Hokey Cokey Pig-in-a-Pokey

On tuesday I applied online for jobseekers allowance. Woo.

Thursday morning they called back:

Job Centre Person: Hello, is Matthew there?
Mum: Yes, who's calling?
JCP: I can't say, because of the data protection act.
Mum: Ah, you must be the Job Centre
JPC: *coughs*

After mum had woken me up and handed me the phone the job centre woman went through and asked me pretty much everything from the online application again, and made me an appointment at the job centre in cosham for 12 noon on friday.

The next day I went to the job centre, checked in with the security dude, got sent up to room a, where I checked in with a security dudette and was told to sit in the waiting area. At 12:05 I was called over by a grumpy woman who kept putting apostrophes in 'fees'. She asked me half of the questions from the online application and the phone call again, just to be sure, checked my passport to see if I was me, and photocopied my last bank statement and my nationwide book. Then I was sent back to the waiting area for a couple of minutes before being called over by another, much more cheerful and friendly woman.

This woman showed me the details I'd given over the phone to make sure it was all spelled right, asked what sort of work I was looking for and told me about the jobseekers diary and stuff, then told me to come back on the 25th when I might get some money woo!

I've also just applied for a Studio Technician vacancy from Pompey Uni so hopefully I'll hear something from that.

Welcome to the New URL

As the blog hasn't been 'Matts Movie Making Blog' for a number of years, the mmmb.blogspot URL was starting to annoy me, so here we are.

Things are going from bad to worse on the job front. There seems to be literally nothing going anywhere. At least nothing I can actually do that doesn't require a decade of experience.
I signed up on reed.co.uk on saturday. you upload your CV and what you can do and what cities you want to work in and it recommends jobs to you. Out of the 125,585 jobs they had on record, they recommended me......FUCKING NONE! A real morale booster.

Yesterday it had three for me, but two of them were the same job and I couldn't get to where either of the jobs were based anyway.
I've since signed up for Monster as well, and I'm still checking the job centre and all the local job websites.
I think I'm gonna have to start signing on before long.

Filler Art

Sorry for the recent lack of updates, there hasn't really been anything to talk about. I'm working on putting together a proper website so hopefully I'll get back into blogging once that starts getting somewhere.

In the meantime here's some filler art:



It's the Many-Matt Space Exploration Team off on a voyage of discovery. This came about from one of my slightly surreal MSN conversations with Derwent a few weeks back. He created a clone of himself to do his bidding, so I created four clones of myself to defeat him, so he created ten more clones, so I created twenty. It continued escalating like this for a little while longer, until I decided it was getting silly. I destroyed half of the cloned Matts and all the Derwents except the original, then sent the remaining Matts off into space. Then I decided to draw a picture of it.

Enjoy

Further Correspondence

as it had been a week and i hadn't heard anything i sent the following email last night:

Dear Jane

With reference to the email I sent last week, I wonder if you are still looking for someone to fill the position of photographer.

I am still very interested in this job and would like the opportunity to discuss it further, particularly if the reason you have not replied is the difference between the salary you have available and the one I suggested.

Gaining experience in a job where I use the knowledge and skills I learnt at university is more important to me than the salary at present and so I would be disappointed if this was the sticking point.

Please would you let me know the current situation regarding this vacancy and the salary you would offer a suitable candidate.

Yours sincerely

this morning i received the reply:

Hi Matthew – sorry not to get back to your earlier but we had a tremendous response to our advert. Unfortunately you have not made the short list, however I will keep your CV on file should any other opportunities arise.

Thanks for your interest and every success for the future.

Jane

oh well....back to the drawing board. it would have been good to have some feedback on why i wasn't suitable and if my salary is reasonable or not, but never mind.

No Man Can Live At That Speed!

After quite a slow week of not making much progress, things are suddenly moving rather quickly indeed.

I found an ad in the paper which said:

WEB SITE PHOTOGRAPHER
Portsmouth based surf/lifestyle website requires a full time photographer to start with immediate effect. W need you to be able to hit the ground running!
If you would like to join a fast moving company and have the following qualifications and a flexible attitude then get in contact with us now!

