Day 29 6/7/14 (Rain, paper writing, more food, going out with Emma, COD Ghosts)

So once I woke up at like 12:04 PM then Shoop and I ate lunch and were in the office by 1 PM. We then spent basically 4 hours cranking on the data chapter to get everything nice and neat. I also entered 3 more survey responses we had received from the community via free post. It was a tedious 4 hours and Nick and Stefan even joined us and helped out for a bit. After 5 PM we knocked off for the day and decided to head back. Shoop and I went to Sainsbury’s to buy some food and I got salmon, OJ, bread, jam and some other good food. A good £18 I spent. Nothing too much. I tend to go through almost a liter or orange juice every day. After getting back I had just enough time to take a shower and head over to O’Neils to meet Emma. I wore a shirt and tie because she was taking me out to this Chinese restaurant. After I eventually found my way to O’Neils after being slightly lost I saw her. I even got a high five from a bro while I was walking there. We met and went to this Chinese sit down place where I got this Ho Fun rice noodles with chicken in a black bean sauce and she got duck and fried rice. Both dishes were quite good. We even had these rice cracker like white puff things called prawns. It was a good meal. Her and I just talked about life and food. She had packed up her PS3 to let Shoop and I borrow it for a week or so, so I was walking around in a tie after the restaurant carrying a black bag with shades on. I felt like I should be watching out for DeNiro taking photos. We walked back to my flat and Shoop joined us to play some COD ghosts. Before we started that though we watched Collabro win Britain’s Got Talent and then I skated outside and showed off for Emma for a good 25 minutes (I was soaked by the end of it). It was right out in the courtyard and was a blast. She even decided to buy her own pair of skates so I can teach her how to skate. So we shall see how they are when they get here. After that we played COD Ghosts until like 230 AM (Shoop and I). Shoop kicked my butt in versus, but when we played Extinction we dominated that casual difficulty. We wrecked. It was a good night.

Prawns!

Ho Fun for you!

Day 28 6/6/14 (Late start, paper writing, chilling, 22 Jump Street, Shaun of the Dead)

So the day has been slow so far. It is quite nice out, but we have been inside working on the paper and entering data. Shoop and I got to the room early, but Stefan showed up a little after 10 (we had gotten there at like 9:30 AM). Nick still has not shown up at 1 PM. At any rate I entered more surveys and have worked on revising the chapter as we are going. Hoping to go skating and see 22 Jump Street later! Did a little skating and then managed to see 22 Jump Street which was gnarly. After that we went to Nando’s and I got this butterfly chicken jawn for like 8 quid but it was good. I was feeling lonely after that but Shoop, Emma and I watched Shaun of the Dead and had a good night from there. 

At the cat-ery house from Wednesday

That butterfly chicken sandwich

Day 27 6/5/14 (“Your Green Future,” Worcester News interview, chilling with Shockey, Surveying, skating, cooking)

I had to be down at the Riverside arena place at 8:45 AM to help setup for the “Your Green Future” Event put on by the University. This event is where the University invites school students (late middle school to 10^th grade) to come to this career fair/sustainability workshop. Basically the kids can walk around and hear about a number of jobs that include sustainability and working on going green. It was pretty cool. Shoop, Stefan and Nick had to sit over by the Energize Worcester table and be rather bored, but I was lucky enough to be over with the computing department and the 3D printer (Replicator 2) and the robotics (line tracking robot built by George (one of the research assistants for Colin (the head of computing))). It was a blast! I got to talk about robotics, sensors, fields of study or robotics and 3D printing. I got to talk about my knowledge of 3D printing too and start several print jobs. I also talked about how 3D printers can take models from mesh to piece (for kids). We also tried this sustainability driving sim where we had to shift and try to get the best MPGs. I ended up with 62 MPGs (the second highest score for the morning). After lunch we talked to the guy from the Worcester City news. It was rather quick and he asked about the project and comparisons of the two cities. After the interview and some sandwiches for lunch, Shoop and I peaced over to the train station to pick up Shockey (while Stefan and Nick went to interview one guy. We actually ended up meeting her at the café for the local museum. She had ordered soup and bought Shoop and I food (I had this cherry and chocolate cake and Shoop had a brie and something sandwich). The cake was quite good! The cherries were very sweet and the cake wasn’t at all moist (sorry GlaDOS). We had a great chat with Shockey about the project and our progress. She told us that one group had sent out 7800 surveys via email and had only gotten 14 responses so we are doing quite well (having over 25 back already out of a little over 100). After this chat we moved to the Horn and Trumpet to meet up with Stefan and Nick while they ate. We had a great chat about nightlife and the city before finally dropping Shockey off at train station again. We then headed over to the Arboretum and surveyed for two hours. We had a great chat with this one husband and wife (maybe early 60s) that had 4 cats and the one cat absolutely loved sitting on my clipboard and stopping me from working. Also there was a Siamese that loved getting some petting. After that is was the end of the day and I bought pasta and food for cooking for Emma. After that I went skating for about 40 minutes then rushed back to get work done before dinner! I killed it on cooking chicken! Overall a very good night! 

