Monday, December 29, 2003

Christmas has been pretty good. I got a 40GB iPod. But I (rather unbelievably) gave it up today. The guy at John Lewis couldn't believe it and sold it while I was still waiting for the money back! They are pretty rare at the moment. I'm holding out for a video jukebox instead. Apparantly the video iPod is to be released in January, so I'll probably get that one, if not the RCA / Thomson offering.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

I've been fiddling with Photoshop CS today and yesterday, with some simple, but nice results. I'll try and add some to the CreateUK portfolio during the next update. I might use some of them as inspiration for some webpages. Less stressed with my workload now. Only have the Advanced Scripting to do, which is pretty much in a submittable state already. I'm just gonna add more and more little bits, like health bars, sounds, win / lose images (which is why I was in Photoshop just now, but didn't actually do any now I think about it...) etc.
The presentation yesterday was so-so. I think I got most of it across, missing out much less of what I wanted to say than last time. Our lecturer for that module is my final project supervisor who I saw this morning and he basically said it was ok but the art was crap, which of course I knew. We also couldn't show the games since there is no Flash Player installed in the room we presented in. That could be a bit of a blessing however. For some reason, the mobile version of the game did open. Maybe Flash Lite is super compatible...? Anyway, its down to the essays now, and I'm pretty happy with mine, so I should be fine. I can see that first slipping away though...

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Slight problem with the whole mobile game thing. Macromedia, in their infinite wisdom, provide a template to produce content for the Nokia 3650 as well as other devices, but there is no player available for some of them. Only PDA's that can handle Flash 5 and i-mode phones which work with Flash Lite have players so far. This is a pain since the presentation is on Monday. Macromedia have shown off demos of Flash working on the 3650 already though, most recently showing of FlashCast, a new way of getting news on your sometimes-connected-devices. It looks good, but doesn't help me right now. And most of the other stuff we were gonna show hasn't been completed either. So... how exactly are we going to divvy up these marks?

Friday, December 12, 2003

Hooray! I have made my first mobile phone game! Bit of a cheat being in Flash Lite rather than Java, but still, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, so I'm happy. I might make a tutorial on how to do it later, as much for my own use as anyone else's. But first, I need to nab a Nokia 3650 to test the game on real hardware.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

I've written an essay on the state of online console gaming which you can check out here at the PocketMoneyMedia website, part of the Entertainment Systems module. The final section is only relevant to the project we are developing and not so important in the real world, but would make a good idea as the basis of a real world project... if that makes sense. The link may be dead within a month since the hand-in date is Monday for the whole project, but I'll try and put up all the papers I have written at Uni during the next CreateUK update, whenever that occurs, (I never added what I am doing to the 'In Progress' section for this term and there needs to be more emphasis on the final project site too, so that gives you an indication of how long it has been and that it may be a while.)

Friday, December 05, 2003

Yo. Got absolutely NOTHING done yesterday due to a hangover, which is really useful when you are trying to get work done for deadlines! Actually, I managed to properly network my PC, laptop and broadband connection, where it was a bit ropey before. Had to do it in order to properly test my Advanced Scripting game. And surf the net from the sofa yesterday ;-) Made up for it well today though, getting a fair bit done. Things should come together nicely... I hope.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Time is getting tight now for some of the work. But, I have got a working ROM image for the GBA. It is only simple, (just moving a sprite around the screen with the joypad infront of a bitmap background in mode 4) but by getting that down, I think I can get some simple demo's done for the project.
First things that need to be finished, however, are the Entertainment Systems website (and possbly a mobile game,) and the Advanced Scripting helicopter game. The Culture Industry CD-ROM should also be pretty much done before Christmas and the Programming for Entertainment Systems DirectX game needs to be done over the break.
Busy, busy, busy.

Friday, November 28, 2003

I just had two blokes start on me in Bretonside Bus Station here in Plymouth. I was walking back from uni and these two were coming the opposite way, walked right up next to me and just shouted something stupid, (like "weeerr".) I turned round and said "prick" (first mistake.) I carried on walking and they must have turned round and followed me. One just watched while the other one pushed me in the back then punched me in the face a few times. I was just telling him to leave it. Then he had enough and started to go. The weedy f**k who was watching then said "You enjoy that?" to which I wittily replied "did you?" (stupid idiot that i am.) They then followed me shouting again, so i ducked into a pub at the last sec. I waited a min and then went home. Now my jaw hurts, c**ts. I'm just f**king stupid for thinking i'm a barry big bannana.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Just took an IQ test. Here are the results:

Your IQ score is 133

This number is the result of a formula based on how many questions you answered correctly on Emode's Ultimate IQ test. Your IQ score is scientifically accurate. During the test, you answered four different types of questions - mathematical, visual-spatial, linguistic and logical. We analyzed how you did on each of those questions which reveals how your brain uniquely works.

