Category: Thoughts

It’s 5:48 in the morning and I cant sleep.

So yeah it’s nearly 6AM and I cant sleep at all, my sleep pattern has been so messed up recently and I keep finding myself waking up at 3:30 in the afternoon which doesn’t help things. I have work in just over two hours which recently has held no thrill for me. Recently I was given a very slight promotion but keeping up with the training has just proved to be a hassle with only working one day a week.

Beyond work my time at AUCB came to an end a couple of months back and I start at my new university: Winchester School of Art in just under a month and I’m quite apprehensive to say the least. Will my hallmates like me. Will my classmates like me. Will I be a total failure. There’s a lot to go wrong with moving out and taking on the world by myself. Although at the same time its very exciting to go out and make a name for myself. I’m hoping to exhibit some work on the blog as early as October or November whilst I build up my portfolio to release to the world properly (I’m picky with the design of it). I think I’ve gone on for long enough at 6 in the morning so I will leave you with some generic uni photos of what my room in halls is like. I will post some photos when I have all of my kit set up and when I actually move in.

No Comments by on September 4, 2010
filed in Life, Thoughts, University, Updates
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The trials & tribulations of UCAS, University and Life

It’s been a while since I had a proper post on here so I figured it was time for a catch up. I am currently 20 days away from finishing my Foundation Diploma In Art and Design, and up until a week ago I was uni-less. I had replies from three of my five choices telling me I wasn’t good enough. Only one of which actually offered me an interview. I held back from offering any opinion on the process or the uni’s themselves because I did not want to affect where if anywhere I was offered a place.

I was offered a place on a very highly regarded course at Winchester School of Art, I shall be undertaking a BA(hons) in Graphic Arts and I can’t wait, although this wasn’t my first choice uni. Before looking at the uni’s themselves or going to interviews my pecking order was

  1. Kingston University
  2. Brighton University
  3. Chelsea School of Art
  4. Winchester School of Art
  5. University of the West

Now Brighton was a long shot to start with as was Chelsea (both coincidentally rejected me before interviews) although I saw Kingston as an opportunity to excel. They offered me an interview to which I attended and spent a good 3 hours there. It was my top uni because of the prospectus and the course description, although from listening to students who were supervising us and those around us the course was a huge deal different to how it was described. I don’t have a problem with group projects but I’m not a huge fan, I’m very independent and I tend to work better by myself as I’m not hindered by others. Before I went into my interview I realised that Kingston wasn’t for me, which they obviously agreed with as they rejected me. This left me with WSA and UWE. Going to an open day at Winchester just solidified that uni as the place I NEEDED to go to. Everything is how I like it. Separate from the rest of the uni, tailored to my skills and full of equipment that I would utilise. Which was proven when I went to the interview recently, I managed to get a place on the course I wanted with a very respectable conditional requirement of a pass on my course. After a few hours of oohing and awwing about whether to choose UWE or WSA (my interview for UWE was 3 days later) I decided that I wanted to go to Winchester and here I am.

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1 Comment by on April 22, 2010
filed in Life, Thoughts, University
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The future of the internet

Since the iPad was announced the media has been up in arms about the still lack of support for Flash player. But does it really need it? If i’m  honest I don’t think i have ever really come into a situation that has required me to have Flash support whilst using my iPod touch or iPhone, theres been one or two occasions where a website still uses Flash for the entire site but then I just managed to find the information I required somewhere else or through an app.

I don’t completely dislike Flash, far from it! I grew up on it. Before discovering Flash (at this point in time Flash 5, Still then by Macromedia) I was stuck in the humdrum of basic computer usage, word processing, powerpoint and web browsing, basically the bare minimum ICT had to teach me. I remember when it started to kick off, everyone would be in the suites showing off what they had created, basically some shitty animations, we hadn’t actually worked out that it was created to produce dynamic websites. I probably owe it to Flash that I am interested in technology and design nowadays. It set me off on a path towards where I am today, from Flash I discovered Dreamweaver and then fireworks. I’ve had a copy of Flash ever since.

Although I hold it in high esteem in my past, I believe thats where Flash mostly belongs. Sites that are created entirely in Flash with no HTML equivalent, alienate a huge chunk of the world. In times where information needs to be accessed quickly and efficiently using Flash just takes up valuable time and in the end just makes it a lot harder to find what you want. Not only that it has lost a huge chunk of what it was used for in the mainstream nowadays, I browse the web alot. Probably spend more hours on the internet than i do sleeping, eating, and talking combined. Yet 75% of the time Flash is used for some shitty advert that probably could have been achieved with an animated gif (don’t get me started on them!) Browsing with Chrome at the moment I lack the ability to block Flash like I used to with a simple extension to safari, I don’t want to see Flash adverts!

it’s a well known fact that Flash player is a cpu hog and takes up too much memory. This is ok for simple short youtube videos but for everything else its just a waste in my opinion. I won’t go into detail about HTML5 and its benefits and why I believe it will make the majority of Flash uses defunct. But its not going to be long before we see some serious changes in the webspace, some incredible animation effects can already be achieved with css and javascript, the possibility’s are endless but Flash’s lifespan isn’t!

