Well apparently the dissertation has generated a little more interest than I had anticipated, and I can't say I'm unhappy about it. I wasn't actually planning on publishing the link until the thing had been marked, but one |or |two |articles published in the past few days have meant that I can't really disguise it. I was initially concerned that with all the citing going on, I might be in the interesting situation where it looks like I've been plagiarising myself when they Google search phrases in the electronic copy. That said, everyone is doing such a marvellous job of referencing that doesn't appear to be a problem at all.

So big thanks to everyone who helped and I'm still interested in hearing from you if you have any thoughts. You can email dissertation [at] andyhiggs.co.uk (you know what I mean).

On a separate and more alcoholic note, last night was an attempt to distance myself from the rather shabby turn of events earlier in the day. It was successful. There was a certain amount of Zeppelin involved, a fair portion of poker and a considerable amount of fun.

It is unfortunate I can't recall more than a few mere snippets of the night; although I do remember winding up a few people and talking absolute biscuits to quite a lot of random girls. Devito managed to get clocked in the temple for telling a girl that she should have smaller feet and I can't tell you what Swanny or Jono got up to as they don't seem to remember either.

This morning as I confronted my inbox (and my hangover) I discovered a new email from Brown. These sorts of things are usually amusing, and it didn't disappoint me. Not content with being arrested for trespassing on Crown property a few months ago while 'trying to find a shortcut home', he recently found himself talking to the Old Bill when a practical joke went wrong at work.

The general jist of the tale was that him and a mate (who work at a very high profile advertising agency in The Smoke) decided that the internal mail system wasn't being abused enough, and soon enough a number of offensive novelty items were being sent through the envelope system. It began with a photocopy of Rich's middle finger, was seconded with a tangerine with a face and genitals drawn on it, replied to with a pair of furry handcuffs and escalated to include a ginger beard wig and a Playmobil model of a policeman with an offensive post-it note glued to it.

It turns out that Brown's friend's next reply was a little over the top, and when the Human Resources manager was alerted to the envelope filled with white powder and a note inside stating "Anthrax Sample: Do not Open", the Metropolitan Police were called and Brown and his partner in crime were both questioned by the bomb squad. After a eighty quid fine and a cautioning for "Abuse of internal postal systems for office banter and pseudo-anthrax threats" everything appears to be back to normal for the Browndog.

I don't know how such a good day turned into an absolute misery within the space of ten minutes. I started a little later than usual this morning; after a proactive day yesterday and DDS saying the breakfast was off the cards this morning I decided to get into the workshops at about tenish.

The first sign that something was up was when I thermoformed a sheet of plastic, but totally forgot to put the mould into the machine. One highly patterned sheet of high impact polystyrene. Anyway, after this things picked up; I got some lunch in the tower and checked my mail.

I was really surprised to see two more comments on my dissertation post, and even more surprised when I saw who it was. Molly and Joe, both top brass in accessibility and all things good in webdesign, had both checked out the dissertation. Can't say fairer than that - it put a smile on my face for the rest of the afternoon. Well. That is until I discovered that for the second time my mould former was too small (and therefore my mouldings), the resin for my cast hadn't been mixed thoroughly enough and so didn't 'go off', and one of my rapid prototypes snapped. I was not a happy bunny. I put my stuff away, checked my email again (which only annoyed me further) and went home.

What is frustrating but shouldn't be, is that it is a bank holiday weekend. I hear the cries of 'surely you want a day off', but alas no, this is more annoying than not as it's one less day in the workshop and one day closer to the Big Handin. Argh.

Tonight I party. There is no point in wasting a perfectly good opportunity to get drunk, and on the face of it, the majority of web-related-stuff is looking not too bad even if the workshop stuff is doing my nut in. I think I'm going to treat myself to a satay.

With all the mess-making and executive breakfasts going on today, it was often easy to forget that once again I wasn't at Twickenham watching Benji et al (too much dissertation writing) thrash Bath. Two years running, and two years I've spent the time stuck in a workshop. Saying that, I actually enjoyed today. After a painfully early start (for me on a Wednesday while at uni) I made it to towers for some pre-workshop nosh with Currin and then spent the next eight hours playing with silicon gel and wet'n'drying down my rapid prototypes.

The one really big benefit of workshop time is the social aspect, and it was really good to spend some time out of the formal constraints of lectures and (seemingly) without the pressure of an immediate handin. The thing about making stuff is that no matter how much you try to make the work intense, somethings just can't be rushed which brings everything back to a really nice pace. Apart from DDS failing miserably in his attempt to stick his little bits of copper to his RP, and Gemma smashing a breeze block out of the wall with her exploding MDF block, it was mostly a day of light conversation.

There is one other thing of note today and that is that as I cycled past our next door neighbour this morning I realised that he is a spitting image of Fred Dibnah. There's an obscure reference for all you chimney-hating types.

I wanted to write a fairly comprehensive entry today, but tiredness is getting in the way, so I'll see how far I get.

