Tally-ho!

I think that the downturn in my fortunes is now on the wane. Yesterday I had to make a sojourn into Lincoln for an interview concerning my postgraduate studies, the outcome of which was that the tutors would be more than happy for me to attend the course but that as they don't know how many students they can accommodate they can't tell me if I have a place or not until the end of the month.

This morning I had an aethermail from my old boss saying that his workload had picked up and that he was a little short-staffed and would I be interested in some temporary work? Naturally I jumped at the chance and start on Monday.

Something Completely Unexpected...

Yesterday I had a welcome little surprise. Well, I say welcome, it could prove something of a double-edged sword. I was invited to an interview for my post graduate application early next month.

Considering that I did my undergraduate at the same university I think I have a fairly good chance of getting in, but as we all know we've been here (or somewhere very like it) last summer, and we all know exactly how that turned out.

As it stands right now though, I'm just pleased to see that my application has progressed to this stage. I have a good track record of university interviews at any rate- I've done two or three and was offered a place at each. Admittedly that was nearly four years ago though.

So given a little over a fortnight and I'll either be high as a kite or else thoroughly dejected. I'm hoping for the former rather than the latter.

Quiet times and a delightful picnic

Salutations, dear reader.

Once again I note with dismay my less-than-regular writings here, for which I can only give the reason that my life is quite akin to war on board a submarine- times of frenetic action interspersed by long periods of boredom and inactivity.

Hence for the past month I have only one event really worth recording, and that took place only last weekend.

I am referring of course to the Steampunk picnic at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which was a wonderful affair and thoroughly enjoyed by the 15 or so members of Brass Goggles who attended.

We had an entirely enjoyable time sitting on the green listening to the band play, and later perambulating through the grounds before repairing to a pub in the city centre.

So that was one Sunday well spent in delightful company with good weather and a happy atmosphere.

The thing now of course is that with last weekend gone, the only newsworthy event in my life in the near future will be my trip to Royal Ascot. Which doesn't take place until mid-June. I hope I have some excitement and activity in my life long before then.

Until next time, dear reader, I bid you adieu.

Going up a gear

Right-o, it's been almost a month without any noise from my general direction, though that was unintended, and for once I have news.

Namely that I now have a Saturday job that gets at least a little cash in for me. Pretty much all of which will be going straight into my bank account to build up a good head of finanical steam for University, if and when I ever get in.

I do have a list of things to buy- a new coat, which is now paid for, White Tie evening wear, or about 5 weeks wages (!), a ticket for a Steampunk event which I can't go to unless I get into University and another model railway locomotive all figure pretty highly on it. Oh, and money for accommodation and living expenses at Uni also rank on it. Somewhere. Probably near the bottom. Anyway, I digress.

So that pretty much is all I had it in mind to tell you- that I have a job and some income at long last and that my weekly income has therefore increased five-fold, which is not even 1% as impressive as it sounds. It's not like I'm a banker or something. Or that I've ripped the country off to the tune of millions.

A Surpising Turn of Events, Indeed

Whisper it, but there looms a growing possibility that I may be returning to university in September.
I had thought that it was necessary to undertake a year's work experience before continuing to post graduate level, but apparently as a beneficial result of the economic collapse this requirement has been rescinded.
The week before last I made a discreet enquiry to one of my old tutors about what to do if I couldn't find employment this year- and got an application form for my postgrad by way of reply. Things now are moving a little quickly, unprecedented in my life for oh, at least a year or so. The application form is here, the loans forms are here (both downloaded), one of my character references is ready and the other promised next week and I'm expecting a postgraduate prospectus any day now.
The only major hurdle is getting actually onto the course, and considering I did my undergraduate degree at the same university I should imagine I have a fairly good chance at that.

Das Gedächtnis der Maschine ist nicht besonders gut

Yes, from the title you can just tell this blog will be somehow related to the misapplience of science and technology.
Namely, in that my laptop has been misappropriated into some sort of ad-hoc stereo system involving my iTunes player, the inbuilt DVD player and the screen. Which is absolutely grand, don't get me wrong, but now I think I've found the limitation of the system.
The memory is slightly less than rubbish. I put <14Gb on it, which is frankly a poor effort considering iPods can hold up to 60Gb, and then got a warning message in essence saying 'woah! I can't hold much more old boy!'. I did have an external hardrive, which seemed to do a grand job of taking on all my work and music and so forth, and then inexplicably dying at a critical juncture (the day before a crit when I had to try to get my work off of it and onto paper.) So I'm not too struck on those now. Which brings me onto the second point- the internal memory. Apparently it can be boosted with another hardrive plugged into the other port inside the machine. What, there's a spare port?!?
Shouldn't it have come with an absolutely full-capacity memory, rather than just half?

February 2009- Steampunk month of the year?

Throughout January, February has held a certain promise for me as so much Steampunk-flavoured media seems to have been announced or promised to me then. Now I know that it is only the 18th of the month, but already Gold Silver and Bronze have been awarded in the self-styled 'Steampunk All-Media Race'.

So here are the awards.

Gold (1st) place goes to Jeff & Ann VanderMeer's Steampunk anthology, which I procured from Waterstones on the 10th. It had been promised unto me as a Christmas present, but for some reason the shop cancelled the order so I had to wait until I could afford it myself. In any case the order wouldn't have arrived until some point in this month.

Silver (2nd) place goes to Vernian Process' Behold the Machine EP, released on Monsieur Verne's birthday, 8th February. Due to random erratic aether problems however I couldn't secure a copy of this wonderful album until the 11th.

Bronze (3rd) place goes to a surprise entry that hadn't been forseen, that being a Steampunk-and-science themed issue of The Chap magazine. It was released on the 14th of the month, but I didn't manage to get my copy until yesterday (February 17th).

So those are the awards already conferred. Still to come (hopefully) are:

-Steampunk Magazine issue 5 (expected around February 25th)
-Gatehouse Gazette (expected towards the very end of the month)
-Steampunk Spectacular episode VII (but that's just a flight of fancy considering episode VI was released in October and there's been nothing since to sugggest it's still operational).