Mike's Ramblings...

Right, I've made a resolution to try and update this thing more regularly. As it's not a new years resolution, I'll probably break it very quickly, but hey, it's the thought that counts right?

What's going on at the moment? Not a lot, to be honest. Nearly been at my work now for 12 months, which is quite exciting. I actually feel like I know stuff! Also means I now have lots to do, too little time...

Of course, the most exciting event recently was the news concerning Ayria's new album, which is finally set for release this September. Wooo! In other music related news, Chiasm is also (finally finally) finishing up her new album, so with any luck that also might make an appearance this year. I may make some further comments on these two exciting events in the near future.

Might be off to the RA exhibition this coming week, which is always good fun. There's nothing quite like looking at a piece of "modern art" and thinking "why the hell is this art, and how the hell can they sell it for so much??"

That's all for now because I really should be thinking about sleep.

I was off to the Islington Academy on Saturday to see Emilie Autumn perform live there. What a show. There was so much stuff happening on stage, it wouldn’t have looked out of place in a theatre!

I have to say that the stage was positively beautiful. So many props:



Anyway, the gig itself was excellent, Emilie did some hilarious improvisation to chat to the crowd for about five minutes when her big ‘ole keyboard (or Harpsichord) decided it didn’t want to co-operate and the techs had to fix the thing. Violin solos were excellent, and it was well worth the wait in the queue! Talking of the queue, what with the Academy being in the middle of a shopping centre, I overheard some brilliant comments from passers by and shoppers commenting on the “strangeness” of the people queuing. My favourite I think was “must be the queue for Take That”. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Gig was followed by free entry into Slimes, and the watching of Helalyn Flowers, who I enjoyed. Music wasn't that great, but I survived long enough to spend far too much money on merch and meet Emilie & the girls and get a poster signed (kudos to Emilie, she came out at 2am and stayed until all the fans had a chance to meet her. Considering she was playing in Germany the next day, I thought that was quite impressive). Then it was a case of watching films until the first train home.

Couple of pics taken by me:










All in all very enjoyable evening, I highly recommend the live show – it’s quite a spectacle! (Probably helps if you like the music though…).

Here goes...

So, I haven't put much here for a while. A long while. So it's time for another sporadic update.

All is well. Work is going nicely, I have my first six-month appraisal soon, which is tied to a small pay review as well - :)

Life rolls slowly onwards. I plan to (finally!) finish learning to drive, because it's about damned time I did. Also I am going to try and take up table tennis again, having recently found out that there is a club here in Woking. Haven't played competitively in far too long.

Oh and I'm off to see Emilie Autumn play in London this April, should be good - if anyone fancies it, they are welcome to accompany me.

I believe at some point in my last post I said I would write again “soon” - hah! Never mind. Doesn't time fly when your working full time? Seems like only yesterday I was just starting, and I've been there over three months now.

In all honesty there's not a lot to write about. Instead I will list some things which are REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES as of this moment in time:

1.Overclockers (& City Link), who between them, have managed to screw up the delivery of part of an order I made. I wrote an angry email today... and I shall be writing more soon unless they sort it out!
2.My bike light – is dying for no apparent reason. Damned thing. I'll probably have to buy a new one in the next day or two, whereas I was hoping it would last until Christmas
3.My internet – which yesterday kept randomly disconnecting. It's been OK today though...
4.The fact that due to ongoing issues with said delivery as mentioned above, I can't make plans for this Saturday, or next, because I don't know if I should be expecting a delivery or not during the day. Annoying as I was planning to go home this weekend... now it's all up in the air.
5.The Christmas decorations are up in Woking town centre already – IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS YET!!!

I think that's a list of my grievances at the moment.

Edit: Guess what, just as I was trying to post this... my internet connection died! Bloody stupid router *mutter grumble complain*. Guess I spoke too soon about my internet being OK today.

So, as promised, here are a selection of photos from the Ayria gig two weeks back.

