University- Lectures are interesting

//Intro
So this is the start of my advent blog (seeing as today is the first Sunday in advent). The run up to Christmas has begun, shops are having Christmas music playing (although that started in July) and people are starting to slack of work.. Have a look at the ADVENT section, this is a section which requires you, my readers to participate to make it work for next week.... This week there is no real feature, just stuff that has happened and pictures and videos...Read on XD

//Poll
So as you know last week I started a “poll” on my blog. The poll topic was “Do you like prefer the new layout”. Unfortunately I did not realise that that was not clear enough as there was no option for “They both suck”. Therefore, although the poll showed that most of your preferred the new layout....it does not represent whether you want me to keep it. Therefore I have decided that I shall keep it until a better one becomes available and re-open the poll to a more suitable question...Please vote on the right hand side.

//Course
So as previously mention I had a mid-term test last week, it went quite well. I managed to scrape a 72% which in University terms is a 1st. However, it was multiple choice and it did highlight that I need to do alot more maths revision...oh the joys.

Also last week I was set my first assignment, to program a computer game in the wonderful language of C. So far my program makes a stick man move...this could be fun.

I managed to burn my nose on a computer chip in labs this week, it really hurt and I now look like Rudolf...at least Christmas is soon.

The photos below show how exciting University lectures can really be:

 

//Ents and others
Last week I posted a poster which I designed for my block mates who are going for Ent reps. Soon after posting this, I was asked why I was not going for press and publicity. The simple reason I have not applied for this role is it takes alot of work and needs a team of up to 4. Instead, last minute, I decided to go for “WebMaster”. That’s correct, I will (vote dependant) become the master of the web. Basically it means I have to update the Vanbrugh JCRC (Junior Common Room Committee) Website.

Here is a copy of my poster:

Also here is another poster I made for sport reps:

And finally, Susana (neighbour) and Catherine (Drunken person of the week last week) are going for Environmental Reps...Vote for them XD

//Christian Life
God is amazing....end of.

//Christian Life mark 2
Well because although that does sum up what I think of God, it does not sum up what has gone on this week with God, and alot has happened.

As mentioned last week, I was asked to organise a worship band for Vanbrugh CU. I was planning to play flute as Emily plays keys. As most of you know I have not played flute in a worship band for nearly 5 years. I was quite nervous, but I gave it over to God. The worship session kicked off and I cannot even remember what happened apart from that God was really present, and all my fears were taken away.

Secondly as you will know (if you have been reading my blogs) I have been praying for patience and knowledge of what God has planned for me here. I think I have found part of the answer. In our prayer group (Consisting of Ella, Jono and myself and now Rhian (see person of the week)), we were praying for this and it came about that God had already been using me, just in small ways that I was to blind to see. People’s attitudes have slowly changed towards the concept of God and their language has changed accordingly.

Another thing to mention in the Christian section is that we have seen some amazing answers to prayers, most very unexpected. I won’t go into detail because some is quite personal and some is just too long and weird to explain....but God works!

In other news, I went along to a worship workshop led by the main CU. I played keys and did a bit of PA. Hopefully I will be able to serve in that way.

//Ukulele section
This week I decided to bring the blog out into the real world. Vanbrugh holds an open mic night down in the JCR (Junior Common Room) on Sunday evenings. So I got my good friend Hilana to sing “Somewhere over the rainbow” while I played Uke XD, we may have messed up and Jono may think it was my fault but it was good fun, and I plan to do something similar in the future. Here is a video...thanks to Jono for the appalling filming...ha:



//Person of the week
This week, another girl features. Just before I start this week’s feature, I have to mention another person...Geoff Lumley. Geoff is my Secondary School’s CU leader and is following this blog. Last week I received an email from him complaining that I was two timing girls....I didn’t really understand until I realised he was referring to the blog...it’s not my fault if I make friends who are girls....I rest my case.

