27th November 2012 - Another assignment

They are really hitting us hart with the assignments. We now have to come up with a 15-minute presentation about "Problem Solving". Our lecturer has split us into teams and given each team a solving method. Ours is "Brainstorming/Brainmapping". Of all the methods we were introduced to, I would say this one is the easiest one to complete. I already volunteered to do the PowerPoint presentation once we have come up with our results. One of the team has the "Napoleonean (Napolean, no sure about the spelling) Method" - I am really looking forward to that presentation. The people on that team will pretend to be a famous character and solving a problem by trying to find out how that famous person would solve the problem. Last years class used Homer Simpsons and something about how to raise kids. Our topic is about online services for teaching or college coursework. Have to read the assignment paper again. The presentation is due by 10th December. Thank God I have most of the other stuff done. Somebody in the class will help me on the Math stuff. I am still missing two transpositions and I have put them, once I have the result, into Excel. I managed to solve one today and my solution was correct according to Excel: the values I used for the x and y variables were equal on both equations. It's other two I just can't solve. But somebody has thankfully agreed to help me. That's one more thing of my mind.

I have to say here and now: I have booked my next holiday after Christmas. We have reading week from 25th February to 3rd March, so there are no lectures. Aerlingus offered 20% off flights between 1st January and 31st March 2013, if booked by 3rd December. My boss left for Germany today so I was happy to get through my holidays. I know that I agreed with my mum that I would keep this a secret until Christmas, but I am so delighted. I will again travel light with handluggage, arriving Friday 22nd February, returning 3rd March. College is back on Monday 4th March. As I don't have classes on Monday, we will start again on Tuesday 5th March. It's going to be nice and I have to say that short week a while ago did me some good. Looking back at the assignments, it was also good I got time off. I really got a lot done if I think some people now start struggling in my class. Hope they will manage.

24th November 2012 - Exhausted but happy ...

I would say at this stage that most people have figured out that I am not posting during week. Although I am trying very hard, I just simply cannot fit it in at the moment. Most days and evenings I am too tired. My old life has me back.

At present, I am still working on my assignments only to realise that half the stuff I need is in work. So I have prolonged the remaining Business Methods assignments and thrown myself into Visual Basic development. I am struggling with Loops and the logic behind them. We did a piece of work in college last week where our lecturer drew a picture of a Ferrari and made it move along the screen. We did a few things to it afterwards such as manipulating the speed and the amount of the times the car was supposed to move once it reached the end of the screen. I raised the question how you would move it backwards and well, I got it as some sort of a "special assignment". Well, Nadine, have a go at home and see whether you can find a solution for it.

And? What do you think? I did. After I got the assignment, I thought of creating a little racing game with VB as well and spent the last three or four hours getting it sorted. I got as far as moving two pictures at different speeds. However, they don't start at the same time and if I merge the loops they block each other. I tried it with a "For ... Next"-loop - which made one car move after the next one and I gave the "Do While ... "-loop a chance. The last one doesn't event make the car move. I tried a lot of different variables and positions but the pictures don't want to move. Reversing the car was an easier task. Got that sorted in less than one hour. If you would like to have a look, I have put it up in my Download section as zip-file. I'd say though that you need Visual Studio installed. Have a look whether you can solve it. And PLEASE ... don't say at this point "Oh, that's easy. I am only a beginner at this stage. I am still learning!". But I had my fun tonight. Better than emptying the dishwasher. Originally I wanted to watch "Alien" tonight but I changed my mind. I will have a look whether I can get my xbox to work again tonight. She played for me yesterday so fingers crossed.

Again, I have collected some pictures over the last couple of days.

A blissful sleeping Weasley on my bed. He even managed to smile into the camera.

We have a new exhibition on in the Science Gallery called "Game". They have put a live version of Tetris. The guy standing in front gives you an idea about how big the screen is. I managed to get two of my class convinced at different stages to play with me. One person is responsible for moving the stones, another one for turning them. It's not as easy as it looks. In the top left corner you can see the yellow and purple fields. A camera captures your movements and interpretes them for the game.

Looking forward to my next holiday. Can't wait. We have the company and children's Christmas party coming up and I still have to get a dress - I am knitting one at the moment so I hope to have it done on time. Otherwise, I have a white one which I can adjust for the party as the theme is "Iceworld". Will go to Swords tomorrow to do a bit of shopping, look at makeup, etc. Will have a look at Christmas presents too. Already have a few ideas.

Our neighbours above are playing their music pretty loudly. Hopefully it stops soon. Don't want to ruin their party but I am tired. If they at least would play something good ... oh, wait ... I think that's Adele's "Skyfall". Well, that's alright. Otherwise they don't seem to be able to make a decission.

Don't think I will last much longer tonight. And I am still suffering a bit with my cold. Only a runny nose left at this stage but still ... I am exhausted.