I managed to get the dissertation done and out the way. Yesterday morning I could be found clamped to a pillar drill with an assortment of sizes of bits, sheets of MDF, parts of the dissertation; all being watched by 20 visiting Americans while I struggled to undo the thing that makes the bed go up and down. It took two hours, but I finally managed to bind the thing together and put it in for marking. Not that there is much of a chance of it getting marked at the moment anyway as all the lecturers are partially-striking (e.g. not marking any work). I busied myself today in turning the document into a website that I am not going to publicise quite yet, but am generally quite happy with considering it's only a 24 hour job.

The IDT Stash is due any day now. I'm really looking forward to seeing them turn up, although at the same time it is just one more distraction from MDP, which has already taken a back seat. Tomorrow marks a change of pace however; DDS has arrange a business breakfast (ok, just a breakfast, but business breakfast sounds so much more executive) and it means I'll be in the department by nine.

Last night I went for a few early beers/ciders with Mike, Devito, Swan and Waddle at 'Spoons in town. It was good to have a bit of a social. I departed fairly early as I knew I'd got an early start. I was asleep by 10.30pm. Best night's kip in ages.

There is nothing more amusing than a new experience in a supermarket. I had been trying to persuade myself all day that I should avoid writing about work today, and thankfully the perfect opportunity presented itself in the form of Dad's birthday celebration and the shopping incident.

I thought I'd get a shop in tonight as the cupboards are still pretty bare and it was getting hard just living off Easter eggs and Nutrigrain bars. Sean let me know we needed some washing up liquid and I didn't think twice as I flung it into the trolley and headed off towards the bakery. A while later I was passing tinned fruit when I felt my leg go from under me. I stopped and look down to see I was slipping in something. After a second inspection I realised there was a fluorescent yellow trail leading from the underside of my cart, right out under me and back up the aisle. I was standing in a pool of my own washing up liquid.

I quickly fished out the offending bottle (upside down and empty) and turned to find that I was standing next to a man in a suit with a mobile phone. It quickly became apparent that this was the manager, and pretty soon after that I realised that the little yellow puddle was not just under my trolley. At the intersection of the aisles I could see at least three large pools of luminous liquid and streaks everywhere. There were swarms of blue-clad staff looking for something. Looking for a moving target. Looking for me.

It was at this point I realised I had been responsible for the Tesco equivalent of Defcom One.

The severity of the situation became apparent when I saw that whatever the man on the phone was saying was being repeated by someone else on the tannoy. They had declared a State of Emergency and the entire section between pasta and UHT milk was now subject to marshal law. I put the empty bottle down and backed away slowly. Inadvertently I had managed to bring Loughborough Tesco's to a standstill at 10pm on a Saturday evening. It's a story they will be telling their grandkids in forty years time. I sheepishly completed my shop, ensuring the cap was screwed on the new bottle of Morning Fresh and slunk away into the night, the only clue to my offence; a yellow-stained trolley and a hint of lemon freshness as I passed.

The other part of today's events actually came before the Tescos thing, but you'll have to cope. Being Father's birthday tomorrow, there was the obligatory family meal. I had decided to suggest the location; the Quorndon Fox, about ten minutes up the road and generally an alright place for good food. Sisters One and Two were present, as was Mother. There were plenty of stories about the cat, Spain and other miscellaneous nuggets of information that I missed out on over the Easter period. All very good and relaxing. Makes a change.

The critical thing about a dissertation is that is reads right. Today has been spent polishing the text and removing as much of the psychedelic highlighter as possible. It's gone well. This a just as well as there isn't much time left. I'm awaiting a few opinions still, but mainly the thing has fallen into shape. I even managed to get the cover printed today and short of finding a drill I can use to put the holes through the cover, it will get properly bound as well.

In order to take some time to chillax I chose to go and get some food at 'Spoons with Sean and Tongy. A few Buds later and I'm feeling much more calm. Unfortunately I've still not eaten anything healthy in a week, and the same will apply tomorrow for Father's birthday celebration. We're off to a local pub for a decent meal and then it's back on the work train. I can't say this stuff is making for particularly interesting reading recently, but that's the way life is right now. All the exciting stuff will begin again on Monday (maybe).

One of the many ailments that you become eligible for when you spend most of your waking hours writing a dissertation is neck ache. It's very painful and not very nice, but not a problem when one of your housemates is a sports masseuse. The pain seems to have faded for the meantime, and I'm hoping I can wake up with a much less painful head-cord tomorrow.

Mother came up today. I summoned in the troops mainly because I needed someone to proof read the diss asap, and after some serious graft and a Newshouse lunch, I'm ever-so-close to something I'm happy with. My main concern is the last paragraph to be added to the conclusions; plus the validity of my arguments (for which I have requested professional help). It's looking and feeling good though; I'll be glad that I got it all off my chest on Monday, although I'm a little disappointed that I'm going to be straight back on the work wagon with major project.

I've not had any dinner. Partially because there is no food in the house and partially because I couldn't be bothered to walk to Tescos before it closed. If I don't find something soon I'm going to tuck into the first draft.