We also compared your answers with others who have taken the test. According to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is a Visionary Philosopher.

This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others - and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.


Of course, I always knew that ;-)
Wow, long time no post on this thing. I was determined never to have to write that! But, I'm now back from my trip around the Caribbean on the Carnival Victory. A nice relaxing time, good food, nice beaches, good weather etc. etc. Now I'm back and a bit snowed under. I managed to get some work done, but not loads. Mostly reading and some work on the Advanced Scripting game I'm making (multiplayer helicopter battle using Director 3D.) Deadlines are fast approaching now (3 weeks) so I have to be getting on with it. Not sure when I'm going to find time for the GameBoy Advance project...

Monday, November 10, 2003

Hello again all. We were meant to do a presentation for our Multimedia Entertainment Systems module today, but ended up not, which means I'm fearful for how it will go, seeing as I won't be there next week. I'm worried about the module in general actually. Despite cutting back the workload for ourselves, I still expect the end product to be sub-standard. The graphics are pretty basic and not really stylised. Plus, although one person is doing the majority, there are assets from at least two other people, so the whole thing isn't going to gel, I think. Sound still hasn't really been considered, and I just worry about the project as a whole, as I said. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it either, I can't keep moaning about it to them, and we need something to hand in at least. I can only concentrate on my contributions and make sure they are the best bits and well produced. But then should I try distancing myself from the rest of it? How do I highlight the bits that I've done as mine? I knew this would happen...

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

So, The Matrix: Revolutions has just finished. Bit of a head trip some of it. And it isn't all clearly explained either. It'll take me a little while to think about to get all of the meaning out. A second watch would be good. I get the majority though, and I like it ;-) Its just points like, why is Neo the one? How did Morpheus find him? That sort of thing. Its just detail, but I'm obsessing now :-) But if anything will draw the crowds, its the special effects, which I think are much better this time than in The Matrix: Reloaded. Anyway... I don't want to spoil it, so go see. Now.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
gonna go see matrix 3 tomorrow i hope
The Bear says:
;-) been reading all the spoilers on the net. hard to tell whos full of shit or what. got any theory on the ending?
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
tried not to read any spoilers, but i reckon: that smith and neo are very much connected after the end of the first film when he destroys him by jumping inside. this overwrote some of smith's code, so now he has some sort of new powers, such as being able to copy himself. but at the same time, neo has the ability to communicate with the machines when outside the matrix, simce they are essentially, all the same. the evil guy who is a traitor in the real world is actually smith in a real body. as for how it ends, i'm not sure... it could either be fairy tale, everyone is saved, or it could just be another cycle, where everyone is killed, except a few in order to start again
The Bear says:
dont understand how neo can control the squidys when hes out of the matrix
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
the controlling the squiddys i think is because smith gave neo the ability to communicate with the machinces. why shouldthe machines in the real world be any different from the computer that controls the matrix (which is obviously in the real world too) ?
The Bear says:
but hes human
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
but he is connected to smith somehow
The Bear says:
I figured inside the matrix he could bend the rules, cos it was a program. outside he cant, hes just a bloke
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
but all he did was stop the squiddy from killing him. he didn't jump over stuff or whatever
The Bear says:
true. reckon it might be a double bluff though. theres a double layer of matrix
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
someone said that when we left the cinema afer the last one but it seems to obvious and would be a cop out ending. "it was all a dream." i'm wondering if the architect is just telling neo what he needs to hear, like the oracle does. but that may be going a bit far. neo just seems to accept that the prophecy etc is all false very quickly...
The Bear says:
hmmm
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
either way, those big robots with guns that the humans ride about in are gonna be cool. they'll be good in the next game as well i hope!
The Bear says:
so what is the oracle then? a rogue control system, or is she part of the matrix still?
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
she is a rogue program within the matrix. you can never be sure if she is just another liar, but you have to assume she is not. i have thought tho that the whole repeating loop of the humans and 'the one' may be more or less exactly the same each time. so the oracle knows what is going to happen sice she has seen it 5 times before. but the difference this time is smith... he isn't an agent anymore, he is rogue and multiplying. he doesn't want to be in the matrix anymore remember
The Bear says:
but he wants to kill the neo, because hes lost his purpose, hes in zion in the bald guys body. They called them the birth, the life and the death. somethings gotta die in this one, could be neo.
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
yes, but smith is still on the side of the machines. of course he wants neo and the others to die. who is the birth life and death?
The Bear says:
the 3 films. was just a tag line they gave the trilogy.
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
ahhh, didn't know that
The Bear says:
might just be a red herring
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
could just be another time round the loop then. another anomoly will appear and they will follow the same prophecy
The Bear says:
Aw they cant end it like that!! Wanna see it now.
Ashley Beanbag (The One...) says:
haha. well, 2pm tomorrow... I'm gonna post this conversation on my website now and see if I'm right tomorrow ;)

