Fond Memories...

It feels like I have not blogged in ages which is most probably true but it has been Clearing and as per usual we have been swamped with calls. Now I have got a bit more free time I think it’s about time I do another blog. Last week was Eid and I decided to dress up for the occasion and bought a lovely little silk number :p. So there I was wearing my Asian outfit and I kept getting asked if I was Muslim and when I said no the next question was “why have you dressed up then?” Simply put, I dressed up because I wanted to and it’s nice to be involved in my work colleague’s celebrations. I may not be Muslim but I have friends who are and it’s good to be aware of their religion and their beliefs.

Dressing up seemed to be the theme for the week as we also had a theme your team competition on Friday just for fun (the enquiry unit madness eh). Our theme was superheroes as in clearing we all know you need a hero to help you through the struggles that can occur when taking on the might of clearing. We mainly had with marvel superheroes and we had three super people.

The main characters we had were Superman, Supergirl, Superwoman, Batman, Catwoman, Hancock, Punisher, Spiderman and of course the most important Wolverine (which was me! Yay!) Unfortunately we did not come first... or second... or third.... but we did have a lot of fun!!! We also overdosed on cake which is also good and a much needed sugar rush for all the calls we have been taking. For those that don’t know of Wolverine he was played by Hugh Jackman in the X men films and while I didn’t have the mahoosive sideburns I needed I did manage to sculpt my hair in a similar style. I also went with the white t-shirt and jeans and boots so I could kind of blend in with the crowd despite my hair. This was topped off with compulsory dog tags and claws I had made out of chopsticks, painted silver and sanded off to provide a rounded tip.

Although the highlight of the week had to be winning my trophy for outstanding achievement! Ok it was not a trophy and ok it was not for outstanding achievement but I was awarded a chocolate orange for the development I have made throughout the year in the enquiry unit. I tried to open it though and realised it had melted a bit but hey it soon toughened up in the fridge! So all in all it was a really good week full of lots of laughs.

It’s also quite scary to think that term 1 is going to begin soon and sadly I won’t be a part of that this year now I have graduated. I am hoping to sneak back into university though for the fresher’s fair as I need to support the LGBT society for the final time.

This year the fresher’s fair is going to be on 20^th September at Avery Hill and 22^nd September at the Greenwich campus. If you are at the Medway campus then you have a society’s fair on 22^nd September and a sports fair on 21^st September. All important dates if you want to join up to a sport or society. Also if you are, like I was, a president, vice-president, secretary or treasurer it will also go on your transcripts at the end of your course so it always looks good on a C.V.

Anyways it’s back to work I go so blog soon!

Looking for ‘Up’s” in life

I am actually going to try and blog more regularly now as I have noticed I am writing less and less and I need to produce more blogs. However this week is going to be a more serious blog as I am trying something new. In the past my blogs would be about my experiences and what’s happening in my life. So I thought I would start jotting down a few of my thoughts and opinions too. Recently in our University of Greenwich Enquiry Unit we had been given extra training in regards to dealing with difficult calls. One of the eventualities is that a caller may call that is feeling depressed and why not as university CAN be one of the most stressful experiences you can face.

As we have now entered into Clearing the stress has now ramped up and I can fully understand how someone can feel a bit low when they hear that the course they really wanted to apply for has now closed for this year.  Most of the places that are available are in science or the engineering department this year although you can call us at 020 8331 9000 for more vacancy information. Anyway what my blog was trying to say is that if you are feeling down or depressed (there is a huge difference between the two) there is always someone to help. For example you can call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90.

I always have believed that you can never have a good day without having a few bad days as if you don’t know what a bad day is how you can measure if a day is good. I know recently I keep getting down (not depressed) as now I have finally graduated I cannot seem to get a job. This is piled on a ton of personal problems and mixed in with working full time and it really can get to you but all I keep thinking is that it won’t always be this way and an opportunity is always around the corner. I think a good example of this would be me getting my current job in the Enquiry Unit as I have met some really great people while working here.

Anyway aside from my mad ramblings I have also started looking into first aid courses and I am definitely going to look into revising the languages I have learnt which now have went into decay a bit. On another note I have to say the film “Up” is absolutely brilliant and for all those that say animation is only for kids then watch “Up” as it had a splash of blood, grown up themes and serious messages too. I mainly watched it for the awesome animation techniques used though which are astounding.

