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!!!