After a short evening out last night with the UK Hackspace people, met up with the others from Manchester then headed for the Hotel.

After a rather restless night (forgot my speakers for my iPod, and the whole new bed/unable to sleep thing…) was greeted by a cool slightly foggy Newcastle morning

So in the next.. minute or so, the doors will be open to the public, and we shall be inundated with people! Will try to update throughout the day with the happenings, as well as some pictures and maybe videos of the various exhibits!

From there, a short 5 minutes up the road, i was checked into my hotel, and writing this post. More to come!

(Looks a bit like home away from home, doesnt it?)

Well, am sat here at the station waiting for the next train to Manchester, to start my journey to Maker Faire! Literally finished packing about 5 minutes before leaving the house. Hope I’ve remembered everything!

First things first: I am no longer at University. This is due to many different things, some of which I probably could have done something about. However, there is nothing I can do about this any more, so lets leave it at that.

Instead of University I now have a job. Im a Customer Service Assistant at Wilkinsons. AKA a Cashier. Its not the best job in the world, but its better than quite a few, and a lot better than no job. And it allows me to do other things with the money I’m earning. That is probably the most important thing at this moment…

Project wise, I have a few things that I’ve been working on. One of these has been an RFID Door Controller, which I have been working on since January 2010, and am still tinkering with. Hopefully will be fitting it to a door soon for a trial run, but until that day, its still just a project.

The other projects I have been working on and thinking of are learning to program in some other languages (namely C++, Java, and possibly Flash) as well as learn another language (German, as i have done that before… a little, atleast). The other things are running my own server (which I need to fix actually) and messing around in Linux. Stay tuned for more on the Linux one, I feel a series coming on…

Other than that, there really hasn’t been much else that I’ve been occupying my time with, apart from several (read: 100’s) of hours of playing games. Mostly new ones, although am trying to play through the original Unreal, among others.

Oh, another thing I’m thinking of looking at: Hosting my own website under my own domain. Not under the bloorfamily.net cover, but my own top level domain. Which might just become my main blog, and allow for a lot more freedom on that. But that is up in the air at the moment, need to check a few things over first.

Anyway, I have a new C++ book to look at, and I can feel myself wanting to make a post about anything I can manage in that this week. So its goodnight from him…

-and so it is

So, for several thousand of you (around 40,000 or more), you will have just left Burning Man. Im not saying your all reading this blog, but thats neither here nor there is it? But still, what is it to be a Burning Man?

Does it take setting yourself on fire? Because i know for a fact that i wouldnt find it much fun. Nor would it be as spectacular as the ending of Burning Man 2009 (have watched the live webcast of the burn. Impressive!) But really, what does it take? Well, after much thought (ok, not much thought..) and a lot of time, I think i may have come up with an answer. Possibly not a good answer, maybe not even a correct answer, but an answer. And that answer is….

Ok lets not jump the gun here. I mean, theres obviously a lot of things going into being something spectacular. In the case of the Man, that is a lot of time, wood, fireworks, and manpower. So its obviously not going to be easy. Nor is it going to be cheap. Well, it might be cheap, but it certainly isnt going to be free. The Man is made up of many seperate parts, not just the arms, legs, torso and head, but of individual nails, pieces of wood, glue, cells in the wood, etc.. And this all goes together to create this single monument, something that everyone can unite under, and that everyone can relate to. So, as has been seen, it takes a lot of work. But what kind of work?

Well, for a start, the work must be fun, and interesting. Otherwise, why the hell would people do it? Why would they invest their time and money into building something and then burning it, if they werent interested in it? If they did it just ‘because they were told to’? That is a large problem i see at the moment, there is a lot of people around who just take orders, and never go on to do something else. Never take an initiative. And there are people who’s job it is to make sure people dont use their initiative. I will quite confidentaly assume that there are no such people in Burning Man, and so there should be no such thoughts in yourself. Nothing that says you shouldnt go and do that, even if it doesnt work or blows up in your face – learning the hard way is normally the way its done anyway. And this leads us onto the answer…

The answer is: Do what you want. But dont sit around and wait for the oppertunity to come to you, just go out and DO IT. You want to get fit? Go out on your bike. You want to build things? Go out and build them! You want to learn a trade, language, skill, something? Go and do it! This ritual of going to the desert and burning a Man has been around for over 20 years, and is showing no sign of slowing. Started out as just a few people on a beach, and ending up as over 40,000 people in a desert having fun and doing what they want to do, this is the perfect example of how everyone should live, and how everyone should lead their lives. So get out there, and become a Burning Man. That includes you, all you Women. Just because it is called a ‘Man’ doesnt stop you!

-and so it is

So… What have i been up to then? Well, mostly i’ve been playing games. Atleast, in my free time anyway. Also been searching for jobs. Unsuccessfully (see above). And generally avoiding…. (At this point i looked at the TV and cant remember what i was writing. damn.) Oh, and i’ve also been reading lots of RSS feeds, and blogs.

One of the blogs i’ve read recently is Seniath’s, which included several posts that made me think. Thinking about the general idea of going through all your school stuff, then coming out of it, getting a job, settling down, and earning lots of money. Well, i got the first two bits. And now, im working on the other bits. Am wanting to go into computing actually, and am learning C#, and will be eventually moving on to C++ (and Java, Basic, etc. and so forth…). Anyone have any hints, tips, books, websites or stuff that would help actually? Please leave a comment! And also any knowledge that you would deem necessary.

Anyway, am now off to do something else.

-and so it is.

So what has been going on in this little head of mine? Well, after reading blog post after blog post (yes i know two of them was a whole blog.. its all good!) on increased productivity, and on sorting things out in your life by just getting on and doing them, I decided to do it. And one of the things i decided to do was use my website more! So here we go…

Online productivity

In this large area of internet, there are many new technologies that allow you to work on everything online. Examples of these include Google Docs, and the new Apple iWork.com which allow collaboration on document editing. The main idea behind all these online programs are that you can then access your work from anywhere with an internet connection, which now is almost everywhere. Microsoft is also jumping in, with online versions of their popular office programs.

There are problems with these systems however. For normal, everyday work files for people who use the occasional word processed document or spreadsheet, there is not much point in using these unless you’re moving from place to place a lot, and won’t have access to your own computer, such as a student with a desktop working on files in University. But there is also the cost to take into account. If you use lots of files, then the storage space starts to come into account. now with Google Docs I cant seem to find the storage space allowed, however I think it will be in the region of 2Gb. This can be upgraded, for a cost. This is also true for most other services like Google Docs, although at the moment iWork.com is in free beta. But when iWork.com comes into full use, then this will be changed to a subscription based service, much like the other Apple internet services.

This is only a brief look into the online services for word processing, as there are many other services I have probably overlooked, or not even heard of. However, comments will be appreciated on this subject (as long as they are productive). Also, comments on what people thought if this, my first foray into mainstream blogging!

-and so it is