Week 1 (actually it’s week 3 now :S)

Very overdue but it seems any free time I’ve got so far has spent in front of the TV like a zombie, or down the pub with a pint, err… like a zombie.

I did try and write this at the end of week 1, and then again at the end of week 2, and now I’m here on the Monday of week 3 and still nothing, oh dear. I think it’s now best to make a number of small(er) entries rather than try and do a catchup of everything that’s happened so far.

So, here we are, might as well make this a kind of overviewy exercise. I’ve started on a course which should train me up with the powers of performing desktop and/or network support in a professional capacity. Along with the lecture and the study towards certification, there’s also the help with making my CV better and making a better interviewee of myself as well. That’s been one of my probs, so along with the skills, we should hopefully get there.

Along with the course, they’ve given me a place to live for the couple of weeks. I am currently living in Earlsdon Ave South, quite literally a stone’s throw away from where the Red Faction house was when I was back at Uni. Living with 5 others, and they’re a pretty good bunch and surprisingly of all different ages.

There’s this guy called Dave from South Wales. His surname is actually Hughes which is again a surprise, but then again it’s a pretty common name in the land of Wales, so it’s time to get over that. He is 32 and has recently graduated from a Music Technology degree and is a bit of a classic rock/metal fan – in particular Guns ‘N’ Roses. Then there’s Aman, a recent graduate of a Computer Science degree and is 24. His twin brother has luckily got himself a job quite recently so Aman’s hoping to sort something out pretty sharpish. There’s Julian, 29, who currently works at Amazon in Milton Keynes as a problem solver. He’s originally from South Africa but is very cool, if a little hard to understand at times (I’m sorry). We then Peter, although that’s not the correct spelling – he is fact a Pole national and it’s spelt (and pronounced) a little differently, but that’s the English equivalent. And finally there’s Dal (full name Dalber – remember Dal and “beer” – easy!) who as Julian described him perfectly and concisely as a “party animal” – he is 25, also a computer science graduate, and is often out all night, or gaining points on his licence, usually not at the same time.

So that’s the guys, and it’s not that surprising that there are no girls living in the house, although there is a single girl in her course – Aeyeisha (sp) who seems nice enough, not really spoken to her much, and unsurprisingly, Dal has made it a bit of a mission to lay her – to his credit he did invite her back to the house late one night, not sure what came of that, she wasn’t in our house in the morning, and now Dal has moved out because of Asthma problems into her house, she better watch out lol.

It’s probs best to save anything else for another post, but it’s worth adding that some of the material in the course has been covered in my previous academic pursuits of computing, whether that be at A-level level (err..) or at degree level, so that’s a bonus, although I think the most useful stuff will be the practical stuff plus proprietary hardware/software like Cisco and Windows Server 2003 etc. Also it’s worth noting that a couple of the lecturers (Andy and Alex) are also party animals, pissheads at the least, and they are often out on the lash. I actually managed to make it out once so far with them, but that’s another post right there.

I will finish up by saying that I’ve signed up for random free photo hosting accounts (photobucket and flickr actually) and mean to get snapping with my mobile phone with pictures of the room, this Strongbow glass I managed to swipe (another post), random shots of Cov and if you’re lucky, me in my formal robes (read: shirt and tie).

Here’s spending another night decomposing in front of the TV.

No Topic :S [Dated 20/04/07]

Hey again, and welcome back to the library, the liviest place in town! Anyways enough of that, down to business lol.

I think this is the first time since resssurecting this blog that I’ve started blogging without a clear topic to start with, so this will probably be a bit of a rant.

To kick things off, I moaned in the last blog about Carl’s friend, and how I prefer to walk home from the train station on my own, well I must have jinxed it or something, cos thanks to a kid who hopefully had tourettes on the train, she felt like venting towards me. Just like when I bump into this guy Matt who works weekends, I don’t actually say much, he like Carl’s friends just like talk. I do wish sometimes that I can just switch off and just drop into a daydream while they yap, but alas no luck yet – if it happens enough, I could probably tune it out with practice.

speaking of trains lol, the other week I bumped into an old friend, well not really more acquaintance – a guy I knew back from Secondary School. We called him Seggar, as it was his last name, and well that the was the lazy nickname of choice at our school, I’m sure it was at yours too. Anyways, I hadn’t seen him since college most likely, so the last heard he had become a chef, so that’s what I told him.

