Another One Bites The Dust

First exam done! Only 1 to go! After next Friday I will have completed all the university exams I will ever have to do in my life! Damn!

The last week has been great! Despite having to revise with the weather like it is can be a distraction, but going down to the lake for a spot of lunch every day is such bliss! It’s such a shame that just as the weather gets good everyone leaves university! Campus looks so beautiful this time of year!

• Happiness. 7 out of 10
• Tiredness. 0 out of 5
• Workload. 7 out of 10 (still revision to go!)
• Last Meal. I haven’t had breakfast! That’s why I'm so hungry! Damnit!
• Song of the day. Michael Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
• Thought for the day. "If you're going through hell. Keep going." - Winston Churchill
• What I’m Doing Now. Watching the Monaco Grand Prix! Our weather is as good as theirs! Haha!

That was quick!

I have a house for when I start my PhD! After only a few short days of looking for houses around Guildford Will, Anna and I have found the perfect abode! Let me show you round…

It’s a 3-bedroom place, all the rooms are big enough for double beds, the kitchen is modern and it has a dishwasher! Luxury R’ Us! It’s not far away from my house with the girls last year, except a bit nearer university if anything. Same local pub though :D

I’m snatching up one of the biggest rooms, and since the place is unfurnished I can’t wait to put my stamp on the room and make it mine! Geeky posters and computer parts everywhere!

It’s so exciting to finally have a place sorted, it means I can really get my head straight about how the next few months before my PhD starts are going to play out, and it looks pretty awesome!

• 26th May. First exam
• 1st June. Last exam ever
• 11th June. Project Viva, and the end of university
• 15th June. Big party
• 17th June. Boat trip with housemates
• 25th June. Start summer job at Sony
• 8th July. Move out of my current house :(
• 17th July. Graduate
• 20th July. Graduation Ball
• 25th July. AMERICA!
• 15th August. Move in to new place :)
• 1st October. Start PhD at University of Surrey

And with producing the Fresher’s videos for the student television station and designing a new website for my local church I don’t think I’ll be bored! I can’t wait!

• Happiness. 7 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Workload. 7 out of 10 (lots of revision)
• Last Meal. Good ol’ fish and chips
• Song of the day. Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away
• Thought for the day. The meaning of life is to give life a meaning.
• What I’m Doing Now. In disbelief that I’ll have to leave this house in 7 weeks time… I might cry.

New Kindlings

As I always seem to be saying on this blog, new and exciting things are afoot. Lots is happening at the moment, and I don’t just mean revision for my final exams… although I probably should.

No, there is lots to look forward to once this university madness is over. I’m currently in the process of looking for a new abode in Guildford for the coming year, since I seem to be sticking around thanks to my new found PhD position :D I’m hoping to live with Will, my current and ex-housemate, and Anna, my current housemates girlfriend. It’s complicated, ok, but it’s going to be awesome! 3-bedroom places are not all the rage, but there are some out there and we plan to find somewhere to call our own! But we haven’t found anywhere yet, there are a few viewings going on this week though so I’ll keep you informed if anything drastic happens. I promise this time.

What else? Well we’ve been testing the limits of our housemate Mike’s stupidity…

For those of you who don’t know, the Cinnamon challenge is where one attempts to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon. It’s as simple as that…

If you like that there’s a few more here :D

I’ve also been keeping up my involvement in the student television station, recently put in charge of producing the fresher videos for the new students starting in September. Now isn’t that a shift? Just a few years ago I was the unknowing fresher…

I’d love to go into more detail about some of these things, but it will all be eeked out of me eventually.

Lots of plans, lots of ambition, lots of revision to do…

• Happiness. 7 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Workload. 7 out of 10 (revision time!)
• Last Meal. Chilli without the chilli 
• Song of the day. Stevie Wonder – Superstition
• Thought for the day. House times are exciting!
• What I’m Doing Now. Putting off sleep…

Pause for thought

Hello again! My heart is still beating, and I have lots of news you might be interested to hear, but first an explanation.

Since I last wrote here almost 2 months (wow, I’m ashamed of myself), I have been very busy. Busy, you say? What on earth could be more important than writing in your favourite place on the internet? You better have a damn good excuse. Well…

I’ve been going to a local piano bar quite a lot with the ginger one in this photo. It’s a very civilised place with live music and cocktails.

Experimenting with banana and choc ice milkshakes.

Doing some terrible singing at the aforementioned piano bar.

 

Covering our kitchen in highlighter fluid and UV ink. The reason behind this will become clear… you just have to be patient.

