Time to tighten my belt…

No, this is not a topical rant brought on by the credit crunch, and/or my failed efforts to produce a proper budget, but rather more of a literal statement concerning my jeans etc. Yes, I mentioned a fair way back (about January) that I signed up for the local gym, and whilst I haven’t managed to go as often as I would like, my efforts have gradually taken their toll (in a good way) on my body. I’ve been caught out without belt twice now, the most recent being today when I was carting my prescription home – it effectively doubled my trip, having to stop to pull up my jeans to stop them falling down altogether in public, oh dear how embarrassing that would be.

It first became apparent when I went home for Easter, and whilst round Eric and Karlie’s, I spotted the scales and decided to check my weight. Now, I had weighed myself on the first time I went to the gym, and upon weighing myself at Easter, I had come down from 12 and 1/2 stone to around 11 and 3/4 stone. I was pretty chuffed at that. To add to the ego boost was my good buddy Carl’s comments on how slimmer I was now looking. It’s rather cool, and as it has been such a gradual thing it’s been much less obvious for myself. It’s quite terrible looking back at some older photos and see how how much fatter I was in the face especially. I think around about the time of my graduation I probably hit my peak weight, captured forever in my graduation snaps. And to make matters worse, my Nan insisted that I take one of graduation photos with me to hang up in my place here. First off, the photos were for my family not for myself, you have to be very vain to have pictures of yourself hanging up in your own home. Second, as I just said, I was quite a lot fatter in the face, so it’s not fun to be reminded of that. And the bonus third reason being, that I generally don’t photograph well (must be the subject matter /emo) – the photographer wasn’t happy until I showed some teeth whilst smiling, although he never said as much, so I actually look a little uncomfortable having to hold a smile for so long.

“Smile! Come on, really smile!”
(under my breath) I am smiling you jackass.
[inadvertedly shows teeth] “There you go!”

Anyways, I’m going all OT. Yeah, so personally I’ve noticed it on the ol’ face, mainly the cheeks and the chin, a lot more defined than they used to be. I’ve also noticed it in some of the clothes I wear. Some of my older shirts I have a 17″ collar, but that is a lot looser now, the recent shirts I’ve bought now have 16.5″ collar, and I could easily now take 16″ collar to be honest. Also, how cool do black shirts look? Hell yeah. It’s also noticeable in the belt I wear to work. A few months back I asked to get some new holes pierced into it, as the tightest hole was still quite loose. Now, those two holes are getting a bit loose now hehe.

Getting back to the gym and the other week I got back in from work, changed into my gym clothes as is my habit, this time putting on my Oakley shorts which I clearly had not worn for some time. Fast forward to myself on the treadmill and I’m noticing them starting to fall, oh dear I thought. Had to bring the jog to a close to avoid making an ass of myself, literally.

So overall, I very pleased with my progress, it’s been quite gradual but consistent so I’m really starting to reap the rewards. As it was pointed out to myself quite some time ago. It’s always better to be fit and healthy, you don’t get sick as often, the long climb up the stairs is nowhere near as taxing, and clothes fit better – all this combines to an improved self esteem. I’m not quite sure I’m a completely changed person, but I’m getting there and I really do feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ma First Daiye….

Hey, so here we are, long time no blog but it’s time to share again.
A lot has happened in the last few weeks, especially considering how little I’ve been blogging in these last couple of months so it’s a bit of a mystery what’s actually happening right now.
I’m sure I’ll be able to expand on the events of the past another time, but in a revision session, catch up type thing, it’s best just to spell out the simple facts so that you can pass the exam (There is no exam).  Basically, off the back of this JBC Course in Coventry I have managed to get a job hurray for me! Yeah, today was in fact my very first day, so it’s pretty scary to finally be part of the rat race proper.I am working for Prestwood Software based in the Stourbridge area, who offer financial planning software, and my job is to provide support for this software product to its users.  Also somewhere down the line, within a year or two, I will be able to move into the programming side of things, which is what I really want to be doing with myself so feeling pretty optimistic.

