Where were we?

Concerning those optional Events Week lectures I mentioned The copyright one was cancelled, and I got my days mixed up and missed the Weimar one. Which annoyed me immensely. Events Week on the whole was wholly uneventful, as I had expected it to be, but I got a load of coursework done and dusted.

Hectic deadline insanity Between this Friday just gone and this coming Wednesday, there are/were three pieces of coursework due in and an exam on Friday morning (just to rub salt in the wounds). One of the pieces of coursework was a concert a review of the University Big Band on Friday night. My good friend Connie visited from home and she, George and I went to the concert then stayed up in the kitchen with a few drinks and a good bit of chatting.

Hurrah! for Apple Steve Jobs and Co finally worked out a software patch to fix the problem with 13" MacBook Pros crashing when an external monitor was connected, so I am now running dual monitors in my room. Which is awesome. Like . . . totally awesome.

The Sunday CD Project Previously referred to as 52 Discs Per Year, the Sunday CD Project is well under way. It is so named because I buy one CD a week, on Sunday, and nuances with the University's postal system mean that packages dispatched on Monday arrive at Reception on Friday, in time for the weekend, when I can listen and review them on my other blog (see sidebar). This is the last I'll say about all that here now though.

The next Matt Redman only talentless This week's CU on Thursday will see me leading worship for the first time. I've got some good musicians backing me up so that'll help, but I'd really value your prayers for that as it's a rather daunting prospect doing something that I've normally hidden from behind my drum kit.

That's about all for this issue, I think. God bless you all,

~Julez

Halfway through term, but it's not half term

Events Week As far as I'm aware, the entirety of the Performing Arts faculty (which includes me, on my distinctly technical course, but that's just by the way) have this week off. Excuse me, we have a Reading Week. Unfortunately, none of us have any reading to do, so there are some optional lectures to go to. I am attending two, one about copyright and one about cultural development in the Weimar Republic (Germany in the 1920s), which will be a little trip down memory lane to GCSE History. Other than that, I will be blitzing through coursework this week. Fab.

Non-eventful week Last week saw nothing out of the ordinary, really. I did have my eyes re-tested, and my prescription is now perfect. I need to go into town to collect my second pair of glasses soon, but that's not too urgent so all is good. On Friday night, straight after Audio Eng, I assisted Liam in Studio 3 with some voice-over recording for his radio advert assignment. Studio 3 is the only studio with 5.1 surround capabilities, and we spent a long time trying to get that working before giving up and vowing to give it another go sometime.

House Party that was neither a party, nor in a house I'm still not 100% sure about why the CU Weekend Away is given the title 'house party'. Ours was held in the church building, and extensions to it, of Cranleigh Baptist Church. Despite not being a party, the weekend was undeniably good fun. I totalled about 7 hours of sleep in amongst the bedlam, which I caught up on last night after the Grand Prix and slept a little over 12 hours. There was a drum kit which I spent hours behind, in a much-needed relapse from the withdrawal I've been experiencing since I got here (I won't go into it now, but suffice to say I'm not allowed to play the practice room drum kit at uni). Two other guys and me are going to have a jam at some point as well, see if we can get a little band together. Should be cool.

52 discs a year I have made a (possibly quite foolish) decision to buy a CD a week. Providing that money continues not to be a problem, I can see no reason for this to go wrong. It will keep me listening to new music, and at the same time restrict my extra buying (after a few weeks ago where I bought far too much and had to go cold turkey on any non-essentials for a fortnight). So that's the plan. I'll tell you what I've bought and what they're like when they arrive (probably on my other blog though, as it's not really uni-related)

I must now plough on with Audio Signal Processing and Harmony coursework, so that's all from me. God bless, much love

~J.R.

Where does the time go?

That's not a rhetorical question: I'm seriously concerned that I get catapulted through a vortex immediately after posting each blog entry. Anyway, here I am again, this time accompanied by cashew nuts. Awesome.

Yet more headaches Literal ones, that is. The prescription on my glasses isn't quite right, and I have finally convinced the opticians of this, so I have a re-test-check-thing on Wednesday which should hopefully result in my being able to see the front in lectures and not have to take paracetamol on an almost-daily basis.

