Lightpainting

I've been going through a bunch of camera/photo tutorials online over the past week or so, and I came across some stuff on lightpainting, and decided to give it a go.

My sister and I did some initial testing with a couple of the torches we had lying about on Friday evening, then went out on Saturday and bought some more torches and some coloured cellophane to make filters (actually, we bought Quality Street, and used the coloured wrappers. Yay chocolate!). Sadly I hadn't charged the battery enough though, and we didn't get very many good shots on Saturday.

The albums can be found on my website. Check them out and tell me what you think!

Back to Square 1. Again.

If it wasn't really quite worrying, I'd be laughing. Yet again, I get turned down after an interview that I thought went really quite well. Yes folks, that's right, I didn't get onto the Teach First program. And, to be honest, I haven't got the foggiest clue why. I really need to get some feedback.

And the stupid thing is A) I *know* I can make a good teacher and B) I would have taught ICT, of which there is a great lack at the moment, so at some point during the assessment center I somehow actively dissuaded them from accepting me; they decided that, from what they saw of me, I wouldn't make a good teacher. FEEDBACK PLEASE!

Grr. Grrgrrgrr. Well, I've still got an interview with Accenture in 3 weeks time. I'm chewing through plans like a worm through an apple here.

Just a quicky

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I'm looking at the Teach First programme as an option for the near future. I submitted the application right before the deadline on 27th March (my birthday!), and went through to the assessment center, which was today in London!

And I've just got back from it. I think it went quite well, the 7 minute lesson I had to teach (on comparing the advantages and disadvantages of searching for information on the internet with other sources) went very well, and I think I did ok in the group roleplay thingy. My interview *didn't* go as well, I feel, but I still showed my strong points (maybe too much, I think I came across a little over-confident and egotistic).

I should hear back from them within the week. I've also got an interview with Accenture at the beginning of May, and Logica liked my application and are now comparing it to their business requirements, whatever that means. I should hear back from them by May 1st.

Now off to bed, because I have temp work for the next week and a half. Yay money!

Oh, and also, I need to send a letter off to Barnstaple with my P45s from last year because I'm owed about £400 in tax rebate. Yay more money!

The future is definitely *not* Orange.

We have Orange Broadband here at home, and recently the router (an Orange Livebox) has been dropping the connection every few minutes. It's not any of the connections here at home, and it's probably not the line (although, we are having line tests run). The connection seems to stay up and running just fine when it's not being used, but as soon as *any* traffic is put through it, it drops.

What makes it even weirder is that it happens much more frequently when I use my laptop. It seems to happen once every few hours on any of the other computers in the house, regardless of the bandwidth used, but as soon as I so much as open a webpage or an ssh connection from my laptop, the connection drops faster than a fast thing.

I've rigged up my mobile to my laptop and am using that for now, but I've got a 1Gb/month fair use cap, and I've been streaming internet radio to it for most of the month...

Vroom vrooom!

I passed my driving test this afternoon, woohoo! Second time lucky, I guess. I got 8 minors, so not perfect, but last time I got lots of minors in observation and speed and this time I got none at all, a massive improvement. I did forget to indicate twice though. Oops. Also, I got the two maneuvers I have no problems with, turn in the road and bay park; I failed on the reverse around a corner last time, and I'm a little hit and miss with the reverse parallel parking.

Now to get a car...

(I'd *really* like an Audi R8. But, being more realistic, I'd quite like to find a BMW 325e, similar to what I had in the US. I loved that car. An original Mini Cooper would be awesome too. I'd go for a Mazda MX5, but Dave's already won that bet...)

(And this is also another item off my list \o/)

Lifestuff

Having come to the realisation that it's now pretty much been an entire year since I took my exams and finished Uni, and that all I've managed to do is spend an interesting two months in India and be rejected from a total of 5 different places, I've spent the last few weeks trawling through the web to come up with some more options.

I'm horribly in debt so I need to get a job pretty much immediately, temporary or otherwise, simply so I can afford to move away from home to where jobs are more likely to be found (read: London).

I've applied to the Teach First program, and also Accenture and Logica. The TeachFirst program is quite interesting in that I would teach for 2 years, and become a qualified teacher, and then move on to an industry job, hopefully with Accenture. This is good because A) I've already been toying with the idea of becoming a teacher, B) it's only a 2 year commitment, you're expected to leave and get a job (other teaching options expect you to become a teacher for life, really) and it looks good on the CV, C) the qualification is recognized all over the world and is valid for ages, so if I decide I don't want a typical career in the future I can just travel and teach, D) it's in London and E) I'd get school holidays!

