Fyse’s Floating Face

Fyse April 30th, 2005

I thought since I’ve been doing this blogging lark for quite a while now, I ought to find a permanent home for my Floating Face. Of course, the internet is full of people making links to my erudite words of wisdom, and now I have a proper home for my blog those should work permanently. (Or at least until I change blogging software again.)

FloatingFace.com seemed like the obvious choice, and amazingly enough it was free. I can’t understand why nobody has snapped up this golden domain name before, but their oversight is my gain. The blog resides in a sub-domain because I figured it gave me the opportunity to be creative with the rest of the domain. I’ll be moving my photoblog to another sub-domain as soon as possible, and also have other cunning plans. Tantalising, no? I realise it’ll be tough, but you’ll just have to wait and see…

• blogging
• Comments(2)

Fyse April 25th, 2005

In my pigeon hole today was an exam timetable. Nothing brings the screaming horror of summer term into sharp relief in quite the same way. If anyone’s looking to set a good day for Armageddon, might I suggest the morning of the first of June? If there’s going to be a war between good and evil, I’d appreciate it interrupting my exams. I’m pretty sure that, under the circumstances, they’d just give everyone a pass. The academic torture will last four days, and therefore be considerably worse than the rise of Beelzebub. Anyway, since he put so much effort into writing the exams, Satan may wish to see their effects first hand.

There’s certainly an air of biblical catastrophe about Cambridge exams, and I began to wonder whether this was entirely coincidental. I found these useful facts about Judgement Day on www.bible.ca…

• “Man must give account of himself on the day of judgement.”
  Sounds like an exam to me. I bet all the questions are on Quantum Mechanics. I never did get Quantum.
• “All of us shall appear at the judgement.”
  Not sure about this one. People do occasionally over-sleep, clattering into the exam hall half way through. I’m certain you couldn’t get away with that if Jesus was head examiner.
• “We’re to be judged by how we measure up to the word of God.”
  This is encouraging, since I’m pretty sure I know more Astrophysics than Jesus ever did. Perhaps he’ll get his dad to help him though, in which case I’m royally screwed.
• “We need to get ready for the judgement day.”
  Even the Bible is suggesting I get my arse into gear. One things is for certain; St Peter will slam the pearly gates firmly in my face unless I start working very hard, very soon.

The critical dates are 1st-4th of June. I can’t hold out much hope for divine providence after this post, so if any of you have a hot-line to the almighty, feel free to put in a good word. My week of exams last year was the most unpleasant and stressful of my life, and I can’t face being as unprepared again. Things have to change, but in deference to Justin’s words of wisdom, I wont tell you about the new leaf I’m going to turn. Oops, I think I just did…

• university life
• Comments(5)

Fyse April 19th, 2005

I’m back in Cambridge again, and slowly dragging my thoughts towards maybe starting considering preparations for work at some point in the next month. I moved back on Saturday morning, and have another nine days before lectures start. Unfortunately I have a piece of coursework due in on that Thursday (the 28th) so I really must start working immediately. Progress to this goal has been characteristically slight.

I spent most of Saturday just sorting out my room, as it takes quite a while to get everything unpacked and put away. I figure I may as well start the term with a well organised room, even if this semblance of order is short lived. At the moment my notes are well organised and filed, but if previous years are anything to go by exam stress will put pay to this. My system of ’spatial filing’ is notorious, and to the uneducated eye may appear nothing but a randomly arranged coating of paper, thickly applied to all horizontal surfaces within range. Actually of course there is careful method to my apparent madness, with different geographic regions for different subjects. A foolhardy few have ventured into this landscape unaccompanied, never to be seen again, and on occasion even I, the creator, get a little lost.