You are feeling sleepy, very sleepy...

Well this week’s blog is really hard to write as its realty hard to top graduating!!! Also I haven’t really been doing much aside from wake up, eat, go to work, get home, eat, and go to sleep, repeat...

Luckily I have approximately 168 (soon to be 170) films which keeps me entertained on those dreary afternoons. Aside from that I have just had two birthdays to go to; one for my sister and one for my dad. So I had to go back to Chatham for the weekend which is luckily not bad for a train journey (40 minutes on a good day). My sister and dad decided to have a joint party thing where we went to our local pub for a Westlife tribute band called Boyzaloud. They actually were pretty good singers but the bass was way too high and the overall backing track was for too loud. Not too sure if it is my sound design background kicking in or my age (getting old- er now! A whole 21, eep!).

It’s always good to get back in touch with family and especially to see my nieces (8 months and 3 years), nephew (6) and little sister (6). Although this weekend I just wanted my alone time as I am in serious need of rest!!! Sadly my family think it’s a good idea to be up at 6am which is an unnatural hour especially for me as I usually sleep in till at least 11. Hey ho.

I have also decided I need to start learning again as my degree was really exciting to do but I found I was learning the same thing and then refining my knowledge to gain expertise. What I want to do is learn more about cultures and religion plus also key skills such as first aid training and the all important driving licence. I also need to start picking up reading again as my spelling is becoming     

A-T-R-O-C-I-O-U-S.                           

I think the whole need to learn thing is also stemming from the fact that I can no longer get books out from the university libraries and my bank account has now been transformed into a graduate account! It seems weird to think about it now but three years ago I would never have imagined graduating with a 2:1 degree and going out in the big wide world in the field of computer games. My actual course (Games and Multimedia Technologies) was specifically targeted towards designing games but I am hoping to improve my chances by strengthening my programming side so I have skills in both areas.

If you are looking for a more programming orientated degree then the computing programme is a really good course to take plus it’s also available at foundation level (from one of our partner colleges). Which with the new fees coming into place soon could be a really clever move as the fee for foundation degrees and HNDs will be £6,000 compared to studying two years on a degree course at £8,300 a year. Then just doing the final (top up) year via fast track and paying the higher fees of £8,300 for the final year.

Anyways I am off to go rest and I hope I have not bored you all too much I promise next week I will try to do something exiting to blog about! As always any questions you want answered you can email us at: studentblogger@hotmail.co.uk

Graduation Day!!!

Eurgh and more eurgh!!! I am not at all used to getting up every day ready for work at 9! I was working once a week from 9am to 5.30pm which was really nice! :D But now I am also working Monday to Friday and I miss my friend sleep although I meet this really great new friend called coffee overdose and he is amazing!!! However I have been informed that coffee is bad and I am trying to do the whole being healthy thing but sadly all the healthy stuff just does not taste good. I am trying though to start eating porridge every day as it’s meant to be uber healthy but I have trouble eating it as it just so stodgy. So if any guys or gals have got any methods to spice up porridge please, please tell me!!!

Goldilocks can keep her porridge!!!

I also tried coconut water which is meant to be riddled with vitamins and low in fat etcetera but it was horrid but I just drank it down like medicine. Anyway enough of that and more about my graduation. It was this Friday just gone (22^nd June) at the Greenwich campus. I also thought I had struck lucky as my graduation ceremony was at 2.45pm but I did not realise the queues would be mahoosive and spent a majority of my day queuing up for robes, then tickets and also photo’s. But I didn’t let it dampen my spirits and the weather was great. Sadly this day didn’t start off with a champagne breakfast but an early start to the hairdressers to get a great hair do for my professional photo, then I went on to quickly get a few graduation cards for my friends and I also had to pick up a camera I had reserved but I was finished quite quickly. I then went home got bathed and all dressed up in my smart suit and was raring to go. I then grabbed my camera to put in the batteries but realised the camera does not take batteries but a rechargeable battery. It seems in the shops infinite wisdom they had gave me a completely different model with completely different specifications. GREAT!!! But I say you should always have a backup plan and I did. So I managed to grab another camera from my friend and was able to get quite a few good shots of the day.