Been on a treasure hunt around Weymouth.

Gone Ape!

So that’s what I’ve been up to! When I haven’t been doing all of those fun things I’ve been working on coursework and my final project – which I finished today! Hence the post :)

So coursework in and final report written, now is a good time to note that there’s only precious few weeks left of my university life before heading out into the world of work… or is it?

I have kind of been keeping some big news from you since the last post 2 months ago, and it’s kind of what the last post was about. When I wrote the last post I was deep in thought about what to do once I graduate, because I’d been given a choice: Work for Sony, or be sponsored by Sony to do a PhD. And I changed my mind. I’ll never know if it was the right choice, but I’m so happy that I’ve decided to do a PhD.

I don’t want to dwell on what the PhD is on right now, that will come in a future post, but needless to say that it is really exciting and I can’t wait to start! My PhD course is 3.5 years long and it’s at the University of Surrey still, starting in October. I’m being sponsored and getting paid tax-free, so it’s not going to get me into any more debt! I do want to go into depth about why I decided to do a PhD, because I found it a hard decision and I want to be able to help other people who might have to make that decision in the future.

This isn’t the end of my links with Sony, in fact it’s only just the beginning. Sony have a big input in my research during the PhD, but I’m also working there over the summer with the team I was in last year. Hopefully the ties can continue because they are amazing people!

So… life turned on it’s head and I don’t really know what to say. This blog will be getting a major overhaul in the late half of this year, to capture more of my personal and professional life as it develops… hopefully!

I feel like my life is going from strength to strength, just got to get through these exams first and then I have a long summer of work, America and a new home to look forward to! I’ll reveal all, just bear with me! And thanks for sticking round this far! As a thank you here’s the link to the rest of the Pound for Food videos I produced with my housemates recently, they are seriously funny: http://bit.ly/poundforfood.

• Happiness. 7 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Workload. 5 out of 10 (revision time!)
• Last Meal. Spaghetti Bolognaise
• Song of the day. Jason Mraz – Everything is Sound
• Thought for the day. Dissertation done! Boom! 
• What I’m Doing Now. Sleep! Then starting revision tomorrow… All will be over in only 5.5 weeks!!!

More Than Words

So I’ll start in the same way I seem to have started lots of my posts recently, and that is by saying how lame I am for not posting more often recently, but I really am busy!

Just 6 weeks I will have finished my placement at Sony, moved into my new house and started my epic 1 month backpacking tour of Europe. I’m making provisions to make sure that this blog gets updated regularly during the trip :)

But that’s all to come… a couple of weeks ago we went to Edinburgh for some jolly japes (and to celebrate Julie’s 21st, but whatever :P)

^ Castle times

^ One down. 2,999 to go…

^ Conquered

You can find the full set on Facebook :)

• Happiness. 9 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5 – I’m staying with Viv this week and Anne’s bed is the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in!
• Free Time. 1 out of 5 – Final report joy :)
• Last Meal. Black bean curry with noodles
• Song of the day. Kate Voegele – Top Of The World
• Thought for the day. Making bad chemistry jokes because the good ones Argon.
• What I’m Doing Now. Moving into a house tomorrow!

September: The Best Moment

September was a rollercoaster of a month. I experienced some real highs and lows: from my awesome birthday party to one of my friends from secondary school dying. The latter really has a long ripple and I still feel hit by a wave occasionally when people say things or when I hear certain songs. Needless to say i’m sure it’s something that will get better with time as my mind gets used to the idea of never seeing him again, but until then I feel there’s more “waves” to come…

As for crowning the best moment of September, it has to be the hardest month to decide so far by a donkey’s mile!

Wembley arena is up there… I went to see the live final of Must Be The Music, a Sky1 talent competition much like X-Factor to find the best up-and-coming music act in the country. It was a bleeding brilliant evening and I can’t stress enough how awesome it is to be at a live recording with over 10,000 other people, the atmosphere was just immense!

^ Just some of the crowd…

It’s weird to think that only a week later I was at Arsenal with 60,000 football fans watching West Brom kick some emirates ass 3-2.

^ Just some of the crowd :)

So yea, getting my face out there :D

September can’t go a mention without Amsterdam! The business trip to end all business trips, and on my birthday! OK, so we didn’t go into the town centre, but we got to see some pretty cool tech including glassless 3D TV’s, 3D cameras, 3D rigs, a 152” plasma TV and a 16K projector (that’s 256 times higher resolution than HDTV… it was pretty savage).

