Q's Place

Well some car damage today.

Coming home from a poorly friends house (he's recently had an operation) and someone decided they didn't like the look of my wing mirror.

Long story cut short, when travelling on back roads things tend to get a little tight, meaning you have to pull into the hedge/verge a little; common practise I thought. So that's exactly what I did, I slowed down and pulled in a little. Went from about 55/60mph to 35-40mph and pulled in a little, unfortunately the idiot in the BMW didn't show the same courtesy. The BMW came round the bend too close to the centre of the road and quite possibly over the white line and after a loud [b]BANG[/b] my wing mirror became a casualty.

Now these things happen, you simple stop and discuss the matter with the other driver exchanging insurance details if need be. Well that's what your suppose to do and it's certainly what I tried to do. After slowing to a stop and pulling over I saw that the BMW had done the same, so I turned the car around to pull behind the BMW and suggest we find a turning off the main road. However by the time I turned around the BMW had already pulled away, so I followed to see if they already had the same idea. They pulled off the road at the next turning (they where at a distance by now) so I did the same, however after passing a suitable place to safely stop they didn't, I flashed my lights and indicated to the left (a widely understood method to ask someone to pull over, police use it all the time) however they didn't stop, so I tried it again with the same result. So I just decided to repeat the registration out loud and pulled over to ring my fiancées parents just repeating the registration and saying write this down in between, other than sounding a bit loopy [i](which there used to)[/i] I think they figured it was a car registration.

After getting the registration, make of the car and the colour written down I decided to pull into a pub car park I knew was only down the road to assess any damage. Basically the wing mirror is a complete write off, I assume they must have had a fixed mirror rather than a folded one because with two folded mirrors the "fold" action absorbs the impact and I might have gotten away with just a broken mirror rather than the entire fixture being smashed. Also as the glass shattered it looks like it's scratched the off side window (drivers side), just as well I didn't have my window open any more that it was.

Anyway I phoned the police and they've told me I can't report it over the phone, I have to come into the station. This is different to how Nottingham police station deals with these reports because they log it down then ask you to come into the police station.

Only thing that puzzles me is why didn't they stop, it's only a mirror that was damaged. Makes you wonder what other reason there could be and I would have thought the police might have been a little more interested...


[link=http://www.qsplace.co.uk/e107_plugins/gallery2/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6276]All the images are in the gallery.[/link]

Well before I wander off to bed I've fixed a couple minor errors in the theme that I'm using "News_Portal".

1. Changed the code for pointing at the language file to the new theme directory.
   
   
2. Corrected a minor code error that made the "comments" text on news post appear as "THEME_LAN_20".
   
   
3. Fixed Minor off colour problems.
   
   
4. Changed some font sizes
   
   
5. Changed menu areas (included a footer menu area)
   
   
6. Added date/clock to the theme

That's all I can remember off hand.


I've now decided that I've edited the theme enough to port it off into my own version, of course thanks go to the original creator of the theme:

Darren Hester, and batboy, for porting this theme to the e107 CMS (Content Management System).

My edits will eventually go onto the downloads page and will remain under the current license.

Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial 3.0 License

Well today's post was going to be about my boiler and how the landlords are still dragging out fixing it, however after going into university today I feel there are more pressing issues that I want to rant about.

Today was University enrolment. "Woohoo!", I thought; just the kick up the arse I need to get me back into the swing of things because with a good timetable of the day I know where I stand with spare time and uni time.

Allow me just to out line the stages.

1 - Academic counselling (this is where you check your existing module points and select the years modules)
2 - Adding modules to the on-line "Peoplesoft" database
3 - Confirmation of the module selections
4 - NUS I.D. Card collection.

Now there are extra steps if your a first year i.e. gaining a system password, entering personal details and creating your peoplesoft database, but I'm not a first year so we can skip these steps.

Well everything actually went quite smoothly for once, I know what enrolment is like and I know the queues are horrific. Now personally I can't stand queues, there a waste of my time, and a queue more than about 3 people and I start thinking to my self "what a complete cock-up!". The way I see things is a very stereo typical "Why am I paying money to stand in a queue" I must get that from my dad because he's the same, he will not stand in a queue just to give someone money, it's just the wrong way round.

