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…

If you have been following goings on in Hull University Union – or if you have just been about campus – then you will have noticed the SOS:U – Save Our Students’ Union banners everywhere, with various people telling you to vote “YES”. Now, I have purposely kept out of the arguments – as the current chair of Council, I don’t wish to be biased, and, besides, I have had too much going on with my PhD. Now the vote is over, and the results… well, are yet to be announced…

The vote needs a 2/3rds majority YES vote to pass – and 10% FTE of the student membership, roughly 1700 students, to vote. Unfortunately, in a vote at HUU, the best turnout has been 1500 students, and that is for the UEC elections… until now!

While we do not know the result yet, we do know that 1762 students voted, the 10% that the union needed – so the result of the vote, due on Monday at 10am, is a binding result and must be followed through.

So, to end this short post, I offer my congratulations to Helen Gibson and her UEC and Union staff, and all the volunteers that helped to get the 10% they needed to vote – they have achieved more than previous UEC’s with respect to voter turnout.

Of course… there is the little matter of the results – Monday will be a very telling day…

You know, you have to hate horoscopes. I don’t pay any attention to them (I read them for a laugh occasionally), but I found today’s amusing (was found on the Horoscopes gadget of my.live.com for Cancer.)

If you have a person today who says yes when you asked the question, “will you go out with me?” then be careful, dear Cancer. You are apt to take the nature of this situation to the extremes. Saying “yes” doesn’t mean that you are suddenly in charge of his or her life. Nor are you responsible for anything that person does or how they feel. If you are still asking the question without getting any positive responses, don’t worry. Keep trying.

As if that is going to happen (sniggers loudly at the thought)

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?

13 and a half hours to go until the final results of my degree are released. And I have nothing to do…

Why is it that time just drags and drags and drags in these situations???

At 12 o’clock tomorrow, the new UEC of Hull University Union officially take office, marking the end of an… er… eventful year for the UEC of 2007/08. With an updated constitution coming into force, many tricks and turns have awaited the UEC this year, and some may think that it is a wonder that they managed to come through it in one piece!!!

But they did. After the teething problems of the Open Forums, the attempted removal of a UEC member (twice), contriversial plans for Union entertainment, a disputed election, and heated debate over a proposal for a new constitution of HUU, resulting in a few members of the Union being… er… dissatisfied, many people fail to recoginise the UEC’s achivements. The “Reclaim the Night” protests, extended Library hours, higher turnout in elections, increased awareness in the Union politics and democratic structures, to name but a few.

As I look on to next year, I hope that, through the highs and the lows, the UEC of 2008/09 will be just as strong, and will deliever results, as the UEC of 2007/08 did.

All that remains for me to say is, Ed Marsh, Jay Webster, Daniel Harrison, Warwick Norris, Charli Hill, Hannah Shooman, Tom Metcalfe, Iain Keers, Craig Phillips and Heiko Loeffler, thank you for leading HUU this year, and good luck with your future endeavours

It seems that I accidently deleted some posts on my site last night during website cleanup… including my latest post… which also had comments on it! Sorry about that Chris, you have a valid point, and in relation to your last comment, I honestly think you are right, you know I wouldn’t be derogatory against any person. Time will tell… time will tell…

I’ll post with a proper post soon! ‘Till next time!

I’m aware that I haven’t blogged for a while thanks to the large amounts of work that I am doing, and the other activities that I have been doing.

I went to a gig in Birmingham last week, to see Nightwish, a Finnish “symphonic metal” band, and they were awesome! It’s a pity they were only on for one and a half hours, they were really good. Anette and Marco were awesome singers, and really good with the crowd!!!

Also, iDeskbook development has been slow, thanks to work. But, I plan to have a coding blitz next weekend, try to get close to the first Alpha, and remove some blocking bugs in order to allow iDeskbook to run on Mono, and ultimately, MacOSX and Linux – hoping to get that in soon – it is proving difficult at the moment, but hopefully everything will fall into place soon!