Now I was ready and went off to pick up the parents from the train station. My dad and mum were both still at the platform as they had come outside but thought the local ‘wildlife’ looked a bit frightening. I guess I have become accustomed to scary looking people in London ha-ha! My mum also had decided to remove her bracelet in case someone stabs her for it, bless! I did try to state that while London has a lot of stabbings it still is quite uncommon but hey ho! We made it to Greenwich in plenty of time and I have to say it was a truly amazing day. The actual ceremony took place in the Greenwich chapel and we then had a reception in the painted hall. Both buildings were stunning and really added to the atmosphere of the day.  I have to admit though I was one of those people who was not that excited about “getting a bit of paper” but on the day the whole ceremony really caught you up in the grandeur of the whole event and made you feel like you was part of something really important. My dad also was unusually sweet and said when I came out in my robes he had the same feelings that he had when he’s first child was born (my sister) which kind of made up for the moaning he had done about the queues.

The academic and civil officials, very bizarre outfits!

After the ceremony was over we had a big group photo of all the new graduates and we went over to the reception. We opted to go for orange juice over the wine but twas good stuff anyways. We than had obligatory shots in the painted halls and I was robbed sadly! L They made me pay £22 for a DVD of the ceremony; I mean at least Dick Turpin wore a mask! But hey it was worth it and I wanted to have memories of the whole ceremony. I also had a little laugh in my head as we finished the day off with a McDonalds which we did get a few looks from the customers as we were dressed to impress. Anyways this is all I have to say and hope I have not rambled too much! Also note the pics of the robes in action I just needed a wand and I could have had a Harry Potter moment!!!

“Where’s my wand?!?”

London Pride 2011

Erm yeah this is kind of late but you may have guessed now that I have a short attention span and things rarely seem to be on time. Anyways I noticed a few photos hidden away on my computer from the London pride event that was held a couple of weeks ago (Saturday 2^nd July). So this week’s blog will be on the pride event...

This year was quite special as NUS (National Union of Students) got front place alongside TUC (Trade Union Congress) in the march. The idea is that while the pride is there to celebrate people’s diversity it also serves as a form of protest at the wrongs that still need to be righted. The march assembled at roughly 12.30 so luckily it was not too bad as early starts go.  I can’t remember where we started off but I know we went to Trafalgar square! We had to be up early as this year I was marching with Unison (a public service trade union) and we was meeting in a park (again my sense of direction is rubbish but it had green grass and had a lake... O.o). Anyway my day started early and I made my way over to the park by trains and tube and we began with a champagne breakfast (best way to start a day really!). So we had croissants, pain au chocolates and of course plenty of champagne (cheap student stuff of course).

Our UNISON balloon we had with the LGBT flag attached

it was all weighed down by the cart which

we dumped our entire luggage in!

From there we grabbed our cart of goods and went to assemble for the march. We were quite lucky in that the weather was not too hot but was warm none the less. I think the march lasts about an hour and a bit but the time flies when you are walking and chanting. We had loads of support from the crowd and we had the standard taunts and jeers from what has been dubbed ‘bigots corner’. Basically while the event is extremely positive you do also get a bunch of about 15 so called Christians who turn up every year to flaunt their out dated views. It did not matter too much as the number of people in the march shouting their cheers out easily overcomes the ranting of them!

After the march came more of the party side and the whole of Trafalgar Square was covered with people all dancing and cheering at the acts on stage which this year included Bucks Fizz and also some others which I did not know but they sounded good anyway. Although I thought it was quite sad when Bucks Fizz sang one of their most famous songs (The Land of Make Believe) and no one had heard of it and there was a sort of awkwardness but hey they also did “Making Your Mind Up” which everyone knew, yay!

Aside from all the partying and protesting and shouting we also had to man the Unison stall and help give out info about the union and also some stickers! Hooray! Unison also had a good idea of putting up a board asking “How have the government cuts affected LGBT people?” and yeah I know it may not apply to you etcetera. However a lot of the comments reflected fears and worries that everyone has right now.  See below at a few shots of the board:

Ups and Downs...

So this week in my ‘need to go into the adult world’ phase I finally decided to start my driving lessons (yes I know I should have started but I never wanted to drive when I was younger and I didn’t have much time!). Anyway Monday was my first ever driving lesson and I was absolutely convinced the driving instructor was out to kill me!!! Maybe as some sort of weird diabolical insurance scam...