But the best moment of September was, of course, my highly anticipated 21st birthday party in Guildford. Even after dragging my 21st over 2 nights out in London, a surprise party, a lunch, Amsterdam and a night out in Guildford I can safely say the house party was the best!

^ Just some of the crowd :P

What the phrase “good times” was made for.

So there you have it folks, and not even a mention of the night out at the Guildford piano bar or seeing Spamalot at the theatre! September truly was a great month :D

So, dare I speculate as to October? I’m guessing this month will be full of MADTV, working overtime, a trip home, hopefully Thorpe Park, my sisters birthday and I feel I’m forgetting something… oh yea… going to Switzerland!

Toodles x

Mind The Gap!

Firstly, I apologise. For the long gap between posts. I will say that I have been busy, work has geared up in preparation for my imminent trip to Switzerland (only a few weeks away now!) and home life has been dominated by those familiar letters… MADTV.

Since my last post campus has been populated with this years cohort of fresh faces and naïve freshers. Moving in weekend was great fun, albeit very busy, and that’s for 2 reasons:

1. I was filming Lottie, a fresher who won a recent MADTV competition to star in a short series of videos about freshers. It’s been a joy to film so far, and the first video has had over 400 views already, which ces’t incrediblé!

^ Georges filming freshers moving in!

2. I went to Arsenal! Sony had a few tickets spare in their corporate box, so I thought why not!?!

^ The view! Shame Arsenal lost 3-2, but it was a great game!

What an experience. And my first football match too! Couldn’t have asked for more :)

After that we went out in town and things got a little messy… good times :D

That brings us to last week which really was all about MADTV. Editing pretty much every evening after work (and that’s when after work was about 8pm since I’ve started doing overtime for the project). MADTV has had some brilliant publicity this year (see the video going out on Thursday that was shown to over 2,000 freshers in 4 days…!)

I took the day off on friday to help MADTV tackle freshers fayre, and we got over 160 sign-ups!!! It’s going to be an exciting year :D

^ Katherine and I at the Fayre

So after all that excitement I still feel on top of everything. I think I’m finally in a routine with work and I’m not feeling tired anymore during the day which is a good sign.

The house is going well, although I think the girls are getting annoyed that it sometimes takes me a week to do my washing up! My priorities may not always be in the right order…

I’ve been to a few parties and making sure I get the odd spot of climbing in too :P

• Happiness. 7 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5
• Free Time. 0.5 out of 5 (basically none, but I don’t feel stressed or pressured too much with the things I have to do)
• Last Meal. Not tuna pasta! Fish and chips :P Although I made a mean chicken katsu curry at the weekend!
• Song of the day. Nelly – Just A Dream
• Thought for the day. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
• What I’m Doing Now. Focusing on editing the second fresher diary, and looking forward to the madtv meeting on wednesday, and my madtv project progressing, and work tomorrow…

I can count to 21!

The last few days have been phenomenal! In fact, the last two months have been crazy and I’m sure you can tell by the fact that I haven’t been writing on this blog much that I’ve been very busy.

Despite all the 21st Birthday celebrations last week (which I assure you I will get round to explaining, with annotations, in a later post) life has kept me busy!

I’ve felt over-whelmed recently by the sheer amount of things I have to do both at home and at work. Work is going amazingly, but sometimes I find it difficult to concentrate because of everything else that is happening. I’m hoping that once university starts everything will find a rhythm, but right now it doesn’t stop.

Anne, Will and Viv have all been staying over the house in the last 2 weeks (coming and going), and it’s been great to see them. I just find that with so many people in the house, so much to think about and so much going on that I am losing my personal space. I’m one of these people, once I arrive home, I need to just sit in my room and think. Perform some mindless task like cooking or washing or Facebook just to relax, for an hour. I don’t mind if I have to rush out somewhere or do something as long as I know about it. I think I’m just struggling with coming home and having so much happening in the house that I feel needs my attention. It’s like work again when all I need is rest.

The last few weeks I’ve found myself getting very few hours sleep and consequently using travelling time between work and home as a perfect time to get an extra 20 minutes kip. Why have I been loosing so much sleep? I’m a worrier. There’s no doubt about it. I worry about everything. And recently there’s been a lot on my mind:

• Work. I have reports to write and things to research, and I find it hard to switch off.
• MADTV. Lots of Fresher’s events and programs coming up… but MADTV has also been my saviour as I’ve started working on a new projected (titled REDRUM) that I love spending time on and I’ve been using as a big relief from everything.
• Friends. One of my friends from home recently died quite suddenly and it was a big shock to the system. It had me in quite a daze for a number of days and it’s only after his memorial last Friday that I’ve started to push it to the back of my mind.
• House. People staying over, keeping everything tidy, paying bills and fixing things. I rearranged my room at the weekend and I think it’s much better now… pictures coming soon!
• Logistics. Getting things organised for parties, going to London, a trip to Amsterdam and generally travelling places a lot. Takes a lot of planning. In this regard I got a new phone for my birthday and it’s helped me check train times on the go and keep up to date with emails while travelling so I have more time for other things.