Qualified to A Level standard in photography.

Knowledge of a digital SLR camera.

Proficient in the use of Adobe Photoshop or similar software.

Experience of a flash studio set up.

You need to be able to work using your own initiative and respond to the seasonal demands of the business. You may also be required to help out with product descriptions and web design if necessary.

Salary negotiable depending on experience.

References required.

Contact us by Email.

I thought that sounded interesting so yesterday evening I sent sent this email:

Dear Jane

I am emailing to enquire about the website photographer position you advertised last week.

I am a graduate from Staffordshire University with a BSc (Hons) in Digital film, Animation and 3D Technology.

The course included working with both digital video cameras and digital still photography, image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop, 2D animation using Adobe After Effects, 3D modelling and texturing using both Maya and 3DS Max, lighting for both photography and film and 3D rendered models, video editing and effects in both Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe After Effects and DVD authoring.

I do not have experience with a flash studio set up, but I thought my experience with lighting for film and photography would be helpful.

I have attached a copy of my CV with a more complete list of my skills and also contains a link to a showreel of my previous projects.

If you think I would be suitable for the photographer position or if you have any other positions you think I would be suitable for, please let me know.

Yours Sincerely

Now I wasn't expecting much to come from it, but when I woke up this morning I found an email in my inbox from a certain Jane.

Hi Matt – thanks for your email

Our website is: www.boardsportwarehouse.com – take a look.

All product is photographed in our studio at our base in Farlington.

We need all our products photographed and loaded onto the site which at times would also require product descriptions. We are a seasonal business so there are peaks and troughs as to when product arrives. At the start of each season i.e. Aug/Sept & Feb/Mar there is a constant flow of goods coming into the warehouse this then peters off which is why we need someone who can be flexible. At peak times it is a matter of getting as much photographed and onto the website as quickly as we can. Outside of these busy times we need design work done on the site and monitoring of other sites who we see as competitors.

Our website is fulfilled by our retail stores – currently numbered at 6 – we have partnerships with Animal & Quiksilver.

Hours are Mon to Fri 9.00 to 5.30 (with an hour for lunch).

If this interests you then please email your salary expectations.

Thanks

Jane

Now i'm slightly worried. I have no idea what sort of salary to ask for. I have no idea what they're thinking. If I ask for too much they could cast me aside and hire somone out of college with a photography a level for minimum wage, if I ask for too little they could stamp my file with a big "CHUMP" stamp, hire me for my suggestion and put however many thousands a year extra I could have been earning into their profits. Scary stuff.

Having thought about it for a bit, and discussing it with the parentals, I'm going to ask for something in the region of £17000-£20000. I suppose I'd better draft an email now....I'll come back when I'm done...

UPDATE:
It took a lot of thinking but I've finally written my demands in the form of an email:

Hi Jane

Thanks for getting back to me, the position does sound very interesting.

The salary I was thinking of was something in the region of £17000 to £20000, depending on terms and conditions. I would be interested to hear what sort of salary you had in mind.

As I said, I am interested in the position, and I would be happy to come in to discuss it and have a look around.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

Matt

Just after I sent it I got an automatic reply saying she'll be out of the office on monday the 8th and tuesday the 9th, but thats fine by me because on sunday I'm going to Frome to visit Hogie, we're going to the Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff on monday and I'll be coming home tuesday, so its all good :)

I *AM* Still Alive

So i've decided to get back into blogging. Even if no one actually reads it, it might actually inspire me to do something worth blogging about.

So what have i been up to? Since I last blogged, quite a bit has changed:
I've completed and handed in many pieces of coursework with varying degrees of success.
I've completed my final year project and disertation and handed them in.
I've moved out of Stafford for (probably) the last time and back into my parents house in Portsmouth.
I've spent a couple of months trying not to worry about results while watching many DVDs.
I've received a letter telling me I have passed my course and am now a bachelor of science with third class honours, which isn't the best but it's ok, because its still a pass, and Daisy in Spaced got a third.
I've put on a silly hat and coat and shaken hands with vice-chancellor Christine King.
I've received a certificate which officially declares me a bachelor of science with third class honours.
I've watched every serial of Doctor Who from the time William Hartnell was the Doctor
I've extended the overdraft of one of my bank accounts and closed the other one completely (after two months of trying in which they took 36p interest, and 91p 'advance' interest which seemed like a desperate last grab at my money)
I've watched every serial of Doctor Who from the time Patrick Troughton was the Doctor, up to The Evil of the Daleks, which I plan to watch soon.
I've spent some time socialising with my good friends Mark and Mary-Anne.
I've met up with a friend who I've known for several years over the internet.
I've started coming to the end of my extended overdraft.
I've decided its probably about time i started trying to get a job.

