Simon Harries

Monotony

Simon Harries — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:07:22 +0000

As another Summer ends, the new academic year approaches, and I for one welcome it with open arms. While I enjoyed having a break after exams, four months of doing little of note has been a tad monotonous…

I must own up to having finally replaced my ageing laptop, as it had become somewhat of a counter-productive tool. That is not to say that the old laptop is now useless – it will most likely be employed as a Plex box when I move back to university. Anyone keen on using digital music/video content on their television via a computer should check out Plex, a most excellent open source project, whose homepage can be found here.

Little of significant interest…

Simon Harries — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:49:07 +0000

As my many faithful readers may have noticed, there has been a distinct lack of new content on my blog for the past few months. To be honest, my life has been fairly boring, with little to write about.

Therefore, I have summarised the past few months in bullet point form:

June

Received exam results
Stopped driving for the following twelve months
Realised there were no summer jobs left

July

Celebrated my birth
Worked on a farm
Went to see James Taylor, at the O2

August

Wrote my first haiku
Renovation work for my parents

That’s all there is to say really! I may come back and edit this post if I realise I’ve left something out.

For those interested, here is my first attempt at a haiku, written as a birthday message:

Birthday time for you,

Enjoy gifts, cake, joy and food,

Birthday haiku too.

Science FTW

Simon Harries — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:50:40 +0000

On my way home after seeing Uncaged Monkeys with my housemate Rhys. It was pretty damned awesome. I have a new appreciation for particle physics etc. – things I haven’t really learned about during my formal scientific education. There was still coverage of statistics and other related disciplines applicable to my career path.
I heard criticisms of this kind of event, with suggestions that the scientists aren’t ‘real’ scientists, but ‘pop’ scientists. Even if that was true, the importance of educating the general public audience overrides the snobbery of classification of scientists…

Sweet Jesus…

Simon Harries — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:12:03 +0000

I came across this recipe online, not quite realising the quantity of chocolate it required…
Half a kilo of chocolate later along with some peripheral ingredients, I began my suicide by chocolate. In all honesty they are very good and rich, you wouldn’t realise they featured creme eggs unless you were shown the recipe…

Fortunately, I have kept up my new bout of running, ensuring some kind of equilibrium between gluttony and health. A total of approximately 16 miles since the 14th of April now, which I am fairly chuffed with. Paula seems to have abandoned me, leaving with me with Lance Armstrong to congratulate me upon my ever increasing distances covered.
I have made the observation that a lot of professional athletes seem to be caught making silly faces. This makes me feel like an athlete, as my face is permanently silly…

The Calm Before the Storm

Simon Harries — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:18:38 +0000

Everything has been too quiet lately; I think it may be a precursor to exams, and I may just have been lulled into a fall sense of security.

I decided to attempt Nike’s 26 mile challenge last month, but of course failed. I did manage to increase the frequency of which I had been going for runs by about 500% though, so in my eyes I’m still a winner…heh.

I was most disconcerted when Paula Radcliffe decided to congratulate me on my ‘longest run so far’ on my Nike+ running system this evening. Having done some investigative Googling into this disturbance, I have to admit I am now looking forward to Tiger Woods offering me words of encouragement as I smash through the boundaries of another running milestone, though what relevance he has to running, I don’t really know…

Astounding update frequency

Simon Harries — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:18:59 +0000

Its not even because I’ve been busy, I’m just impressively lazy, if I may say so myself.
Not too long till exams now and in traditional student fashion I am nowhere near ready! I guess the customary deletion of facebook and other distractions will occur soon enough. My condolences go out to Toby, who probably has far more work/revision to do/blag!

Peace…

PAHM

Simon Harries — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:10:07 +0000

I hate you all!

…only kidding. Just some of you…

Back Home

Simon Harries — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:18:58 +0000

I realise I haven’t ‘blogged’ for a while, I’ve been quite busy with university work and trying to keep warm/healthy.

Now I have returned home to London, so hopefully I can waste a bit more time with blog posts, photography, eating etc.

Oh, by the way, I’m snowed in…photos later, maybe…?

Work…

Simon Harries — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:36:54 +0000

Does anybody know of a good way to make work disappear for a while? I want to enjoy being ill and prescribe copious amounts of bed rest, sleep, and reading…

Bridgwater

Simon Harries — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:25:17 +0000

I’m heading off to Somerset tonight, in order to see the Bridgwater light festival again. Hopefully the weekend won’t end as tragically as last year when I managed to smash my camera lens on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Oops…

I’ve nearly finished Catch-22 now, I see myself in Yossarian quite a lot. My facetious tendencies are very endearing…just ask my parents. He he he…