Life is mad. I think when I found out my friend died it was like the last straw and I took a lot of things that were happening around me at the time quite personally. I still feel like I need some time to sort my life out and decide what I’m trying to do. I’ve found since I started placement that I’m a different person, but I don’t know that new person yet.

For example, every Monday I find myself having tuna pasta for dinner. It’s not a planned thing, but every Monday I get home and can’t be bothered to cook. And on more than one occasion I’ve gone straight to bed when I got home (like today).

I’ve had a brilliant time celebrating my birthday, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I really needed that to relax and enjoy life a little. But I’m also glad it’s over so I can focus on getting into a routine. I’ve been working at Sony for 12 weeks now, it’s about time I figured out how to live the life I need to with Sony at the centre, rather than still having a full life as if I was still only have 20 hours of lectures a week. I don’t get to choose when I work anymore, and I have to get used to it! Something I didn’t realise would be this challenging and certainly not something I thought I’d struggle with.

Until next time… Charles x

• Happiness. 6 out of 10
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5
• Free Time. -1 out of 5
• Last Meal. Peperoni pizza (not tuna pasta, couldn’t even be bothered to cook that today!)
• Song of the day. Newton Faulkner – Dream Catch Me
• Thought for the day. I have been a fool
• What I’m Doing Now. Really wanting to go to bed, but glad to have that off my chest :)

Special Post #38: Two Whole Years, And Counting!

Happy birthday blog! Two years on and still much to say!

I’ve been having an amazing time the last few days. Monday was my 21st Birthday, and it has been celebrated in so many ways. Six to be precise.

Friday 10th: Sophie Jones arrived in Guildford the week before. Sophie is the fifth and final girl to move in to the house. But her visit was short and sweet, only staying a couple of days before flying off to Portugal no less! Since she is going to be away for all my birthday celebrations, it seemed only appropriate to create a new one just for her! Sophie had been to an underground club in London called Shunt Vaults, I love the idea of a secret underground bar so we aimed to go there. Unfortunately, we later found out they had closed down… Never mind, on to plan B… Ministry of Sound!

It was a great night, but no thanks to Ministry of Sound. The music was rubbish Drum and Bass and it was a very small club considering all the hype! So we ended up in Farringdon (don’t ask me why, because I don’t know) and had a great time!

Lots more to say, but also lots more to do, so I’ll keep you posted and chat to you all soon!

August: The Best Moment

The summer month has been and gone, and despite working at Sony every week, I managed to have some fantastic days in August.

The first great day was the first Wednesday of the month, when Sony’s 2009/10 placement students gave a leaving presentation. It got me excited to see how much they’d done in their short year and filled me with anticipation as to what my experience would bring!

The last 3 weekends I’ve been a busy man, travelling the length and breadth of the country to parties and celebrations with friends and new faces. The first weekend was Devon for Phil’s ‘birthday’ party. Lots of fun on the beach and a genuinely great time without much alcohol (just to prove it can still be done).

The second weekend was Orpington for Heathers even less so ‘Birthday’ but no less so ‘party’. The highlight of this trip was undoubtedly the Saturday night with all the usual Heather/Sophie/Lauren banter (mostly Nigerian sea-monster related of course)

Then last weekend was off to Southampton for Zoe’s actual birthday this time. And this one did involve alcohol! We went to the Isle of White, saw the needles and coloured sand, visited the IoW Zoo, spent some time on the beach and went out partying in Southampton!

So the real question is which was the best day? This is the hardest to decide so far, but I’ll have to go with… Devon! That day on the beach was amazing, and swimming in the sea was such a good laugh, I wish every weekend was like that!

And then there’s September. Amsterdam for my birthday (albeit on a work visit), night out in London, big 21st birthday party, fresher’s week, lots of MADTV and plenty more to boot! September WILL be an interesting month, there’s no doubt about it.