17th November 2012 - Same old

My old life has me back. It amazes me every single time when I come back from Germany how quickly you are back in old trot. I had my first week in college, I am tired again and feel like falling asleep on Fridays. My classmates are going for drinks now every Thursday and despite the fact I felt like joining them last week, I just couldn't. We had four days in college and I almost fell into bed Friday once I came home.

I met a friend last Friday and we went to "Taste of Brazil". She treated me to dinner as she had purchased a voucher on the internet. We had a starter and main course each, later dessert and a Brahma beer. We ended up paying less than €13, so we gave them a more generous tip. Food was gorgeous and I was so delighted to catch up with her. I hadn't seen my friend (who is orginally from Canada) for about six months. She has to sit exams coming Tuesday and I am wishing her the best of luck.

Today, I spent some time in library, working away on my Web Design project and the second part of my Business Methods assignment which is mainly Excel. I have put some good stuff toghether for Web Design but I think I will pass it on to a colleague in work. With a cover page and a page for the table of content, I managed to write ten pages which now require some proof-reading and needed critisism. I did some of the Excel calculations which mainly involves the Maths test we had to do and proove that our results are correct. Some are quite easy - there are two parts which consists of ten questions. The second part I have completed which involved four questions. I am really proud of myself; I managed to create a formulae to count together numbers in a range which are between two numbers. Took me a while but I am satisfied with the result. Excel is a good friend of mine.

By the way "friend": I have the slight feeling my xBox 360 is dying on me. She has started to stop playing DVDs and sometimes dies in the middle of a game. I started playing Mass Effect 2 again and it has happened now a few times that I received a warning "Unreadable media". Can't put games on pause for too long or and I can pretty much restart the console. Well, I have that console for the last five years so I don't blame her for giving up. It's just the wrong timing. I know I should be sitting down doing my stuff, but since I started college, Saturday afternoon has become my gaming day. Hope she will make it until after Christmas. Unless somebody has a tip regarding the reading laser? Can't find my cleaning disk.

Help!

As the console is acting up, I am getting prepared for the second part of "Twilight - Breaking Dawn". It's the first time I am going as a student which saves me €2 on the cinema ticket. Therefore, I am catching up on the movies. My housemate has the whole boxset of the first three films and the last one I still remember quite well - nothing really happended anyway. Just wondering whether they split the book into two movies because it it so big. I am considering buying them for my ebook-Reader. Looking for some bargains to read on the tablet.

10th November 2012 - My Break is over ... almost

Today is my second last day in Germany and I have to say that I had a lovely time. Despite the fact I only had one week and two days to spend at home I made good use of it. I was able to meet friends and family, go to dinner parties and do the necessary shopping. I also went for countless coffees and snacks and did my Maths test, months before I have to hand it in.

I am putting together a last few lines and pictures which I have collected over the last couple of days while on the go.

I met this fellow ray at the Campus Suite restaurant/bistro. They have an aquarium at the back in their "Beach Lounge" and he looked at me with a keen interest (or maybe he is just bored or annoyed or ... well, you know). This restaurant has two of them in the back and he was the braver one and got closer. Just look at those eyes. They are so cute! I have linked their website. You can see the aquarium at the back on one of their pictures.

The very same day my friend and I went for dinner at the Bolero restaurant to meet two of his friends I hadn't met before. We had a few cocktails.

 I think this was my second cocktail - a Dragon's Eye. Oh wait ... that was actually my friends cocktail. I stayed with redish and pink coloured cocktails for the night. Bolero does Happy Hour on cocktails from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. We had a few ... I went with alcohol-free ones at a later stage. Food was delicious. I had a plate with mixed fried things such as chicken wings, potato wedges, nice big prawns ... it was just simply yummy!

I met one of my grandmothers on Friday morning for breakfast. I have started to lose track of time so I really have to think hard to figure out which day it is today. But I do remember that it was yesterday we met. Breakfast was good despite the fact that half of my hot cocoa got spilt on the tray. The cup was too full.

After breakfast we did a bit of shopping. If saw this bike standing in front of one of the shops.

This shop was selling artifical flowers, but I don't recall its name.

Overall, I had a lovely stay. I got used to my parents' car; I really got the hang of reversed parking and getting the car into spot first time. Still, looking forward to driving my little Nissan Micra again. My mother and I watched an English movie yesterday and in that movie they were driving on the left-hand side. It really made me miss driving in Ireland. The German road system is something you really have to get used to. And ... and please don't take any offence ... I find the German car drivers a bit impatient and I am not used to the lane system yet. But I gained some experience on German roads and I am satisfied with that.

Meeting another friend in a few hours for sushi, in my favourite Sushi Bar, Mijori. I have already packed my stuff for tomorrow and printed my ticket. Not sure what kind of problems my father has with his printer but the ticket came out perfectly.