So anyway apart from making sure that I avoided the queues by adding the modules to the on-line system via a computer lab I have access to and the new students don't (because they don't have logins to the specialist computer labs yet, and there locked via a ID card entry system). Also making sure that I didn't go to the confirmation stage of enrolment at peak times, which I also find pointless; lets side track here for a little bit.

Enrolment confirmation - Now this is done AFTER you've input the enrolment form data into the on-line database (after you've discussed your module choices with your academic leader). The point of this is so a member of the administration staff can confirm the information that you've transferred from your piece of paper that you academic leader gave you against what is on the database that you've just filled in. Which incidentally the database system shows back to you before you logout of the system. So that's 3 times you have to check the piece of paper against the database system, obviously they must have had some students who can't read the piece of paper or the computer screen and must have a human read it to them; forgive me but why are they in University? Before it's mentioned in a comment yes I understand disabilities and language barriers as well as data redundancy, however without getting into too much detail there are translators on call at all stages as well as helpers for the disabled, not to mention that a form with all the selections are then sent to the academic who filled the form out in the first place. If you think the same as me "that's a lot of hassle" there's worse, the queue is normally out the door for this stage of the enrolment, and it takes 30 minutes to 1 hour to get through this stage. I'll say it again What A Waste Of Time!

Back on to the main point of this rant because even though I had to go through the above stage to enrol I made sure that I went at a non peak time, so I got through in less than 5 minutes.

After these stages you have to then wander to the Student (Un)Support(ive) Centre to fetch your ID card, again this queue is LONG, but yet again I just went for a coffee and came back when the queue was null existent. So far a good productive day with not too many of problems, Great!..... I thought, and here come the main point!

The university are handing out 1GB pen drives to the students at enrolment(so I thought). However it turns out that they are only handing them out to the first year students, now this boils my blood in any institution. The whole look after the new clients/customers/punters policy, now I can understand this if you are fair (although I was taught long ago that this isn't a fair world) however when I started at university I got nothing. Nope not a thing! (apart from a don't plagiarise and here is the pub book. Remember this point.)

Whilst getting my ID I asked if I got a pen drive, just to be told that they are for the new students. Much to my disgust, however I could have a "don't plagiarise and here is the pub book" (told you to remember). Well I tried the charming "oh go on, your not going to give me a pen drive" routine, yeah it didn't work, I don't have big enough tits or a short enough belt obviously (not being sexist, but I would have fancied my chances if I did have fore mentioned items). So after that failed I asked the next obvious question "why not?" simple enough question, however he seemed offended that I asked and simply told me because there only for first years. I then proceeded with the next question, "what's on the pen drives?" again answered with a ambiguous documents first years need. Well surly I would need the same documents, considering rules change, things move, etc; it's always nice to be updated on these things.

Well the next point this guy made just really annoyed me, "you can buy them on-line for £4 + postage, there cheap enough". Yep you guessed my answer, "Why should I buy one online when your giving them away for free?". The way I see things is as you progress through university your debts get bigger, you require more materials, you need more support, the university should prioritise on getting those students that started the course finish the course, as it looks good, however they just see the money. Now I understand that the university is a business, and don't let them tell you any different! They are there to make money, and in the case of the administration staff in my university not necessarily there to help the student (or the academic staff for that matter). Now I know not all the university is like that, however it sure feels like it some times.

Well I'm going to end it there because I could rant on for ages about how crap I think it is not to help existing students, and the university being too tight to give me a 12p pen drive. But I would like to finish with this, it's not about the pen drive or the price, it's about how the university seems to treat existing students the whole "we've got there money now" agenda that they seem to have, it's crap!

However they are the first to seek publicity if a student does well, there the first to shift the blame and there most certainly the first to notice when you've messed up on something which costs them!

End. (before I smash something)

Well it's up early today, alot to get done!

A quick tidy up of the house, make Laura's dinner ready for tonight as I'm not going to be here when she gets home from work. Going to get another page written on my dissertation (don't worry when it gets graded I'll upload it here) and then it's off to my parents.

My sister and her partner is going on holiday this coming week and there leaving the car at my parents (because when they get a lift from the airport they're getting a lift back to my parents, so it makes sense to leave the car there) and considering I kinda live half way between my parents and her partners I was asked to give them a life back to her partners (what a mouth full!).

But to be honest even though it's a mess around on my behalf I don't actually mind, I enjoy driving; maybe the novelty will wear off but for now it hasn't (lucky for them).