Oz Pack

This morning I had a lovely package in the mail, all the way from sunny Tasmania, Australia. My brother from another mother, Fundy, and his most excellent lady, Squilla, sent me one of the loveliest gifts I've ever received. I'll let you pour over the picture before I harp on about it.

Oz Pack

As you can see, the main gift was the Lord of the Rings leather bound wooden box, I suppose you could use it to store your special things, I'll be putting some letters in there for safe keeping. Because it was sent with a bar of soap inside it smells really lovely, but I'm not too sure about the beer shampoo. Should I use it or should I just gnaw at is instead? Perhaps there's still alcohol in there… 😀

But the loveliest bit was the personal touch in a self-made album of pictures of both of them over the last year, taking in the various places they have visited in Australia and the areas they have stayed. It sort of brought it home how much I miss them both but it also made me very happy to see them both obviously enjoying their lives in Oz. A truly wonderful gift.

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Peace & Quiet

Today was my signing on day at the dole office, normally it's a shit day for me, it's quite demeaning having to sit there with a bunch of work-shy kids, having to explain myself to the ladies behind the desks what I have been doing to find work over the last couple of weeks. I agree that we have to do it, I know too many institutionalised benefits bums and quite honestly I would have thrown the book at most of them ages ago.

Although it is muted that the jobs market is gaining momentum, it's not really the case around my area. Due to the number of people now currently out of work, our office has finally succumbed to the pressure and split the claimants into two groups who now visit different offices in town. All the under 25's are now having to report elsewhere which has made my life better as I don't have to contend with a bunch of chav hoodies stinking of stale beer talking shit all around me when I'm trying to sort out my life.

I actually had time to talk to the advisor today, ok it was mainly about Christmas, Wales and rugby, but I felt more at home and finally got my agreement finely tuned to my needs, nearly after a year of attending these meetings.

They are more trusting of me now, they accept what I say so I don't have to provide proof that I have applied for work, perhaps it's because I'm polite and well spoken and don't cause them any grief, perhaps they finally realise that I'm really trying.

The thing is, I'm wondering why it took them this long to make this change? Most of Gordon Brown's efforts to get people back into work are aimed at the under 25's, and lets face it, most of the jobs advertised at the Job Centre are the least paid jobs and most suitable for that age range. Perhaps there will be a more concerted effort on the Job Centres part in catering for people like myself now, I do feel that I have had next to nothing in the way of support from them, mainly due to the sheer lack of facilities and expertise available. I would love to be able to use a computer at the Job Centre, to be able to type and print out cover letters and CV's for free would be nice. Although I have a computer at home it does cost a lot of money to run a printer and having to fork out a tenner out of my meagre benefits to pay for an ink cart can sometimes leave me without food towards the end of the month.

They are simply not geared up to help people of my age who have an good education, they are more geared up to tackle the underachieving layabouts.

Some of you might say that employment agencies should be more like my thing, which is probably true when there is work available. I have registered with five agencies now, I've yet to receive a phone call from any of them. I think this is because I'm not trained like certain businesses might want me to be, even if I'm competent enough to do the job with my eyes shut. I feel that I may be passed over by these agencies simply because I don't have a piece of paper to say that I can manage a business or that I am capable of menial office work, but I say that if you don't give me a chance to prove that I can in an interview, how on earth can I persuade you?

Things are going in the right direction, let's hope that they keep going that way, eh?

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Cyborgism

I'm on a photoshopping roll at the moment, my muse must have found me. I have another three or four projects which I'll be making over the next few days if the inclination takes me, but this is the first of what will hopefully be a series of robotic pictures.

Again, I'm not too pleased with it because I just dropped my head on a background that is a bit too busy, but the main idea of doing this piece was to see if I could turn myself into a cyborg. Laziness aside, it only took about half an hour and to me it looks like it, I have learnt a few techniques in doing it, so the next piece will be more adventurous. 

Me Cyborg

In other news, I made a batch of pickled eggs. How they will turn out I don't know as I've never made any before. We'll find out in about a months time when they have sufficiently pickled.

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Na’vi Me

Following from the previous post, here's the final draft of my meagre attempt at Na'vi'ing myself. Still very unhappy with it as I still can't see myself in there, but I think it's as good as I'll get it so it's best to leave it at that.

Na’vi Me

Possibly the hardest piece I've attempted as it meant I had to flatten out my nose and adjust the angle of the head slightly. I don't think my current goatee helps the situation as a lot of people I know very well don't recognise me, so that might be why I'm not happy with it.

I'd appreciate some critique.

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Frustrations

For the last few days I've been using Photoshop quite a lot, from doing a few graphics for a school friend to a bit of image manipulation to impress a lady friend. 

Today I thought it might be a good idea to try and Na'vi myself, you know, the aliens from Jim Cameron's Avatar. I think I've spent about four hours on two images so far, both look utterly shit to me so I won't be sharing them. I will nail this though, I must just for my own self satisfaction.

My main problem is getting it to look like me. Because the Na'vi eyes are so far apart it is difficult to keep the semblance of my character in the picture, plus I want to keep my glasses on so that is proving quite an obstacle as well.  I may have given myself a project that is beyond me once again, but I'll go back to it tomorrow and have another go. I've found a couple of techniques that work well for this particular image, so I'm confident that I will make something worthwhile eventually, I just need to fiddle with it.