Burning money with colour Friday was, as I'm sure most of you know (I'm assuming most readers are this side of the Channel and the Atlantic) Guy Fawkes', and I joined my friends from Boiler Room (the church, not the venue 'Boileroom') for a walk up the High Street to Stoke Park. The walk included optional carrying of a flaming torch, which was basically a giant candle and cost a fiver. At Stoke Park there was a fairground and a big fireworks display that (I think) should have been accompanied by the 1812 Overture. It wasn't, so I sang it, much to Becca and Zoë's irritation. As impressive as some of the fireworks were, I'm not sure whether I like the concept of basically exploding money - let's face it, we've all seen how expensive corner-shop fireworks are; can you imagine how much professional ones cost? That aside, it was rather fun, and the free jacket potatoes and Bill Bailey DVD at Allen House afterwards made for a lovely evening out.

Lads' Weekend All the girls on Pickard 1 have been away all weekend for various reasons, and those on Pickard 2 followed suit so as to not get involved in our planned den-building in the kitchen. As it turns out, we never got as far as making the den, and the general timeline was fairly mundane. Until last night. When Ben (our newest flatmate, a third-year chemist) went out and left his bedroom door unlocked. The first I knew of it was when I went to get a drink from the kitchen and bumped into George, Ieuan, Tom, Level 2 Tom, and Nutrition Rob trying to put a bed in the disused services cupboard. It didn't fit, so we did the next best thing; moved the entire contents of his room into one of the corridors. Good times. He took it very well, considering it was gone 2am when he got home and found his bedroom empty. Here's a photo of it for you:

Academia and such My first piece of coursework for Audio Engineering is due this week. I think it should be pretty solid. There's some Harmony coursework heading my way, which I'm less confident about, but my limited knowledge of Bach Chorale and figured basslines from AS Music is coming back to me. I might be able to scrape a 2-2, you never know!

House Party The name is deceiving, but House Party is the CU weekend away. That's happening next weekend, so I apologise if I don't post anything until the week. I have the following week off though, so that should be good. Or boring. We'll see. Before then, I need to secure a sleeping bag from Sal and/or the kids, so that merits a visit to/from them this week. There's also going to be a Tonmeister trip to see Jackass on Wednesday, which will be interesting if nothing else.

That's about all I've got to say for now. Much love to you all,

~J.R.

You may be wondering where I've been

If so, bless you. If not, bless you too, it doesn't really bother me :) Seriously though, I heartily apologise for my lack of blogosphere presence; it really didn't seem all that long and suddenly it's been a fortnight. Now to see what that fortnight held for me.

A backdating look at my diary later I can now see what I have to tell you about. I will try and keep each point concise so as not to bore you, so here we go:

Studio Time I have had three assisting sessions now, putting me back in touch with the world of recording I came here to pursue (O how I was beginning to miss it). The first was organised for me by my flatmate George, and involved assisting a second-year Scottish girl called Claire in recording some Scottish folk music (I forget the specific name of it - help me out, Celts!). That was a friendly 2200-0100 session.
My second was a less-friendly 2000-0400 session on a Monday night, shortly before a 0900 lecture on Tuesday. The timing was the only unfriendly part, however, as both final year Colm, and band Dalla Russia were mint as anything. Dalla Russia's ethos, their bassist and (I think) leader (not singer though) told me, is to be a 'clever' prog band without people noticing they're being that. The songs they were tracking on Monday really were superb, and I can't wait to hear the finished product. Sadly, the tracks on their Myspace aren't phenomenal, but even so, I'd check them out.
Finally, yesterday morning and lunchtime I assisted my second-year 'parent' Liam recording a Miles Davis tune for his radio advertisement for upmarket cigarettes. I missed two hours in the middle for a lecture, but didn't seem to miss out on anything. He even took me to Wate's (the post-grad and lecturer bar that also accommodate Tonnies) for a drink after, which was nice.

Lectures and lecturers I have finally experienced all the lectures and practical sessions I will have this semester (Operational Practicals only occur once every four weeks for various reasons). The lecturers are totally fantastic and we are all beginning to get to know one another, so the good-natured banter and heckling is flowing freely. Even Martin, our slightly nervous Audio Signal Processing lecturer is loosening up - he even played some jazz piano the other day!

