I think I just created a new mask, Something I swore not to do ever again.

About three years ago, I had a personality crisis, when I was pretending to be three differant people to three seperate groups, and I lost track of the person doing the pretending, Since then I centralised, and managed my Masques – if you like – to stop me going insane.

The masques I use vary from Aquarion, the quick-witted, incorragible punster most of the Internet know and hate; to Nick, the helpful guy of infinate patience that you will encounter if I ever go into Lecturer Mode; though Robbie, the latest incarnation.

Robbie is the person I play in Stags and Hens. I had a lot of trouble with him at first, because he is a Ladies Man, a rogue, one of those bastards you see with a girl on each arm. Then I read Lonecat’s piece on Masks, and it started to fall into place, Robbie’s confidence was just another mask, but a mask on top of what? I solved that, but then managed to fit the mask to Me as well.

The population will never meet Robbie, because Robbie is only ever seen at nightclubs. Todays expericnce of being dressed in full 70’s gear in a nightclub, and the comments it gathered, gave me a great chance to learn Robbie as a person, and how he reacts. (All the comments I got were positive. Pictures soonish. Promise). And although it gives me an extra thing to hide in if I need the confidence, Robbie’s Brashness will probably get me into trouble…

Plume Returns from the brink

I’m *really* bad at making phone-calls, so when I actually got my act together to phone people to make sure they were still a) alive, and b) thriving, it is always nice to hear that they are doing both. Long may it continue, and may the summer bring Much Goodness, and may the Easter bring much drinking… 😀

Mewise

My arm hurts, and I don’t know why. I cannot use my elbow for anything more strenuous than typing, because I get a shot of pain what cripples me for a couple of seconds. I think I must have slept on it wrong or something…

As you see below, the preview happened, and the reviews are in. Direct Hit. The play went down like… well… something that goes down Very Well Indeed. Project over. I shall never have to channel Robbie again.

I probably will though, see the next entry for an insight into both Me and Robbie (It’s on my Windows drive atm, and I can’t be bothered to go get it :-D)

I’ve spent the last couple of days going over the next project: PHP/mySQL. I have the book, and the programs are installing as I type (Also Netscape, so I can’t actually post any of this until the download finishes). This project hits three stages, the first is a data-driven interface to the world of Aquarionics, so instead of fifteen differant pages it will be spoo’d forth from a single database.

This, however, is going to involve me moving hosts. Over the next few months sometime, Aquarionics will go down so I can move across. This is going to cause mass-disruptions across the entire world of Aquarionics, including all @aquarionics.com addresses, mailinglists and sites. This Is Bad. But it will be as quick and painless as possible. Promise.
But first I have to learn the language, and not least write and test the system, so it may not be a while.

In Other News, Terra Incognita, the ezine that is rising from the ashes of the Sunderland Scifi Soc. brings it’s first edition into the world on Sunday 1st April 2001. Be warned, there be dragons.

There are two more projects under the “Nick Learning mySQL” umberella, as well as “Nick Finding a Real Job”, but I’m keeping those under wraps for a bit, because they will probably go titsup.com when I realise how hard it is 😀

The play preview. We were also reviewed. I’ll post that when I find it 🙂

First performance is over. It went fantastically well, I did my lines, played the audience like a puppet, and enjoyed myself muchly.

I have also updated Precious, so it scans better 🙂

So, Yesterday was the final rehearsal for the play. The second of two total run-thoughts. The play opens tonight at 19:30 for a magnificent two night stand at the Royalty Theatre, Sunderland. I’m slightly more confident about it today than I was yesterday (Not that I could have got less confident than yesterday). Rehearsal started 18:00, ended 21:00, decamped to the pub. At 23:00 the pub closed and the idea was suggested to phone out for a crate of booze and just sit at Rachel’s house and get pissed, because we all felt like it.
Which we did.

So Last night/this morning was spent in a drunken environment, saying things we have never said to closest friends to people we have only known for six months, Drinking, playing cards, playing other games, discussing the play. And it was fun, and I haven’t had that much fun for a while.

And this time Friday, the play will be over, and I can get back to the important bits of my life again 😀

Two days until the play, and Nick goes into panic. I don’t know my lines, but I’m close enough to them to be able to get the right lines in the wrong places. Which screws up not only yourself, but the other castmembers, the lighting bods, and everyone else as well. There is always a week link in any play, One person who isn’t giving enough. This time it’s me. And I’ve known this since Christmas. For three months, I didn’t want to be in this play at all. Now may be too late to fix that time.

In the meantime, panic reigns accross the British Isles. The trains are screwed, the sheep are ill and contagious, and the price of meat is going up. Now is a good time to be somewhere else.

And the rest?
I’d say something, but I have to be in Uni tomorrow. Or pain will befall

Is it me, or are these titles getting more and more abstract?

Good Afternoon. I’ve been expecting you

Life continues apace, Terra Incognita releases on the first of April, Play finishes on Thursday, and Two Weeks Until Easter.

Meanwhile, a new poem, and I’ve updated the Creative section with some older stuff

Once upon a time, a young man from Kent screwed up his life and went to study for a Higher National Diploma in Sunny Sunderland. A city in the far north of his country that had a reputation for being slightly on the dodgy side

In the same way that the sky was slightly above the sea

And he spent a year floating though the HND, and came out of the end of it with a semi-respectable mark for not really trying

And so, disillusioned with the bureaucracy that surrounded the school of Computing, he went back for another year, and drifted once again though the first semester. Before running up against a fairly solid brick wall. He had drifted though too many lectures, and now didn’t know how to do the assignment.

A half-arsed attempt to do so resulted in a message that if he ever handed in something with that poor presentation again, he would fail the assignment. This he conceeded, and set about doing the next assignment.

And didn’t do it

And, in fact, failed to do a single assignment for that module for the next six months, placing all his eggs into the final exam, and not really sure that he could still pass the module if he didn’t do the assignments.

And so, he entered the exam, and exited a half hour later. And then, three months down the line, finally got the result for said exam.

He had passed anyway

Which only goes to show, that hard work may never have killed anyone, but there is always another chance.

Today, I feel so jammy it’s untrue. I got a 6 for that module. Out of 16. 5 is a fail.

I should say here I will “Never do that again“, but I try not to make promises I can’t keep.

Oh dear.

Previously in this diary, I have mentioned the Real World Group Project in various forms (The irrate telephone call, The Yellow Card, the Impossible Program (here, under “University”)) so now I will explain how this most strange of University Modules works:

To start with, the year is divided up onto groups of 11, containing a mix of underachivers, overachivers, poor attenders, stars and that sort of stuff. Then we are given a real problem for a real system for a real company. In this case, The AA. Then we design this new system and each group submits a prototype design.

The client then selects which design he likes best, and that is distibuted around the other groups for an example of the way to go.

Today they annouced the winning tender. The team that produced the best stage one prototype and design.

It was us.

Yay! Go us.

This is unlike most Uni things for two reasons:

1. It’s actually real
2. We get paid

2 is very important 🙂

The winning team gets