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Not sure how the GBA development is going really. I keep hitting brick walls, and not sure if I am getting over them before hitting the next. Since I don't know C well enough, I have just been searching round and round for code and tools and solutions to problems before I start. I think I have all I need now in order to carry on. I just need to dig through a load of source code in order to find out if I really do have solutions, then put them all together. The way I am thinking at the moment, however, is that this will end up being a self contained title, with instructions on how to create similar titles (i.e. this could be a title teaching the Rules of Sports again, but could explain the process so that a Learn Spanish title could be made for example.)
Going to visit Halls and the rest of the UEA crew next week, at last! Been saying I would for 2 years! Should be a good laugh. May as well do it now while the pressure isn't on so much. Got plenty of work to be getting on with though, so guess I should be getting back to it.

Sunday, October 19, 2003

Hey hey, busy day! I've just watched Kill Bill vol.1 and have to say it was comical in the way it portrayed it's violence. At least that's what I thought. My brother said he was nearly sick... Nice little twist at the end. I hope there actually will be a second. After that I finished Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on PC. I enjoyed playing that. It may have even restored some of my faith in games before I lost it again. It hasn't changed much from the original, which can be seen as a good thing. The only gripe I had was that max didn't seem as flexible as the first game, (unless I'm remembering through some rose-tints.) Just a quick-to-get-into, very stylish game that was FUN to play, (its only been out 3 or 4 days I think and I've finished it!) Bit shorter than I thought It would be, but that isn't too bad since I'm looking for quicker thrills now with my games. My interest is waning with Paper Mario, Splinter Cell and Eternal Darkness. I'm not sure which game to pick up after I've finished these (if I do indeed finish them.) Probably F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2. Two very different games that are quick action but should hold some interest.

Friday, October 17, 2003

I've been a little slack at times this week. Despite this, I have submitted a proposal for my final year project now (for a second time since I didn't read the brief the first time!) and have begun reading eBooks to teach myself things I need to know. I'm starting with C/C++ in 5 Days since I need that for a few modules and the project, then I'll go on to DirectX probably. The Multimedia Entertainment Systems module is coming along quite well. We have already set out a proposal. I just need to work on some visuals over the weekend. I also have an idea for either Advanced Scripting or Programming for Entertainment Systems which is a multiplayer helicopter battle game in 3D space. Hopefully I can use the same idea for both. I'll have to ask Nigel...

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Going home for the weekend today. Just going to view some of last years final year projects before I go. Spoke to Dan Livingstone about my idea for a GameBoy Advance Media Player and he was positive about it, as long as there was a good critical context for it, giving some examples. He also said a working alpha may be enough in terms of GBA coding, which works to my advantage in many ways. I also tried to contact some authors of GBA video codecs which are floating around on the web. They couldn't help much since both are now in the process of selling / licensing their work, but it was worth a shot, and I did get a little bit of info.

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Hello there. The first week back is over. Looks like I'm going to have lots of work to do. For my final year project I'm looking at making a media player for GameBoy Advance. I've been researching this for the past few days and I'm still not sure how do-able it is. I'm not sure of the computational power needed to decode an MP3 for example since the processor is only 17MHz... More later.

Monday, September 29, 2003

Phew. Busy busy week. Finished at Fifth Dimension on Tuesday. Packed up and got ready to go on Wednesday, and chose my modules. Thursday was spent in the car driving back down to Plymouth. Friday I had to enroll, before hitting the town for a few bevvies and to watch the football. Saturday I was back on the train to go home for Lauren's (Louise's sister) 18th birthday party. Sunday back on the train to Plymouth, and now I'm about to go to my first lesson of the year, Multimedia Entertainment Systems!
Like I said... phew!