The down side though is that it's another 2 years, at a time when (due to my gap year, sandwich year and this last year) I'm already looking at graduate places with people 3 years younger than me. Coming out of this program at 26 and trying to find a graduate job, if I don't get the Accenture deferred entry, would be a nightmare.

I'm becoming less and less sure all the time about getting a job and "settling down" though. Part of me wants to just get some money, and go travelling and working throughout Europe. It's totally possible, and I know I'd enjoy it, but (and I know I'm getting old when I say this ¬.¬) I think I really need to start thinking about a pension and some security, especially in the current economic climate.

Another option I've considered is starting up my own hitech/dotcom business. I've got an idea that's marketable, but finding the capital and resources to start it up is going to be a mammoth task, one that I certainly can't undertake with no money, living with my parents. Although, if someone does happen to have a bit of cash lying around and fancies investing in me, let me know :P

I'm going to continue to look like crazy for any and all possible opportunities, but I think TeachFirst is likely to be the one I will concentrate on for now.

Yikes. Home again already!

The last two weeks have included, in no particular order:

• Getting extremely drunk, lying on the floor, and making Norwegians laugh with bad Norwegian. Jer er full, og jeg er en agurk. Kan jeg få en øl? Yeah.


• Making a snowboard jump and wasting horribly


• Making a crossbow


• Making a campfire on the beach during a blizzard, at night, drinking rum and singing songs


• Getting drunk some more


• Getting beaten a lot at Dead or Alive 2, but winning at Soul Caliber and Smackdown


• Playing floorball


• Lazing about a lot


• Eating snails


• Applying to some jobs


• Assisting in the consumption of a giant homemade pizza


• Getting drunk a bit more


• Driving a lot (not while drinking, obviously)


• Visiting World's End (Verdens Ende) - it has a restaurant!


• Playing pool and using the jukebox only to have it play at an abnormally loud volume, thus drawing all eyes


• Managing to miss a train 3 times, but getting extra alcohol free with a sob story


• A whole bunch of other awesome stuff that I was too drunk to remember

The last day was particularly fun:
0800 - Drive Alex, Silje's brother, to work
0900 - Shower
1000 - Eat
1100 - Abandon the carefully prepared plan from the night before (made because we *never* stick to verbal plans..), and go on a Magical Mystery Tour to Tønsburg, then through Nøtterøy to Verdens Ende on Tjøme.
1400 - Lunch!
1500 - Back to Tønsburg for a wander around and a bookshop visit
1600 - Pub, pool and jukebox
1900 - Restaurant for snails, wine, and other such yummies
2110 - Back to the carpark... only to find that it's closed, and our car is inside!
2120 - Buy train tickets back to Sandefjord: next train in 55 mins, we missed the 15 past.
2125 - Find a chinese restuarant that serves beer, via a vist to the YHA in Tønsburg.
2215 - Run to the train station just in time to miss the train.
2220 - Wander to a bar for another drink
2300 - Leave in plenty of time to get to the station
2330 - Miss the train. Again.
0010 - Having stayed on the platform, we actually get this train
0040 - Arrive at Sandefjord, stumble around arm in arm to find another bar. More drinks, more pool.
0130 - Taxi back to Silje's house
0200 - Retrieve Jegermesiter in a mission of extreme cunning
0300 - Lars and Oda arrive, we stock Lars' car with firewood and sausages and head off into the rainy night.
0330 - Arrive on a beach and proceed to make a fire, drink Jeger, eat sausages, and talk all night
0700 - Watch the sunrise
0730 - Skim stones on the ocean (record: 6 skips)
0830 - Head back to Sandefjord train station soaking wet and freezing cold, and horribly sober
0840 - Buy train tickets back to Tønsburg
1000 - Arrive in Tønsburg, get car, drive back to Sandefjord
1100 - Arrive back at Silje's house, have a nice looooong warm shower
1200 - Eat some food, pack bags
1300 - Arrive at the airport
1400 - Leave Norway
1700 - Meet Jonathan in London for a quick KFC lunch
2130 - Get Home

All in all, a rather awesome two weeks, methinks. Now to progress with Life™.