Oh well I finally started to understand what I needed to do although what my brain imagined my body refused to do (or the car refused to do). I did know I wasn’t going to be amazing but when I got out of the car I was shaking with pure confusion and terror!!! I got in, huddled into a ball and decided then and there I shall never drive and will stick to using public transport. Also if anyone asked me “Hey Dan, do you drive?” I could just simply say no I CARE about the environment! However my friends kept telling me to keep at it and I will improve. Now I got in from my second lesson and I was shaking with anger. No matter what I seemed to do it was not right and I always seemed to be doing the opposite to what he wanted. He shouted at me to brake so I panicked and braked the car which I understand would get me a telling off. Next time I braked earlier than before and I got told I should have waited till I was up to the line. Ok got it this time. Then he shouted brake again waited till I got right to the white line and then braked but went a bit over the line which got me another telling off “You could have been hit by a car then but luckily it would have been your side not mine!” hmm thanks very much!

Oh well in other news I finally got my grades back and I have finished my course (games and multimedia technologies) with a 2:1! Hooray I can now graduate which means I will have a special graduation day blog coming up soon. I have booked my robes (how harry potter!), I have the confirmation through and I have booked my photographs. I thought it was quite funny I got the option to have my photo touched up to improve my complexion in the photo for only £5ish so I thought best to add that in just in case ;0)

In other news I have still not found a job and I really don’t want to accept a job that will not pay me for two months just to get experience. I did realise it was going to be hard but I have been told that games testing is a good way to get your foot in the door and work your way up from there. Unfortunately they know that too and are being really picky about how much experience is required. I therefore have decided to narrow my search down into a more specific role. As I specialise in designing interfaces I have stopped searching for games designer jobs and looking at interface designer jobs. It may be that I work in a different field for a while but hopefully I can use that to build up enough work experience to start work in games. Anyways I don’t mind too much if I have a break from games to build up my knowledge in interfaces.

Finally I have got another driving lesson this Monday so I have all weekend to practice! O.o Just got to remember as the clutch goes down the accelerator comes up and vice versa. Just got to remember up and down like a seesaw so a bit like this week really!

Not the type...

So now that university is pretty much at an end I have loads more free time. So far that free time has been used up for job searching and tidying up! Although I did manage to get to watch the new x-men film and I have also been catching up on all the news. Usually I don’t like to read the news as its always doom and gloom but I think it’s important to know what’s happening in the world. I was reading an article the other day about someone being murdered and the neighbours describing the lad as “not the type” to do such a thing...

Erm forgive me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure that there is not a “type” for murderers as I have never seen someone that I immediately think “Yep, they’re a murderer!” Unless of course they are running around waving a knife about! It just one of those things that annoy me as it just goes to show how quickly people can judge. It’s like saying blonde girls are dumb and it’s just not true. Our Equality and Diversity manager at the university recently sent out a link to complete an online training course in Equality and Diversity Essentials and even though I am pretty clued up some of the statistics still seemed shocking. For example even in this day and age you are less likely to be employed if you are female, black, disabled or LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi or Trans). Although this doesn’t mean you don’t have an equal chance when you are applying for a job (By law you should have an equal chance) it just shows that ‘statistically’ you are less likely to be employed.

Anyway back to my original point it would seem that all human beings are hard-wired in the brain to stereotype. It is believed to be a survival mechanism we have as we need to judge situations (and people) to ensure we are not in danger! However I like to believe we have evolved enough not to rely on stereotypes to define people. One part (I liked) from the course was this exercise:

 

I think the actual point of my rant is actually that we all should get to know someone before judging them as they often can surprise you. Like today a young teenager, off to school, actually gave up his seat for an elderly woman (which is great in its own right) but then the elderly woman sat down and whipped out her blackberry phone!

On another weird tangent I was in Morrison’s recently and the woman at the till asked if I wanted a ‘bag for life’. I didn’t get one but I was wondering are they really a bag for life? And if it broke would they give me a new one? Or if a better bag came out would I get the bag upgraded?O.o 

 

But anyways I said at the beginning I did go to the see the new x-men film and I have to say it was my favourite out of the five x-men films but it barely kept to the original comic book storyline but hey I enjoyed it and definitely say it’s one to go watch!  

