Finding jobs is easy. Actually getting them... well...

I feel as if I've been neglecting Sausage and Mash but turns out that I've only been away for 4-days.  And in those 4-days I've been trying to sort out a proper job for myself to see me through my unthriftful nature.  I don't think that I'll never be able to find a job because I can fall back on my engineering degree, and even then I'm trying to whittle down my choices by being located in London.  The major problem I see is actually getting the job I want to have - maybe I'm being picky, but I suppose that if I try for those and fail then I know where to go from there on.  I'm not worried about rejections because I'll be expecting them, but it will grate me if the companies don't reply, especially seeing as I've taken the effort to stay old-fashion with snail-mail of CV and cover letters.  I'm sure everyone still likes to have receive a letter that isn't a bill or junk mail.

I've been playing Messiah on the PC, which I had started a long time ago and got stuck because I was crap at games then.  Now, I've managed to get further although it managed to crash on me, then noticed the time and thought it was a sign for me to stop playing, which I did and set off to bed.  The premise is that you control a Bob, a chubby baby angel, who's been sent down a futuristic Earth to sort out the mess we're in.  You can possess characters and run around in their bodies to help complete your mission.  So far, so good - a proper review will be posted soon.

Also playing Full Spectrum Warrior.  Now, the reason I got thise, besides it said to be a great game, is that: (a) it was £4 at CEX, (b) it is Xbox Live enabled (i.e. I can play multiplayer online).  Hazzah! I thought - it was a bargain that I couldn't pass up.  But I was disappointed when I tried Online to find that there was nobody playing, nobody had set up any games.  I had better experience with Top Spin but not by much - only one or two games set up and nobody wanting to join my game - so I'm kind of thinking that I've joined Xbox Live a little bit late.  Well, especially seeing as Live has been solidly running for a couple of years and that the Xbox360 is just round the corner.

The experience was a bit off-putting, and I don't want to get my online fix with Halo2 because I've read so many bad things about it lately - mainly the screaming/annoying US teenagers to be found on the servers.  I'm thinking that I may well have missed out on a lot of fun, and am going to have to wait until I get an Xbox360.

In a galaxy far, far away...

...thousands of virtual citizens and hunters died from a virtual plague.  Most humourous it is too.

Earlier today, I found and setup an RSS program that downloads all the relevant bits of news and info from a number of different sites, and shows them as short paragraph emails.  It's absolutely awesome; I get to stay up-to-date with the news, and don't have have to go through all the blogs individually to check for updates.  It doesn't notify on blog/post comments, but then I suppose that's probably a good thing as some places get loads and it would just be plain annoying to be alerted to such a minor thing.

And I know the following thing probably isn't exactly legal, but it's promoting the Sega Dreamcast nonetheless so there's still good in it - there's been talk of Chankast being a very good Dreamcast emulator for the PC.  The author says "..it's a tribute to the great DC [Dreamcast]."  I've yet to test it but it seems to support a great deal more games than any other emu (of which I know of two others).

Now, I must type up some cover-letters for jobs to feed my gaming habits.

Layman's Bible

Scanning through the pages of The Times, I stumbled across this article about a slimline Bible.  I reckon that I'd benefit from it as it's aimed aimed at those who are curious about the origins and message of Christianity but prefer not to spend too much time filing through the "boring tracts" of the original publication.&bnsp; Although, having read a few extracts from the new version (juxtaposed against the original) it leaves a lot to be desired.  The 100-minute Bible, £3 plus P&P - if anyone gets it, let me know what it's like.

The Flying Steveman... like Scotsman, but with... oh, never mind.

Went to Uxbridge/Brunel today to get something hard-back bound (i.e. binding), which resulted in a job fairly well done.  Most of the pages were put in straight, but room for improvement is there.  Provides student discount so it's a very good price for what you get - especially when hard-back binding is not readily available.  A-minus.

Met up with Usman and had a nose around his new room in Halls, which is essentially the same thing as last year except in mirror-image layout.  Also, briefly visited Leo and Farica but sorely not long enough - probably spend about 30-45 minutes with them as I was in a rush to get into Central London before Maplin shut at 7pm.  Will spend a proper amount of time next week with the peeps, after Farica gets back from her holidays in Europe (hope you have/had fun).  Was also going to see Joanne (and Hon), but decided not to because I didn't have time plus I forgot to bring along a page of job ads for Jo (I figuratively shot myself in the head by the time I got to my local train station, having forgotten to rip out the Appointments from the Design Week magazine).

