MMXI Week 3–Working 9 to 5 (or In My Case, 8 to 4)

Oh boy, this has been an draining week. I started my temp assignment on Monday working for Capita Total Documents Solutions. What they do, in simplest terms, is back up ‘analogue’ documents; paperwork, celluloid film etc. into digital format. I had my induction at nine thirty am on Monday morning, where they gave me a quick tour of the facility. The first thing that struck me was that it smelt like a pig sty. Not the proverbial sty, but a literal pig sty, with a ever-present odour that reminded me of my Granddads old farm.

Analogue to Digital Piggy Back Up

The smell was actually coming from the ammonia they used to clean the film in the restoration and back up area. I was grateful to be shown the document processing rooms away from the head ache inducing smell.

Work at Capita is broken down into four stages for normal document processing; Prep, Scan, QC and Export. Prep (sort for preparation) is just that, preparing the documents for scanning. This means aligning all the pages in same orientation, flattening out creases, taping down small pieces of paper, moving post it notes that obscure text and, most importantly, removing staples.
Or as I have come to know them, little shards of metallic hell.

Oh these little bastards task me!

Scan is fairly self explanatory and simple. Documents are fed into industrial automated document scanners, with the operator fine tuning the settings for best image quality. The main responsibility appears to be keeping the machine clean, as I frequently hear the hiss of compressed air ever few minutes.

QC, or quality control, is where the scans are inspected to check for errors. This can be anything from a folded corner, to a missed post it, to a whole page scanned far too dark to read. Any batches that fail QC are sent back to scan and so the process begins again.

Finally, you have export, where the scanned files, in Tiff format, are prepared to ship back out to the client. The files have to be converted, compiled, compressed and encrypted to the clients specifications, the transferred onto the media of their choice. This could be a single, multi page PDF document on DVD Rom, or a folder of hundreds of bitmaps on an external hard drive.
On a related note, I am not sure if Capita offers the WWF file format as an option. For those of you not familiar, WWF is a digital document format similar to PDF, with one key exception; you cannot, under any circumstances, print or convert it. This makes it a truly paper free format, preventing people from falling into the usual habit of printing a digital document so they have a hard copy to read, thus saving paper, therefore trees.

No, it’s not the World Wrestling Format; piledriver 2.0 compatible

I’m unsure how I feel about WWF, as I can see the sense in making a format that doesn’t lead to unnecessary use of paper, as PDF often does. But on the other hand, sometimes you need to print a document off, say if you’re going to use it in an environment where there’s not computer, or maybe you want instructions for fitting your water cooling system, which just so happens to need your computer to be switched off while you fit it. But then again, with the proliferation of portable devices capable of reading digital document formats, maybe this will become a moot point.

But back to my first week at work. During the first two days, I was on QC, sat at a computer wearing out the down arrow key. I would basically browse through documents looking for mistakes in the scanning process. Rapidly I learned to apply my knowledge of keyboard shortcuts, reducing the amount I used the mouse to an absolute minimum. It was almost painful to watch people who had been working there much longer than me using the mouse to rotate an image when you could use Ctrl + R to do the same job in a fraction of the time and with much less effort. But that’s probably just a matter of preference. It wasn’t too bad work, very similar to scanning through the hundreds of photos I’d take as reference images for uni work. Good, good, good, rotate, delete, rotate, good, good. You get the idea.

For the rest of the week I was working in prep, which was marginally more tedious than QC, and left me with sore fingers from using the staple lever. The only interesting part was nosing through the various documents. You see, if you put text in front of me, I can’t help but read it. So here I was, reading about bilateral breast enhancements, anti social behaviour in council houses and various other snippets of what I presume to be fair confidential information. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t ‘intentionally’ reading these documents, it’s just my brain can’t help but pull every bit of information from text in front of me.

I got a really great bit of news at the end of Thursday that at the start of the next week I would be trained up on scan. This is the department I have the second greatest interest in after export. I will make sure I have a note book to hand as I’m absolutely petrified of breaking what I presume to be a very expensive piece of equipment.

In parallel to my work, I’ve been trotting along on two side projects. one of which you already know about. I've done a couple of pages of concept sketches for my level design project, but more importantly, I’ve done a mind map of the ships systems. I reasoned that if I was going to produce a plausible ship design, I would need to include ever possible element of ship systems, from life support to sensors to crew quarters. I did this using a very esoteric method. I lay down in my bed and closed my eyes, imagining I was the captain of this ship on a simple cargo haul that went wrong, narrating what would happen and every time a new element of the ship came up, I noted it down. I then listed all these sections on my mind map.

