It’s been a while…

Ok, as it has been over a two months since I have written a real post, I thought I’d try and get back into the swing of things. On the list of things I have done in the last couple of months is:

• Secured a third year placement (A Job)
• Secured accomodation for the year (Moved house)
• Passed all but one of my exams (retake tomorrow!! :Z )
• Got paid… twice! Woo!
• Spent more money than I have
• Saved money for the first time in years
• Taken out an ISA
• Taken out a Credit Card
• Worked out my Student Loan Debt

And of course, various other happenings also.

So where do I begin?

Preparations for the Coming (Academic) Year

Warning – Really long update post ahead. This last week has been a pivotal and successful week for me. I have been busy sorting out all the arrangements toward having a flat and a job for next year, as well as tying up loose ends from this year. In the last week I have spent about £400 on sorting out accommodation (my rent needed paying for this month and then up came the deposit for the new house) and then about £50 getting food sorted; the cupboards were bare, so I needed to stock up a little.

Not only has this been an expensive week, it has also been an athletic one. In the space of 3 days I’ve probably covered about 4-5 square miles and walked about 8. On the map below, I had to walk the black route 3 times, each yellow route once and the blue route are bus routes.

Exams are Over!

Well my exams are finally over, and now I get to rest for a while before being slung into a work placement for a year. Speaking of which, I still need to find one. I have an interview lined up for next week, they’re a company that operate from Bournemouth Town Centre, which is ideal for my plans for next year.

I’d like to stay in Bournemouth if I can. I really like the area and have “grown into it” in the past two years. Once I finally do get a placement secured, I’ll then have to focus on getting somewhere to live. Ideally, it would be an apartment or something. Somewhere where I have the space to move around, and where I have a large desk – so I can do work and have proper space to do it

I did a Google search for me today. Searching for “Ash Clarke”, I come ninth second.

Exams

My exams are soon coming. My first is in 6 wonderfully short days. My timetable is as follows:

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.