The course takes approximately an hour and a half to complete, and you can print out a certificate of completion. Our equality and diversity manager, Kirsteen, said: “It’s a good thing to do as with the introduction of the new Equality Act of 2010, an understanding of equality and diversity is fast becoming an essential attribute for job applicants and you can expect to be asked an equality interview question for every job you go for.  Make the most of this opportunity and complete the training and improve your employability!”

So that’s all for this week and I hope I haven’t ranted too much!

 

End of University...

So the degree show at the CMS School has finished and was a relative success as I did get someone very interested in my work. The games company develop 2D games and really liked my design style and I am currently waiting for an email just to have a further chat or to demonstrate more of my work but fingers crossed!

The first day of the degree show was a bit awkward as I am not amazing at talking about my work and there were loads of new faces but after a while it was fine to chat (when I say after a while I mean after some alcohol!). Oh yeah I also said it was a relative success as unfortunately someone’s laptop was stolen which is such a shame when the event went so well.

My degree show display

~ This was on a black background and the orb was cut out to show the screen, the idea being a fortune teller showing the future (my work!)And topped off with two glowing crystals! ~

On other news the degree show was my last piece of university work so I guess I am officially finished and I just need to wait for my grades now! I have decided I am going to start my driving lessons soon although I am worried I could possibly be one of the worst drivers ever! But I started by getting the theory book as I thought if I know the theory it will surely help with the practical side (we will see). I am also working on my website as computing students do benefit from having an online portfolio to showcase their work. I am not the most amazing of web designers and I am really trying to develop my website to show what I am good at. One such idea I have at the moment is to implement a few games onto the actual website and I managed to get a good start on them this Sunday (will post pics soon).

~ Overview of some of the work I designed for my final year game; including health bar at the top, from collectable cages, to models and finally interface designs. ~

I guess the main things I need to be concerned about now is getting a job and passing my exams. I also have been thinking about the past three years and what an amazing time I have had at university but I am also a little bit worried about what the next step is. I suppose I should get a job in the games industry and use my degree but I also feel I have wasted my A-levels as it would be nice to go into counselling at some point. Apparently I am young so I have plenty of time but I also am very impatient and want everything yesterday! Although it has definitely been a huge jump for me to go from A-levels in psychology and biology to (hopefully) getting a degree in games and multimedia technologies.

Also I really want to go the cinema and watch the new X-men film although I am slightly worried it may be rubbish like the last four (?). I do agree they were exciting and action packed but they were not really keeping to the timeline of the comics and also just didn’t really pack a punch at the end of the day. I am already disappointed that the film is meant to be about the first class of X-men mutants and some of them were never in the first class!!! Anyway geek rant over I am looking forward to be able to just relax and not worry about the next deadline and hopefully I will hear back from the Company at the degree show soon and maybe in the next blog I would have watched the X-men film and be able to deliver my verdict! :p

digitalfreeform

So the university news is promoting the university degree show so I guess its official; IT’S NEARLY HERE!!!  As a digital media student I will be at the degree show for three days and trying my hardest to showcase all my amazing work (If I find any!).

Anyway the idea of the degree show is to promote what we have learnt, what we have discovered and what we are capable of. To do this we need a big display because we technology students love to show off and we can’t show off without lots of colours and a big show to boot. So we get three A1 boards and desk space to turn into a show stopping show-reel of super erm… well creative work we have produced. Some have opted to print out their work but in much larger scales while others have implemented a theme.

For my group work we had to make a game and ours has become known as “RABBIT RESCUE”…. Yeah we kinda ran out of juice on the name but it is a good little game that surprisingly took a lot of work to complete. As it’s a rabbit game we’re going all out on the rabbit idea even so far as to attach rabbit ears onto the headphones!! Anyway the degree show promises to be a culmination of talented people demonstrating what they do best! If you want to come along remember the opening night is Thursday 2nd June and the show is open to the public on Friday 3rd June and Saturday 4th June at the Greenwich Campus.