So this week’s featured person is Rhian. Her name does have an accent on the “a” but I cannot work out how to put one in on BlogSpot, so apologies.

I met Rhian in person at the worship meeting that I held for Vanbrugh CU. She is a singer. We soon got chatting and it became very apparent that she is most defiantly, undeniably...Welsh!

The CU was organising an event at a local gig venue called The Duchess. It was a night of funk and testimonies and Rhian needed someone to go with her, so I decided to go along. It was a great evening and I learnt alot about God and got some answers to prayer (as mentioned above).

Rhian has now joined our prayer triplet to make it a prayer quadruplet.

//Updates
No real updates this week.

//Advent
Because during this week, advent will start I have decided to try something which involves you...my wonderful readers. On next week's post I will have a section numbered from December the 1st up to the 6th. On each of these numbers I would like to post the best Christmas present you have ever had on it. If you want your name and thing to be put on this blog please post a comment or email me (david.lindley@gmail.com). If it goes well then we will try again next week =D...wooo for audience participation.

//Prayer Requests
-My assignments coming up
-Thanking God in general
-For friends who have family ill
-For God to continue to show his amazing-ness

//Conclusion
So that it for this week, thanks for reading. Remember God is amazing, keep strong in faith and stay in touch with me. Only 3 weeks till I return to London...wooop

God bless
Love you all
David
Xxxx

//Warning don’t get drunk mark 3

Old Photo from fresher’s fortnight...but I did promise to put it up mahahaha

University- Saturday's the day

//Intro
Well as you can see, the blog design has changed. Because this is communally read though, I want your views on the new layout. On the right hand side of the blog there is a poll. Please could you vote on whether you like the new layout. Thanks =D.

//Ent Reps
The time has come around when the University starts to get people to campaign for roles around the student union.

A group of 6 of my friends decided to go for Ent Reps (Entertainment Reps) for Vanbrugh college. So earlier this week I was given the task of designing a poster for them. This was the finished product:

They will do an awesome job, and so if you’re in Vanbrugh and reading this...I recommend you vote for them!


//Saturday are super
Not getting up, eating lots of food and procrastinating....that defines the word Saturday.

Having 9:15 starts every day means that when I have the opportunity to sleep in, It is used to the MAX!

Every Saturday I also try to use up the food in my fridge that is about to go off...or in some cases already has. So this weeks breakfast was a full English...with bacon one day off its sell by date, mushrooms which were brown and bread that deserved to die...but you know what it was tasty and because I want to prove to you that I actually ate it, i took some photos of the progression of eating:

 

 

 

 

 

As well as eating the mouldy food in my fridge I also went sightseeing with Ella (see previous blogs). We walked around the city walls and went into York Minster...for free! (oh the joys of having a student card).

Looks like Jesus is "repping" York

Ella also decided that after having an amazing Hog roast for lunch...a ice cream in November was the best idea ever....

So in conclusion to my Saturday....ice-creams in November are defiantly a win, fry ups are also a win, and procrastination in general is a win!

//Course
This upcoming week I have got a “mid-term test”, and in a usual test fashion I have left it until the last minuet to revise but hey. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this is no exception. I found out that the test is:
-Online
-Multiple choice
-Allows calculators

So therefore my chances of passing have increased by nearly 100%....at least I hope so.

This week I had probably the best lecture ever. In Digital Electronics the lecturer brought in a wheel chair... no-one really had any idea what it was for until 10 minuets until the end of the lecture where he proceeded to sit in said wheel chair and drive it....with his head. That’s right folk...no controls just movement of his head.

He designed it for people who have spinal damage and it actually works.

//Christian life
As mentioned in last weeks blog, this Saturday I had a worship band practice with people from Vanbrugh college. We met up at the provosts garage for a 2 hour session. It went quite well and for the first time in 4 years I am playing flute in a worship band....prayers defiantly needed for this though lol.

God is still teaching me patience and I am at times struggling to trust him with all issues in my life.

