Pretty much everything is sorted out, and by that I mean that there’s still a large amount of paperwork that I’ve got to force my way through before I’m entirely ready.

Barcelona

After several most enjoyable days at sea, I headed off into Barcelona with my step-siblings KS and Bandini1 after an early Breakfast with the aim of avoiding the queues to get off the boat and on to the shuttle bus. After some deliberation we took the tourist bus with the rest of the family who had come to pay testament to a lack of queuing back at the boat. I can’t recommend the tourist buses as in my opinion they’re far too expensive and it’s difficult to return to a specific stop on the route without completing a cycle, which makes exploring difficult. We used this to get some bearings in Barcelona and make our way to La Sagrada Família, getting off fairly close to it and walking the rest of the way.  We then wandered around the city for a few hours before riding the metro back to the port. Overall, it was an amazingly vibrant place, and I would have loved to have spent more time there.

Just after leaving Barcelona I read Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia and found what it had to say about the city very interesting, it’s certainly worth reading and sheds some light on things.

Monte Carlo

After disembarking the tender,  I noticed two things:

1. How hot it was.
2. How expensive cold drinks were.

In all honesty, I didn’t give Monte Carlo a fair shot; I don’t enjoy baking hot climates, and I didn’t feel like wandering aimlessly.

Rome

Although we did stop at two ports in Italy, I missed out on the first for some unexplainable and complex reason. The second was Civitavecchia where we took a taxi to Rome and had a whistle-stop tour of Rome. On [Craig’s] advice, I tasted Roman ice-cream and pizza, although never got a chance to sample to coffee.

Alghero

When I said I visited two Italian ports, I was sort of lying. Alghero is a town on the Italian island of Sardinia. (Wikipedia also tells me that it’s the second biggest Island in the Mediterranean) And therefore is my third Italian port, except we reached it by tender- so it’s not really a port.

It is however, a beautiful town and fuses all kind of influences. It also has some exceptional coffee.

Palma

Palma didn’t really initially strike me as likely to be photogenic, so I didn’t bring my camera as it would be a bit of a hassle when buying a suit. I did however, buy a fairly sharp suit for the entirely reasonable sum of about €80. I can’t really say much more about Palma to be honest, I didn’t spend all that much time there, although it was a perfectly nice city. I did see some kind of police motorcade which passed us by, that was pretty cool.

Gibraltar

I wasn’t overly struck by what I saw of Gibraltar, which was just the main tourist drag. Alcohol is both very cheap on Gibraltar, and for sale to anyone over 16. Which strikes me as slightly crazy. The boat arrived at about half two, and we had to be back by six pm; so there wasn’t enough time to visit the monkey sanctuary- which comes highly recommended by everyone I spoke to about it.

The journey back

The journey back was relatively uneventful, and gave me the chance to get to know some of the new friends I met onboard a bit better. I also won a pub quiz with Lembit Öpik, who’s cabin was just down the corridor from mine. I will end with a picture of us celebrating our win on the last night.

I could talk about Lola Rennt on blu-ray,but when I did get to enjoy it in full HD the impact was noticeably lessened by how well Matt’s plasma TV could upscale a DVD. I can only conclude that Blu-Ray is for people with equipment that cannot upscale (I was thinking of linking to VLC here, but they’ve improved a lot recently) or for upscaling to displays the size of a tennis court with as many pixels as a Russia with the population density of Manhattan Island would have people. There’s little analysis I can perform on it without seeming deeply fatuous, so I’ll refrain. It is a wonderful film, and I surprised myself with the amount of the German I could understand.Sheiße! Manni!

I have been reading quite a bit lately, and by that I mean, more than I usually bring myself to, and less than I would like to. For all the intellectual benefits it brings, I’ve yet to find somewhere comfortable to do it. 

I’d like to devote a small section to the entire rebranding of this blog. Although that’s a silly term to use here- it’s pretty much what I’ve done. I mean, this is hardly a brand. So, as from a few days ago, madebyalex.org has ceased to exist and been replaced with  MostFoolhardy.org, in some vain hope that using the same name for this blog as I do across the internet at large will somehow encourage me to write more.

Madebyalex was a poor name, and somewhat arrogant. It has not been renewed. (This is also because godaddy.com is not a company I relish doing business with, but that’s for another day.)

If you wish to subscribe, or continue subscribing (all seven of you) then feel free to point your feedreader here.

Oh, and lieu of any interesting content here is a video of Plant and Page playing Nobody’s Fault But Mine:

Oh, and if you want to get the best upscaling performance when you watch video on your pc- changing the resolution of the screen to the same as the source and telling your graphics card to handle all upscaling itself works quite well. This same effect can be achieved with media-player classic homecinema, but I’m not sure how. Also the PS3 has an exceptional upscaler and can make even the worst quality videos watchable. 

1. Maths C2, C3, C4, M1, S1
2. Physics modules 2 and 3
3. Chemistry Module 2

Good luck to everyone else taking exams this season.
-Alex

1. AQA Physics Unit 1: A 90
2. Chemistry: A 77
3. Maths MEI C1:A 80
4. Maths MEI C2:B 77

I’m fairly sure that I’m going to resit Maths C2, because I was really not on form when I did that paper. Otherwise, I’m fairly happy with those grades- especially physics.

Also, the Asia concert was beyond awesome; and if they’re playing near you; then you should certainly go and see them- Steve Howe is the most masterful guitarist that I have ever seen.

-Alex.

