Not mine, but Echos. The damn thing went into DELETIONPENDING and was snapped up the
minute it got into the public domain. Trying to sort out a temporary replacement .co.uk address is like trying to
pick up mercury with a fork as nobody seems to have any login details anywhere. Organisation is clearly a virtue
here in Lufbra (hmm).
In the same vein I've had some more cheques in for French Cricket and Pedalo, but no
where near as many as I need. I've asked for help from the others (which in retrospect I should have done earlier)
and tomorrow the true sales drive begins. (Literally two more have just arrived. What is it with Lufbra and
deadlines?)
I managed to set up my image upload thing I was on about, so you'll notice pictures popping up
here and there now. Another complication to the whole system, especially considering I'm spending too much time
discovering how to make sure this site validates correctly. At the moment Syndic8 are waiting for my stats to improve before they start listing me.
Grr.
I was checking out Scott
Will's blog yesterday, but I only got round to only following the links in his latest post today. This is truly
strong stuff. PostSecret is an online blog where people post
their deepest secrets in totally anonymity. There is a total mix of emotions, and I was surprised by the power that
some of these real life snippets hold. It's really worth a peek.
Memo to self : I've still got the Creative
Class 05/06 application to send off, just waiting on Tony to
give me some final feedback. I mustn't forget to ask about it tomorrow.
Swanny, Rufio and Devito are trying
to get me to come out, but I have work. What is going to happen? I simply don't know.
Last night I went to Comedy Club at the Union.
I've stopped having piss ups and big Saturday nights, mostly because Echos is so packed, and with the summer coming
means it's going to become more and more hot and sweaty.
The headliner last night was superb. His name is Carey Marx and he spent most
of his set expressing his fear/loathing of albinos. Not a usual choice, and it was quite sick, but at the same time
some of the best original material I have heard in a long while. Several towers people got in the neck after
deciding to sit at the front including Emily, Max and Pamela, but mainly Rach after she owned up to the first comic
that she too was from Dudley.
After getting back I absconded from doing any proper work and instead got on
with sorting out my online portfolio. I am
going to do the proper work right now because I am otherwise likely to further distract myself and then I'll never
get it sorted. This weekend has been hopeless so far...
It's Saint George's Day which also means it's Dad's
birthday. I tried to phone home earlier, but apparently he's out playing golf already which isn't too much of a
surprise. It's probably the best thing he could have in the world; golf - on his birthday.
Last night was
good. It was Rosie's 21st, and I assume she got drunk fairly early on as I didn't see her later on in the night.
The theme was country - so I was wearing flat cap, tweed jacket and steel toecaps(wellies are not my usual summer
fayre), the night starting in Cognito with a pre-party and finishing in FND. Jon got himself a free drink off me for
showing his little party trick which is actually quite cool. Just a simple cigarette disappearing act, but I
didn't catch how he did it. Big Chris, Guy, Ads, Jimbo, Alex, Sammi and Dylan were all out for it (course social),
but DDS and the rest of 35 York Road made no appearance. I also bumped into Giles and Alex (both are clients). What
the former was doing in the Union on a Friday night was fairly obvious - I did wondered who was back at Echos
running their Echos though...
Currently trying to catch up with OC at the same time as trying to get motivated
to do some work. I've got a lot on this week and with electronic log books, materials reports, CAD and DP4 all
coming up, it's going to get a little hectic, hence my desire to get ahead with it all. On top of this I've got to
sort French Cricket and Pedalo shirts out.
I need to get an automatic image upload feature on this blog too as
it's starting to annoy me.
I got my mark back for my CAD animation today and was plesantly
surprised to see at nice round 73 looking back up at me from the mark sheet. Agreed, it's not a big module, but
it's nice to get a First every so often. Poor old Geo, I think he went over the top with his LEGO extravaganza,
mustering a substandard 86. Not a bad mark really, but the amount of effort he must of put in, I think he was
convinced of another 100% for a computing for designers module (genuinely not kidding).
Also today I made
headway with Dynamic Teamwear and pocketed some cash for the first time in a while. Saying this, my loan, came
through the other day, so things aren't too bad at all.
Furthermore, pleasure was passed on to me in the news
that Yauli (I think that's how you spell it), our landlady for next year, has guarenteed us double beds in every
room. I had always been convinced that it could be done; the others were sceptical, but the benefits will be wide
felt, as no one wanted a room with a single in. She also informed us the bathroom has been done now and the kitchen
is scheduled for the summer. I just hope we can move in straight away after the end of term to save me carting all
my kit back to Stourbridge, but it sounds like the work being done could interfere with my plans.
The
materials test went OK. I estimated guessed the majority of the way through - it wasn't hard. No idea how I've
done however.
Finally I've made some improvements to my portfolio of work, which can be directly linked to
the IdeasFactory Creative
Class 05/06 competition. I have so much stuff that has accumulated since I built the site last summer that it looks
a little behind the times. I will be uploading my recent work over the next few days. More work... [sigh]
If you ever have a desire to learn about
Material Selection Charts, don't follow the urge. That is my work related tip for the day.