He told me that he still was, and had recently moved back up from london where he did a stint of cheffing down there. As it turns out, he has a child, omg. I hid my suprise pretty well I thought, but fair play to the guy. This is a guy, who probs by his own omission is a large guy, but he found a partner (his word, not mine :s) and they had a child, but were not seperated. He had allowed custody to fall to the mother cos well he said that a child can’t be without their mother plus he then took the job down london. Anyways, he moved back to be closer to his offspring, and he was moaning that he had him more than his mother recently. He then went on to say, that he could easily get custody of the child, as he is in a stable full-time job, and she is, to paraphrase Seggar, on benefits, and always getting lashed everynight.
It’s quite scary that Seggar has a child firstly, and that he is actually the more stable of the parents. I dunno, I mean fair play to him, I probably suffering a little from Peter Pan syndrome, not wanting to grow up, and the idea of being a father is a scary one.

Once upon a time, I was quite pumped at the idea of being a daddy, obviously sometime in the future, not like next week lol. But reading and seeing all these stories about raising children, and how this generation seem to be the most awful parents – problems with junk food, obesity, paedophiles, it’s a scary world.
I also was quite happy at the idea of getting married one day, but in today’s society, it hardly seems worth it, what with about half of them ending in divorce. Maybe I’m seeing the extreme end of the spectrum thanks to daytime talkshows, but unless I’m wearing some rose-tinted glasses, standing at the alter reaidng my vows on how I will love this woman forever, I’m not sure I would believe it. But then again I’m a cynic, pessimist, call it whatever…

Maybe it’s an idea to move on to something a bit more upbeat. I have purchased Guitar Hero for the 360, a week or two ago, and it’s pro. I’ve hot a bit of a wall so far, playing through on hard. I was stuck for ages on Wolfmother’s Woman, the solo was killing me, I kept failing, but I eventually managed to crawl through. Saying that, in the next group of songs, The Police’s message in a bottle is much easier, so a little upset that the balance of the difficulty isn’t quite perfect. It’s a lot of fun with my shiny Explorer guitar, and thanks to good ol’ Claudio also possessing one, I’d actually really like to own my own explorer one day, but a quick check on the internet at prices, and oh my are they expensive :S
It’s quite bad in a way, cos my actually RL guitar playing has been slipping, and I’m simply not practicing as much as I’d like, it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day. Finally bringing work into the picture, and the 4 hours I am there are incredibly boring and tedious, there are times when I’ve looked at the time, and thought “shit, I haven’t even been here 2 hours!” :(. It also is pretty sucky, that thanks to the train timetable, I spend about 7 hours out of the house for 4 hours of work, which thinking about it, it’s pretty lame, I almost feel sick at it.

There’s a possiblity of a job in Telford as a web programmer, but I’m trying to not get over excited about it. I sent off my Cv etc and should know next week if I have an interview, which hopefully I should. Again with the few hours in the day, thanks to spending 7 hours away for 4 hours of work, I never feel like doing anything constructive when I get back in. Cos I haven’t done much programming at all really since leaving Uni, it would seem wise, to start getting back into that frame of mind, in preparation for this potential interview, but most of the time, I end up thinking, meh.

To sum up, moan moan for 4 paragrpahs and relax… Nah, but seriously, the hope is that it’s healthy to vent like this but I’ve been doing this kind of stuff for some years now, and well i’m not sure if it’s working. Looking not too far forward, I was chatting with Eric on the msn last night, and he and Karlie are coming into Wem, the only reason being to hang out it seems so far, and we’re going for a few drinks this eve, so that should be alright. It seems a bit of a highlight of this week so far *sob lol. Also, can you believe that Eric reckoned I should hookup with Carl’s friend, until I explained her unattractive qualities which I cba to list here. And before ppl turn round and say that’s harsh to put it like that, as Wilson convinced me, we can’t help who we are attracted to, so I’ve learnt not to feel bad if I am only attracted to stunning model types and not ugos. I’m kidding, it’s not quite that extreme, but I can’t help who i think is attractive or not, so thanks to Wilson for convincing me of that.

Until next time, take it easy.
J-Man.