Thats about it really. I have also read many books, and still have a pile of about twenty six to go after the current one, Dr No, by Ian Fleming.

I have also decided that unless it comes to having to live on the streets under a newspaper, eating out of bins, I will NEVER go back to work at McDonalds. Last summer I only returned for the money and the friends I had there. This year it seems that most of those friends had moved on, and I'd be surrounded by trainees who'd be thinking I was a trainee too, even though I'd been working there since December 2004. And they've got a new uniform so I doubt I'd still be able to get away with wearing my old uniform which was the one before the last uniform they had.
But yeah, I was enjoying it little enough last year when I still knew most of the people. If its just whoring myself out for McDonald's money, I think I'll give it a miss.

So what am I going to do instead? Ideally i'd like to get in somewhere doing graphic or motion design, working with Photoshop and After Effects, and gradually work up to becoming the next Guillermo Del Toro over many, many years.
This does seem a little far fetched however, so while I'm sending my CV and showreel (have a look ) off to whatever graphic design, or video production company I can find in Portsmouth, I will also be looking for something a little smaller, and a bit more temporary, that I will enjoy and keep the money coming in for a bit longer, just until I can get myself into the industry I got a degree for.
At the moment I'm planning on asking if theres any vacancies in the library and the shop round the corner that sells action figures and collectables, as well as considering applying for the ICT technician type vacancy which has come up in my old secondary school.
If all of that falls through I'll have to think of something else.

I also have a Plan B, which I have started already, but will kick in properly either at my birthday in 5 weeks time, or once I've managed to get myself into a temporary job and earn a bit of cash. The first part of the plan, which I have already begun, is to read The DV Rebel's Guide by Stu Maschwitz, which is "an all digital approach to making killer action movies on the cheap".
Step two is to aquire a digital video recorder of a decent quality, if not HD, for as little as possible. At the moment i'm thinking the Toshiba Gigashot K40H, which can do HD and will set me back less than £400. Hopefully I'll get one for my birthday, but if not I'll have to save up from my temporary job and get one myself.
Objective three is to follow the advice in The DV Rebel's Guide, and rope in a few friends to throw together a couple of short films. Maybe not action films, but definately done to the best of my ability on a minimum budget.
I'm not entirely sure what direction Plan B will go after this, but if nothing else it'll be something to add to my showreel, and shouldn't hurt my prospects for future industry based jobs.

Plan C is the promise from my fellow Stafford Alumni, Derwent, that if he gets a film project off the ground he will employ me as a cameraman for £4.95 an hour, plus expenses including travel and the cost of a drink.

I think thats pretty much everything up to date. As usual I'll add an update if I think of anything else, and hopefully I'll blog a bit sooner than I did this time.

I think i might genuinely wet myself with excitement

SQUEEEEEEEEEE! - Part II

Watchmen!

SQUEEEEEEEEEE!

blargh

Just to let whoever might be wandering through here know that I'm still alive. Been meaning to blog since I went home for the weekend about a month ago. On saturday i'm going back down for the christmas hols so perhaps I'll have a proper blog once i'm properly set up there.

At the moment though, i'm working hard to get my Lighting Tech assignment finished so I can hand it in tomorrow. My five scenes are modelled, lit and rendered off, I've written up the lighting keys for the five renders and now its just the 1000 word piece on light and colour theory. Only 1000 words. Should be easy....