Turns out that Hon has severely sprained his ankle playing football - says he can't walk that good, yet managed to get from 'up north' down to London to see Jo.  Lucky then, that he's driving an Automatic.  And that was another reason why I didn't really want to visit those two either - as Jo terms it, I didn't want to be a 'lightbulb' (or gooseberry, or whatever the hell you call it nowadays), and so let them send some quality time together, etc etc.  Turns out Jo had to do the food shopping on her own, mind.


One thing on GamesRant - a big thank you to James for helping out on the games reviews - much appreciated.  I reckon that this is the real-deal with our GamesRant website and it's going to kick-off properly.


Finally, does anyone know where I can find a cable that has a connector that will fit a 'Mini USB 4-Pin R/A SMT One Salient Point' mini-USB socket, and the other end having a standard Type-A?  I've managed to find the obscure USB connection type for data transfer of my portable movie player, but need to find/buy the cable.  I'm seriously thinking about soldering in a more standard mini-USB socket as I don't want to have to caddy the PMP's HD each time I want to watch something new.

Shopping in the London Underground

I'm kinda thinking that there's no aim to this blog other than for me to tell you people of stories and such like life-activities.  It's not as if this blog has anything remotely useful or unique to offer.  Doesn't mean I'll stop posting, but just thought I'd let you know.

Was looking through Design Week (issue 15th Sept.) for the latest on all things 'designy' and there's some interesting things on developing certain London Underground stations into small shopping and relaxation stations.  Such places are to include; Tube Stop shops (for groceries, dry-celaning, etc.), restuarants and bars, places to rest, and communication stations (like phones and internet).  There's a nice render of what Keane Brands wanted the stations to look like, and it looks just like a normal bar.  Transport for London (TfL) and such like want to get this going calling it 'Underground Bar Kitchen' (UBK).

Now I'm thinking that this is going to make London public transport that little bit more enjoyable.  I know it's not going to effect the services we currently have, but at least things will be more bearable.  At very least, it is possible to meet friends and colleages away from the hustle and bustle of London streets, and meet in a relatively quietened-down area before venturing forth.

But of course, what use is this if everyone hates public transport and decides not to use the Underground.  TfL needs the money for improvements, but commuters won't use the system because there have been little or unnoticeable improvements.  It's a classis Catch-22, so someone will have to fold for there to be some advances.  Unfortunately, it seems that the government/TfL assume us travellers are willing to bail-out and pay hiked up fees (as I hear that prices for London transport tickets are to increase next year).  Are we really? - well, most probably seeing as we're paying out our noses for everything else.  Even though the TfL/Ken Livingstone have a sizable chunk of funds for development (about £10bn over the next five years), I very much doubt that more than half will go to the system itself and more likely that the fat-cats will lick up that creamy milk of money instead.  Pessimistic or just plain fact?

Okay, so we give them the money and we expect tangible rewards - we want something that we can see and easily notice, knowing that our money has been spent appropriately.  And I'm sure it is (or will be) but the thing is that TfL aren't doing it regularly enough.  Yes, I'm sure that you can point out the improvements here and there, but I suspect that they've been sparodic and that's the problem - having big improvements every-so-often may not be the best way to go about things.  How about smaller but more regular improvements? - this way, people may feel that their daily payment for tickets is being properly managed and used.  Maybe they could think of it like a child saving pocket-money - maybe every month theirs a magazine that they want to buy and share with others.  TfL could be the child; they get (pocket) money from commuters to which they spend on improvements, say a visual 'in-train/tube' station location system with destination direction aid.   I saw this in Spain and it was basically a standard train map where the current station would light up and an arrow pointing in the direction of travel.  I know that the Tube has scrolling message boards but for quick confirmation visual images are much better - especially for foreign travellers and holiday-makers.  Even I have to ask when I'm in a rush, making split-second decisions on whether the Tube is north- or south-bound.  Maybe I'm just illiterate.

