Andrew Wilkinson

Hello from sunny Arizona. The temperature is about 25oC outside and hardly a cloud in the sky, as it has been since I arrived.

The flights over were pretty uneventful, although the first flight did have a funky personal interactive movie thing for each seat. I'd seen five of the seven movies on offer though, so I watched The March Of The Penguins (which was quite good) and The Wedding Crashers (which was terrible).

The Wigwam Resort is an amazing place, much fancier than I am used to do. All the staff are in black tie all the time, there was a live pianist in the bar last night and everything is generally very swish! I'm glad I'm not paying for it!

The conference started this morning and I gave my talk with no problems, I managed to answer two of the three questions easily while the third one was difficult as I couldn't really understand the guy's strong Japanese accent. At least it's over now and I can enjoy myself a bit more. The first of the two free lunches is happening at the moment, I have already eaten and come back inside. I suppose I should be out there mingling with people but it's so sunny that the glare from the white table clothes were essentially making me blind. Hopefully lunch and dinner tomorrow will be more successful on the mingling front.

I picked up my copy of the conference proceedings today so I now have a nice big book that contains my paper. Woo, I've been published - it's almost like I'm a proper researcher.

I'm currently sat with a big suitcase sat on my bed, wondering if there is anything I've forgotten. I hate that feeling, I don't think I've forgotten anything but then as I don't exactly know what's going to happen over the next week how can I know what to take?

At 5:56am tomorrow I'll be catching a train from York to Manchester Airport where I'll fly first to Philadelphia and then onto Phoenix, Arizona which is a whole 5600 miles from home. There are so many firsts for me over the next week it's hard to know what's the scariest. I guess going to a conference by myself, and giving a talk comes pretty high. More mundane things like having to change planes for the first time ever and staying in a hotel (actually two hotels) by myself also feature prominently in my worried mind.

To sum up, you definitely won't be seeing me for the next week. Should you text me (and you're not my girlfriend) you're unlikely to get a response, unless I email you in reply. I will be doing my best to check my email and lj during the week, but I've no idea how easy it will be to do that.

See you all next weekend when I'll hopefully be nice and suntanned :-)

As I write this my supervisor is giving a lecture on the PyLinda software I wrote. He asked a rather worringly basic question about how to use it just before he left... and he's demonstrating the software live in front of the students.

I sooooo hope it doesn't break!

Today is the first day of my sixth year at the University of York. I've now been here longer than I have ever been at a single educational establishment before...

With Monster's Ball tonight I reached 400 films voted for on IMDb. It's 303 days since I reached 300 films, giving me an average of a new film every 3.03 days (complicated maths there!) - that's slightly down on my average for the previous hundred, I'll have to work harder!

Today was that time of year when I receive my yearly letter from the evil Student Loans Company. Apparently in the last year I paid back £8 (woo!) but accrued slightly over £290 in interest :-(

8* victories, 5* draws and 4* defeats + 8* shots of tequila and 2* pints = one good night out :-)

Thanks dwinsper, lieutenanth and causticangel et al, I had a really fun night out!

* All values are subject to plus or minus several due to alcoholic consumption!

For the second time this week I've got to move all my stuff out of my room, I've also had to move stuff out of the lounge - which my housemates didn't help me with at all. *moan grumble moan*

We're having new carpets fitted in my bedroom and the lounge so when the fitters actually arrive we'll have to move the furniture out too. I hope it stays dry!

The decorator is also here finishing off the loo and clearing the marks from the hall ceiling where the bath used to leak. Once that's finished the house will be almost decent...

So, last night was the grad ball - it was good fun and I made it to my second survivors photo. Liberty X were, er, interesting but at least they were actually singing and not miming! Editors were frickin' awesome but also frickin' loud!

Photos, as usual, can be found here.

Last week I moved into my new, the first time ever I've lived on the town side of campus. The house definitely didn't get off to a good start with no washing machine, a broken shower and just generally being in a bit of state. We now have both of these fixed and it is feeling much more like home. I have to move all of my stuff out of my room next week so it can be painted, but after that I'm sure it'll be fine.

This afternoon I met one of my next door neighbours for the first time - they wanted to borrow our lawn to play some games with the kids as they're having a party this evening. I said yes as it's the first time we've ever spoken to them so I wanted to be friendly... I just hope it goes ok :-S

In other news I booked my tickets to Dublin next month, I can't wait for that.

My paper for a conference in Austin, Texas has been completed and submitted. I've changed all my addresses over to my new house, all that is needed now is for me to finish packing and then move tomorrow.

I hope the weather improves, I'm going to a BBQ later...

I've just discovered that PyVault, a provider of RPM packages for Python software, has an RPM for some software that I have written (PyLinda). This is great and I'm very happy to see my software spread around on the internet. What does bug me slightly is the fact that they have gone to the trouble of patching my install script to remove the documentation and examples! That makes it practically useless for someone who doesn't already know what they're doing...

I have just been and voted, a big Woo! Yay! to living in a democracy. I hope you all do the same.

I'm off to see the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy soon, is it bad that I'm this excited about it?

Oh, and I just confused someone by using the abbreviation H2G2 without even thinking that they might not know what it meant!

I went to the new look Vanbrugh for lunch today with a friend, and it certainly is different to the old place. Gone is the manky carpet and muck to be replaced with brand new shiny furniture and floors. It now serves Chinese food, a selection of random other foods and Langwith roasts have made the transition, but not entirely unscathed. They also appeared to have a terrible selection of desserts (or maybe I'm just blind), which is of course the most important part of lunch. The roast itself was ok, if a little dry and the potatoes and veg were pretty bland. I didn't even get any choice of veg!

As well as the bar area, the dining hall is now being used properly with new tables and chairs. There was plenty of space, but that doesn't explain why a couple of loud guys decided to sit on our table when there were obviously others that were free, but I can hardly blame that on Vanbrugh. What I can blame on Vanbrugh is the crazy modern art style walls - large squares of red, blue and yellow complete with chunky black lines now surround you. Hummm, I'll need some convincing that doing that was a good idea.

Overall I'd rather be in Langwith, but then I would say that as I'm incredibly biased. Vanbrugh is not bad though and I can see myself going there again.

(scaryjeff and whoatherepickle: Hope you don't mind me taking your picture as a logo!)

Edit: update to correct the spelling mistakes pointed out by CompSci's resident pedant. :-p

Last weekend I went to Kew Gardens in London. While we were there we admired the enormous Titan Arium flower and 5 days later it has started to bloom - something it only does for 2 days every six years!

Damn it!

I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew on Saturday, it was lovely. For those that like looking at flowers and palm trees my photos can be found here.

My thesis proposal, which is basically my second year report, is finished and handed in a day before the deadline.

Woo, go me!

Now I just have to wait until the oral exam when I will be grilled by Alan and Colin...

Has anyone seen my motivation around? I guess I must have left it somewhere...

Today I shared the last ever Langwith Lunch with scaryjeff and whoatherepickle. It was a truly somber occasion, but I was cheered to see so many people came to show their support!

The only question remaining is "Where will I get my vegetables from now?"