(Credits go to Teehan + Lax for the iPad psd template)

No Comments by on February 8, 2010
filed in Technology, Thoughts
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It’s Been a Busy Ol Time!

It’s been a long time since I last blogged. Reasons for this are unknown to even myself, I’ve sat there with free time and thought i should probably blog but I haven’t. Anyway making it up now! A few updates. College is over!! (great although 2 months away and i miss it already!) so I’m available as a freelance designer if you so wish anything to be done. To coincide with the end of my college life I have launched my first ever portfolio which will be constantly updated as time goes on. I’m in the process of adding all my work to it at the moment, at the time of writing this only my computing project is up on there, although I am happy with the design of the site and I took a long time modifying a theme to fit my needs so hopefully this will pay off. You can check it out here. Site updates over it’s time to move on into general summer life.

This year has seriously been a musical blur. I’ve seen a lot of my favorite bands and I feel that this year truly is one of the best for music with Maxïmo Park, The Maccabees, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and White Lies hitting my top spots. My first ever proper festival experience has also been had this year, jumped in at the deep end and went to glastonbury 2009! amazing place with amazing music. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is doubtful about going, it’s a peaceful and serene place where you can get fully into the music or just chill out and watch from a distance the amount of art projects and activity’s there is insane and will keep you busy for all 4 days. Some of my Photos are below with the rest avaliable to view by clicking here and here

Sunset Over The TentsBloc Party At The Other StageKaren-o Plays To the Other StagePaul Plays With Maximo Park at the Other StageFranz Ferdinand Play The Other StagePyramid Stage As Blur PlayWith Reading 2009 later this year and a series of gigs and smaller festivals in my summer of music its going to be busy this year!

I start at AUCB in 2 months :S taking my foundation diploma in art and design with my A-level results coming in just under a month! busy times indeed for me. right that’s enough blogging for one day. Next will probably be a review of Underage Festival 2009! (much easier to review a one day festival than a 4 day one). Then results day :S

No Comments by on July 25, 2009
filed in Music, Reviews, Site Updates, Thoughts

not dead, still here

It’s half 4 in the morning on a Monday and I can’t sleep so o figured what’s better to do than blog!

And yes! I’m still here, many would wish I wasn’t but hey your stuck with me. My reason for not blogging since the 12th of December is College, yup good ol Brockenhurst College is keeping me busy as per usual, i’d love to have posted since in fact I had a good bye 2008 post talking about stuff that was great about 2008 and what I was looking fowards to in 2009 but that fell apart like……..flat pack furniture without nuts and bolts! (I should never come up with metaphors) which reminds me the jolly blue and yellow super brand IKEA is opening soon, upon which I loathe mainly because it just causes alot of traffic problems. But hey at least it’s a few hundred jobs for people in the area! Right soton council :@.

Anyway moving on from politics, you may have noticed I had updated the home page to my site in preperation for my portfolio and dare I say it corporate rebranding, Yups I’m tempted to start a business! Idea will probably fade faster than the cream on your mocha (really need to stop).

I am going to start blogging about some of the work that I am producing at this point in time as a sort of design diary charting my progress and showing off work from the past, present and future whilst I construct my portfolio. So what has the past month and a half done for me, well I’m running windows 7 on my iMac as are half the tech world (not on iMacs just in general) quite like it and all my drivers are seemingly working so far. Apart from that I’ve powered my way through prince of Persia and mirrors edge whilst attempting to revise for my final exams before June! This left plenty of time for drinking at the pub and ultimatly Australia day which I wouldn’t have undertaken if it wasn’t for the free fosters hat!! O I also pierced my ear! A mini 12 of 12 consisting of 9 photos are at the bottom mainly cus I didn’t have enough time to do it this month!!

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No Comments by on February 2, 2009
filed in Site Updates, Thoughts

Update Time

Sooo it’s been a long time since I last published a post so around the holiday season seems like the best time to do it!

The main reason I’ve been absent from the blog is down to college work, all 3 of my subjects have had coursework deadlines for December so I’ve been working hard on getting all my work finished and ready to hand in! Some of which you will be able to see soon on the new site I’m working on for my portfolio to submit to prospective art colleges and unis. Speaking of unis where is everyone applying, currently I’ve got Bournemouth Arts Institute and Nottingham Trent buckled down as place I like with a possible option of Brighton. Although I will most likely be going to BAI because I will need a foundation for most unis which is a bummer but if it needs to be done then so be it!

Gaming wise I’ve been a bit absent recently with a bit of fallout 3, Call Of Duty World At War and Dead Space, with only Call Of Duty’s story completed I need to catch up during the holidays. Gamerscore stands at just over 30,000, you can see my avatar in my gamercard shown in the sidebar!
Anyway back to xmas preperation catch you laters!!

1 Comment by on December 10, 2008
filed in Games, Site Updates, Thoughts

iPhone/iPod Touch Viewing

So to any readers out there using Apple’s latest and greatest portable devices how does the blog look to you? I have made every effort with the blog and my personal website in order for them to both look nice and remain functional to all! But would you like me to install a theme that is designed specifically for mobile safari or is it fine as it remains? Let me know in the comments

4 Comments by on August 23, 2008
filed in Site Updates, Thoughts