Birthday of Rob (Special Occasion)

If you haven't already, why not pop along to Rob's website to celebrate his birthday. Maybe he'll give you more details, but unfortunately I doubt there'll be any cake. At least, unless there's some groundbreaking discovery in computing that I'm unaware of that could allow the cake to be distributed in this manner.  ¶ 7:37 pm  

  Shiver me Plank the Shorten me Avast thar Landlubbers argh (Special Occasion)

It's another International Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day! The only day dedicated to talking like a pirate, argh!

Shiver me timbers, thar needs be more days o' pirates, matey boy! I'll keelhaul nobody if thar day 'n't made f'r the plank ta be walked down!

Jim lad, in the name o' all th' pirates in the Spanish main, let's talk like pirates!

No pillagin', though. 'r murderin'. 'r terrorisi'n. F'teen men, they've really dumbed down the pirate theme o'r this holiday, 'a'n't they?

Now, let me consult me Pirate Phrase Compendium (argh, charted o'er a year ago by the same on' as me!):

The Pirate Phrase Compendium (documenting both phrases and translations since 2004)

Argh! - Hand over all your gold!
Avast, ye landlubbers! - Hello there, my good men!
Swab the decks! - Could you please be so kind as to clean the top of my ship?
Walk the plank! - I'd like you to walk across this board and fall into the sea.
Shiver me timbers! - Something unexpected has happened (generally not bad)
Die! - Die!
I'll keel-haul ye!- I'm going to inflict pain on you!
Shorten sail! - Do something useful.
Batten down the hatches! - Shut the hatches for some reason!
Hand over all your gold! - Argh!
Land-ho! - There's land over there, chaps!
Oh-ay, me 'earties! - Greetings, noble comrades, I like you!
Pieces of eight! - An undefined quantity of currency!
X marks the spot! - If you were to dig up this X, treasure would be found!
15 men on a dead man's chest - Pirate's equivalent to '99 bottles of beer on the wall'
Hoist the Jolly Roger! - Raise that flag with the skull and the two bones!
Blast 'em down! - Fire the cannon at an angle sufficient to combat turbulance and air pressure, as well as taking into account the cannon ball's mass!
Destroy the world! - (Speaks for itself.)
Ye'll never take us alive! - If you wish to capture us, please kill us beforehand.
  ¶ 2:40 pm  

  The Fantastic Adventure (About Brins)

Have you heard the term 'programming'? You probably have, but do you know what it really means? You might be surprised to know that if it weren't for programmers programming, computers wouldn't do anything at all. To program something is to write a bunch of commands for the computer so that it does something for you. Microsoft Word, for example, is a very big program. Every single thing you can do with it has been programmed by someone. Of course, you can type things into it and highlight stuff with your mouse; you couldn't even do that if someone else hadn't felt like making the computer able to do that by programming.

To program, you'll need a 'programming language'. This is yet another program, programmed by someone to understand certain words and instructions that you can give it in order to program other things. Visual Basic, a programming language, lets you display a message for the user. To do that, you can type the message in, but you'll need to put in keywords in order for Visual Basic to have a clue as to what it's supposed to do with this message of yours.

So, there's a little guide to programming. It's there because I'm doing a bit of programming myself, with Visual Basic, funnily enough. I got taught how to use it in school, so why not after all?

I'm making a parody on old educational games/stories, taking great inspiration in concept from one game (which remains only a very vague memory from away back at the beginning of school, but it's clear enough to remember), and its story from another very old TV series/bunch of videos we were shown called 'Look Through the Dragon's Eye', featuring puppets and a copy of The Dandy (a British comic, just in case you didn't know).

There it is on that picture to the right, 'The Fantastic Adventure'. Also included is the slogan, 'Begin the adventure because your teacher told you to!'

Taking a cue from Dragon's Eye's commendably valiant attempt to fit education into a fantasy plot, The Fantastic Adventure follows three small children on a quest to find the Land of Numbers after the Arch Master threatens their hometown of Additon. Although from my confusion watching Dragon's Eye, I came under the impression that the villain didn't have any reason to be doing anything, I think this one could benefit from some kind of motive. Is a plot twist in store?! Do you care?!

