Once again I have ridden into Revision Central determined for some revision related action, but found that my horse (which I am sitting on) has other ideas and has walked off, taking me with it. Clearly wein networks and continuous casting bore him and he'd much rather browse the internet for random rubbish.

I did actually manage some studious activity earlier, attending the 3-5pm electronics revision session. It wasn't much use early on, but both the lecturers dropped some useful pointers and I am now much happier with the way my revision will pan out. With only one full day until the first exam, the pressure is on, but I'm playing it cool.

Paul dropped a copy of the degree show booklet on my desk and it's looking rather swish. They have changed the orientation of it this year to make it portrait and it's sporting my logo in beautiful spot colour and varnish. I need to make sure I pick up another couple of copies at the show which will be starting in a matter of days. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the projects; I think the standard is much higher this year and so it'll make for some interesting viewing.

Swan played me at pool earlier. I lost 3-1 which means that

a) Swan has been practising in all that time he spends not working
b) I've lost my touch
c) I've lost money (50p)

Roll on 12pm Friday.

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Teenwolf sent me a file earlier and I can only believe it may prove to be the next bad thing for me. 'Lost' is yet another American drama series and it happens to be running right now while the O.C. takes it's summer break. From the first episode it's looking good, if not a little contrived and sci-fi, but I could get into it.

The immediate objective for the next few days is to stop myself being sucked into another TV vortex; exams are already hurtling around and I can't afford to take my eye of the ball.

I spent most of today locked inside Bridgeman, exposing myself to dangerous levels of polymer processing, metal forming and oscillator building revision. This slog is clearly taking effect on me and keeping my eyes open is becoming an ever more difficult task. Yawn.

Devito, The Swan and myself ate in Linford today. A first occurrence for me, but Towers food has become almost inedible in the past two weeks (to everyone's annoyance) and so we swapped our usual diner venue for the luxuries of our other option, located over the EHB. It's strange, but this dining hall has always been seen as a 'punishment' if you ever abused the Towers dining hall, however, for the extra two minutes it takes to walk there, the supersized portions, speed of service with a clean, new and calm atmosphere easily outweighs eating in the Tower. I think we may do it again.

Someone set the fire alarm off today, and according to reports, the fullscale evacuation of the Tower began with an incident on West 19, which means that it probably has something to do with Neil or Little Dave, the Rodney and Delboy of the hall. Although I have had no confirmation, from what I have pieced together it looks like someone set off a smoke bomb, and the screams we heard through the floor briefly before the sirens sounded were related to the incident.

Tomorrow I aim to conclude the first round of materials revision before lunch, and then in the afternoon present John McCardle with a comprehensive list of things 'I don't understand' at the electronics revision session. If no-one else turns up me and Tim might even get them all answered.

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It worked! Apparently if you drink enough black coffee on a Sunday morning you can actually get up before 10am! After finding it excruciatingly painful to get into revision, the perseverance has paid off and I have managed to chug my way through a semester's worth of electronics and a barrel load of polymer science today.

Although these topics could bore a fat kid out of a sweetshop, progress is progress and it has put me in a much more lively mood and given me a new passion for all things stress related.

Following my lack of Good Ideas yesterday, today I found myself not encountering a few Good Discoveries. For example a Good Discovery would be looking for my Towers hoody in my pile of clothes and finding the pocket stuffed with fifties (cash). On the other hand, a Bad Discovery would be (just picking a totally random situation from the top of my head) looking for my Towers hoody and finding it laced with vomit from the other night. What a treat - it went straight in the clothes basket where it will rot until I have another chance to get to a washing machine, which unfortunately will probably be after exams. At least the smell may cover up the rest of my socks.

Swanny got his letter today. I sent it a few days back, but due to his laid back nature he didn't realise he had any post until someone else picked it out of his pigeon hole for him. I basically made up a company called Farquois Medical and dressed it up like a proper business - envelope and all. The first line was designed to make it look like he was receiving some bad news,

" I unfortunately have to inform you of some bad news following the tests on the samples you provided a few weeks back. "

Swan of course fell for these first words, but was confused by the samples part. The next line gave it away, but it all went to good effect,

"We ran extensive checks on the two samples and the results were conclusive; you have less than 0.02% bant.

We realise this may have affects on your future wellbeing and employability. For example I wouldn't employ anyone who didn't have more than 4% bant (and that would only be in exceptional circumstances).

