|
|
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
|
|
|
So, next week I have my thirteen week review, which I'm not looking forward to, because well, after that going to the job centre is a weekly thing, not a fortnightly one (although that said, it will technically be fortnightly for one week, as the Thursday after this one is Christmas Eve)! Which means I also some how have to step up the job search, although there is an emphasis on the "how", I mean I find it quite often difficult to find three jobs a fortnight from the job banks or the local papers, three a week's gonna be harder yet! Guess this means I should really broaden my job search, as for the past weeks I've only really focused on jobs related to computing, however is it a crime that I want a career, and not just a job?
That said though, I haven't really seen any accessible jobs in the job banks, I mean people say to take a restaurant or bar staff job, however I didn't see many there! I could do telesales however, there were a number of those jobs on there, guess that's something to consider for the weeks ahead, possibly even earlier if I can't find anything else to apply for before this Thursday! Still, I am also waiting on responses from some of the jobs I applied for two weeks ago, although as its sometime now, I wonder if I should assume I wasn't picked for any of them, I'm also waiting on a response from a company I had an interview with, they're considering a paid three week trial to see if I'm right for the job, or I guess, if the job's right for me, however they did say that it would probably be after they move into their new premises, which they only described as "imminent"!
I'm gonna have to remember to write down all that I've done job related in the weeks before 17th December, as the letter says that it will be easier to have everything written down, also wants proof that I've been applying to jobs, although that's only where possible, but if I can't prove I'm applying then its not a good sign! However I don't really want to print off the e-mails I've sent to companies, although perhaps I should, I mean I'm sure the job centre prefer doing things the easy way, I mean the other way is for me to provide them with the codes for the jobs, and say "ring those companies to check!", but I'm sure they'd much rather prefer you waste your energy and money on these things, than them!
Heh, I didn't realise I was typing this post entitled "Thirteen..." on 13th December, quite a bizarre turn of events, I was thinking of posting something a little earlier on 12th December, however I just kept putting it off! Other bizarre 13 events were that I was looking at details on the thirteenth Pokémon movie, and that I considered buying Ocean's Thirteen (in the boxset with Ocean's Eleven and Twelve), however in the end I chose not to! I did however buy some manga because Borders UK is closing down, however I didn't buy thirteen volumes, although, perhaps if I add the volumes numbers of the manga I bought (Gothic Sports volume 1, Key Eternal Princess Alice volumes 3 and 4, Zombie Loan volume 3, Hidamari Sketch volume 2), is 13, god this is getting weird! Was it fate that volumes 1 of Key Eternal Princess Alice and Hidamari Sketch were not there?
Can't wait till Bayonetta comes out, been playing the demo every so often, its totally mind blowing, I don't think Devil May Cry 4 achieved this level of awesomeness! I think its also faster paced as well, its actually quite exhausting to play, and the first level really messes with your head, as you fight on a falling piece of rumble! My 360 also had to update itself in order for me to play the demo, it now has the new lick of paint that any 360 that is connected to xbox live has (which mine still isn't, I was nearly going to do it, however a snag developed in the method I was gonna use, and well I haven't got round to sorting that snag out)! Something else that comes with the new lick of paint is the Microsoft equivalent to Nintendo's Mii, although with better graphics, but not as good customisation in the reorganisation of the features! Still, I have to wonder with this Mii60 (a play on Mii and 360), why do you still need a gamer picture as well?
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, November 27th, 2009
|
|
|
So not only did a get a letter from the Student Loan Company, I later got a letter from the Job Centre, they wanted me to provide more information in order for them to gain a better understanding of how to proceed in whether they would pay me or not for my breach in Job Seeker's Agreement! Interestingly I was not told that there may be further contact, all I was told was that they would base a decision on the Refusal of Employment and other forms I filled out last week, so I must have really bowled them for six, if they had to get me to into more detail as to why I breached this contract!
Anyway, the letter broke down like this:
- You stated that there did not appear to be any other employers who would have benefited from your knowledge and experience.
1. Please provide full details of your qualifications and experience.
2. Please provide details of your employment history over the last three years.
3. The Job Centre had various vacancies for office type jobs. Why did you not apply to any of these jobs through the Jobcentre?
4. Why didn't you take all the steps agreed on your Jobseeker's Agreement (if there were no jobs going why did you not make general inquires to employers), to find work?
Hopefully the first part didn't sound pompous, but it is the truth, employers aren't looking for someone they can help, but someone who can help them! I then listed my: qualifications and experience (degree, A Level, GCSE (I think), professional and academic website design); employment history in the last three years (Catagloue Distribution); that if there were office type jobs at the Job Centre I had not seen them, however I felt that the more recent visit was more promising, and that I have already applied to two, with the hopes to plan to more before next week; opinion that I was surprised to find actually getting an interview accounted for nought to them, and that as this was my first time claiming Jobseeker's I was not fully aware of the processes I could take (that said I had read that bit wrong, but I'd put pen to paper and though, sod it)!
Writing out that application to Wirral Council has really messed my head up, keep trying to end setences with full stops, which, although is accurate, is something I've never done on the internet, unless for professional purposes! Speaking of Wirral Council I was meant to check my e-mails at somepoint, seen as I found that opening the application in Microsoft Word turned it into utter garbage after doing it in Open Office, so I had to export it as a PDF, and mention this fact in my e-mail to them, saying that I've enclosed both the original Word document and a PDF version -actually, I only realised today that the Word document and PDF might be different, as I'm not sure if I copied a newer version of the Word document to the desktop or not, so I just hope that they'll print off the PDF file, that was one of the reasons why I wanted to check my e-mails, think I might do that now!
Still, back to the Job Centre, its not a total joke centre, although that's only if your visit doesn't have anything to do with jobs ;), popped in there yesterday, to see what proof they could give me that I am unemployed, to which they told me they used to stamp the forms that the SLC sent, however it appears that the forms have now changed, so I would have to ring the Job Centre Plus number! Hopefully this proof will get here soon, and before the 28 day deadline the SLC gave me!
Right, well, think that was it for today, so until another day!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
|
|
|
Well just tried to do a search for my livejournal through Bing (even though I know the web address off by heart), however nothing came, up, if I type it into Google however, I get my livejournal, and Ste's profile, because there's a link to my livejournal there! I prefer Bing because it doesn't say "hey you typed these into the text box last time, you sure you're not after any of these?" Sure, I could probably look up a cookie cleaner for it, but I'm too lazy!
Anyway, the original title was gonna be "if I drink any more water I will probably have grown gills by the morning!", but well, that got shafted for "Bing! Apparently not!", that said there was a title before that, something like "Sodding Loser Company", as I got a letter through from the Student Loan Company saying we don't know what your current circumstances are, so we're gonna give you 28 days for a letter to get back to us, and if it doesn't in that time we'll charge you!
So what else has been going on then? Well been filling out an Application form to send to Wirral Council to apply to one of three Library Assistant positions, started about mid-day, and well have only just finished! I've really been avoiding it, doing anything from ironning a pair of jeans, to having a shower, to making something to eat, to changing my bed sheets, to logging on facebook, to logging on messenger, however I did only do anything, not everything, if I had done everything I would have not declined an offer from a friend to hang out!
Root of the problem was I didn't know of how best to match my previous employment experience with the tasks required for this job, I mean what clerical work had I done? Then I had the question "if there is nothing in Knowledge and Skills that is being evaluated in this Application, does this mean that this section is actually a trick question?" thinking back to a story my father told me about how he took a "test" in which (like all test papers) asked you to read through all the questions first before attempting them, and the last question said something like "ignore all previous questions, put your name at the top of the paper and hand it in", the others were in disbelief busy ferreting away, as to how someone could be finished so quickly, obviously just jumping straight in with out reading anything!
After those hurdles I then proceded to pour my soul into the rest of the Application Form, mentioning my: compency with computers, the fact I have a degree, A Level and GCSE in the subject, and that I use them for recreational purposes, and to experiment with different Operating Systems, programs and free software packages; ability to store useless trivia in my head, although in a different choice of words; interest in and knowledge of books, listing "some" (the) author's I've read Ursela K. LeGuin, Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov and J. K. Rowling, as well as listing some of the authors I would like to read Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Terry Pratchet and possibly Eoin Colfer (if he does a good job of "And Another thing..."), and I also mentioned how I tend to prefer to read more graphic novels (manga, well not all of it, some is done by non-Japanese mangaka); artistic tendancies, how I have done pieces of art for recreation, but also incorporated this idea of art (and design) into my other subjects, and work projects; brief knowledge of local (or rather my local, who know's if its their local, unless they just mean local as in Wirral) history!
Still after that nice hurdle-free hundred metre dash, they were back, I had to dig out my old Record of Achievement -quite nostalgic to look through it, even had my Sixth Form First Year Report Card in there too-, and see what examination boards I was with for what subjects, the only problem was there wasn't one listed for ICT, so I took a shot in the dark and concluded it was Edexcel, might ring either my old school or a friend to check though! The next hurdle was whether I had a religion or a belief, its gotta be one or the other, so I went with Christianity, sure, I'm not a Christian, but I probably do have a lot more Christian belief about me than anything else, and well, I wasn't quite sure what I'd be if I selected belief instead of religion! Still, it was certainly more in depth than most Application Forms!
And with that (well there was a bit after that, but with that) it was done! Although content may change because I want my dad to review it before I send it off!
So, what else has been happening in the World of Tommy? Well, its only been two days, however a number of things, well most are more things that I've recently remembered, and have decided to jot down onto livejournal, so if you want you can stop reading, this is probably gonna be a long one!
Looking through some of my previous livejournal posts, and reliving the doom and gloom I felt of the final year, I came to realise a couple of topics I touched on, that either related to something else, or followed on from it!
Firstly we have the talk of the Tommy Web Browser, I recently thought of the idea what if a browser did a tab within a tab system? You group webpages of a certain similar content together under one tab, by calling up that tab you can access the webpages again, by clicking on their appropriate tabs! Now either the master tabs would be on the left (or right, but probably left, as that's where we normally place things in the Western World), and the sub-tabs would be at the top (or bottom) where the current tabs are, or vice versa! Still, I'm not a programmer so I doubt I will realise this idea, however who knows, a programmer might stumble onto my livejournal, patient the idea, make it, make millions, and here I will be left kicking myself!
