Unfortunately it seems that the Valentine’s Day post had been obscured from mortal eyes. It should now be fully visible upon the human retina.
Midway Dinner was great success. Kicking off with a champagne reception in the Howard Building, the champagne itself was in somewhat limited supply but the inclusion of plates of fudge was a redeeming masterstroke. The official photographer is one of the usual digi-cam-hating breed, though I think it’s always telling when a professional with thousands of pounds of equipment feels threatened by an amateur taking 3 megapixel snapshots. Luke, photographing friends outside, managed to avoid his wrath.
Into the Hall for dinner, Lydia’s careful rearrangement of the seating plan seemed to work well. I was sat near one end with Dave, Angie and Rav, which also placed me by the next group which included Rowena and Beccy. The food was reasonably good, with a creative wrapped asparagus starter and a less inventive main course. Dessert was particularly good, albeit essentially boiling down to cake an ice cream. The only real downside was that the wine was much less free-flowing than had been advertised.
The awards were a lot more representative than I had expected. Rather than all falling to the popular cliques, they reflected the whole College’s true feeling. I was particularly pleased to see Sparkie and Sonya pick up the “Most likely to grow old together award”, though Sonya was wracked by guilt having not voted for them while Sparkie had. Chima, as I had expected, beat me to the “Most likely to go prison”, earning himself some fetching fluffy ‘cuffs. Philly J seemed particuarly proud of his award for “Most likely to blag their degree”. Meanwhile Beccy and Robin were voted Princess and Prince of Downing respectively.
It’s certainly weird to think of ourselves as halfway through, or as The Master suggested in his speech, halfway to something else. Seeing everyone suitably inebriated, Lyds and Dave slowed down by the end of the meal but were then doing shots in the bar, made it clear that no one had grown up too much. Rumour has it that even Rav may have touched a drop.
Looking back through the booklet in which all our friends were able scribble, perhaps my favourite comment is Jon’s simple, “Thank you for saving my girlfriend from a tramp.” How Downing is that.
18 February 2006 at 3:59 pm
The link to the “saving my girlfriend” bit doesn’t work properly, I don’t think. Strangely (and scarily enough) I actually *remember* to which past post that link is supposed to redirect the reader. *shudders*
Be afraid. Or something.
In other news, I’M WITH HANNAH! I’M WITH HANNAH!! *eeeeeeee*
18 February 2006 at 4:39 pm
Hmmm….how come Shamini gets a good photo while I look like an idiot?
First person to say something about art imitating life or the camera never lying will have something slightly aggravating happen to them in the near future. >:)
18 February 2006 at 5:04 pm
Hmm….how come Shamini gets a good photo that she’s never seen?
Though in view of recent belated birthday present including close up of terrifying baboon, will maybe not complain too much.
And I think that pic of adam was a wonderful choice!
18 February 2006 at 9:24 pm
Shamini, I think Luke is still working on the original photograph. Fortunately once I shrank the image down for use on the site, noise reduction wasn’t necessary. I can’t wait to see the finished full-size version.
Adam, feel free to provide a photo of yourself that you’d like the world to see and I’ll see what I can do…
19 February 2006 at 3:20 am
Right, a photograph of me not looking like an idiot. That shouldn’t be a problem.
*long pause*
Ah…
19 February 2006 at 12:43 pm
Well I’m sure Priyan would love that one I took of you tied to a chair with string by Dunni, or there’s ‘adam in sombrero and scarf’ or ‘adam looking like gandalf’, ‘adam being attacked by small mote of dust on camera lens’. What was that about the camera never lying?
20 February 2006 at 12:51 am
x(
Shh, you. :”>
20 February 2006 at 1:22 am
You are indeed correct, I’m still waiting to have a proper crack at finishing the photo. Unfortuantely ‘the great gods, that keep this dreadful pother o’er our heads’, seem to have found out their enemy now, and it seems to be me…
Consequently in the face of divine warfare, delays will happen. But fear not Shamini, you shall see the finished product. I’m sorry that you found the Mandrill to be scarey, he was really quite a tame thing, just looking at the animals walking past him in the zoo..