Chuck

The weeks are flying by! Now into my 6th week at Sony. Now that’s just weird, feels like yesterday I started, but strangely also feels like I’ve been there ages. I got a nick-name today, Chuck. I think I can live with it, certainly better than Nnaoma who’s now called HASH, which stands for Health And Safety Hazard. This all came after he got an email saying he had to book an appointment with the health and safety officer because “the answers he gave to the workstation safety questionnaire require further investigation” hahahaha.

In other news, I worked for the Tote on Saturday at Ascot. It was a very busy day, and not helped by my machine breaking three times during the day! That didn’t help the queues and seemed to anger the technician somewhat. I also had the worst experience getting home after waiting in the cash cage almost an hour to get signed out and then just missing a train at the station… but then some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue…

On Sunday, the tables turned and I was the statue. I went to London to meet up with none other than long time friend Matthew Mitchell. We hadn’t seen each other for months (since the boat race in fact) and it was great to get up to speed on each other’s goings on :)

I’m really having a great time at the moment, and if there’s anything placement year has taught me so far it’s that I can’t wait to finish my degree and start working!

This weekend I’m going to Devon for Phil’s birthday party, which is going to be immense! Cannot wait for that! Then the weekend after I’m celebrating Heather’s birthday in London; then the week after that is Zoe’s birthday in Southampton. And then… no just kidding! Although I’m hoping to see my sister soon after that :P and then I’m no longer 20 :(

Now you know why I have no time to write in here! Still need to figure out a way of updating this on my commute, that’s a whole hour every day I’m doing nothing! Maybe I need a netbook…

• Happiness. 9 out of 10
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5 (but it’s only Monday…)
• Free Time. I can’t remember what this is…
• Last Meal. Tuna pasta… standard.
• Song of the day. George Kranz - Din Daa Daa
• Thought for the day. Can I wag a half day on Friday?
• What I’m Doing Now. As usual, wondering why I’m still awake!

PS MAD TV thing!

Just A Little Bit More

Given the time you can see I should be in bed. Especially since I need to be up at 6am to be at the Emirates stadium tomorrow…

But I wanted to continue with the story a little bit.

The day after Grad Ball I met up with Josh in town to sort out this Natwest business once and for all. I could write a new Encyclopaedia Britannia on the problems they’ve caused me in the last year, but once both Josh and I were present, it only took just over half an hour to get money out of the account. Horray! Just a shame the 21st century invention of “bank transfers” hasn’t made it to their planet yet, otherwise Josh and I would not have had to walk down the high street with just under £3,000 in cash…

Anywho, my plan for the rest of the day was to help crew with Guilfest, but to be honest with you, I fell asleep. Yup, the working week was getting to me and finally caught up. I slept for almost 16 hours straight. It was gooooooooood.

Then on Sunday I did go to Guilfest! I helped out Colin Arnold, who produced The Fallow Field. He’s currently following a band called Subsource on tour for a documentary he’s producing. I was called in to be a camera operator for him and was more than obliged. It was great fun and a real insight into how live shows are produced in the industry, instead of the rubbish stage crew way. It also gave me a chance to see a real OB van actually working in the field. Albeit palling in comparison to the 3D HD beasts at Sony, it was still interesting.

In the evening I couldn’t help but go and see The King Blues live! Got a few videos too :P Here’s my favourite song of all time:

Also have videos of my favourite poem in the world and the encore

And that was my weekend in a nutshell. Signalling the start of a new working week. I’m only a week behind myself now, I’ll try and cover last week tomorrow. Beauties such as climbing, ice skating, going home and the cabin all to come! And that work surprise that I’m sure you all know about now… :D

• Happiness. 10 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5 (but I’ll be shattered tomorrow)
• Free Time. 0 out of 5 (actually true)
• Last Meal. Oh my God! The best roast dinner ever cooked by Tamsin’s little sister. Truly amazing :D
• Song of the day. Macy Gray – I Try
• Thought for the day. Who’s idea was it to put the weekend right at the end of the week, such a long wait…
• What I’m Doing Now. I was editing a MAD TV video coming out on Wednesday with Claire :)

100% Of The Time, I Get 75.2% All The Time

I haven’t really figured out what I’m doing with this blog while I’m on placement. It’s not like I have anything less to say, I just have less time to word it. If you have any ideas for what I can do while I’m on placement, then I’m all ears.

First thing to talk about is those results. I got them a couple weeks ago now, and my estimate of 76% wasn’t far off. I got 75.2% :)

That’s another first. My highest mark was 87% for programming. That’s not really a surprise when you factor in the 98% for the coursework. My lowest mark was Electronics 6, only 59%. I said on here that would be the hardest exam, and it definitely was. I’m really happy with my 77% in Computer Vision, that’s the one where I played with teapots. A little confused about how I only got 69% in labs, because the media project went really well…

Ah well, a first is a first. Although I do have to say I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get over 80%, but if you look at the year as a whole, with MAD TV and Sony, I think I can live with my decisions.