Anyhow, I will hopefully have some more updates for you soon. ‘Till next time!

Something I have been thinking about today (again) is Student Politics. I’m no stranger to it, I am heavily involved in it. However, with the NUS Conference and elections looming, and having just been through elections myself in our own Union, I just wanted to express some thoughts.

During our Election Hustings (when we had them in Scarborough), the Presidential Candidates were asked a question "If you have a political affiliation, then would you put the best interests of the students first, or the intentions of your party?"

One of the candidates (who is a member of Labour Students and an active supporter of the Labour Party – and the question was directed at this candidate) had a clever answer,

"Some might argue that putting your faction’s intentions first would be what you would think would be the best for the students."¹

While this got quite a negative reaction – I in fact think that it is a very good answer. You vote for this candidate, this is what you get – you know how this candidate will vote. So while people might not like that – (I don’t agree with Labour for the most part) – at least you know what you are getting. Quite an honest answer. Yes, you serve the students, but this candidate’s view was that the best way to serve the students was by following her own views.

Wait, isn’t that what everyone does in a position of power? (expecting a backlash from that statement) Represent through their own views??? Sure, they might listen to others, they might be given a problem, but different people will use their own judgement to solve it. So this answer, while people didn’t like it, was a honest one.

I suppose that is why we have Union Council, for example – to scrutinise the doings of the Union Executive Committee (UEC) – to make sure that Students are represented by the UEC properly. We’ve certainly been doing that this year.

There is one thing that is evident from this year on Union Council at HUU though, at least for me, that the UEC are always going to use their judgement, their politics, when they are faced with a problem to solve. Union Council only can complain about actions after they have happened – and give the slap on the wrist to tell them not to do it again!

The thing people have to realise is that, whoever you vote in in an election (any election), they will represent they way they think is best. I would have done if I had been elected. Sure, I would have had student input, but at the end of the day, there are issues that arise that need an immediate resolution, and it is these issues that separate the different officers.

I guess people need to keep that in mind… and not complain if they didn’t vote!

Please note that this is a personal opinion, and that this is no way endorsed by, representative of, or even vaguely linked to Hull University Union, it’s members, staff, the candidates, complainant, defendant, or anyone else.

I have been remaining quiet about the Hull University Elections after  the results (in case you didn’t know, I lost by 117 votes to Richard Jackson, again, congratulations to him!) due to the fact the Presidential election had not been signed off “pending complaint” – something signed off at 14:55 yesterday. Now everything is done and dusted, as I sit down here, close to the official notice boards, outside the JAM Radio studio listening to the top quality broadcasting (http://www.ilovejamradio.co.uk) – I thought that I would spend some time on my own giving my opinion on the events in the past week concerning the elections.

Now, I do not wish to go into the reason why the Presidential election wasn’t signed off ’till today, if you are interested, the best place to look is on the HUU website – http://hullstudent.com/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=8744.

It seems to me that while the complaints were valid – which is a fair thing to state – it is obvious that political differences seem to get the better of people. I think that some of this is very petty indeed, unfortunately, things got out of hand.

Personally, I wanted this to fall. I might not agree with Helen Gibson’s (the President-elect) views on everything (probably on most things, she’ll probably tell you that!), but from the sheer pettiness – if people had followed the complaint in a normal way without making a big fuss, I might have been more indifferent. It appears to me that the main drive of those against is the political beliefs of Helen. As I said, I might not agree with her on a lot of issues, but you don’t see me trying to undermine her. In fact, you are more likely to see me congratulating her – because she did win.

Next year’s UEC should be interesting. It could be one the strongest yet, as long as in-fighting doesn’t take place – as could happen.

So, we now have next year’s UEC. Congratulations to Helen, Alex, Rich, Coralie, Wayne, Benno, Mark, Barry, Abby and Jan, and good luck next year. I’m sure you will be awesome!

Fingers crossed, I’ll still be around to haunt you all – PhD, here I come (I hope!)