//Ukulele Section
This week Laura is the guest artist, and we sang "I Kissed a Girl". I appologise for my appauling vocals....




//Updates
-Last week I forgot to reference the pictures of the washing in the bath to Richard. I apologise, they were his pictures not mine.
-Radio: Jono and I had our radio training session and that was quite good. We have now been put on the list for demo sessions. Unfortunately this list is 80+ people strong, meaning we won’t actually get our demo slot until mid spring term...ouch *Update* While writing this several slots became available, therefore we have now got our demo slot on the 7th December *end of update*

//Person of the week
I have decided that this week I shall introduce one of my friends from back down South...William Pope. I must stress that he did ask for his own section and usually I would not give in to his demands but he was holding a kitchen knife up to the computer screen and was about to mutilate an orange....

So William Harris Pope. He is amazingly musical, although he does not play the Ukulele *Shun the unbeliever*. He enjoys drinking and sleeping and playing COD4, although I know believe he plays COD4 2? He is likely to become the next local hobo of Bath due to failing his degree. In all seriousness though he is truly butters.

//The camera does not lie
This is what happens when you leave your camera in the hands of those who you apparently “trust”. What they did not realise is that I was planning to post them on the blog...mahhahha

Thanks for that Jonny

//Prayer Requests
-Three friends I know who have family members ill
-Increased patience
-Increased motivation

//Conclusion
So there we go, we are into the final month of term one. I am missing people alot, am looking forwards to Christmas. Keep checking the blog for updates.

Love you all
God Bless
David
Xx

//Warning don’t get drunk mark 2

Catherine, actually fell asleep under my desk...

University- One half term later

//Intro

Officially I have completed my first half term at the University of York. Time seems to either go really slowly here or stupidly fast...either way there is never a quiet day. This week saw events such as doing washing in the bath to Ukulele songs. If either of these take your fancy please read on. If not then read on anyway because you might as well seeing as you have taken the time to log onto my blog =]

//Washing the bath

So last Sunday afternoon, soon after posting the last blog, Jono pointed out to me that we still needed to do our washing. So we took the long 2 minute walk down to Vanbrugh washing room and were greeted with a horrible sight...one of the two washing machines were broken and the other one had a massive queue (well only 3 people long...but even way that a good 2 hours), so in a moment of genius Jono suggested we did our washing in one of the 3 baths on our floor. Having reached the top floor we put all three bags of washing into the bath tub and ran the hot tap...

Now there are several issues with this:

                -We had no idea how hot the “hot” tap was

                -We both had very limited experience of washing clothes

                -There were alot of clothes...

So having run the tap Jono made the very obvious comment “Well there is no return now...”

We then added washing powder and proceeded to “poke” the washing with a stick (i.e. the end of a mop). This did not really work...and colour started to seep out of some of the clothes. Therefore we decided to get our hands dirty:

My top is off because it was stupidly hot in there

Yum!

Washing in the bath has its benefits =D

....3 hours later, we had washed (by hand) each item of clothing, rinsed it all out and it was still soaking wet so then we headed back down to the washing room.

We put the load in the dryer for 50 mins, £1 worth...came back and it was still soaking...so another 50 mins, total cost £2...still soaking.

So the only thing left was to dry it in our rooms...this took most of the week. Kallum pointed out that for £1 more we could have used both washer and dryer and have clean clothes for the week rather than a smelly room. For this very reason we are never washing clothes in the bath again. Also it was a massive waste of time...which is what Uni is all about XD

//Course

Having become course rep, I had the joy of sitting in on a Board of Academic Studies Committee this week. For those of you not in the know, this meeting discussed everything I didn’t really want to know and I just sat there for an hour and was not really asked my opinion. However, I am now allowed to send out mass emails to my year group...so I did. Within 12 hours I had already got several responses. One person though I represented their college and two people complained that the vending machines didn’t work. Obviously first years don’t really care about their course lol.