In the meantime, here's some pretty pictures:


My bedroom at night: modelled in 3DS Max 9, lit with three simple omni lights and rendered with Mental Ray


















My bedroom again, this time lit by a daylight light set to simulate what the light would be like at 9am on the 12th of August 2007.....in Birmingham....it was the closest place to Stafford that was available. Then I applied a radiosity solution before rendering.

Return From Oz

Last Tuesday I skipped my DVD Tech lecture and made my way down to Stafford station. There I got on a train and a couple of uneventful hours later, got off at London Euston.
An even more uneventful ten minutes followed as I got the tube to Waterloo where I met up with a certain girl called Hogie who I've known for several years, yet never met face to face before as she was in London to see the Kaiser Chiefs.
We wandered around London for an hour or so, reminising about the good old days of the Green Wing Community on the IMDb messageboard before the second series where loads of n00bs showed up and ruined it by starting thousands of threads aling the lines of "Mac! Squeeeeeeee!", and talked about which bands Hogie had stalked and seduced recently and which were next, and the benefits of free newspapers and underwear with a giraffe on them.

Then she very nearly made me miss my next train by trying to get me lost, but I managed to get on just in time, and I was once again on my way to Portsmouth. This was another very uneventful journey, except I was standing some of the time for this one. About six I got got off the train at Cosham and encountered Christ on a bike. I navigated my way around him as he got off, folded it up (it was a collapsable bike) and carried it onto the train, then I made my way over to a taxi and got a lift down to the Kings Theatre, where I went in, found my seat and waited for the show to begin.

At 7.30 the curtain went up and on stage was a busy farm scene, evidently run by Henry and Em who were apparently wondering where their niece, Dorothy, had got to and were worried as it looked like there was a storm coming in. A few minutes of comedy banter later there was a familiar voice from off stage and on walks Toni in a blue dress and pigtails.
When she started singing Over the Rainbow I was almost blown away myself. I had no idea she could sing like that. I'll never know how its possible to fit a voice like that into such a little girl.
What followed for the next two hours was a very entertaining and VERY funny version of The Wizard of Oz (if you hadn't already guessed) with some very talented actors (not just Toni :P). And during the interval the family I was sat next to bought me an ice cream which was very nice of them. I think it was jus cos I was there on my own, but either way I'm not complaining.
I think Toni may have spotted me in the audience, as she was looking right at me for a couple of verses of Follow the Yellow Brick Road, but I can't say for sure as it was quite dark in the stalls and I have no idea if you can actually see to seven rows back from the stage.

Unfortunately Toni was caught up with theatre stuff after the show so I didn't get a chance to see her, which was a shame as I'd got a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum to give her, so I waited outside for the crowd to die down a bit and got a taxi home.

The journey home was slightly more eventful than the journey down. The first part, a ten to fifteen minute journey from Cosham to Fareham, went very well. the train left Cosham on time and even got to Fareham a minute or two early. The train from Fareham to Southampton Central left on time, but then it went downhill very quickly. About half way there we stopped for no apparent reason. Five minutes later there was an announcement to say that the signal man needed to talk to the driver and we would be off again once he'd gone back. After another five or ten minutes we evenutally started moving. Unfortunately, by this time it was 1.15, the time my train from Southampton to Stafford was due to leave. As we aproached the station I saw it going the other way.

When I got to the station I found there wasn't another train to Stafford, and the best I could do was wait an hour and catch the Edinbourgh train til Birmingham New Street and hope I'd be able to make my way from there. So I endured an hour on the freezing platform with a very loud child who repeatedly told his very tired mother about his dream where he was stood on the edge of the platform and he fell on the track because he was 'wiggling', and then I got shifted off my seat by a group of elderly Italians for no apparent reason, as there was a perfectly good empty bench next to the one I was already on which I sat on instead.
At 2.15 I got onto a very crowded train and managed to find a seat, although it didn't have a window, I was still glad I didn't have to stand. At Reading things improved dramatically as I was turned out of my claustrophobic, no window seat by the people who had reserved it and was forced to sit at a table seat right next to a great big window instead, along with Trevor McDonald and a young boy who was happy to have finaly got a Nintendo DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond. I considered challenging him to a battle (the young pokemon trainer, not the McDonald impersonator) but as he was still excited about catching Starlys, I thought my Elite Four-beating team might have overwhelmed him somewhat.