That's right, in case you hadn't guessed, this entire project is, of course, not taking itself at all seriously. It's a parody on early primary-school digital-education material which I didn't understand, and one which rings of mockery despite my heart-felt admiration of said material. But for the sake of the argument, let's just pretend it was all awful, ok? Ok.


Truth be told, I just started this in a bid to get some practice with the language before University, but it's got me intrigued at its potential. Hopefully this will go further than my previous attempt at a text-based computer game, many months ago...

Speaking of which, I should try to incorporate exploding benches into this one, too.

  ¶ 7:47 pm  

  The Great Robdini (A question)


How mysterious! Check upon Rob's website, robonthenet.blogspot.com, to find that he's been noticeably absent from updating for about a week, plus he's not replied to comments! Add to that that I've not seen him logged on his computer on that MSN thing, and this adds up to make a

VERY MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY!!

Does anyone have any theories about Rob's disappearance? Any detectives want to try tracing him on the Web? Gives me your theories and findings! Who knows, this might turn into a challenge...

If you've read this far, let's just presume you've realised that the garbled mess of pixels up there is indeed Rob. See his website for the much clearer and human looking version of the photo.  ¶ 6:57 pm  

  Applying to University - Dispelling the Confusion(Essay: School pupils)

For Scottish S6s -

It's around about this time that teachers announce to pupils to start applying to UCAS for University courses. If and when applying to go to University by the 'UCAS' system, you may be overwhelmed with information in the assembly (or talk from a teacher) about how to apply with this method. Do not be startled - if you are confused about instructions or what you have to do, or ambiguities in the written information handed to you, don't be - it's not just you.

Document every single one of your concerns, read through the information given to you, and raise each and every one to your guidance teacher (or whatever teacher gave the talk, or one you know can help). Find that teacher and schedule this meeting officially with them, to let them know you are serious.

Remember, before doing this, to make it absolutely definite that you have prepared every question you have to ask. You must not leave the meeting with the slightest unsureness about everything, since it may come back to haunt you. Once you are happy that all confusions are cleared up, set about getting information prospectuses (just a great list of subjects the University teaches, and their entry grade requirements) from all Universities you are interested in (assuming you haven't done so already; before the assembly I mentioned happens, there may be events regarding universities, which your school should inform you of - go to them all and pick up prospectuses.)

Choosing Universities/Courses

Now, it's up to you to decide which University courses appeal to you the most. You can choose up to 6 to consider, and choose wisely. These 6 can be all entirely separate courses and at entirely separate Universities; you may also choose several for the same university, and even in the same subject field (computing, maths, etc.). Don't be put off if someone else tries to sugget otherwise.

When choosing these courses, I really can't recommend selecting even one which you don't feel you'd want to do if it were your only option. Be sure that all 6 are ones you'd be happy to take up if circumstances required it.

The online application system

My teachers insisted for us to use an online method of applying to UCAS; for this, you need to go to the UCAS website (www.ucas.com), navigate to the appropriate section on applying through UCAS, and have a username and password. You should get this from the school. If not, make this a question to raise to your guidance teacher at the meeting (it all fits in, you see!).

This, for me, was the most daunting part of applying; the teacher gave us very confusing and severely lacking information on how this works, ending their talk by saying simply, 'it should only take you several hours'. You're scared already, aren't you?

But, don't be. I would suggest you go to this online application section, and browse all the details you have to fill in (yes, all of them). Fill in all the simple ones (you can spell your name, right?), and any questions that confuse you? That's right, document it and bring it up in the meeting with the guidance teacher. Print the page out if you want. As long as you know what to do, and have the information to do it, you can fill in whatever you like on this form at your leisure. Make sure to click the right button to save your details without sending them off or anything. If worried about doing that, again, bring it up in the meeting.

