All entries for March 2006

Live Blog: Work work work…

I started back at work last saturday, at the Grand Pier for those of you not in the know, which is an amusement arcade. I'm spending most me my time rather predictibly in the change box, its like i never left! It only took about half an hour before i met the first horrible person, smoking right in my face.

Other highlights include saying "They're behind you!" when asked on several occasions where the toilets were. Someone even managed to find the Disabled toilets before the able bodied ones, the ones with the huge neon sign.

Anyways I write all this because I'm very bored, you see there are about 10 customers, and I'm all alone in the changebox. At least I'm being paid!

I'll end with an amusing pier story: a man comes up to the changebox the guy was clearly of asian origin, he spoke with a learnt english accent, after giving him his change he said, in the most unaccented voice: "thats champion."

Well, i thought it was quite funny.

: 29 Mar 2006 11:46 |  Tags: Bored Live Blog Work |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Live Blog: Upgrades

The FAIRTRADE entry i just wrote had to be reduced in size because the LiveBlog application on my phone couldn't deal with long entries. A few minutes later and a java vector, and now it supports entries of unlimited length!
I think that that is quite cool.

I was thinking a possible uses of LiveBlog, i could put live updates of council meetings direct to the council blog, how cool would that be! You could follow it in real time, but the room Council is held in has pants mobile reception, i need to fine a seat with a signal i guess.

I plan to do a kind of 'steven's day' thing where i blog every little thing i do for a day, as it happens.

: 23 Mar 2006 16:10 |  Tags: Live Blog |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Live Blog: FAIRTRADE

Having just bought some FAIRTRADE coffee i was thinking: all i'm basically doing is subsidising farmers. Sure they may be farmers in LEDCs but its still subsidisation, which is bad and has caused all the problems in the first place.

Now while i support what FAIRTRADE are trying to do i wonder if its actually the right thing to do. Some more research will be needed, and some evidence as to what FAIRTRADE actually does i think.

: 23 Mar 2006 13:56 |  Tags: Fairtrade Live Blog |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Live Blog: The start

I got bored and decided that it might be nice to be able to blog from my phone, unfortunately my phone is incapable of displaying Warwick blogs in its native web browser. So, some php, java and a few hours later, and i have 'live blog' – bloging from my phone, wherever and whenever!

I guess the quality of posts is really going to suffer though.

: 21 Mar 2006 01:29 |  Tags: Live Blog Mobile |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Everyone you know someday will die…

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes – let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do you Realize? – The Flaming Lips

: 20 Mar 2006 00:40 |  Tags: Lyrics Song |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Le Grande Voyage

Start: Earlsdon, Coventry
End: Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset
Distance: 116.21 miles / 187.02 km
Mode of Transport: Bike

The Missile

Firstly this trip would not have been possible without the awesomeness of my bike, a Specialized Sequoia Elite '05,

This bike gets me to and from Uni each and every day, a few longer trips and its always a pleasure to ride. Now its done an insanely long ride and proved to be flawless. The ride is so smooth, the rolling resistance so small that its an absolute privilege to ride. 'The Missile' took everything I threw at it, and the only problem was that I snapped the end of the cable for the front mech, not sure if I'll replace yet, I'll get advice on that one. I road over so much crap, stones, glass, mud, animals and the tyres just didn't care, i used to get punctures all the time on my old bike. My posture on the bike needs some work, and I need to develop the muscles in my lower back, because that area hurt after a while, but other than that no problems.

The Equipment

As ever, I was well kitted out:
Base Layer: Berghaus Tech-T, Berghaus Tech Pant
Mid Layer: Berghaus Micro Fleece
Outer Layer: Black Jeans (Berghaus Gore outers on their way!), Berghaus Baltoro
Rucsac: Berghaus Freeflow III 30+6 sporting the Camelbak UnBottle
Gloves: Berghaus Windy Gripper

Comments: all amazing and all worked very well indeed. I was never cold, never hot (though I removed the mid layer for a good chunk of the trip) never sweaty (well, that I noticed) all the layers performed perfectly. Buying the hydration pack for the rucsac was a masterstroke, its so easy to take fluids on board with these things, the rucsac was designed to carry these things and I had the tube looped though the webbing on my shoulder strap so I could reach up and put the tube in my mouth easily. I've done the whole bottle on bike thing before and it just makes drinking a chore, which on a trip of this length I really didn't need.
I should probably mention that I of course wore a helmet and luminescent jacket for the entire duration of the trip.

The Route

Was a killer, I did the first thirty miles easily, and at an average speed of about 18mph. But the the bastard Fosse way appeared, it goes up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. And up and down, up and down, up and down, flat, flat, and up and down, up and down. It just takes all the energy out of your legs its silly.
That was 26 miles of road torture.