As you can see, it’s full of a lot of techno-babble and pseudo-science, but I like to think that using bad science is better than using made up science. My plan is that by the time I’m finished I will have created such a complex and in depth level, you’ll be able to spend ages walking around before you realise it’s not actually a game. One of the key aspects I’m really focusing on is variable gravity. There are currently three main gravity wells I’m focusing on. 'Standard’ gravity (one unit of earths gravity relatively downwards), cyclic gravity (one earth gravity towards the center of a toroid) and zero gravity. This will create very different environments, and I may even include areas of inverse gravity or even multiple gravity zones, say in the engineering sections where it would more useful.

My second project is something fairly new, my cosplay project for the MCM midlands anime expo in February. If I showed you this image, would you have any idea?

How about now….?

 

If you haven’t guessed it, I’m planning on going as the ‘Minecraft’ guy, otherwise known as Steve.

I was heavily inspired by this previous cosplay design, partially due to it’s simplicity, but also because I own a t-shirt of that exact colour worn by Steve the Minecraft Guy

I’m currently waiting until I can order some more printer ink so I can print off the artwork to cover my ‘head box’ with. I’ve also got a fairly large diamond pickaxe to print out and make, so hopefully I’ll have a really good costume. I’m just worried I’ll get people coming up behind me at the convention and going ‘ksssssssssssss!”

This blogging week finished in Oxford, as I was on the never ending gamer pursuit of the ‘special edition’. This time I was questing after the Dead Space 2 Collectors Edition. What makes this edition so collectable you ask? Well, apart from the steel book case, art book, soundtrack and dlc code, it comes with this:

Pew Pew Pew

For those of you that haven’t place the original Dead Space, that’s a full size replica of the plasma cutter, the most reliable gun from the original game. Now I have a pretty bad weakness for collectors editions, but when it comes to life size props, I get a little silly in the head. But this tale does not end in joy and rainbows, as you see, retail is often filled with incompetents.
After phoning HMV Oxford twice the day before to confirm that yes, they are taking pre-order deposits for Dead Space 2 and yes, that is the collectors edition, and it would be a £10 down payment, I arrived at the store to be told that there was a suspension on pre-orders, but I could call on release day to get one set aside.

Fortunately that wasn’t my only objective for dragging myself and my good friend Amanda into Oxford. I also visited T-mobile, to be told that they wouldn’t ever be getting the HTC Desire Z in stock. As my phone contract is coming up to its renewal, and I have a thing for both Android and physical keyboards, the Desire Z is ideal for me. It’s the keyboard equipped version of the Desire HD, which T-mobile do stock.

It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine!

Having been defeated twice, me and Amanda set of in pursuit of culture. That’s one of the things I love about being older, I can appreciate museums finally. It also helps that I act like a little kid around anything dinosaur related! I wouldn’t be telling a word of a lie if I told you that on more than one occasion I interrupted my own sentences with the exclamation “ooooh! Dinosaurs!” When me and Viv travelled to London to see Blue October, I used up all the battery I was saving to take photos at the gig in the natural history museum dinosaur displays. Not event the whole museum, just the dinosaurs.

Terrible thunder lizard he may be, but that doesn’t change the fact he looks cross eyed!

On several occasions during mine and Amanda's visit to the Pit Rivers museum I embarrassed/impressed myself with my ability to recognise the more obscure dinosaur species on display. Then again, I successfully recognised cuneiform script, which I think made me look pretty erudite.

Well this has been quite a long blog entry, I’m certainly impressed with myself. I’m undecided if my next entry will be early (Friday) or late (Sunday or Monday) as I’m planning on spending the weekend in Birmingham and as such, probably won’t be able to blog on Saturday night as I usually like to do. Until then, switches and ores!

MMXI Week 2–The Power of Stock Photos

Wow! What a week, only the second one of this year and man, it’s been eventful. Pull up a comfy chair, put your feet up, and let me tell you all about!

I’ve managed to either stick to, meet, or make serious progress towards some of my goals for this year, which is fantastic. Straight off the bat, one of the most important ones has been nailed, and that’s going to Hong Kong. Let me tell you how this veritable miracle occurred.