( Pretty pictures, and quite a few of them )
Personally I'm quite pleased with the general quality of the photo's, I feel there are a couple of good ones in there.

To see the full set (go on, you know you want to, there's even an admittedly terrible one of Angelspit!), or to see the above at their full size, click on the following link: clicky clicky to see more!

(Warning: Long post ahead!)

I currently write this offline in the frustration that although our Internet is finally working, the router we should have had delivered last Friday (although by now when I'm posting this, 'last Friday' is two Friday's ago...) is somewhere in the postal system. Never mind – the fact your reading this now means that it has finally arrived, and Internet is flowing freely amongst the wires of our flat!

But no matter. I am not here to berate Parcelforce for our woes (see next entry, to be posted very shortly). My purpose in writing this blog is to provide some sort of (utterly biased) review of the 6th October 2007, when I ventured all on my ownsome to Slimelight to see Ayria, Ego Likeness and Angelspit. I was not disappointed. I shall start on commenting on Slimes itself – not a bad place I have to say. I enjoyed the music there – which is a big yay, having suffered immensely in Swansea’s “mainstream” nightclubs, where the selection of music on offer is pretty poor and there is no such thing as an “alternative” club. I defiantly plan to head back there again at some point, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.
( Read all about how brilliant it was )

(Unrelated note: I’ll be updating this blog again very shortly with some less exciting stuff, such as our internet saga, and why the damned router only arrived today when we should have had it ages ago…)

(Or the Internet for those uneducated readers who don’t get the reference – see Dan Simmons, Hyperion)

Yes, having moved to Woking several weeks ago, I have undergone the long, painful experience that is trying to get BT to transfer ownership of a phone line from the previous occupants to us – a process which still hasn’t fully been completed (thus the lack of internet). Fingers crossed, all should be sorted next week at some point. In the two weeks without the internet, I’ve been relying on accessing it at work, which has resulted in only sporadic access to web sites such as this one – thus the lack of updates. It sure will be nice to have Internet access in the flat – having come home for the weekend, and thus being able to get online again, it makes you realise just how useful the Internet really is (online banking, buying stuff online, etc).

Work is proceeding well, am still enjoying it. Having now been there for about six weeks, I’m actually starting to do some real work (although nothing particularly strenuous, I’ll admit). Still, nice to feel like I’m beginning to understand what I’m meant to be doing without having to keep asking everyone for guidance every five minutes.

Less than two weeks now (13 days to be precise) until the Ayria gig on 6th October, which I’m quite excited about. I’ll probably start counting down the days at some point over the next week. :P

Well that’s all I can be bothered to write for now. I might (theoretically) have the internet at some point next week in the flat, so then I’ll be able to get on here again without worrying whether the boss is going to walk past my desk while I’m popping onto LJ rather than working… :)

(Did I mention that BT are incompetent?)

As I allured to in my previous post, I have over the last week splashed out on not one, but two (yes, a whole two, it sure is nice having money to spend :P) new albums – Opheliac and Enchant, both by Emilie Autumn. I have to say Opheliac has fast become one of my favourite albums – EA certainly has a unique sound (she herself describes it as “victoriandustrial”) and I have to say her violin skills are exemplary, as is her singing. And I am a big fan of the piano, which is a beautiful instrument, and is put to very good use in both albums (but especially Enchant). Both album's are excellent purchases. They are both very different to anything else I own, so makes a nice change to listen to. I’m actually quite upset that I’ve just missed her playing in the UK (well, by one month, she was here in July). I’ll certainly be looking out for her next appearance here.

Looks like I’ll be moving to Woking soon (hopefully next weekend if all goes to plan), after many, many weeks of protracted efforts that could fill pages and pages – Estate Agents don’t get their reputations for being useless for nothing, that’s for sure! However, I should (fingers crossed) be getting the keys to the flat I will be renting tomorrow once I have paid the deposit and first months rent. Then I will be able to get to work without a 2 hour commute – no more getting up at 6:30am – joy!

