In fact, I wish I could just sit down and learn Java, .Net and everything else really quickly. They’re so dull, but the salary for the jobs requiring them is fantastic.

Can’t even think of a post title for this.

The last few days have been rather hectic, in a rather bizarre way. I had an interview in Torquay on Monday. I was feeling quite confident about the job, working for an SEO company. I had a map sorted, and directions, I knew the train times. Everything was sorted. Sunday night came, I couldn’t sleep. This is primarily because I have this whole comfort obsession going on now, where I feel quite comfortable when I get into bed and Tallis is there, but when she isn’t here it feels like something is missing, and that makes getting to sleep more difficult than it already is for me.

So, having been awake for over a day, I trundled down to the train station and drew £20 out of the cash point because it didn’t have any £10 notes. I put the £20 into the ticket machine to get my return ticket to Torquay, which cost £5, and got paid back £15 in pound coins. Yay.

I made it to Torquay on time, and knew where I was going, or so I thought. After hositing myself along the main road, and then up the world’s biggest hill, I walked past the community college and then came to the road that the office was supposedly on. I walked up and down this road a few times; the only businesses I came across were a nursing home and a nursery.  I asked a few locals and someone driving a car for a local taxi firm, none of them had heard of the building or the business. Great, I thought.

After an hour or so of walking around, trying to find this place, I gave in, feet bleeding, and retreated to the train station. Upon arriving there I discovered the next train wasn’t for another 50 minutes. It was cold, and dull. I was quite upset and very, very irritated. I walked up the steps to get to the side of the station I needed to be on, and went about counting the steps as I usually do when partaking in step-traversing activities, only to find that someone had counted them already and written the amount on the wall. Not bothering to doubt their mathmatical ability, I slouched off to the bench feeling quite depressed.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, the agency who first contacted me about the job called me, and asked where I was. I said that I couldn’t find the place, and informed them that I didn’t contact them because I didn’t have their number on my mobile (stupid, I know). The agency made a few calls and the business contacted me, and kindly gave me directions to their office, even though I was over an hour and a half late. Another 20 minutes went past as I trundled back the way I went previously, ascending up the world’s biggest hill once more, passing by all the community college idiots, I got to where I was. I called the business back, and finally managed to find the place, which wasn’t sign posted, and was actually around the back of a rather large building that appeared to sell curtains. A thorough “how to find us” on their website is certainly something I’m going to write if I get the job.

Anyway, the interview went very well, and they were very forgiving that I was late. I seemed to answer all of the questions they asked quite well, and they will contact the agency, who will contact me by the end of the week. Hopefully I’ll get the job.  If I do, I can approach my wishlist and start buying nice things again. I’ll certainly be taking a look at driving lessons as well, as there’s no way I’m walking to and from train stations every day.

I’m still fiddling around with WordPress templates. I’ve got an idea, kind of, for what I want to do with the one for this website. The Zetzio one I’m working on is coming along nicely, though I’ll be waiting for Nemphtis’ graphical input. I’m also working on one for a rugby team, which is almost finished.

It has become almost impossible to walk into a café in Exeter now, without being blinded by your own reflection upon the cum-polished Apple logo of some teenagers Macbook. It’s even more irritating because I want one.

Don’t you just hate it when somebody uses the last of the conditioner and leaves the bottle in the bathroom, resulting in you standing naked in the shower, shaking and squeezing the bottle like a fucking weirdo, awaiting for the white substance to appear in your hand. Yes, that was intended. You know.

Since I made my last template, I have used WordPress a lot more, and have learnt a lot of new things. Because of this, I have decided to make my very own template from scratch, and put the new things I can do to use.

Here is a screenshot of the template I am building, which is still a long way from completion:

I love it when witty people promote their excellence by adding small bits of text in unexpected places. For example, Tallis and I went to a café a little while ago, and found these sugar packets, which I think are brilliant. Kudos to the person/people who came up with these.

Nemphtis, the leader of EDGE UK decided to go for a re-design a while back. We went through the throws of designing templates for the new website, which was planned to go live with a new name, but didn’t like anything we came up with. Eventually Nemphtis decided to settle for a pre-made WordPress template so that the site could launch properly, and we could work on something without such a hasty timescale.

I’m glad to have this one completed, though working with templates that you haven’t made yourself is always awkward, and I still hope to make one myself for the website, with Nemphtis’ help. You can check the Zetzio website out here.

Working with this template has exposed me to the Custom Fields that you can use in templates, therefore, when I have the inspiration I am going to redesign this template to look a lot nicer, as it has really expanded what I can do with WordPress.

Also, if you haven’t checked out the new RewiredMind, do so, and don’t forget to check my author profile.

The gallery has been updated, and I laughed at this when I saw it in Sainsbury’s.