The cherry on the icing, though, is Dave Fisher, who is the course director (sadly retiring this year), take us for four hours a week of Audio Engineering, and is completely loopy. He runs a 'house points' system (for your own personal house, it seems); the monetary value of the points are 0.00001p, but the person with the most at the end of term gets taken to the Kohinoor Tandoori for a curry. Unless he's joking - none of us are sure. The points are gained from anything trivial; yesterday I gained 20 by knowing that he was quoting The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy for instance. A further example of his loopiness was just an hour or so ago when he demonstrated phasor diagrams by spinning around on the spot and shouting very loudly. He knows his stuff though!

Keying keys of contraband materials Tuesday night saw the CU Social at Tickled Ivory, Guildford's only piano bar which is a good laugh when the piano music is rolling. When it isn't rolling, mediocre club music is played through an average sound system and you have to pay £3.80 for a Corona. Nevertheless, the atmosphere and the hilarity in my dancing was second to none, and made for a great night out. Please bear in mind, I was running on 3 hours' sleep from the previous night's recording session, so my dancing and singing-along was even worse than usual!

Mumtime funtime On Wednesday, my wonderful mother visited. It was lovely to see her, and rather exciting as she brought with her about 12 frozen meals (that I think could be split in two, which equates to 24 frozen meals, which is almost a month of free food!), plus a trademark lemon cake and a big bar of FairTrade Dairy Milk. And some other, non-edible stuff. I gave her the grand tour of the flat, which took all of 5 minutes, and then we went into town for some lunch. We found a tapas restaurant called La Casita - go there, it's amazing! - and had paella. I even tweeted @toriredding who at the same time was having school dinners in Madrid - loser!

Hallowe'en Not my favourite festival, truth be told, so I've decided to knuckle down with some work this weekend and avoid the numerous hallowe'en-themed clubnights taking place. If I was back home, I would be attending the Light Party at King's School, but logistically it'd be difficult to get back to Guildford in time for my Monday morning lecture, so alas I cannot. Bad times. Hopefully Boiler Room (or one of the other churches) are doing an anti-Hallowe'en thing that I can go to. We shall see!

It could've been longer Let's face it, I've written this much for 2 days before, let alone 2 weeks, so I think we're okay this time around.

Until next time, amigos! God bless

J.R.

The end of a great weekend

Actually, it's only Saturday night! That shows just how much I've done today!

Financial advancements Since I last wrote, the bugbear of my uni life thus far (being unable to access my student loan and grant due to the ineptitude of a certain financial establishment) has been thwarted, thanks to a lovely man at the helpdesk who actually knew what he was doing. With my debit card now fully operational, I don't know how I still have money, but there we are!

Luxuries I can't afford Among the marvels I have purchased/experienced in the last week are the two aforementioned cinema trips (The I ♥ Revolution and Back To The Future, which I had forgotten how much I love), a pretty new audio/MIDI box for my computer, a night out with Jo Whiley (photos on Facey), another enormous poster of New York (Times Square this time) which I don't have space for so will be sending home with Mum when she visits in a week or so, a couple of CD's and DVD's, and today . . .

. . . a lovely day spent with my favourite niece and nephew Not that I show favouritism, of course. But they are two of the coolest people you'll ever hang out with. Bry is 14 now, it scares me. Anyway, after a pleasant lie-in post-Jo Whiley and a trip to the opticians (more later), I met with Harry and Bryony at Guildford station, and we walked back to campus where we visited PizzaMan and got a distinctly average but satisfying XL Hawaiian pizza for £8 - win! We ate it back at the flat, where I intended on introducing them to the gang, but literally no-one was there. Following that, we took the bus from Guildford out to the Spectrum and watched the Flames destroy the Telford Tigers 8-3. We have decided to make this a regular thing, even though it was cold.

