Alex Harries's diary

(More off-topic pixellated goodness...)

So everything's pretty much returned to normal after the Grad Ball, apart from a couple of small piles of wood which once made up the beach bar thingy, and a mysterious roll of bamboo, in the sabbs' office...

The night itself was great fun, as always - I was in from about 3pm helping (a bit) with the set-up; I was given the responsibility of running the sound in CO2 for the Scratch Perverts, so it fell to me to figure out how to plumb in three mixers, four decks and two CD players. In the end we got through (just) by hastily scribbling a sheaf of notes, diagrams, and heiroglyphics on random bits of paper. In fact, I think we only had one hiccup, where I managed to turn off the wrong set of decks when I got on the decks after the Scratch Perverts. Note to self: don't try and DJ while trying to be a sound engineer...

The Scratch Perverts (pics) themselves seemed like a genuinely nice trio of chaps (although only two played on the night, with one waiting in the wings - maybe in case one of the other two keeled over...?). They were only too happy to help out with the equipment set-up, and didn't seem fazed when I stormed into their dressing room two minutes before they were due on stage to sort out a minor technical issue (namely, that I'd forgotten to flick a couple of switches on their mixer... I am a fool - it's official). Their set, of course, was some of the finest musical mastery I've ever heard in my life - how it's possible to drop classic hip-hop, drum 'n bass, and then some Nirvana, beats the hell out of me, but I reckon our little venue rocked far more than Lux's Goldie Lookin' Chain ever could... ;o)

I couldn't help wondering how many of the faces I was looking out on from the DJ booth were moving on from Portsmouth to a great job, travelling, or just lazing about for a while. Next year, it's my turn (I hope!), and I expect it'll be one of the scariest and exciting times I'll ever go through. For all of you graduating or about to graduate this year, good luck!

(And, in a Public Service Announcement-stylee, don't forget the Union doesn't just do cheap drinks - there's a whole load of bods here who can help you with coursework issues, housing problems, health concerns, and plenty more bods whose jobs it is to get you involved in a new sport or society; don't be afraid to drop in and say "hey"!).

From summer next year, the Government are introducing a whole raft of legislation about smoking in public places. For the Union, I expect this means the majority of the venue will be a no-smoking place all the time; whether they will provide a well-ventilated smoking area upstairs, or simply allow people to pop outside the Waterhole (as you can do during warmer weather) for a smoke I don't know, and no-one on the trading side of the business (which runs the bars, catering and entertainments) has said much, although I'm sure there's a lot of thought going into how it's going to be handled when the time finally comes round.

As a smoker myself, this could be an interesting time - I'd like to give up smoking, but only if I don't have to suffer too much with the cold turkey side of the withdrawal process. Yes, I am a big wuss... I wonder how many other people will finally quit for good when they find they can't have a cigarette with their drink and dancing...?

So tomorrow night is the Grad Ball. Adrian and myself have about 26 hours to pick out some tuneage to entertain the crowds with after the Scratch Perverts play their set, 'cos apparently we're playing *after* the Perverts in CO2, and Pure:FM have the pleasure of doing the warm-up.

But, there's a problem - I'm being a bit of a worrier: frankly, this is scary - there could be 200 people in CO2. What if I don't play tunes people like? What if I suddenly can't mix (i.e. "mix worse than usual")? What happens if my laptop crashes during my set? What if my first tune blows so badly, I'm forcibly removed from the premises via a trap-door?

Ahh well, at least it can't make me pregnant, and I reckon it'll turn out fine - after all, most people are graduating, so I won't have to hide any shame from them next year (and years to come...) from making an ass of myself.

So, while I'm feeling the fear about how tomorrow night's going to turn out, I really hope that, if you're going to the ball, you have a great time. And if you're not, have fun whatever else you're doing :o) /al - pixel munki by day, popular music abuser by night... Maybe.

This year's been a record-breaker for the Grad Ball - apparently (and I'm happy to be proven wrong on this...), the Grad Ball has never sold out before. Not ever.

So, for tickets to sell out in under two days isn't bad going by anybody's standards. Which just makes my next bit of non-news all the more likely to turn my hair entirely grey; this afternoon while playing on the decks, Boss ('Angry Ginge' - a term of endearment believe it or not...) saunters up and announces that I'm allowed to warm up for the Scratch Perverts at the Grad Ball "if I want to".

Honestly, I considered my reply for all of half a second... ;o)

So there's going to be a threesome of scruffy, unshaven chaps scrambling around behind the decks before the threesome of Scratch Perverts come on stage at your Grad Ball this year - Ben "Gonzo/Rane" West (I wish he'd make his mind up what he wants to call himself), Adrian "Professa" Testa, and myself (I'm still trying to come up with a better name than Exhale - suggestions on a £20 note as usual please...).

Along with Pure:FM dealing with the after-Pervert deck duties, this Grad Ball is looking better and better as we approach the day.

The only downside is that, unless I can get myself sacked between now and then, I'll have to work all day in the run up to the ball before I can go on the decks - exciting stuff, but being of a naturally lazy persuasion, I'm less than keen on doing anything even vaguely resembling effort. Still, you've got to take the lows with the highs... Or words to that effect.

As for UPSU.net, I'm trialling a basic mailer script as an extension to our news system which lets us add a basic form to any news article or web page asking for things like e-mail address, age, name, comment/suggesion, etc - fill it out, hit "send" and it (should) fire off an e-mail to us with the information you tell us. This is interesting for two reasons - it means we can quickly and easily ask for your feedback on a range of subjects - great for those of you who reckon we could do things better, or just differently - and it also means we can also tie some survey functionality into the site without sending you off to a massively complex survey tool when we only need to ask you a couple of questions.

I've also listed the various projects and work I've lined up for myself over the summer; finishing the blogs, the RSS system, updates to the galleries, "Ask UPSU a question", making page URLs more logical, tidying up the design of the forums, rebuilding the JobShop system, rewriting the search engine, and extending the NUS Registration system to handle the new NUS Extra and NUS Democracy cards, should see my workload pretty constant until... About 9pm on September 24th.

If anybody'd be so good as to send me a card for my birthday on September 5th, that would be lovely... :o)

Enough rambling for one day. I would have gone back and added a load of links but, to be honest, I'm sure you wouldn't be bothered about clicking them any more than I am about creating them in the first place - feel free to disagree, but it would just prove you're really bored, aren't you?