Adding an object to a linked list

What do you do when you add an element to a linked list, but that element itself links to other elements?

Before now, I've always ignored the extra links so they get lost but it seemed sort of incomplete. Today I kept them and inserted them into the list at the appropriate point but I'm not entirely sure that's what someone might expect.

Hmmmm.....

Also, php is weird. Why compare two objects based on the values of their attributes rather than whether they are references to the same objects or not?

Books I Read in August

Total: 6 books.

Voice of the Gods (Trudi Canavan)
Digging To America (Anne Tyler)
PostSecret (Frank Warren)
Dear Nobody (Berlie Doherty)
Persuading Annie (Melissa Nathan)
The C Words (Mark Mason)

I borrowed Voice of the Gods from Kimball as it's only just been released in hardback and I own the other two in paperback. The nice thing about Trudi Canavan's books is that you don't wait for the next one only to discover it's half as good as the last. I read this in bits over a couple of days finishing on the 14th. A fairly easy fantasy read which I shall acquire in paperback at some point.

Digging To America was a Borders Oxford Street buy (they'll be getting scarcer now). I think it was an Orange Shortlist book. I've been quite a while reading it, lots of little bits with long breaks. It follows two families after they each adopt a child from abroad.

Not really a book of much reading, PostSecret is one of Lizi's arty books. I'm pretty sure I'd read about this before I read it. The book is a collection of postcards from a group art project in which people were invited to anonymously contribute their secrets in a creative manner on one or more postcards. This book is the kind of thing I really like to look at but would never have myself so it was really good to have a look at. I sat down and read through these on the sunny afternoon of the 5th.

Another book from Lizi's shelves, Dear Nobody is/was a GCSE(?) text so I've read it many times before. It was kinda nice to read it again having mostly forgotten the details. It's pretty short but enjoyable. This was possibly the first time in a while I've finished two books in one day (05/08), but I had started it the day before.

Persuading Annie (05/08) was the other half of a buy-one-get-one-half-price

at Borders Stockport (the other book being England England). Another chick-lit, but one by an author I know to be ok. It was a little predictable but a not-too-boring easy read. Lizi wants to read it and then it's going to Kathryn (UK) via BookMooch.

I don't think I've ever read a man-authored chick-lit that hasn't been brilliant, until now. The C Words (commitment, coupledom, children) is like the many decidedly average girly novels of the world. (I'm not entirely sure why so many of them continue to be published, it's not like the ideas are new and unique). I picked this one off the many on Lizi's bookshelf and read it in the morning on 4th August after a rather nice after-camp shower. Mmmm, hot shower...

I would fall for the geek and the gentleman

You would fall part for the geek.
If you're looking for love, consider spending a little more time studying up in the library... (image)

You would fall part for the gentleman
...you'll end up with the guy who's suave, sophisticated, and classy through-and-through. (image)

http://www.brainfall.com/test2...

Is there such a thing as a sophisticated, classy geek?

Yawn

It's far too easy to be tired. I've done some good being tired today. It gets too hot to do proper sleeping at night but then all the little bits of sleep don't join up to make you awake.

More napping!

That alt key

There seems to be an alt key in my way when I steal other people's computers. Where's that one that does stuff - where's my Apple key?

Gr.

Somehow my hands have taught themselves that the button of usefulness is just that bit further over than the control key. Ah well.

If at first you don't succeed

...use maths.

I have finally conquered the puzzle. The solution looks something like

		5
	8	7	6
4	2	3	9	1

Every piece now has an A point, a B point and a C point. I was just about to rule out 5 as a point when the last possible combination of pieces just worked!

Assuming I've already ruled out the two other points of 5 as being the top, then:

1. 5 forces 7 at its bottom.
2. On the LHS of 7 I must place either 8 or 9.
3. On the bottom of 9 I must put either 2 or 6.
4. 2 forces 3 on its LHS.
5. 7 forces 6.
6. 6 forces 4 and then this solution doesn't work.
7. Going back to follow on from step 2, on the RHS of 7 I must put either 2 or 6.
8. If I have a 2 I can place pieces below the 2 and the 8 but then can't place a piece between these.
9. Going back to follow on from step 7, 6 forces 1.
10. 9 forces 3.
11. This solution works!

When even Google won't solve your problem

Keep looking :)

In the meantime, I have actually found the puzzle online (with the reminder that there are two solutions). The puzzle is the "Dizzy Dolphins Tricky Triangles at the bottom of this page. The solution pictured is the one I've always been able to find and is numerically (my numbers) presented as:

		4
	7	5	3
8	2	9	1	6

The 2nd Solution

"Dizzy Dolphins" - A triangular jigsaw puzzle thing with hundreds of possibilities but only two correct solutions. It's been under my bed for many years now. Every time I see it, I pull it out and have a go. I've numbered the backs of the pieces and when I first found a solution I wrote it down. Whenever I've solved it since, I've checked my solution against the paper to see if my solution is the same one and it always has been. So today I did the puzzle, checked the paper and got excited. I wrote down my new solution which had a different top piece and decided that I can finally get rid of the puzzle. I came downstairs to record this momentous occasion in my blog and then remembered... a triangle has three sides. This triangle is an equilateral which means its sides are the same length and it looks the same any way up. My solution is a rotation of my other solution. Muppet.

