No – of course you didn’t. No one reads this blog! Nonetheless I felt the urge to update what readers this blog does have on what’s going on in my life at the moment.

First things first. BIG NEWS! Somehow I’ve landed a full-time job and as a result dropped out of college. That’s right! I’m now a Junior Designer at a small company called Alive. I’ve been there for just over two months now, and it’s pretty good!

lready I’ve learned mountains there and I’m sure I will continue doing so. It’s also taught me a lot about adult life, certainly in the sense of learning to budget myself and paying bills and stuff like that.

I suppose my only wish is that I could get my teeth stuck into something more self-directed and substantial, but it’s easy to forget after working freelance that I’m not my own boss anymore and it’s weird adjusting to that. Not to mention I’m straight out of school and although I have a portfolio of work, I’ve yet to really prove my abilities.

Leading on from that I’m hoping to get one or more personal projects on the go. Nothing too strenuous, but just something to call my own and have a bit of fun with. I’m still unsure as to whether to make a simple little blog or something or whether to break into something new, like ecommerce and start designing and selling my own products.

I’ve always had a strong interest in product design, so I’d love to be able to make my own product and sell it on. Even if it’s not necessarily for profit.

I’ve got a shit ton of ideas on the table, but my next step is figuring out a plan on how to do it. I also need funding for those ideas. Probably going to invest my own money to make a prototype and then use Kickstarter to actually fund production… Maybe.

As I’ve learned I’m great at starting an idea, but not so great at following it through…

Worth also noting that both my About and Portfolio pages have been updated. I’ve released a new freebie – my ‘orangr’ tumblr theme, which probably still needs some fiddling, but it was lying around doing nothing so I released it.

See you around folks!

On the way back up it occurred to me that perhaps littering serves as some pseudo-form of advertising. Perhaps littering isn’t so bad… for the pockets of branded corporations anyway.

Just a random meaningless thought… and something to write on this generally quiet blog.

1. What is your name? NaNaNa – My Chemical Romance

2. Where were you born? Little Lion Man – Mumford and Sons

3. What do your friends think of you? CrushCrushCrush – Paramore

4. What do your enemies think of you? Requiem – Opeth

5. Where would you most like to be right now? Your Bore – Seether

6. What do you avoid if possible? That Girl’s a Trick – This Providence

7. What is the main reason you were born? Cellar Door – Escape the Fate

8. Where will you be in 24 hours? Onto the Next One – Escape the Fate

9. Where will you be in 24 years? A Wish – Gregory and the Hawk

10. What couldn’t you live without? The Drapery Falls – Opeth

11. Name a song that you want to play at your wedding? Blood Sugar Sex Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers

12. What will you name your first child? Hero of War – Rise Against

13. How will you die? Scars – Papa Roach

14. What’s your biggest regret? Crawling – Linkin Park

15. Who do you admire? Ride the Lightening – Metallica

16. What do people assume when they first look at me? Creep – Radiohead

17. What is some good advice for me? Central – John Frusciante

18. What will be a big challenge in life for me? Don’t Believe – Seether

19. What is my sexual preference? Truth – Seether

20. What do you say when life gets tough? The Zephyr Song – Red Hot Chili Peppers

21. What is the story of your life? Heroes of Our Time – Dragonforce

Boredom is a strong motivator.

Random photo I took of a cat to entice you to read the uninteresting rubbish I have written.

Currently I’m somewhat in limbo as to what my future may hold. I have a wait of a whole three months for my exam results, which are largely the deciding factor as to whether I can study a course I want to at college.

In regards to College I am a little irritated to announce that due to government educational spending cuts, the course I had first wanted to do has been cancelled – that being the BTEC Level 3 Creative Media course. To atone this, I have hunted around and found a course called ‘Pathway to Journalism’, which is a combination of an AS/A2 Level in English Language; a BTEC Extended Certificate in Print Production; along with a temporary work placement. The more I think about it, the more enticing this course sounds compared to the Media one anyway.

Of course there is a catch: because I haven’t applied during the specified grace period, I may not be guaranteed a place on the course, in which case I’m screwed. Additionally I will be required to have a B in English, which I know I’m capable of achieving. In fact I know I’m capable of getting an A or A*. No matter how much I say that to my self though, I’m growing concerned about the likelyhood of that after my abysmal performance in the exams. Fingers crossed I guess!

Job-wise, I have had not one reply from any of the businesses I applied to and enquired about. I have to be honest, I’m a little surprised and disheartened by that fact. I mean, not even the courtesy to acknowledge receipt of my emails. Why? It’s not hard to take a minute out of your day to say “Thank you for your email.” Is it? Oh well. Hopefully I’ll get the job at Caffe Nero, but that’s looking dire too.

Getting stuck into something more interesting, I have two websites in the works – TutShelf, which is a web and graphic design tutorial website, will be being resurrected from the dead; and a redesign of ALittleMixedUp, a joint music blog venture between Calvin Guevara and myself, which is seemingly dormant. However, that being said, given my almost humourous affinity to being lazy and procrastinatory I may be shooting off my mouth with talk of these two sites coming back…

Out of the blue, I have an honest question to readers: How do you prevent yourself slipping into a habit of procrastinating?

I’m curious, because I clearly fail at preventing it myself, but yet everyone around me seems so bloody productive! Anyway thanks for reading. Goodbye!

Most interesting thing at the moment, is that I’m taking my GCSE exams (fun…), which I’ve concluded I will most likely fail. Perhaps because I’m a pessimist, or because I’m just being honest with myself. Kinda wished I’d done more revision, but such is life. Too late. I should have enough GCSEs to get into college anyway — I only need one more C technically — so perhaps I shouldn’t worry so much.

