First Job Interview [Friday,
July 27, 2007 @ 1:24 pm]
I failed my first job interview yesterday. It was the 2nd of supposedly
3 interviews but unfortunately I was not the person they where looking
for. The interview was going well until I realized that I boxed myself
as being too focused on computer hardware which was not really what
they needed. I am quite adequate with software but at this point, I
couldn't just change my side since it would be too contradictory to
what I have already mentioned.
The real sad part about this is the fact that I am slowly approaching
my 4th month here, 3rd month of looking for work with no success yet.
Otherwise, it was an okay experience as the Operations and IT Manager
who interviewed me where quite nice. I hate too much sugar coating
though. It was a good learning experience since it was my job interview
in a completely different country.
I was hoping to land the job since it would provide me with good
experience which would be very helpful in the future. A part of me was
a little doubtful because even though the job site was not really far
away, it was one bus ride then a 40 minute walk away. It would be quite
troublesome once the winter comes rolling in.
The first interview was 3 weeks ago, before my Cornwall holiday.
This means I really have to be serious in applying for work. So far, I
have not left the comfort of my house to do so only submitting my CVs
to various recruiting websites on the Intertubes, not even including
cover letters.
Thing is, everything goes through recruiting firms. With my first
interview, the company didn't even call me about the 1st or 2nd
interview, it all went through a 3rd party recruiting firm. My brother
is also hoping for a career change so we may just physically visit the
local job centre as well as recruiting firms in Watford on his next day
off.
I really need to have a job soon. I have been dormant for quite too
long with no videgames to keep me occupied.
Anyway, I consoled myself by purchasing tickets for Funeral For A
Friend's December concert at the Astoria. Since I can't score tickets
for Bloc Party or Arcade Fire, this would be an excellent birthday gift
for myself. It just blows me that I will be seeing one of my favorite
bands twice this year.
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Transformers [Sunday,
July 22, 2007 @ 2:14 am]
I regret spending 2 hours this evening watching the Transformers movie.
I love it to bits and it is simply too bloody awesome to be seen on a
bootleg video even if the telly is 50 inches wide.
Being in England and having a completely different release date than
the rest of the world sucks. Sure, there are times we'd get something
early but this does not happen often. In the Transformers case, the
movie is still not showing here not until the 27th of this month.
On a whim, my brother decided to try downloading a copy over the
intertubes and the copy was pretty decent for one taken inside a
cinema. Since the copy was quite good, we decided to watch it. My
brother even went out yesterday to purchase a new S-Video cable since
my nephew was able to ruin the old cable which lost one pin. It still
works, but the signal is in black and white.
Oh, before simply buying another cable we tried to burn it to a DVD but
it was in a weird KVCD TUS format and could only be burned to a regular
CDR. Damn, who still uses those nowadays?
Anyway, back to the movie. It was again AWESOME.
I tried not to have very high expectations of the movie since it was
Michael Bay who poked my eyes, pulled them out of their sockets and
tossed them into a fire with the ridiculous Bad Boys II.
Since it was Transformers, deep down inside I was still anticipating
this movie.
I feel sorry for Jazz though since he was quite a character, but of
course, someone had to go and it couldn't be Bumblebee since he was a
key part of the human-robot relationship.
Speaking of Bumblebee, I loved how he knocked out the VW beetle beside
him in the store. Take that Volkswagen for being a little to selfish
with the trademark. Bumblebee as a Camaro is totally rad though.
Urk. Everything about the movie is awesome. Right now, I want those two
hours erased from my memory so I can watch it next week and be blown
away in the cinema.
I still can't believe Michael Bay pulled it off. I guess having Steven
Spielberg watching behind your shoulders helps.
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Cornwall: An English Summer
Vacation [Tuesday,
July 16, 2007 @ 11:43 pm]
I think it is finally time to blog about this. I have been putting this
off since I came back from holiday on Friday. I've been putting it off
for no apparent reason.
Anyway, I spent the whole of last week on vacation down in Cornwall
which is in the South West of England. Vacation does not really seem to
be the right word to use since I have been on vacation since the start
of this year. In other words, I have been unemployed for 6 months now.
More on this on another entry if you even care.