My luck continued to stay changed at Birmingham as I got off the train and found that the next train on the platform right next to the one I was on stopped at Stafford. It was absolutely packed and I had to stand, but I didn't mind too much as it was only two stops and I eventually got home two hours after I would have if I'd got the direct train from Southampton.
But still, despite all the trouble on the journey back, it was still worth the trip down. I finaly got to meet Hogie in person (two GWC members down, along with Shari, only Deppy, Paula and Lucy to go) and I got to see Toni and hear her sing, even if I didn't get to talk to her or give her a book.
Thursday night I wrote Toni a little letter and posted it along with the book on Friday, so hopefully I'll hear back from her soon.

Not much of interest has happened since I've been back. I pretty much wrote the entire proposal for my Final Year Project (FYP, for future reference) on Thursday and handed it in Friday so I don't have to worry about that any more, just the FYP itself...
Today I got fed up with the clothes and books all over my floor so I gave it a proper tidy. Once I've taken down the plates with the remains of last nights dinner on it'll finally be good enough to take the photos I mentioned last time, so I'll upload them tomorrow.

I've found a recipe for pumpkin pie so I might give that ago tomorrow too. Its bound to be a disaster, but hopefully it'll still be a TASTY disaster....

'Bout Time I Blogged Again

Back up in Stafford now, awaiting the arrival of my new PC.
I think I've settled in up here. My room is smaller than it was last year, but I've still managed to fit a suitable amount of geekery in without it becoming crowded. I should probably upload photos like I did last year and the year before but perhaps I'll have a tidy up first and add them later...

Kinda annoyed at the uni we've missed two important lectures about our final year projects, first because no one bothered to tell us there was one and second because two different people (including the lecturer on the lecture we were meant to be at) told us that we were meant to be going to the Friday one when we're not. we're meant to be going to the Monday one. Grr.

As for Toni...my paranoia of the last blog went completely after I saw her at work the next day, but unfortunately we didn't get a chance to meet up socially before I had to come back to Stafford so things are kinda on hold for the time being.

Now I'm gonna tidy up a bit...

Bemuddled

[Warning: This is written straight after a night out at Guildhall Walk. Not drunk, but quite tired]

Wednesday last week I went on a date with Toni, a girl I know from work and have kinda liked for quite some time. We went to see Harry Potter 5, then onto Wetherspoons where we had a drink and spent a couple of hours just talking, exchanging our life stories, before getting a pizza in Cosham, coming back to my place to eat it, and she asked if we could watch my Road to El Dorado DVD. We had a great time and before she left we had a hug and she said we'd have to do it again before I go back to Stafford.

Only problem is, other than an hour at work last friday, tonight was the first chance I've had to see her. We went to Bar Me and then on to Route, but we were with people from work the whole time and she was kinda distant from me, sticking to the other side of the group. I did buy her a drink though and had a couple of hugs, but didn't really get a chance to talk. It didn't help that as I was getting up the courage to say something to her, try to talk about us, she bumped into Ronnie, her ex, although they're still friends.

A bit later on she came over to say she was going home, and as I'm not a huge fan of clubbing, if she wasn't there there wasn't much point me staying so I asked if I could bum a lift. In the car it was just the two of us and we had some time to talk, but I still couldn't get myself round to asking about us. When we got to mine I said thanks for the lift, gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, but that was about it.
Problem is, I don't want to rush things, but at the same time its less than two weeks til I have to go up to Stafford.
When I started writing this post I was going to say I don't know what to do, but in the typing process I've had some time to think.
I think I'm gonna have to keep texting, as I am now, not pestering her, but being friendly, asking how her shifts have been, if she's been having a good time at her many social events, etc. at some point I'll have to arrange a time where we can meet up, just the two of us, have a drink or two and just talk about us. Depending on my shifts next week, Wednesday will probably be the last chance we'll have to have a proper date. Ideally I'd like to have the talky thing after that, because the second date might solve all the issues, but I don't know my shifts for next week yet and if they're all lates than it'll have to be this Saturday. If she's free that is. If the worst comes to the worst we'd have to do it by text, but I think that should be avoided if at all possible.