Secondly I reported that I'd finally bought a copy of Pokémon Silver to replace the Pokémon Silver I had lost to a gamesharking accident, however then later lost Pokémon Gold, which died of natural causes -the internal battery in it which keeps the clock running died! So now I have to buy a copy of Pokémon Gold to replace that at somepoint, although I don't know if I'll really play it, sure this was the better generation of games; the introduction of night, Pokémon Eggs, the PokéGear, Unown, PokéRadio, not so many Pokémon added to the PokéDex, and the only games to allow you to traverse two lands!* However, no matter how many times I will buy it, it will always die because of the internal battery not having infinate life! Crystal has a better battery life to it, but it still will die as well!
I look forward to the day when I finally buy a DS (or Lite), and when HeartGold and SoulSilver is out, so I can live out my childhood, without having to worry that the game is gonna die on me, as night and day in HG/SS is powered by the clock on the DS/DS Lite! Still it does annoy me that I had gotten pretty close to catching them all in Pokémon Gold, I think I had most of the Eeveelutions, Porygon2, Ho-Oh and Lugia, all the starter Pokémon, the happiness Pokémon, the swarm Pokémon, the Unown caught in the order A to Z -yes I was that sad-, and I also had a Mew (Official Pokémon Event 1999 -again, yes, I was that sad), Celebi (GameShark), and a Golden Ratata (rare)! Luckily most of my Pokémon Blue Pokémon on Gold were clones, except for Mewtwo :'(!
Thirdly, after losing one phone, I lost another one, or misplaced rather, I believe this other one's misplaced, however its been sometime now, since that happened, so I do have to wonder what's happened to it, and well even if I do find it, the sim card will no longer work, they will have cut off the number thinking its an inactive number, which it is, but not by choice, and assign it to someone else! Again, the biggest loss on this phone is the notes I left on it, and possibly some of the messages on it, and actually thinking about it, because I lost both phones I've lost all the numbers, however I have been able to recover a number of them, through some lucky coincidences!
Fourthly, Portugal, went on holiday to Portugal this year, and well the experience was interesting, what with Pokémon Necklaces on sale (was tempted to buy one), Digimon and other anime toy knock-offs, and an obsession with something I'm not even gonna go into -but I'm thinking it was really aimed at tourists! There were also two Sushi bars there, one Mediterranian Fast Food place, and one Australian restaurant! We tried one of the Sushi bars, but unfortunately it was at lunch time so it was only the half menu, and well the menu was in portuguese, so I did have to try and think about what we were planning to order!
Fifthly I was in HMV (Birkenhead, that is, HMV Liverpool's gone downhill since it moved out of its old premises) a bit back looking at the anime section and I noticed a girl checking out the back of the Live Action DVD Mushi-shi, which she then put back! I then scooted over, pretended I hadn't seen the title she picked too well, but then pulled it out and said "Actually, its not a bad film you know!", to which she said "Ah well, if it comes recommended, I'll have to try it!", to which I kinda explained the type of goings on of the film, and she asked me if I knew of the other title she was thinking about buying, to which I did not, well that was that, she paid for her purchases, I perused a bit more, decided on my purchases, bought them, the end!
Sixthly and linking in to the original (but not original-original) title, was that I was speaking to someone online, saying that I'm not feeling all to well, to which they were saying they weren't feeling all too well a while back before either, so I said, that this bug was really something, to be able to pass from one person to the other through the computer, seen as I hadn't seen this personal in real life for sometime! So it was an e-virus in the true sense of the word! I used this joke again, when someone I was speaking today said she was coming down with something!
Seventhly its CLAMP's 20th Anniversary next year, so Yen Press are releasing Kobato in April of next year, Del Rey have released the second Tsubasa: CARACter GuiDE, and the first (only? Didn't even know there was one) HOLiC Character Guide, Darkhorse have released CLOVER as an omnibus (and in an unflipped format, compared to the original release, they're also in talks with Universal for a Live Action adaptation), with onmibuses of Chobits, Card Captor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth on the way, with all these former TokyoPop licences being released by Darkhorse I have to wonder what CLAMP manga TokyoPop have!
If memory serves I believe they still have Angelic Layer, RG Veda, Suki: A Like Story, Wish, Tokyo Babylon, Legal Drug (although that's on hiatus), CLAMP School Detectives (although they dropped that), and CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators (although that's technically not a CLAMP, or a manga, its a light novel series)! They might also have Miyuki in Wonderland and Legend of Chun'yan, but its more of a case I don't know who has the licence to those, and well the latter is also out of print I believe! Still, it might be possible that TokyoPop has none of these, they might have lost the licence, information might not have surfaced yet!
I did mention the news of some of these releases to people such as Rachel, and commenting with all the buying I will have to do, of the original TokyoPop volumes (and probably the omnibus come to think of it, due to the fact they will have colour pages for the first couple of pages), I really need a job, to which Rachel said "use that as an insentive", so I concocted a scenario in my mind:
- Interviewer: Why do you want to work for our company?
- Tommy: To buy lots and lots of manga!
- Rachel: That's not what I meant!
- Real-Rachel: Why am I in Tommy's Interview?
To which she said "I was gonna ask who you're interviewer was, but should I be worried that I'm in your interview?", to which I said, it was an ordinary interview question, with just a different spin on the answer! She then loaned Kirsten to me when I said I wonder how you get into an anime or manga company, to which I explained I actually meant UK anime or manga company!
Eighthly, speaking of CLOVER, I had a little hunt on the internet for its song, however it appears that the song is just like the four-leafed CLOVER itself, it is too powerful to exist or be owned by one man! That's the only conclusion I could come up with myself, I mean couldn't see it about anywhere, even tried the Card Captor Sakura Movie album, see if it got on their, although without listening to all the tracks I can't know for definite! I did have success with the other files I was lookin for, such as songs to two other CLAMP manga, "Wish" and "Angel Egg..." performed by Ali Project, and the very Beatles song titled, but very un-Beatles sounding "All You Need Is Love" by Naomi Tamura! Also managed to find the ending to 009-1, the opening and ending to Guyver (2003), and the opening and ending to Black Blood Brothers!
Ninethly, another reason why I need a job is to so I can preorder a limited edition of Devil May Cry's true sequel, Bayonetta, and so I can buy the Sakura Wars OVA boxset, UK version at somepoint, which is now a rare item to come by! That said, speaking of rare items, Tokyo Babylon's pretty rare too, and part of it sits on a shelf in Oxfam Liverpool, if it was complete I would buy it, regardless to the fact its only on video!
Tenthly, I just mentioned above, both Guyver (2003) and Black Blood Brothers, however I now plan to talk more on them: Guyver (2003) because I find it interesting how, well people prefer the original OVA to this new update, even though this update is more accurate to the manga, its the same with Full Metal Alchemist vs. Brotherhood, people complain about the original, but then when there's news of a new update, defend the original with their life; Black Blood Brothers is the series I've just recently finished watching and I have to say it was more enjoyable than the first episode let on, but I find it interesting, that the other options I had picked for myself were two other vampire series (Tsukiyomi ~Moon Phase~ and Vampire Princess Miyu (Series))!
Eleventhly (Eleven, the Individual Eleven, Winning Eleven, who knows) or lastly, I've been recently checking out the information on Detective Conan/Case Closed, after finding out that my knowledge on the series was wrong, so I started reading up about it, how Shinchi's relationship with Ran changes, the complex love polygons, how it will all end, etc.! And I'm also considering checking it out in either its anime or manga form (even though it is the epitomy of my hates, in that its at least 500 episodes long**, even longer than One Piece it turns out, and longer still than Bleach and Naruto)!
Twelfthly (Twelve, Twelfth Night?) ok, so now its really lastly, thought it was lastly before, but then mentioning Bleach and Naruto reminded me, I've found out that watching 101 episodes of Naruto, I am now eligible to watch the first Naruto movie without there being any spoilers! Yes it only took me ONE HUNDRED AND ONE EPISODES! I have to wonder why they didn't do a movie earlier on in the series, but then perhaps it feels so long because the US and/or UK release batted the movie out of order with the series! Unfortunately the ending receives a re-dub due to English licensing issues in regards to the original song! Bleach still have another 52 episodes to go before I can watch the first movie, however, I still have yet to buy the Series 3 boxset, and well the Series 4 boxsets a while a way at the moment, so there's some wait on that one!
So, that's all, all that's left is the footnotes!
See you in two days time perhaps with another update!
Maybe, if I remember!
*the only thing it loses out to the Third Generation on is the fact you can choose a female protagonist from the start and not from the third game in the series, and the fact the female protagonist for that generation is May/Haruka!
The only thing it loses out to the First Generation on is the fact you need to chase after the legendaries, ah, why can't they be nice and wait in one place for you to catch them ;)!
**surely that means I should hate Pokémon and Digimon then!? Ah but not so, seen as I got into them when they were just starting, so the how many ever episodes they are up to is acceptible!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
|
|
|
So, nearly a whole two months since my last post, feel like I should wait two more days so it is two months! Still, I've decided to push on anyway!
Now JCAPC, or Job Centre, ADV, Posthumously Completed, what does it all mean, well Job Centre's self explanatory, ADV is ADV Films which had offices in the UK, US and Germany, and Posthumously Completed is referring to the second term (published after author's death) from the Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus, published possibly in 1997! Whereas the first term can also be relevant (occuring after death), the third (born after father's death) cannot, unless it is taken as being a colourful display of English in which the meaning is metaphorical!
Anyway, so we'll start off with the first part of today's post "JC" or Job Centre! Since my last post I have had a couple (mandatory) visits to the job centre, where I've come in and said how that fortnight has been going, however, this week's visit wasn't so peachy keen, in the sense that they were all in a flap the fact I hadn't applied to one of the jobs they'd given me in the previous fortnight, the fact that I had an (informal) interview with a company meant nothing to them! All they cared about was that I had failed to do something they had asked me to do! Correct me if I'm wrong but surely an interview is a little bit higher up in the positivity rankings than an application would be!
So because of all this I had to fill out a "refusal of employment" form (which I'm continually referring to as a "refusal to work" form, but that's not really important), and now it will be up to one of the higher ups to deem whether or not I should be paid for the fortnight; frankly I don't care -as long as I get a job at somepoint, and then enough money to get myself out my overdraft in time for when the bank pull the rug from under my feat in September! Still, this next visit should be more promising as the review of the job machines that day did have some relevant/interesting jobs in! Now all I need to do is apply to them, tomorrow, hopefully!
