The NUS Extra card scheme is currently a highly contested and very controversial subject on campuses across the nation.

The question most often raised is whether or not it offers students, who are already NUS members and therefore get a variety of NUS discounts with their University ID cards, any discernible advantages over the cards they were provided with by their Universities.

The NUS extra site screams gimmick when you access it, displaying images of grazing cows meant to encourage students to “milk” the various discounts offered by the NUS extra card, such as offers from Domino’s and Subway who offer independent student discounts negating the need for an NUS Extra card, so much for exclusivity. (more…)

This is a general rant, which sort of belongs here because this is my blog and I can bloody well do with it what I like.

Anyway even though I enjoy the numerous lab sessions which are part of my course I can sadly also find them immensely annoying for quite a few reasons most of them are common sense problems.

Now I understand that I come from a very practical A-Level background due to having done Nuffield and not everyone has that advantage but surely the things which were drummed into us from the beginning until they were second nature should be obvious to people at university level.

One of those would be: In a crowded lab, don’t use lab stools they only take away much needed room, and god forbid you leave it in the middle of the aisle so everyone else can’t get through when they’re carrying chemicals or glassware.

Secondly: Don’t pipette directly from a bottle, which again should make sense because it greatly increases your likelihood of spilling things, and I’ve always been told it lets inaccuracy creep in by not necessarily  doing it at eye level and I must admit that I’ve done it a few times myself, but only while the bottle was in my hand (very small ones) and only when dealing with quantities in the 0.1-0.5mL range.

On a slightly less serious note, solvents are fun but they greatly increase my desire to purchase glow sticks during lab sessions.

MMM Glowsticks. Where’s a rave when you need one? They don’t exist because Leicestershire is too damn cold.

As you may or may not know already, in the last couple of years various MMORPGs have become big business, and not only for the companies which run then.

People have been making livings in Second Life for example, and one or two people I know have given up their traditional jobs and are now working in SL and let’s face it who doesn’t want to go to work in their underwear?

Obviously these games also have their own economies, which are very much dictated by supply and demand of certain items, just as in the real world. Interestingly enough those games usually enable you to buy time cards with in game money once you’re one of those lucky people who make enough money to pay for one.

And where does this money come from? Well, some people work for it, but the other option is obviously to buy it…Which is great if you find something you just have to buy, some kind of fancy new sword for example.

Which is where GameGoods come in, you can go to their site and buy warcraft gold, EVE ISK, Guild Wars Platinum and many other in game currencies.

The site itself is laid out well as one would expect, and they accept a large variety of payment options, which is extremely important. For example when I was trying to buy an EVE time card, it took me quite a while to find a site which accepts PayPal, in fact it wouldn’t be too bad if GameGoods started selling time cards some time in the future…

Their employees are active Gamers thenselves, so should you have any problems they would probably be not only happy to answer your queries but also answer them in a very competent manner.

One thing which I can’t find on the site is a way of selling your in game currency, which would be something worth looking into, as many Gamers out there would probably be willing to do, so it’s certainly worth investigating.

Overall, GameGoods seem like exactly what someone looking for a quick in game cash injection would be looking for, I’d give it a more in depth review, for example mentioning response times on customer service queries and delivery times, but I don’t have any current subscriptions at the moment.

Please note this post was sponsored by GamesGoods.

I’m sure it was awesome, and I sure I missed a lot, I really did mean to go and I’m sorry I missed it.

The worrying thing is, I thought “Hey this looks cool, and is within easy walking distance from where I live.” but sadly fate was against me this weekend… I somehow ended up being unable to pull myself out of bed even after being awake for a few hours, so most of the day was gone by the time I was out of bed and dressed.

You’re surely asking yourself, what does that have to do with the Machinima festival? It’s fairly simple really, it was staged at my University, and as such I would have had an excellent opportunity to attend but sadly I’m just too lazy.

I’m sure it ruled, and I’m going to get as much information on it as possible…Watch some of the submitted material even and hopefully they’ll be back here next year.

What really annoys me is that someone from the Electric Sheep Company was supposedly there, representing their entry, so I could have gone up to them and said “Hi! I know this guy you work with.” then had a very long winded conversation about nothing, but sadly it was not to be.

I have turned into a real lazy student bum.

The internet has landeed!

Woo yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay etc. I have a working internet connection again, however it’s not at the highest speed I can get yet because it’s before the activation date so they’re probably still doing all sorts of funky things to my like in order to ensure I get the highest speeds possible.

Sadly it means I’m like a very hyper little thing on crack now because I have the power of the internet at home, go me!

I can actually do some work for a change.

Going to make a more detailed post when I remember stuff.

Anyway I am still alive, just.

Damn you alcohol!