http://df11.org/

@digitalfreeform

http://www.facebook.com/login.php#!/home.php?sk=group_193594587330828

Reflections

This week it has started to dawn on me that soon I will no longer be a student and I will have to enter the world of adults! I know it’s already happening as I have started watching the news instead of cartoons or music on the other channels and I am also sitting down to countdown! I have considered doing a postgraduate course but realistically there is not many courses related to games that you could study beyond under graduate level. Also the games industry do not like students being in education too long (me neither) and so I am gathering my portfolio together to show off to all the potential employers. First of all it was boring but when I started digging up work from my first year I started to remember all the good times I have had and also started to worry about what happens to all my friends as we are all going to split up soon. Luckily I have facebook and who really needs face to face contact?? :p

I also had to make a trip down to Cornwall on Monday after lectures which is not at all fun. I left my university lecture at 7.30pm then had to get the train to London Bridge. Then get the tube to Baker Street then another tube on a different line to get to London Paddington and finally I had an hour wait for my train (Managed to get a McDonalds Deli which actually tastes pretty good!) which went all the way to Exeter. I finally got into Exeter at about 1am and it only took another hour to reach Cornwall!!! When I finally got indoors I then was up early the next morning for a hospital visit....

It turns out that my mother-in-law had taken a fall and broken her ankle in three different places, bruised her eye and had marks all over. We still aren’t sure how it all happened but she seems ok (as well as can be) and she goes in to have an operation later on today. She was due to have the operation three days ago but it seems in her wisdom she decided not to eat and drink so she didn’t have to go to the toilet but overall it meant she was put on fluids. But hey ho she should soon be all fixed and ready to begin physiotherapy. So my three day trip to Cornwall was pretty much hospital runs and visits to the local shops and no sightseeing!!! Hopefully when I am next down I will go visit the Eden project and actually remember to renew my yearly membership. If you have not been go visit the Eden project as it is amazing what they have done. Basically they turned a barren piece of land into a green paradise with a Mediterranean themed area and a very warm jungle area (not sure if it was meant to be Amazon or something but it was really hot in there!).

In other news I have to create 2 stands at my degree show and I am actually not too scared about meeting the deadline; which is a first. The degree show as I said before is a way to showcase your work to potential employers, friends, families or whoever. It’s your one chance to shine and hopefully get a job! Although I am slightly worried my display may become cheesy but we shall see. The other stand is a team effort and displays the game we created for our games development coursework. I want to put bunny ears on the headphones for the game but I am yet to persuade the others it’s a good idea!! Oh yeah if you are wondering why I would want to do that i mentioned previously we have done a kids game about rabbits.

Apart from that I shall be working my way through the months at the Enquiry Unit and hopefully earning some well needed money. I also want a holiday but I’m not sure where I want to go. The last two holidays I had snow and it was very cold and I even started to get chilblains. Although I didn’t mind too much as the sites were amazing in both Holland and Paris. I think I would prefer somewhere which is really interesting to go rather than really hot with amazing beaches. From my last blog you may gather I am trying to avoid the sun as I managed to get badly burnt by it only a few weeks ago!

Anyway that’s all I can think of this week so I will end with this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9489000/9489104.stm

It talks about how sci-fi novels have tried to predict the future technologies and in some cases been quite close to the mark. But the overall message is “How do you see the future turning out?”

Image Stolen from:

http://bit.ly/mjCL3t

How time flies...

I am not sure how long ago my last blog was but I am sure it was ages ago! Being a third year student does have its plus points but it also can be a bit hectic at times. Anyway here goes the past few weeks of my life...

It all starts off with my camping trip I had in Kent which was about two weeks ago at the weekend. We decided that we definitely wanted to go camping but not sure where we could go that would be good and also fairly cheap. Luckily a friend recommended us to a place in Romney called Marlie Farm (TN28 8UE). It was just a little over £30 and we had access to a shower room, toilets and if you paid a little extra they even give you an electric hook up if you can go too far from civilisation!!! I must also say that you should get there a bit early as it did take us 2 hours to get the tent up (and 3 to get it down!). We stayed for two nights which is why it was around £32 but with the saving on accommodation we was able to explore the local area and go on all sorts of attractions. The attractions ranged from miniature trains to beaches (the weather was scorching!) to trips down to see old lighthouses in Dungeness.