//People

This week’s featured person is the Provost of Vanburgh College. The main reason he is the featured person is because he was kind enough to invite every Vanbrugh college member around to his house (which is 2 mins away from where I live) for a buffet and chat. He is such a nice bloke and is by far the best provost in the uni. He is also a Christian and I had a very interesting conversation with him about the CU and faith.

//Ukulele

So finally after 5 weeks, the Ukulele I brought with me has had some proper use. Yesterday morning Kallum and I decided to record a video:

 

As you can see the Ukulele has officially taken  off on this floor, more videos will follow.

//Radio Station

When I first came to York it was one of my aims to get my own radio show. This idea was shared with my friend Jono. So earlier in the week we headed down the University Radio Studio (which is just bellow my window) to see how we would go about getting a show on the air.

We then started the game of cat and mouse, having given our names down we were promised to receive an email that evening...no email came. So we went down to the studio the following day...same thing happened. Eventually we got put on the mailing list and then on Saturday morning an email came through saying that a presenter training session was coming up on Tuesday evening. So we both signed up.

Watch this space!

//Christian life

God has been really encouraging this week and I saw some answers to prayer.

On Wednesday I lost my keys...I seriously obliterated my room. It looked worse than it usually does (Which is usually pretty bad; ask my floor mates if you don’t believe me). Still no key. It got to the stage where I had to get a 24 hour temporary key from the porter. So I was in a bad mood, and was on facebook chatting to Emily Murdoch and she said, “I’m going to pray for your keys to turn up”. At that very moment I decided to pray as well, so I pushed back my keyboard in order to lean on my desk...and hey presto there were my keys! God is amazing.

Also on the religious front, I was asked to organise a worship band for Vanbrugh for two weeks time, which is very exciting.

//Updates

The return of the updates section, and this week we have quite a few:

-Thanks to Alex Pye, who correctly corrected the naming of fluffy bunnies in last week’s blog to “Chubby bunnies”. This mistake will not happen again, and I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

-Chris Read asked if he could be put as the official starter of the darts game, so here you go Chris.

-Door wars have continued, this week’s target was Verity:

 

Onion rings on the door

Caught in the act

//Betty

I have some very sad news regarding Betty (the car). Earlier last week we discovered that she had become ill. She was not starting; a mechanic was called out but still no luck. Our prayers go with Betty and her family.

//Prayer Requests

-My new responsibilities due to becoming a Course Rep

-Prayers for two of my friends who have family member’s ill

-To gain motivation to do more work

//Summary

So that’s it, a half term gone....and it has gone stupidly quickly. Thanks for reading, sorry it was late. Tune in next week

God Bless

David

Xx

//A warning to anyone

Do not get drunk...this happens:

The hows and happenings of floor 2

//Intro

A month...that’s correct I have now been up North for a whole month, and it’s starting to show. For one thing I have started pickup up the local lingo. I quickly discovered that up here they never say "To the" instead they just say "t"...for example. I’m going t'pub = I’m going to the pub. This week’s edition of "an insight into david" has alot more happenings than can be mentioned just in the intro section...thus you should read on.

//Darts

Ah my fellow twyfordians, you will all be very familiar with this. On Monday of the week just gone I decided to introduce the dart game to my floor. For those who do not know here is a quick insight into the dart game:

-If a fellow dart game player is walking with his/her back turned to you then you may call out his/her name, if said person turns around you are then welcome to throw a dart at this person. This person must then, due to the law of darting, fall to the floor dead.

-Said person can protect themselves from the dart by covering their neck

-Said person can have his/her dart removed by anyone, but the person who removes the dart will then be playing the game and is now subjected to being darted themselves

There are many other rules...see the facebook group XD

So all was going well until i got darted, and then again and again. I have thus realised I suck at this game...

Darted...again

//Centurion

So another happening this week was actually due to my good friend Will Pope. I received a text late on Wednesday evening saying..."Dude tell you what we need to do when we get back, a centurion! It is amazing."

