Mini Reviews on the Way

I have recently aquired a few bargains on eBay – Assassin’s Creed, Fifa 08 and Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I have heard mixed reviews of all the games from various sources, but I will be playing these – most likely from Saturday onwards – and writing some little reviews of each.

At the moment, I’m still pushing on with my assignments, leaving mimimal time for playing games of any sort, going out, or anything else that provides a source of entertainment, for that matter *sigh*. Oh well, all over in 3 days – then it’s 3 weeks for the end-of-term Easter break. Funny thing is, I have an assignment due in directly after then on the 22nd April, although I have already got started on that (Blackjack game), so it won’t be as hectic getting that done.

Looking forward to going home on the 4th April. I have my interview with Moov2 on the 3rd – Not sure how I feel about that. Kinda looking forward to it, but still a little downhearted about the placement hunting front, I guess, after the “rejection” (I hate that word, as it implies I didn’t get far at all ) from Microsoft.

Pretty. Odd. but Pretty Awesome

So as midnight hit yesterday, I downloaded the new Panic at the Disco album, Pretty. Odd. to my iPod, from iTunes, and had a listen through. At first I was a little skeptical, because the new album was very different from the first and I wasn’t completely sure I was liking what I was hearing.

I then played it through for a second time, and started to appreciate the style for what it was, instead of thinking how different it was to the first album. I really started to enjoy it by the second time, and the third time over I’d worked out which were my favourite songs. “We’re so Starving”, “Nine in the Afternoon” and “Mad as Rabbits” are probably the three best, but all of the songs have their own unique and quirky style. There are a number of instrumental mixes and genres, including folk and even what sounds like a renaissance-esque piece.

Easter

Assignments are going slowly, as usual. Started the OOP assignment yesterday, sorting out classes and such, and setting up NetBeans with a new Desktop Java application. It was 5000x easier than trying to set it up in eclipse, which we had been told how to use. Unfortunately, eclipse has had an update recently and to get the Visual Editor working in that is a pain, and not obvious either.

So with three or four clicks, I had my project set up and ready for work. After messing around in that for a few minutes, I went on to search for images of Blackjack tables so I could create a background image for my Blackjack application. I found the perfect one after a few pages in on a Google image search. I loaded up Photoshop and got to work creating my own version of one of these tables; It turned out pretty well in the end and is now ready to be put into my game. I also created the chips I was going to use. 5 beautiful designs of my own – I was pretty happy with just how well they turned out.

Long Time, No Update

It’s been a good month or so since I last updated, and this is primarily down to the number of assignments I’ve had recently, as well as other things that have been eating up my time. My application to Microsoft didn’t work out in the end – Got to the fifth and final assessment stage, but didn’t make the jump. I’ve started looking elsewhere for other work placements; I sent my CV off to a Bournemouth based web-design/consultation company called Moov2. They are looking for someone who has some knowledge in ASP.NET, XHTML, CSS, etc. so I thought I’d have a go at applying. I have an interview on the 3rd April. I’m also going to apply to IBM too – I am going to apply to as many places as I can this time, because if I don’t get in to one place, I still have other choices. Right now, I don’t mind where I go as long as it’s here or back home and I’ll be doing something I’ll enjoy.