There’s so much more to talk about, we’re a good 2 weeks behind. On Friday 19th Frankie and I went to Grad Ball with the MAD TV camera to film the occasion. It was a brilliant night and makes me look forward to graduating! Not long now :S

Frankie and I having a great evening gate crashing grad ball and eating lots of strawberries and chocolate :P

You may have noticed that I’ve changed my hair slightly, it more… ‘up’ now. I was getting bored of having short hair and I thought placement was a good opportunity to try something new. So far I’m loving it, can’t believe I never tried this before!

We’ll leave it there for today, but we’ve still got lots to include such as the bank I love to hate, The King Blues live (again) and then everything I did last week!

Phew! I would just do a bullet point list, but some recent events we’re too good for that.

Try and see you tomorrow!

• Happiness. 10 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5
• Free Time. 1 out of 5
• Last Meal. Bacon sandwiches (roast tomorrow!)
• Song of the day. John Mayer – Gravity
• Thought for the day. At the end of the day, all you have is tomorrow morning
• What I’m Doing Now. Being very happy :o)

PS pictures from this weekend :)

PPS I also have some very exciting news about work coming up…

June: The Best Moment

June was exam month in every sense of the word. Well, there is only one sense of that word, but that’s definitely what it was.

There were a few good points to June, despite the exams. My last day of revising was definitely one. Me and a few of my course mates spent the whole day in the library revising for our last exam. It went really well and is definitely the reason I got 77% in that exam. Oh yea, that’s right! I got my results on Thursday :P I’ll give you the full breakdown in the next post, but I got another 1st!

Anywho, back to June and the best moment. I thought this month would be hands down won by one party in particular that happens at the end of every year… but there was a very good contender.

One of my friends hired a bouncy castle for the day. It was a lovely summer day, BBQ in tow and a lot of friends and their friends. It was a great day, met a few new people and spent too many hours bouncing :)

But the best moment of June was by far the lake party. Despite not remembering more of it than I care to remember, it was such a good laugh. So many friends, the music, the atmosphere, the full English breakfast… just quality.

And June can’t be mentioned without a least saying something about Wimbledon! Such a quality day, honestly one of the best days of my life ever! If I hadn’t been to Wimbledon before last year this day would have won hands down, but I wanted to give it to the lake party because it was something incredible that I’d never done before.

Turns out picking a best moment for June was harder than I thought… I think because of the stress of exams right up until the end of June, the last 10 days proved to be quite special. June really was a month of highs and lows. The lake party, Wimbledon and the bouncy castle coupled with moving house, arguments and revision. A tough month, but with a well worth-while reward.

The Tracks Of Life

Just chugging along the tracks of life. Work, sleep, work, sleep. Most of my housemates are away at the moment. Claire is in France and Frankie has gone home, so it’s just me and Tam holding fort at the moment. It’s good times, actually appreciating the space of the last few days. Work has been slower, but there’s still enough going on to be occupied, and since most people are out of town at the moment it seems not much is happening at home.

Which is good. It’s given me time to sort out some finances (Natwest grrrr) and make a start on my cork wall :D

(click the pic if you want to go larger)

I’ve got plenty to be getting on with at home, I should really dust off that list of things I’ve been putting off until after the exams…

Rumour has it that I will be getting my results in the next week… I would like to make a prediction if I may. I have not got much to go on, but I’m guessing I will get 76% this year. There you go. Money where your mouth is and all that. Fingers crossed.

• Happiness. 8 out of 10
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5
• Free Time. 3 out of 5
• Last Meal. Lovely noodle stir fry made with Tam’s loving hands
• Song of the day. Eminem ft. Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
• Thought for the day. Sometimes you just have to jump off a bridge & hope that you will learn how to fly on the way down
• What I’m Doing Now. Did someone say strudel?

