So, as the end of the decade draws near, and the half way point of my PhD is approaching fast, I finally have the time to sit, think, and write about the past few months or so where I never seem to have had a moment to myself.

My PhD is obviously the biggest thing in my life at the moment. I’m glad to say that it seems to be going well, I’m getting results, and while there have been a few setbacks, I’m on my way to obtaining that seemingly elusive doctorate. While I really want this doctorate, I’m not sure I want my PhD to end either. Partially because I’m enjoying it so much, mainly because I don’t want to write that thesis! Still, I can’t complain at the fact I even have a PhD place, there are plenty of people out there that I know that don’t have a job at all, relying on the state – and many many more besides, so I’m grateful I’m in my position. I can’t wait to get my first paper out, but first I have to write it. I guess there are two sides to every coin – but hey, what can you do?

Home isn’t bad either. I moved in July to be closer to the Uni, with a friend of mine. Sure, there are things that niggle at me, but then, that is the price you pay for house sharing. She isn’t a bad house mate at all. I annoy her, she annoys me – but then, I think we generally understand each other.

Course, not everything is hunky dory – it’s that feeling of being used rearing it’s head again. Whether it’s one of your so-called friends being two-faced and trying to discredit you behind your back, or just being power mad and trying assert their imaginary authority over you for whatever reason, it’s not fair. In the same vain, those who don’t really care about your personal feelings about whatever, from inappropriate insults to the little things, need to be knocked into line. But then, I think those people in my life who act like this will get their come-uppance sooner or later – so it really isn’t worth worrying about them much. Why should I? I’ve got most of what I want in my life at the moment.

So I won’t. I’m concentrating on the people that matter most in my life. The people who are willing to listen to me when I’m down, and not only use me to rant to and ignore thereafter. The people who are willing to put up with my idiosyncrasies, just as I am willing to put up with theirs. The people who will do something unexpected, like buy you a box of Malteasers as a Christmas present, or send you a Christmas card from the other end of the country, when you were expecting nothing from them, and make you feel bad because you haven’t done anything in return.

Heh, I’ve descended into a rant again – oops. Then again, I’m not writing this because I’m upset, or angry. I’m writing this because I’m happy, content for the first time in a long while. Sure, there are a couple of things that would like yet to fall into place – but I know they will. I know my situation is better than many others in the world – that is enough to make me feel better.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all – may 2010 be good for you all!

Wow, this month has been a hectic one. Beginning with my birthday, then followed by two weeks in the Lake District for Physics By The Lake (which was an absolutely awesome two weeks!), coupled with moving house, July was already hectic for me.

To top it all off, I was at a wedding last week, the wedding of Ben Best and Naomi Bowdler. One I had to travel down to King’s Lynn for.

One where I was the best man.

It’s no wonder that this week I’m absolutely exhausted. I’ve taken this week off from my PhD in order to move into my new place, tidy it up, and rest. However, I wanted to take some time to talk about being the best man at this wedding, and what I took away from it. So, here goes…

I was first asked to be Ben’s Best Man by phone when I was in the Student Union bar with some other members of the department after prospective lecturers were shown round the department. Naturally, I accepted, I was honoured to have been asked.

Naturally, I didn’t realise how much work was involved.

I got to King’s Lynn and Ben’s house on the Monday evening, and visited Naomi’ and her parents with Ben. I had a good evening, the Bowdlers cooked dinner for me, which was gratefully received. We generally had a catch up, having not really seen each other much in the past couple of months.

Tuesday came, and the work began. I didn’t realise how much was still left to do! I still had a speech to finish/start, we had to visit Ben’s parents to ensure that the Order of Service booklet was correct (Ben’s computer was still at his parents at this moment), we had to visit the city centre and ensure everyone had the correct attire, check with other key people that they knew what they were doing. I thought Tuesday was a stressful day, but I thought that the thick of it was over, I had helped Ben sort out what he needed, so that Wednesday was just gonna be a fairly quiet day.

Of course, it never happens like that, Wednesday was worse! Of course, Ben and Naomi were jittery, in fact I wouldn’t mind betting that I was at least as nervous as them! Ben and I took three hours to print Order of Service booklets, ensure he had the correct documents for his honeymoon, finish his speech, finish my speech. In that time, I also had to deal with a couple of other issues that had cropped up, and Ben and Naomi also had to sort stuff out for their honeymoon. By the time we had sorted all that out, we had to rush across to the Church to have a rehearsal – which felt unusually quick! Finally, we had a rather awful meal at some pub nearby, before heading to the Sailing Club, where the reception was to be held. Naturally, because I was taking a friend back to where she was staying, I arrived later, after taking several wrong turnings and almost ending up on a beach!

