9. Conventions, etc. (Positive)

I went to GaelCon in Dublin with GameSoc over the long weekend. Congratulations and thanks must go to UCD Games Society for their organisational skills.

It was amazing. I have never seen so many people so nerdy at once. Not that that's a bad thing. But it was a new experience, and strangely freeing. No-one there was remotely cool, but did they care? No. There was a grand camaraderie in the air. Everyone was only interested in having a fun weekend. The competition was fierce in the various gaming events (wargaming was very popular, as were collectible card games) but it was no less friendly for all that.

In particular, I enjoyed the tabletop role-playing game I played over the weekend. There is so much stigma attached to the dice-roll-y games, but it's all nonsense. They're fun even if it's your first time. No knowledge is presumed. The Game Master will tell you how to do everything, so there's no pressure. Acting out your character means it's far more involving than popular opinion would have you believe. And there's no need to dress up unless you really want to. That can confuse people. It's also a great way to meet new people or have fun with existing friends as I did. So I say this to you, my three or so readers who I probably meet every day: try a role-playing game when you get the chance. You may be pleasantly surprised.

In web-related news, I added an About page to the site. More specifically, I filled in some content to the empty About page. The website is really coming together now.

8. O2 (Negative)

Damn O2 and their annoying damn ways.

My dad's a staunch O2 customer. So we have one of those HSDPA modems ('cos we can't get any other internet) and I said maybe I should get one for around college instead of using unsecured wireless networks. He agreed, so today we went to the O2 Store to get one.

So I get in there, and the sales assistant says I need my student ID and my CAO letter.
I produce both.
She says, hang on, your address isn't on this letter.
I say, so?
She says, it needs to be addressed to you at home.
I say, fine.
So I root around for a few minutes and found an addressed bank letter.
Wait in line, because now someone is ahead of me, for twenty minutes.
Get to the counter again. Give her the stuff, all pleased 'cos I've found the letter.
Oh, wait, she says.
I ask what the problem is.
Our photocopier is broken, so you'll have to come back another day, she says.

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

Anyway, it's annoying but I'm heading back to college, which means Limerick, so I still have a chance.

Get to the O2 Store there.
All goes well this time (photocopier working, yay!).
This sales assistant directs me to a seat and commences asking me questions which she fills into a lengthy form on her PC.
The usual stuff.
Name, address, birthday, etc.
So I'm pretty pleased that it's all worked out, and then she clicks 'Submit' on the form.
I see the error but can't read it.
Oh, she says.
She looks at the form.
Asks me my birthday again.
I tell her, again.
She says, oh.
Oh my God, she says. You're not eighteen yet?
I'm so sick of this. Every damn time.
No, I'm not, I say.
Well, you can't have the modem if you're not eighteen, she says.
I ask why not.
The answer has something to do with contracts. Seems you can borrow money with a guarantor at any age (that's also a contract), but buy a crappy USB modem? No, sir. Have to have eighteen years of wasted time behind you.
Sigh.
So then Dad says, can we put it on his account?
She says, sure. We'll need ID from you.
Of course he has no ID.
So that was that.
Have to wait all that extra time now, because they weren't clear enough about the terms of the contract.

Sigh.

Update: Turns out I couldn't get it even if he paid for it because I still wasn't 18. I finally got it because they had a meeting and realised it was a retarded way to do things. So I guess that's pretty good. But I still don't like them.

7. Tests (Positive)

I've been tested in all my five modules as of today. As far as I know, all the tests went well. Pretty certainly three of them went well, anyway, because I've had the results handed back and they're very good, if I do say so myself. Those tests were Computer Applications, (11/12), Computer Organisation (80%), and Computer Science (94%) . I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to the other results, though. I'll have to wait and see.

Incidentally, I now have a full site map drawn for my website, and we have been delegating jobs, so I can finally stop avoiding work. Yay.

6. Money (Negative)

I had always heard the stereotype of the poor student and smiled inwardly. It couldn't be as bad as all that, I thought. It's just a joke, like what they say about mothers-in-law (I guess I'll find out whether that's true at some point...).

But no. It is true. I'm always slightly low on cash. To be fair, sometimes I have no real cash at all. And it's really annoying.

Oh, well. If it wasn't like this, everyone would be at university, I guess.

5. Web Work (Positive)

I've started work on my second web assignment for Computer Applications. The first thing the group did was agree on a theme and template for the site; retro gaming articles and information presented in three frames; title, navigation and reader.

The title bar never changes. It will soon have a snazzy banner, which Max is working on, but we're not planning much more for it.

The navigation frame contains links to each area of the site: Home, Games, About, and Contact. This frame doesn't change either.

The main (or reader) frame is the only one which changes over the course of a full perusal of the site. Each time a link is clicked in the navigation bar, the relevant page is opened in the reader frame.

The draft of the site is up and running, sans any actual content, but we should see that change soon. Watch this space, and all that.

4. Lisbon (Negative)

So, Ireland finally went ahead and ratified that damn treaty. I'm annoyed about it.

Not necessarily because of the Yes vote, although my personal instincts were No.

It was the ad campaigns, on both sides, that got me grinding my teeth at the mere mention of it in the end. Let's have a look at them, shall we?

-Yes Campaign (clearly the winner in distribution and airplay, government-endorsed):
'Do you want the country to recover from this recession? You do? Well then, you must vote YES! Do it now! Even if it's a month in advance, do it now and practise just in case you accidentally go with your instincts and vote No!' And so on ad nauseam, everywhere.

-No Campaign (underfunded, regrettably portrayed, noticeably fewer ads and signs):
'Do you want a post-Lisbon minimum wage of €1.84? You don't? Well then, you must vote NO! Don't you dare believe the Man, he's not hip or with it like you and us. So keep your beret firmly on your head, look this adorable child in the face and resolve to vote No.' You'd think that with so much less money and paper to play with that they'd try for some intellectual high ground, but of course, by and large they didn't.

And now the government are going to think they can sell us anything they like and we'll go for it. There's going to be trouble over this.

There'll be tears before General Election-time, and no mistake.

3. I love programming (Positive)

Today I was in an Imperative Programming lab. It's a two-hour lab. I finished the work sheet in less than forty minutes.

It was a glorious, selfish high. And it didn't disappear even when the TA gave me extra work.

And then I did that work well. So today was a good day.