I’m gradually getting to grips with the intricacies of a gearbox and should be at least moderately competent at changing between the gears by the time I have my first driving lesson, which I would have been having a lot earlier had I applied for my driving license with adequate time to pre-book some driving lessons.

That’s my car:

^_^

Also, my iBook can’t be repaired due to a myriad of incompetence’s. Bugger. Those thinkpads are looking like a mighty fine option now. (Fedora Core 8 also)

Later,
Alex.

1. I become 17 and thus able to start learning to drive a car.
2. themak.org is retired and replaced by madebyalex.org
3. I update the code behind this whole endeavor to WordPress 2.3- which will be released on that very day. A nice birthday present, I should think.
4. I change the design of the site to resemble this (help doing so would be greatly appreciated), or use one of the shiny sandbox themes.

Until then,
Alex

1. Battle royale by Koushun Takami. While graphically violent, it definitely served the plot very well and proved to be a most excellent and gripping novel and was impossible to put down- the dystopian backstory certainly adds to the plot.
2. Flow, My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick, a true science-fiction masterwork; and definitely a story with several more reads in it for me. I also purchased Dr. Bloodmoney- but have misplaced that when coming back from Cornwall.
3. Python in a Nutshell from the O’Reilly press; a very fast paced book about python which Timothéus picked up for me at GUADEC for a happily reduced price.
4. Not strictly reading, but for some music I wholeheartedly recommend Peter Gabriel’s 3, 4 and Still Growing Up Live (DVD).

1. ICT: A*
2. History: A*
3. RE (short course): A*
4. German: A
5. Geography: A
6. Maths: A*
7. Biology: A
8. Chemistry:A*
9. Physics: A*
10. English: A*
11. English Literature: A
12. Statistics: A

Congratulations to all the other candidates who just received their grades, and I hope that they all acheived what they wanted. In other news:

Inside the exhibition we first visited the collection of Vader heads, and then watched a film behind the scenes of the new animated series, after that we walked around the exhibition hall admiring the skill taken to create all the cool costumes and all the miniatures (but they were a bit out of league for my purchasing habits). Also the lego collection present was very cool.

Click the AT-AT to see some more photos:

As I move away from Cornwall, yesterday provided one last chance to say a few final goodbyes and thank-yous; and I suppose that this post is really a final goodbye to Cornwall and all my friends here, and invite them to stay in contact. As the school year ended yesterday with the traditional speech day and prize-giving, and it was truly an honour to receive the prize for fifth form Religious Education and the joint prize for Public Speaking with Frances.

The teachers that have guided me over the past 5 years have been exceptional for me and the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme has truly helped me to grow as a person and I must offer my unreserved thanks to Mr. Moncaster and all the other staff involved with this amazing scheme. The Christian Union under the leadership of Rev. de Gruchy has helped me grow spiritually, and for which I am very grateful.

I must also wish the schools Debating Society the best of luck in the upcoming debating competitions, and I hope to meet you at one of these as part of my new sixth form. I must also thank Mr. Mac-Donald for all his pastoral leadership as form tutor.

I also thank Dr. Allen for providing a constant supply of interesting lessons in physics, and Dr. Flood for igniting an interest in History which has caused me to choose History in an otherwise unrelated curriculum of Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

In other news: while at the local supermarket I used the green-lane which was launched as to have no bags, and reached over to take a bag from the next lane.

Does this make me a bad person?

The new theme is also going to mark a whole new version of themak.org, the move from the brilliant PALGN free hosting to an ASO shared hosting plan where I will also move this blog from WordPress to a hand made django weblog platform.

I now only have 4 exams left until I’ve finished with my GCSEs, and I feel fairly confident about how I’ve done (which is good) and I’m now only a few short days away from purchasing my guitar and hosting package.

• Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
• Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
• Players should tag eight other people and notify them that they have been tagged.

And my facts:

1. I don’t watch Big Brother, nor any other reality television. (Nor Soaps, they’re exceptionally boring.)
2. I lament for the loss of Firefly.
3. When I read, I read prolifically and you’ll be hard pushed to stop me, but otherwise I can go months without reading a book- and then I’ll read a dozen in a few weeks.
4. I used to play the guitar (badly) but then gave up, I fully intend to pick it back up again this summer by means of a Yamaha RGX-A2
5. I’m a Christian.
6. I’m currently attempting to learn python, although currently lack the required free time due to exams.
7. I have 2 cats.
8. I have a Wii and a black DSPhat, and that suffices for my videogaming needs.

I’m going to tag:

• MenZa
• Nick
• Biscuitrat
• Jake
• Miito
• Niklas
• Jordan Chark
• Davis

Until then,

themak

I’ve just got back from seeing the barenaked ladies live with an old friend in the Southampton guildhall.

They were awesome.

Truly the last post until after the exams now.

That’s it for a few months, wish me luck.

It’s how insanely expensive it is to phone them. £1.40 to make a two calls, one that went to answerphone. And another that lasted barely a minute. In a world where communication is almost entirely ubiquitous, and for the most part cheap- Charging insane prices on payphones is a surefire way to kill them.

 Just to add weight to this absurdity: I’ve phoned a British mobile phone from a payphone whilst on holiday, and it lasted 5 minutes for barely 50p.

In other news: Statistics coursework looking less like a 50 tonne weight descending on me. Normal updates resume other end of the tunnel.

Also I’m going to go and see the Barenaked ladies sometime in April, which should be quite cool. Quite cool indeed.

Also: themak.org is seemingly not working for some people so try alex.palgn.co.uk instead.