Blog and Portfolio
General
This category is for posts which do not fit into other categories.
Employability, CV’s, interviews..
0November 12, 2011
Every year the uni runs a ‘weekend’ away at Gregynog for those students who are looking to do an industrial year. The idea is to help open student’s eyes as to what employers are looking for. It was a really useful weekend, and it really made you think hard. Many interview questions are quite challenging and it can be very hard to feel like you’ve nailed an impressive answer when there is so many things you could say. I found myself enjoying the interview stage quite a lot! It might seem unusual but I liked the pressure of trying to answer these hard questions, plus trying to account for things where the interviewer thinks they can catch you out. At times it feels like you are just trying to outwit each other! I should add, I do of course realise it is about a matching process, for both sides to find out if they are interested in and could work with each other.
My CV is very honest, so I didn’t have any problems with that. Certainly a few other students will have learnt not to claim themselves as an ‘expert’ or ‘have very good knowledge of’ when in fact they know little. The format in which the interviews took place was also good, we were able to hear everyone else’s questions and their answers. I took the whole thing as a long interview and decided to answer everyone else’s questions in my head too. I think at times it will have looked like I was itching to answer the questions when it wasn’t even my go, I got the opportunity at one point too (and I was right, always a More >
Back to uni
0October 19, 2011
Haven’t blogged in a while, despite my promises to do it more regularly every time I post! Sorry to all my loyal readers.. I know you’re out there somewhere!
Things are hotting up at uni, a lot is going on. So far I have found out that I am actually still doing software programming, which I was told not to expect. Essentially this is going to be my biggest module as well. We have been tasked with making an Android game. The game is a typical pirate/treasure game. Users must be able to login, have a friends list and receive notifications. They must find clues, and upon resolving the clues, move appropriately across the map to dig up the treasure. They can also bury treasure and leave their own clues for others too find. All of these actions must be updated on a global map and shown to everyone. Any friends must also be notified of any found treasure or any new clues that have appeared.
Basically, it’s complex. Compared to the past projects we’ve done, it’s like learning to count to ten, and then being told you must learn calculus. Not good. Thankfully the majority of the marks come from the organisation of the team and how well you can document what you are doing. It will be a lot of writing and pansying about. I think it over-complicates things when you go this deep in trying to organise projects, but it isn’t my choice how we do it! Never the less, I am still looking forward to it! Should learn lots.
Other modules don’t seem too bad, and I’m looking forward to most of the More >
Long overdue updates
0August 17, 2011
Been a long time since I’ve posted here. The theme which I use for the site has received a lot of updates recently so I’ve gone about putting them in. I think it’s great that WordPress themes are coming along like this now. It means near enough anyone can have a great site. Even for those who only want a cheap website it means that web developers can just stick something on like this and still be proud of their work. Before it was very much frowned upon in a, ‘oh but you’ve just used somebody else’s theme?’
Anyway, can’t really think of much that has been going on recently. I’ve taken up running and caught the bug, so you may see more posts about that soon. It doesn’t seem that long ago since I finished Uni, yet I’m well over half way through my holidays and will be going back before I know it. I can see Christmas is going to arrive just as quick too, and I can still remember New Year’s Eve like it was yesterday. Sometimes I wish life would slow down a little!
That’s all from me for now, may have another post up by the end of the month.
I’m back!
0May 23, 2011
Well it has been almost 2 months since my last post here – which isn’t too great. There has been a lot going on and I’ve either not had time for this or forgotten about it.. woops!
Since that last update the BUKC has finished. Aber came a very disappointing 54th out of 60 teams. I’m not going to be too phased about it as the poor results weren’t down to me (not that I like to blame the team but..) and after rounds 7+8 I was able to keep form and top 20 finishes were rolling in. Where as the rest of the team were struggling to be in the top 30. The last round also saw the Driver’s Championship. This consisted of 2 heats followed by an A/B final. My first race was a disaster as I got shoved off the circuit on the first lap resulting in me rally-crossing over the grass to get back on track. Later on in the lap I got caught out by a pile up which unfolded before me. I spotted a gap and went through it with considerable pace realising that it was closing. Unfortunately that put me on the grass and I was going far too fast across it to be able to slow down or turn. Consequently Whilton Mill are still rebuilding their tyre wall. If this is your first time reading here, please do not take me as a bad driver! Check out some of my other posts. The next heat passed incident free but it wasn’t enough to get me a decent start in the final. I finished a distant 23rd/36 in the end.
I’ve also been home for Easter since my last post, but that almost seems so long ago I can’t remember what More >
Mostly racing news.. again
0March 31, 2011
Yesterday saw rounds 7+8 of the BUKC at Clay Pigeon Raceway. Situated between Yeovil and Dorchester it was one of Jenson Button’s local tracks for karting when he was growing up in Frome. Unfortunately the weather was miserable all day. I went out in my solo race to a very wet track, with drizzling rain. Contrary to my normal lack of ability in the wet I was able to keep it on the track for the whole race and secured 17th out of 36. It must be all the practice in the wet! With it being my best result so far I was pretty happy. There were quite a few faster guys behind me, but they paid the price of pushing too hard, and they all span off at least once.
The weather didn’t improve for the endurance races in the afternoon, and a couple of laps into my stint it started raining heavily. The lack of grip was baffling and the visibility was even worse. With my visor down I had no chance of seeing any signals from the pit lane or reading the time into the race. Since I didn’t want to miss my stop I was having to raise my visor every time I went down the main straight. This wasn’t ideal as I would get a soaking in the face every time!
After spotting the signal to come in, our next driver went out for the middle half hour stint, with me to return for the final 15 minutes. He had a few off track excursions but we weren’t running too bad. When I headed out for the last stint the fog had closed in massively. I headed towards the first corner and was unable to see far enough ahead to More >