Think I'm starting to lose my own train of thought. Must be time to go to bed.
I think what I'm trying to say is, I don't want to rush things with Toni, but I'd like things to be resolved before I go back to Stafford, so I'm going to have to try and arrange a time when just the two of us can get together and talk about what's happening, find out how she feels about it and what she thinks, then maybe go on from there. I dunno...will have to see what happens. I'm gonna go to bed now...

Random moment: why is there a paper clip on my bed?

Well that was a fun Friday night...

I went to work for a normal 5-11 shift. Started off doing chicken side with Aaron, it was a bit busy but nothing the two of us couldn't cope with and we had a good laugh while we're at it. At seven I went on my break, had a Chicken Premier and an apple pie and read a couple of chapters of Silence of the Lambs.

Towards the end of my break Phil sticks his head into the crew room and asks if I'll stay on to help out on the close. I've only been scheduled a twenty hour week and I'm in a pretty good mood so I agree. Go back from my break. Cook on regular grill til eleven then we get started on the close.
We finished at about quarter past one in the morning and the five of us were boxing up some happy meal toys ready for the breakfast shift. The others were talking about the negative effects of drugs and Phil started talking about how someone took half a tab of ecstasy and died in agony because they had a bad reaction and it forced half their brain down into their spine.
Now, I've seen plenty of gory films and don't have any problem with them because, subconsciously, I know its not real. However, if something like that IS real and I KNOW its real, that's a different matter.

Phil started talking about HOW it forced half their brain down their spine and I started to feel a bit dizzy. I decided to go and get some fresh air so I turned around to go outside but then my vision went a bit funny. Next thing I know I hear Aaron say "he's just having a lie down" so I opened my eyes and found I was on my back on the floor by front counter.
I got up, not quite sure what had happened, and was led over to a seat while Donna got me a bottle of water and a tissue (apparently I hit something on the way down as I'm missing some skin on my chin and it was bleeding quite a lot at the time)
Then Phil had to fill in the accident forms and check I was able to remember things like the date and what shift I worked and the like, and then he had to take me up to A&E, just to be on the safe side.

A&E.....on a Friday night.....

Got there at about two, twenty past a nurse came over to ask what happened, shine a torch into my eyes and make some notes. About twenty past three the same nurse calls me through, sits me down and then, about ten minutes later, comes back to take my blood pressure, shine her torch into my eyes again and then disappears.
Forty five minutes after that two other nurses show up and one takes my heart rate and the other measures my blood sugar and they both disappear.
Then, just before five a doctor shows up, shines HER torch into my eyes, takes my pulse and asks me what happened. She decides I only fainted, all my blood pressure, rate and sugars are normal and I'm fine to go home. I was outside by 5. Phil drove me home and it was daylight before I got to sleep.

I'm not too bothered about the overly long wait. Phil said I had to stay clocked in for the time I was up at the hospital so an extra four hours at premium rate pay boosted my twenty hour week somewhat.
I've got another 5-11 shift tonight. Phil said I didn't have to come in if I didn't want to, but I probably will. I told him i wouldn't stay on for the close though...

Looking forward to tomorrow night. I'm going on a tour round Old Portsmouth where they tell you about the various ghosts that are supposed to be there, with actors around to re-enact what happened to them. My friend Toni plays a prostitute who gets murdered. Good fun. And, all things going to plan, I will be seeing Toni again on Wednesday....

[insert some sort of title here]

This morning I found that Yahoo owns Flickr so I as good as had an account there anyway. As a result you can see my photo-a-day pictures here.

Ganon is alive once more. It turns out that when I took the fan out to clean out the dust the processor came out with it and when I put it back the pins didn't go back into the sockets properly, which meant the whole computer wouldn't work. Just took a few moments to straighten up the pins and clip it back into the socket before putting the fan on again.
Luckily this got it working again. It was nothing to do with the graphics card, and I didn't have to buy any replacement parts. Jobs a good'un :P

I was going to say something else as well, but I can't remember what it was and I have to leave for work soon. I'll post later if I remember.

