Nearly There

Just the bibliography and the appendices to sort out....thank God its taken a while.

I now need to add a few more programs and scripts that I wrote during my PhD to my wiki, then add a few tags to make use of the semantic nature of the wiki.  Now that I have a bit of spare time, I am starting to look at RDF, RDF Schema, SPARQL and OWL, I am also investing more time in Taverna.

==Chemoinformatics paper of the month?....== 

TBA next post!  

What a turn out

I was really surprised tonight. I know it's Easter and all, but why were there so many men at Club Salsa tonight? Anyway, not the best of nights, but I still had a few good dances, all On 2 tonight except 1 dance.

The routine tonight was a little stange, and disjunctive. X-body lead, followed by an open break, the guy wraps the lady's right hand round is stomach then on the count of 5-6-7 spins anti-clockwise. On the count of 1-2 the lady is turned clockwise then pulled round the guy into a cross body on 3 and span clockwise twice on the count of 5-6-7. The lady is then lead into another X-body where the guy has to spin anti-clockwise after the lady has span clockwise. Break back on 1 then lead the lady into a Xbody keeping her to your right then on 5-6-7 push her back into a clockwise touch and go. The guy places the lady's left arm on his right shoulder then turns clockwise whilst picking up the lady's left then both turning on the count of 6-7 the guy clockwise the lady anti-clockwise.

Not really any other news, though I shall feel better when the corrections I've found in my thesis are ironed out.

Tom in Town

Well there was a surprise.  Tom (my brother) had come back from Cuba and had a few days spare before he heads down to London. I invited him to come to Cambridge for a day or so, to catch up on information in general and find out more about his trip to Cuba.  It sounds like he had a great time: drinking, relaxing, scub diving, walking and salsa dancing. I guess the only downer of the holiday was his last night in Havana, where the hotel apparently was all booked up!

Anyway it was great to see him on Tues night. Sadly I missed Sally & Chris' on2 lesson, but that's life [yes not a 100% record any longer!]. We went out to the Bangkok City Thai restuarant on Green St. I have only been there once before, last time I got a take-a-way and that was a Green Thai Curry. On Tues, I had the pork stir fry and my brother the Green Thai Curry, both accompanied by traditional Thai Singh beers. Singh beer is quite sweet as far as beer goes and fairly strong (6%). For dessert we finished with a lemon and champagne sorbet. We then headed off to La Raza for some cocktails. The cocktails in La Raza are quite expensive but really nice, there was also a live band playing there; I thought their "funky soul" music was great to relax to. However, the female lead singer given the fact that she was about 40+, could have worn a less revealing outfit...if you know what I'm saying!

Today we had 4 games of squash. I lost 4-0 so it looks like a need a bit more practice. Having said that that was my 4th competitive set of squash games, so not too bad. We cruised around the shops for some clothes then went to the Prince Reagent. To our surprise they were not serving burgers so we ended up in the GBK. Nice burgers and chips, a little expensive though. Before Tom headed off we went to the cinema to what Juno. The movie lasted a little over 1 hour and a half.  My opinion: I thoroughly enjoyed it, great story line, amusing with great character interaction. 

Now back in the room chilling out for the next day ahead.

 

Dan's Viva

I must admit, I got out of bed rather late and ended up in the lab at about 11am. Work is going well, my CN2-SD stuff has now finished running, whilst I'm still waiting for some other calculations to finish. In my spare time, I also upgraded my mediawiki to a semantic wiki. It probably will not make much of a difference until my wiki gets a lot larger.

I went to CS tonight, to wish farewell to Cyrille. The routine was OK, most of the moves I knew, it's just I'd never strung them together in that way before. When the dancing started, Nicola asked me, I had a great dance with her on2, she was a bit concerned with her spinning, however I think she is one of the best followers/spinners in Cambridge, so I don't think she should be concerned about anything, if anything could be improved it should be my leading!  I also danced with Jane tonight on2, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Unfortunately he turned up later than I expected so I had to leave to congratulate Dan on passing his PhD viva. It would be nice to be in that position! We had two drinks down the Anchor then off into town for some chips.

Now I have the dilema of what to do on Friday? Go home or stay in Cambridge?