Leaving the Sailing Club was a chore in it’s own right! Originally, Ben and I both drove separately so that he could leave his car there for the night, before driving to Holland for their honeymoon after the wedding. But, Ben and Naomi hadn’t managed to sort their speech out, so Ben decided that he would take his car back with him too, as I didn’t want to drive her back after they’d finished. Of course, it aspired that I drove her back anyway because he was very tired – but everything worked out and I got enough sleep that night!

Then Thursday was the big day! Stress Central a.k.a. The Wedding! The morning was a frustrating morning, we needed to get to the sailing club, set up a gazebo (a word I didn’t even know existed until that day!) and get back to get ready all in the space of two hours! And I’m pleased to say we managed it! Of course, everything else didn’t seem to run to time!

1.10pm. The Church. After unkindly playing “Consign to Oblivion” to Ben in the car, we arrived. Almost immediately, I was wanted, one of the members of the Band was able to get her exam results that day at 1pm, and therefore wanted my iPhone to check her results (I’m pleased to say she passed!)

That was the simplest request I think I had that day. 1 hour before the wedding, and my nerves were setting in. Had I forgotten anything? Rings in the top pocket, corsage on, speech… left at home. Typical, something had to go wrong. Luckily, that was my own doing, and wasn’t going to affect the marriage.

And so the wedding began, 5 minutes late, which isn’t bad really, I find most occasions run late. Everything was going well, until the giving of the rings! It took me a while to get the rings out of the pocket, which was a highly embarrassing situation for me! I was thankful that the band then proceeded to play the wrong hymn! I wasn’t the only one to mess up! Other than that, the wedding was highly successful! I couldn’t stop smiling!

Then, we arrived at the Sailing Club, and the newlyweds arrived… quite a bit later! As there was no toastmaster, I ended up filling those shoes as well as my duties as Best Man. I was also asked about seating, more people turned up then we anticipated, which was good – though it meant we had to move tables about and things. It also meant that I had more people to give a speech to.

The speeches then came. As I’d forgotten my notes, I ended up making it up as I went along – but in the end, it was very well received, and I had a lot of complements about it, which again, I thank all of you for! But my work wasn’t done, I was then directing people up to the buffet, table by table, and bar a few people from the Best family, and a cheeky text asking to be picked next (who ended up getting picked last – serves her right!), people were generally good about this, and it gave me a chance to talk to the various guests.

I then ended up directing the photographs, (i.e. calling the various groups), and that was stressful, trying to get everyone needed at any one time in the same place! Soon after, the first dance! I’ll let you find the photos of me dancing with the maid of honour!

Ben and Naomi left shortly after. I said a quick prayer, and they were on their way, starting married life in Holland.

I thought that was it for me – and spent an hour on the Beach with a few friends, watching the sunset and skimming stones. When I walked back into the club, however, the DJ had it in for me! One YMCA, Saturday Night, Hokey Cokey, Cha Cha Slide and one other dancy-type song later (the one where you sit on the floor) – I was embarrassing myself in front of other guests! Haha! Again, pictures exist.

I finally left about 10.30, and after taking a friend back to where she was staying and picking up Ben’s spare key’s from his friend, I was ready to fall asleep. The week had been stressful, but it had gone well. I wrote in the Guest Book a rather lengthy passage for Ben and Naomi, and went to bed, still smiling.

Reflecting on this, yeah, being the Best Man is highly draining, but it has been one of the best experiences in my life, and I am honoured to have been the Best Man. The work was worth it! So much so, that I left the following P.S. for Ben in his guest book…

“P.S. Ben, just you wait until my wedding! You’ll love every minute of it! I did!”

Something I’ve done very little of lately is blogging on my site. Good reason really, I’ve been really busy with my PhD. Just over eight months ago, I started my PhD in Solid State Physics, particularly looking at the properties of Gallium Nitride devices. Now I’ve made some time to blog – I’m not sure I’ve got much to talk about… so I’ll just ramble on for a bit about stuff you probably don’t care about.

Where to start?

First, if you were a follower of this blog purely for the Union Politics posts, or at least partly, then you may be disappointed, as I have left the world of Union politics completely. I won’t be writing about the elections that I mentioned in an earlier post – partially because I can’t bothered to do so, mainly because I stopped caring. My main focus has been my PhD, and as such, my life has slowly been crumbling away to make way for it.