I'm left wondering how the guys who made the film went about it, it's certainly not easy keeping the facial features recognisable. From looking at the various film stills you can definitely see the actors in there and that is my nemesis, keeping me recognisable.

I think I'll try a different method tomorrow, perhaps with a new headshot too, I'm not convinced I'm using the right pose to fit the base image. Hopefully tomorrow evening you will see a masterpiece, most likely it will be a mess.. 😛

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Snow Pictures

Like many people from the UK I thought I'd share some photographs from my part of the world under a blanket of snow.

I just got paid today so I had to go into town to fetch some food, I would have rather stayed at home as the weather was slightly inclement to say the least, but when needs must. So not to waste a good opportunity to take a few snaps I took my camera with me. I think in hindsight I shouldn't have done so on my shopping trip, it was a complete nightmare getting home, no buses were running so I had to walk a mile home with a weeks worth of shopping on my back with camera in hand. *Note to self, think ahead next time..*

Anyhow, here's what I took. The two larger stills are my favourites of the day and as you can see, at the time I took them there was about three inches of snow around. As I'm typing this there's double the amount now. 😀

Winter 2010-1

Winter 2010-5

Winter 2010-4

Winter 2010-3

Winter 2010-2

Winter 2010

The rest are a few views from around town, I dabbled with the idea of photoshopping a new sky into a couple of them to make them look more dramatic, but I've been 'shopping for a few days now finishing some graphics for a friend and making a nice pic for a lady friend of mine, so I feel a bit washed out in that department at the moment.

I hope you like them, I suppose you could call them typical Cotswoldian views.

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Keeping Warm

The UK is going through what some people would call some inclement weather at the moment, a cold snap if you will. Today's temperature was a meagre -5˚C outside, not that bad some of you would say. Slightly colder than New York, considerably warmer than Grand Forks, N.Dakota at -18˚C where my friend Nysak lives, so I have a lot to be grateful for, even if I don't have any heating in my flat.

The inside of my windows have frozen, the interior temperature was around 4˚C this afternoon which is the same temperature as my fridge. Conversely the warmest parts of my flat are behind the fridge and behind the freezer, I suspect the heat exchange from both these white goods is what is keeping my flat 'warm', or warmer than outside. During the summer I'd be glad of the cold, i've been known to sit in front of the fridge for a time to cool down.

The cold brings its own challenges, mainly on how to keep warm, I generally huddle up under a quilt and a sleeping bag with a hot water bottle, occasionally venturing out for a hot drink. Works quite well until the time you wake up in the morning with your feet sticking out the bottom of the bed feeling like a couple of frozen kippers.

Another challenge is eating hot food. You have to make smaller portions because the food gets cold quite quickly. Today I made a bowl of pasta and by the time I was halfway through the dish it was cold so I had to microwave it. 

I have also noticed that these new energy saving green lightbulbs that are meant to save the world from global warming are working rather well, the feckers don't throw out any heat whatsoever. Bring back the old bulbs, at least I could warm my hands on my desk lamp! When someone next says to me I'm not doing my bit to save the planet I'll remind them that I suffered sub-zero temperatures keeping my carbon footprint to a minimum whilst they were driving their gas guzzling Chelsea tractors and enjoying a super heated living room and hot saunas! 

I must admit that I am my worst enemy where the cold is concerned. I hate to wear much in the way of clothing at home, I'd rather stroll around in the buff, but even now with the temperature reaching the brass bollocks range, I still only have a pair of underpants and a jumper on. Perhaps I should invest in some comfy sweat pants and some thermal socks…

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Bad Blogger

I am a bad blogger, I haven't written anything for ages, mainly because I've been rather busy doing other things, like celebrating Christmas and the New Year. 

I went back to Wales over the holidays, spent a week with my parents and sorted out their computer and set up my nieces new laptop. Visited the best kebab house in the world only to find it is no longer as good as it was, I was slightly devastated about this turnabout.

Christmas itself was a quiet affair, I didn't get many gifts, I never do, but I did get a bit of cash so I bought some new walking boots and a new Wales rugby shirt, my first ever red shirt! I do feel that you have to spend any gift money on something a bit special, even though I should have saved it for a rainy day or restocked the larder. So come the Six Nations I'll be suited up in my new Wales shirt to annoy the English supporters.

New Year came and went, I got horrendously drunk on the eve along with most of my mates, I didn't intend to but these things seem to happen without my knowing.

So now we're back to normal, back to the job hunting in earnest and hoping that 2010 will be a better year. The potential of having met someone and the deep belief that I will find work can only mean that this year has to work out well.

Here's to 2010, the year we make contact apparently…

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First Meetings

I met this lady from PoF today, she was really lovely. She's intelligent, chatty, down to earth and she's very pretty too. We chatted away for a couple of hours like old friends, not once did we have an awkward silence nor did I feel nervous about meeting her. 

She's heading back home now to Swansea, the weather is pretty bad and she didn't want to get caught out by the snow, otherwise I think we would have carried on chatting all afternoon.

I hope she'll message me this evening, hopefully with positive results. I'd certainly like to see more of her.

On the positive side she has got her job around my area so she will be moving to Gloucestershire after Christmas, so should any relationship arise from our meeting at least it wont be a long distance relationship.

I'm actually feeling quite excited about it all. Just the thing to fill me full of Christmas cheer. 😀

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Flags

Apparently the flag counter below should provide flags for individual States in the U.S. So before I bugger about with changing my code, I thought I'd test it here as a post.

Nothing more to see, please move on…

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