Other things you should know

If your school gives you a strict time limit to have selected all courses and processed all information by, don't be stirred; no matter what they say, your application to courses cannot be refused until a certain date in the coming January (at least, for me; if they demand them in by, say, October, as mine did, it's hogwash). Having said this, however, I still strongly encourage you to do all this as soon as you can, and try to meet the school's deadline. I myself did all this, and was heartily commended by my guidance teacher for being so organised. I believe I was the first and most efficient for getting it all done, so follow my example! Although, to rest your concerns, I found that virtually everyone else in my year didn't really bother doing anything about UCAS until the real deadline started to get close. However, for all the hassle it is at the time, I guarantee it will save you much annoyance and bother in the future, plus you have nothing more to worry about until about half a year away.

Half a year away

Alright, so you're not bothered about this right now. Still, bookmark this little essay anyway, and remember to come back in half a year.

I say half a year, because it's around then that you should have all your offers from your chosen courses, and it's about that far away that you're expected to respond. You will get a sheet to do this with by UCAS, so don't worry about wondering whether you're supposed to take action on this before then - you shouldn't have to.

When your teachers tell you to get an application form to apply to the 'SAAS' for them to pay your tuition fees, ignore their lies (more teacher scaremongering. Sigh...) - there is no rush, you are competing with nobody whatsoever for their service, and as long as you send in the application by whatever time the SAAS itself suggests, you should have no problems.

Once you've come this far, congratulations. It should be almost over now.

Stay tuned and I'll tell you about the various Univcersity course offerings, what they mean, and all the horrid paperwork heading your way from the University itself (don't worry, you've got a good while holiday after your exams before that happens).

A PLEA TO ALL: You really do have no idea as to how happy I am to finally write this UCAS guide. If I could just get this out to more people, I swear this would be the most useful guide to British University applicants in existence! Well, actually, I don't. But I'm pleased with it. Nonetheless, I would like to let anyone, who can and would post this essay on their website or for friends to benefit from, know that I need no credit for it, and this essay is not copyrighted.
In other words, take my guide and do whatever you want with it! All I really want is for it to help people. UCAS can be scary, and pupils need all the help they can get with it.  ¶ 3:11 pm  

  A New Blog? (An Important Announcement)

In following what I've noticed as something of a habit of mine, I've quite randomly/whimsically nurtured the incentive to set up a 'side blog' to this one (much like how Rob does with his debate page and so on), owed much to the overwhelming lack of support I received for the idea some months back. Sometimes I like to do things despite a lack of popular concern.

So, the announcement:

Assuming that this whim of mine holds up in the wind, I aim to make a side blog dedicated to reviewing things. What those things are should arise in due course.

I'm happy with this development, and hopefully some of you are too. It's time I put my unique reviewing philosophy into action, where:

all sides to and of the item in concern is considered;
any ratings/scores received for items, if any, aim to inform as many opinions as possible.

You see, as Rob has told me, all individual reviews are bound to be biased according to the reviewer. I'm going to try my hardest to transcend this boundary and reach a point where, ideally, all people can relate to the review. This is the philosophy!

For the curious, this entire notion came to me in a space of approximately 1.8 seconds, brought about by a very short, nostalgic trip to this commendable review-related site. (It's changed appearance since my first visit; I liked it best back then, but to each his own...)

Anyway, more information on this as it develops! Keep shining, friends! (I don't know why I said that either.)  ¶ 2:31 pm  

  A Blog and its Purpose (Essay: Blogs)



Ever since I started writing things pertaining to whatever I could think of and put in a reasonable context here, I've always been hard-pressed to use the term 'blog' in any way. A blog is simply what this website is at its root - an online 'diary' of sorts, or, more precisely, a series of statements of varying length, posted regularly on the web address specified (in this case,
http://brinsthebins.blogspot.com).

But the truth is, for some reason, I'm not fond of the word blog at all; it's simply one of those words that doesn't really sound very nice to me, whether in the context of this context, or in the context of that context (to paraphrase the Scottish English education system [which, incidentally, I consider to be quite messed up and furthermore a self-cancellation (Scottish English? Scottish English?!)]).

Just getting away from that painful use of brackets, what could the reason be for the word 'blog' sounding not-very-nice to me? I can't pinpoint it, but even if I could, I'd rather let you tell me just for fun.