Right, so second part of today's post "A" or ADV! Well I found out recently that ADV US has actually bit the dust, like in UK (and probably, but I'm not so sure in Germany) it is now only a name, which is on the cover of its anime which is still being released by an independent distributor! That said however I was gonna more talk about ADV UK, which received an honorary award by the NEO Magazine for its service to anime in the UK, which is something I was happy to read about! I mean they did do a lot for anime in the UK!
Also speaking of anime, and well reading my previous post, I thought I'd report on the results of the previous anime quiz, my team won (Ixtli)* :D! Some people might say they expected this, that I live up to my name as Mister Wikipedia, however the success was due to a good team, there were some questions I knew (mostly the really Wikipedia questions such as "Which Final Fantasy game did Biggs and Wedge not appear in?"), some that Mikey knew, some that Fresher Dave knew, some that Fresher Rich knew, and some that Kirsten knew!
Also on anime, been on a website called anime-planet, in a bid to assess how much anime has taken over my life, I haven't finished yet, however I have got up to something like 1 month, 0 weeks, 3 days, 8 hours and 44 minutes! That is from 137 watched anime series/movies/OVA/other and 17 that I am currently watching! It also apparently totals to 1,953 individual anime episodes/movies/OVA/other!
Other sites such as myanimelist and (possibly) aniDB do similar things, however anime-planet is far less addictive, if I think I'm on it too much I can take a step back, although it does suffer from not being as complete as the other two! Once I've finished with assessing how much anime has taken over my life, I do intend to move onto manga, however anime-planet can only generate a signature (of how much anime/manga [delete applicable] has taken over your life) for one of them, so its either or when you're finished!
So the third and last part of today's post, "PC" or Posthumously Completed! A while back I heard that Winnie the Pooh was going to be continued posthumously by another author, and that James Bond had been continued posthumously, but now the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has also been continued posthumously! I was in a bookstore a while back, and saw a Guide to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and decided to give it closer inspection, I picked up the book and opened it up, and preceded to skim through the pages, until I came up to the section about Mostly Harmless, which was the last book, and the paragraph below it, which said "Or is it?", and then explained about how Douglas Adams had planned to write a sixth book, to pick the story and the readers up from the depressive (and unexpected, but very Douglas Adams) ending of the fifth book, to which it said that although Douglas Adams hadn't managed to get round to write a sixth book, someone else had, Eoin Colfer!
I then thought to myself wouldn't it be nice to have a look at this book for myself rather than the picture in the guide on the Guide, I closed the guide, put it back on the shelf, looked at the next shelf up and to my surprise, there it was! I picked the book up, looked at the front cover, read the back cover, possibly opened it up, but that was it really! Although I am keen to see if its as good as the previous books, and possibly if it is, then perhaps I'll start reading some Eoin Colfer original works, such as Artemis Fowl!
*RahXephon reference, although I prefer the Japanese way; Ishtil, or at least in pronunciation!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
|
|
|
Believe I've forgotten about most of which I considered writing! Turns out that apparently both ideas into improving web browsers can be found on Internet Explorer 8, but its Internet Explorer having more than a couple of pages open is asking for trouble, and I don't do linear browsing!
Something I forgot to mention last time was that moving computer is like moving house, in that you have almost no idea where anything is because you've had to move everything quickly, I wonder if I should have just left them in a folder marked "computer"! Plus everything's gonna be jumbled up again, because I'm gonna have to wipe the netbook at somepoint, as there's a trojan on it! Still first I need to connect a hard drive up to it, so I can get everything off it first!
Still, went the job centre yesterday, and they almost put me down for my year of birth as 1897, to which the guy across from the guy I was with quipped "He's not Sherlock Holmes you know!", the next time he typed in the year of my birth he got it right, to which I responded "No longer a Methuselah! Posh name for vampire, its what they preferred to be called in some series!", it amused him somewhat!
Today I'm required to be housebound in order to wait for the Washing Machine Repairman, if I was still doing the first anime society quiz for this week, I would be working on that now, however it was deemed to "hard" -even though I threw in a disclaimer saying that if anyone feels that it is too hard that it should not reflect on the anime society, but me, the quiz maker!
So, this year's admin are doing the first one -I can see logic in that a hard quiz may put people off! Still I did have to have a little rant at how most of the questions in the quiz only required watching the first episode of series featured, and that some of them are either available in the UK or US, meaning that if you haven't watched these series (especially if its released in the UK) its your own damn fault for living a sheltered anime life!
Still, I am looking forward to the first quiz that I myself have not designed, as there are some series that *I* haven't seen, which will probably appear on the quiz, however most I do have the intention of seeing at somepoint!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, August 10th, 2009
|
| Subject: | Jigsaw |
| Time: | 7:25 am. |
| Mood: |  blank. | | Music: | Maaya Sakamoto - Tune the Rainbow. |
|
So, long time no post! Last post was a couple of months ago now, been kept busy with the final year project, exams, organising my hat and gown, and graduating, yes, graduating, it was a struggle but I managed it, still, if I hadn't messed about with my project as much, then probably graduating would have been a breeze :D!
Been meaning to post something on here for a while, however I'd often end up forgetting to do so! So this is actually the first time that I've actually got round to actually posting, although the "topic" of conversation is probably different to what it would have been if I'd gotten round to posting at those other times!
So, I've been the owner of a netbook for probably about a month now, however it wasn't really a netbook in the true sense of the word till about a couple of days ago, when we finally established wireless internet in the house! Still haven't got used to the netbook yet, one of my main problems with netbooks and laptops, is their keyboard, as I find it too cramped to not make any mistakes whilst typing, although I think I might be getting better at it, however I would still prefer an actual keyboard! I wonder if the ideal design for a computer would be a tablet (touch) screen with wireless mouse and keyboard!
As it can now access the internet I've had to look into what web browser I should use, I wasn't a fan of Internet Explorer 7* when I used it (I still used Internet Explorer 6 till we wiped the computer recently) -although possibly if I explored some of its options (like with Chrome) I might have got to like it a little better-, and so though I'd probably feel the same about Internet Explorer 8! So I downloaded Opera again (although I've overloaded it with tabs again**, and that was on the first day), and Chrome, however am not that much of a fan of Chrome (even with exploring through the options) because of its decision to remember things; you'll type something into a text box and it'll remember that the next time you type something into that text box! I believe this feature was also on IE, however I don't believe it was too this degree!
I downloaded Chrome because I was told its a basic browser, so I thought I'd run two browsers, Chrome for anything I need to do quickly, and Opera for the pages that might take a while to get through (due to its ability to remember what pages you had open -a feature that also appears on Chrome, if you set it)! I'm wondering whether to try Firefox, however I believe I'd probably want to use it in the same capacity as Opera! That said, I probably should download it, see for myself as to whether it is a "Chrome" or an "Opera"!
Also had an idea about the possible ideal web browser, which was due to what I see as the flaw to the tab system which is that is if you have too many tabs open you can really know which tabs you can get rid of quickly, without having to search through them, whereas with the original windows system you could maximise and minimise pages! I was originally gonna describe a "radical" idea which was that the pages be stored on a sort of multi-page where they can be maximised from, and minimised to, however it could also use an approach found on AOL which is to have a little button somewhere which you click, and the list of pages pops up, and you can select which one to call up!
That's probably the end of my rant, anything else I've forgotten, all that's left are the footnotes, which if you're still reading by now I'm shocked, all my effort in trying to get rid of you has been in vain :D!
*nor was I a fan of Windows Media Player 10, which is why I'm glad that it was 9 on the netbook :D!
**cause: addictive sites, those that you go to, and then find a link of interest on that page, and before you know it, you have too many open, we all know sites like this don't we!
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
|
|
|
Looking at when I last posted it sure has been a while, been busy trying to focus on completing my project, however I'm now starting to think I might just go down in a ball of flames! I mean there is now only one full week till I have to hand it in! Well there's also a half a week after that, however apparently the last day is a nightmare so it's advised that you don't try to play with fire in regards to submitting your project on the last day!
What have I got left to do, lots of things! I still have to actually create and test a website, database and middleware, and I still have research to finish, some of which my supervisor didn't even mention to me about, it's just research I realised I would need as this project is meant to make it look like we're idiots and we learnt nothing through the four years we've been at university!*
And after all that there's still more with a write up required at the end, and beginning @_@!
I'm just really starting to see myself going down in a ball of flames now, which is partly my fault for slacking off a bit in the first semester, still I'm not taking all the blame for it! I also have a piece of group coursework that I've hardly contributed to at the moment (I did write a bit on one of the forms of conversion, but that's all at the moment), but I think that's because everyone's in a similar boat to what I am, and that it's because they're working on their project and haven't really put much thought into working on the coursework, however I should really ring a member of my group to see if this is the case!
*i.e. that we've had to research every step -what are the different approaches to research; what are the different types of software development life cycles; what are the different languages and methods that can be used to design websites, databases and middleware; what are the issues regarding websites and databases; what is a test plan?
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
|
|
|
In my three years in University I'm starting to believe in three things to do with lecturers: 1. They don't listen to you, 2. They don't listen to themselves, and 3. They don't know anything!
Had my first project meeting of 09, and other than what I already knew which was I should have done a lot more of it during the Christmas-New Year Holiday, I felt that the meeting further strengthened my belief in those three things; I told my project supervisor this and that, and then a couple of minutes later, she brought this and that up as if we hadn't talked about it, granted perhaps when I was talking about "this and that", perhaps I wasn't clear enough?*
Was just looking at my previous post, and noticed about my comments on the first mark I got back for 08, I've now got back other marks, turns out the mark that I described as "good" is my highest for that semester -I think, could have sworn it was a different mark, but perhaps that's because I'm getting it confused with something else-, second highest isn't far behind (1% lower), third isn't far behind that (2% lower than second)**, but the last mark is pretty different (15% less than first)!
As I've said, I need to be doing more work on my final year project, and have started some more, just, however with being ill last week (I even couldn't make it to this week's screening *shock*), and gaining an irregular sleeping pattern because of it, I really just want to go home and go to bed now X_X!
Speaking of bed I did have a strange dream lately -although not sure, I actually have a feeling there might have been two strange dreams, I just can't really remember-, it was something to do with me being on a teacher observation day, or something like that, however that wasn't the strangest it got actually!