Been quite a while since I posted anything, so expect a very rambly post…

Started my new job on Monday, and all is going well so far. Been mostly doing training stuff this last week, introduction to the company, etc. Looks pretty interesting work, should (with any luck) be enjoyable work (as much as ‘work’ can be enjoyable anyway!). I’ve slipped into the working mentality pretty easily, geting up early in the morning has never been a problem for me. Already looking forward to the first pay cheque soon! The only slight pain at the moment is the commuting, but I should (all being well) be moving out to Woking in the next week or two, which will result in far less hassle with the travel. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed my first week there so all looking good so far.

Football season kicked off again this weekend as well (woo) and United promptly failed to beat Reading (boo). The loss of Rooney at half time meant we had no real forward to break down the 15 million men Reading seemed to have packed behind the ball – thus no goals. To be honest, I believe Smith shouldn’t have been sold – we are currently lacking a proper centre forward, especially as Saha is (always) injured. Once Tevez is fit we should be fine, but since he is currently not, that leaves us with serious striker problems on Wednesday… never mind. The season ahead will be tough – it’s going to be too close to call between us and Chelski for the title, and Liverpool will probably push us close as well. Defiantly going to be a three horse race for the title this year.

I had my graduation ceremony quite a few weeks back now, which was all good fun. The Grad ball in the evening was pretty cool as well, nice to have a night out with everyone before we all went our separate ways.

My desire to spend money on CD’s is ever increasing, currently my number one target at the moment is Opheliac by Emilie Autumn (Myspace page Here). Heard quite a few of her tracks online now, and I have to say I am very impressed with her stuff. Holding off buying it until I get paid, because at the moment I have very little money indeed (god damn train tickets are NOT cheap).

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll try not to leave such a gap before I update it again.

...more Stuff!

This entry is going to have a distinctly musical taste. As I mentioned in my last entry from Swansea, I have recently purchased the new compilation ‘Fxxk The Mainstream Vol 1’. It consists of four disks, so for just £20 odd I couldn’t say no. My main justification for spending this money which I strictly don’t have, is that the music on here would provide an excellent way to introduce me to new bands in the industrial and gothic scene, since strictly speaking I don’t really have a great deal of knowledge about many of these bands. I have to say that it’s been a successful purchase. There are some excellent tracks on the CD’s, and there are definitely some bands that I will be following up on and checking out further (along with all the other bands I’ve promised myself that I will check out over the last few months and buy albums when I can afford it :P ), like XQP-21, :Wumpscut:, Tamtrum, and several others I can’t be bothered to list here. Overall it’s a good compilation and well worth the money in my opinion.

The other music thing I wanted to write about here is that Ayria are once again embarking on a European tour. This time, instead of only having one UK date all the way up in Edinburgh, they so far have three confirmed dates in Leeds, Sheffield and London (yay!). Obviously I will be attending the London date, which is on the 6th October at Electrowerkz (I looked up where it was yesterday but I’ve forgotten already, somewhere in the centre of London). Also playing will be Angelspit (probably headlining) and Ego Likeness. I’ve heard some stuff by Angelspit and they sound pretty cool, and although I haven’t heard any of Ego Likeness’s stuff, I look forward to finding out what they sound like (they toured with Ayria across the US earlier this year, so they must be good :P).

If anyone is interested in accompanying me to see Ayria, they are more than welcome to come. I will obviously be hyperly-excited (if that’s not a word, it is now), and I will do everything in my power to make sure I attend. The show I went to in Edinburgh was awesome, so no way am I going to be missing out on them coming back to the UK again.

October can’t come soon enough…

It’s been a while since an update, and as is often the way of things, I suddenly have lots of things to say, so I’m going to do more than one update (although I’ll probably end up doing only one today, so you’ll just have to come back tomorrow for the rest!)

