Today I am not at Twickenham, unlike Dan, who is skyving. I would love to be there as today is the BUSA Rugby Union finals and Lufbra are playing. As far as I know Benji is probably getting a game, but he did sustain an knee injury last week which might have screwed things up a bit. Damn this work.

I spent last night helping Flash out with a logo design in Photoshop. It's looking quality and I'll be putting it in my portfolio as soon as I'm allowed to. I wish more of my course was doing this kind of stuff, but then again, my course isn't called 'Creating Corporate Identities and Drawing Logos'. Shame.

This morning I had two hours of lectures on the finer points of welding (which I actually new very little about before) followed by an hour of lab demos and a further hour of watching Cat trying to retrieve one of her trainers from the roof of the CAD lab.

Things I am feeling proud/pleased of today are:

• Acquiring biros - It has become increasingly difficult to write without any pens, so it was a welcome relief for Rob to go and get some for me. This will make it easier for me to Work.
• Acquiring jotter pads - In the same vein as above. Writing has become more difficult due the lack of appropriate blank surfaces.
• Sorting out payment on my NTEC Europe logo project - I have been informed I will be receiving a Radeon 9800 XT graphics card which according to Neil is "5 millions times better" than what I already have.
• Getting sun in my room - for the first time this year I have sun hitting the back wall of my room. Granted, it's not very much, but hopefully as the summer goes on it'll be a bit warmer in here than it has been.
• Buying a External Harddrive - I'm lazy at backups so this is going to save my ass someday.
• Hearing from Alex - I need to email him back.
• Sorting out some issues with Echos' domain name - it's not done, but it's getting there.

On the other hand, I'm a bit worried about my BHF redevelopment project. It might have fallen through; at least it's been put on hold for a month. I'll have to wait and see. Also some more work for the Degree Show has popped up. They are going to spot varnish the text on the logo (which will look sweet) but therefore need to separate the background from the foreground. Not a big thing, but just another task on the list, which is getting longer by the minute.

Also while your on the net, check out Amaztype. A cool idea that takes info directly from Amazon and arranges all the books that meet your search criteria into piles, spelling out the search keywords. Quality.

Not mine, but Echos. The damn thing went into DELETIONPENDING and was snapped up the minute it got into the public domain. Trying to sort out a temporary replacement .co.uk address is like trying to pick up mercury with a fork as nobody seems to have any login details anywhere. Organisation is clearly a virtue here in Lufbra (hmm).

In the same vein I've had some more cheques in for French Cricket and Pedalo, but no where near as many as I need. I've asked for help from the others (which in retrospect I should have done earlier) and tomorrow the true sales drive begins. (Literally two more have just arrived. What is it with Lufbra and deadlines?)

I managed to set up my image upload thing I was on about, so you'll notice pictures popping up here and there now. Another complication to the whole system, especially considering I'm spending too much time discovering how to make sure this site validates correctly. At the moment Syndic8 are waiting for my stats to improve before they start listing me. Grr.

I was checking out Scott Will's blog yesterday, but I only got round to only following the links in his latest post today. This is truly strong stuff. PostSecret is an online blog where people post their deepest secrets in totally anonymity. There is a total mix of emotions, and I was surprised by the power that some of these real life snippets hold. It's really worth a peek.

Memo to self : I've still got the Creative Class 05/06 application to send off, just waiting on Tony to give me some final feedback. I mustn't forget to ask about it tomorrow.

Swanny, Rufio and Devito are trying to get me to come out, but I have work. What is going to happen? I simply don't know.

Last night I went to Comedy Club at the Union. I've stopped having piss ups and big Saturday nights, mostly because Echos is so packed, and with the summer coming means it's going to become more and more hot and sweaty.

The headliner last night was superb. His name is Carey Marx and he spent most of his set expressing his fear/loathing of albinos. Not a usual choice, and it was quite sick, but at the same time some of the best original material I have heard in a long while. Several towers people got in the neck after deciding to sit at the front including Emily, Max and Pamela, but mainly Rach after she owned up to the first comic that she too was from Dudley.

After getting back I absconded from doing any proper work and instead got on with sorting out my online portfolio. I am going to do the proper work right now because I am otherwise likely to further distract myself and then I'll never get it sorted. This weekend has been hopeless so far...

It's Saint George's Day which also means it's Dad's birthday. I tried to phone home earlier, but apparently he's out playing golf already which isn't too much of a surprise. It's probably the best thing he could have in the world; golf - on his birthday.

Last night was good. It was Rosie's 21st, and I assume she got drunk fairly early on as I didn't see her later on in the night. The theme was country - so I was wearing flat cap, tweed jacket and steel toecaps(wellies are not my usual summer fayre), the night starting in Cognito with a pre-party and finishing in FND. Jon got himself a free drink off me for showing his little party trick which is actually quite cool. Just a simple cigarette disappearing act, but I didn't catch how he did it. Big Chris, Guy, Ads, Jimbo, Alex, Sammi and Dylan were all out for it (course social), but DDS and the rest of 35 York Road made no appearance. I also bumped into Giles and Alex (both are clients). What the former was doing in the Union on a Friday night was fairly obvious - I did wondered who was back at Echos running their Echos though...

Currently trying to catch up with OC at the same time as trying to get motivated to do some work. I've got a lot on this week and with electronic log books, materials reports, CAD and DP4 all coming up, it's going to get a little hectic, hence my desire to get ahead with it all. On top of this I've got to sort French Cricket and Pedalo shirts out.