For example, I was playing an online game called Travian. I was leading an alliance alongside two others, and I was enjoying it. However, I had less and less time for it, and to try and fit in my Travian commitments as well as all my other commitments was causing my health to degrade. It was a shame really, but it just went to show how demanding my PhD really is. While I miss the communications between the various players on Travian, especially with one of the leaders, I know it was the best move for me. On the flip side though, I can still get in contact with some of the members, so I haven’t lost that aspect of the game, which was the best thing about the game really. (Side note, I just lost the game…)

Moving on, it’s been quite difficult to keep up with real life activities too. I only managed to go karting for the first time this week, for the first time this year, simply because I’ve had no time, and it was good to finally meet a lot of the karters that I’ve seen sign up on the forum. It’s a shame I’ve not managed to race before this year, but hey, my PhD comes first. For similar reasons, I have also halted all work on my Facebook client, iDeskbook – mainly ’cause I have no time and the Facebook platform changes so quickly so often I generally don’t have time to fix compatibility issues with it, which is a shame, as I enjoyed building the program.

Now, it might look like I’m complaining about my PhD, but I’m not – I wouldn’t trade it for the world, my office mates are great (well, most of the time, there are times where they annoy me, and I bet vice-versa!), the department is awesome, and my PhD, while difficult, is really enjoyable. I just wish I had more hours in the day. I guess a point here really for anyone wanting to do a PhD is to make sure they are willing to put the effort in, and to be prepared to sacrifice a lot for it.

Well, I really don’t have much more to say at the moment. I feel like having a massive rant again about some people who, in my eyes, “just don’t get it” at the moment, from the small things, like the little jokes about me that go too far, to the bigger things, like being appreciated for actually doing something and spending money on things to make things easier for others, exploiting that great weakness that I seem to have – wanting others to be happy more than wanting myself to be happy. That said, I hope that I’m wrong, I hope that I’m reading too much into this. However, I won’t delve any deeper, and though my pessimistic attitude seems to be getting the better of me at the moment, I continue to hope for that which I believe will never happen, and I know I must buckle down and get on with what I can achieve, where I know can make a difference, be that via my PhD, or supporting those where I can – I might rant about it, but at the end of the day, I can’t go on without ensuring the happiness of others.

Anyhow, knowing the way things are going at the moment, I probably won’t get a chance to blog again for a while. However, going back to the PhD theme for a final point, I know I said about it being hard work, and PhDs are, but if you are offered one, then seriously consider it. The hard work pays dividends, and I wouldn’t trade this chance for the world – it has been an amazing year so far!

Well, my blogging seems to have dried up of late, and for good reason – I haven’t had time to. It’s nice just to be able to sit down for a few minutes without having to think about anything. Well, today, I seem to have more time to do that, so I might as well write one of these things. And no, I have no intention of talking about HUU.

It’s been well over two months since I last wrote something maybe even partially interesting – my PhD has really been taking up most of my time, but I’m loving it. Sure, most of my other projects have taken a back seat to my PhD, but I guess the PhD is most important at the moment. I find time to hack on my software every so often, but most of the time I want to spend my time socializing – and there isn’t much time to spend!! However, while I now have some time, converting all my music into 128kbps m4a files for my iPhone, I guess I have time to blog.

As I sat here, listening to Spock’s Beard’s “Ballet of the Impact”, something I haven’t listened to since July, so my iTunes library tells me, I began thinking back at my UG years – and about all those people doing Physics that suddenly I’ve lost contact with. Not that it is intentional, of course, but there are many people that I haven’t spoken to since the 15th July, our day Graduation. For some of them, I really have no excuse, a few, I exchange messages with sometimes, one I still call and chat to every so often, but other than that – nothing. And listening to Spock’s Beard, in particular, the tracks “She is Everything” and “The Beauty of it All”, tracks I have somehow linked to my UG years, made me realize this, and it’s a shame that such things have lapsed.

Not that I am complaining about the fact I have gained new friends, not at all – but there are two or three in particular that I wish I still spoke to more often, indeed, one of them I haven’t spoken to since Graduation. I should really make more of an effort, and break out of the mindset that I have that I give the impression that I have an ulterior motive every time I start talking to someone – cause it isn’t the case! I have no idea why I feel like that – still, never mind.

Wow, I really have nothing more interesting to say. Barring my PhD, my life has been quite boring, I guess. Well, it hasn’t, I’ve been doing a lot – just not stuff to put down here! I don’t think I need to recount the pub visits or anything!