Last weekend I found myself at Elveden Forrest Centre Parcs with a bunch of mates. A most excellent long-weekend it was too. Lots of sport, plenty of good times, I generally had an excellent time and would love to do it again. Ended up playing tennis, table tennis, squash, badminton, mini-tennis, football, went canoeing, and of course went swimming twice for the first time in many years (I really should try and go swimming more, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it, even if being blind is somewhat hampering). It was certainly an exhausting weekend – lot’s of sports followed by late nights followed by early morning followed by more sport etc etc… The only downside of the weekend was, of course, money – Centre Parcs is NOT cheap, especially as you have to pay for the activities, but never mind – I’ll be earning money soon. :P

I’m back at home now, having returned from Swansea. I now also have my results – as I expected, I ended up with a 2:1, which I am happy with – it means I now have a confirmed job, which I will be starting shortly. I actually averaged a First with my third year exam results, unfortunately my second year results dragged me down to a high 2:1, but I am still very happy with that – it was what I was aiming for when I started Uni. I must confess there were times when I wondered if I would get a 2:2… The graduation ceremony is on the 18th July, and the Grad Ball is then that evening, so it will be the last chance to see everyone for a final time before we go our seperate ways... :(

Of course, with the degree out of the way, I can now turn my full attention to sorting out stuff for Fidessa. I start on the 6th August, and so the last few days have seen me trying to sort out somewhere to live in Woking (or at least within commutable distance, seeing as I am not quite ready to take my driving test yet). I met two of my fellow workers who will be starting in August on Thursday in Woking as we went house hunting. Made some progress, so hopefully we’ll have someplace sorted out sometime in the near future.

That’s all I can be bothered to do for now. Expect more in the not-so-distant-future.

… it pours! Or at least it did today when we tried to go to the beach – dammed Welsh weather! The sun was shining all afternoon until we decided it would be a nice day to head down to the beach for a bit, and then the rain clouds rolled over…

This is probably (almost 100% certainly in fact) my last journal entry from Swansea for some time (possibly ever, sob sob) as I am returning home on Saturday. I’ll miss this place, very nice city, and I hope to return to it again at some point in the not too distant future!

Well there’s not a lot else I want to say. I’m awaiting the arrival of some new music (I’ll probably write some stuff about it when I’ve got it), and tomorrow it’s the big house clean-up in an attempt to get as much of our deposit as back as possible (ha) – always amusing, especially considering some parts of the house aren’t exactly in a particularly clean state… still, it’s got to be done. I also (finally) got around to spending some book tokens I got for my birthday back in February, got some more stuff by Peter Hamilton – a most excellent author, if you’re into Sci-Fi he’s definitely one to check out, he’s written some cracking books and I’m sure these two will be no different.

Now I simply have to waste away two more days… and then it’s farewell Swansea.

Finished. Over. Done and Dusted.

Just like that, on Friday 1st June, I finished three years of University education with my last exam. Although I’m technically still a student, I won’t be for long… my graduation ceremony is in just over a month.

I feel the exams, with the exception of one, went reasonably well, so I’m confident that I’ve done enough to secure a 2:1. Enjoying a couple of weeks of freedom now, doing absolutely nothing (with the exception of driving lessons, which continue apace). Speaking of driving, Swansea sure is good for getting used to hill starts – becoming quite good at them!

Looking forward to the next football season already – United have been spending big, signing Anderson and Nani, who both look like excellent prospects for the future. Give it a year or two, and we might actually be good enough to win the Champions League again!

Now just to enjoy a week or two of relaxation… no stress, no worry… no exams… no nothing… ah, this is the life!

Today I had my third exam, which means I am halfway through them – only three left, the last of which is in one week’s time, next Friday.

So far, they’ve been going pretty well. The one today wasn’t great, but the two I had previously went pretty well (especially AI Applications yesterday, that one went very nicely) so I am pretty pleased so far. Just have to make sure I don’t screw up the other three, and I’m away!

Which of course means University is nearly at an end. I’ve had an amazing three years here, have loved practically every minute of it and thoroughly enjoyed myself. No more lectures (boo hoo!), and soon, no more exams… (YAY!)

