Ah. Right.
So last night I head over to a friends house to watch some DVDs, steal his food and generally hang out. Since he inevitably had computer problems I was "invited" to fix those, which I started on. Turns out he had crap hardware and, mid-denouce of his computer I check my GMail and find I have an invite to an interview at Nottingham University concerning my PhD application. Alongside this is a personal email from the head of the Mixed Reality Lab asking me to give her contact details so she can phone me and discuss the PhD with me. If the place is half as cool/interesting as it sounds/looks and I somehow manage to get the studentship, the next 3 years would rock. I'd be a Doctor.
Naturally, at the time of receiving this email I stopped fixing the computer, eating the stolen food and generally complaining and invested in a large bottle of vodka. Cut to 30 minutes later where I'm at the student club, ecstatically dancing and having a good time. The hangover this morning/afternoon wasn't deadly, but the doctors were concerned and my state was publicly announced to be "stable, yet critical". The Prime Minister was planning a day of mourning, but I held out and asked him not to, despite his tearful arguments.
So there you go: I'm potentially gonna be a Doctor. Fuck. Ain't that just the damndest thing? Granted, there's still a gut-wrenching interview, the potentially fatal results to be got, the organising of finances (or lack thereof)...
but still: Wow.

Also, I love my brother. The damn kid, while cruising the world, took some time to send me what is, no kidding, the coolest birthday gift I have ever received. While the "Christmas in June" as I like to call it isn't for a few weeks, he sent the gift via Australian post early. Since we were born 3 years apart but on the same day I have to try and find him a just as cool gift. I'd describe the gift but instead I'm gonna post a picture (a thousand words etc.)

Published in 1985, the book follows a tale of the Noble Autobots and the evil Decepticons and the plan they have for a giant antennae. It kicks ass. As does Mikey, my brother. Love ya, dude.

My plans for the moment are this: find out more about the research I'd be doing, work on my "pAnts" program, a program that I'm hoping will model ant foraging behaviour and uses the Processing framework to do so (hence Processing-Ants or "pAnts"). I'll post it on Dark Projects when I get it done. At the moment the ants are kinda single minded, effectively changing colour and getting ecstatic when they find food but doing bugger-all else. I've also still got to decipher the swarm intelligence algorithms I need into a form I can use. Not exactly easy.

Otherwise: life pretty much kicks ass.