*I did find explaining it a bit difficult!
**this actually was one of the modules I was a bit nervous about perhaps not passing seen as the coursework made no sense to me, still, I guess I owe a great deal of thanks to a friend of mine for trying to explain it to me, and will have to tell him when I next see him!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
|
|
|
The first semester is (long) over, and now we're into the second semester! Its currently the calm before the storm seen as the intro lectures are still going on, well for one of my modules at least, not sure about the other two!
Only in two days a week this semester, however perhaps that's a bad thing? Less time in university, less time I consider working on my final year project? I've already had two e-mails from my project supervisor, the second one slightly more threatening than the first! Hopefully I've avoided the threat, although I am a day late -she wanted replies back to her before the end of yesterday (or as she put it "end of play Wednesday" -I had no idea what she actually meant there, I was briefly wondering if I'd missed an important calendar date in my final year project :P)!
I was hoping to have done some work before I e-mailed my project supervisor, and I have done, some, now! We were meant to do some whilst we were on holiday, but with this and that, and practically deciding to totally switch-off for the whole holiday, I didn't do anything! I also nearly didn't reply, the fact I pressed "save" and not "send" only realised when I noticed I had a "draft" e-mail, so I looked, and there I found the e-mail I thought I'd sent!
Still something else that came through in my e-mails was my feedback on one of my courseworks, although I wasn't (that) worried about this one, it was nice that I got a "good" mark!
Might have had more to say but I can't remember! Did attempt to do this at home, however my Internet Explorer hates to do anything "strenous", I currently have too many tabs open in Opera for it to run off the bat, and feel its too much to download a third web browser just because I haven't sorted out the problems with the other two!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
|
|
|
Well, another day gone by, another day no coursework done! It feels somewhat this year like the world's against me! "Happiness" came on a double edged sword this year, our Project Leader thought we would be thrilled at the prospect of the changes to our course, and we were, until we started them! For the previous two years we were deprived of a great choice of optional module spaces, whilst the other courses lived the good life, so our Project Leader thought it was time to let us live the good life, but this year, the good life came at a price! More optional module spaces, modules had to become shorter, shorter modules meant shorter coursework deadlines!
Four courseworks, all for dates between 1st and 12th December! Plus for some unknown reason, someone thought it was a good idea to move the Final Year Project Presentation from after Christmas to before Christmas (anytime between 8th and 12 December)! So more work to do, in the shape of research of various topics; research methods, computing languages, and software development models!
Now, not only is the course against me, but then technology decides to turn! I tried to log into the University's Terminal Server on Friday, and it apparently couldn't load my Profile because it was unable to copy over a Temporary Internet File, because its filename was too long -like the tale of David and Goliath, it only took something so small, to bring down something so big!
I thought it might be a minor error so I left it, and I tried again on Saturday! Still no luck, then I find out another way to access the university remotely; "Off Campus Applications Service"! However getting it to work proves pretty difficult, the first Citrix download I attempt to install doesn't work because I have no (H:\) to install into (yeah, how many people have that many drives? Ok, I can have that many, just give me a minute to plug a couple of things in, but that's beside the point), and the second one is unable to connect to "the network" (whichever one that is)!
Finally I find an alternative to Citrix, JAVA, and after confirming a message that "I acknowledge that this may harm my computer" about fifty times, it finally loads up, however by this point I've reached the stage of not really caring, and so its "oh great, it works, yeah, moments past now, I can't be bothered working!"
So, Sunday and Monday will have to be mainly spent trying to do as much coursework as possible! Might have to spend some of that time reading through the lecture slides, seeing if I can gain any knowledge on the subject! Also, as its third year work it probably needs some quotes from books or journals, which are apparently found in the Aldham Robarts, however I have to submit my coursework to the Avril Robarts, and then there's the matter of when's the latest I can submit it, seen as apparently, the time the Campus Centre stays open has apparently changed since I last submitted coursework -hell everything's changed, I mean now the University take the money directly from the SLC, two years ago they were taking it from my bank account!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
|
|
|
So, this year of university is a bit different to the other years, it appears that we have to actually work for our degrees this year! Whereas last year, and the year before that, the courseworks were "design and create this", now they're "think of something that you know of in the real world that this module can be applied to"!
Plus we progress closer to the end of the month, advancing closer and closer to coursework deadlines (and to be honest, I don't even know when they are, except for the fact they're close to beginning December)! I might pop to Ryman (nearly gonna call it Partners), or TESCO and pick up a folder so I can put my Coursework Specs. in, so I will know exactly when the dates are!
The ones that I've made the most progress on are the Final Year Project (because I have a Project Supervisor pushing me), and the User Interface Design Coursework (because its a group coursework, so I have people pushing me)! That said, I have a possible idea for Business Systems and Analysis, however Software Systems: Design & Evolution and Contemporary Issues for IT are another matter, well, Contemporary Issues is actually researching into a chosen topic, so really the main problem is Software Systems: Design & Evolution!
Although I've still gotta bat them all out for around the beginning of December, and produce a presentation, also for around the beginning of December, as part of the Final Year Project.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
|
|
|
Still a hit-and-miss with my lectures at the moment, one of the problems is that I haven't managed to get into a routine, however I don't seem to be able to find the time to fit everything all in at the moment, so I find myself working, or "working" (sometimes one, sometimes the other), when I should really be sleeping! University work is a bit of a problem, we pretty much got given all the courseworks at the beginning of the lectures, but its like "huh?"* and so we have to wait till the lectures catch up to something that will help with the coursework, then there's the Final Year Project which is going pretty slow, I actually need to do some research for that, actually research of research (techniques)!
So, parents are away in Brazil and so entrusted the recording of programmes to my sister and I, however before they left they also got a Digital Box/DVD/HDD Recorder, which seems to be quite tempermental at the moment, seen as its occasionally only recorded some of something I've set up, or suddenly remove programmes set up using the "Series Link"! Also on the talk of technology I recently lost one of my phones, it was actually on an Anime Pub Crawl, I sent it a message asking if found, for them to ring my other number, however when I tried to ring it the morning after I got voicemail!
So, either someone thought of making some quick money, or it was drowned by the 12-hour-ish rain that night! Its a shame its gone seen as no longer will "A-ha - The Living Daylights" go off during my lecture -interestingly I remembered it wasn't on silent whilst in the lecture, however I thought "no-one ever rings me", but was I wrong, suddenly it goes off and I think "if it was my other phone I could have drowned it in my coat, but this one", so I grab the phone, excuse myself, and run out the room, answer it, come back, and the lecturer asks me if it was a good conversation, my mother tell me my washing's done, I then tell him that it was my sister actually trying to find my mum, he says "boring conversation then, nothing else", and I say "no, nothing else"! It also feels strange only having one phone too!
Still, its not the end of the world that I lost that phone, seen as there wasn't much on that phone that wasn't on the other, the only things that weren't on both phone were possibly a few numbers, notes, pictures and music (obviously)! The notes were probably the biggest lose, seen as I sometimes left "important" notes for myself! Speaking of phones the other one seems to slowly be going, the battery life seems to be certainly dying, but then, it has been a good few years, maybe I should change phones at somepoint!
*that said, some of them do have to be in before Christmas, yeah, I'm failing this year, I can feel it!
Right, video time, whilst reading up on various things on Wikipedia, I found out that the Japanese Opening of Captain Scarlett is very different to the English, so I thought I'd have a look on YouTube and it is, then I also found out that the case is the same with Stingray! The final video would have been the advert for Saints Row 2 -even though I won't be buying the game, I find the advert pretty amusing with its contrast between audio and video-, but it seems YouTube doesn't have it!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
|
|
|
So, a mid-week report of my first week back in university! Well, my week is technically split in two, with two lectures on Monday and Tuesday, and then two lectures on Thursday and Friday, meaning that I have no lectures on Wednesday! The other thing about my lectures are that they're all in the morning! Still, I wasn't gonna bore you on this topic!
No, its something else! So, what can this topic be? Well, out of the 2 lectures I have had scheduled, I have attended a total of 0! Its been one of those weeks (well, it hasn't even finished actually), where it feels like you don't even have the time to breathe -actually, that may not be so true for Monday!
Monday, I actually didn't get into Liverpool till the lecture had started, however partly not my fault, seen as "as I was up, I was able to do a bit of baby duty"! So, finally arrive in Liverpool, and its off to university, but its not Byrom Street this time, its Henry Cotton, however this wasn't a problem, seen as I knew where it was, the next part was the problem, where was my lecture theatre?
Let's see, the facts I knew, the room was listed as "HC/MLT" -sometimes I do wonder who writes these timetables seen as they assume you're psychic, you know which floor of a building the room you're after is located on! So, I entered the building, looking for possible signs with "MLT" on them, but there weren't, and there wasn't much else there either, so I went up the stairs, and then attempted to gain entry to that floor, after finding it didn't open by pulling or pushing the door, I located a chip reader, so I threw myself at it (seen as my card is located in my breast pocket, and was too lazy to get it out), and the door unlocked, I wondered about the floor for a bit, following signs for lecture theatres, and lecture rooms, however, after some wondering I concluded that perhaps "MLT" was on a different floor!
When attempting to leave the floor (through the same set of doors I came in), I noted that there were no big green buttons (which are normally the way of unlocking a door such as these), however there wasn't one, I also looked for a chip reader, again, there wasn't one, I did however find something that resembled a light switch, which I flicked on/off and then on/off again, and that seemed to do the trick! I arrived at the next floor, which also required a chip scan, which I did, here too where signs for lecture theatres and lecture rooms, however I decided to find out if one of these might be "MTL", walking on in the direction as instructed by the sign, I found another sign, it pointed in two (opposite) directions, one way said "Large Lecture Theatre", the other said "Medium Lecture Theatre", so, finally I had found my lecture theatre, or at least the direction it should be in, so I thought I'd check that it was indeed that way, and after I found out it was, I felt that the lecture had been on for too long for me to arrive and be classed as merely "late"!
So, I went back down to the previous floor, and used the computer lab that I had found in my search for the MLT, which I now know stands for "Medium Lecture Theatre"!