We realise this news will probably be quite distressing, and so we provide a 24hr hotline where you can speak in total confidence that the entire office will be listening in on the conversation for an extortionate rate of �2.50 per min. The number is supplied above.

If you would like to know more about bant deficiency or meet other people who haven't got a life, feel free to go f**k yourself.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Damien Farquois, MHPD, FRSA."

Although fast and easy, it went down well, plus the extra effort I'd gone to in posting it in a real letter box added to the effect. No one was meant to believe it (even if it is true).

The other thing is that I've managed to snap The Swan's mattress in two during a drunken fight the other night. How the hell that's possible I don't know (the room got turned upside down in the process), but it won't lie flat now. Poor old Zoe. I don't think she'll mind too much though as she's not that tall. Alternatively he could swap it with Devito's.

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It's probably not a Good Idea to go out the Friday night just a matter of days before an exam, especially when revision hasn't been going all that well. Unfortunately I have been lacking in Good Ideas recently. For example of a Good Idea I haven't had is a way of avoiding the exams, or how to get a 1st Class without doing any work. I still live in hope that one day I might wake up and find them in my head.

While I was avoiding work I was pleased to discover that Apple is currently being force to make a bit of an apology to 3G iPod owners. Apparently that shorter-than-expected battery life has resulted in a class action in the States, and it looks like they are going to be handing out repairs/vouchers/replacements in the next few weeks and months.

Awesome.

Only in this past week I have been browsing the net for a replacement battery for my ever failing (but beloved) MP3 player. Unfortunately in the UK it is very difficult to do much about it, but this scheme will solve my problem. Legitimately and for free. I love those words.

Today I managed to update my portfolio with the Ribeena [sic] project. At some stage it's going to need a total design overhaul, but it seems to be doing it's job at the moment. I'm getting quite itchy to get back into some sound webdesign.

Yet another Good Idea I failed to have was to take my Diner Card off the top off the printer paper stack before I sent something through. The card came out eventually, but sending 2mm worth of High Density Polystyrene, chip and all, through my print heads probably didn't do either item much good (established from the evil and loud complaints that the printer made).

Also I've been a little trigger happy recently (hence the mugshot of DeVito). Despite my attempts to conquer the art of portrait photography, I was met with a barrage of abuse from DeVito who said he reckoned he could do better. Bloody civil engineers (or whateverheis) can't just go marching around claiming they're good at this stuff. Actually he wasn't bad. We both have got a handful of really nice shots in the collection.

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After a visit by the Mother, Sister One and Sister Two yesterday (the Father couldn't attend due to last minute illness) and a quick march up and down Beacon Hill, I settled down to what I would consider an early night. I think it must be the first night I've been to bed before 1am in weeks. Sleep wasn't good; clearly my odd waking patterns have messed up my body clock or something.

We had our DP4 Viva this morning. I am totally lost on how we did. On the face of it we answered all the questions, even if we did get caught out a couple of times. I'm trying to level up whether we managed to salvage enough to give us a good grade.

Everybody seems to be in the swing of this exam period malarkey, but I'm still all at sea. I spent most of this afternoon playing about on Photoshop, trying to get some portrait photos properly adjusted. Some of the new features of CS2 are fantastic; particularly liking the exposure control. Mother has asked me to finish up some photo's from Sister One's 18th birthday meal, so I've got that to think about too.

'Boring' might well sum up today. I really need to bite the bullet and pick up the electronics and materials revision yesterday or I'm going to screw myself over. Motivation would sincerely be appreciated.

The other thing is that tonight I'm going out. Not that I'm enthusiastic about it. This is my 'birthday celebration' - the planned one, but I am going to abstain from the drink as I simply can't do it and expect to get a day of work done tomorrow. It's just going to have to be a meet-and-greet event. Broomy is right, no one can (or really should) be forcing me to be having a big night tonight. That can wait.

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As my eyes adjusted to the light and I started to come about, two questions entered my mind. Why was I naked and why is my door unlocked?

I got up, put my boxers on and dawdled out onto the corridor where I encountered the toilet. Somebody had well and truly destroyed it, and as I was the only one out from my floor last night, I'm guessing it was me.

I wobbled into the shower, now totally aware of the extent of last night. The computer had been turned off at the socket and so had everything else in the room, hence my alarm hadn't woken me. Again.

A sticky mess was plastered onto my desk, which I can only assume is some more of my stomach liquids, except it didn't smell like or feel vomit, more like very alcoholic hot and sticky boiled sweets.