This morning I sat
through two hours of lectures on polymer films and metal forging, which were only lightened by inappropriate
comments and ridiculous flights of fantasy. It's all about the vinyl pixies, CD elves and DVD nyphs. The next two
hours were spent making descisions about our group 'widget' - which of our 5 designs would be actually turned into
a real life injection moulded promotional product. Crazy fun. Then I was finally free to enjoy the
afternoon.
Yesterday Sankesh and I started the ball rolling in getting an order together for the Towers French
Cricket and Pedalo team subscriptions. These two clubs are the Towers alumni (one for boys, one for girls
respectively). The uptake hasn't been overwhelming so far, but we are on the promise of a large number of orders
for teamshirts, but I think it's going to need a bit of a push to get people digging deep for well before the
deadline on Sunday. Everyone always waits until the last minute for this sort of thing, or at least that's my
experience of selling things.
Swanny hasn't been seen all day. Apparently he didn't rise until three and was
vomitting even then. This isn't usual Swan form as he can generally swallow the alcohol like a fish, but apparently
last night at Pulse caused him an upset.
Poor Swan.
There was an upset tonight on The Apprentice. If this means nothing to you then you better start
watching on Wednesdays, 9pm, BBC1. This fanastic show follows the progress of several businessmen and women
competing to win over Sir Alan Smith and get a job with his renowned firm, Amstrad. Turns out Miriam couldn't make the grade, which
totally surprised me, as in my opinion Paul should have gone. I reckon there could be a little conspiracy here; that
Sir Alan is trying to end up placing his man,as it semmed a really weird choice, but that doesn't matter too much.
He's not the easiest of personalities and he needs someone he can work with. I've not made up my mind up about who
that is yet, but Paul got away with murder tonight. Maybe him?
I signed up for a 12 month deviantART subscription today. I don't know if I can
believe it. I am now =aajhiggs as
opposed to ~aajhiggs, which has been my status for about nearly four years now. I doubt I'll be contributing much
more, but the benefits ofsubscribership should be good. I was a bit dissappointed to find the search feature wasn't
a bit more comprehensive though...
Tommorow is a materials test with those bloody charts. I just want it over
and done with. In the meanwhile, I will amuse myself with rubbish like this: www.solardeathray.com.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Due to the achey wrist (which has got worse since I mentioned it
yesterday) I got it checked out earlier today. After an hour of waiting, my name was called and the nurse informed
me that I'd got tendonitis, which doesn't sound nice at all.
It was (as I had presumed) something to do with
the golf last Friday. It appears my sporting panache has been cut short by inflamed tendons which means I'm going
to be dosing up on Ibuprofen this week - 3 times a day before meals. It also means I am wearing a ridiculous wrist
brace, and the number of people who make an 'obvious' comment is ridiculous. I am constantly having to be
inventive with my answers.
Lucy's birthday party was last night, and Alistair and I attended. I wasn't
really in the mood for party stuff to begin with, but I soon came around and the night got better and better. The
theme was eighties, so we turned up as in Mr T. and Michael Knight(rider) face masks which were a cunning plan to
get around the lack of decent 80s wardrobe.
Later in Echos, DeVito managed to headbutt one of Lucy's mates, which was a bad
idea, and I think probably unjustified. I think he regretted it a bit this morning.
Oh and I think the scale
of the enormity of work I have to do is finally becoming apparent. Today I found that I had managed to screw up my
last submission by failing to include a final drawing of the product, so was not surprised, just annoyed, to find I
had a crap mark. Damn.
The last big thing I suppose which I simply can't get my ears around is the apparent
aquisition of
Macromedia by Adobe. Sorry but did I miss something?
I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing. A
healthy progress in software (mainly technologies) was maintained by the rivallry, which will no longer exsist.
Adobe will now have an even bigger monopoly than before and now there won't be a nesscessity to out-do by producing
better or remarkable new features.
On the other hand the benefits will include greater standardisation of
technologies I hope, but I will be gutted to lose Fireworks for ImageReady if thats the plan.
Last night I wanted to update the blog, but I didn't.
The reason was the university decided to chuck me off the internet due to 'Peer-to-Peer Filesharing'. Fair enough,
except I'm not, and wasn't. Bastard automated chuck-off system. But I'm back on now so that's ok.
Aside
from this mostly stuff has been good since I got back. I had a hand-in this morning which I comfortabley made, and
this afternoon is pretty clear. I think I'm going to have to sack off paintballing next weekend due to a clash with
my Dad's birthday (which in reality is this weekend, but we're celebrating the next Friday).
And finally in
an attempt to get sympathy, my wrist is aching like mad for no apparent reason - I think I screwed it up playing
golf the other day and the sooner it sorts itself out the better. Donations for treatment will be graciously
accepted.