About

0 – A Progress Report on my Programming Project

Currently, I’m using this blog to keep a record of progress on my final project at university. I’m working on an Augmented Reality application for Android, which integrates with Google maps to show you nearby locations. Being my usual procrastinating self, I’ve left myself with one month to do the entire project. I’m writing this blog as I go along to keep a record of it for myself, help me in writing it up in the end, and possibly even help some other people. Right now it’s quite hastily written, but once it’s finished I intend to go back and write some more detailed tutorials on various aspects of Android programming, because there’s very little detailed stuff out there. If you want to contact me at all about the project, or Android questions in general, email me at android@lc8n.co.uk

1 – A Portmanteau of Random and Ramblings.

That’s right, there’s a fancy name for grabbing two words, chopping them in half, and sticking them together into something vaguely pronounceable (And I think I’ve succeeded in this case). You see, I like to ramble a lot. And a lot of my ramblings are quite random. Hence, randambling!

2 – My attempt to make a new blog.

Blog… what’s that all about. Who decided to give it a weird new name like that. Yes, I know it comes from shortening Weblog (And I’m sure there’s a fancy name for shortening words like that too). I guess Diary is too teen-angst, and Journal is too businessman. I’m somewhat past the teen-angst stage, and not yet onto the businessman stage. So, I guess a “Blog” is perfect for those who are somewhere between, or rather not entirely sure which end they want to be. God, this is starting to sound like a mid-life crisis now.

Still, this isn’t my first attempt at a Blog. I was “blogging” before it was called Blogging. Before it was cool to tell the entite internet how you hated your life, and what you ate for lunch. And my Previous Attempt at a Blog was certainly not what you would call cool. That was the teen-angst stage. it was mostly play-by-play accounts of my school days, down to the details of who I hung around with in the lunch breaks, how badly I did in the french test , and how close I got to sitting next to that girl I liked in science class. It is somewhat painful to go back and read it now, to see just how much of a stereotype I was, how much I really did whine about everything, and how awkwardly pathetic my high school crushes were.

But still, this is my attempt to start over on one of those Blogs that seems to have become the “thing to do” these days. After distancing myself from my angst-ridden old LiveJournal, I’m trying again. I’ve graduated on from whining about my social life. Now I’m going to whine about the WORLD.

3 – A collection of unnecessarily long commentaries on the life of a lazy British University student.

I guess in the end, it’s the same as before.

Anyway, enough with trying to explain myself, and now a little about me (If that’s any different).

My name is Joe.

I’ve gone by various web aliases over the years, but I’ve got bored of those, and I figured if my real name’s been ok for almost 20 years, then it’s as good a name to use as any.

I live in various parts of England, and I’m currently studying Computer Science at Exeter University. Wow, that even sounded clever. But basically, I’m just another lazy student passing the time before I have to go out into the big wide world, trying to learn a few useful things – both academically and socially – before I have to brave the wilds of a career.

To put it off further, I first took a ‘gap year’ before going to university. This involved doing some very boring job for 6 months, before flying off to travel america for 3 months, and quickly discovering that being independant is tougher than it sounds, money doesn’t last nearly as long as you need it to, and friendship is a complicated thing.

Lessons learned? Maybe. That’s part of why I’ve decided to write a blog again really. Perhaps more for myself than for others, it can be good stress relief, and it helps me to get my thoughts in order.

That said, I do enjoy writing when I put my mind to it, and I try to make it fun to read at least. So if you do happen to like it, then drop me a comment or bookmark me, maybe.