However, there's a flip side to this argument supporting increased ticket fees and improving the locale more than the system itself.  And it's to do with human pyschology in relation to design - and here's my spin on things from what I've research over the past year for my Masters:
Design something aesthetically pleasing and people will forgive/overlook the shortfalls.

The two aspect may seem unrelated but it's been researched by others in the design-field that; where positive aesthetics come into play, users themselves feel more positive.  Consequently, the users will be less frustrated to problems and more open to suggestions.  That is, aesthetically pleasing objects improve their usability (as well as the obvious ergonomics of the product/service).  They won't solely focus on one method to solve a problem, but will think more.  And this is something that Keane Brands and TfL can aim to work towards - basically, it's a cheating way to get commuters to feel more positive towards the London transport system.  Essentially, there needs to be a way to relieve the frustration of the common problems with the transport and this may be to distract people from the actual problems.

Funnily enough, their 'new three-year design roster [is] up for review next month' and that the 'new frameworks [product development, branding and graphics] must be in place by 1 April 2006'.  Hmm, April Fools anyone?

Like a cute rabbit...

...said a friend of mine (Farica, in fact, aah, ain't she so sweet!) - it's the two front teeth, allegedly.  Ehh, what's up, doc?

Was out yesterday for most of the day - Joanne had arranged a get-together to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday (Hon-Ban) and another friend, Leo.  However, she had told both that they were going out to celebrate the other's birthday so didn't know that it would be for themselves also.  And somehow, brilliantly, it worked!  Having had lunch out at Meza, a spanish cuisine restuarant which was okay but not great, we bus'ed it back to Jo's flat for the surprise celebration of a couple of cakes and present exhanging.  It was all good fun and around about 6pm, it was time to depart; Hon and his younger brother went off to watch Arsenal play (and win 2-1), Leo had dinner arrangements (god knows how he can have any more food after those cakes), which left Jo and I to have a stroll around Hyde Park.

We talked and strolled about the lake on the west-side of the park and stared at the swans and ducks.  Then is was down to the Royal Albert Hall, through a flowery path with a number of inquisitve squirrels wanting food (maybe next time), watched joggers go by, into Whiteleys for some evening tea/coffee, and finally off to see Jo home.

I finally managed to get back around 11:30pm, after heading to Kings Cross Thamelink, deciding that I should be going to St. Pancreas instead and then getting there to find that they had changed the Thameslink trains back to the ol' days (which I knew but had forgotten), walking quickly back to Kings Cross, and quite possibly having just missed my train and having to wait 30-mins for the next one.  Spotted quite a few Arsenal supporters out and about, but they didn't seem at all joyous what with Arsenal having won their match.

Thanks for a great day Jo, much appreciated.  See you guys again soon.

It's like a magic holdall

Since I've been back hoome, not too much has happened even though nothing particularly interestin happens to me anyway.  Sunday saw me putting my piano into my room as well as rearranging it to make the necessary space, which consequently meant that a cupboard had to be removed and placed elsewhere in the house, followed by my bedroom door having its hinges placed on the other side of the doorframe so that it swings the other way round.  That pretty much took the whole day due to the necessary faffing about of carving into the frame and door for the hinges, drilling holes for screws and other such stuff.  Add to that the moving of things and it a tiring day.

Today didn't much let up although it was less strenuous - there was me ripping up bits of old paperwork, bills, etc. to make room for the new crap.  I really must chuck some of that stuff away - I'm sure it's of no use whatsoever...  So about half of my gear is packed up, but there's still the computer and the stereo - bothing wanting space where only one can have it.  I'll deal with that tomorrow me thinks.

So whilst I was cleaning out the old, I found that I possessed bank statements from mid-1999!  Now that's impressive even if a little pointless, so I got rid of them all except for the 2005 stuff.  I think I must have throw away a couple of trees or so, but I didn't want to recycle them for the fact that they have personal information on them.  I'd rather believe that the paperwork was being dumped in a landfill site where nobody would see the contents, than with people sifting through it for use if recycled paper - don't ask why, it just provides me with piece of mind that gets me through the day.

Hmm, I see England won The Ashes then - Well Done, England... about time too.  And apologies for the lack of debating of news-related items - I haven't touched a paper in a while and have lost track of the TV news due to unpacking.