Monday, September 22, 2003

Forgot to write earlier that the GMTV site is now live at gm.tv/sales which is pretty sweet. There is a link on the gm.tv home page too in the left sidebar.
Anyway... looks like today will be my last day at Fifth Dimension, unless they want me to help them moving their stuff into the new office down the road. I'll offer, but hope to get out of that one (it's raining now.) Pay seems to be coming in the form of a cheque to make things easier which is pretty good too. Everyone here now knows I'm going off. And why. Green eyed monster in some maybe? I can't wait to be making games for a living ;-)
I've been looking at the modules I'll be doing when I get back and it all seems pretty sweet. Entertainment systems (i.e. Playstation,) C++ and graphics being some notable ones. Just worried about the project now, but I need to finish reading the uni paper work to get more of an idea of what's involved / expected.

Friday, September 19, 2003

So, after speaking to the uni, looks like everything is fine. No problems with me going back or choosing any modules. Just need to think about my final year project now. Oh and tell my boss I'm leaving... Louise isn't impressed. She has said she won't go back with me to Plymouth right now. Have to see how that one plays out...

Thursday, September 18, 2003

After careful consideration, I think I am going to go back to Plymouth this year, changing to Multimedia Computing from MediaLab Arts (as long as they let me etc.) It means I really am focusing on working on computer games, which is a bit daunting, but at the same time, I know I can always work on what I am doing now. It means I can save another year of my life and I can definately go to Full Sail in Florida. So I don't get the degree I wanted, but I'm not exactly gona suddenly forget what I have learnt am I? Plus I want to work in games more than New Media, which is now my backup (always have a fallback plan!) And I miss out on a full year of work experience now, but I have done two and a half months, including workng for GMTV so I have a big name on my CV already. Plus, I get a placement with Full Sail anyway. Working on games. Anywhere in the world. Cool... ;-)

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Another day in sunny Harrow. Finished playing in 3ds max for now. Now back to some Illustrator for some fiddly line drawing. Yum. I'm still agonising over whether to go back to uni next week. Life shouldn't be this bloody hard. As the White Stripes say, "I don't know what to do with myself."

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

I've been doing my new media thang and churning out the work like there is no tomorrow as usual! Tomorrow I get to play with the beast dual 3Ghz Xeon machine to bust out some 3ds max models that I have been making the textures for (for a fly through of a new housing development.) I finished those off this morning and spent the rest of the day so far doing some designs for the new Fifth Dimension site. Half the work has already been done, so I have been collating ideas (picking the ones I liked and the ones I was told to like) and putting them together as a base before making layout for the various content that would go into it (all in Photoshop.) As long as this design phase doesn't go on too long, this could actually be a nice little project since there is a load of dynamic content to be added. Might learn a little something.

Monday, September 08, 2003

Hi! I'm back from Florida (landed yesturday so major jet lag!) and am now sitting at my desk at Fifth Dimension (starting my 10th placement week I think.) Holiday was good. Bought some nice gear, ate nice food, cinema (S.W.A.T. is a pretty cool film,) pool etc. etc. Full Sail was a pretty amazing place. My brother is set on it so hopefully I can use him as an excuse to go if nothing else works ;-)
Not alot else going on right now, so updates as they happen later.

Friday, August 29, 2003

Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be today. Infact I haven't done that much. The guy that said he had a lot of comments is too busy to speak to me so I've just done some little bits and pieces. The site isn't 100% finished due to the slackness of someone who only needed to give me 10 numbers, but hasn't. But apart from that I think it is done. I'm quite happy with it, (as long as they are really,) and they seem fairly impressed that this job that has been kicking around for 2 years or more has finally been done, and done well.
The only thing I did do today which was of mild interest was try out Mozilla for the first time to test the site (and mine!) Seems like it is very similar to Netscape to me (which seems right since Netscape and IE are both based on Mozilla in it's early days I believe.) It proved my coding prowess by not showing up a single problem on either site :-) I believe I officially rock.
Anyway, I've been hanging around all afternoon for no real reason and just want to go home. But I have to see out the day and go for a farewell drink (which I don't really want.) Never mind. Just have a swift one and be off. Someone else is leaving today, so hopefully we can all knock off soon...
Laters.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Went to the pub at lunch with the heads of advertising so now all is well with the world :-) Managed to take advantage of the slack GMTV disipline in order to have a 2 hour lunch, and get a little bit drunk. Now work is no problem! Anyway, I have been doing some more changes and its getting very close to finished.
Made a few little changes to the GMTV site. But really the news today is that they are definitely gonna be working me tomorrow. I still need to do some work on one or two pages and I am waiting for people to decide what they want to write on them. Knowing I'm going tomorrow they have decided to have a meeting for an hour or so tomorow at 12, thereby giving me the afternoon to make any changes to the site. Better not be anything major for their sake! I knew this would happen, (a final day panic) but I didn't expect them to plan it! ;-)

