I've just realised, while I was away I was meant to post that this blog is now a grand 1 year old! Started as a way to document my placement year, on CreateUK, it is now going to be my way of telling the world about how I'm doing at Full Sail. Thanks to anyone that actually read any of it!
Anyway, I've done a much better job of the photos of Dublin, and put all of the old photos up in a new gallery. There is no longer any fancy search function, everything is just up there by event, but it means it is more likely to be updated. I have a bit of a back catalogue to get through, so I may get on with that in a min. Check them all out at www.HiAsh.com/photos.
* Update * I've just added the ability to translate this website into one of five languages onto each page. Just click the appropriate flag in the top left of the page. Sweet!

My photos from Dublin have been hurriedly pushed through Photoshop and have shot up to www.HiAsh.com/photos/ so feel free to have a look. I'll do a better job of them later in the week hopefully, (retouching, having larger images, making a better gallery site and adding more photos from other events.)

I was totally stunned on Friday by being driven by Louise to Stanstead Airport to jet off to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate the arrival of my 21st Birthday tomorrow. All of my mates were standing there waiting for me. I had no idea and everyone did a top job of keeping it quiet for four months! Go Karting, The Guiness Brewery Tour, pub crawls, a couple of clubs and more McDonalds than you could shake a Fillet of Fish at. Thanks Everyone!

I have been tinkering with the site again, so you may notice a few small changes here and there, with more over the next few days. I keep saying its getting to be the way I like it, but these little touches are important. One of them should fix opacity problems found in Safari for example, which I managed to have a quick browse with at Submerge. I've also fixed some broken images not changed during the porting of this blog over from CreateUK. Best of all is the addition of more awards and competition wins to the frontpage, one of which is for the X-Box Media Center Skinning Contest, with the winners announced this past weekend.
I think all that needs adding now are more styles for the site and more of my work, as well as a page template for showing off image based work. It will all come shortly.
Finally, I may have landed myself a job as a writer for gamesTM magazine here in the UK, while I'm away studying in Florida. Kind of like a diary of what Chris and I have been doing during our studies and pursuit of a career in games. If it comes off, it would be excellent news, allowing us to earn some money so we could eat!

Today I bring you photographic joy. Submerge 2004 and the F1 Demonstration in London's Regent Street in glorious visual detail, just for you!
Submerge: Bought to you by James Nation and Some of my Images, in Association with Chris O'Shea
F1 Demo: My Unsorted Images and Videos
Highlights: My GameBoy and I Share an Ice Cream with a Guest at Submerge, then Juan Pablo Montoya Races Past in his BMW Williams and Again in Beautiful Full Motion!

OK, so I had a crappy spot at Submerge, the judges didn't speak to me or even see my project, I didn't win anything and the two days of little sleep and 550 mile drive have left me knackard. But hey, at least there were a few MLA winners, especially the Submerge Award (i.e. Best-of-Show) winners, Bo-Shing for Minyuns. Well done guys, highly deserved. You'll go far.
On a totally unrelated note, I went to a cash-point (or ATM to you yankees,) today and tried to change my PIN. After choosing that option I got the blue-screen-of-death and watched in horror as the machine crashed and rebooted Windows NT (very slooooooowly.) The bastard kept my card too!
***Stupid bloody coders given important jobs... What's the point in a colour screen when the old black and green ones worked?! Back in my day... grumble, grumble***

So here I am LIVE! at Submerge 2004. The MediaLab Arts stuff I've obviously seen before, but there are a few other colleges and uni's here displaying some of their 'talent.' There is some good stuff on display, I especially liked a QuickTime someone had done for a Pot Noodle ad. Very Nice. At the same time, MLA is head and shoulders above everyone else here. And my GBA project has had a brilliant responce. EVERYONE that has looked so far has said, "I have never thought of doing something like that," referring to reusing a device we already own for extra use. The first guy I showed practically offered me a job on the spot, but I then told him I was off to the USA. All in all, its looking good so far, and I'm glad I came for the little exposure I'm getting, (I'm in a bit of a crap spot in a corner.) I might even have a chance at a Commercial Value prize...
In related news, my project only earned a 2:2! Very disappointing, but I earned a 2:1 overall. Obviously not the First I was hoping to scrape, but hey... There's always Florida!

I've just been test driving the new verisons of Mozilla and Firefox, (which I am using to post this!) and both have fixed a little glitch which broke up the background image of this website if you scrolled one of the scrollbars. So now the only inconsistancies I can find between IE, Mozilla, Firefox and Netscape is that the 'Text Area' in the email form on the left changes width slightly and Netscape renders the opacity of the backgrounds at incorrect levels. So overall, not bad! I've not ever used Opera, so I can't comment on that, or what it looks like on a Mac, (or Linux for that matter,) since I no longer have access to one. Feel free to send any comments on the way you view the site to the usual address!