The station for the Computing department

That chocolate cherry cake

Dinner (gnocchi, penne, chicken, corn)

Day 26 6/4/14 (Rain, intense formatting, dealing with the other Paul, Bachelor noodles, more data revisions, kinder egg and laundry)

So I woke up and had breakfast of cheerios and toast and then stumbled over to the office through the rain. Shoop had gotten there early and I was there before 9 AM. Nick and Stefan did not show up until after 10. We first worked on getting a suitable response to this random Paul dude who had accused us of hassling his parents (elderly) into taking our survey and form the sound of his email it sounded like we were stopping back every day and lingering around sketchily (which was completely false). Peng thinks the guy just wanted to complain. At any rate my email draft was too cold and Katy had to write a warmer response. Oh well. He got off lucky. After that I worked on building a better formatting of the data sheet for the surveys. I reformatted the entire thing to work so each survey could be its own column. With 44 questions this took quite some time. We even later added percentages for each question. It was a struggle. I survived it though. For lunch I had more of the British Ramen noodles called the Bachelor noodle. They are quite good with substantially less fat. After lunch it was more data entry and formatting. I even worked on proofreading a bit. It was a slow afternoon with lots of rain. After work I went to the Students’ Union to grab some money for laundry. After that I went back and washed all my sheets and towels (after 3 weeks I figured it was worth it). I even made more salmon for tonight with some rice! Nailed it! Shoop and I also disposed of a level 6 biohazard (which was our compost bin that was molding over pretty good (it was almost at sentience)). After that is was just chilling and watching Kung Fu Hustle with Shoop. 

Kinder egg! Got myself a stunnin wheelie bike out of it!

Salmon n' rice!

Day 25 6/3/14 (Sleeping late, surveying, chicken lunch, surveying, Paul’s house, chilling)

After I woke up at 9:15 AM I got ready and had breakfast. Shoop and I then headed over to the Arboretum to start surveying. Shoop and I had so many bro chats today. Really good times. We hit up a number of houses and actually ended up passing out all of our surveys by the time we ended at 6 PM. We had several people fill it out with us there and I had to read the questions to them. This actually is harder than imagined as the formatting is hard to carry over to speaking in a conversation. I am getting better at it though. We even got to talk to the Tula owner on Southfield. We also talked to this one dude who has a father and was hurting for cash and he said energy would be cheaper if greedy corporations didn’t charge so much for electricity (seconded). After surveying we stopped at this chicken place for lunch and I had this like football shaped bread with sweet and sour chicken and cheese in it. After this we surveyed some more. After about 4 hours it started raining and we headed to Paul’s house and we talked to him about the survey. We had to create a text based version of the survey to send out to people to do by printing it out (those without word). After that we gave out the last surveys and headed back for dinner of pasta, sausages and lots of corn and green beans! Really chill day!

Our first IHD!

Pizza!

Hardest surveying work!

Football chicken sandwich!

Accident kitty (survived two car accidents, lost an eye and some teeth)

Linking it up

Day 24 6/2/14 (Meeting Lord Faulkner, naps, shots with the Mayor and surveying)

So at 8:30 AM we were in the office and practiced our presentation for Lord Faulkner (from the House of Lords in British Parliament). We then got to meet Lord Faulkner (who actually is a real dude and doesn’t talk like my aristocratic accent). He is really nice and was enthusiastic about our project. He was probably in his late 60s. We presented for him, Katy and Peng and he really liked it (and asked questions all throughout our PowerPoint (something new)). After that we decided to have some food and wait until 2 for the twinning ceremony at the bridge. I went and took a nap for an hour and a half and then cooked the British equivalent of Ramen noodles (called Bachelor’s noodles). It was good. After that we went to the bridge and met up with Katy and some other folks around the twinning ceremony (ironically not twinning with Worcester, MA, but with a city in Germany where one of the choirs of the town sings, so the lock will alternate between a bridge there and in Worcester, England). The twinning involved putting a lock on the bridge which is what lovers do in Europe (a lock for love on there). After this ceremony we had schnapps for a celebration (basically a 3/4ths shot). It was pretty strong. Not as bad as Jager that I tried on Saturday night. After that we surveyed for several hours. Shoop and I then went to Sainsbury’s and I got £27 worth of food (chicken and salmon and peas and corn and bread). After that Shoop and I cooked up the rest of the ground beef from Marceli and made a pepperoni pizza with more yellow pepper too. Really good actually. After that I chatted with Emma (the girl I met from the club on Saturday). It was a chill night. 

Twinning!

Schnapps!

Day 23 6/1/14 (Waking up late, the Big Lunch, work, Edge of Tomorrow, more work, cougars)

Okay so once I woke up after being up until 5 AM (cougars and clubbing. Not a great combo). I did kill it last night at this cocktail bar called Keystones where I danced for like 2 hours jumping and flopping around. It was so much fun. One guy said I was the best dancer there too. It was a great time. Shoop was sensible and went to bed at 2 AM, but I stayed up late and ended up walking across the racecourse at like 5 AM and got to see some of the fog there too. It was kinda cool although when I was outside at the late hour but had to be a good like 35 degrees at like 4 AM as I could see my breath. At like 2 AM I went to a burger place and explained quantum mechanics and transmission ratios and static vs. kinetic friction. I got a burger, fries and pepsi (when I asked for coke (NO COKE! PEPSI, CHEESEBURGER CHEESEBURGER CHIPS)). I gave my unopened pepsi to a dude in the McDonalds and he wanted to buy me a burger but I was like nah brah enjoy it for yourself. Such struggles. I woke up at 11:25 AM and got ready to go to the Big Lunch. The Big Lunch was good.We talked to the minister and had a mess of sandwiches. After a bit we went to the Hive to work on the paper. It was about 2 hours of work then back to the church for clotted cream. CLOTTED CREAM WAS SO GOOD!!

After that we headed back to the Hive and worked until 9:30 PM on the chapter parts. We then headed back to my flat and worked on the paper until Stefan and Nick showed up at 12 AM. I then spent an hour doing minor things until I could send the attachments at 1:37 AM. Overall a decentish day.

The rail bridge at 4 AM

Racing at 4 AM

All the fog!

More fog!

Such fog!

Final stretch

The race course at 5 AM

Clotted cream!