One of my main sources of exercise in Cambridge during the summer term is impromptu games of football with a motley collection of college friends. The games are casual at best (there is a strong tendency for the attacking side to display a great deal more energy), and they mostly remain good natured (with the occasional reckless challenge). On Sunday a great deal of amusement was gleaned from having placed the pitch facing toward the river. A rather shameful degree of peer pressure was brought to bear on one hapless soul, who we bullied into going swimming to retrieve one wayward shot. On Monday we had the presence of mind to position the pitch elsewhere.

Almost everywhere of note in Cambridge is within easy walking distance, but since a friend had the unexpected bonus of an extra day with his rented car, a load of us went bowling on Sunday evening. There was a stage, in my early teens, when every birthday party seemed to involve bowling, but since then I’ve not been more than two or three times. My top score is 163 about eight years ago, but I didn’t even come close to that on this occasion. I guess I’m just very out of practice, but I’d forgotten how much fun it is, so maybe I’ll take the trouble to get back in practice. Oh, and you can find a photo I took in my photoblog (link in the sidebar) but the automatically updating thumbnail doesn’t seem to be working currently. It still shows that punting photo, and there are two shots newer than that now.

Right, bed time for me. I’m gonna get up reasonably early tomorrow, and I will do some work…

• sporting exploits , university life , procrastination
• Comments(2)

Fyse April 18th, 2005

Just a very quick post to direct you all to an online comic strip called Mom’s Cancer. It’s tells the tale a family’s fight against their mother’s illness, and is extraordinarily worth reading. Apparently it will only be online for a limited period, since it is shortly to be published in book form. I’m toying with the idea sending the link round to all the smokers I know, but haven’t yet decided whether that’s wise…

NB. I came across the comic strip through a post on ‘The Search for A Good Story‘

• gallimaufry
• Comments(2)

Fyse April 14th, 2005

Everyone has things that frighten them. For some it is spiders, while others are terrified by confined spaces. Many people fear the dark, and are unable to walk the streets at night. There are many things that can provoke terror so extreme as to incapacitate. For me, it is standing on the 6th tee at Abbey View golf course.

My relationship with this accursed hole from hell began several years ago, and has intensified with every encounter. The scene for many a round-ruining score, lowlights include a ten-putting incident (involving going off the green again twice) and the six shots spent in a bunker mentioned in my last post. Today I added a new chapter to the saga, ending up in exactly the same bunker straight off the tee. Fighting back the vivid mental replays of my last sojourn in the front-right-green-sand-trap, I broke free in a mere four shots. That hole is the bane of my existence. (And I really must practice bunker shots…)

PS Tinkering with the blog should now be finished, and I’d appreciate any tip-offs about problems in different browsers. This particularly applies to people not using Firefox or Internet Explorer. (How’s it looking in Safari, Kerrie?)

PPS In case it wasn’t clear already, I ought to clarify that I’m really crap at golf. When I say that the 6th frequently ruins my round, I mean it makes a poor score even worse, and not that I was actually doing well in the first place. I’d like to be good at golf, but there has been scant indication thus far that this will ever happen.

• sporting exploits , ranting
• Comments(6)

Fyse April 11th, 2005

You’ll see that the floating face has returned, and I’ve almost got this new template completely sorted. It wasn’t as tricky as I expected, but currently the archives aren’t working properly, there are no ‘previous entries’ links, I’m not making use of the categories option and the formatting on the comments is ugly as sin. All these problems will (probably) be solved soon.

In other news, I had a good time in Yorkshire visiting my grandparents, have still not done enough (or any) academic work, and spent 7 shots stuck in a bunker on the 6th at ‘Abbey View’ golf course. Oh, and was particularly incensed by the amount of coverage given to the royal wedding. Half every news bulletin dedicated to inane and pointless commentary, the TV stations wheeling out ardent royalists to say how wonderful it all is, and rabid republicans to say it’s all symptomatic of the opression of the common man. So, two people have (finally) got married, and one of the them happens to be heir to the throne? Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

• life of Fyse , blogging
• Comments(4)

Fyse April 8th, 2005

I’d been having problems running the php script to import posts from Blogger to WordPress, and it turns out it was due to outdated software running on the SRCF servers. Still, with even my very limited knowledge of php I was able to find a way round it, so now my blog is entirely transferred to the new system. Unfortunately, this mean that the time spent making that new Blogger template was entirely wasted, but hopefully I can convert it reasonably easily to Wordpress. Until then, I’ll be using this default template. Functional, if a little boring, but at least I’m free from the woefully unreliable Blogger once and for all.