Just My Luck

• Monday. My first day at Sony. Nnaoma and I had a tour of the office, as well as the obligatory training on how to lift a box and climb a ladder. Then we were shown around production floor where there are currently three OB trucks. To finish off the day we saw a 3D test setup that is being worked on. In the evening I went to a friend’s BBQ.
• Tuesday. Nnaoma and I packed away 24 production cameras for two Egyptian trucks. At one point, while carrying a very heavy lens we were told it was worth £250,000! On later research it appears the lens is only worth £150,000, so it didn’t really matter if we dropped it… In the evening I went to a friends house to play board games and eat strudel :)
• Wednesday. We were assigned onto a project for Arsenal Emirates football stadium, which requires configuring 120 Sony TV’s to work on the content distribution system in the stadium. It was good fun, but tiring work. In the evening we had a MAD TV meeting :)
• Thursday. You didn’t think we configured all 120 screens in one day do you? A full day of configuring, followed by some admin.
• Friday. We went to Arsenal Emirates to configure some more TV’s. Shown around the players lounge, Diamond club and (personally my favourite part) the TV gallery where the video feeds are directed and edited to some 500 screens around the stadium, including the 2 big screens at the corners of the pitch.

Nnaoma and I outside Emirates after finishing early on Friday

All in all a very good first week. And by very good, I mean it was too good for words! On more than one occasion I found myself just smiling at the realisation that I was working for Sony, and that this was only the beginning!

So that was the good part of the week. However, my evenings tell a different story…

My bike has become the bane of my measly existence since last Sunday. It’s had it’s brakes replaces, tyres changed and new inner tubes and how does it repay me? 4 punctures. In two days!! Grr.

Also Natwest continue to amaze me at their definition of “bank” but seem to fit perfectly into the definition of “arseholes”. They seem to have ‘lost’ (for want of a better word) three signatures from the account we have with them. HOW CAN SOMEONE BE A SIGNATORY ON AN ACCOUNT IF THEY DON’T HAVE A SINGNATURE! And at what point did closing a bank account mean “oh yea, don’t worry about it. I’ve only asked you to close it every time you tell me I have one because it’s international opposite day” If I ever manage to get into the campus Natwest when it is open between half past unhelpful and quarter to piss off then they’re going to wish they weren’t born. Apologies for the expletives used in the last paragraph, they were unavoidable.

So that’s the deal so far, sorry about not posting all week, time gets away with you when you only have four hours in a day to yourself, I’ll endeavour to post more next week! I’ve got lots to look forward to including Guilfest at the weekend!

• Happiness. 8 out of 10 (now my bike is fixed…)
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5 (Sunday was invented for lie-ins)
• Free Time. 1 out of 5 (Thought I’d replace workload)
• Last Meal. Does pitta bread count?
• Song of the day. Mario – Let Me Love You
• Thought for the day. Engineering, like maths, but LOUDER
• What I’m Doing Now. Healing my hands after going climbing for the first time in ages

The Future’s Bright…

The last few days have been productive from many a standpoint. And nothing shows up more in this view than revision. Finally. Exams are almost here and my brain needs filling… and so it begins.

I also handed in my last coursework on Tuesday after demoing on Monday. Look at my last post to see how you can download my coursework and play with it yourself… honestly, it’s not as boring as it may sound!

What else? I’m going to see my sister! I booked tickets today to see my sister for a few days at the end of June. After my exams I have two weeks before my placement starts. The first week I’m spending in Guildford in the house chilling and celebrating both Anne and Josh’s birthdays! (I bought their presents today :D) In the second week I’m now going to see Becky! I can’t wait!

I’ve also found out more information about my placement from the employment agency that I’m being contracted under, so I should be signing a contract very soon… good times!

Keep enjoying your lives and I’ll catch up with you all very soon… sweet dreams.

• Happiness. 8.5 out of 10
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5
• Workload. 9 out of 10
• Last Meal. Chicken nuggets and chips.
• Song of the day. Train – Hey, Soul Sister (good video too)
• Thought for the day. You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.
• What I’m Doing Now. Sleep, before day three of revision.

Punctured Tyre

The video went down well yesterday. It was the biggest “premiere” I’ve ever had of something I’d created before. There was a round of applause at the end, so that makes it worth while. I’m a bit annoyed at the union for how unorganised they were with the briefing, but I should know by now that they never tell anyone what they’re doing…

After the briefing I went to Julie & Sophie’s house to check it out, then I had to go to Halfords to replace the inner tube on my bike’s tyre :(

Anne and Viv arrived at the house yesterday, so only Josh to go and we have a full house! We need to actually all sit down and just get to know each other better, I look forward to whenever that happens.

Then in the evening me and Julie went to channies for some proper Kopparberg cider! Love it :D

Today I’m going to Ascot for another day of working for the Tote. I woke up this morning to find that I hadn’t bought a pair of black trousers so I’m having to compromise by using the trousers from the suit James’ WeSuit company made for me! They fit perfectly, but they’re more of a grey than a black :S Hopefully they won’t be a problem.