Beer, Organisation, Chocolate

I'm not entirely sure about this beer lark. I don't drink much of it, and I don't drink anything else (alcoholic) but I'm not entirely sure it agrees with me. I have drunk beer twice that I can recently remember (and no, I haven't been drunk enough to not remember). Both times I have been squiggly-tummied in the morning. Will I learn? Not likely.

In unrelated things, I am organising. I have been upstairs and looked at my box of kitchen-ness for uni. I have 2 plates, 2 bowls, 3 mugs... 1 knife, 1 fork. Cutlery is one of those magical mysteries of every university kitchen. You start the year with some, you buy some more, you buy yet more and still there is none. Amazing.

In still more unrelated things, does chocolate go stale? I got lots of chocolate for Christmas. I don't eat lots of chocolate at once so I nibbled some of a box and left the rest behind. Having discovered some yesterday I ate another handful. The chocolates are individually wrapped and I assume since they were from this Christmas that the dates on them can't have been too awful but they didn't quite taste as I thought they should. Clearly, next time, I shall have to take them with me for more immediate nibbling.

Bag-lady

This morning I got up and packed whilst Lizi and Joss were still in bed. I seem to do a lot of packing at the moment. I spent all morning making lists and packing and organising until I remembered to look at my watch and noticed that I needed to leave the house ten minutes later!

Still, my travelling went well and now I am somewhere else. I shall organise myself some more and then relocate myself back to where I have come from in order to move myself to somewhere else else on my way to another somewhere else. It's an exciting life! :)

I am Superwoman (girl)

I have just lugged far too many of my belongings over the hill. It's competely my own fault, I over-estimated what could be achieved and repeatedly answered "yes" to questions akin to "are you sure you'll be alright" but I wasn't helped by the bag breaking almost immediately after leaving the house.

Supergirl sounds a bit not as Super as Superwoman but I don't want to be a woman - I shall forever be a girl.

Children

Please please please make mine lovely.

Doing Nothing

... is a fantastic way to depress yourself.

Today I have mostly done nothing and now I am miserable. Gr.

Tomorrow I shall go out and then the world will be right again. Hurrah!

Fat Legs

Today was a day of much shopping. Having wrecked a pair of trousers at camp last week, I then split the pair I was wearing unloading the luggage yesterday. With no sensible trousers to speak of available to me I thought perhaps buying myself a nice pair of jeans might be a good thing.

To make life a bit more merry, visit their toilet and to use up a £2 voucher I paid a visit to Borders first (I was going to say quick visit, but that would be a fib). I like books so this was a very good start to the afternoon. Having got that out of the way, I then went to Next to start on the buying-a-pair-of-jeans excersise.

I don't think I understand clothes shops. There must be many people in the world that are roughly the same size and shape as me - so where do they all buy their trousers? It seems that short skinny people that buy jeans all have no shape. It's impossible to buy a pair of jeans that fit over my legs and hips and don't have at least 4 inches of unwanted waist. What kind of women have waists that are the same size as their hips anyway?

I did eventually find a pair in MK1 that aren't too obviously huge round the waist (you can't see my knees by looking down my trousers) so have bought them. They're far too long, but this is much easier to fix.

Books I read in July

Total: 10 books

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
Anna and the Black Knight (Fynn)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J.K. Rowling)
Travels With My Aunt (Graham Greene)
The Naked Ape (Desmond Morris)
The Last Testament (Sam Bourne)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (30/07). It's all over! No more Harry Potter! I managed to read this all before someone revealed the plot which I was rather pleased about. It's good, much like all the others. I shall probably pass on my hardback copy but look to pick it up again in paperback.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (22/07), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (23/07), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (24/07) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (25/07) were all rereads following the release of the final book. Much like the first two, I really enjoyed reading these again and was surprised how much of the more recent book plots I had actually forgotten. Now I finally own them all I shan't be getting rid of these.

Anna and the Black Knight (19/07) was something I got so desperate to read I ordered it from Borders Oxford Street especially. It's a follow-on (not really a sequel) from Mister God, This is Anna. I think I preferred Mister God, This is Anna but this was a good little book and it shall join the other one on my many bookshelves of keeping.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (17/07) and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (16/06) were both rereads and read in a day. I read these on my way home from work in preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the 21st. I was surprised at how good these were; in all the crazy mania that surrounds the series I had forgotten.

I read Travels With My Aunt on the 13th during the same trip as The Naked Ape. This was the result of a swap with rachelsparks (UK) for the rather awful Conversations With God (Book Two). I wasn't that interested in acquiring this book but it turned out to be a really good chance decision. I enjoyed reading this a lot. It'll be back on the swapping sites when I have finished moving myself across the country.

My first real holiday in ages came in July (Llangollen Canal with Graham and his parents) but I did a surprisingly small amount of reading. The first of the two books I finished, The Naked Ape (11/07) was bought from Borders Oxford Street after reading The Naked Woman also by Desmond Morris. It's very similar to the other - showing man from a zoologists perspective. I enjoyed this just as much as The Naked Woman and will be hanging on to it.

My first book finished in July, I reached the end of The Last Testament on 04/07 after reading the last few chapters lounging around in the evening after work. The book is another The Da Vinici Code lookalike. It's by the same author as The Righteous Men (another similar book) which I quite enjoyed. I bought this from Tesco, Whaley Bridge during my weekend in Derbyshire with Graham. As I said in June, there are a lot of books in this style which are all pretty good and that's true of this book. I didn't find the story as original as that of The Righteous Men but it's a good read. To save my shelves filling up with a mass of similar books I won't be hanging onto this.