Tuesday, arriving at university under the belief that my lecture was on at 9:00am (and that I was late), I arrived at the room in which I believed it was to take place, to discover that it was infact an hour later, at 10:00am, in another room! However I had not gone completely mad, as this room had been booked for that module, it was the lab session -which I fail to comprehend is before the lecture, normally lab sessions were to scheduled times in which you would conduct exercises given in the lecture!
Well, with this new found knowledge I thought "great, I won't be late, or miss the lecture completely", wrong! I decided I would continue to knock out my quiz that I have been asked to do for the Anime Society -as I don't watch as much "mainstream" anime as other people, it did prove kinda difficult, but that doesn't have any bearing on what's being discussed-, so, I picked up from where I left off, adding in pre-planned questions, searching for and adding in relevant pictures, and animating the words and images afterwards! Time started slowly disappearing, and I found myself tangled up in the quiz unable to abandon it in-order to attend the lecture, and by the time I had untangled myself the lecture was "too" far in!
So, I continued work on the quiz, planning on originally working till 4:30pm, or something similar, as I was sure that was the time the labs closed, but but as time approached 4:30pm, no message came up to inform me the labs were closing, one did not come up at 5:30pm either, or 6:30pm, or 7:30pm, one did however come up before 9:00pm, instructing me that I had only 15 minutes left before the labs closed! To which I accepted and left, arriving at the bus stop to catch the 71!
Wednesday, well, as there were no lectures, there wasn't a problem about being late for them, however I did plan on going in anyway, to finish the quiz, to have a total of 50 questions wacked out, but in the end I didn't arriving late on Tuesday meant I wasn't able to drop off "delivery" catalogues to tell people I was dropping their Betterware orders round the day after! However I still did flit about busily writing out the green slips to go on the catalogues, as I decided it wasn't "too" late to drop them off, but then I fell asleep, and when I was woken up, forgot about them for a bit! However I remembered again, but in the end, decided it was too late now, so, I decided seen as it was fairly late/early (person's perception), I decided to stay up till a more suitable hour when I could deliver the catalogues!
So, I stuck on a DVD, one I hadn't seen before: Mushishi (Live Action)*! It was either going to be Mushishi or Shinobi (Live Action)**, however I decided I was more interested in seeing Mushishi, and it was lucky I was, seen as Shinobi still had the red security tag in -meaning I will have to go back to HMV to have a word with them, although I can't find the receipt x_x!
Anyway, that aside, I stuck the DVD on, but after a while I fell asleep, and was woken up by my dad asking if I'm up, to which I was going to be, eventually, but when he said "fine you're staying in bed", I decided "fine whatever", and took him up on it -well, I didn't have to go in today, and so I didn't! One of the things I could have done however was sort out this big mess with the bank -my (current) card is to run out at the end of this month, and so I am to be receiving a new one, however, it didn't arrive when scheduled, so, sometime after, I rang up to cancel it, which they did, assuring me it was only that card! So, later, I attempt to pay for something on eBay and find an error message that reads "card refused by bank"! So, did they infact only cancel by missing card (which by the way, arrived today *rolls eyes*), I still haven't gone down to my local bank to find out, and probably wont till next week now!
Something else that happened today was that my eBay "replacement" for Pokémon Silver came -I know, I know, we're on Diamond and Pearl now (soon to be Platinum), or rather you're probably thinking "Silver, huh? I only remember Red and Blue!", or if you're really lucky "Silver, huh? I thought the series finished after Yellow!" :P-, so I thought I'd test it out, and it works kinda, the cartridge needs to be blown on first before inserting into the GameBoy Color/Advance, still at least I can save! Now the reason why I can't save on the other version, my original version is because it met with an unfortunate accident involving a GameShark (and I was only after one pokémon***, the others I will acquire through normal means no matter how difficult, or clone with the help of Red and Blue :P), which subsequently ruined the internal battery! Still, it does still have a use "dead" Silver now can be a feeder game for Gold and Crystal -again you say "huh?"-, whilst "eBay" Silver can be my actual game :D!
Well, that's a rundown of the mid-week! However predictions for Thursday and Friday are that they too could be pretty hectic!
Thursday, although I only have a lecture in the morning, I will stay in Liverpool all day, as I have AS from 6:00pm, and don't see the point leaving to come back in later, and possibly arrive late! It will however also give me a chance to finalise the Quiz, so that it runs smoothly (hopefully)! I am also hoping to post a couple of things I have been meaning to do, such as the HC1 form, and some erronous mail!
Friday, again, a morning lecture, but after that who knows! I'm meeting one of my sister's friends in Liverpool for lunch, and what happens then, determines everything! Also, I might possibly go drinking with a friend (we were actually meant to go today, but with all that was going on, it was too late), but that all depends on what happens at lunch time, and if he can, seen as he seems to be quite busy/tired these days!
So, this (mid-)week has been pretty stressful, hopefully I will have it ironned out over the weekend, and know how to fit the various aspects of my life around each other! Another thing I need to sort out is sleep, I don't think I've had a proper sleep all (mid-)week, just the sleeps I've found myself having when I go "I'll just rest my eyes for a minute!", and then find because of it I've failed to do something!
I find myself longing for the return of my mild insomnia! As I find I can't go a whole 24 hours without falling asleep during sometime of that period, which can cause problems depending what time it is/how long I sleep for! Its a shame you can't trade insomnia :D, trade with someone who wants to sleep, and then trade back when you've finished with it, but then, if that was possible, it would probably only be a one-way trade, seen as the other person would run off once the trade was complete, leaving you stuck with their sleepless nights!
---------------------------------------------------
*Mushishi (Live Action) was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo -the guy who directed Akira and Steamboy, nice to see he can actually direct a good movie :D, and is related to both the anime and manga of the same name!
**Shinobi (Live Action) is actually unrelated to the Shinobi games, just thinking about the game makes me wanna dig out the PS2 game (I don't have the original Sega Master System game (nor a Sega Master System for that matter), or its sequels on the Sega MegaDrive (however I do have a Sega MegaDrive)), or Kunoichi, which is essentially the same!
***well that said, I do also need to get another King's Rock, and Metal Coat, or rather another two (of each)!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 19th, 2008
|
|
|
Oh, I don't have a bad life, but I feel I choose to sabotage it bit by bit -and damn, I've just realised that the song I want was on the other Queen Album, but that's actually neither here nor there, if I get round to changing discs great, if not oh well, plus I'm toying with whether to switch it for the Maaya Sakamoto CD, with the Escaflowne Opening on!
Anyway, the slow self-sabotage of my life, well there's things I haven't done, and there's things I have done, most of which should actually be the reverse, the things I have done I shouldn't have done, the things I haven't done I should have done! I feel its a slow demise, and perhaps I'm being slightly melodramatic!
However let's see, let's start with self-sabotage with my university course, I STILL HAVE DONE NO RESEARCH ON THE PROJECT THAT I PLAN TO RESEARCH, NOR GET BACK TO MY POSSIBLE SUPERVISOR TO TELL HER THAT EVEN THOUGH I HAVEN'T DONE ANY RESEARCH ALTHOUGH PLAN TO BEFORE I HAND IN MY PROPOSAL FORM, I WILL STILL PROBABLY CONTINUE AHEAD WITH MY CHOICE, BECAUSE THAT TOPIC IS THE ONLY ONE I HAVE AN INKLING OF HOW TO POSSIBLY DO, EVEN IF IT DOES SEEM LIKE A FAIR BIT OF WORK! Right well, now that's all written down, and in captials mine, I think I feel slightly better about that!
To be correct it has not all been self-sabotage, I mean seen as I haven't started university let, I'm still "Tommy: the hopeless layabout", meaning "Oh, Thomas can do that, he's not doing anything, except sleeping"! Still, perhaps this is just an excuse, I mean if you have to do something, then you should do it, and not let any distractions get in the way, if someone asks you to do something, you turn around and say "sorry, I can't, university work!", but then there's that part of me that likes to fit around people, I never want to inconvience anyone!
Example:
person: "What do you want to eat?"
Tommy: "Whatever you want, I'm fine!" translation "Whatever you want to eat, I don't want to inconvience you!"
Perhaps I should start saying this "I don't want to inconvience you", seen as the other quite often annoys people, well, my mother, and sometimes my father! And it is true, I can see that it could be annoying, I mean it could be misconstrued as me being a (two years too late) immature teenager!
Nope, I was wrong, it was on this disc ("Queen - Don't Stop Me Now", ironic I was after a song saying "tonight I'm gonna have myself a good time")!
Anyway, the next bit of self-sabotage would be work! Yes, I kinda have a bit of work I do, its for the catalogue distributors Betterware, however for a couple of weeks now, I haven't delivered any catalogues, each week had a different reason (I think), but the result is still the same! Now, to throw salt into the wounds, I am unable to this deliver orders as well, seen as the order forms that contain who ordered something, and what they ordered, has gone missing, thus, I am unable to work out who ordered what! I tried ringing my boss to raise this with him, however I was unable to get hold of him until today (technically yesterday), and when I did, he was unable to help me -I thought there was a possibility that he could have not packed the forms with the items, which is something he has done in the past, once or twice, but he hadn't!
Still, saying that, I've had a brainstorm (for political correctness) thought-shower, its similar to one I had earlier, but will hold more possible success, that is if I still don't find the order forms lurking somewhere about the house!
So, the next self-sabotage is actually a collection of self-sabotages, but revolves around (and kinda tied to the previous self-sabotage) money! I can be a spendaholic, and let off the leash it can be devistating -meaning HSBC failing to send me a card (for a second time) to replace the soon to expire card, may be a god send, meaning I can put money in the bank, but not take it out unless I go to a counter, and I don't think many HSBCs do that, seen as that special treatment is now reserved for "Premier" Customers! I believe during this week, the times I've come into university (for intro lectures or freshers), I've managed to find myself in HMV (x2), Zavvi (was almost gonna put Virgin), Forbidden Planet and Worlds Apart, and a couple of days bought something from almost all of them (although in WA it was only to the sum of £4.25, which annoyingly I could have got for £3.99 in FP for some reason)!
Ok, so resisting -I felt like I was Jim Carrey in Me, Myself and Irene, part of me was trying to go this was, and the other the other-, I passed up the 3 for £15 deal in Worlds Apart, even though they had all of the Mai-HiME manga -jury's still out on the in-store vs. online manga debate: in-store you get to see the (minor) scratches on it, but you have to buy it there and then, in some cases; online you don't get to see it, but its cheaper, and quite often available! I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to books, I like them to be in perfect condition, when I buy them, and still be in perfect condition after I've read them, unles I get them second-hand and then I can abuse the hell out of them -in moderation-; I am borrowing my uncle's copy of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Agency"*1, seen as I can't open mine copy wide enough to see the whole page without bending the spine, I'm weird, I know!