Ah yes, was watching Hell's Kitchen the other night (and tonight too: ITV2, Mondays, 9pm) and it's pretty darn good.  The winner is posted on that website, so don't look at it if you want to follow the show, but I don't think it makes much difference - I think it's about how that winner got to the end that counts, and that will involve watching each show anyway.  Anyway, very entertaining, very funny and Ramsey is as harsh as ever.  I've not seen a proper episode of the UK version with him teaching non-celebraties, but I couldn't believe that he even swears at customers.  But I suppose he can get away with it because he knows that he's able to get the restuarant back up to standards if he wants it to.  Plus he's probably got enough money to lose without feeling the monetary consequences.  Probably one of the few things worth watching on television nowadays.

Currently sitting in the living room and there is a large moth bashing itself into the lighting - I wonder, don't they learn that they can't land on it because its too hot?  Why don't they stop or just perch themselves on something that isn't the lightblub?

Okay, that's all you'll be getting from me - I can't think of anything more/interesting to write about.

More than you can shake a stick at...

I forgot to mention yesterday about a portable movie player that I bought from a friend of a friend.  For £40 I got myself a 30GB HD and the components for a widescreen LCD movie player (even up to DivX of mpeg4), as well as being a picture viewer and music player.  I say components because the seller had pulled the thing apart to inspect a fault - and whilst doing so, managed to break it even further.  So with the ever-skillful Usman (hall's mate), he and I fixed the player with a few solder jobs here and there.  I think it's working now but I managed to corrupt a spare HD whilst transferring data through a caddy - which was incredibly annoying as I had just copied a load of photos from other people of the celebratory party at the pub (see yesterday's post).  Think it's all okay now - minus the pictures - need to get them again.

So, the electronics job went on until about 3am this morning, and I needed to leave the accomodations by 10am or so (which turned out not to be true when I actually left around about 11pm).  Luckily, I had sorted out most of the packing during Friday and I found that I had managed to collect a lot of things over the year - probably as much as I did during my two years at the rented house in Southampton.  Anyway, managed to get everything into two cars and back home where most of it is still lying about the house in pieces - must deal with before the end of the day.

Ummm... well the plan is to wait until the middle of next week when the final results come out for the MA: Design, and then I'll start updating my CV and sending them out to companies.  I found out that IDEO aren't conducting interviews until the end of September, so I've kinda got a month to sort things out.  Hmm, that kinda assumes I'm not going to get any other job than the IDEO one - we'll see, but hope that's not the case.

Okay, I've got to sort out this HD for the movie player.  And then unpack properly.  And setup the rest of my gear.  The fun never stops.

And the fat lady sings...

Woohoo!  That's it, it's all over - my time here at Brunel is done and dusted.  Yesterday saw the last day (of three) of presentations for our final dissertation, and seemingly everyone did well because it was kind of implied that we had all passed and therefore were to be awarded the degree of Masters of Arts.  Whether we passed or got a Distinction, we would find out later - or in fact, today I believe.  Joanne wanted a Merit, but for this course there wasn't this option - it was just going to be a simple Pass or Distinction - shame really.

Well, just checked and if it's up-to-date, I've just been awarded the Masters with nothing saying anything extra - Hazzah!, no over-qualificationness for me - I've got a social life...

So what with all this presentation prepping, I've not been blogging due to practicing my speech although something of interest turn up on the last few days (more on that later).  Have to say that it went as well as I could have hoped for - seemed to flow nicely and completed it in time.  Questions were answered reasonably well too.  Ah yeah, I'm pretty chuffed.  So, having finished the course, and the director and staff giving little speeches themselves, we all trundled, in drips and drabs, to a nearby (and very pleasant) pub next to the canal.  General banter was had and such like, and there was a plethora of picture-taking.  There were digital camera left, right and centre - it was pretty amazing and damn good fun too. I think that there are quite a few of me being silly and stupid - but then that's nothing unusual. 
A message for all those MA Brunel students who have photos:  Can all of you who have photos leave a comment (go to the bottom of this post and click 'Comments') - maybe, somehow, we can get a compilation of them all and make them available for downloading.

