A Decade in Review

      So I thought I should post this. I will get round to a more detailed review of 2009 later in the week.       Ok so lets give a quick highlight of the decade for me:

• Started A-Levels in Chemistry, Physics and Maths at Lady Hawkins High School (1999). These were finished in 2001. B, B, A.
• Got offered a position studying chemistry at the University of Nottingham, but I turned it down for my second choice (well actually my first choice but not on the UCAS application) UMIST.
• Moved to Manchester, staying in Wright-Robinson Hall. J floor, room 13. Met Ciaran at the rock society. Also met my girlfriend of 3 years, Vicky Hare, and also in the year above Viki, who I would then share a house with during PhD.
• Picked up a copy of Vampire the Requiem.
• Vicky, ina fit of desperation, cheated on an exam at the end of the year. We have to wait for the verdict and she is made to resit the paper in full. Needless to say I am quite disappointed.
• For my second year of uni I lived with my course mate, Dave Smith, and others from our floor of uni, getting a shitty house in Victoria Park. 2002 would also see me return to Manchester after a summer away, but with the added bonus of getting a key-time position at the Altrincham store of Games Workshop. Later in the year Vicky Hare would get a similar position at the Manchester store.
• Ciaran also ends up working at GW Altrincham, having left uni to resit to year again, and so losing his position at the Manchester store.
• For 2003 we would then live in a better, larger house in Victoria Park, now with Vicky. In August before her final year of Biochemistry we get to travel to New York.
• Vicky finishes her course and I have the joy of team project work for uni. I face down the sexist, racist member of the group who came from Morocco. This fool spat at the feet of those guys in the other research teams who were gay, and also would refuse to follow the instructions of any of the girls in the group. This led to a confrontation and myself shouting him down. To this day I don't remember it that well.
• The end of the university year (2004) sees myself, Vicky and Andy Sykes (a floor mate and house mate for the previous years), get a flat together. Both of them finished their courses and don't follow it as a career, both getting full time positions with GW Stockport.
• In August 2004, while in Leeds, Vicky having gone to her parents as we had been having a difficult time (more to do with her getting a job and me not having to bother as I had a final year to go), she dumps me while we were in the middle of Leeds.
• Distraught, and after Vicky had been staying at 'friends/work mates house', I move out, thinking things would improve in a few months. I move in with old house mate/floor mate/ course mate Dave Smith. I realise my course mates of final year are in fact some of the most overlooked.
• I then find out in September that one of the guys who offered Vicky a room while we were apart, well he had fallen for her. This is after my great giving up on her during her birthday. Needless to say I felt very betrayed.
• Halloween 2004. Halloween of hell. I will still say nothing more about this night. My older sister puts me back together. I fail to turn up at work but my manager understands why.
• So 2005 begins a new rebuild of myself. I work for my future PhD superviser Dr (now Prof) Paul Popelier for my final year project. What begins is what would be my four year study of water simulations.
• I find my manager negligent and report him for being poor at his job, and that myself, a part time staff member, have to perform his job.
• I pass my uni course, a 2.i! I did a double take, then went to find Paul to tell him. I get my PhD given to me on a plate. I start a week later, early. I also leave GW.
• I start going to the goth night, Sin City, and start to delve into music that I had wanted to find when I was a first year, but never did for some reason.
• Meet Stacey, Tofu, Gillian and Aidan, Cassi, Alan, Dan, Donda and others of the goth crowd.
• New Year, 2006, I meet Zoe and Luke and the others of my furture roleplay crowd. I discover they live with Donda. Small world.
• Start roleplay again, apart from my old friend circle from when I was with Vicky. Start running lots of nWoD stuff.
• A number of relationships happen which prove to me that I still don't know what the hell I am looking for. Always chasing for something more complete, but to scared of going down a road that I have already traveled.
• Start playing Etherscope and meet the writers. Start of my chance to do freelance writing.
• 2006 see's me pass my first year of PhD, and then move in Viki (the biochemist in the year above), her mate James Kitchen, and Phil. We lived in Withington. I had the shite room. I still blame Kitchen for the unfair claiming of the other room.
• Go to Infest for the first time. Good time was had.
• Start roleplay with Luke and the others, and so begins the tale of the Itinerant Company for Vampire: the Dark Ages. This would be followed by some classic technocracy gaming and also my Fading Suns game.
• First paper is published. It turns up in an obscure journal.
• 2007, year of the great upheaval. In so many ways! In April I would go on to make the biggest mistake of my life before I would go on to make the greatest choice of my life. After the mistake of the gods, I meet Sam via the internet, and then in person. I knew from day one of meeting her that it would be her, forever. But knowing that feeling almost scared me away. It was just so intense.
• Sam's dad, who I never had the chance to meet unfortuantely dies. I am there at her house the night the police arrive to inform her.
• I move into the flat in Rusholme. Living in a stoner flat fucks me off entirely.
• Go to Infest for the second time, this time with Sam. We stay in the Midland Hotel and it is clear in my mind, after just 4 months I want to marry her.
• In September I find out it's not just me :D !!! We plan to go to Venice in the next year for Carnival!
• That Xmas Sam meets my parents. Yay!!
• In January 2008 I turn 25. We dine and drink in Negresco. The Fox of Nod is discovered.
• Venice!! Almost the entire week in Venice. We go to a Masquerade ball. It's just totaly epic! And Sam and myself get engaged in the Fairy City.
• April 2008. My mistake comes back to haunt me. Things almost all fall apart. For myself and Sam, Sam most of all, 2008 is a very tough year.
• 3 more papers are published in this year. My course takes 4 months longer to complete.
• Sam and myself, despite it all, move in together in a flat in the Northern Quarter, knowing we can only get through this all if we are together.
• Friendships with others are tested and broken as I know my place is at Sam's side. I feel hurt that others seem to act like she has no reason to be upset. People take my side when I never asked or needed them, when I actually felt they had to support Sam.
• I have interviews at the universities of Essex, and Warwick.
• A week before Xmas I get conformation I got the Postdoc in Warwick! Sam heads down on the 23rd of December to sort out a flat while I write up.
• Jan 2009. Fuck this is a crazy month! I submit my PhD thesis. We move to Leamington Spa in the space of 25 hours. Non-stop!
• In February we head to Venice for our wedding in the Hall of Mirrors in Palazzo Zenobio, on the 25th. We then spend an extra few days in Verona!
• I return to Leamington, my job starts, I have my viva and pass!
• I get another paper published from my time in Manchester. I start my literature review on my field.
• We meet Mark and Kate (the only other goths in Leamington Spa). And then meet James. Roleplay begins again with me as GM. We start with Unhallowed Metropolis and then onto Vampire the Requiem, where I rerun the chronicle I ran 3 years ago.
• Sam starts her course in Beauty Therapy.
• We go to see Phantom of the Opera for Sam's birthday.
• My sixth paper (the epic literature review) is finished and complete for publishing. I am also on the cusp of finally finishing my first paper for Warwick.