I need to get an automatic image upload feature on this blog too as it's starting to annoy me.

I got my mark back for my CAD animation today and was plesantly surprised to see at nice round 73 looking back up at me from the mark sheet. Agreed, it's not a big module, but it's nice to get a First every so often. Poor old Geo, I think he went over the top with his LEGO extravaganza, mustering a substandard 86. Not a bad mark really, but the amount of effort he must of put in, I think he was convinced of another 100% for a computing for designers module (genuinely not kidding).

Also today I made headway with Dynamic Teamwear and pocketed some cash for the first time in a while. Saying this, my loan, came through the other day, so things aren't too bad at all.

Furthermore, pleasure was passed on to me in the news that Yauli (I think that's how you spell it), our landlady for next year, has guarenteed us double beds in every room. I had always been convinced that it could be done; the others were sceptical, but the benefits will be wide felt, as no one wanted a room with a single in. She also informed us the bathroom has been done now and the kitchen is scheduled for the summer. I just hope we can move in straight away after the end of term to save me carting all my kit back to Stourbridge, but it sounds like the work being done could interfere with my plans.

The materials test went OK. I estimated guessed the majority of the way through - it wasn't hard. No idea how I've done however.

Finally I've made some improvements to my portfolio of work, which can be directly linked to the IdeasFactory Creative Class 05/06 competition. I have so much stuff that has accumulated since I built the site last summer that it looks a little behind the times. I will be uploading my recent work over the next few days. More work... [sigh]

If you ever have a desire to learn about Material Selection Charts, don't follow the urge. That is my work related tip for the day.

This morning I sat through two hours of lectures on polymer films and metal forging, which were only lightened by inappropriate comments and ridiculous flights of fantasy. It's all about the vinyl pixies, CD elves and DVD nyphs. The next two hours were spent making descisions about our group 'widget' - which of our 5 designs would be actually turned into a real life injection moulded promotional product. Crazy fun. Then I was finally free to enjoy the afternoon.

Yesterday Sankesh and I started the ball rolling in getting an order together for the Towers French Cricket and Pedalo team subscriptions. These two clubs are the Towers alumni (one for boys, one for girls respectively). The uptake hasn't been overwhelming so far, but we are on the promise of a large number of orders for teamshirts, but I think it's going to need a bit of a push to get people digging deep for well before the deadline on Sunday. Everyone always waits until the last minute for this sort of thing, or at least that's my experience of selling things.

Swanny hasn't been seen all day. Apparently he didn't rise until three and was vomitting even then. This isn't usual Swan form as he can generally swallow the alcohol like a fish, but apparently last night at Pulse caused him an upset. Poor Swan.

There was an upset tonight on The Apprentice. If this means nothing to you then you better start watching on Wednesdays, 9pm, BBC1. This fanastic show follows the progress of several businessmen and women competing to win over Sir Alan Smith and get a job with his renowned firm, Amstrad. Turns out Miriam couldn't make the grade, which totally surprised me, as in my opinion Paul should have gone. I reckon there could be a little conspiracy here; that Sir Alan is trying to end up placing his man,as it semmed a really weird choice, but that doesn't matter too much. He's not the easiest of personalities and he needs someone he can work with. I've not made up my mind up about who that is yet, but Paul got away with murder tonight. Maybe him?

I signed up for a 12 month deviantART subscription today. I don't know if I can believe it. I am now =aajhiggs as opposed to ~aajhiggs, which has been my status for about nearly four years now. I doubt I'll be contributing much more, but the benefits ofsubscribership should be good. I was a bit dissappointed to find the search feature wasn't a bit more comprehensive though...

Tommorow is a materials test with those bloody charts. I just want it over and done with. In the meanwhile, I will amuse myself with rubbish like this: www.solardeathray.com.

Due to the achey wrist (which has got worse since I mentioned it yesterday) I got it checked out earlier today. After an hour of waiting, my name was called and the nurse informed me that I'd got tendonitis, which doesn't sound nice at all.

It was (as I had presumed) something to do with the golf last Friday. It appears my sporting panache has been cut short by inflamed tendons which means I'm going to be dosing up on Ibuprofen this week - 3 times a day before meals. It also means I am wearing a ridiculous wrist brace, and the number of people who make an 'obvious' comment is ridiculous. I am constantly having to be inventive with my answers.

Lucy's birthday party was last night, and Alistair and I attended. I wasn't really in the mood for party stuff to begin with, but I soon came around and the night got better and better. The theme was eighties, so we turned up as in Mr T. and Michael Knight(rider) face masks which were a cunning plan to get around the lack of decent 80s wardrobe.

Later in Echos, DeVito managed to headbutt one of Lucy's mates, which was a bad idea, and I think probably unjustified. I think he regretted it a bit this morning.

Oh and I think the scale of the enormity of work I have to do is finally becoming apparent. Today I found that I had managed to screw up my last submission by failing to include a final drawing of the product, so was not surprised, just annoyed, to find I had a crap mark. Damn.

The last big thing I suppose which I simply can't get my ears around is the apparent aquisition of Macromedia by Adobe. Sorry but did I miss something?

I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing. A healthy progress in software (mainly technologies) was maintained by the rivallry, which will no longer exsist. Adobe will now have an even bigger monopoly than before and now there won't be a nesscessity to out-do by producing better or remarkable new features.

On the other hand the benefits will include greater standardisation of technologies I hope, but I will be gutted to lose Fireworks for ImageReady if thats the plan.