And following on from the party were the sad goodbyes of fellow students and friends alike.  Hopefully, I'll be able to meet again those who have to return to their home country - you lot have been so much fun to be around with and will be sorely missed.  If you ever visit and are around London, give me a call - I doubt my mobile number will change.  But of course, there are some who will be staying in the UK for a while longer, and those that actually live here.

To you all, take care and keep in touch.  Best wishes.

Happy Birthday, Dennis

Have come back from a birthday dinner of a good friend from Brunel Uni - about 18 of us met up at Oriental City, Colindale, for drinks, food and karaoke.  Was a great night had, although the spicy food got my (usually rock-solid-like) stomach and got a little upset.  That went after a while with ludicrous amounts of water (because I hadn't drunk anything for the whole day) and was feeling much better half-way through.  I've got photos, but don't want to post them - private affair and whatnot. 

Sang Wonderwall by Oasis, as well as trying to get everyone to sing Happy Birthday.  Except, just at that precise moment, Dennis had a phone call to attend to and left the room without me noticing until too late.  Whatah-mistakah-to-makah.  There was a lot of toasting and 'cheers' made out to each other, with Dennis doing the rounds to each and everyone of us - which was great, I feel, so much more different than my past experiences of 'pub-cheers-drunk-spew'.  There were also two cakes sliced and dished out.  Seemed like everyone had enjoyed the evening.

Oh, and again (although never has been posted before), had heavy discussions (read, aruguments) with Joanne (hello Jo, hope it's okay to put your name here - one day you'll be famous and thank me for it, I'm sure [hmm, chinny reckon]) whilst driving to and returning from Oriental City.  It's good fun really, although there are times when you could just strangle the girl... oh you're still here Jo, hi, erm...

Nah, love ya really - it's actually (strangely) fun - somehow she even managed to make me argue with her boyfriend.

The beginnings of an idea...

To follow on from the previous post on webcomics, I also implore you to to check out this one on The Bunny (and friends).  It's awesome and smart, and some of the drawings are phenomenal.  And that Bunny is just so damn cute!  Man, do I sound camp...  Loved this one because I now know this artist used to watch Due South and therefore, respect is due (can't wait for the fourth and final season to come out on DVD).

So, having read a bundle of webcomics (see previous post) and also finally understanding where a friend's own drawings come from, it got me thinking about doing my own short comic strips.  I'll be able to inject it with my own foul humour and finally get myself back into drawing and doodling, something I fondly remember doing many moons ago.  I once copied (but not traced, as I made it larger than the original) Sonic and Tails from a computer games magazine.  Coloured it in and showed it to a friend who then didn't believe I drew it myself - honestly, I was a little annoyed at the time, but thinking about it I suppose I could take it as a compliment.  I also drew a number of other pictures too - they still look pretty good even now - so I really want to get back into it.  Supposes there's no excuse either seeing as I'll be finished with Uni work and looking for a job.

So this comic then.  Unsurprisingly, it's going to be based on two characters, Sausage and Mash (really, because it's easy to draw them and hopefully will allow me more time to get on with the other parts of the comic).  I've already got an idea for the first comic strip, but nothing else, so this could be an extremely short comic.&nbps; Don't know when I'll get the first one out, but probably as soon as I get home where we've a scanner - does mean that I'll have time to draw up a whole load of them.

Finally, all this thought of making a comic strip started my designing my own blog banner, as you'll probably have noticed by now.  Pretty sweet and didn't take too long to do - maybe I do have some 'designerness' in me.

Two webcomics you *must* read

This is going to sound quite, quite sad - and it probably was - but I spent the whole of Friday (i.e. yesterday) reading through a webcomic by David Willis. He's done a couple of webcomics, namely 'It's Walky!' (a.k.a. 'Joyce and Walky!') and 'Shortpacked!', and both are excellent. I love this style of carton drawing - it's uncomplicated but has all the detail you'll need.