So what more can I say? The noughties... no I hate that term. The Zeros, The Os ? It is the decade of that start of my career. The decade of my greatest failure. The decade of my greatest triumph. The decade of the start of the rest of my life. The decade that ends finding my true love, my wife.

Any questions?


Try and pick me out from this picture at the start of A-Levels

Infest 2006. The Age of Wolverine, Weapon X.
Myself, Cassi, Tofu and Stacey. The Age of Cloud Me and Sam waiting for Mechanical Cabaret!
Myself and Sam
Dr Ether is born! WGW October 2007
Joker and Harley Quinn. Halloween 2007. Sam wins the costume contest.

Venice 2008 !
Myself and Daniel! Go Team Zombie!
Mr Todd Halloween 2008. The time of Black Hair!
Wedding, Feb 25th, 2009, Venice, Palazzo Zenebio, The Hall of Mirrors!
Yes that is St Marks in Venice!
PhD Graduation. Barbara (Sam's mum), Nicky (my mum), Me, Sam, Mike (my dad).
And this time with my sister!
Halloween 2009. The Big Bad Wolf and Puss in Boots!
Xmas 2009. Red. The Age o?f Genesis (FF7: Before Crisis).

But if there is one picture that sums up the decade. That makes me happy it is this.


Roll on the Teens, the Tens... or as I prefer, the Twenty Tens.