Overall it was a really good trip but I would have to say don’t forget sun cream as I frazzled in the heat and went a lovely shade of beetroot red! (It’s also important to note that while there are buses and trains it would be easiest to travel by car :D)

After my camping trip I then was back into work mode and putting the final touches to my final year project which was due two days after I got back. All I had to do was to make sure all references were up to date and I had to make the project look professional. Finally I had to add a few features to my game (the product I had to create for my project) and I was done. Well I say I was done I then had another coursework due in two days after my project hand in and the next week I had another coursework hand in. And today I am in work yay! I think the main thing I have learnt from this experience is “man cannot live on will alone” he needs sleep and/or coffee and definitely not red bull and haribo.

I think the best way to describe coursework is like a giant tidal wave heading towards you. Some people attack it head on and ride the wave (by doing coursework early), some people build up barriers against it in hope it will all be ok (doing coursework the week before) where some people will just not worry at all and end up drowning (doing coursework on the day its due in!). I usually fall into category two but I do honestly prepare in advance I just never do the coursework in advance. I would never advise leaving it till the last day but for me I find it much easier to wait till the last few weeks as the pressure of getting the coursework done means I am more motivated!

In other news I am trying to get back into baking cakes as I used to bake a lot but with constant deadlines and just not being bothered I have stopped baking! I also tried to cook flapjacks at my mum’s at managed to cremate them. I have cooked them a dozen times before but it seems my mum’s oven likes to burn things. I also have heard of a type of icing dough called sugar paste which is apparently really good for sugar crafting. I decided to make this from scratch using an internet recipe but was unable to find anywhere that sold all the ingredients. I managed to find the last ingredient from a chemist and was given strange looks when I said I wanted it for baking and it actually turns out that the ingredient I wanted can also be used to make bombs! I just hope that when I do make the paste it is edible!

I think it’s time to end my blog so I will just quickly mention about the votes that have went on recently. I hope you all went out and voted yesterday and all those outside London hope you voted for your local councils. Apparently the result for AV will be released on Saturday and I hope enough people have voted yes to Alternative Voting. I believe it’s a much fairer system than the one we currently have and while it’s not perfect, by any means, it has more plus points that the current voting system. The one thing that upset me was the Tories campaign to make people scared of AV by saying that soldiers need bulletproof vests and not AV etcetera. It annoyed me because if soldiers need bulletproof vests then the government should give them to them!!!

Anyway hope you all voted and I also hope that everyone is managing to enjoy the sunshine when we get it (and don’t forget the sun cream!).

Easter Break

Well it’s finally Easter holiday time and I have actually been enjoying myself (though I know my coursework is giving me evils as I have abandoned it for now!). It’s also good to see the sun for once and not have the cold winter everyday although I still get confused by these cold mornings.

It’s actually quite funny when you’re sitting indoors and as soon as the sun comes out everyone rushes outside and most of the time just lies on the grass! (No idea why it’s just the thing to do). This Friday was not exception and when the sun came out the students decided to party so I saw barbecues on the balcony and games of Frisbee and football etc on the grass. Strangely I have managed to avoid all the nice weather though by either working or staying indoors and preferring just to slouch around.

I did say I have been ignoring my coursework but I am working on the games development course I study mainly because it’s enjoyable and working in a team means  I need to keep up with everyone else and not to let them down. I started off the game by being a modeller but nearing the end it seems I have designed the interfaces, wrote a brief story for the game and also started work on making assets for the game (basically the collectables for the game) as well as modelling enemy characters.

Interface for the narrative of my game

This Tuesday just gone I also had a training session to go to develop my skills in my job and this session was based around teamwork. So we had exercises such as thinking what are the benefits of team work both to the company and to people individually. We also had to do a drawing to illustrate the point that a team is only as strong as their weakest link and they sadly nominated me! One of the most fun exercises was going outside to spell Greenwich using our bodies to form the letters which at first sounds really easy but they decided to up the stakes and said we cannot speak a single word or use sign language. So it was  not much of a surprise that we all just stood there gawping at each other hoping someone would tell us what to do (apparently we were one of the slowest teams). In the end one person decided to start arranging us into the letters of GREENWICH; which goes to show the importance of a team leader. I formed part of the E and we eventually got there but I am yet to see the pictures!

Sort of the idea I was trying to get across!

The idea that one weak link in the team can pull the team apart.

Obviously my drawing was not as good as this!!!