I have had my first day, indeed the first day of five week’s worth of training, to get me upto speed with the software product, how the company operates and more generally the, frankly scary, world of financial services.  Yep, I have my own desk and PC in the offices.  The PC itself is running Vista so that will be good to get some hands on experience with that.  My first day started off with a crash course in financial services, learning what endowments, annuities etc are.  I was asked a few times how I was getting on, what I actually wanted to say was what a mindfuck all this information is – I was feeling really stretched and my concentration levels seemed all over the place.
The main reason for that is probably the living arrangement I am currently engaged in, and other arrangements I am chasing. Simply put, Stourbridge is too far to commute from Wem so I set on sorting out my own place.  Unfortunately time spent chasing this other job in London (more on that later), I was only able to spend Tues to Fri of last week flat hunting.  That being said, I’ve done rather well I thought and with the help of my good friend Wilson [picture missing] I’ve decided to go for this house in Kidderminster.  Kidderminster being a short train ride from Stourbridge for those geographically-challenged people (like myself). I sent the application off for that on Sunday, and if all goes to plan I could be moving in this Saturday. I am very pumped about that, my very first place plus being in Kiddy I am quite close to Wilson so I won’t be in a new strange land completely on my own, which is a bonus.

Yeah, so currently I am shacked up in a B and B in Stourbridge. It’s not too great, put simply it’s a room with a bed(double) in, an ensuite bathroom and a TV, the TV being a big surprise.  The only proper benefit is the price, this place being cheap.  Money is getting very tight, and the whole application process and the required deposit all adds up to a small fortune.  Yeah, so slumming it a bit in this B and B till Saturday when it hopefully should get a load better.  I should be contacted on Thursday with regards to my application but hopefully it should be fine and I’ll be in my very own place before I know it.

Continuing my trend in offline blogging I will no doubt build up a backlog of blog posts while I seek to find ways to spend the time at the B and B, especially lacking the money to go out, have a pint or two, go watch a film etc… It’s ok, as you may have guessed by now, I’ve brought my laptop and my trusty external HDD to provide with TV based fun to keep me sane.
Here’s taking the first steps in becoming a working professional…

A New Chapter…

Hey peeps, it’s been quite neglectful of me not to mention what is in fact a new chapter in my life about to begin.  That being that as of next week, I would have started on a training scheme which should (here’s hoping, although the family is that tiny bit more) lead to a nice shiny job in computing.

The training scheme is being put on by JBC Computers which as it happens are based in Coventry – it really is a small world, and if I’m a little honest was a tiny added motivation in going for the scheme.  The scheme itself is training myself to have the skills to fill a desktop/network support technician role.  So that goes right from the hardware of PCs, networks, servers etc, right through to the software aspects like configuration and security issues.

Now, I am cautiously optimistic about the scheme, the main worry is my financial situation which is looking in pretty dire form right now.  Moving on from that I am really looking forward to it, and the new skills and experiences the whole thing will bring.  I am a little apprehensive that it is not software development training, as that area was what I did (still do) want to go into.  But saying that, how much actual programming have I done in the last year since graduating? The answer is very little, and pretty much all of that has been web programming i.e. HTML, CSS, PHP etc

After going to the open day in which they practically offered me a place, I didn’t feel I had to earn it, or convince them – which is a good thing.  The place I have been offered is a sponsored place, and thus all of the fees for the course are void – which is also a good thing, as it would cost upwards and beyond of £5000 depending on which modules are done :S.  That being said they do offer discounted accommodation which I have taken them up on, as well a commute from Wem every day is just silly, and probably not even possible, especially in the morning.  Yeah, so living in their accommodation, which is very much like the place I stayed in back in Uni – the good ol’ Red Faction house.  We got shown one house that the company owns, and that was literally across the road from their main premises, so making it in on time shouldn’t be too tricky.

Also including in the scheme, which is very enticing for myself, is the grooming of ones self in preparation for interviews and then job beyond.  Cleaning up my CV, and those crucial interview skills are something I feel that I could benefit a lot from, so I’m hoping that aspect works out especially.  The whole course is over in about 7 weeks, with the option for the company to keep tabs on you as you/I progress in my new found job and continuing the learning process with more exams and the qualifications that go along with it.  Although it’s probs unlikely, but if I went for every exam they offer, I think I would gain something like at least 7 qualifications in various subjects like A+ networks, Windows Server 2003 etc.

To repeat my newly set facebook status, if you do see me in Coventry, then do not hesitate to tell me how tubular my tie is.  That being because, they are pretty strict when it comes to dress code, so I’m gonna have to look pretty smartish a lot of the time, but that’s no real problem, it may sound a bit weird but I actually am more uncomfortable in jeans now than I am in my work trousers, mmm.

 

Here’s waiting for his transport to the real world. hope the movie is a good un…

..Being vague and noncommital [Dated 08/05/07]

Hey, I was meaning to post Friday evening, but well it seems very easy to pre-write off the evening before I even attempt to do something productive. Anyways, moving on from my questionable motivation (oh dear!), and Friday was a bit of a weird day.