• Happiness. 9 out of 10 (A couple things a annoying me)
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5 (but I had lots of sleep?!)
• Last Meal. Just had breakfast cereal…
• Song of the day. DJ Ironik ft Elton John – Tiny Dancer
• Thought for the day. Forgot to pick up a camera yesterday that I was going to use on Sunday :(
• What I’m Doing Now. About to leave and go to work!

PS I’ve put up the video I made of James’ Graduation in 2005 as my latest old video to go online, take a look.

Battle Without Honour or Humanity

So the health and safety video is finished and all ready to show on Friday. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to project it and how to plug it into the sound system…

Went to a BBQ today at Chris’s house (ex-housemate), great to catch up with everyone there and it’s made me even more excited about this year. Don’t know why I’m looking forward to it so much, I’m going to have tons of work, but get the feeling I’m going to enjoy some of it more this year which should make things like labs easier to cope with. You can watch me slowly eat those words in the next month, but that’s how it is.

I really want my timetable so I know when my lectures are. Part of it is just curiosity, but its also so I can plan to see my sister for her wedding! Yup, that’s right, wedding! It makes me so happy to think that in just over a month my big sister is going to married!!!! I can’t physically express my excitement in only text.

Tomorrow more people start arriving into Guildford! By Monday all my friends will once again be within walking distance of me! The way it should be! Exclamation mark!

I’ve decided today that I’m going to start putting all my old videos on YouTube, so you might want to start paying attention to that “YouTube Videos” section on the right >>>>

I’ve started with my 16th Birthday Party video. It’s rubbish, I know. But its the first 3 minutes ever recorded on my camcorder, so it not only has sentimental value, but it seems like an apt video to start on. As you will find out later, it’s not technically the first video I ever made as I had a go with the video mode on dad’s digital camera before then… and most of those videos are quite embarrassing.

Keep well, and make sure to always make the most of who you are.

• Happiness. 10 out of 10 (“still” you day? yes, still.)
• Tiredness. 5 out of 5
• Last Meal. BBQ
• Song of the day. Tomoyasu Hotei - Battle Without Honor or Humanity (give it 21 seconds and you’ll recognise it)
• Thought for the day. I have lots to think about at the moment
• What I’m Doing Now. Not sleeping, which is the opposite to what I should be doing…

Back – Bigger & Better Than Ever!

So I arrived in Guildford last Thursday evening and since then I haven’t stopped.

One of my latest endeavours is Technical Director of MadTV. MadTV is a student-run news team who produce a regular student news program to be distributed online. It’s a very new team, only setup last year, and still finding its way in terms of schedule and its place in the union media channel. MadTV’s latest challenge is to produce a health & safety video for the fresher’s angels briefing. Without going into a sub-explanation on what fresher’s angels are, they are essentially students who have offered to help fresher’s move in to their accommodation on moving in day by carrying boxes, directing traffic and so on.

On Sunday we filmed the footage we needed for the video using a very nice camera hired from the Media Labs. I then took that home and have been slowly editing it for the last day. It’s looking good and it’s great to be learning how to use a new editing package at the same time. Oh, did I mention the briefing is on Friday? And there will be 230 people there to watch it. Forget the premiere at my birthday party, this is it: Filmed, edited and shown in only 6 days. Bring it on!

As it happens I’m also a fresher’s angel and have to attend the briefing despite having made the video! I think that’s funny.

What else have I been doing? As if that wasn’t enough. Well besides from unpacking (which I assure you is done… mostly) I’ve been visiting other people’s houses. Turns out most of the people I know are this side of campus anyway, so I’m really quid’s in on the whole situation.

I’ve also realised that a 20 minute walk to university from my house is a 5 minute cycle ride, love it. Haven’t been on my bike in ages, and it’s great to be on it again.

It’s great to be back one year later. I feel so much more focused now, I know what to expect and I’m still pushing my boundaries in terms of the MadTV video and some of the things I’m organising with Stage Crew for fresher’s week. Busy. Yes. But I wouldn’t want it any other way…

• Happiness. 10 out of 10 (couldn’t be happier)
• Tiredness. 5 out of 5
• Last Meal. Spaghetti on toast
• Song of the day. Taylor Swift – Love Story
• Thought for the day. If I’m this busy now, what about when I start lectures again?
• What I’m Doing Now. Editing the H&S video and looking forward to another very busy day tomorrow. Might get quieter after that… depending on how tomorrow goes…