Actually, this perfectionism does stretch to other aspects of my life, such limited editions of things (akin to collector's items), so things such as [insert store] Exclusives, or Revelation/Funimation*2 (anime distributor(s)) Starter Boxes, Boxsets, they have to be perfect (or as near as possible), and I have to make sure they're undamaged, and if they are, all hell breaks loose, such as, I (attempt) buy another copy!
Now this next part doesn't have anything to do with resisting, so, we come out of the indent: The Student Loan Company! I find myself wondering if my current course of action is the right one, should I have disrupted everything and told the Student Loan Company as it got close to well now, that was not going to be on a placement, which would mean that there would be all this faffing about, and there would probably be a big cufuffle, and my payments would be delayed and etc.! I originally chose not to disclose this because of this fact, and also the fact that the money I would receive would cover my tution fees anyway! However, the fact that there is a discrepency that I am registered as on my placement with them, and on my third year with the university is probably gonna bite me later!
I didn't think it would be a problem seen as I remembered last year, when I was still (briefly) getting paid, although I was not on a placement, but then, I had been registered for being on a placement, before I did all that running about to cancel that, and this! So, in a way, this is different, and it is possible that it will come back to haunt me! Meaning, I should really raise this with my personal tutor, supervisor and/or my local council, and see what advice they give me!
On to more self-sabotage, I feel that I am trying to alienate myself from others! Today/yesterday, I was alienating myself from the other admin members on the forum -yes, I'm an admin now, I decided after three years of sitting back with no influence was enough, I didn't want to still feel like a backseat driver! When it comes to spellings I can be a bit weird, I like to have things correctly spelt, such as using correct British spellings, even if I (occasionally) use Americanisms in conversation, it could be possible that this all stems from when I was seen by my teachers as "lazy", but my mum strove to prove otherwise, and you know what, she did, it was confirmed I had specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia*3! And after that, I stove to better myself (with the help of various people, such as my English teacher for the first three years of secondary school, Mrs Holden, my private tutor*4 Margret Murphy, now a famous author, my class tutor Miss Young, my maths teacher Mrs Gilford, and my parents), making sure that everything I wrote was spelt correctly, and if possible, grammatically correct, although I never mastered "who" and "whom", and I still do make the occasional spelling mistake, seen as I don't always have a dictionary to hand!
So, I occassionally have a habit of pointing out somepeople's mistakes -I actually do a similar thing with people and rubbish, but only if I think I can change their opinion as to "the floor is a perfectly good substitue for a bin"! If its in conversation its no problem, seen as I say it in a semi-serious manner*5, and people can tell, and not get offended, however, when its not, there's the problem! If you want to come off as joking, then you need to remember to stick in some smilies along the way, which, is something I occasionally forget! So, one (possibly two of) of my posts came as pompous, or malice! And as I said about its difficult to express emotions on "paper", its also difficult to interpret through the response -although if we go on the basis that smilies lightly the mood, then the fact there were none is not a good sign, or is it, like with me (sometimes), they have failed to put one in, this is were in the debate of the written word vs. the spoken word, the spoken word triumphs! I'm left wondering how much to heart that person has taken it, meaning I should apologise, and then I also find myself "arguing" my chosen course of action with another person!
Right, well that's the end of the self-sabotaging, something I find myself wondering at the moment is where is my time disappearing to? I can't seem to understand where the days are disappearing too! I don't seem to have any time to do anything, I haven't watched many anime*6, read many manga, books or magazine (NEO), played many games, surfed many webpages, nor any some of the activities above, such as researched my (possible) chosen topic!
So, if anyone knows where my time is disappearing to, please write in on the back of a stamped addressed envelope to:... -the fact I'm making jokes, I feel that my mood must be lightening up, as I slowly get things off my chest!
Ok, so, as I'm feeling in a more upbeat mood, let's say I talk about politeness vs. political correctness! Earlier in the week the BBC said that politeness is dead, as we men are too scared to be branded as "sexist", for polite gestures! I say hell no! I still am polite, I walk in the road, or into someone's drive (which ever is safest) if the pavement isn't wide enough for two people, and occasionally get a thank you, and there is sometimes the off chance that I am on the receiving end of a polite gesture, sometimes by men, and sometimes by women! Although there can be some confusion when people are equally polite, and you're both "after you!", and then when you decide to accept their polite gesture, it turns out so did they ;D!
Anyway, so, there's that example, but then you have giving up your seat on the bus/train, now, that's only something I do for the elderly, occasionally, however it is quite common that I do move my stuff off the seat next to me if the seat is required (unlike some people you can observe), even if I find myself scrunched in my own seat because of it! Last example would be, offering to carry someone else's bags, now, that's only something I would do if I knew the person, otherwise I feel its a bit too much of an obtrusion of someone's privacy! Similar thing happened recently when I was on the bus, I was sitting at the opposite end to someone at the back of the top floor of a bus and she seemed pretty upset (possibly), and I was toying with the idea whether to ask her if she was alright, and also thought it was a shame I didn't have an "ice-breaker", such as a tissue -well, I did have a tissue, but I don't think she wanted a used tissue! So, ok, in some aspects, politeness is dead (as well as common decency -when did we stop becoming the "shocked Brits", and become the "shocking Brits"?*7), but in others, its still very much alive!
Right, so, another thing in the media (this time in a paper, not on a television), something that made me chuckle -this was actually at the beginning of the day, so it started high, and then ended in downwards spiral! So, the Metro television guide, it picked the hightlight of the night for each channel (yesterday's/day before yesterday's was "Lost in Austen" -which scarily I've found myself watching, which I have to blame Carlie and Rachel for (I was gonna include Kirsten, but realised she wasn't there ;D)), and the one for ITV1 was "Anne Widdecombe vs. Girl Gangs", it wasn't the show that I found amusing, but the take on the "review": no, unfortunately, not in an anything-goes cage fight to the death*8!
Right well, god, I think that's the end, there may have been other stuff, such as some weird dreams, but frankly I can't remember much of the details anymore! So, that's the end of the ranting, however, what I do remember, was that I planned to bore you to death with YouTube stuff, if I can remember how to do it, and not over-write some of the one's I've put down previously!
Oh yeah, I know what I can say before the YouTube videos, 8 Simple Rules (Series 1) is now available to buy on DVD in the UK, yay! However I haven't bought it yet, its only in the Liverpool 1 HMV and I haven't managed to get there recently, although it is cheaper online, and there isn't a big red security tag messing up the cover (probably), also Pokémon (movie) 10 is to be released in the UK at the end of the month; ok, so Pokémon (movie) 6 was the last one to be released in the UK, two years ago*9, so what logic is it to release the 10th movie, or is it to keep up with the Americans, Australians, and pretty much any other country in the world? Still, there is the possibility that they could release the others later, and hopefully, the 6th movie, this time with the original cover -oh that reminds me, the 10th movie cover for the UK is actually different to that of the US, although might be similar to the Australian cover, possibly, seen as there was a difference between the Australian and US covers for the 8th movie, but then it did get released in Australia before the US, strangely!
Anyway, now that I've mentioned that, or possibly mentioned that, again, I think I've mentioned it before! I'm off to play Dynasty Warriors 4, possibly -haven't totally finished with Samurai Warriors*10, but it just feels so nice to not have to worry about true endings (yet), so from Japan to China, Oichi to Sun Shang Xiang! Speaking of games, I'm sure the game Oneechanbara: VorteX had been released here, seen as I'm sure I saw it in a Blockbuster (second-hand) ages ago, however its still down as 2009 for both US and UK! Oh well, perhaps it was a Japanese copy, seen as there are no region codes for next-gen*11 games, still it would have made no difference to me anyway, seen as I own any next-gen*11 consoles!
Oh yeah, looking through the Friends' Page, I remembered an "idoitic" comment one of our lecturers said, it was about the End of the World, last week! Now, ok, we all know it didn't happen -or did it, are we all living our perfect lives in HCL Fluid?*12 I'm certainly not!-, but still, to say that the comments on the internet that the World was gonna end last week were proof that the internet was not credible was a bit too far! Sure there's a lot of rubbish, and a fair bit of personally opinions -the Wikipedia Pokémon briefly had a bit of possible Advanceshipping (May and Ash pairing, instead of Misty and Ash pairing, or Dawn and Ash pairing*13)-, even though you some of the comments were probably the pessimists, I do believe there were scientific praticioners who also said the end of the World was soon, sure they were proved wrong, but they would have had scientific research that they would have conducted!
Its probable that my arguement is like a bunch of towels, however personally, I just feel, that his example was a bad example, plus he totally sucks at lectures, unless he's teaching us how not to do our final year project, then he's doing a good job!
So, how many times have I probably said that its off to the YouTube videos, and then started a new topic of conversation? Oh well, not this time, it is the real deal, I'm out of things to say, I think!
So, first two, one's the Bleach Opening crossed with Strawberry Panic, which probably none of you know about, and if I was running the screenings you still wouldn't know about seen as you probably wouldn't come that often, but who know's, I might have not played it anyway! The other is a follow on, a video I found through the previous video, I find it pretty amusing, but perhaps prior-Strawberry Panic knowledge required, and knowledge of Japanese is desired!
The second two are the Cadbury's Adverts, where Cadbury's got lazy, and kept the original images, but changed the music, swapping Queen for Bon Jovi, and Phil Collins for Bonnie Tyler!
----------------------------------------------------
*1 - unfortunately, he does not own a copy of the sequel, "Long Dark Tea Time for the Soul", nor do any local libraries, however there is an Oxfam that does have a copy, and it like my uncle's copy (of "Holistic Agency") does have a whitty "author's notes" page, last line, pure brilliance: He is currently not certain where he lives, or with whom!
*2 - I say Revelation/Funimation, seen as although Revelation releases the starter boxes in the UK, they're really Funimation "hand-me-downs", with UK stickers, such as the BBFC rating!
*3 - its also the reason why I look at some "questions" differently to other people, where the majority would only see one "answer", the "correct" one!