Hmmm… that’s enough from me, time to have a look at Travian…

Wow, it seems to have been a while since I have posted here… mainly because I haven’t had much to talk about..

Anyhow, it’s been an interesting couple of months. If any of you follow my software activities, you will have noticed that iDeskbook, my Windows client for Facebook, has gotten a face lift in the upcoming version 1.5, with alpha 2 currently out. I’ve got more to do, but I am chipping away, making it a more useful product. I’m also trying to get Mac/Linux versions out through the use of Mono, but it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen at the moment. *sigh*, well, I reckon iDeskbook 2 is going to be a complete re-write anyway…

On that front, Arcanos, my issue tracking system, has been retired – it was causing me a headache to maintain it, with so little gain, it wasn’t worth keeping it. If you need to provide a bug report, contact me at http://drnaylor.co.uk/contact.

Right, so that’s the website and boring stuff out of the way, time for the more interesting stuff. Since I graduated with a 2:1 at Uni with a B.Sc. Physics with Lasers and Photonics Degree, I have been offered a PhD placement which is due to start at the end of this month. Essentially, I will be doing a theoretical research degree in Solid State Physics – and I can’t wait for it! Of course, the waiting for it is killing me… I just want it to hurry up and arrive!

Other than that, the month of July was quite a boring one – moving out of my student house and going back to my parents (I’m insured to drive a car now!) was probably the most exciting thing that happened… and when exciting, I don’t mean a good thing – I would have liked to have stayed with Abi, Karl, Ben and Rob for another year, they were, on the whole, fantastic housemates – sure we had our niggles, but hey, that’s what kept the house alive…

August has been more interesting – but it has kind of left my head in a whirl. Meeting new people, (well,  a new person), strengthening friendships with some of those I already knew (so I’d like to think, they probably want to kill me actually – or just make fun of me as they always do), it’s been good.

Of course, every silver lining comes with a cloud – but it is probably just an over-active imagination. Some of the things that have been said to me in passing lately, most of them not even negative or derogatory, perhaps following on from a joke or something, makes me wonder. A lot. All I can say is though, what ever happens, happens ;P.

I do wonder though… what if?

Status on Facebook from my house mate…

“Karl Reed thought dan had reached a new high by doing something stupid enough to shake the whole house up!!”

Gee, thanks. Apparently, this was his first thought during the earthquake… just goes to show what people think I get up to…

I am quite aware that I haven’t posted in a while, partially because Uni has started up again, and I have been so busy with that, but also due to other commitments. I can’t talk about them here, but I can link you to http://hullstudent.com/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=8111 and you’ll find out a bit more.

I probably won’t be blogging much for the rest of this month – then it shall all resume… possibly!

Many of you that went to St. Mary’s College will remember the site RE Sauce. Originally designed by Lewis Lynch (currently in Kuwait I believe), the site was the RE Department’s online portal for all to use. However, when Lewis left St. Mary’s in 2004, I got control of the site for the year.

I immediately rebuilt the site, keeping much of the same design, but cleaning it up, and turning the downloads into PDF files to make them more accessible (they were in Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats, but not everyone has them) I even spruced up the RE Sauce navigation with a "flash" navigation bar, where a "RE Sauce" bottle flew across the screen. Fantastic – I distinctly remember getting an e-mail one time telling me that they loved the flying RE Sauce bottle… in fact, everyone seemed to love it! I even mentioned on my UCAS personal statement that I did the site, and the Undergraduate Admissions Tutor for Chemistry at the University of Hull even said that he liked the site, with "good use of Flash"!

After I left, control went back to a staff member, and unfortunately, the site no longer was maintained as well, understandable, as the staff member had teaching to do as well. Combined with switching web host and such, RE Sauce (which was at resauce.org) disappeared from existence.

However, I notice that RE Sauce seems to now exist, yet unmaintained, at http://resauce.net – sad really. To think, what was the best and most used RE Secondary School resource site in the whole of the UK, is now a shell of it’s former glory. Still my design though, take a look! Mind you, my skills have really improved since then!

It really is a pity it is only that now… it should be so much better…

Quick post to say Happy New Year to all readers. I hope 2008 is as, or more, prosperous than this year was!

After receiving a plethora of texts (well, six), I just wanted to post a quick, late, blog entry to wish readers a Merry Christmas (or at least, I hope it went well), and to have a Happy New Year in a weeks time.

Thanks to those six who sent me a text, I wish you a Merry Christmas all the same. Sorry I didn’t reply!

Take care guys, hope the holiday time is a peaceful one for all of you.