Ophthalmologists is a very long word And, I suspect, a very lucrative business to be in. My eye test was booked at 11.30. By 13.30, two hours and £170 later, I am now in possession of my very first pair of glasses. The experience of putting on glasses for the first time can only be compared (in my mind) to that of watching a slightly old VHS of a film, and then switching it to Blu-ray. Everything seems a bit too real, it's quite freaky. Philosophical outlook on spectacles aside, I'm glad I can see again; let's hope the headaches dissipate as well.

Enough banter. Night night!

J-Wow

Week Two is well under way . . .

. . . And I realised this morning that I haven't shared any of Week 1 with you (counting from the official start of term, i.e. Freshers' Week = Week 0).

Academia The lecturers didn't hang around in jacking up the proverbial heat! My modules are fairly varied, some musical (Harmony, Knowledge of Instruments, Understanding Music) and some technical (Electronics, Audio Engineering, Acoustics, and Audio Signal Processing, the latter of which is a fancy way of saying 'maths'), and are of varying difficulty. Despite the challenge of going from nearly 18 months of dossing around to being thrown once more into full-time education (on a flipping hard course, I might add), I am really enjoying the Tonmeister scheme so far.

My two dads The Tonmeister Course has a scheme within it in which first-years are assigned 'parents', a minimum of one second year and one final year*. The idea is that these are students who can offer assistance on coursework and guidance on top of what our Personal Tutors provide, as well as giving us first dibs on assisting on their recording sessions. I myself, rather liberally, have two 'dads'. I have yet to meet either of them, but this evening I am meeting Liam (my second-year 'dad') for a drink at Wate's. Should be nice.

*since the higher years are 36-strong groups, and my year has only 25, some of us have more than two 'parents'.

Celluloid experiences Later tonight, a bunch of the Pickard guys are heading down to the ODEON (which is about 10 minutes' walk from our wing of campus) to watch the 25th Anniversary re-release of the absolute classic Back To The Future. This follows on from last night's one-off screening of Hillsong United's film documentary The I ♥ Revolution. I'd never seen it before, and it was not what I was expecting of a tour video; I sat until the end of the credits in silence.

Things to come On Friday, Jo Whiley is bringing some new music (I'm unsure whether it is in DJ form, or live acts) to Rubix. George and I bought tickets this morning. Hopefully it should be a good night.

Church I've tried three churches since I got here: St Saviour's (CofE), Millmead (Baptist) and Boiler Room (24/7 Prayer). The latter two were both in one day - that was epic. At Boiler Room I spoke to a random guy who came and sat next to me asked me ice-breaker questions (you know, name/town/course/favourite colour sort of thing). I vaguely recognised him, but what with all the new faces, thought little of it. It dawned on me during the service when someone mentioned his name that it was none other than Pete Greig, author of God On Mute. He now knows me as the guy whose favourite colour is gold. How embarrassing.

Onwards That's about all for now. Once again I've written too much. Sorry about that.

God bless

J.R. x

One Down . . .

Recap Today, as I'm sure you're aware, is Saturday, which means I've been here for a week and a bit (the bit as I write is about 9 hours). Last night saw a good night out at the Union (officially 'Rubix', but everyone refers to it as the former) for the first Flirt clubnight of the year, which took the form of a foam party.

Foam Someone once said "try everything once, except incest and country dancing." While I do not totally agree with this proverb, I tried out the foam part of the evening. If you've never experienced it, it's basically like a mosh-pit but with a slippery floor, the smell of soap crystals, difficulty breathing, a horrible taste in your mouth, and stinging eyes. It is also immensely fun . . . once. I bumped into my long-time friend Harry Sandman later in the evening, and we danced to some cheesy pop before returning to Pickard for a drink some nostalgia. At 4.15 we had another hoax fire alarm; less amusing this time, but permissible providing it doesn't continue into term.

Strictly Come Laundry You'd be amazed the number of people who go to the laundrette to coincide with primetime television; I think it's deliberate to avoid TV Licence fees. Despite the throngs of keen reality TV fans, my first trip to the laundrette was uneventful, if a little dull.

Present Times Now I am sitting at my desk typing this (obviously) but have had a very relaxing evening watching Spaced on 4oD and sorting out socks. The life of a student, eh? My timetable begins in earnest on Monday, and I've got my first taste of a new church tomorrow, so lots to look forward to.

God bless

J.R.