The Weekly Roundup

Its been a pretty busy week college wise. Its nearing Christmas fast so as usual that means Assessments are flying at us think and fast!

So far this week we've had assessments for Database, Computer Hardware, Web Design and weblogs with a few more on the horizon.

Despite it being hard work this week has been good as it actually proves I've learned a lot in the past 4 or so months. Panic stations were activated in Web design when it was announced that the 5 page website had to be presented by next Thursday, especially when i hadn't started it. Somehow i managed to pull through and finish it in a 3 hour session which I'm quite pleased with.

The rest of the week has been spent playing guitar hero(2 & 3) and listening to Kate Nash lots!


The rather awesome video for Kate Nash's new song "Pumpkin Soup"


So as Christmas looms there is only a week of college left before the well deserved break then the start of Block 2. I personally can't wait as it means we get to do lots of different subjects.

Oh and a final note for the attention of Mr Trent Reznor:

Hurry up and tour the UK again!!!!

A Photowalk Round Aberdeen College

We recently did a photo walk of Aberdeen College, here are the results:


The joys(or Horrors) of the 4th floor



The dangers of slow motion Photography..



A poster for Sheep's to help them stop smoking..



The corridor leading to the painting and decorating department



Protection must be worn at all times!



We decided to take the lift..




Someone got murdered...



Even the lifts have rules..



We arrived at the seventh floor..



Then quickly departed down the stairs



We then had a quick drink



Before toying with the idea of switching off Bill Gates empire..



Someone lost their bag in a tree..



This is a true story..



we then went to the ground floor



And found the perfect weapon..



The sight that greets all the newcomers



Reception was busy..



The phone was left off the hook..



We couldn't figure out what this was..



So we took a photo of the lift roof..



It was too quiet



And we felt like we were being watched..



So we ran for the lift



And returned to class.



This was good fun =]

The Weekly Ramble

Another week draws to a close and its now only 19 days till Christmas! I really should start shopping for gifts huh?

The weather has turned pretty rubbish which is to be expected this time of year. If only I lived in somewhere like Florida.

Anyways, this week at college has been okay i guess. In computer hardware we learned how to install RAM. Pretty basic stuff but its really handy to know in case the dreaded computer slowdown happens!

Yesterdays learning consisted of computer programming where we were learning how to write a loop into a program. Although it sounds complex its rather easy. The only bad part of it is the documentation which is time consuming as you have to test every eventuality and document it.

Other than that my weeks been pretty boring. I was supposed to be going to see Marilyn Manson at the weekend but thanks to some major disaster i.e. every single place in Glasgow being fully booked, I had to use the wonders of EBay to make a tidy profit on the tickets.

Ive also suddenly become addicted to The Beatles again. I don't really have to go into detail about them as I'm sure everyone knows the greatness of them.



Anyway must get back to work now

later

The Beatles
Marilyn Manson

How To Waste A Weekend

On Friday a truly amazing thing happened. The best game of the year was released on all consoles. That game would be Guitar Hero 3.



For those of you not familiar with the guitar hero series it basically sends you into the world of a guitarist for a band and you have to work your way to stardom by playing songs.

instead of using a normal controller, you get a guitar controller:

As you can see in the picture, the guitar controller has coloured buttons on the frets. The idea of the game is to press the correct coloured button in time with the song you're playing. The game comes with four difficulties and songs of varying difficulty. Here's an example of the game screen:


So far Ive completed easy and am half way through the medium(Give me a break, first time player =p)

The hardest song has to be raining blood. It was a challege on easy so im dreading expert =/

Overall despite the huuuuuge price(£70) it's worth it cos it leads to hours of endless fun. The guys at Neversoft have done it again.

I now command everyone to go and buy it now...well..what you waiting for..go!!




Guitar Hero 3
Wikipedia

The Week In Words

This week has been okay. Only been in college two days, which everyone can thank Machine Head for.

I went to the black crusade on Tuesday in Glasgow. The black crusade is a tour which consisted of Shadows Fall, Arch Enemy, Dragonforce, Trivium and Machine Head. the gig was pretty awesome, well despite Shadows Fall, Dragonforce and Trivium sucking at new levels of suckyness.

Arch Enemy were awesome live, and Angela Gossow is so much hotter in real life =p

only one word describes Machine Head - Flawless. This is the second time Ive seen them and they were just as good as last time. They had an awesome set list too.

Clenching the fists of descent
Imperium
Aesthetics of hate
Old
Halo
Take My Scars
Descend the shades of night
Davidian

If anyone gets the chance to see Machine Head live I say do it, they saved me after I actually fell asleep during Trivium.

Anyway, apart from that I haven't done much this week so this is a short post.

