Doctor Who
I managed to actually sit down and watch Doctor Who when it was broadcast this week, instead of having to mess around setting tapes or waiting for someone to upload it to UK Nova. I was glad to see the Cybermen finally return to our screens, although I think they looked a bit too modern and not quite as scary as the ones from the classic series. The decision for them to be created from homeless people swept up from the streets was also a little strange, as Cybermen often use the more intelligent and logical humans as conversion material. I guess I’ll have to accept that there will be some continuity issues though, and I’m still enjoying the new series and looking forward to next week’s episode.
Book review
I’ve sent off my review of Essential PHP Security to the UKUUG, so hopefully it will make it into the next newsletter. If it’s accepted then I might be allowed to do another review or two next time, which gives me free computer books (I buy lots of books anyway, so getting some for free is always good) and a good chance to practise my writing skills – useful as I’d like to try my hand at freelance journalism once I finish my degree. Unfortunately book reviews become the copyright of the UKUUG once they’re published, so I can’t post it here, but I will add a link to the newsletter article if it gets accepted.
Aikido
Aikido is good at the moment, we’ve been doing a kata(?) with jo’s recently – for some reason moving across a grid of mats swinging a wooden pole around my head is strangely therapeutic. I get the feeling that Terry wants me to learn flips at some point as well, which should be fun, although I’ve started messing up on my rolls at the moment so no doubt I’ll be practising those on Wednesday.
After exams
Job hunting and postgraduate stuff isn’t going as well as I’d hoped, but on the other hand I have several ideas relating to starting my own business that I’m looking forward to trying out once I finish my degree. Fortunately I have just over two weeks between my last exam and starting my vacation work in the department, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that period to do some research, particularly into setting up companies as I’d like to be able to shift any liability to a separate legal entity if possible, and also perhaps offer advice on that topic as part of my consultancy work. It’s all a distant dream at the moment though, so I’ve no idea how everything will turn out.
Tomorrow I’m starting revision in earnest, as I really need to get into a routine of spending at least 9-5 doing exam preparation. I’ll be taking a break to do some running and play fives at the gym, but other than that it’s head down and time to get up to speed on Distributed Operating Systems, Network Security, and Compilers.