I don’t know what it was about the day, but I was in an incredibly good mood, probs one of the best ones I’ve been in for quite some time. I don’t think it was just one thing, but a number of things – first off the shower, yes the infamous shower has finally been fixed. For those not in the know, I kinda bust the old one sometime last year, so the task was taken up by my Uncle and Grandad. The new shower was a present for my mother at Christmas, and work started after local plumber favourite Mark installed the new shower, only for my Uncle and Grandad to remove it when they gutted the wall – crazy I know. Anyways, about 3-4 days of the week, my Uncle and Grandad would come along and spend about 3 hours working on retiling, buying new shower bases, new shower doors etc, and during that process, discovering new and exciting problems to extend the length of the job through a combination of the “uniqueness” of my bathroom and poor planning on their part.

I moaned about it a lot, and pretty much gave up the hope of having a shower at home ever again, but enough complaining about that saga, as of Friday I was given the all clear by mission control, and off I ventured into territories unkown. The shower feels smaller than it used to be, despite a solid brick wall removed, and replaced by a glass panel. The doors open on the corners which is fine, but I feel sorry if you’re a large person, cos well I’m slightly on the large side, and there’s not a lot of room. If you’re wider in either direction, whether that be across the hips or have a beer belly, then you may have fun getting in and out. There was also a problem with the shower itself as the nozzle didn’t actually point down, combined with the new pressure, meant that some parts never got water to put it mildly. But, using my skills, I “attacked” the shower, and taught it a new dimension, so now it does indeed point downwards. That’s me 1, shower 0. Anyways, enough of the new shower review, I will end by giving it 3.5 Jonny stars.

That could have been it, but I didn’t feel amazing till I got to work. That day, I also started on these multivitamin tablets. Yes, I am/did get a little concerned about my questionable diet at times, so I decided to opt for some of those, to keep me topped up on what the body needs etc. It actually says on the label that it shouldn’t be used instead of a well-balanced diet. That’s fair enough, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card in terms of health, but if you did have a well-balanced diet you probs wouldn’t need to take vitamin supplements – you would probably get what you needed from your pr0 diet I’m thinking.

I was round Carl’s the night before, printing some stuff off and everyone’s favourite Sam called, as she does. Anyways, Carl mentioned that I was in attendance, so suprise suprise I recieved a text off her, within the hour, in fact, within 5mins actually *shakes head*. Anyways, without going into absolute detail, she said that she was single and looking for someone, to which I replied that I was the same but had my eyes on some ppl (for new readers, that is hot librarian chick). She assumed that it was someone from work (on a side note, apparently most people meet their future spouses at work, I read somewhere, or it was on the Wright Stuff most likely, back to the story… ), so i decided not to correct her, and have a bit of fun being vague and noncommital – a taste of her own medicine if you will. I asked her to play a game and guess who it is. She went for this and said Becky, and then Vicky when I said no. I thought initially maybe she thought Becky is the most attractive one at work, but slight more thought made me to think that Becky and Vicky are the extent of the female staff that she knows the names of. Anyways, she eventually sent the message saying words to the effect of “I bet you’d like to have your eyes on me”. To this, I decided the game had to stop, and I told her straight – not any of the potentially hurtful stuff about her going on and on asking if I like her etc, but the slightly complicated stuff with Carl. Read: Carl and her being exes, and every now and again Carl, wanted to get his end away, arranges to meet Sam to do the nasty, and she has no other, or better offers so she complies cos she’s sex-crazy. Or at least that’s what I’ve made out, Carl hasn’t said as much, but pretty much confirmed it through phone calls and talking to others etc.

So I told her that I was not interested in starting anything with her while she was still having visits from Carl. I’m in the right, if it’s happening before I got involved, there’s nowt to stop it happening if and when I do. Evidence to that is Carl continuing to see her every now and again, despite me declaring my interest in maybe seeing her. Although it would be a cheap lay, I cba to put up with that carl business, and her general insecurity would drive me away for sure. I remember reading this drunken rant Marsh did on myspace, one particular part was something along the lines of “If we give you a compliment, don’t turn it down, accept it cos we’ve made an effort to tell you how great you are, and if you keep denying it then we will eventually stop complimenting” – I need to dig that up and with his permission, I’ll publish here, cos it is actually fantastic, and I told him so. A lot of the stuff in there I agree with whole-heartedly. Anyways back to the main story, and if after seeing Sam for a bit, and I did say how great I thought she was etc and she kept saying, oh I’m ugly, then I would probably go crazy.

