On Robots, Part Two

Part two, of my mumblings on two recent Gundam properties which I've recently watched/played. You can see part one over here: http://cyrevenant.blogspot.com/2012/02/on-robots-part-one.html

On Robots, Part One

If you know me well, you'll know that I'm a fan of things with robots in them. Small robots, medium sized robots, quite big robots and of course, giant robots. So it follows that I would watch a lot of shows with robots in them and play games predominately featuring robots.

Dateline, Dublin. Twenty-twelve

At the time of writing this, I am living in Dublin. I am a graduate of Computer Applications in DCU. I am employed in a call centre where I provide first point of contact customer support for a large software company's popular gaming platform. I am twenty-four years old and I am single. It has been fifteen months since I last blogged.

Midway, Work, Work & Robots

I find it difficult to believe, but I’m already halfway through my term of lectures. Week six is now behind me, which leaves six more ahead of me. A handful of deadlines are out of the way, but there’ll be a handful more over the next week or so. Time certainly flies.

Bright Green Helix

Deep into the college year. The work keeps coming but it's nothing I can't handle yet. Still keeping up the gym too. I look forward to the day when it doesn't take quite so much out of me. This weekend was a relaxing weekend at home. Nothing much happened, but it's been a while since I've been home and a while since I've spent a weekend doing altogether very little. The weekend before, however, was Eirtakon.

Locked Out

I went back to the gym again today. It was surprisingly easy to get back in after a week off. I forgot to book an intro session so I'll need to get on that tomorrow. There was a problem though. When I came back from my shower wrapped in nothing but a towel. Luckily, a nice chap fetched a man to open up my locker for me. Crisis averted.

Diocletian's Imperial House of Cats

Last week, Takako and I went on a holiday to Croatia. Four days on the Adriatic coast. It was great, and full of pleasant surprises. Of course, we nearly didn't make the flight to begin with. I lingered too long over an ice cream in Burger King, and arrived at the gate just as they were closing. The staff were in the process of sending us away when some more breathless passengers dashed up behind us, so they reluctantly allowed us through. So began a great journey.

Running for One Hundred

Halfway through my first week back. Lots of interesting lectures, and I've joined the gym. The lecturers all seem very interesting, The content seems like it should be pretty straightforward for the most part. Though cryptography still looks tough, as does compiler construction. The optional modules seem to be a lot more doable than the compulsory modules.

To the Grindstone

Back to work! Only back a day and lectures start tomorrow. Straight into Security Protocols, first thing tomorrow morning. I also need to finish my registration for my modules. I've got a couple of hours free over lunch so I'll have to take care of it then. I still haven't fully decided what modules I want, but I guess I can change that after I get a good feel for what's available.

Home Again, Home Again

I'm back. And this time, it's serious business all round. Lugging my bags to Schipol and across Dublin was a pain, but I had a good flight. I turned my phone on when I touched down, and the internet came flooding back into it. It had been quiet since I left but it's been chirping incessantly since I arrived. A couple of relaxing bus trips and I was home. It's good to be back.

Job Done

Today was my last day of work. That's it, I'm finished. There was lots of lovely cake served to say goodbye to me, and I was given a lovely Irdeto branded notepad, flash drive and pen. The notepad is great. Another person was leaving today too, a woman who started the same day as me. So there was lots more cake in the afternoon. Then we spend the long evening drinking and chilling out in the company bar. I got a couple of games of pool in to prove how bad I am.

Finishing up

Just two days left for me here in the Netherlands. I really should get around to packing my bags or something. Tomorrow I'll be needing to take a trip to city hall to let them know I'm leaving the country. I tried to do it today but I forgot that nobody will talk to me if I'm not carrying my passport. A little annoying but if the alternative is some kind of identity theft then I'll put up with that minor inconvenience.

Homeward Bound

Into my last week here in Irdeto. We had a sprint planning meeting and all I did in it was take up space. I asked to leave as it didn't involve me at all, but they had me stick around. Not that I had any work to be doing regardless. Listening to what the guys are going to be doing, it sounds like they'll have a nice easy couple of weeks to start them hard, before they launch into some nice frustrating test cases. Part of me is glad to be going.

Lazier Days

After a night out in the XO in Haarlem on Friday night, with two of the most hipsterish DJs I've ever seen spinning out lots of Techno, I've spent half the weekend in bed. I can't recall the last time I was this tired. Tired to the point where even getting up to go to the shops is a massive effort. I don't know what it is but I hope I shake it soon, back to work tomorrow.

Forever Delayed

Registration still isn't open today. I did some more research into the choices and I'm almost back to square one in terms of picking what I want to do. On further investigation, Operations Research is not about problem solving, decision making, game theory and management skills. It is instead about very hard, nasty maths. So where I had it down as a sure thing, I now might reconsider. If I can find something else worth taking.

Scritch Scratch

I've gotten my third year results. At long last. I was concerned that I was going to fail one of my modules, Object Orientated Analysis and Design. Though at the end of it all I came out with 66, a good mark. Everything turned out better than expected. It brings my total mark for the year to a 2.2. Which isn't the best I could have gotten but I'm glad regardless. All that's left for me to do is to submit my INTRA report, which I should be able to wrap up this weekend.

Hop to it

Tomorrow I'll have to start on my INTRA report. It's due in a few weeks time but I'll have to crank out a good 2,000 words on Irdeto. I'm not sure what I'll write but I need to get it done before I leave so my boss can review it for things I can and cannot say. Shouldn't take too long to do. 2,000 words isn't exactly a lot.

Mean Streets

So on Friday, we all went into Amsterdam for drinks. We had a good time, such a lively city at night. I still don't understand why every night out turns into a pub crawl though. Several times we were settled into a pub and having a grand time, when suddenly it was time to wander a few streets and find a new one. It's something I'll never understand.

Potentially Useful

The new interns have been here almost two weeks. In that time they've been in constant training. I can count the amount of minutes training I've received since starting on one hand without using my fingers. Some of the stuff they're learning seems to be quite useful and would have helped me a lot when I was still fumbling around the system back in July. Guess there's not much point investing time in training me now as I'll be out the door before the month is gone.

Living in the Future

Sometimes technology scares me. Or rather, the pace of advance. Today I received delivery of a replacement memory card for my phone. It was a 16GB Micro SDHC card. Now I know these have been kicking about for a couple of years now, but this was my first time handling one myself. These things are smaller than my thumbnail but can hold a pretty large amount of music or photos. Or if I felt like it, a few full HD movies.