explained that that Paul (his tutor) had said he would invest immediately in DDS' project. High praise.

My desk and bed are a swamp of paperwork and pens of all sorts of thicknesses. This level of productivity often does mean I neglect the basic things, like giving myself enough space to move, and today is a perfect example. I am extremely pleased that I have very little in the way of pending business to be following up now as it has left my schedule clear for degree-improving techniques.

I spent last night wading through some pretty heavy literature - a 104 page document on the effects and interventions associated with a major disaster - not exactly light reading, and I don't have much to show for it, but at least it firmed up belief in my idea. I think...?

Fat Dave spoke to me today (almost too much of a coincidence) about getting French Cricket up and running - starting tomorrow. I am impressed with the level on enthusiasm on display here - I'm not so sure I expected to see any movement on that front and it timed itself beautifully as the club's obligations once again came into focus.

Swan managed to lose the key to Zoe's garage and all her housemates have been on at him to find it. In a desperate attempt to get to their bikes and laundry, they eventually decided to break the door in, meaning a new lock. Swan came home only to discover Jono had found the key on the floor of the porch. Poor Swan.

Today illustrates why my course is brilliant and rubbish at the same time. This morning I went along to my Enterprise and Innovation lecture and discussed what made an entrepreneur. I found a great many of the characteristics in my personality traits and so came out thinking I was going to be the next Richard Branson (or at least I had some confidence I might be cut-out for this type of work). I then attended the first twenty minutes of the Internet and Interface lecture before prematurely leaving during a gap in the lecturer speaking - I did in fact have the opportunity earlier, "Anyone who knows how to do HTML coding might as well leave now". No one got up, and I was far too self-concious to get up and make that statement this early in the term, even if I know the difference between an <acronym> and an <abbr> tag.

On the way back I called in on Flash who is up for the weekend. The others had seen him last night in Towers Bar, but I had stayed in persevering with coursework. Lo, the situation exists again tonight.

Flash drove me back here, raided my pizza, discussed major projects, travelling and the like, then upped and drove me and the Swan back onto campus. I had intended on quizzing a number of tutors about my RSA project selection, but due them all being in meetings I only managed to gain access to Mark who wasn't exactly pro projecta. I sat, talked to Taku in the foyer, did some work, talked to Superwat, did some more work then took a breather to watch the rugby.

We were playing Birmingham Uni, which meant that Smithers (OSH lad) was probably playing. At the end of the game I swapped watching sports (Swan was playing football for the Towers Rangers) and caught Smithers heading into the changing room. We talked for a short while, then I went back to watching the game and eventually going back into the department in search of tutors for more opinions

Paul was more positive about the whole thing (as I had expected) but said I just needed to provide adequate evidence to prove it, and this is where my quest ended. Eddie was too busy with another student and Tony wasn't too pleased to see me at all (which annoyed me a little).

At home I cooked food and like any keen entrepreneur, stalled. I've managed to put any serious work off until after this blog entry. Come on Higgs, pull yourself together - it's not like you've got a Dragon's Den style encounter with the staff on Friday which includes a formal presentation. Oh wait; You have. Damn.

Being a Tuesday I had a 11am start so spread getting up out over an hour and a bit before making my way onto campus for my Major Project lecture on Prototyping. Fun fun.

Afterwards I decided to hunt down Mike - a task that proved harder than I thought it would, as Mike has a packed Tuesday and was, according to his housemate, doing a 9am-5pm. However at lunchtime he finally responded to my missed calls and said if I was quick I could get to his before he started eating and therefore get the photos I was vying for as part of my User Research.

Basically I just sat there on the sofa with my DSLR snapping away while Mike tested then injected himself. It was actually very informative, and although I couldn't afford the time to squeeze all the info I needed out of him, I tried my best, leaving with some good quality photos and data.

After this I dropped into town where I visited Boots and persuaded the rather hot pharmacist to ply me with all sorts of diabetes delights while I took more photos. After that it was to another pharmacy who were next-to-useless, except for the guy in the queue behind me who immediately piped up and gave me some very useful information about his sister's condition.

As is customary in these parts of Loughborough, I gave Pennell a call as it's been a long while since I saw him last. Funnily enough he answered straight away (a rare occurrence) and said he was free. We chatted for a while, Sam came back from lectures, we chatted some more. All good. And then I came home and cooked food. I now am faced with a mountain of writing up and analysis to write up, so if you don't mind...

The best news today is that my feud with Sean appears to have ended - I've happily had conversations with him although it is sometimes a little terse. Some other fantastic news is that I've finally sat down and started to work my way through the backlog of MDP1 write-ups, and I've also managed to get the shopping done a day early. This therefore, has put me in a good mood. I estimate that this has put me back on track for staying on top of the workload as I will have tomorrow and Wednesday free to soldier on with further UR and thickening up my folder work.