Xmas

Just to let anyone who wishes to meet up that I will be in Manchester as of tomorrow eveing, going to Wendyhouse on the Saturday and leaving Tuesday morning. SO if you want to meet up phone or post here

An update well overdue

As I type this a kriging optimizer I have coded up is doing it's last test run. Fucking Hooray! That sucker was was not easy to code/debug/understand at times at it makes use of simplex optimizers and particle swarm optimization and pareto optimal selection and sorting.

So what else has been going on happened since the last non emo/loseing friends update??

London for Sam's courses and Halloween was fun, though Sam got the day wrong for one of the courses but it was all ok to be rearranged. We stayed with Mike (an old PhD collegue from Manchester) and his girlfriend in their very nice and big flat in Greenwich, which is a great area of London to stay in.





Then of course there was Halloween fun at Club Antichrist. Good fun but would be better going with friends.





We went as the Big Bad Wolf and Puss in Boots, which of course there is another picture at the friends only notice at the top of this journal.

While in London I generally just did typing and read while Sam was on her course.

Since then Sam's mum stayed over for a few nights, Sam's friend Kaffe also came to stay and we generally got one being uber geeky.

ALso had a bit of a bad time with the council tax and when it was getting paid out and when I was getting paid, but that's sorted now.

Sam has been doing really well studying for her course, getting better at learning and being a better student than myself!

Also we went to my supervisor's house so Sam could do makeup practice on his daughter and her friends, while we went to the pub in Kenilworth. I was fine until later when we got back and drank Port.

Stuff Kris Does When Drunk - by Sam (his wife)

-Walks in a criss-cross line
-Turns the key the wrong way in the lock
-Tries to lean on things and accidentally pushes them over
-Walks into coffee tables
-Falls asleep then wakes up talking science gibberish
-Falls asleep and chews the inside of his cheek
-Finds slightly amusing things HILARIOUS and descends into nonstop maniacal laughter
-Does not remember the 'process of turning my phone off'
-Arrogantly cites that said phone is 'not just a phone, it does scientific stuff, it's a calculator... and has music, and other stuff.'


Never again!

ALso being playing on Devil May Cry, and watching the anime (it's fucking awesome!).

Organized to go see Lady Gaga with Sam in Feb.

Also had the joy of James staying over since he left leamington due to job issues. Basically we miss him a lot from roleplay and general movie nights and going to the pub.

Went to Stratford upon Avon to go shopping. It's a pretty little town, but the weather was shite. But I was able to find a jumper to buy! The first new one I have bought in 4 years. It's warm, asymmetrical and grey.

Oh my hair is now red... note red... not white... pictures to come sometime soon.

Also got my referee reports back on my latest paper. Not much to do but I need to get it done before xmas break. Hopefully tomorrow!

Cringeworthy

I may enjoy the steampunk asethic, the literature, the style of clothes. But there are times when I see videos it, such as on BBC, that make me weep. It turns what is a cool genre of scifi, a nice style of clothing, into a joke. It comes across as quite ... well twee. Almost childish. And this is me, the person who likes to sit inside once a week with friends and play a tabletop roleplay game where we are Vampries! I may do this but I do not think that I, or they are vampires, nor do we act like this outside of the game (3 hours a week tops). Don't get me wrong I like the idea of customization of devices so they are unique. But I think it is all the ray guns etc. It's very LARP. I guess we all roleplay to an extent when we go out to clubs. But then seeing someone going around brandishing a ray gun/steampunk arm, in a very serious manner just grates on me. LARP has it's place. This is of course a personal opinion. I know I will get flamed by someone.

Honestly I just don't get it. It's a LARP genre trying to act as a subculture. Bits have succeeded (look at Etsy and the like as people make things from scratch!), but others have failed (Steampunk music - Steampunk music is more than likely never going to decided upon as it is a world that has never existed and never will. The music would more than likely be Victorian, lots of violins. No rock. No guitars. Yet we have bands labelling themselves as steampunk as a way to certify their own being because they have no idea what genre they are other than they like the clothes).

Oh and then there is the issue of the faux Victorian etiquette. No just no! It's again just plain annoying. You are a mockery of a time that not only had great scientific advances, but was also conservative, racist, and raped the world in the name of old Queen Vic. Your manners simply hide the fact that you do not comprehend the Victorian age. For if it was that great it would still be around today.

I think I have greater respect for Furries

link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8376028.stm