I’m also hunting for jobs, although being sixteen with no ‘real’ experience or qualifications probably won’t get me any further than scrubbing dishes again &mdash which for the record I absolutely despise now. Next person who puts a scourer near me is going home sore. I hate lasagne dishes too; still have a scar from where one burnt me.

Well anyway, I’ll try and update the blog more often, maybe write a few tutorials or something; moan and rant perhaps? Honestly, it’d be nice to get more than 3 visits a day to site for once.

Today – as some may, or may not know – I started my work experience at a place called UseIt Computers, where I will be working nine-to-five for 5 days. For those who may not be familiar to the idea: basically it’s UK secondary schools’ method of preparing students for future employment through a quick trail of a real-life work environment. It’s also something to put on your Resumé/CV if you want too.

As I mentioned before I have been assigned work at UseIt Computers, which is a small computer consultancy, sale and repair shop in Rishton. My main role appears to be more in the workshop diagnosing and repairing damaged computers, rather than than working front-of-house and dealing with customers. I’m actually quite chuffed with this really, since I’m not much of a ‘people-person’. I get quite anxious and awkward around people I don’t know or have never met.

Interestingly the placement wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for at first. I was hoping more for a placement in a design or photography studio, although now in retrospect I’m glad it’s at least something related to what I enjoy, because I’m sure some people haven’t received that privilege — plus it’s probably more beneficial for me, since computer repair is something I’m okay at, but by no means ‘savvy’. So it’s actually adding to my overall knowledge, rather than reinforcing a lot of things I already know.

Onto the First-Hand Experience:

I arrived 10 minutes early. Not deliberately, but because only that time arrangement worked to be dropped off by my parents on their way to work; the bus would be too awkward. I expected that they’d open a few minutes beforehand anyway, although I was a little wrong with that estimate. They actually ended up opening up at 9:05am. On the bright side, I used that time to have a cigarette. They all smoke, so I wasn’t fussed about what they’d think if they even knew.

I was more concerned by my first thoughts when I first saw the dresscode of most employees. “Oh crap, I’ve come too casual…” was essentially what went through my head. I was told to wear ‘Smart-Casual Wear’, which for me consisted of a bright shirt and slim jeans – maybe not a great choice in hindsight. Although I eventually felt more relaxed with my dress when Steve and Mark turned up in even more casual wear than me, although Mark had just got back from a stag-do in Blackpool and wore a suit for the rest of the week. To be honest, from there it all began to become less tense, and actually became a very laid back environment as I begun to overcome my nerves.

My first task given was to read through the health and safety rubbish, which was unsurprisingly boring. I read some bits carefully, but most of it was skim read. Basically I know not to mess with electronics stupidly.

My second task was to diagnose a 5-7 year old laptop that wouldn’t turn on. After trying a new powerpack and cable and replacing the RAM it was decided to just leave it till tomorrow and move onto something else. Sounded good to me.

After that Steve decided to walk me through building a PC from scratch: something which I’ve been interested in, but being a loyal Apple fanboy, never really had the chance of doing. It took a bit of fiddling since they seem to get a lot of broken parts from who Pete described as a ‘dodgy bloke’. In the end it turned out to be a poor SATA connection. After replacing that installation of everything else was a breeze. I just had to tidy up the cables inside on which I totally OCD’d on, much to the amusement of the staff.

Yes I took a picture: I give you the first computer I've built.

For the last couple of hours I spend my time trying to fix a laptop with a dodgy trackpad and a funky 3G dongle. After a full factory reset, without any change I concluded it was a hardware issue and that the trackpad had been permanently damaged. Probably by excessive pressure applied to the center of it, as the edges appeared to still be acceptably responsive. After that I was instructed to install Vista SP2 onto it to see if we could at least get the dongle working. I didn’t get round to getting it all done before the end of my shift, I just managed to install SP2 successfully. I’ll see tomorrow if I need to finish that off or whether someone did what I noted down as todos.

Anyhow, in conclusion, I’m quite happy with the placement; the guys there seem pretty cool and I’m definitely learning something from it.

To better explain my point, let’s cut straight to it. It’s just a font. That’s all it is, and unless you’re a complete self-admitting typophile, then the militant attitudes to using the ‘wrong’ font should not be that present in your mind. And if it is I’d like to think it’d be much more polite to do the British thing, and just ‘tut’ at it rather than marching up and saying “Why the hell are you using Comic Sans!?”.

I’m not saying Comic Sans is a good font and should be used often. It’s not and there are much better alternatives, but hey, It’s certainly not as bad as people make it out to be. At least it’s not as bad as this sadistic crime against typography:

At least Comic Sans is kinda legible, right?

It seems ironic, that the font was never even meant to be used by end-users. Comic Sans was created to be a quick way to make comic book looking speech bubbles in Microsoft Office. Unfortunately, Microsoft – in their ultimate design wisdom – decided to place the font into the main font library of Windows.

From this point it spread through the world like a disease. I think the main reason design conscious people despise it so much, is because it’s so terribly overused, and yeah, cause it isn’t exactly sexy. I suppose the main difference between Comic Sans and the above example, Jokerman, is that you see Comic Sans everywhere – even on legal documents! You only see Jokerman on a 6 year olds Word Art poster, thankfully.

So my conclusion is to just let it be. To be honest, I personally don’t mind Comic Sans being used for simple documents; the same applies to on-screen publications. It’s just when it’s used in larger sizes that I find it to be rather garish.