*4 - Don't I sound posh ;), coincidently, she does live in West Wirral (same as I do now) -the posh side of the Wirral!
*5 - although I have a friend who doesn't like that type of approach, seen as I come off serious when I'm joking, and "joking" (semi-serious) when I'm serious, meaning he occasionally gets confused as to what it is I actually want to do, but that all stems down to me putting up a wall, so I don't get hurt as much, if what I've asked for is rejected!
*6 - or re-watch, seen as there are a couple of series I feel like re-watching, one of them being RahXephon, after recently reading the manga -one of my online purchases, however, as I said, I'm still on the fence; online vs. in-store!
*7 - Actually, don't tell me, I'm getting flashbacks of English football fans abroad, and the prejudicial slanging matches outside pubs today/yesterday, between whoever where play's fans were, and the denizens of Liverpool; good show people, that really says "Liverpool Capital of Culture"!
*8 - or something similar!
*9 - although with a rubbish cover, the American one was better :(!
*10 - oh yeah, speaking of Samurai Warriors, I found out that in SW2, everyone totally has different voices, that totally sucks, its a shame you don't get the choice of the original Japanese, their voices didn't change!
*11 - or is the PS3, Xbox360 and Wii now described as the "current-gen"?
*12 - Evangelion reference, as much as prefer RahXephon to Evangelion, RahXephon's Tuning of the World works slightly different to the "paradise" that awaits in the HCL Fluid!
*13 - Pokémonshipping's had ten years to actually develop (although Misty has only been in it for five of those years), Advanceshipping's had five years to develop (in which in those five, May was Ash's female travelling companion), however I'm not sure if "Diamond and Pearlshipping" exists yet (seen as Dawn has only been in for two series (currently on-going)), probably would be called DPshipping!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 5th, 2008
|
|
|
So, still getting mixed messages about the Final Year Project! Was talking it over with Jenn saying how lucky she was being a MS student, seen as all she had to do was pure research, and she told me, if only! It appears that she too has to create a product at the end of it, but if that's true, then what is it that changed for CS and SE? Perhaps its the whole "Software Life Cycle" Model thing!
Still, I best get myself in gear, seen as its been a while since I discussed the topic with my possible Project Supervisor, and I haven't looked into it! My Supervisor probably thinks I've moved onto looking at another topic to base my disertation on! Although I am slightly put off from the requirement to include some programming in my product, having to create a website and database that fully works, and interacts with one another, and make it accessible to a type of disability user! I can't think of any other subject that I could address that I would be able to "answer" better!
So, my sister has thought it a good thing that my nephew refers to me by an Indian name, unfortunately, when she was thinking of the name, she mixed up the Indian names for Aunt(-in-law on Mother's side) and Uncle (on Mother's side)! I've pointed this out, but pretty much to no avail, ok, my nephew hasn't said it yet, but my sister says it to him enough times, so does my mother! So, from now on, its possible I will be referred to as Aunty Tommy!
Since my last post, have been making a few more edits on the Wikipedia website, which I found out its pretty strict if it comes to something mainstream; try editing one of the Pokémon pages, or the CLAMP pages, and unless its only a spelling mistake, expect it to be changed back in the next five seconds!
So, that concludes this entry into my LiveJournal, I think, if there was something more I can't remember -actually, there is something else, two things perhaps: Ethel Austens now sells men's clothing again, yay, so I was able to pick up a white t-shirt, and a couple of other things; Woolworths are now selling pencil sharpeners with the stereotypical anime Octopus, just goes to show there are anime fans everywhere, we're coming through the cracks of society!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
|
|
|
Well, third year hasn't even started, and I already hate it! Went to see my Project Supervisor at the beginning of the week, or rather, my possible Project Supervisor, as she told me to go away and think if the topic I've chosen is really the topic for me! Well, nothing else really sprang to mind!
Anyway, she was able to fill me in on all the stuff that the lectures on "Placement Day" failed to do so; they didn't tell me that CS students were required to use a "Software Life Cycle Model", that was something I learnt previously when I attended the "direct [to] Third Year" lecture, and they didn't tell me that CS students had to make the thing they researched, and do some programming, this was something I learnt from some former peers, and my Project Supervisor!
God, the other courses have it easy (excluding SE*), damn, why did CS have to get recognised by the BCS! Well, on the plus side, if I pass, I get a degree that is recognised by the BCS, and if I don't, I have to change courses, and graduate with a combined studies degree, but I'll worry about that later!
So, I thought I'd come on here and post, seen as its been over a month since I last did so, have a bit of a rant while I download something I already had, but seen as the computer's being a bit of a problem machine, corrupted the file when it crashed cutting and pasting it onto another drive!
Ok, so onto the next item! Not really news, but I was in Liverpool City Centre recently, twice in one week actually, first time was to do with the item mentioned above, the second time was to buy the "Juno" Soundtrack as Mum needed to get it for a birthday present for someone -it was also a 2 for £10 CD, which annoyingly, I didn't find anything that sparked my interest, till I had paid for it, and got back onto the Ground Floor >:(!
Moving on, I wondered about Liverpool a bit, noticing the moving in/out of shops; WHSmith -well, I knew about that earlier, but I didn't know about it originally-, Zara, and Golf World! I also wondered up to the new HMV to see how that was coming along, plus it was also on the way to the new WHSmith, which was where I needed to go, seen as I needed to pick up the recent copy of NEO, and some new pens! I had been in the new WHSmith before, but seen as I wasn't there for anything important, there wasn't a problem!
However this time there was -I feel like with Liverpool I can start early on the "it wasn't like that in my day" lines-, the pens section in this store isn't as amazing as in the original one -but then, there probably aren't many WHSmith that have such an impressive selection of pens, the old Birkenhead one certainly didn't, neither does the new one-, the old store, the pens selection pretty much stretched from one end of the store to the other, on the Basement Floor!
Still, if I really wanted selection I guess I'd have to have gone to Ryman (I think that's what its called; formerly Partners)! I was slightly disappointed with what I had to choose, seen as I was after something with a soft grip to it, but oh well, I didn't have any physical money on me, so, its not like I could really argue, and plus, its got some sort of soft grip!
Right well, that's it, anything else I might have wanted to say has gone off the top of my head!
*their course too has been recognised by a Computing Body; the IEEE!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I'm wearing my new glasses, and they're gonna take some time to get used to; it was an easy transition between my previous pair, and the one before that, as they were of similar design! However these I feel are wider, so I get a bit extra vision, although, I also feel that the shape of the lens are different, meaning that things look differently in these glasses than they did in the old pair!
Still, saying that, getting used to new glasses isn't hard, I mean I've already done it before, seen as my previous two pairs were actually "shorter" than the pair before that, meaning I had to get used to the fact that my lens didn't offer as much downward clear vision, as before!
Great thing about new glasses though, is everything looks so shiny! Seen as the lens are new, and there's not a scratch on them!
Thought I'd make a post, seen as I got bored whilst adding things onto Wikipedia, since all of a sudden I found myself logged out, and it telling me that my cookies have been disabled -what, I doubt that! And its so annoying that the edit I did, won't be accredited to me now >:(!
There were a couple of other things I was thinking of editing, but I think I'll save them for tomorrow, see if this cookie "problem" resolves itself!
Oh wait, its working again, although, as I said I wasn't accredited >:(! Still, who knows, someone might come along and delete everything I've written, as it might not have any (plausable) references to back it up!
Well, done everything I planned to now, well, slightly less (seen as Anime News Network's removed that tidbit I was after, which I was gonna add onto Wikipedia), and not as observant either (I pressed submit before I read something which was kinda important, although I had tried to find it before I started the process)!
You know, Pokémon's on in the mornings again now! Yeah, found out a couple of weekends back, and then I found out wasn't just the weekends! Been watching it since I found out -makes me feel like a little kid again-, and plus helps with getting into a healthy sleep pattern! The only problem is its the new dub :'(!
Hehehehehe: http://www.asylum.co.uk/2008/07/04/arguments-for-re-incorporating-america-into-the-british-empire/
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
|
|
|
Ok, I talked about it, but I still have to "actually" do it! Saying that, its probably part of a list of things I actually have to do; such as post off something to the University, and ring the NHS regarding an expired HC3 form*!
So, been thinking it through! And well, I'm wondering if I should really choose Ubiquitous Computing, sure it sounds interesting, and is different (but where has different got me in the past -Networks Coursework, there are no right or wrong answers; feedback, a CIDR network would have been better than a NAT network)!
Anyway, so the other thing I originally considered, was like everyone else, something in the field of the Internet and the World Wide Web! It is something after all, that I've done in University, so there's some knowledge I can apply there, and everyone else is doing it, so we can share (in secret) ideas! If I go in at the end of the week, I think I'll definitely have a talk with someone about it! See what topic they might suggest I go for, and perhaps sort out a Supervisor, if they haven't all been picked yet!
Now that's what I forgot to say in my previous post, I knew there was something I forgot! I recently had a dentist and optician's appointment, and I was surprised how much they both cost! Plus I was also surprised to find out that my HC3 form expired, or that it actually expires at all!
*Dad's been telling me that I should ring them and tell them that I'd already applied for one, so that it would arrive in time for my dentist and optician's appointment, however it hasn't arrived! As he was saying what might happen, and what will happen are sometimes two different things; the opticians said that I could get get some money back for the appointment, however Dad says that they might not pay out, seen as my HC3 form was expired during that time!
-------------------------------------
So, let's see, god, looking through the notes on my phone, there's a couple of things I was thinking of adding to LiveJournal, and because I've been so lazy, they're more like old "news"!
One of which about this party I attended in April! Was a 21st, for someone I knew from school, I was someone's 1, seen as people thought I'd disappeared off the face of the Earth, which, I don't blame them for, seen as technically, I had, I mean I'm not on any of the Social Sites, such as MySpace or Facebook, well, I have Bebo and Hi5, but I haven't been on them in ages, I've pretty much lost the passwords to them; that was when the computer died!
Anyway, because of this shock that I was at the party, it was pretty much like I had attained the status of "Legend", seen as I hadn't spoken to anyone there -except for the person who's 1 I was, and one other person-, for three years -well you can only be "missing in action" for so long-; as the birthday girl said, I could have only been "upstaged" by one other person, but I don't think "he" exists anymore, well, not as a single consciousness anymore, only half man, half console; he's more machine now than man!