I wont be making any attempts to update the template until after the weekend, though, as I’m off to Yorkshire soon to visit my granparents. It’s just my mum and my sister going too, since my brother and dad have work commitments, and we ought to be leaving in an hour or so. In fact, I’d better stop typing immediately and get some clothes etc. into a bag. Bye for now!

• blogging
• Comments(4)

Fyse April 8th, 2005

My readership is divided into two sections; those who know me directly, live in England and don’t blog themselves, and those that do have blogs and also read ‘The Moxie Blog‘. Since half these people know all about the auction already, and half of them probably don’t care very much, this post will serve little practical purpose. Anyhoo…

As approximately 50% of you will know, Moxie Cinema is soon to be a small, independently owned art-house cinema in Springfield, Missouri. I’ve been following the blog for over eight months now, and have been treated to many an amusing tale of the trials and tribulations endured by Dan and Nicole in a bid to start their business. With myriad competitions, schizophrenic solo conversations, and even cockroaches called Nostrilamus, this blog has everything you could dream about, plus more that would never appear in even your worst nightmare

But there is trouble in paradise, my friends. ‘The Man’ is causing trouble for our fragile young pioneers, imposing draconian restrictions and requirements which, despite heroic accounting efforts, have stretched the budget too far. Additional funds are sorely needed, and consequently the decision has been made to auction off the naming rights for the Moxie’s ‘Cinebar’. No ordinary concessions stand, the Cinebar will serve everything from popcorn to beer, with many fascinating and unique products in-between. I know what you’re thinking, and by golly, you’re right. This is indeed a wonderful and, dare I say it, priceless opportunity to have your name prominently displayed in what will doubtless become on the of the world’s foremost social venues.

But the priceless is to be priced, and at this very moment is for sale on eBay. The Moxie Cinebar eBay auction is exciting in the extreme, giving white-knuckle entertainment for all ages. Visit the auction now, and even if you feel unable to bid (the price is already over $600) then make sure to ‘watch’ it. (Click the link in the top right corner.) If the auction has enough watchers, it will make it onto lists of popular auctions and the buzz will increase yet further.

In summary, WATCH THIS AUCTION NOW!!!

• gallimaufry , blogging
• Comments(0)

Fyse April 7th, 2005

The Floating Face would like to extend sincere apologies to anyone suffering technical difficulties recently. Our engineer is currently working hard to correct these faults, but in the meantime visitors may experience symptoms including (but not limited to) text spilling out of containers, mangled layout, lack of style and severe nausea. Anyone still suffering difficulties is probably using an inferior browser, and if everyone would like to switch to Firefox immediately, the problem will disappear. Once again, The Floating Face regrets any inconvenience caused, and service will be restored to its customary high levels shortly.

• gallimaufry , blogging
• Comments(2)

Fyse April 5th, 2005

I know what you’re thinking. It’s quite different, isn’t it? I was getting bored with the old style, and also wanted to give it a different layout to the rest of my site. I was hoping to launch the new look on a WordPress blog, but I don’t have the time to learn how it works at the moment. Blogger servers may be excruciatingly unreliable at the moment, but at least I know how their templates work. I also wanted to move the blog to an all new URL, but certain useless companies (that shall remain nameless) are not replying to my emails. Anyway, I hope you all survived the shock and that you wont have nightmares about my floating face. I’ll be back soon with a proper post worthy of the swanky new surroundings.

• blogging
• Comments(2)