Last week I got a phone call from my girlfriends mother, who I affectionately call Lychi. She got this nickname after I picked up some post from the front door one morning, and it occurred to me in a sudden spark of daftness that Lai Chun Lee, her name, when read quickly, sounded like Lychi, a small and sweet fruit. I pointed this out to my girlfriend, who immediately commented that that was appropriate as her mum was small and sweet. The nickname stuck from then on, it was distinctly better than ‘Mrs Lee’ or ‘VIvs Mum’. But back to my story.
So I received a phone call from Lychi, asking how I spelt my name. This is an issue that occurs frequently as I have a penchant for spelling my name differently to how it is legally recorded. According to the law, I am David, but I greatly prefer the aesthetic of Davyd, with a ‘Y’. I was curious and she informed me that she was reserving seats for the flight to Hong Kong as even though payment wasn’t required, the seats would still need to be booked. This put a pit in my stomach as it meant I was under even more pressure to somehow find the funds for the holiday. But this worry was to be short lived, as I found out when I spoke to Viv on the phone that night. You see, Lychi had not only booked my seat, but she was covering the cost of the ticket, until I could pay her back. This was amazing and mind blowing news, as it guaranteed my first intercontinental holiday, the only time I have ever been so determined to go on holiday (I am not normally one for holidays). As soon as I could, I phoned Lychi up to thank her profusely! I am now going to Hong Kong! I still have to find money for passport and spending, but that will be covered as you will find out if you continue to read.

 

 

That was what I presumed to be the high point of my week, which was pretty accurate, but also that it couldn’t get any better. In that regard I was very wrong. Under the not inconsiderable pressure of my mother, I ventured into ‘town’, I use the quotes because having lived in Birmingham, to which I have oft referred to as town, calling Bicester’s high street ‘town’ seems demeaning to the word. But I ventured none the less and went in search of the fabled temp agencies. Having had an interview for one to put me on the books, I received a phone call scant hours later asking me if I was interested in a 3 month assignment. It was basic work, checking paperwork, but I could listen to my music and, most importantly, they would let me have the time over February off that I had booked for seeing Viv and going to the MCM Anime expo. I accepted and the guy, a lovely chap by the name of Bruce, told me I’d start on Monday! Epic win! I now had a temporary job which meant I’d have money to save for Hong Kong, get my passport and take Viv out for valentines! Plus it will count as office experience which will most certainly help me in getting a job in Birmingham and moving back.

Fingers crossed this won’t be me!

Speaking of moving back to Birmingham, I have decided to revaluate one of my goals, getting back to Birmingham by April. At the time of writing that, I wasn’t too sure I’d be going to Hong Kong, so the least I wanted was to be in Birmingham for my birthday. Now that I am going, it is more logical that I leave trying to get a job and a flat until after I get back from Hong Kong. I don’t know if I will mark this as a failure to complete a goal, we’ll decide on that later.

I’ve made progress towards four other goals; redesigning my blogs, blogging once a week, producing a game concept item for my portfolio and reaching 25k gamerscore. As you can see, I have chosen one of the default blog styles, as it was distinctly more aesthetically pleasing that then red nightmare I was using before. Also, if you’re reading this, you will see that I have blogged constantly for two consecutive weeks. Yay me!
With regards to the game concept item, as I consider level design one of my main skills, I have decided that I am going to work on a level design, probably one of my most in depth and comprehensive designs to date. I don’t want to give to much away as I am as of yet undecided if I’m going to blog the complete design and development process, or keep it under wraps. But basically I’m going to try and design an immersive and plausible space ship, featuring holographic interfaces, variable gravity, differentiated environments and an overall plausible feel. I think it will be a good exercise and I’m going to commit myself to the process.
As for my 25k gs goal, well I managed to hit 20k. This may not seem like a big deal, but I did it without breaking out a new game. I scoured all my old games, finding incomplete achievements so I could make my score up to exactly 20,000.

Add me if you have an xbox

This satisfied my OCD side, as I like reaching the 5k multiples exactly (on my facebook I have pictures of 5555, 10k, 15k and now 20k). Now I have to complete just five games to my goal gamerscore, which I’ve started with Grand Theft Auto IV, a game I’ve never been interested enough in to commit money to, but my brother has a copy, so I’ve nicked it off him. I think Portal 2, Dead Space 2, Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect 3 will most certainly help, but I will probably need a few more games to get the five thousand points I need. I’ve only got two full games at 100%, out of a total of 40+ games played.

Well, that’s everything for this week, I doubt next week will be as eventful as I will be entering the daily toll of full time work. Well, it’s money (a large cut of which my mother has her eyes on) and it will be nice to be able to buy things for a change. Ta ta for now my lovelies.