And so I phoned around to find out how I had gotten home, but no one seems to know, which I am assuming must mean that I did it alone and of my own accord. The last memory I have of the night is necking back some vile concoction of shots (which I since have been informed included gin, Bacardi, Malibu and whiskey). Devito was working behind the bar in Room One which meant I was always served 'well', and I do have recollections of enthusiastically ordering double vodka shandys earlier in the night.

We had started in Towers bar, a quiet event (as I had intended my unofficial birthday celebration to pan out) with a single pint. We then went to town; Spoonie's then Lloyds, finally back to campus and into the Union. Over the course of the evening I sampled Goldschlager for the first time. Tom had told me about the stuff a while back, but until now I'd not tried it. Quite nice really, and it also makes you look posh drinking bits of real gold and all.

Apparently I went at the drinking game with all vigour and enthusiasm, which didn't do me any good. Jon and I paraded around the different bars in the union suggesting what I might like to drink next, which only went to promote my later inebriated state.

The best thing about this morning was that (although I had managed to miss the group meeting at 11am) I awoke lacking in hangover, a nice little trick that I like to pull off occasionally. God must like me or something. However to say that I was sober would be a lie, and I prepared myself for the downfall with a Ibruprofen and small south American nation's annual rainfall worth of a drink.

Within half an hour my state had deteriorated and I sat through the postponed group meeting with a strong desire to lie down or eat something.

I had lunch then slept for a couple of hours. Second shower for the day, this time I was a bit more stable, and I think it's fair to say that I am now fairly clear of the roughest patch.

On a totally unrelated subject, I have been following this online exhibition from the Tate. Leading up to the Olympic decision day, it showcases some of the best of our home-grown (well known) talent. Everyday a new image/video is unveiled and it's been quite good so far.

I am a little concerned about Friday. I still haven't done any revision and I'm not wanting a similar ilk of night to the last one - once in a blue moon it's just about bearable, but twice in one week. Especially this week. I'm may have to abstain from the alcohol.

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After sacking off the DVD down at Broomy's (which wasn't what I wanted to do) I met Jim over at his and we walked into town. Most of The Course had been in JC's all afternoon and we were greeted with a swathe of positively deathly faces in Orange Tree.

Despite a fairly good turnout the vibe wasn't particularly lively, and although I knew everyone well, not all of the people I were hoping to see were there. After two drinks (and feeling totally stone cold sober) I wasn't really getting into the swing of the night (and by the looks of things I wasn't the only one). DDS, Benji and Psycho made an appearance for a quick one, but after that I decided to call it quits.

I was fairly sure it would be hard work to have a really good night and even after coming inside and seeing that more people had shown up, the last glimmer of hope flickered out when Psycho went to the bar to buy me a drink and found it was closed. After this it was fairly clear that next stop was going to be somewhere I didn't want to go e.g. Pulse, and considering that I was only contemplating going there originally was because I thought I was going to be drunk, the night lost all sense of appeal.

We went to 35 York Road.

Benji showed me the tape from Twickers (his infamous try) and then we had a social in Dave's room. It was at this point I realised that this is exactly what I wanted to be doing on my birthday, and I had an enjoyable night.

I headed back at about 2am and soon received a text from Mike instructing me that I was not allowed to go to sleep until he arrived back. Incidentally it's a good thing I ignored him as he didn't turn up until 5.30am when he bolted into my room and presented me with a bottle of JD's. A birthday present! Wow. That's how I'd like them all to be delivered - with some element of surprise and a story to tell as well.

Mike had bought the bottle earlier in the evening and had kept it in his back pocket all night, avoiding the bouncers as he went from place-to-place. He had txt me from a girl's house (where he had ended up), assuring me of the delivery of my present soon. At 5am he sacked of his night's conquest and proceeded to Towers where he ceremoniously presented me with my gift, explaining that JD's is not in fact a whiskey, but a liqueur. Not only a social passing, but also an academic visit.

This morning (once again) I arose shockingly late, woken only by the cleaner at 12.50pm. This was despite my clock being set for 10am. I stumbled through food, briefly was visited by DDS and Psycho and then after giving them their instructions for the day, gave Sammi a lecture on life.

And now there is the quandary of tonight. Apparently the lads think it would be really good for me to go out. Hmmm. A good concept and a good chance I'm going to feel hungover tomorrow.

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