Last night insane boredom drove me to start writing social emails. I don't ever get bored, but being in a pretty foul mood meant I wasn't feeling my usual motivated self. It did however prompt this unprecedented move and several relatives and friends who I should contact more often were on the receiving end of some personal, virtual text.

On top of this the motion of working through this coursework has also spurred several slightly more serious emails regarding information on my design projects.

I've bought myself a copy of Digital Photo magazine as a sort of reward for progress made today. I've promised myself I won't actually look at it until I'm done with at least one of the two module catch-ups.

Bangers and mash tonight.

Considering I am usually a chirpy, good-tempered person, this morning is an unusual exception. I'm not brimming with anger right now, but last night I had an unfortunate confrontation with Sean that has left him not talking to me - his usual "I'm pissed off with you" routine.

I'm still slightly confused as to why he is so annoyed with me, especially since I swallowed my pride this morning and said whatever our argument was about last night I'm prepared to forget it all and start over only to be quickly and sharply rebuked. I left it open so he could calm down and make a mends on his own, but I am finding it incredibly difficult not to state my mind and explain to him that his drunkenness last night contributed to his stubbornness. One of the problems is that Sean finds it difficult to take the humble pill as the thought of backing down on a confrontation is tantamount to defeat; even if I'm throwing all these lifelines - he still refuses to take the bit.

I'm more annoyed at him now than I was when I originally confronted him about it last night. I don't even care if he doesn't think I asked him for help repeatedly. Hopefully the day will give us both enough breathing space to sort this.

Part of all this was sparked by another event last night. Somebody (we don't know who) first of all cracked open the fire blanket and threw it into my room. No problem - we can cope with that; a bit of re-loading fee, but then about half an hour later somebody (we assume it is the same person) let off the fire extinguisher in my bedroom. It was the dry powder type and they filled the whole place with the carcinogenic dust. Being asthmatic this has done nothing for my breathing - I've been coughing all night and am still struggling a bit this morning. I can't even begin to describe how angry I am about it. I managed to shake one of my sheets out last night before I went to bed, but then spent all this morning washing out all my powder-impregnated clothes, bedding and dusting down the whole room. Currently I've got the french windows open and am trying to air it all out.

Apart from these two unfortunate incidents, otherwise I surprisingly had a fantastic night. The house party was great; the garage and garden providing an ideal location for the visitors and despite the walk to get up here it most people we invited attended. We must have got through a fair whack of alcohol - the punch disappeared pretty quickly, as did the crate I bought. There was also a fair amount of wine, a lot of whiskey and an incredible amount of vodka consumed.

Tonight is party night at The Palace. We have decked the place out with a selection of decorations ranging from 'It's a boy!' banners, through 'Merry Christmas' decking and 'Thirty and flirty' balloons. The place is not only looking pucker, it's also the cleanest it's been in weeks as we did a good hard spring clean.

Last night was good fun too. We went to the union, and despite the early fire alarm which rudely interrupted the night (someone had chucked a pint of Nasty over a fire detector in Bocca bar) it was all a good laugh and surprising not that packed. Most people had given up after having to wait outside for half an hour while they emptied the purple liquid out of the sensor.

I also was surprised to find that Chris Hillman had made it up. I knew Tim was planning a voyage up from Basingstoke, but Chris (as per) hadn't told anyone until he showed up at the union. Was good to catch up, and he seems to be enjoying the placement - he could even be off to Japan this summer. Lucky bastard.

This afternoon I went over to Rosie's again for another course meeting with Mario and James. I was hoping that this time it might have run a bit faster (four hours last week) but that did not happen. However productivity was high and I know have some more confidence in my major project/RSA brief choice.

This is going to be awesome.

I was going to write something earlier (as I haven't written in two days) but I left it as nothing remarkable had occurred, and I knew if I just hung in there for a few more hours I would have something worthy enough of writing about.

I went to the Union last night. Hey Ewe is a little bit of a blur due to the pre-party that me, the Swan, Rufio and Jono participated in. It was an average night and so not worth mentioning in particular. That same night I checked the Yahoo News page to discover that Apple had launched the G5 iPod. The previous two model releases annoyed me a little bit with the whole "If I'd waited a little longer feeling", but this time I'm totally indifferent. The new one looks nice - maybe a little wide - but nice. I want to have a play as soon as I get a chance.

I bloody love pistachio nuts (Sorry, just an observation as I'm currently munching my way through a pack before I go to bed).

We went to see the Editors tonight down at the Union. I would like to point out that I heard of them long ago and thought their music was going to be worthwhile before they ever got any airplay. I was impressed with the live set, and the same applies to the maybe better known (?) We Are Scientists.

Workwise there is progress to be made. Possibly an early start tomorrow. Rubbish.