For the technically inclined, you’re entirely correct |P|, thermally induced camera noise (which is hopefully what you’re seeing on good ISO 1600 photos) is (I think, and it’s 01:30, so I probably shouldn’t be doing) a gaussian distributed noise. So by the magical, mystical wonders of the statistics, you get a noise reduction of SQRT(Items) where Items is the number of data points you’re averaging. You’re taking an 8million data point image, and shrinking it to a 41,334 pixel image. This is then going to give you a 13.9 times noise reduction, so you’d kind of hope that it looked OK from a noise perspective. + It had already had some curve fitting noise reduction done…
Anyway enough of this technical ranting before I develop a reputation for it, and back to trying to get lovely C++ STL libraries to talk to me.
Enjoy,
Someone who needs a name (and an identity for that matter)…
20 February 2006 at 1:32 am
Well I think ADeAdMan is by far the best alias on the site at the moment. Perhaps you can hire him to produce a suitable nom de plume — err, nom de clavier.
20 February 2006 at 12:28 pm
I need a cool name? Darn. Jane doesn’t have a cool name! er, not that jane isn’t a cool name itself. Er. Yes.
20 February 2006 at 4:01 pm
So I have a good name and appalling photos. No wonder I only talk to people on the internet. 🙂
Incidentally, have we broken the record for “Most Number of Comments to a Post on P-2006 (or any other iteration)”? If so, I demand recognition of some kind!
20 February 2006 at 7:25 pm
Uncool name? Moi?
…Well, you’re absolutely right, Shamini. And since you mentioned it, I shall now start using my internet moniker that I use (almost) literally everywhere else.
I am the one, the only, SoopaJane. Really – I’m the only one. I checked. *wins*
20 February 2006 at 10:26 pm
Why not Antimini? That’s a ‘well cool’ internet name… But you seem to have stopped using it? Was there a tragedy in the family of elements that we should know about?
20 February 2006 at 10:44 pm
Luke, is your new name meant to reference a flower. Or am I missing something here? 😕
20 February 2006 at 11:00 pm
Shamini, with a cool name like yours, you’re almost set without trying. However, since I assume your parents selected it rather than you, it doesn’t exactly prove your creativity in the same way as Adam’s (where your lyrical genius clearly does!).
And Adam is quite right, this is by far the most prolific thread of comments on the site thus far. This is, dare I say, what it was made for. Be proud.
20 February 2006 at 11:16 pm
I like Shamini’s name, as is.
It reminds me of doing a little dance, but with your mouth.
…wow, I probably seem like a nitwit now. But I’m just being honest. 🙂
21 February 2006 at 12:23 am
Not just any flower…
The one and only Fried Egg Plant…
At this point, I go to my website to dig out one of the photos that I have of this rather nice and highly appropiately named flower from the Cam. Botanical gardens, only to discover that I haven’t actually uploaded them as of yet.
The irony.
OK, so it was the best I could do, and I do happen to have a photo of one of them kicking around my desk at the moment. Is it original enough, oh name virtuosa?
However, on a related note, may I (having dug myself into a very deep hole), unequivicably (however that’s supposed to be splet liek) add my name to the ‘Vote that Shamini’s name is cool enough on its own’ brigade? :”>
Thank you.
A fried egg.
21 February 2006 at 2:31 am
I bet Jane’s pronouncing “Shamini” wrong. ¬_¬
Am unsure why Luke wishes to be known as a Fried Egg plant as he resembles neither a fried egg or a plant in anything he does (or not that I’ve noticed anyway).
And I vote Shamini returns to Antimini for 4 reasons. 1 – I can asert my individuality and look cool by going against the bandwagon. 2 – It’s Chemistry related which appeals to my Chemistry brain. 3 – It begins with A, by far the best letter ever. 4 – It’s clever and good.
I’m procrastinating far too much…
21 February 2006 at 11:20 am
So, how exactly does one pronounce “Shamini”? 😕
21 February 2006 at 12:48 pm
*annoys*
>:)
Pronounce that!
21 February 2006 at 1:36 pm
It’s meant to rhyme with harmony.
21 February 2006 at 8:30 pm
That’s about how I had it.
…and I still think it sounds like a little jig with your mouth.
I’m with Luke on this one – Shamini’s name is cool enough on its own. 🙂
22 February 2006 at 1:26 am
Have to go with chemistry being cooler than things sounding like harmony.
And no one like’s K’Tra? :-??
22 February 2006 at 12:15 pm
Is K’Tra a reference to something?
22 February 2006 at 5:04 pm
nope.
Hence lack of support.
Not chemical, lawyerful, comscical or anything cool at all.
Soopa. Sounds kinda like you like soup but that could just be me.