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Yawn. What a slooooow day. I've had one page to make today from notes given to me yesturday afternoon. I specifically saved them so that I would have something to do this morning. Well, I was right but it hasn't helped much.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

I noticed the tabs were not changing their backgrounds in Netscape, so after a little more research I found that the code I was using was indeed Explorer only. Its fixed now for any DOM compliant browser, so that is IE, Netscape and hopefully everything else too. Only older browsers should struggle, like NS4, which I also found out is now in use by less than 1%, so I think I'll be safe ;)
Plenty of work has come flooding in and most of the day has been converting the GMTV rate card into electronic copy and then the website. 2 other tiny tweaks too, so all is well for a while. The design is approved and I am now waiting on content for 5 pages, of which only 3 are important, and I have just been handed one of those. Although there may be some more Excel work thrown my way...
Looks like all will be done shortly :) Just as well... only 3 days now!
This was a bank holiday weekend, and in the best tradition I ever heard of, GMTV all knock off early on bank holiday Friday! Sweet. That means I'm not in my last week here and it'll only be for 4 days before holiday in Florida and then my new job.
I spent most of the weekend working on my room again. Very nearly finished. Once I have the last few bits I can probably do it in one more day / weekend, but it will have to wait until I get back probably.
Got a meeting in a min to see how they like the site now my boss is back off holiday. I can't do anything until then, and hopefully they will like it as is.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

I've been asked to do some bloomin' Excel now! Some people really have no clue about technology or even what they want. I really think I could be useful around GMTV though, (since I have the skills to do things like this random Excel request,) but they aren't willing to wait for me to finish uni (which is all of like 9 months or something in a years time!) Oh well, their loss. I hope I have made a good impression here. Just 5 more days left.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Well... there is good news and bad news... Good news? I got the job ;) Bad news? It's 9 to 6 and takes longer to get there, so its gonna be a long ass day! Ahh well. Rough with the smooth, since the job looks pretty cool and it is paying about 15k. So thats my year sorted then! Excellent. Should have a nice well rounded CV by the end too! GMTV will be ending soon. I'm STILL waiting for some content from some people but I'm assured I'll get it. Probably the day before I leave! Never mind.
I'll have a week in Florida when I finish to chill before I start the new job. I'm gonna check out Full Sail while I'm out there, with my Bro, in case you didn't know. I'd still love to go out there and do it, but we'll have to see if it happens. Fifth Dimension have pretty much said there is a job there after I graduate too, so I guess time will tell.

Monday, August 18, 2003

No updates to the GMTV site on Wednesday since it was still in the middle of a big change. I was then off ill for Thursday and Friday, so its all been finished and updated today.

Over the weekend I was decorating my bedroom. Louise was helping me too. Got loads done actually. Laid the floor, made cabinets, put a bed in etc. and bought most of it that morning too. It's all coming together pretty quickly, so hopefully I can finish it of this weekend (what with that damned thing called work being in the way ;-) ).

Went to see American Pie 3: American Wedding last night. Pretty good laugh, nice end to the trilogy. If you like the others, you should probably go and see it.

Because I was ill on Thursday, my interview with Fifth Dimension will be on Tuesday now. Of all the placement interviews I have had and jobs I've been offered, this is the one I think I want for the year (apart from Special Moves :-( and GMTV :-) ). I'll update you as it breaks (or more likely, on Wednesday ;-) )

Monday, August 11, 2003

Made some more updates to the website. Also written some lovely documentation for anyone that will be updating it after I leave. Now there's a first ;) ! Don't forget, if you want to keep track of what I'm churning out for GMTV, try checking here!