Random thing to do

Last night I decided I'm going to take a photo of myself every day for a year or so, then put them into After Effects or something to make a video. It'll be interesting to see how much, or little, I change.
OK, so apparently it's been done before, but i don't care :P i just think it's slightly creepy that i decided to start mine a year to the day after he finished his...

In worse news, I cleaned out inside Ganon, my PC, the other day I removed about 4 years worth of dust from the fan on the motherboard, took out the graphics card, cleaned the dust out of the fan on that, put the graphics card back in, gave the rest a good vacuum....and now it doesn't work.

The only problem seems to be that the monitor won't get any signal from the PC which implies that theres something wrong with the graphics card, but unfortunately thats about the extent of my knowledge because I don't know that much about the insides of PCs, so I think I might have to get in my tech support. I'm sure I can bribe him with a cup of tea...

It's gonna be an interesting couple of weeks

The thing I hinted at that was supposed to be happening tonight has had to be postponed for a couple of weeks so you'll have to wait a bit before I blog it.

Instead I'm gonna go to the Chinese and watch some DVDs. Only problem is the Mai King round the corner, which is closest, seems to be the only Chinese in a 10 mile radius that we DON'T have a menu for. Plus its raining.

You may be wondering why I'm having to fend for myself tonight. or you may not be. I don't know who actually reads this. But anyway, I'm home alone for a bit. My sister Karen has gone camping with the Guides where she's a leader and my parents have just gone camping.
So I'm home alone til Sunday when my sister comes back, and then its just us (and probably her new bloke a lot of the time) til a fortnight on Sunday when the 'rents come back.

No idea what sort of shifts I'm gonna get, hopefully next weeks schedule will be up tomorrow. After this weeks nice shifts I'm half expecting to get three two til elevens and two three til closes.... we'll have to see.

Ah! Its stopped raining...to the Mai King I go.

And we're back. got a bit wet on the way home but it was worth it.
I got special preparation rice, beef chow mein and Hong Kong style sweet n sour pork. should be good. While I was in there another woman came in and ordered four dishes, all of which were chicken. How boring is that? You have to have a bit of everything.

Anyhoo, I'm going to eat now and I cant remember what else I was going to blog anyway. Lets hope these next two weeks fly by so that what was meant to be happening tonight can happen and then I can blog about it as an added bonus.

Toodle pip!

things might be looking up.

first, McDonalds have given me NICE shifts this week. Only one 8 hour shift and I did that Monday so its well out of the way. On top of that they've given me Friday off so i'm making the most of it and...well...we'll see how it goes before I blog it...

not much to say other than that, just that hopefully things will start to pick up. we'll just have to see...

Reading it back this blog is pretty much pointless, but I don't care :P

been meaning to update for a while....

I'm feeling a lot better these days. I think the month between the phone call and that last blog I was in denial about it ending, trying to convince myself that we were going to give it another go and work things out when it obviously wasn't going to happen.
After writing the last blog, and having a short conversation with Andrea over MSN which cleared up a couple of things for me, I accepted its over, and I'm moving on.
I still think about her from time to time, but not so much these days. She still hasn't come round to give me back my stuff. I'll text her at some point and ask her if I'm ever going to see my copy of the Picture of Dorian Gray again.

And that, unless anything particularly interesting happens when she eventually brings my stuff back, is the last I'm going to say on the matter. Its in the past, I'm moving on, and I'm getting on with my life.

McDonalds has been claiming ownership of my soul once again, and I've been working there most days. When I went back to tell them I was able to work over the summer I gave them severely reduced availability so that they couldn't do a repeat of Easter with 10 closes in a row.
One til eleven on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, One til close Tuesdays and Saturdays and nothing at all on Wednesdays and Sundays. That way I can ensure I get days off, and don't have to work too late or too many days in a row.
However, my first week they completely ignored this and gave me long shifts on six consecutive days, but I complained, gave them my availability a second time and I haven't had a problem since.