Later

Mary, Queen of Scots

The daughter of King James V and his second wife, Mary of Guise, was born at Linlithgow Palace on 8 December 1542. James had been wounded at the defeat of the Scots army at the Battle of Solway Moss on November 24 1542 and he died six days after the birth of his daughter.

Mary was crowned at Stirling Castle on 9 September 1543. Under the guardianship of the 2nd Earl of Arran, the infant Mary was betrothed to the son of King Henry VIII of England. However, a pro-Fench and Catholic faction led by Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, gained the ascendancy and the agreement was overturned. King Henry VIII sent an army into Scotland to enforce the marriage in what became known as the "Rough Wooing".

Mary was sent for safety to France (with her mother, Mary of Guise and her four childhood friends - the "Four Marys") where she married the Dauphin, the heir to the French crown, in 1558. She became Queen of France and Scotland in 1559 but her husband, King Francis II, died in 1560.

Mary returned to Scotland despite the Protestant faith gaining the ascendancy. Mary was by now the heir presumptive of England, following the death of Henry VIII and the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. During Mary's reign she was attacked for her Catholic beliefs by the Protestant religious reformer John Knox.

Despite other potential marriages (including the Roman Catholic heir to the Spanish throne) she married her first cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, after a whirlwind courtship, in July 1565. Darnley was a worthless, arrogant man who alienated many of the Scottish nobles. He was also a member of the group which murdered David Rizzio, Mary's secretary, in Holyrood Palace in 1566, in the presence of Mary. The future James VI was born a few months later.

Darnley was murdered in 1567 and the Earl of Bothwell was accused - but acquitted - of the crime. A few months later Mary and Bothwell were married. Scandalised nobles imprisoned Mary in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate in favour of her son, James VI. Mary escaped from Loch Leven in May 1568 but was defeated at the Battle of Langside on 13 May.

She escaped to England but was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I who saw her as a threat to her throne. A focus for Catholic plots, some of which were aimed at making Mary the Queen of England, she was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle on 18 February 1587.

Information Taken From

Rampant Scotland

Wikipedia

Interviewing A Historical Figure

Hey, Today I will be interviewing Mary, Queen of Scots, Who became Queen of Scotland when she was 9 months old.

Lets get straight into it shall we?



Hey, how’s it going?
It’s going fine thank you.

You were the first queen of Scotland, how did you feel when you found out?
Well I was 6 days old at the time so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.

I can imagine, but being the ruler of a country and having everyone at your command, at that age, is something most people can only dream of.
Yes it came with a lot of responsibility, but it’s also a lot of fun, I mean just think of the fun you can have ordering people around.

You were sent to France for safety, how did you find the experience?I was sent to France because there were fears I would be killed so Im sure it could’ve been a more pleasant experience, but it was nice to get a change of scenery.

When you were in France you married Dauphin François.
Yes, I became the Queen consort of France, so being queen of two countries was a pretty interesting feeling.

We are running out of time but we have time for one more question.

You were imprisoned twice, how did you manage to escape?
Well anything’s possible when you have the contacts

Well on that note I will wrap up the interview, thank you very much to today’s interviewee Mary, Queen of Scots

Shambala, Page 5

You see a piece of paper on the ground telling you to beware of a Dutch Tourist. You hear the sound of a group of people coming from the room down the dimly lit corridor. You see the huge stone archway leading into the crowded area.

The Way to the Crowded Area

Google Analytics

So far I've not had much traffic but hopefully that will change once I start to add more to my blog.

Most of the traffic I've had has come from Aberdeen, probably from my classmates, but I've had a few visits from London too.

Its times like these where I should throw in a random word or place name, like The Shetlands..

Where I Want To Be When I Finish College

It's something iv'e been asked a lot. To be honest i still don't know the difinitive answer.

Obviously I wan't to do something with computers but I don't know what. I would love to be a video game designer but I don't have and doubt I will ever have the maths to do that.

So far I'm finding this course relativly easy, most of the stuff was covered last year. Im hoping the HNC will be more challenging and that it will hopefully help me decide what I wan't to do with my life.

Holiday Fun

I suppose I should write a bit about what I did during the holidays, or at least make something up so that I look like I have an interesting life..

They didn't get off to the best of starts to be honest. I was scheduled to to be going to see Kataklysm play the Cathouse in Glasgow and all was well until about 20 minutes into the journey down we get a phone call saying the gig has been cancelled.

So instead of going to Glasgow for a gig, we ended up going to Glasgow To watch a DVD. Needless to say I wasn't a happy bunny.

Most of the week was spent taking advantage of not having anything to do, so I played a lot of games, mainly Football Manager, where I proceeded to split the Old Firm with Hibernian. It all ended horribly though as the lousy board wouldn't back my plans financially and sacked me, after all I had done for them! That's loyalty for you!

Well as you can see My holidays have been pretty boring. I suppose I should make up something like I'm secretly a top secret ninja and have been busy doing ninja type things but alas it wasn't to be.