Thursday, August 07, 2003

After testing the site online, I noticed the back button does work properly. It was just the javascript / frames being funny offline, so that’s a bonus! Today I have just been converting content from the 'press pack' into a website. But I've done all that and I'm just sat waiting for some more to do. I could probably muck about with the layout of some of the text on some pages, but I don't see much point until I have it all so that I can keep it consistent. They also need to decide if they want all the text, but there isn't that much really. It'll probably just be a case of me adding different images to the sidebars of the pages to make them look a bit different and possibly splitting up any large pages into smaller ones (like programming into weekday and weekend.)
I'm not looking forward to putting the site through the Content Management System (from GOSS who are based in Plymouth coincidentally!) It'll probably be an absolute arse with the layout. Maybe they won't bother and be happy with it as is, since it really isn't going to be changed much. Unless it's just a case of putting the text in the CMS and leaving all the layout including images etc. in the HTML in which case it may be fine. Not sure how the stylesheet will cope... I would like to have a go with the CMS in any case since quite a few jobs ask for experience with them. Might be useful for the final year too.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Phew! Bit of a nightmare day today. Just when I thought I had everything sorted design wise and was adding in some more content, suddenly they want me to mock up one of my other demos into a website to compare! On top of that, they also decided that I should add in a whole new frame to the version I was working on, thereby mucking up the majority of the design on each page! All this just because they want to 'see.' Well, it's to be expected I suppose. Nevermind, they are done now, and the powers that be seem to prefer the design with the extra frame, so I spent the rest of the afternoon updating the old pages to the new format. The only problem I see is that the back button doesn't function as you would hope it would, but I could always fix that by making loads of framesets if they prefer, rather than my patented "JavaScript Variable Passer"-into-one-frameset method ;)

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Still working on the GMTV site.

Changed the front page again. Added a frameset to move the scrollbar next to the content. Implemented a Javascript to keep the framesets needed down to just one file. Added to the stylesheet to change the scrollbar colours. Changed the background images on the pages since frames are now used. Should look fine in any 4:3 resolution, but mostly focused on 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. Updated all the menus now, so each page should have its correct submenu, and it should be nicely sliced for optimisation. As far as I can tell, only the text (or whatever content) needs changing on all the pages now.

Monday, August 04, 2003

I was just eating my lunch in the park when some random bloke (A proper inbred, no mates type) that looked a bit like Peter Kay ('Ave it!) in an ill fitting outfit with a briefcase sat down right next to me (when there was loads of room about). He then starts talking to me...

"Hi. What are you eating?"

"Crisps"

"Oh right. And what are you reading?"

"The paper. The Metro."

"Oh I see. Current affairs and all that?"

"Yeah."

"So do you like current affairs?"

"I suppose so..."

(Than he suddenly blurts out) "I'm not really interested. Fancy a pint?"

(Errrrr! No!) "No thanks mate"

"Oh ok, some other time."

Then he stalks off and I notice a video camera in some bushes. A bloke runs over and tells me i'm going to be on a new gameshow on Bravo (so no one will watch) where contestants guess what people will say to this bloke (like, fancy a pint with me?) Apparantly they will send me a tape.

Friday, August 01, 2003

Working hard. Had a meeting yesturday with the 'bosses.' Had bashed out 11 example images (variations of about 5 websites) and they seemed to like the last site. Excellent news. Told me to carry on and make it and as I was opening NotePad, Dreamweaver MX finally arrived. So, combinging that and ImageReady I have been beavering away on some slight variations of the chosen design. Have another meeting sometime next week to see how its going. I'm a bit worried to be honest. I'm racing away with this and don't think it will take me anywhere near 5 weeks to complete. That could be seen as a good thing ("He's good, keep him on!") or a bad thing ("Cheers mate, see you later!") Really, the only things that are holding me up are the people that need to decide what content is going to be included or not. That, and when I come to integrate the site into their content management system with the web team (from the www.gm.tv site). So basically, other people.

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

So, started at GMTV yesterday. Got a tour of the studios and the gallery and what not. All very nice. Had a few meetings about what I'll be doing, and started to read through some of the competition's websites to get an idea of what I'm making. It'll be a Business to Business (b2b) website selling GMTV's advertising space (on TV and the web.) To get an idea, you can check out www.in4mer.com which is Channel 4's effort. Hopefully this will turn out quite nicely... as soon as things get properly sorted for me on the company network.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Finally going to be moving back home from Uni tomorrow. Lots instore. Its my Birthday on Sunday, so I'm going to par-tay with my mates Saturday night. Didn't want to get wrecked on Sunday because Monday is my first day at GMTV! I'm still doing work for Compass but that will have to go on hold for a while.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Just installed a new Blog, so updates should be more frequent now. I hope to be keeping track of things going on at Uni, at work on my placement, then off to America at Full Sail, (with a bit of the rest of my life in between!)
TTFN!