So that's the end of England's EURO 2004 campaign. At least the French are out too, along with a lot of other big names. I thought Greece looked dangerous in the group stage and was glad England didn't face them. I think we really would have struggled. I still would have preferred Spain. Oh well. Now we can sing "40 years of hurt" in the World Cup - Germany 2006!
In game news I've just got Driv3r on the X-Box today. I was really disappointed. The production of the FMV is pretty high, but the in-game stuff is still quite basic. Character animation is somewhat laughable. Mouths still don't move during speech, (and they don't move much in the FMV either, which looks odd.) The car physics is still the main draw though, which makes the driving sections quite fun, but the appalling 3rd person camera control makes the on-foot shooting areas tedious. The maps seem fairly faithful to the real world. I managed to find a hotel I've stayed in on a trip to Miami, along with the shopping centre and Hard Rock Cafe nearby (labeled the Miami Stars Cafe in the game.) Despite my initial disappointment, I have still been playing for a few hours and progressed onto Nice which has a much tighter, complex road layout, which could be fun. So either this game is addictive fun despite it's flaws, or I'm just stubborn! I wouldn't have thought I will return to this title once I have finished it, but I have yet to make a stunt movie which could kill half an hour if I were bored.
Finally, in a website update, I have added the ability to choose the theme you are looking at on this site. In the top left of the page is a drop down box with a list of different themes. Pick one and all pages on this site will be set to that theme. You can change your mind at any time, or stick to Random to sample them all eventually. It also makes it easier for me to add new themes, so look out for new additions to the list very now and again. I have 5-10 more ideas in the works already.

Please England... PLEASE win tonight! And don't start a major bust up with Portuguese fans afterwards, whatever happens. If we do win, we should expect Holland in the Semi's and then France in the Final. Which really would rule.
(If you don't know, I'm talking about EURO 2004. Some Football (not Soccer!) tournament or other.)

I went to one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers gigs in Hyde Park, London this weekend and as expected, they did indeed rock. The support acts were Chicks on Speed, (who sucked so bad they were booed off stage mid session,) and James Brown, (who you were lucky to understand a word from, since it was mostly noises and mumbles more than lyrics. But hey, I've seen the "Godfather of Soul"!)
I got the tickets for my Brother's 18th birthday present, so thanks for thaking me with you Chris! ;o)
Wimbledon starts today, but looks like I'm not going now :o( Never mind.

Yesterday I entered the X-Box Media Centre Skinning Contest, with a beautiful piece.
I've also got my entry in for Submerge 2004. I just hope it gets there before the deadline of tomorrow!
Some people on the MediaLab Arts course have got themselves into the Computer Arts Graduate Showcase this year. My work wasn't chosen by the lecturer's to be submitted :o( but well done to the Bo-shing guys!

I've been finishing up HiAsh.com the past few days. I moved over the blog from CreateUK and today added in the latest entry on the HiAsh front page.
On the projects side of things I've added the e-Learning on the GameBoy Advance site into the new portfolio. The only things I can see that need doing now are having the media bar elements change, (especially on the portfolio page so that they are more relevant to what you are reading at the time,) add some work to the portfolio and then add more background styles for the site to randomise to. After that it would just be tinkering, (I might center the whole thing for example, or allow you to choose and fix to a style with a cookie.)

I'm hoping to do a few of the things you should 'do-at-least-once-in-your-life' before I jet off to Florida (moving date is now September 10th for that.) One of those is to go and watch the Tennis at Wimbledon and as luck might have it, my Dad got a hold of a pair of tickets in the ballot and can't use them. Sweet. I think I might be going to the British F1 Grand Prix this year too. So now its just a trip to Old Trafford that I really want to do!
Also managed to book another holiday, to Portugal. Unfortunately it is long after the football is over :o(
I'm still waiting for these MediaSmart people to talk to me. I'm going to get back to GMTV and offer my services to them again, since they seem ready for me.

I'm typing this in the Upper Class lounge that Virgin borrow from Delta, (pretty swish huh?)
In the past few days my Dad and I have managed to find out about buying a car, drivers licenses, insurance, where to get furniture, actually rented a flat and all sorts of other bits in preparation for my move in September to Full Sail. Got a nice flat in Whisper Lakes which is within walking distance of the Uni which is handy, and will probably get a Ford Focus as our car. Oh, and if you weren't jealous enough ;o) DAMN it was hot!

So thats it! My degree is over! All hail Ashley Bennett BSc (Hons) :o)
In other related news, I move out of Plymouth tomorrow, I'm off to Florida on Friday to find somewhere to live and I may be attending, (and indeed presenting at,) Submerge in Bristol this year (1st and 2nd July.) More on that as it comes.

My project presentation went pretty terribly. So, guess I can hope for a 2:1 then. ¦o(

Wow. 2 days in and HiAsh.com receives it's first spam email. Bastards.

This seems to be the first picture of the Nintendo DS. In the end, its not so different from my effort :o)

Bit the bullet today and bought myself a new host and a new URL. Say hello to HiAsh.com!
The question now is whether to keep this blog going, or write a new one without Blogger, which has just had a tasty redesign, (even if I think it has been made more difficult to update due to more clicks being involved.) We'll have to see as I've only just started making the design for the new site, but couldn't wait to reserve my domain name (and save myself wasting more time looking at hosting options!) So, changes are coming. Stay tuned good people!