Okay, so it’s been ages since I wrote an entry in this diary. The end of January seems to be the last time I was bothered to write anything, and a lot has happened since then. I’ve had another birthday, which was celebrated very nicely indeed, and I’ve been to New Zealand for two and half weeks with my family. I’ve also had the opportunity to do quite a bit of reading.
New Zealand was awesome, especially the south island. The scenary was spectacular. Milford Sound was particularly breathtaking. There were waterfalls springing out of every mountain side. I hope I don’t have to wait long before going back again! Before long I shall publish, on this web site, a selection of photos that were taken in New Zealand.
I finally completed The Count of Monte Cristo. It was very interesting, though rather drawn out in places. Indeed it’s a very long book. I enjoyed the ending, mainly because it contained a most pertinent piece of advice: Wait and hope
. As simple as these two words are, they are held by me to be of the utmost importance. They bear resemblance to my e-mail signature also: Foi est tout (Faith is everything). This is the Robinson family motto, and I don’t know why it should be expressed in French. Monte Cristo was my grandfather’s favourite novel. Although I enjoyed it a great deal, I cannot go so far as to say it is my favourite book. Since finishing Monte Cristo I’ve also read Pride and Prejudice, which, to my surprise, I took great pleasure in reading. The characters were so very well described that I couldn’t help but form an opinion, either favourable or unfavourable, of each and every one of them. Tonight I just finished watching the BBC series of the same title, and enjoyed that too! It’s my task, and great delight, to read through my now substantial collection of Thomas Hardy novels. Presently I’m reading Jude the Obscure, for which Hardy was roundly criticized for writing, and this criticism put Hardy off writing novels altogether. What would Hardy’s critics think of today’s novels and films, where sexually explicit material is so prevalent and the institution of marriage no longer treated as sacred?
I’ve had a very productive couple of days at university. I’ve managed to just about write a complete implementation of Chord (distributed hashtable protocol) in these two days. There is an existing implementation of Chord, but it’s written in C, and I understand that it is excessively complicated to get it working. If I continue to work at my present rate, it will be one of my most productive weeks ever.
In the end, and with some persuasion from Jaga, I’ve decided to tutor Distributed Computing again. This will definitely be my last semester as a tutor!