So I promptly looked up what a "Centurion" was. It so happens it’s a drinking game (Should have known). Basically you have to do 100 shots of beer or cider in 100 mins. For those not use to drinking, that’s about 2.5l or beer or cider. So on Friday night my floor set out for this epic challenge.

Not everyone finished (mainly due to the girls drinking vodka mixes), but James Wilson, Myself, Jono, Richard and Bulgaria managed to finish this task.

//Course

Suddenly I’m learning stuff that I have not learned before. This came as a shock to me when I had to actually go to the library to get out some books. Apparently most electronic students stay well clear of the library. The work load is starting to pile on (annoyingly) but I am managing.

//James Wilson

James got very offended that I had not mentioned him in person in my blog yet, so therefore I shall now dedicate a whole precious section to you.

James getting ready for Centurion

The only real thing I shall mention about James Wilson is that he cheats at the dart game....that is all.

//Christian life

So life with God has been progressing as usual, God keeps on surprising me with new happenings but I still cannot see where he wants me to invest my time and a Church has not appeared yet. Last Sunday we went to a Church of England Church which was nice but the congregation was lacking. The Vicar seemed to come alive more when I told him I was from London...but apart from that there was nothing special. Today we are planning to go to an evening service at another C of E Church. The Church (rather fittingly) is the Church that Guy Fawkes was baptised in and is situated right next to the minster. 

I have completed the book of James and was rather disappointed at how short it was...so much so that I’m going to re-read it.

The college CU also invited us to a firework party at a house down in Tang Hall (the ghetto of York)...so we went along:

Sparklers

There was also a small fire, on which we cooked marshmallows. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) we had far too many marshmallows, thus the game fluffy bunnies was started. This game depends upon a huge mouth...so I did ok XD.

Basically you have to put as many marshmallows into your mouth as possible; I managed to get to 12..

9 fluffy bunnies!

//Mr Box

On about Tuesday a package of Amazon books arrived for my friend Jono. Being good students we were planning to recycle the box...but no. Instead Mr Box was formed:

 

//People

So this week my featured person could have been James, but there is another person I have got to know better. Her names is Ella Jennings. She is a member of the Vanbrugh CU. I had a great conversation with her about starting a worship band sort of bible study group as a sub group of the CU. The college CU seem to back this idea up, we shall see.

Ella wrapped in a scarf...due to Jono.

//Updates

A new section to my blog to update you on random articles in previous blogs which need updating or amending.

Firstly a note to Verity Lowe. I apologise for insulting you in the blog posted on Friday 23rd October. She did give me back my money and she does always give back money. So for this very reason I would like to amend her character profile from my blog to:

Verity- She is a lovely character who always makes me smile, she is also my official floor partner and Kallum is our child...

An update to door wars, poor Jonny did not know what hit him over the last week. After last week’s blog people tried to up the game with the blocking of doors, someone decided it would be funny to steal Jonny's mattress and hide it in the shower. But on Friday night the ultimate door/room raid was achieved

Somehow managed to get the keys to his room

A Small amount of facebook raping...

Moving his whole room into the Kitchen

Moving the kitchen into his room

//Other happening

In other news, I found out just last night that I had gained the position of First Year Course Rep for Meng Electronics. This is good news because I applied. I would have been rather surprised if I had got it, having not applied. The fact that there were no other candidates I’m choosing to ignore. =P 

//Prayer requests
-The two friends of mine who still have family members ill
-For God to continue to guide
-Thanking God for another productive week
-Pray for my Grandma to get better (as she is ill)

//Summary

So as you can see once again floor 2 has failed to disappoint. New happenings happen every week and there were many more than I could be bothered to mention in my blog. My sister Grace wanted a special mention in my blog so here it is...GRACE LINDLEYY! Ta da! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support and thanks for reading, please comment.

God bless
David
xxxx