Soundtrack to the holidays has been Serj Tankians "Elect The Dead" and obviously Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero"

I also seem to be addicted to the new Avenged Sevenfold song! Which is, in the words of Springfields favourite evil old person, Mr. Burns...Excellent





Laters

The Week So Far

So the holidays are over and once again they didn't seem long enough.

Back to the early starts and long days. To be fair this week has been pretty good. Its taken some getting used to though. Most of the classes have focused mainly on revision of the stuff we learned before the break.

On Wednesday we were using pascal in computer programming and I'm amazed to say I actually understood it, something I never thought would happen. Other than that every class has been just like a refresh, especially using html in web development.

Halloween was also this week. Sad to say i didn't dress up this year. My plan of dressing up as Jason Voorhees and battling my friend, who would be cunningly dressed as Freddy Kruger, failed miserably due to lack of funds.

I went to see Saw IV and i have to say it was rather awesome. Lots of blood and gore which is always a crowd pleaser! It actually asks more questions than answers, leading up to the inevitable release of Saw V next Halloween.

I haven't really done much else this week, picked up the new Birthday Massacre album on Monday. Its easily their best album. Its criminal that no one knows about this band. They are one of the most unique bands around and more people should check them out.

The Birthday Massacre - Video Kid

The Braemar Witch Project

Before

As the car starts to drive away it creeps into my mind that i could've gotten into the car of a phycho. I cant decide if im going to stay in the car or get out and bail..


Next

One of My Hobbies

Xbox live is an online subscription service from Microsoft. It was started in 2002 for the original Xbox console and has steadily gained a fan base thanks to the fact that it gives you the ability to play anyone across the world at any game with the capabilities.

As well as offering online multiplayer, you can also download game demos and purchase games from the aptly named Xbox live arcade. Developers make unique games and games like the classic and personal favourite Sonic the Hedgehog have also been made available for everyone’s gaming pleasure.

Obviously you can’t just access the wonderful world of Xbox live with a click of your fingers, you need a few things before u can begin.

· A Xbox 360 console
· A Broadband Connection
· A wireless router and Xbox 360 Wireless network Adapter
· A subscription to Xbox live
· Gamer points (To access the games and Downloadable content)

The main reason Xbox live is very popular at the minute seems to be the recent release of every geeks excuse for not doing homework, Halo 3.

Having played it on Xbox live myself and seeing how I’m not too bad at good old FPS(first person shooters), its safe to say that there are a fair few people who don’t have a life outside of the game. Having not been able to play the game as much as I would’ve liked, it’s frightening how good some of the people are.

Overall I would recommend that anyone who has an Xbox 360 and doesn’t have Xbox live to go and purchase a 12 month subscription. You won’t be disappointed.

Here's a funny clip advertising Xbox Live

Xbox live logo Copyright Microsoft.

The Past Week

The past week has been another good one.

The highlights of the week have been installing a printer in Susan’s class and going to see Halloween in the cinema.

We had to install a dot matrix printer, and it’s easy to see why they aren't popular anymore. The noise was excruciating when everyone tried to print off test papers and I hope I’m never put in that position again.

I went to see Halloween which is a remake of the classic horror movie by John Carpenter. It has been directed by Rob Zombie, a famous musician come director.

Having seen how gory his last two films were I was excited to see what he would do with the concept of Halloween and how he would add his own twist to the story.

I wasn’t disappointed as it was very gory and holds the award for the only modern horror movie that has made me jump.

Overall I was very impressed and can’t wait for the next Rob Zombie film.

Bring on Saw IV.

Blogs Being Shut Down

Recently a few blogs speaking out about Russian/Uzbekh billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, the man trying to buy out Arsenal football club have been taken down.

The blogs were speaking against the billionaire, highlighting his criminal record and things he doesn't want you to know.

http://elleeseymour.com/2007/09/21/outrageous-shutting-down-of-british-blogs

In my opinion this is ridiculous as everyone is entitled to free speech and expressing their opinion. Just because Mr Usmanov doesn't want people to know about his past, it shouldn't give him the right to get blogs shut down.

In a case settled out of court:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2111824/09/no-rights-just-t
the company demon Internet was sued for malicious comments posted on its newsgroup servers and faces bills of up to £500,000.

The Internet is of course all set by terms and conditions but I personally think this is crazy

I just think the world has gone mad if you have no right to speak your mind in a blog. The whole point of a blog is to express personal feelings.

Radio 1 DVD

We watched a DVD on Radio 1 and here is my report on it.



42 Million People listen to the radio each week and Radio 1 is one of the most popular radio stations in the UK.

Beginnings of Radio 1
The BBC ruled the radio world up until the 1960’s when pirate radio became popular. Stations began broadcasting from pirate ships with Radio Caroline being one of the forerunners. The government decided to set up Radio 1 and poached popular presenter Tony Blackburn from Radio Caroline to spearhead the station.