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week……many?

Well, it would be fair to say that I haven’t made a serious post in at least over two weeks, possibly three. I think the only way I could discern the amount of time that’s passed since my last blog is based on my current number of sit ups. I have gone up to 100 a night, which is a reasonable amount to stay at for the foreseeable future, instead favouring to work on my upper body strength via push ups, which I find currently extremely challenging.

I have been reasonably busy in other endeavours durring the time since my last blog. I made a trip up (or down, I forget) to London to help my girlfriends mum and uncle move some furniture out the house of another uncle, who tragically passed away recently. It was a lot of work, we had to drive a tank of a van to carry all the stuff back. In the end, we took 2 large sofas, 1 television, 1 shelving unit, 1 cabinet, 1 dining table and a load of various smaller items. Basically any item that could be of use picked up. It seems disrespectful to let a passed relatives former possessions go to waste. Much better to re-use what you can, almost as a way of remembering them.
There was lots of heavy lifting, more so upon arrival at my girlfriends house. You see, 99% of what we brought back was from the ground floor of her uncles house, but the living room of her house is on the first floor (they live in a gorgeous 3 story house). As such, everything had to be very carefully carried up a narrow set of stairs and around a few tight bends. But eventually everything was in space and cleaned up (there was so much dust). For the first time in over 2 and half years my girlfriend has furniture in her families living room. It’s amazing the difference a sofa can make.
There was a funny revelation about the sofas. A few weeks back, soon after her uncle passed, the majority of the family was staying down at the house. She and her sister were sleeping on the two sofas in the living room, which as anyone who has done the same can testify, isn’t the most comfortable. What was the first thing I noticed about the sofas just before moving them? They both fold down into full size single beds! This proved to be great for me as when I stay over, I have a proper bed to sleep on, rather than on the living room floor (my girlfriends mum is very traditional, a chinese thing, so we can’t share a bed, or participate in any activity that might arrise from said bed sharing, lol).

The following day i got a phone call. I had been invited to a recruitment event at the bar I applied to; the Gun Barrels in Selly Oak/Edgbaston, near the University of Birmingham. It was scheduled for 6pm till 9pm on Wednesday and I was obviously a touch nervous.
Upon arriving, there was already over a dozen people there and we were divided up into one of eight colour coded teams. I was Team Green and made quick work of getting to know my team leader, a current member of staff, and my fellow team mates as they arrived. By the time everyone was there, there was 8 people in each team, meaning that over 60 people were attending! We were told that about 16 to 20 of the people there were going to be hired, so I had a 1/4 to 1/3 chance of nailing the job.
My group was a great bunch, with a mix of personalities. There was a quiet, nerdy girl called Poppy who liked Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a qualified hairdresser called Amy Whitehouse (not Winehouse) who was very bubbly and an asian guy called Suki who was very chatty and enthusiastic. We had to perform two group activities, both of which seemingly aimed at finding out how much we’d be willing to make idiots of ourselves. The first of which involved marketing two fictional products from a list. We chose the one legged stool (The Monostool) and laxative chocolate (ChocoLog, Bang, and the Turd is gone!). The joke slogans went down well, as well as the awesome art work (courtesy of myself).
The second activity was an awards ceremony, Dudes and Dudds of the Year 2010. We were given a list of celebrities and ‘celebrities’ and had to act out the various winners and losers. I was Buzz Lighthyear for this event, so had great bright pink cheeks and a black spiral on my chin. After donning a jumpsuit, I truly looked the part.
Following these two entertaining tasks, there was a one on one interview with one of the staff, which went really well. After a couple of drinks, including a pint of rather nice strawberry beer, I headed home, to await a phonecall the next day if I got the job. This was probably the most anticipated phone call for a job I’ve ever waited for. Then at 1730 the next day, about half an hour after what I thought the cut off was for the call, I noticed a missed call on my phone. Recognising the number, I rang it back and it turned out I got the job! I was so happy! My training starts on Monday, two till five, and the same again on Tuesday, with final training five to six thirty on Wednesday, followed by a small party for the newbie's!

Well, that brings us up to date with what has happened in this past week. I’ve also made a small change to my blog with the addition of ad-sense adverts to see if I can bring in some pence. I’m also adding a logo and I’ve started a new blog. Called The D-Twenty, it’s a dungeons and dragons themed blog for a lot of stuff i realised wouldn’t really fit properly on this blog. Check it out! Also give those adds a click!