Salsa on Wed for a change?

If you dance until late, waking up early is a bit of a pain. I must have got into the "office" at around 11am today, yes a bit late, but that's life. Work is going well, I'm running the last few bits and pieces then I shall be able to correct my final chaper. I also put a bit more work into my website today, so there is now some nicely styled html for the home page, a journal, issues relevant to chemoinformatics and a gallery.

Tonight I decide to go down to CS. The routine wasn't too bad, one move I particularly liked involved breaking with the guys left hand (connected to lady's left hand) underneath the right hand then spinning the lady clockwise, then opening out into a crucifix for the guy, the guy then took his left hand with the lady's left hand and led her clockwise so her back is facing you on the count of 1-2-3, then wrapped her into your arm on 5-6-7 anti-clockwise. All in all I thought the routine was interesting though that was the move I liked best, and SHOULD remember.

Unilever Photo

Today was the day where everyone in the Unilever Centre got their photo taken. We were paraded to the top of the chemistry department (the roof!), up a couple of flights of stairs then onto a steep spiral staircase. Everyone was lining up, the photos were taken, then the camera man realised that their was no film in the camera! We repeated the shoot, it was very difficult to keep your eyes open without blinking given the fact that there was so much wind taking the moisture out of your eyes...long story short, the photo of me has probably come out badly.

In the evening I went to the Slug and Lettuce and found out that my "I love Slug" card gives me a 15% discount at the slug and lettuce on all drinks! The lesson tonight was interesting, interesting in the sense that a number of people who have never done any "On2" jumped straight into the Int/Adv class. Brief overview of the routine: cross body lead, prep lady spin her clock wise 1-2 times into a hammerlock with her right left hand, break back on 6, step forward on 1 forcing the lady round clockwise then hook back on 2, wrap the lady in using your left hand with two ant-clockwise turns. Whoosh on 6, then and spin her out on the count of 3 in a clockwise direction and you spin under on the 5 anti-clockwise break back on the 6 then with your left hand lead the lady with her right hand into a anti-clockwise under and over. Break back on 6 then spin her out on the 1,2,3 making sure you keep your hand close to her stomach so she doesn't spin off in a random direction.

MOT Passes

Altogether Monday was a great success. I took my car in for an MOT in the morning, it only took about 1 hour, in time I decided to do some shopping. I got a new squash racket, the printer paper (yes boring!) and my lunch from Tesco, which consisted of a honey and mustard flavoured chicken pasta which was quite nice though it also went over the interior of my car, after my car past its MOT! Horrah!

Monday night at St Ives was great, I thoroughly enjoyed the salsa dancing. I think the Int/Adv routine went something like: 1-2-3 cross body lead 5-6-7, then take the ladies left with your left and wrap her in anti-clockwise (one full bar for this move) then on the 1-2-3 open her out and do a clockwise under-and over to get the lady's left hand behind her back, the guy needs to change hands so he takes her with his right hand now. On 1-2-3 the guy leads the lady into an anti-clockwise turn then turns clockwise himself and leads the lady into another anti-clockwise turn. The hand hold should be left-to-left. Take the lady into another X-body and turn her anti-clockwise and then prep her on the 1-2-3 to turn twice clockwise, at this point the guy needs to wrap is left arm behind the lady's neck then on the count of 1 the lady goes back and the guy back with his right foot, then take the lady into a zig-zag, and turn her clockwise, open break and pick her up routine over.

Jesus College Formal

I was invited to a Jesus College formal by Christian tonight. Despite the small turn out of ~ 30 people, probably due to the end of term, I really enjoyed it. For starters there was some form of cheese and leak tart, though small, it tasted nice. The main course was salmon with potatos, cabbage and peppers. Dessert was a rasberry tart which was quite sweet, but tasted great.

After the formal we proceeded to a local pub for a beer, I can't remember the name of the place but apparently it was a regular haunt for the "Elite" sportsmen of Jesus college, which Christian is going to be a member of for rowing in the men's 1st boat in the May bumps.

New Website

Just set up a new website at:

http://chemoinformatician.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.

This website should provide information on myself, my family and some pictures of my recent holidays.  

Off to bed I think, I'm feeling shattered!