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.

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.

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.

Progress

Today marks progress in a number of ways. The first is finally completing my review yesterday of the Nokia N800, which I used for a two week trial. The review took a lot longer to write than I thought it would – I’ve not gone into as much detail as I wanted, as it would have taken me ’til Easter or longer to complete it

Next on the list is the progress with my BT problems. I received my refund cheque through the post yesterday morning (three days early, which makes a nice change). It took a lot of pointless and cut-off phone calls to get there, but I finally have my money back. I’ve probably said this before, but now both my direct debits to BT are cancelled and my money will stay with me, until I decide to pay my bills. Fair enough If they were going to tell me in advance that they were going to unnecessarily and incorrectly increase the direct debit from £30 to £178.50, but they didn’t. BT and direct debits – don’t do it. It may save you a couple a quid a month, but it’ll save you the hassle of them making you go overdrawn >: ( If you want to moan at BT accounts yourself, the number is 08000223089 for GB accounts. Others are via 0800800150.

Today is my third day without my XBox – decided to give it up for lent, because I had no idea what else I could. So far it has been easy and I don’t expect it to get that much harder, but it will probably get annoying by next month, especially if an awesome new game comes out that I can’t play

My job at Phones 4U, or chances of having it back are slightly hindered. Apparently all xmas temps have their details and such deleted from the system, and my name is alphabetically high on the list, so it was one of the first. I’ve re-applied online, but the jobs listed are all full-time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to explain my position to the human resources people and get my job back.

I’ve got one minor step further in my 3rd year placement application. I received an e-mail from StepStone to tell me that my application has progressed and that they will be presenting my application to Microsoft in the coming week. There are still no guarantees of a placement, but it’s been good to get this far. Hopefully they’ll be happy with my application, see what they’re looking for and advance me through to the final assessment stage.

January Sure Has Flown By

The past month has been a good one. New Year’s Eve was a lot of fun, and the following week gave me a good chance to relax. The Wednesday after the New Year, gave me and many of my good friends from Sixth Form a chance to catch up, while scoring kills on each other in bouts of Halo 3. That was a lot of fun

I was back to work at Phones 4U at the end of the week, finishing the last few days of my Christmas contract, which ended on the 13th. Last day went pretty poorly to be honest – apparently, sales don’t really pick up until March for PAYG phones. I did get a good seeing off though, so the day ended well. Still waiting to hear if I be re-contracted, but even if I don’t, it was a good experience. Although it does mean finding something new.

Went to see my parents and sister the week before my birthday, to see them for that and finally deliver my Dad’s Christmas present. He was throroughly pleased with his brand spanking new Xbox 360 and it happily complemented his new HDTV and surround sound system. Xbox 360 + full HD = mindblow So when I visit now, I’ll be sure to take home a few games to see them in all their glory!

I bought myself a nice new 24″ monitor for my birthday, a long wanted update to my humble 19″ of the past. The monitor is Samsung SM(Syncmaster)245b and is a real plus, in a number of ways. The first is the extra space on the screen to do things. I can be typing something out, while reading from a website, both on the same screen. The next is the colour on my screen is now properly calibrated, so their aren’t any washed out colours and everything is bright and beautiful Finally, is the increased resolution (max 1900×1200) and of course, the ability (in conjunction with my uber 8800gt graphics card) to play pc games in “HD” quality and at decent framerates. I can still manage to play Crysis on high (no AA) with a playable framerate. I should really write a review for this too… maybe some other time.

BT Suck… Oh Yes They Do

Okay, rant mode active. I’m pretty annoyed with BT at the moment. They have this continually annoying habit of stealing money from me. Alright, so maybe “stealing” is a little harsh, but that’s how it feels. Let me tell you why.

A couple of weeks back, BT posted my lovely online bill for our phone line (Broadband bill is separate). On this bill, BT have listed all the wonderful ins and outs, as shown below:

Bill period: 28 Sep 2007-27 Dec 2007

Credit balance (inc VAT): £25.28
Usage charges: £0.23
Your benefits: -£1.52
Rental charges: £33.00
One-off charges: £3.00
Total this period: £34.72
Brought Forward: £8,671.85
Payments: -£217.99
Credit balance (inc VAT): £25.28

Ok, bearing in mind that we are all students, and this is my first BT account ever, let’s just go over what isn’t working or doesn’t make sense here: