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.