Its funny that since my haircut (not the recent one, hence) way back when, my hair had grown to the length it was during my sixth form years, and since those were the last years the people at the party had seen me, it was like time had stood still in my case, I was exactly how people remember me, just plus the straight jacket* :D! They could have got a right shock if I had come out of "hiding" earlier, seen as this wasn't the earliest opportunity, there was an opportunity in the first year of University, but I didn't take it!
I actually mentioned this to a couple of people, how my hair was at one point passed my shoulder blades! Also, following up on my mention of Facebook, I was actually told by a couple of people that they had tried to search for me on it, but to no avail!
*Actually it was the reverse, I was not in the straight jacket, but the white coat :D! It was Alice in Wonderland fancy dress, and seen as I didn't have any Alice in Wonderland type stuff, or the money to buy any, I thought I'd borrow from anime**, and "create" my own Alice in Wonderland inspired character; the Mad Scientist, from Alice in Wonderlab!
**Anime such as "Miyuki in Wonderland", "Alice in Cyberland" and "Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rinbukyoku", there might be others, but that's all I know!
-------------------------------------
Also, in other old "news", Bill Gates was apparently willing to pay alot of money to anyone who has an unopened copy of Windows 1 -obviously wanted to see what a working Operating System looks like :D!
I've actually realised something else, and it isn't actually old "news", it was actually a dream I had recently, can't remember much about the dream, but what featured in it was a weird pair of glasses, my glasses actually, they were more like googles -the fact that the frame wasn't divided by a nose bridge-, however the "sheet" of plastic didn't stretch from one end of the frame to the other -well, actually, I'll "disprove" that in a bit, instead the lens was only a small part of it! Still, I can't remember how it worked now whether it was computer type system, or if it was convexed and concaved mirrors, but that little lens produced a larger image on the other side, which did have a large "sheet" of plastic -see where the "disproving" comes in, there wasn't a "sheet" on one side, but there was on the other!
Anyway, I felt it was a bit too difficult to explain in words, so whilst trying to think of what to say, I was busy creating an "artists"* impression in Microsoft Paint! Although it is better than my original hand drawn interpretations!
( Artist's Impression )
*Well, it can't really be a work of "art" when using Paint!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
So, thus ends another hopeful attempt at a placement job! Before the weekend Cheshire County Council got back to me, unfortunately at the sametime my mother decides to ring me, fortunately as I have two phones I was able to answer both ;D, although I had to tell one of them to hang on whilst I finished the conversation with the other! So, after I finished my conversation with my mother, I hung up, and apologised to the guy at CCC! Unfortunately he wasn't ringing with good news, I was not gonna be one of the sixteen to fill their vacancies, I apparently came off well, but nervous, and that the standard this time around was pretty high, plus the fact there were 49 other people also going for one of these sixteen jobs!
Anyway, so I trundled on my journey, and decided this would be my line in the sand, I would try to make more of an effort to so that if need be, I can go through to the final year, without a placement year! However that means I have to have a decision on what my topic for the Final Year Project will be, general "feedback" appears that most people are thinking of going for something in the field of the "Internet and the World Wide Web"! So, I could do that, or I could think more about "Ubiquitous Computing", and quiz the "Supervisor" more on the topic!
Right well, moving on!
A new Subway store has opened on the Wirral, and it was kinda funny it did, seen as I was talking to a friend about Subway, saying that the closest was in Birkenhead, and then this one opens! Anyway, I was going past it, and I saw a sign underneath the "sub of the day wheel" sticker, and it said "Bucket and Wringer Combo", to which I though, no thanks, I'll just stick with the sub of the day thank you ;D; the reason as to the Bucket and Wringer Combo sign was that it was part of the some cleaning packaging, seen as the store was in the middle of being open, and being finished!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I probably had more of a post in my head, and more of a title too, but, that was whenever I was first thinking of this post! We're now at the stage were its "oh yeah, I keep forgetting to do this, don't I?" So, I thought, well, seen as I have the time, why not!
So, this time last week, I was revising, or "revising" -seen as one, its not a test, and two, there wasn't a 100% effort involved- for my interview with Cheshire County Council!
Now my "revising" could have been better organised, such as, "revising" at an earlier time in the day, and could have been better regimented, rather than "revising" the present and future council structures of the Cheshire county area, and then procrastinating by reading up about Holland and the Netherlands; why it is incorrect to refer to the Netherlands as Holland*, and that there is a number of Hollands in the UK -UpHolland, DownHolland, Holland, South Holland**!
Anyway, with the information that I read on the County Council website, the Leading Cheshire website, the two Shadow Authority websites and Wikipedia, I felt like I was able to answer the question "What do you know about the Council?", if that was one of the questions they were gonna ask! Always best to be over-prepared, rather than under-prepared!
As my interview wasn't til 4:00pm, I had the whole day to do any last minute preparations! I took the time to get a shave, and then pop to the barbers, where in the end, I decided upon a layered trim! Whilst at the barbers, I realised that when I get back home, I need to remember to brush up on the "Hobbies/Interests" section of my CV, as employers always seem to catch me out, seen as I'm never too sure what I said in that section, plus, the "tell us about yourself" question could be referring to either the skills you have, or what you do when not working!
By the time I got back, it was pretty much time to leave for my interview! Didn't have any problems finding it, simply because we'd looked for it on the Sunday, so that there wouldn't be any problems on the day! Had a little bit of waiting about before the interview, but that was because I was early!
After waiting about, I was brought in! They offered me a drink of water, to which I accepted, and apparently, I was the first (and probably/possibly the only) one to do so! As it was mentioned in the letter, the first question asked, was would I like working in a "Project Management Support" job, or a "Technical Support" job, both categories were explained to me before I was to answer; the Technical Support description was the same as what I assumed it to be, however the Project Management Support one was slightly different!
After a number of re-wording the first answer, I got into the swing of things, although my answer for the first question did confuse the interviewers a bit, as I expressed that I didn't mind which category I am assigned to, however, I would probably lean more to "Project Management Support"! They also asked if the job description had made me leap to the website when I saw it, to which I said that I would have to let them into a little secret, that it didn't, but simply because I had been on it before, the previous year, applying for the very same job, but I was unsuccessful!
Some of the questions where difficult to draw examples from, such as example of where you had to explain technical instructions to a non-technical person! I don't have much experience here, seen as most people have a technical knowledge, although it is of varying degree! I used an example where I a friend of mine sent me a text asking me how he can unflip his girlfriend's laptop screen -I probably could have attempted to use a better example, seen as there wasn't really an technical instructions in that process, however none really came at that time!
There were a couple of slight hiccups, with the some questions, one of which was a long the lines of, what would I do if I had not enough time to complete all projects assigned! However I did manage to solve my indecision as to whether it would be best to complete longer project before shorter projects, or to complete shorter projects before longer projects -the latter is more sensible than the former, seen as the longer projects could run up (or run over) the deadline set, meaning that the shorter projects wouldn't even get started! Although that question was not really what they were looking for, however what I said after which was, although that too, was pretty much indecisive!
They also noted that my personal statement -or whatever its called- on my CV said that I would like to work in website design, and so asked if that still was the case, or whether I would be more interested in working for the Council, or rather County Information Systems department! I kinda didn't answer the question, as I talked about what I enjoyed about website design, and by the time I'd finished, it seemed that they'd forgotten what question they'd asked!
So, with a little more questions here and there, it was time for me to ask questions! Normally I either say that I don't have any questions, or if I remember, an even better response of "No! The information you provided was quite informative!", this time I was fuelled with two questions, or two halves of the same question; one was about how the seven councils in the Cheshire area affect the job, and the other was about how the two unitary councils will affect the job when they're implemented!
The responses weren't very informative, the first was that of "difficult", and the second was that of "unknown", however at least the fact I had questions was a good sign! When leaving, one of the interviewers noted that I had mentioned I played the saxophone, he asked which type, to which I replied Alto, however I told him that I would have to let him into another little secret, that I haven't played it in a long while, simply seen as I never seem to find the time! I also remembered another question (How many colleges/universities have applied to the council?), but it was too late, as it only occurred to me, after the interview!
*Holland is only a part of the Netherlands, two provinces on the west side of the Netherlands, North and South Holland, originally one province, but split up, as the other provinces of the Netherlands were much smaller! North Holland has the major city and capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, whereas South Holland has Rotterdam and the Haigh!
**UpHolland and DownHolland are both located near Omskirk, and their names originate from the Holland Manor, in the region! Holland and South Holland are located in Linconshire, origin of name unknown!
Right well, now that that's over (both the interview talk, and the history lesson), and as I can't think of any of the other things that I might have wanted to mention, except for what I might have sorted in "Notes" on my phone, but can't be bothered getting, here's something that I stole from Kirsten's livejournal, yes Kirsten has a livejournal, however she hasn't used it for about half a year now, I'm sure she won't mind me forwarding it on: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cappucino_neko!
The Blogalyser reveals... Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 18. This suggests that your writing style is intellectual
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).Your blog has 38 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by verbosity
(writing for the web should be concise).
CHARACTER MATRIX | male |   | female |
| self |    | world |
| past |    | future |
Your text shows characteristics which are 56% male and 44% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the past and lastly the future.
Find out what your blogging style is like!
Ok, I clicked on the link, and I got a different test, found the other one, oh well, it doesn't work with me anyway, the "Weirdness Test" only works if you have "interests" on your LJ Profile!
Wait, one more thing! Gonna do this now as well! It will show how many books, I haven't read!
The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them!
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - all but the last one!
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - never finished it!
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Elliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - both the book, and the series of books!
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - never finished it!
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - as a class reading, I think!
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Right well, I probably have read more, or rather, had stories read to me, when I was younger, such as "Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne", but I can't remember! So, yes, a grand total of 3, or rather something like 2.6; seen as I've only actually read all of "the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (both the book, and the series as a whole), and nearly all of the "Harry Potter series", and only "Of Mice and Men" in class!
I think this list is discriminative to my reading tastes, where's "Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", "Terry Pratchet - The Colour of Magic", "H.G. Wells - The Time Machine", ok, I haven't read any of those :P, although I do plan to, I actually have the Time Machine in my bookcase! However I have read Issac Asimov - I, Robot, and three out of four in Ursela K. LeGuin - Earthsea Quartet, and they're not there :D!
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
morose.
sick.
annoyed.
mellow.
sleepy.