You might consider my dislike for the word blog to be quite silly, and it certainly is pointless, but there's a larger dislike revolving around blogs; one that doesn't relate to the nature of the term, either; it's the idea itself.

If you've ever been to a website which is updated every so often, you might have noticed an 'updates' section where webmaster(s) type updates to their site. Think of a blog as basically that page, but where the updates are not updates, but whatever kind of thing the webmaster would like to say. In most cases, I would imagine, people will use their blogs to convey their thoughts and feelings, opinions and concerns, personal experiences, situations, and dilemmas. Writing about such things will help them to get their thoughts to a wider field, and that field is the internet. Perhaps they have thoughts they wouldn't vent in their own lives, but feel secure in doing so to in pseudonymity. I guess there's a lot of alter-egos that many develop for themselves, becoming entirely different people to the audience of the web. There are also many blogs which have some role to play, or a theme to meet. Some would document people's changing lives much like a diary, whereas others would act as something of a chatting lounge, where a group of friends (on or off-line) comment on posts and talk together in this way. Even more blogs are there to fulfill countless other purposes, like providing news on events, or providing educational content.

However, it appears as though there is quite a lot of contempt harboured for the blog that would act as the individual diary of thought and feel; scorn is poured by some quite heavily on the notion of people creating blogs as a means of achieving this. Some consider it childish to express one's views and state of mind on this plain; some more complain that no-one wants to know what these people think, these 'nobodies' who, outwith their family and close friends, nobody can even relate to at all. There are surely some who would like to see a ban on this kind of blog altogether.

It's an interesting point of view -

indeed, who wants to know how some snotty-nosed, socially-pressured adolescent feels about the state of peer-pressure and the blockades of social circumstances/credentials that separate him from those he played merrily with in the playground just a few years ago; let alone any other opinions or statements that might utter from this silly boy's keyboard (or whatever utensil he's using to type things into the computer; I don't know, there might be others now)! Or how about a middle-aged car mechanic's two cents on government spending plans?
A young girl's mental frame as she searches for something to wear to an upcoming disco?
A retired fish-monger's proverbial interpretation of the Biblical 'feeding of the five-thousand'?
Why not a poor, qualificationless woman on her vain search for a fulfilling job, and her reflections on how she feels the national education system has let her and many others down?
Why not even a recent school-leaver who feels obliged to assist school-pupils through their school-lives with the information and experience he has gained doing the same thing?

That last one might sound familiar, and if it does, hurrah! I have a reader!

I disagree with the notion that the alleged 'nobodies' have no place discussing what they will to a greater audience. The way it looks to me, in actual fact, is that we live in a society where there is, debatably, something of a disregard for the modern plebeian's role in the world outwith productivity. It would seem that one needs to be famous or clearly knowledgeable to have a respectable say, or a position to voice their voices. I would contest that the individual has a lot more to say than most give credit for, and a lot more behind their belt then what's written on their graduation certificates (or the lack of them). I would go so far as to say that we can learn just as much, if not infinitely more, from our aforementioned spotty-nosed, socially-pressured adolescent, or even young girl searching for a nice dress, than from Stephen Hawking or some other famously well-learned people (can't think of any right now... oh, Einstein! Wait, he's dead...). Though you might have some trouble syphoning the nature and role of black holes in the space-time continuum from either young person, let alone much else on physics, an open mind can tap into a reservoir of thought that may have eluded them for many years, or unlock a gateway to a whole new outlook on life, or more precisely, a frame of mind.

Let's give all those blogs a chance, for those who write them and for ourselves, and let the blog roll on forever!

...And on that note, I just realised that there's a pun in that last statement. Work it out, and you are a really useful engine, not to mention a patriarch for our blogging empire!



Read all that? Hey... wait, where are you - come back at once! I'm trying to pry your mind open!! N- No, not literally!!
In case you are wondering as to the questionable rationality of the pictures used in this post, it's because I couldn't think of any other pictures to use at the time. Let's just say it's the power of blogging at work, or something along those lines, ok?

UPDATE: I think I've corrected all the noticeable spelling mistakes here. Brins gets analytical!  ¶ 7:30 pm