Anyways, this turning down which I’ll expand later as I have to go to work soon, came after the comedown of this great mood. I think it all happened when I was chatting to Steve about jobs and the future. Reality hurts I’m afraid, and both of us deciding that going to Uni seems a pointless exercise as we can’t get hired by people who can’t even form a grammatically-correct sentence, or do their own jobs properly – it’s sickening. He also told me that I should move abroad, to Canada we eventually decided the best place being. He also told me not to put too much emphasis on material wealth, him walking out of the stockroom, leaving me to digest these cold, sobering facts – I crashed.

Going back to the Sam adventure, after sending this honest text, she sent back a text simply saying “bye” and then following that up with “me and carl are m8ts jonny and iam single im trying 2 find mr perfectr any way tb”

and then:

“Did carl say anythin about me 2 u plz tell tb iam getting very upset tb”

Do you see what I mean about truth hurting? Anyways, I did my best to clear the waters and replied, saying that Carl didn’t say anything bad, just hinted at those two still being very friendly, which is nothing to get upset at, and I actually said, don’t worry there’s no need to get upset. Anyways, I got this message, now I kinda understand it, but I guess seeing someone who’s grasp on the language and who uses text speak probably goes against every core value in me. WTF is “m8ts”?!?!? just type mates, it takes as long, for christ sake.

Anyways, emails pls to what this message actually means pls:

“Me and him r m8ts and have a laugh but i don’t think i find any 1 im not pretty or fit tb am i be honnest”

And that’s it copied exactly from my phone – lol. I feel a little bad, but I can’t help her, and I’d definitely don’t want to be dragged into daily calling and inelligable(sp) text messages. The silent treatment sent her away last time, and I can only hope it will this time, and before we forget I’m not the bad guy here.

Take it easy, work calls :s

Don’t forget to tip your geek… [Dated 24/04/07]

Hey, a short post this time as I have been shopping for a card for my Mum’s upcoming birthday. Anyways enough of that…

For some reason I got thinking about how I introduce myself to other people, and how people define themselves. I like to think there are two quite, well almost distinct halves to me, them being Jonathan and Jonny, everyone’s friend lol.

Not to dig up the Becca thing again, but I think she is actually the only girl I’ve met who has done a different reaction to me telling me that I do/did Computer Science. Generally girls I meet who ask what I was doing for a degree, and I reply Computer Science, and they would all go, “oh” and go colder to what was before a warming prospect of friendship etc. Becca actually replied “Oh, like what Rob does”, when I told her after she asked many a year back, but I dunno, maybe girls hearing that draw the same conclusion that I must be a geek, and that is a bad thing. That saying I am a geek, but I don’t like the way it is considered a negative thing.

Geeks are responsible for any piece of technology that we use today, and jock types/geek haters should actually realise that and be thankful for the time these “uncool” people dedicated to exploring what was possible. The internet, the vessel you use to send you horrible, gut-inducing chain mails, “send this to 8 people NOW, or you maye die! etc” to all your stupid friends, was created by University boffins trying to get two seperate computers to send messages to each other.

I remember back when I was an avid user of StumbleUpon, (great addon for FF if you use it, get it you will not be sorry), I found a few articles and the like where it was saying the benefits of dating a geek, and I quite excited about that, but that train of thought has not broke through into the mainstream just yet.
Thanks to watching the bizarre Japanorama, there is a buzzing sub-culture of Otakus,or geeks/nerds, that are finally being appreciated, and heck it sounds very tempting to be part of that movement. Also the word Moe (pronounced Mo-ay) is rather smart. The Japanese have given a word to a pleasure moan if you like – it was something I immediately wanted to force into my everyday vocabulary.

Speaking more broadly, I often get frustrated at how much imprortance is placed on money, and how effectively you need it to do anything basically. I am quite sick of the life I’m living right now, I’d love to uproot myself, move somewhere else, do something new and exciting, but that all takes money which I don’t have to a degree.

Moving back to something lighter, I’ve started rewatching the entirity of the Shield in preparation for the new season, season 6. There’s a few shows that have started new seasons, Scrubs, Lost, Prison Break, 24, and I’m a little behind so I need to sort out some kind of schedule so I can watch them all, rather than blitzing them seperately. Oh my I forgot, the Stargate shows as well, oh my, that’s 7 seperate shows, and I might even wanna watch some more Drew carey Show, as watched season 1, and it’s not too bad, although Drew is a weird frontman for a show.

Time to wrap up, day off tomorrow, so some overdue tidying in store, both physically in my room, and files on the PC, so that should be fun. As someone said at work yesterday, “days off aren’t really days off, cos then I’m just busy at home”. Once again reminding me how little I want to do the whole 9-5 thing, just to chase some money to buy a few things to make me happy, and then savior the few days off I get, which would then be spent sorting out personal life. Man I can’t wait to join the Rat Race, seeya there!

Take it easy
J-Man.