The Man with No Time

Another week, and another round of the NHL playoffs for this year are over and done. Who's made it through to challenge for Lord Stanley's cup? Well I'd be completely lying if I said that it's two teams that were predicted to be there at the start of the playoff season. The Los Angeles Kings have continued their somewhat unexpected run deep into the playoffs. I say somewhat unexpected, because after seeing them dominate their first two series you really had to expect them to do well against the Phoenix Coyotes. Much as in those previous series however, I was disappointed with their opponents. I was expecting much stiffer opposition from the Coyotes than they provided, and in the end it seemed as though the Kings had it all pretty much their own way, winning the series 4-1. That scoreline doesn't really tell the whole story though. Yes, on the surface it seems as though the Kings romped their way to victory. But from what I saw of the games they were hard f

Last Sunday I travelled South for the inaugural Worlds Gaming day. Organised by the owner of Worlds at War , it was held at the Howden Park Centre in central Livingston, and featured tournaments for Warhammer 40K, Flames of War, and Warmachine/Hordes. It was a long day, starting at about 10:30 and going on until 18:45, but very enjoyable. I met lots of new players, all of whom were very friendly, and got to know some of the more familiar faces a little bit better. Not only that, but I even won half of my games!

So back on Saturday 12th May I competed at the Loughborough University lifesaving competition, the final competition of the BULSCA calendar. It took place in the afternoon after a typically long-winded AGM, about which I've already written . It was a strange day actually. The previous competition had been the Student Championships back in mid-March, so it was long time since I'd competed. This is a perennial problem with Loughborough competition though, so I'm used to it after 7 years of competitions!

Today I received some news by email that has made me very excited. I've been awarded the Cormack Postgraduate Prize, which means that I'll be receiving a cheque for £400! The prize is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Edinburgh , specifically the Robert Cormack Bequest Committee (who also organise an annual, 1 day conference to showcase Scottish research in astronomy). It is given out to reward outstanding contribution to Scottish astronomical research, and is awarded for the best paper accepted for publication between February of the year preceding the award, and January of the same year. The postgraduate nominated must be the lead author of the paper. Obviously I'm very honoured to receive the award, which given the timeframe must be for my first paper on tidal interactions in hot Jupiter systems. I certainly didn't enter for it, so my supervisor must have done so for me. It's things like this that really keep me going with my research. The fact that

On Saturday morning, BULSCA  held their AGM before the final competition of the academic year. This was a bit of a change from previous years; traditionally the AGM has been on the Sunday following the competition. But with a start time of 2:30pm, and the problems experienced in the past with tiredness, hangovers, and travel for some attendees (particularly our representatives from St Andrews), the decision was made to move it to Saturday. A very popular decision it was too! Two years ago I ended up taking a flight home after the AGM whilst the rest of the team drove back, so I was glad not to have to do that again. 

So it's that time again. The conference semi-finals of the NHL playoffs are over, and I'm going to take a look at what went on and who's left to fight for Lord Stanley's cup. This is going to be fairly short, as I didn't actually get to watch much of what was happening

Time for my first reviews on this blog. In the last couple of days I've watched a couple of films, and have been mulling over my thoughts on them. One is an old classic that I've only just got around to watching, whilst the other is a brand new blockbuster. Read on for my thoughts on both of them, and to see what I'm looking forward to this summer.

After the Warmachine  April Annihilation steamroller tournament that I went to down in Livingston, I've been starting to think about my lists for the upcoming Worlds Gaming Day on the 20th of May. Organised by the same pressganger, and run in conjunction with Worlds at War once more, it's going to involve a twist on the standard 2012 Steamroller tournament. Primarily a 35pt tournament, with the usual 2-list, character restriction format, the final round will be played at 50pts, with all restrictions lifted. So you can repeat character units/models from your 35pt lists, and even use a different warcaster if you want to. I'm in a few minds as to the direction that I want to go in with this, so I'm posting up some thoughts here to get them down on paper.