So yesterday, I read 'It's Walky!'/'Joyce and Walky' from beginning to end - that's 2,476 comics since 8th September 1997 (the figures I know because I used Offline Explorer to download it all). Boy, it took forever but I finished it all in under 24hrs... just... (okay, so I'm a slow reader!). It starts off as a couple of old friends having just moved into university digs and meeting new and old friends - this set of comics was the 'Roomies!' sub-set. I say sub-set, because Willis amalgamates two or three different stories into one long story spanning the 7-years of the comic (and is in fact still on-going, albeit on a subscription based service). This 'interlinking' is not noticable at first but after a while it ties together, and does so fabulously. Anyway, these friends soon get split into groups and separate stories are made for each. The main storyline is that of Martians coming to attack Earth and wipe out the human race, and only a group of super-humans can stop the upcoming onslaught. There are certainly a few surprises in the story and with the characters, and the comic-strips are nicely done to give some suspense (although luckily I never had to wait until the next strip was published).

However, there were a few stories around about 3-quarters in where the art-style changed noticably and they tried to add in new characters (another bunch of friends from a parallel universe, etc.). It didn't work for me and kind of ruined the flow of the comic. I was worried that it was going to continue throughout, but soon the art-style returned and so too the jokes. Talking of jokes, there are some excellent ones, especially near the beginning of the comic because there didn't seem to be this underlying story of the 'imminent destruction of Earth'. That's not to say the jokes were lacking later on - far from it - they were still good, but spread out between a larger number of strips. In fact, the story did get quite serious at times and I only noticed with hindsight - I was so engrossed with the comic that I didn't care that there was a distinct lack of jokes, it was a storyline that didn't let up and made the comic a 'page-turner' (or whatever the electronic equivalent is).

And it was gory, sad, funny, happy, interesting, suspense-filled, quizzical, stoical, stylishly poked fun at the Americans and British, ballsy, ... it was a complete mix of emotions. I absolutely loved this webcomic and highly recommend that you take an hour or so a day, trundling through each and every comic strip from the very beginning. It's abolutely worth it, just becareful that you don't get carried away and try to read them all at once. It sucks away your time, but at least it's time well spent.

'It's Walky!'/'Joyce and Walky' is in two forms: (1) a subscription-based comic that extends the main storyline main storyline with strips of what is happening with the characters; (2) a free comic every Saturday that continues the lives of Joyce and Walky (and maybe others) with standard length strips.



And then there's Willis' more-recent 'Shortpacked!' webcomic. This one revolves around staff in a toy shop and their everyday lives. There doesn't seem to be any major underlying story here. Also, a couple of characters are taken from 'It's Walky!' and put into this story. Initially, I had read all on the Shortpacked! comics and didn't really understand why, when the two characters met each, one of the them was tongue-tied for words at having seen met them before. Having read through Willis' first comic, it makes perfect sense. The jokes in this are pretty good too, and what with it just day-to-day storylines, there's a punchline in each strip. Shortpacked! is published more regularly (once every 2 or 3 days, maybe). Well worth checking out too.

Pinch Punch First Day of the Month...

It's that time of year again. September. Oh yes indeed. Never fails. You can count on it to be on time every year...

Got myself a USB memory stick with mp3 player and memo recorder. Was £50 which I thought was well worth it considering it's 1GB - the memory sticks cost about £40 alone (maybe more), so for a little bit more, I thought the music features would come in handy. Here's what it looks like:

Approximation by my middle finger size: it's slightly longer, about as thick as, and approximately 1-and-half the width. Entirely made of plastic (nearly). The sound quality is really good, SnR of 90 (for those of you in the know).
It's just like an iPod Shuffle (yes, it has a random play function!! Amazing, I know (!) - it's as if no other music playing device has ever had a shuffle function...), except cheaper. Oh and I don't look like everyone else with it either. Ha de ha ha!

The news of over 960 people dying in a stampede in Iraq because someone (possibly) crying wolf of 'suicide bomber' is quite worrying. I don't think that a suicide bomber alone could have caused that amount of carnage, but those people are so worked up about the current situations of the warring factions that anything could provoke a surge of frigthened screaming and panicky running. There has got to be an undescribable amount of tension out there.

Ah, just remembered that the (kind of new) Sony PSP is out in Europe finally - not that I'm buying one. It looks pretty funky though, what with it being a portable media player and entertainment system. £180, don't know if you get anything with it, but no doubt the stores will be offering deals left, right and centre. Find out its specs and compared to other handhelds at the BBC.

Finally, what the hell was Al Fayed thinking... Diana bronze unveiled at Harrods. The world has gone nuts.