My halfway point was Cirencester, where I spent an hour for rest, and worked out my next move etc. It was quite a nice town really, but I didn't have time to explore much, shame really.

The roads after went up and down, slightly, but they were mostly flat, which was great, but by this time I could only manage about 16mph on the flat as my legs had run out of steam. It was at this point that I hit what is commonly referred to as 'the wall' my legs thought they'd had enough, and decided to stop working, and make ten miles very, very painful. I fought on, and kept going, now knowing that every turn of the crank was a turn closer to home.

As I reached the M4 it was starting to get dark, so front light went on (rear light was on the entire trip), and glasses switched to persimmon lenses (switched to clear about an hour later). I had about thirty miles to go, and I was seriously considering giving up and calling my parents, but decided that I could keep going for a while yet. I made my way slowly into Bristol, having to stop and walk up one hill as my legs really had gone completely at this point. I then dropped down into Bristol city centre and suddenly everything was really familiar and everything was great, with a huge smile on my face and I was averaging about 22mph. Then I saw it, the first sign I had seen that said 'Weston-super-Mare'. At that point I knew I was going to do this.

I had two large climbs ahead of me, and as I was going up the first, making good progress I looked at my cycle computer and there it was, 99.50 miles, I waited, kept looking, kept cycling and then 100 miles! yey, I pulled over, had a final chocolate bar and called my parents to say "I'm almost home!"

After the last climb I rode into Congresbury and then there were just six short miles left, and they were all flat! By this time I was averaging only 14mph and I was dead tired, but so excited.

Home, I rode into Weston and let out the biggest scream of my life, I had made it.

116 miles, 9 hours, done.

Why

Because I've never done anything quite like this before, but I want to do more stuff like this. My summer holiday plan currently involves a 850km ride around southern England spread over nine days, I need to get into shape so I can do this sort of trip without too many problems. Yes, I'm mad, and yes all sorts of bad things could have happened, but they didn't and they were never going to happen, because I always knew I could do this.

What's Next?

Recover, my knees took a battering, and they hurt to walk on, so some strengthening exercises required there, also wrists hurt. Legs are tired but they'll be okay. Next in terms of bike rides, I'm probably going to do a few other, shorter rides these holidays, like 40~50 miles in a day. Hopefully this'll carry on next term, and through into the summer, rebuilding my legs into the powerhouses they once were.

Pictures

I had planned to take lots of photos as I went along, but unfortunately my phone decided to only have 15% battery power, and I didn't want to risk ending up without a phone that couldn't make calls, so I only took a few photos, which I may choose to add at a later date. Let down eh?

Conclusion

I'm slightly nuts, abuse my body to the extreme and take huge unnecessary risks. Thus I have tons and tons of fun!

: 13 Mar 2006 00:31 |  Tags: Bike Crazy Cycling Trip |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Referenda Results

Financially Supporting and Advising Pregnant Students of Their Choices (CARRIED)

For: 59.9%

Against: 30.6%

Abstain: 9.5%

Votes: 1577

Restricting positive gender discrimination (CARRIED)

For: 70.8%

Against: 16.3%

Abstain: 12.9%

Votes: 1548

Ensuring Freedom of Speech for Media Societies (CARRIED)

For: 66.3%

Against: 21.9%

Abstain: 11.8%

Votes: 1512

Fairtrade and Ethical Supplies in the Union (CARRIED)

For: 79.2%

Against: 15.2%

Abstain: 5.6%

Votes: 1650

Updating our Constitution (CARRIED)

For: 64.3%

Against: 9.5%

Abstain: 26.2%

Votes: 1478

Comment (now expanded and updated!)

So my motion 'Restricting Positive Gender Discrimination' passed, and council got it wrong. I feel ever so slightly vindicated. I just have to make sure Exec makes the changes to the appendicies that the students want.

The point that all refereda motions get passed was raised on another blog, and I was thinking that a referendum gets a lot of publicity and you get a chunk of money to campaign with, so a referenda motion is a great tool to advertise with.

Also the fact that only just above 10% of the student population decided to vote is really crappy.

: 05 Mar 2006 10:12 |  Tags: Democracy Referendum Union |  Comments (41) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A Big Thank You

I'd just like to say a big thank you to my housemates for putting up with me over the last week. In between running a referendum campaign, attending lectures and other time comsuming events, I haven't had time for much sleep. I've been massively tired and grumpy, more so than usual, but its all over now! Yey!!!

Thank You.

: 03 Mar 2006 14:18 |  Tags: Friends Thank You |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem