Bradford Uni

I have some bad things to say about living in Bradford. In the end I was more than happy when my time there came to an end. That said, I had some really excellent times there. I was introduced to "proper" gaming, I met some excellent people who I'm still friends with today and I spent more time than was healthy in the unit room.
I just took a look at the Cybernetics website for bradford uni and it looks like it has been eaten up by the infomatics department. The cybernetics courses are still available but things seem to have changed.
What I thought was weird was that when we were there, we were minor celebrities. Everyone knew clan [DEM]* and we basically ran the unit room. Compare that to now when we are completely unknown to cybernetics students and when the unit room almost certainly no longer exists.
Let me back up a little and explain what the unit room was for anyone who doesnt know.
The cybernetics department was all about pushing the envelope and encouraged learning through a hands-on environment. To that end they basically gave us a load of computers and said "do what you want with them". Now, I learnt a hell of a lot in that unit room. I could take computers apart, install stuff on them, rebuild them and do project work on them. The unit room had 24 hour access and there were virtually no rules.
The important thing about this was that we could install games on them. To be honest I think this was a major selling point for the course. I remember the head of the department bringing potentials around and showing them us playing games when we should have been in lectures. I remember BEING a potential and seeing them playing games in the pseudo-unit room with only 6 machines in it and that being the deciding factor.
Anyway, we played network games like our lives depended on it. We would skip lectures, stay up until the sun came up; we even took over the cybersociety so that we could organise "official" gaming sessions and have some funding.
In that room, we were kings. We ran it, we lived in it and everyone knew our names. Everyone knew that you had us to thank for being able to kick back and play some games whenever you wanted. More than that, we ruled the games. I remember playing counterstrike once when it was 4 of us from clan [DEM] versus everyone else. I dont remember how many were on the other team but it must have been at least 10 and we still ruled.
Anyway, the point of this dialogue (aside from reminiscing) is the weird notion that despite the fact that the entire cybernetics department revolved around that room and despite the fact that we ran that room, I bet noone there has even heard our names**.
And so we fade away...

* when I say "clan [DEM]" I'm really referring to a larger group of us including [DEM], [TOS] and a few other people. You know who you are ;-)
** For the record, those names are Meister, Badger, SLH, Inky, Akira, X-Bow, Neodo, Laver, Obiwan, Lord Soth

Must...Update...Blog

Not long to go before the baby is born now....
We're having some trouble deciding on names. It seems every time we settle on a name one of us changes our mind a few days later. Of course thats only for girls names - we cant decide on a boys name at all.
Anyway, everything else is cool. Just trying to get the house sorted but there's quite a list of stuff that needs doing. Hopefully the boiler will be sorted soon (we need to move or replace the boiler), a guy from British Gas is coming round next week to talk us through our options. After the boiler is sorted we can get the bathroom sorted although we will probably have to get a loan to do it and anyone who knows me knows that i hate debt. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get it done though.
ttfn

Website update

Just a quick post to say that I recently expanded the size of my website (from 500Mb to 1Gb). This was due to a massive photo update where I uploaded all the pics I have been meaning to upload for about a year. Feel free to head over there and check them out :-)

Lack of posting

It seems like every other post I make is an apology for not posting but I'm hoping to keep on top of it this time. We might even see a return to the glory of yesteryear when I used to post several times a day....

Gaming

Last night was the first meetup of my new gaming group. I met everyone online via www.boardgamegeek.com which is a kickass website that I use before I buy any game.
Anyway, I had a really good time. Everyone is really nice and it's good to meet some new people. Also it's really good to do some gaming again since I haven't really played anything in a couple of years.
Unfortunately my cantrememberanyonesnameitis is playing up so I can only put a couple of names to faces (sorry guys!) but I'm sure I'll get everyone's name before too long.