Having said I’ve enjoyed myself, I’m also looking forward to leaving. I have had enough of education – coursework, exams, work etc. Looking forward to doing some proper work for a change, and actually earning some money (it sure will be nice to actually have some cash!)

In the meantime, it’s another week of solid revision… oh the joy. Still, nearly over now… expect to see me rambling on about how much I miss this all in a couple of weeks time… :P

Life continues at a slow rate… first exam on Monday, so currently my days are full of that fun thing known as ‘revision’… oh the joy.

Went out last weekend for my housemate Dave’s birthday. Went out for a meal, did the Mumbles Mile and then went out to town – a good time was enjoyed by all. I managed to avoid going to Play for the night (which is a good thing) and came home earlier than the rest of them, but enjoyably fun – nice to have a night out before the exam period seriously kicked in. Had another driving lesson today, drove around the centre of Swansea briefly – all good fun. Still haven’t killed anyone, so I must be doing something right… :P

Probably the most exciting event of the week (because I’m a devoted fan) was the launch of the music video for “My Device”, by Ayria. I’ve posted it on my MySpace page (LinkyLink), so go and watch it, because it’s quality (in my opinion anyway, but I have a slightly biased view). Love the whole sci-fi theme and setting, it’s a very cool video, and excellently produced. Now normally I’m not a big fan of music videos… but I’ll make an exception in this case. (Also, My Device is a top-quality song).

Enough reading – go watch that video!!

Been meaning to write some stuff up here for a couple of days now, but only just getting around to it now.

Lectures have pretty much wrapped up now, got a couple next week and then that’s it. Two weeks until my first exam… panic!! Especially as its Cryptography, which is definitely going to be one of the harder ones. One more piece of coursework to hand in on Friday, but that’s now basically all done, just a few bits more need to be added, but it’s almost complete. On with the revision… (Oh the joy).

Most important event of recent times: United were crowned champions of the Premiership today after Chelski failed to beat Arsenal… although Arsenal (in typical style) made hard work of it, and could well have lost, even though they had enough chances to actually win. It’s nice to be champions again, a good feeling – now just the FA cup to win, and we’re sorted! I look forward to bullying Jim (a Chelsea fan) in the coming weeks… hehe. Come on you Reds!

I also have bought the new VNV Nation album, Judgement. I’ve been wanting to buy some VNV for a while now, so I thought this would be a good place to start. Liking the album a lot, especially Testament (which is playing right now as I write this), and Nemesis, which are by far my favourite tracks on the album. It’s good stuff, and I look forward to getting more of their music in the future.

That’s all for now. Oh, one more thing – played tennis for the first time in ages this week, and beat Tim 6-4 – which is my second win over him in three years, go me! So that’s about 30-2 to him then… :P (In my defence, I should have won more, I simply can’t win tie breaks… don’t know why. Must be psychological.)

Been a little while since an update on here, so here goes.

Back in Swansea again after the Easter break – only another week and a half of teaching left, and then that’s it! (Apart from exams of course…) My first exam is on the 21st of May, with my last being on the 1st of June, with six exams crammed into that period (I even have two exams on the same day, which is no fun).

Still in the processes of finishing off my coursework – got some Cryptography due in on Friday which is basically all done apart from one bit, and then some Mobile Interaction Design stuff to get finished for the Friday after. Still quite a bit of work to do on that one – stupid report to write.

Have been continuing my driving lessons – had my first one in Swansea today, which was interesting (all these damned hills! Certainly don’t get all these hills in Ickenham I tell ya!).