I better finish up. Our neighbours are drilling holes into the walls (again) and I feel like being at a dentist.

4th November 2012 - Return from the flea market

And I have cold feet. We had some coffee outside one of the bakery's and now my feet are cold. It was lovely sitting outside. Sun was still shining, however the breeze is a bit chilling and the seats we sat on where slightly damp. Luckly, the bakery provided blankets and seat cushions so we were able to stay for a longer period of time. My upper legs are also cold despite the fact I am already wearing a longish wintercoat.

I managed to buy myself a new purse which was meant to serve as my holiday purse but I have made the decision to use it as my new one. It's a lot smaller and I realised that it has more pockets than my current one. Recently, I started to struggle with all the cards I have on me all the time and my driver's licence also takes up a good bit of space. It was meant to cost €12 but the Turkish fellow who sold it to me in the end only charged €10 - I think he saw my hesitation to buy it. Happily I walked away and saw later on that it's actually made in Italy (Florence). Now I am really delighted.

My new purse - I am really delighted.

We had a nice walk around the market. My mother bought a vase, one she had been on the hunt for quite some time. She also managed to buy an old fashioned sewing box which she will use to safe-keep her threads for cross stitching. Unfortunately, no picture available.

Here is proof of the fabulous blue sky we had earlier. It starts getting darker now and as far as know it's meant to rain later on.

I also found a treasure on the flea market but I did not dare asking for the price. I would know anyway how to get it home.

Somebody was selling this old Singer sewing machine which comes together with a table. The machine can be lowered into the table and when you open the doors there is room for sewing accessories. It even came with an integrated lamp. If I wasn't going to back Ireland, I'd say I would have at least asked for the price. Singer machines have a good name among seamstresses; they are very reliable and especially the old ones, if looked after, last forever. Just don't know how it would have fitted into my hand luggage and I only bought one recently at Lidl - well, it's something I can dream about.

Well, more updates later. Going to watch a movie with my mum now. Happy reading!

4th November 2012 - A few updates and pictures

It has been a good few days since I've posted an update. College is keeping me busy and we received our first two assignments to work on, another one will be handed out after our Reading week.

The first piece of work I have to do is a four-page maths exam with questions about all the topics with have discussed on Tuesday night's lecture. I was a bit shocked at first as this assignment only counts for 10% of the overall mark in Business Methods. Still I am a bit thrilled to work on it. We have to solve fractions, linear and quadratic equations, statistics and number system. I've already solved a few which I found easier to do. Somehow, it feels like Christmas has come early.

The other assignment comes from our Web Development and System Design class which takes place on Thursday. We have to write a project proposal for a website that can be displayed on mobile phones. I have done some note taking and already put the outline together despite the fact our lecturer said that there is no need to rush: we don't need to start working on this assignment before coming Thursday, 8th November. Couldn't wait. As I am boarded a flight to Germany on Friday 2nd November, I already did some work on the flight. I had this rush of typing down ideas. I spent the last two nights after going to bed working on my notes page. We were encouraged to spend a good bit of time on our User Analysis Matrix as this section will play a very important part in our second assignment when we actually start designing the page.

I had a good few days rest which also have been very productive. My parents have agreed to let me drive their car now that I have full driving licence. I am really enjoying myself - although the car feels a bit like a toy car. It's very easy to end up in the wrong gear and once in a while I have the urge to use my left hand to change gears. The gear box is on the other side in the car and my left arm feels a bit neglected at present. Still, I really do enjoy driving in Germany. Today we are going to a local flea market and so far the weather is on our side.

Now, here a are a few pictures which I have collected over the last couple of days:

I took this picture to more or less annoy a colleague. We had to go to our DR site out in Mulhuddart where the company that hosts our seats in case of emergency is located. I saw the sign above in the door window and had to take a picture - just to annoy my colleague! He wants to organise table tennis tournments - we are still lacking the table though.

 

This was the view from my allocated seat at the testing side. One of my colleagues found it very funny to say that one of rabbits/bunnys was likely going to be served for lunch. Funnily enough, one of them was gone by lunch time. However, no rabbit or bunny stew on the lunch menu.

A few days ago, before Halloween, I met a few friends and their kids for an early dinner in Skerries village and saw that our local ice cream shop was all dressed up. After our dinner, I drove everybody home: three adults and three kids in a little Micra. Just happy it was already late and dark and nobdoy stopped us - I had a lot of fun.

Now that I am back home with my parents, we do all the things we used to do when I was still living in Germany. Saturday is our market day and we get our share of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers. We stopped at one of the stands that was selling fish products and my grandmother happened to notice the water tank full of carps. One was particularly interested in having his picture taken.

I am meeting a few friends tonight for a general catch-up and dinner. Weather still looks fine at the moment which I hope means it will be a promising day.