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Apologies for the *ahem* slight change in colour scheme. No doubt the design will be changing somewhat over the next few days, I just didn’t really feel like plain boring ol’ white and grey… sorry!

Woo-hoo!!! The group project is all done!!! I’m pretty sure it’s not particularly good, but it’s 52 pages long (the design document) so it can’t be all that bad (working on the principle of a percent per page!)

So yes, that’s going to be printed out and handed in tomorrow. Hopefully! I’ve still got to hand in the individual assessment, each of us has to do one. It was actually quite a hard decision to decide who’s done what exactly, but at the end of the day I think we’ve all done pretty much equal amounts, so I gave everybody a very similar mark 🙂

Fusion this evening was good as well. We were talking about giving to others (one of the main themes of Philippians), very challenging stuff! Still, I’m glad that there are more ways of giving to others than just money!

Last one of this term as well!

Anyway, time for bed methinks. Was up rather early this morning! All for now my fine fuzzy friends…

Oh yes, I love the group project. It is the most fun thing that I have ever had to do. It is so exciting. Oh yes. I have not been told to say this by the people who run this course. I am a fish. Simon’s anecdotes are the most exciting and interesting I have ever heard…

I can’t believe it… I actually got up before 9:00AM today! It was to try and catch the postman delivering a parcel… unfortunately, I looked on the mat and there was a little “we are holding an item of mail for you” cards. It just said that the postman had left the parcel outside though, so I popped out and got it 🙂

It just contained a couple of records — Sun Decade – I’m Alone; DJ Tiesto – In My Memory; Aly & Fila – Eye of Horus. Very very nice tunes!

Then went into town, got a couple of bits, and am going to head off to campus in a minute. Well, after having lunch, that is. Oh the fun! Woo-hoo!!!

Yep, I’m afraid that although my last post was fairly ‘deep’, this one’s gonna be completely the opposite!

Today I didn’t really do much, which isn’t surprising seing as I seem to begin most of my blogs like that these days. Not to mention “anyway” and “ah well”, another two little phrases or words which I tend to use quite frequently. It’s amazing how much you repeat certain things without realising, isn’t it? I don’t like reading through my own stuff — it makes me realise just how bad my writing style is.

Moving on… (instead of “anyway”), today I came in to uni at about 1:30ish. I came in for the sole purpose of getting my embedded processors coursework finished, and I didn’t actually start work on it until about 2:00-2:30… spent the time in between chatting to Chris and Joe in the chaplaincy. Next year is going to be rather random, what with the League of Randomness growing in numbers! I still can’t believe Sarah and Suzi want to live with me, Mad Welshman Phil and Alex but there you go…

I finished my coursework, have printed it off and will hand it in tomorrow 🙂 After that, I haven’t really done anything other than chat with Joe and Andy C and come down to the computer lab to type a blog. Oh, the excitement!

CU tonight, I don’t know how many people are going to be there given that a lot of people have work to do at the moment.

Coursework Update: I’ve received an e-mail from the general office saying that I got 55% in my first embedded processors assignment. That’s not particularly good… still, at least it’s a grade, and the coursework is only worth 15% of the total mark of the module anyway (this piece of coursework was worth 7.5%…)

I thought it would be worthwhile just making a post about the topic which seems to be on everyone’s minds at the moment. If you factor in this new killer virus that seems to be going around, not to mention all the other things that are happening in various places around the world, it looks pretty bleak, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure what the results of war against Iraq would be. Potentially chaotic. I’m not entirely sure exactly why we’re going to war, as I haven’t actually seen any evidence for Saddam’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction… Of course, that isn’t the only reason for invading Iraq. The way Saddam treats his people is a disgrace to humanity, and should not be allowed to continue. Having said that, there are many other nations that treat their people badly — why Iraq?

In a wider context: why have international law at all, if no-one is prepared to enforce it? And who do you entrust to enforce international law? America? UK? I don’t think any country can be entrusted to enforce the law without imposing their own agendas on it.