Not much else to say – at the moment my life seems to consist of going to Uni for lectures, working on coursework, and starting my revision for the exams. With the odd bit of Footy Manager thrown in as well of course. ;)

Fairly confident about United’s chances of going through to the Champions League final – although our defence is looking awful at the moment, our attack is potent enough to cause Milan problems in Milan, especially on the break. I can see us scoring at least once, so it’s a question of just making sure we don’t concede too many – Ronaldo, Giggs and Rooney on the break against a back four with an average age of 32 is bound to yield at least something…

Can’t decide if I want Liverpool or Chelsea to win tonight. I think the best result is if all the Chelsea players break their legs and can’t play… now that would be good! :P

Edit: Almost forgot! I ordered the new Assemblage 23 album yesterday, so looking forward to the arrival of that! I thought to celebrate having some money again I would buy a new album - and I decided on this one.

Just a quick update today.

Been revising this week – utterly bored of it already. Might have a change from revision tomorrow – by doing some coursework. :P

Had my first driving lesson last week, got a couple more coming up. I didn’t crash (always a bonus) and generally it went well, which is cool.

Played football twice (!) last week – crazy stuff. Playing again this week at Goals on Thursday, then at the weekend it’s “The Big Match” – forget United v Arsenal, this is where it’s at! Us lot take on my brother (although he's probably not going to be playing because he's screwed his knee up, which is a huge bonus because he's their best player by miles) & his mates – if we lose, I fear that we will never live it down, so it’s a vitally important game. Nothing short of a win will do!

I’ve also signed up to Last.fm, because I wish to expand my music collection further and thought this would be an excellent way to do so. Although having said that, I can’t really afford to buy any new music at the moment, so I’m in the process of listening to music I would like to buy… just currently not being able to do so at the moment. If anyone’s interested, my profile is here: http://www.last.fm/user/4Play_Mike

That’s all for the moment I think. Now back to wasting time before I go down the pub…

It’s been a pretty hectic couple of weeks – but I’ve finally managed to finish all my work for this term!

Project was done, dusted and bound on Wednesday and I will be handing it in tomorrow. Reasonably happy with it, I know for a fact it could have been better, but I’m hopeful I will get a reasonably good mark for it. My supervisor seemed to be quite happy with the draft, so fingers crossed!

Finished my AI coursework today as well – it works pretty much perfectly, so I’m hoping for a good mark.

With those two done, it will be nice to have a couple of days of relaxation without worrying about any deadlines – going home on Saturday for Easter, which will be good – home cooked food! Seeing everyone again etc.

Then it’s back to work – got two pieces of cwk to do over Easter, as well as revision to start thinking about. I now know my first exam is on the 21st of May – seems ages away… but it will come around in no time so… panic!

As I have mentioned numerous times this term, it’s been a pretty busy one in terms of workload, but it’s been another enjoyable term – however it does mean I now only have THREE MORE WEEKS of teaching until I FINISH UNI FOREVER – almost time to join the real world.

But right now, I’m going to sit back, relax, and play some Football Manager…

Yes, it’s been another dull week.

Been working hard. Cryptography coursework due in on Friday, and then AI and my project (panic!) due in the following week. All my coursework seems to be preceding at the pace of a snail that has lost the will to move… but I did get a draft of my project write-up back from my supervisor today, and judging by the comments scrawled across it, it appears to be on the right track, so that’s good. Now just have to get it all finished and tidied up in a week whilst getting the other two courseworks finished… I tell you, there is NOT enough time in the day. 26 hours anyone??

Went out last Saturday for the first time in a while, to celebrate JB’s 21st, which was a good laugh, although we’ve probably added another restaurant onto the “hope that rabble don’t come back again” list – certain people (mentioning no names… Jim) can be slightly (actually, very might be more appropriate) too loud and crude for public restaurants. :P Good night though, fun enjoyed by all, although I’m glad I didn’t go out any further than the pub, because the rest of the night in town seemed to descended into them throwing VK over each other in Sin City (and I've seen the pictures…) mmmmm, fun… and we now have a big fat road barrier in our house… anyone need one?

Ahhh, drunken shenanigans…

Almost at the end of term… my god it’s flown by, seems like yesterday I was just coming back from Christmas. Almost at the end of my university life… mad, it’s passed by quicker than a hungry monkey desperately chasing a moving banana – have you seen how quick those guys move??