Producers
The producer of a radio show is the person responsible for running the show and making sure it all goes according to plan. The producer works out what goes into the show. They make sure that the show gets on air. They make sure that the music is suitable for the audience and generally make sure the show goes ok. They also check the papers and TV for topics to talk about during the show.

DJs
The DJ is the face and voice of the show. Radio 1 has a policy of recruiting DJs with regional accents to help make the station feel national and less like a London station. The daytime DJs are usually people with lots of personality, character and charisma. Night Time DJs are usually experienced in a specific type of music.

Playlists
The playlist is designed to reflect current trends in music. The daytime playlist is more light listening with all the current hits and new songs whereas the night time playlist is more specialist and targets a specific audience. The playlist is made to be a balance between the big well known artists and new up and coming artists. The playlist consists of tracks that have to be played so often:

· A List – up to 35 plays a week
· B List - up to 25 plays a week
· C List – up to 5 times a week
Music is listened to before being put on the playlist and there are board meetings before a playlist is drawn up

Reporters
The Radio 1 news is called Newsbeat. It is different from most news as it packages the news for its audience. Reporters are assigned to stories and they then have to go and do a report about the story. Once they have finished the report they have to edit it to fit into a package so that a few stories can be showcased.

Publicity
The publicist is responsible for placing stories in the papers and hyping up the station. The job of the publicist is to promote events or shows that are upcoming and try to get potential listeners as interested as possible and draw them back into the product. There are many ways of doing this but the most common ways are using newspapers and building websites.

Overall I thought the DVD had some interesting points but it did drag on a bit and some of the information given wasn't needed.


www.bbc.co.uk/radio1

www.chrismoyles.net


Radio 1 logo found on www.google.com
Radio 1 logo property of BBC

The Week In Words

This week has been the fourth week of the course. I am really starting to enjoy the course now. I'm starting to learn new things, and re-do things I've done last year.

I learned how to install programs and run an anti-virus scan on Monday in Susan's class which was fun.

On Wednesday, In the computer programing class, we had to do presentations in groups about the process and steps it takes to build/design something, like a car or birthday party.

Today has been spent learning about HTML in the web site design class where i learned how to code styles. It was confusing to begin with but after some practice it was rather easy.

Other than college my week has been spent watching Manchester United win against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo goal in the second half and playing Bioshock on my Xbox 360.

I have also been playing Rainbow Six Vegas online using Xbox Live which is always good to pass a few hours of boredom





www.2kgames.com

picture copyright 2k games

Bob Marley Concert

We were asked to watch live concert clips of bob marley and then rate them.

The clips were very good, two of his more famous songs performed live and they were nice and relaxing. Bob marley was one of the best entertainers and he was always moving and letting the crowd join in too

overall i thought they were very good, despite everyone in the class randomly singing parts of the song

My Favourite Album

My favourite album is "the fragile" by nine inch nails. It is a double album and has 23 tracks on it.




It was written during Trent Reznors battles with drug addiction and depression so its very honest and is amazing. It has so many great tracks on it..from the awesome build up of the opening track "somewhat damaged" to the calm ending of "Ripe(With Decay)"


It is one of the only albums i can listen to all the way through, despite its lenth, and never get bored.


My favourtite song ever "We're In This Together" is on this album and although its a very basic song its perfect.


Highlights of the album include the opener "Somewhat Damaged", "we're in this together", "Into The Void" and "The Great Below"


The tracklisting is as follows:


Disc One (Left)
1. Somewhat Damaged
2. The Day The World Went Away
3. The Frail
4. The Wretched
5. We're In This Together
6. The Fragile
7. Just Like You Imagined
8. Even Deeper
9. Pilgrimage
10. No You Don't
11. La Mer
12. The Great Below


Disc Two (Right)
01. The Way Out Is Through
02. Into The Void
03. Where Is Everybody?
04. The Mark Has Been Made
05. Please
06. Starf**kers Inc.
07. Complication
08. I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally
09. The Big Come Down
10. Underneath It All
11. Ripe (With Decay)


Overall i rate this album very highly, despite being twice the lenth of a normal NIN record, Trent Reznor perfectly laid out the traklisting so that it never gets boring and you keep discovering new things everytime you listen.

www.nin.com

www.interscope.com


image property of nothing records

First Post

Im 19, i am currently studying computing at Aberdeen College.

This is my second year at college after doing the intro to IT course last year

I like football, drinking..alot and computer games

Muisc is a huge part of my life and i love going to gigs and go as much as i can. My fave band is Nine Inch Nails

I dont really follow a certain team, but enjoy watching the spl and premiership.

Anyway i must get back to work...

later