The reason I haven’t been writing for a while now is because my girlfriend Johanna was visiting me last week and this week I’ve been struggling with courseworks. That’s why I have almost two weeks of happenings to tell you! Oh the joy and the happiness 
Courseworks
IM217 eCommerce
Yes! Dear something, I’ve handed out my first courseworks and celebrated that already also! \o/ Basically this means I’ve handed out my eCommerce coursework which can be found in here.
That’s a sad site which is “selling” geeky watches. That’s not all of the coursework, I had to hand in a report describing problems and the process of doing the artifact. Not so interesting to write a report on that. As you probably can see if you visit the site it’s done with using XHTML 1.1, CSS 2.0 and ASP. The layout is quite lame, I could have done better but I just couldn’t be bothered. All but one of the images are nicked from Thinkgeek which was basically my source of inspiration for the site.
BS2051 Human Computer Interaction
I also had a groupwork coursework for Human Computer Interaction module. The coursework was about developing a Digital Home Help which would ease peoples everyday task.
I came up with the idea of a Smart Wardrobe which would basically be a automated stylist for young women. You could be able to consult it with touch screen attached to the wardrobe door. The wardrobe would know what is inside it because all of the clothes would have RFID tags on them and the wardrobe would have a RFID reader. It would give the clothing suggestions based on the clothing inside it, based on the users previous preferences and based on the fashion info programmed into it.
And yes, I’ve heard Clueless had same sort of thing. And yes, I’ve seen the movie but I didn’t remember that. Anyhow the lecturer of the course liked the idea. \o/
I did this coursework with two other guys, Abdul and Jide. No idea where they are originally from and it doesn’t really matter. 
The guys didn’t put as much effort as I did for this coursework but then again, such is life. We had to write a report about the process and the methods we used to get to this design. We even interviewed and observed people (or at least I did) for the user needs analysis. The report we wrote had about 2500 words and that’s 500 more than we needed. \o/
This kind of project is ok. I think now I really understand what do they mean with User Centered Design.
Both of the courseworks are still going to continue. So more struggling ahead.
Went to the Mean Fiddler on friday to celebrate the finished courseworks. The night was OK, although I enjoyed more when were drinking in Drews room. Thanks for the beer Drew!
Week with Johanna
I miss her even more after she visited me. I almost got used to her being here already and then she just went back to Grenoble. Boo!
The whole week she was here I didn’t do much but hanged with her and showed her the city. We went for all of the usual tourist places but it was fun. The weather could have been a bit better since it was raining almost the whole week she was here. We didn’t mind it that much because as she said it: “It’s not a true English experience of London if it’s not raining.”. Indeed!
Before Johanna came I got to know this bloke called Phil and he was kind enough to give us a tour of places I didn’t know. He’s been living in London for about 6 years now, so he has been around here and there. Cheers for Phil
We went also to see Tate Modern and spent there few hours of wondering the queer and odd things some artists have created. I found it somewhat disturbing but still quite interesting.
That was actually the same day when London had a huge fireworks near the Waterloo bridge so we stayed to see them too. I took bunch of pictures of the fireworks but didn’t really think that they were that good. I might put them online at some point anyhow.
The last day Johanna was here we went to do some shopping in Camden Town, the Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road. She actually didn’t buy much, only some souvenirs for her flat mates and two t-shirts from the Babel Line guy. In the evening we went to Garfunkel’s near Oxford Circus and we both had Garfunkel’s Mixed Grill which is: “a full plate of steak, chicken, bacon, sausage, tomato, spicy onion rings, mushrooms and your choice of French fries or a baked potato and barbecue sauce on the side”. It was just brilliant although we got a bit bad table with no privacy what so ever. Then again it’s easy to get privacy by just talking in Finnish. We enjoyed the food and the later on we came back to the Tufnell Park and went to local Sainsbury’s to buy some snacks and sweets. It was a really nice evening all together. Last night together for another month or so…
Johanna left on monday morning and I escorted her to the Liverpool Street station so she could take the train to the Stansted airport. That wasn’t any fun…
This week
As I said before I’ve been mostly doing the courseworks but last wednesday we went to Hyde Park with Phil to take some pictures and get some fresh air.
That was fun just wondering around the park and we captured some nice shots. I’m so envious for Phil because he has a Nikon digital SLR and some nice equipment… My Canon DI 50 was feeling a bit like a handgun beside of a bazooka. So I tried to compensate my lack of equipment with imagination . I’ll put the pictures online a bit later…
Uhm, what else… Yes, I forgot to tell you that I got a new towel! Yei! I also bought a crate of Carlsberg export for £7.99. It’s 12×0.44l cans. That’s about 5.28 litres of beer . Had some on tuesday and some yesterday. Cool stuff, as Phil would say.
Now I’m off to make something to eat…