I don’t think we can sit back and do nothing, but on the other hand I really do have a bad feeling about going to war…

It’s at times like these that the only thing I can do is turn to God. I’m reassured by pieces of scripture such as these:

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

Jesus himself said that we will hear and experience wars, but we should not be alarmed: God is ultimately in control, and He will decide when the end is to come, not us. At times when lives are threatened, I believe the only way to have anything certain is to turn to God: Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” As a Christian, I have a hope that is steadfast and certain which I can cling to through anything, and ultimately I know that “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54)

All of you who are saying, “ah, Christians (and religious people in general) are just Christians so they have a ‘comfort blanket’ — something they can use just to comfort themselves with.” Let me ask you this question: what hope do YOU have? It’s all meaningless, is it not? Dig deep inside yourself. Seriously. Search for the answers. I’m not a Christian because I prefer to have a hope, I’m a Christian because this is the way it was meant to be.

And apologies for this long post!

Over and out.

Phill

Why is prevaricating so easy? I’ve got plenty of work I could be getting on with, but I’m not. Typical! Still — I did hand in CC252 Assignment Two in today, so I’m happy 🙂 All 15 pages worth… who says that computer scientists don’t write essays? Ok, so that wasn’t an essay… but 15 pages of computer code is still a fair amount! It was due in on Wednesday but I thought I’d get in before the rush!

I might just get on with some robotics, and then finish until tomorrow. The group project has to be done, but we’re all going to meet up on Wednesday and finish that off! Objective is to get it handed in on Thursday, the day beforehand so we don’t have to have all the panic of handing it in the day it’s due!

I know, it’s amazing… I got up and went into town this morning. Bought a few tunes: Utah Saints – Lost Vagueness (mainly bought this for the Oliver Lieb Main Mix, fantastic tune from a few years back!); Queen & Vanguard – Flash (Tomcraft remix is alright, not fantastic but for a couple of quid it wasn’t too bad); Marc et Claude – Lovin You ’03 (Marco V remix — great stuff!).

And I also bought Austin Powers: Goldmember on DVD cause it was on sale in HMV 🙂

Right, gotta head off in a minute to go finish my group project with the other guys… oh the fun. Still, it’ll be good to get it out of the way!

I don’t know who this “al” guy is but he seems to be mentioned a lot in titles and things.

Anyway. Dunamis was good — all came together in the end! The Mad Welshman Phil has put a lot of work in and on behalf of all the people who went to Dunamis, nice one mate! 🙂

Anyway. So what more do I need to say? Not much? Fair enough then.

well, one thing: END OF TERM IS FRIDAY!!!

(but I have three assignments to hand in by then. oh well…)

Nothing much really. Got up this morning and went to Fordham. Because Mike is away in Zermatt for a couple of weeks, Dick Lucas was speaking today. I have to say that he is an absolutely fantastic speaker. He was talking about Romans 9, which I understand all the better for the sermon that I heard this morning! He’s speaking again next week on the second half of Romans 9 which I am looking forward to (assuming I can get a lift…)

Then, I came back home, and uploaded a new article for Crossring. We’re doing a series on the Beatitudes for Easter at the moment; this is the first of that series (Matt 5:3).

Dunamis is tonight, which I am looking forward to! Mad Welsman Phil has done a lot of the organisation (and scripting and stuff) so it should be good. And I’m not DJing there (for intro / outro music) tonight which I bet people will be grateful for!

Matthew’s party was good last night. Actually, technically it wasn’t a party (they’re not allowed parties over there according to their contract, we discovered!) so it was a “gathering”. Not many people there (Me, Mad Welshman Phil, Alex, Liz, Andy C, Gavin, and of course Matthew). Still it was a good time of cake, wine and chat 🙂

Now I think I’m going to play some music… perhaps work on a prog trance demo I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s all good!