The Kwemshi store
28/10/2008
It's taken me a fair old while to get round to this, but having handed in my latest essay a whole 48 hours before the next one's going to be set, I thought I'd have a quick look at putting together the photos I took while we were working on the Kwemshi storeroom in Yamba. I'd always hoped to make them into a stop-frame video, but had no idea whether it'd be doable or not. And (as you can tell by the fact that I've had time to get to the end of it) it's a remarkably easy job :-). To be honest, the result isn't as fluid as it could be (after all, I was standing in a slightly different position each time I took the photos), but it does give a good idea of how it felt during the project. There's one photo from the beginning and one from the lunchtime each day there, and you can see how it just jumps up and up and up...
(Youtube does blur the edges a little bit, so if you want to you can download the original video.)
That didn't last long
17/10/2008
I make no apologies this time for the slight lapse since the last post here. As I'm sure you guessed, I've been up to a thing or two - first essays (terrifying, but if I can do substantially better when I have less time I'll be fine), first couple of services for the choir... come to that I don't think I'd even had my first lectures when I wrote last. What I wanted to talk to you about, tho, is the assassins guild.
The idea is simple - kill all the other players before the end of term. The rules are complex - weapons regulations, who you can and cant initially kill, the Police force, the Wanted list, the Incompetents list... But largely it comes down to water guns at dawn. Or indeed rubber band pistols, fluffy bunnies marked "knife", empty cardboard boxes with "Anvil" written on them (dropped on people's heads) etc. So I thought I might have a rather exciting, if a little paranoid, term, trying to hunt down the other assassins while avoiding meeting my own end. It didn't turn out quite like that in the end, tho...
The game began yesterday, and I was given a list of my 3 initial targets. I picked the one that seemed to be the most accessible and straightforward, and had a scout round his college almost straight away. Since I hadn't invested in much by way of weaponry, and the cheap water pistols were no longer on sale in Borders, I felt I had to rely on stealth and suprise even more. I wanted to be ready. So this morning, knowing exactly what was what, I staked out my target's room. I arrived at 8:30ish (having done my homework I could guess he wouldn't be up any earlier) and waited. Unfortunately, after an hour or so it's hard to concentrate as determindly as you initially did, and when he eventually emerged I got overexcited and pinged my rubber band at him too quickly. I didn't take the time to aim, which as he was unprepared I could have done, so I missed.
Target dives through the door into the bathroom, but at this stage I'm still quite confident. He didn't fight back straight off, so I can assume that he isn't paranoid enough to have a weapon on him at all times. He's got to come back out of the bathroom at some point, and I'm still armed (both with rubber bands and a pen that says "knife") and between him and his room. Then my suspicions are raised - it seems that a cleaner, who didn't go in through the door I'm watching, is now in the bathroom suite. There's another door... At this point I made my second mistake - my fear prevented me from just going in to look, to see whether he'd worked out the same thing. And my sense of discretion left me too - at this point perhaps retreat to fight another day would have been preferable. Some time passes, and I'm still watching the door.
Then the greatest shock of all - as I suspected, he returns from a new angle, having left through the back door. But he's got a frigging great sword! Either that was concealed about the bathroom, which I doubt, or he's got armed friends nearby... It's getting too much for me now, but he's standing between me and the exit... He dodges my last rubber bands, leaving me distinctly outgunned - him with a 2 foot sword, me with the pen "knife". My knife arm is sliced off, leaving me an easy target. And there ends my career as an assassin.
Tragic, isn't it.
Still, I can always reincarnate and join the police force ;-)
I can't write big changes
5/10/2008
At least, that's all I can assume. A week ago everything changed. I've arrived at the best university in the world (no arguing please), I've lived alone for the first time, I've started a course that will not only have a massive impact on my future on a mundane, job-related level, but may revolutionise or destroy my faith. Huge things. As I sit here, though, I feel like I can tell you about our attempts at punting on wednesday (less than completely successful), the 24 ways to say "the" in Greek, or a night spent over a quiet drink discussing economics, education and pacifism til 3 in the morning, but I can't say anything at all about the massive set change that made all that possible.
So I guess you just have to take the huge stuff as read, and just be ready for me to write stuff and nonsense from a new perspective... There's certainly not gonna be a shortage of stuff and nonsense: I signed up for more societies this morning than I have any hope of being able to be involved in, and that's just the Robinson-only socs. Next week we hit the CUSU soc. squash, and I plan to add at least hill walking and almost certainly debating (given the career plan, t'would be stupid not to) to Binson's Amnesty, Fairtrade, Orchestra, Chapel Choir, Drama, and Ultimate Frisbee societies. And I still think I've missed some :-D. Gonna have fun :-D. Though I remain glad that no-one persuaded me to sign up for rowing ;-).