Rabbit Rescue

In the last blog I was talking about my project and the dreaded product demonstration. If you study games and multimedia technologies you have a report (minimum of 10,000 words) and a product to make. The report is actually the easiest part and you will find yourself moaning that there are not enough words to convey what you mean! Mad I know but it happens! The product is what I am struggling on because while I have clear ideas I am finding it hard to put them down on paper and show that I really know my research. The product I have created is a simple ‘escape the room game’ and I aimed to create two types of interface and compare the two. I went into my demonstration (apparently completely lacking confidence) and ready to sell my product. It was about 20 minutes later I came out in utter shock.

I had been told that the design was poor and that it’s a good example of how no to do it. I then completely panicked and thought I had completely failed my project. After a good amount of reflection I realised that they were right in some aspects of my designs and I could see the flaws which I now intend to improve and have all ready for my submission in 4 weeks time!

On other news my multimedia game development module is finally getting near to the finish line. We have a main character, we have a games engine, we have coding, we have enemies (they just need to be animated), we have an interface (built by me) and all we need now is a level! Yay! Oh wait not so good...

We were on track and steaming ahead thinking that we are doing quite well and then we had other coursework deadlines, project and student elections to contend with. This means we are now a little bit behind but we have a team of three designers so this Monday we are really going to push to get the level done. I don’t know if I have blogged this before but the basics of the game is you need to rescue little baby rabbits from the bad guys. I know it’s cutesy and sounds a bit childish but that would be because it’s a kids game and it also it ties in nicely with the Easter deadline! How we planned that I have no idea!

Aside from university I have not been out for ages! HELP!

Well I lie I went out last night for a quiz night and sadly we came third but we did win the bonus round for £20 which goes to a Christmas party and days out fund. But I would recommend quiz nights as they can be a laugh and it can surprise you how much you actually know. I know auctioneer the pub do have a Monday quiz which my friends all go to and do recommend but I am yet to go there! The auctioneer pub is also local to the Greenwich campus and last time I checked they do offer student discounts on certain days if you apply for a yellow card (all you need is student ID) although I last went there a year and a half ago so please check as it may have changed.

On a final, final note I have just been reminded of tapes which played music! How times have changed since I was young! Also I decided to show you the interface I have created for games so feel free to comment on how to improve. I think the buttons should be a bit lighter in colour.

Another day, another coursework

I am going to start off today with a rant about third year and how you need to be committed! Then I will retreat and be quiet because I really cannot talk as I am behind with my work. What happened is I need to catch up in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) as I had a coursework due in so I neglected my project and focused more on that coursework. While it was fine and I look set to get a first in my HCI coursework I am now behind with my project. Ordinarily that would be fine but I have a project demonstration in two weeks! If you are a third year student you will either be doing a dissertation (minimum of 10,000 words, I think) or a project (pretty much the same but with a product at the end). As a CMS student I had to do a project.

My project is about the interfaces seen in game and how we can improve them to make them more appealing. So I am looking at new ways of presenting the same old information. For example, does a health bar need to be present on the screen why can’t the game add damage to the character instead so when life is low the character limps around. To be honest the project is a really good chance to go and explore something you really enjoy but at times it can be forgotten easily and it needs constant attention. In two weeks time I will be demonstrating what knowledge I have gained and what I have created that sums up that knowledge. I think I will be prepared in time but it’s always nerve wracking when you don’t know what will happen! Oh well I will keep you updated on how it goes.

On another note it seems Blackberry’s should never be dropped when rushing for the bus as there screen cracks rather easily L . I also did not realise how important a phone is to me. I use it to check my emails, to play music, to text, to check Facebook (extremely important) and sometimes to play games when bored. I have also been told to avoid going straight to O2 as they will want to sell me more stuff so I should go to an independent retailer to fix the screen. But tis a sad, sad day.

On a final note buying a webspace is a great idea to create a portfolio. I say this because it’s easy to update and keep changing the content. I would also recommend keeping copies of all the paper pieces of work you have for a paper based portfolio. I would suggest the website because it’s easy to distribute around to potential employers. One website (the one I am with) is One.com it was around £10 to set up the webspace for a year and it goes up to around £20 in the second year. Still it’s not bad seen as you get online software to help the web page if you are not so technically inclined!

And I will end this blog by telling you I am trying to learn to draw!

My Attempt at a frog!