The influx of trainees has been pretty much unbearable, with most of them having barely two braincells to rub together. Easiest thing in the kitchen: putting buns in the toaster. You put the crowns upside down on a bun tray and put them in the bottom of the toaster, and put the heels, also upside down, straight into the top of the toaster. Easy, no? I seem to remember I grasped it first time. But not these trainees, no. Some of them had been there a week before they got the hang of it.
And there's so many of them too. At one point last week there was only me and five trainees in the kitchen. When you're working like that you can't work properly because you have to concentrate on what YOU'RE doing as well as watching each of the five trainees at the same time to make sure they don't make stupid mistakes.
At one point I had to go and find something in the chiller, leaving the five trainees alone in the kitchen unsupervised. Fortunately no one died in the minute or two I was gone.

I read on my break as its one of the few times I get the chance to these days. (When I first started it lead a lot of the more chav-like employees to ask if i was gay...not quite sure of their logic...) Last week I was reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. One of my favorite stories. It bugs me that there hasn't yet been a film version that actually follows the plot of the book, but maybe it'll be me who does it first.
Anyway, to the point. I was reading Jekyll and Hyde, written one hundred and twenty years ago, with the famous storyline about the doctor who uses a potion to separate his evil side, and has been used many other times, most recently in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, and the current BBC drama Jekyll.
And some of the trainee's have never heard of it.....

Its not all bad though. Yesterday I was teaching someone how to do the chicken side of the kitchen on his first ever shift. After an hour or two he was better than the other trainee who was helping me and he'd been there at least two weeks. More trainees like that please.

I also now have money again! Instead of being at the bottom of both my overdrafts (£150 at Abbey and the slightly worse £1400 at Nat West) I am now in credit at Abbey! Half of my first lot of pay filled in the hole and and the other half beefed it up nicely. Some of the extra went to paying off what I owed my parents and some to preordering Harry Potter 7. I do enjoy the books but I still don't think they're good enough to deserve all the hype they get.
Anyhoo, I think in future at least half of my pay each fortnight will go into my Nat West, and the other half can stay in my Abbey to use as spending money, so hopefully I wont get into my overdraft again. I got £310 for two weeks, so if that keeps up for the next ten I should easily fill my overdraft and have plenty left to fund my DVD addiction next year.

Momentous decision of great moments! I am no longer going to buy Lego! It was fine having it all over my room in Stafford, but back in Portsmouth there's just no room for it. I've got my AT-AT stood on my bedside table but the rest is still packed in boxes. There's two new sets, a Jedi Starfighter that comes with a Kit Fisto minifig and a Tie Crawler, which I do want, and will probably get in September, but after that, unless they bring out a really cool new model, then I'm done.
I'm probably done with action figures too. I've got some of my Invader Zim ones on display, but I haven't bought any for a while. I nearly got some Doctor Who figures but decided against it as I didn't think they looked enough like who they were meant to be.
I'm still a geek, I just think it's probably time I grew up a bit. I'm going to be 21 in two and a half months....
I AM going to be buying the replica of Mal's gun from Firefly though....

Tomorrow night I'm going to meet up with me old mates Muscat, Mark and his missus Mary-Anne. Should be a good laugh and I'm looking forward to it.

Better finish up now, as there was some tidying I planned to do before work today but I ended up blogging instead. I've only got a nice short shift today. Three until nine. Only 6 hours. It should breeze past.
I've probably said this before, but I'm going to try to get back into the habit of blogging more often. We'll have to see how that pans out in practice...

its over

a few weeks back i had a phone call from Andrea.

she said she didn't feel the same spark as when we started going out, but instead of calling it a day we could wait til we were both home from uni and see how it goes. that alone made me pretty depressed, hence the previous post about not having a very good time.

so i agreed to give her some space until her exams were over and we were both home, only having a couple of very brief conversations on msn.
her last exam was on friday and she came home on saturday so this morning i was thinking about sending her a text to see if we could meet up so i could give her the birthday presents i'd already got her and maybe talk about what we were going to do.

then, this afternoon, i signed into facebook and found she'd changed her status to single. apparently its over for good, and i didn't even get the change to give it another go.
i've written her a text, but haven't sent it yet. maybe tomorrow.

and on top of that i now have to go for my first shift back at mcdonalds. what a brilliant mood i'm in for it.

life sucks again.