When I was a lot younger I had a dog. My Mum and I would often take him on walks near one of the university campuses which was close to the house we were living in at the time. Sometimes, if we went in the evening, we would see a fascinating view of the sunset. On a very rare occasion it was actually so big and deep that you could just stare at it; a big orange globe in the sky.

I stayed up last night, and when I looked out of the window this morning I was presented with a sunrise that reminded me of exactly that. I ran downstairs to fetch my Mum’s SLR camera and took some pictures. This is my favourite one:

I made some progression further to my thoughts of studying a degree at Exeter college and got in contact with the course manager, who told me the following:

Hi Dan,

Thanks for getting in touch about the Journalism FdA course. I am the course manager so do get in touch if you have any more queries.

The course costs – I presume you mean the top-up fees. I don’t have the latest amount but it was £2050 this year and it usually goes up by about £50 or so each year. But the discounts or bursaries available are good: you get £200 off depending on income (if your income is below a certain level) and an additional £600 off if you live in Devon.

This isn’t a definitive guide but that’s the info I have at the moment.

Yes you can do the course part-time, and the course starts I think on September 16th.

Best wishes,

Russ Evans

I replied asking if it was also possible to study GCSE Maths and A-Level English at the same time, as I’d really like both of those qualifications (a better maths grade because it’s very useful in the ICT industry), and I’m awaiting a reply. I also applied for a job writing for 3D World. The position is based in Bath though, which is a lot of travelling. Regardless, I’d love to learn a lot of things and get to write for a magazine.

The title for this post was actually going to be “Where’s the [word]“, but I couldn’t think of a word that quite describes what I have clearly lost, or at least not found.

I seem to be slipping further into apathy and lethargy lately, and no matter how much desire I get to do something, or how wild my imagination gets, I can never find the motivation to bother doing anything because of the negativity that overwhelms everything else in my mind.

I am being completely materialistic, and wanting to buy things to get a fix for this depression that I am so clearly suffering, but I can’t afford it. I’m constantly looking for a job, avoiding all of the monotonous things because I know that doing them will make me ill, whilst constantly being hassled by those around me who certainly seem to think that I’m not even bothering. I still don’t want to sign on. I don’t want to condem myself to being recognised as unemployed, or take money from the people who do have a job.

I am jealous of the people who seem to be able to string sentences together and make it sound good. I’m very tired of my writing and want to be a better writer. I am planning to return to college in September to study a degree in Journalism and Practical Media. I doubt it will happen though, it just seems to be one of those sparkling moments that appears and lingers, giving you a short-term enthusiasm booster before leaving you to dwell in the cynical pits of aspiration.

My birthday was nice, but I was quite disappointed by the lack of birthday cards from my friends. I guess people just don’t bother anymore. Being 19 is nothing special really, it just comes with the fact that I am going to be 20 next year, which is horrible. All of the people in their 30s and above stand there with their “Oh, that’s so young!” tone of voice, and don’t exactly respect that the transition from 19 to 20 is quite a scary prospect.

I’m just getting pretty tired of it all now to be honest. Most of the things in my life are melding into a weave of desperation and lack of motivation, and I want something to pull me out and give me a good slap around the face. I don’t want to be in Exeter anymore. I love it here, of course I do, but sometimes you just need to deal with the source of the problem, rather than wait for the solution to come to you. I know that it is going to be very hard for me to find a job that I’ll enjoy doing living here, even though I am often very lucky in these situations.

Sometimes I just wish my mind would think about simple things instead of trailing off into thoughts and dreams that come back to haunt me and my boredom.

I thought of an idea for a book today called Wishful Thinking, where you write a diary for a year, but instead of writing it as a diary you write what could have happened, as if you could do anything. I think it would be quite interesting, but typically I have no motivation to do it.

I was hoping that the beginning of 2008 would be the year that starts the reign of happiness and excitement again, but it’s not happening, and no matter how much I try to force the smiles to put myself in a good mood, ignore the things around me that pull me down every day, nothing gets better.

This sounds like the whining entry in a stereotypical emo teen’s journal, but I don’t care.

The few of you who read my blog on a regular basis may well know that I write for RewiredMind. It has recently been re-designed, and has a slightly new focus. Due to this, I have removed my reviews category. You can find my RewiredMind author profile here, which links to all of the posts I have made. I might, at some point soon, try to parse my personal RSS feed on RewiredMind here on my website so that I can display the links on the sidebar without having to post.

The new design is rather nice, and the new focus is inspiring too. I am looking forward to coming with ideas for content to write.

On another note, I am starting to catch up with a lot of games I haven’t played. I need an income so that I can actually buy the games that have been released that I want to play, but for now I am downloading the Beautiful Katamari, Devil May Cry 4 and Rez HD demos. I have also started to play Dungeons & Dragons Online, as part of the first piece of content I am going to write for RewiredMind, and am finishing Neverwinter Nights 2 with my friend Amber.