Around the time we left London on Monday, the weather was nice and
sunny. Lovely weather which is perfect for the beach but rarely comes
or stays the same throughout the day. The moment the car entered Devon,
the clouds started to show up and the rain quickly followed. It seemed
like we were in for a bad week at the beach.
We arrived at Newquay, Cornwall late in the
afternoon so we did not go out to see the sights. We stayed in a nice
caravan which was quite sizable with a sitting room, kitchen/dining
room, 3 small rooms and separate toilet and shower rooms. It was
impressive since they were able to make the most out of such a small
place. It would normally fit 6 people as there were enough
beds for 6 but could easily fit 10 people as the sitting room is quite
cozy as well.
The following day was still quite gloomy but after buying wet suits and
body boards in town, we just had to try it out no matter what the
weather was. The air was very chilly and the water was worse, ice cold
even. The waves were quite lovely though so we just braved the bitter
cold for some awesome body surfing fun. The wet suits actually helped
as
they wrapped so tightly and warmly on the body. It helped, plus when
you are having loads of fun, you'd barely feel the chill in the weather.
Wednesday was simply lovely. From the moment we woke up, the sun was up
and there where hardly any clouds in sight. It was such a lovely day
that even before we ate breakfast, we already went out to marvel at the
beach and snap some pictures. Well, it was more like until our battery
packs died out.. At this point, we headed back to the caravan, ate
breakfast and suited up for a long day at the beach.
Speaking of beaches, I had this old notion that beaches in England were
quite ugly and instead of having sand had pebbles or rocks. This was
assumption was based on old pictures when I was a little boy and shows
seen on TV. Also, people in England never really talked about their own
beaches and would rather go to some tropical country for real good
ones. I guess it had more to do with the weather since when the sun
cooperates you would have a hell of a time on the beach.
Boracay is nice for what it is worth but it is indeed too
commercialized. You only had to walk ten meters from your bed to the
beach and another ten to a restaurant or store. It is great though if
you are the socializing party going type which is so not me.
In Cornwall, the residential places were quite far from the beach. In
our case, it was a good 10 minutes walk. Another thing was despite
being a public beach (no "environmental fee"), the beach was very
clean. Everyone pitched their own spot on the beach and was very
responsible for their own trash. The beach was also a "pet-friendly"
place and a number of people had their dogs with them. It is excellent
for a nice family vacation with pets. There was also a small stream
going into the sea which was really clean and would be a nice and safe
place for kids.
Come Thursday, the clouds and rain came back again so we decided to
just go town hoping and went from one town to the other snapping
pictures along the way. In the evening, we met a relative of one of our
companions and for the first time in 3 months, drank beer at a pub.
Ordered a Guiness and I have to say it was quite nice unlike what my
brother said about it being too bitter.
On Friday, it was time to go home. We had to leave the caravan by 10 in
the morning and had the day planned out to go to Wookey Hole and
Stonehenge.
On our way to Wookey Hole, we passed by Cheddar Gorge which is a vast
network of crystal caves. We did not go in since they thought the
entrance fee was quite high for a system of caves so we headed to
Wookey Hole instead which is also a system of caves and a prehistoric
theme park at the end with statues of dinosaurs and other prehistoric
things. They also specialized in making cave-aged cheese which I was
not able to taste but seemed quite an exotic experience. I really
should have bought a slice. Maybe next time then.
We then headed down to Stonehenge
in the Salisbury Fields since it was on our way back to
London. You could see Stonehenge from the road but a closer
look was needed. I always had this picture that the place would be
huge, but it was actually quite small. Mind you, the rocks where still
massive but the total formation was not that huge.
There is an entrance fee which included a free audio guide which was
actually very helpful in making you appreciate the place more. Even
though you couldn't get too close to the rocks to touch them Stonehenge
is still quite beautiful but seeing it once is good enough for me. The
only other time I'd consider seeing it would be during the summer
solstice but then too many people would also be there.
Sadly, the most unfortunate thing happened to my camera. It really
started playing up. Initially, the LCD was black and could not be used
as a view finder so I had to rely on the optical view finder. Then at
Stonehenge, it completely gave up giving black shots of whatever so I
simply had to make do with my zoomless SE phone.
Stonehenge was the last stop and from there it was only one and a half
hours from London. All in all, it was a nice experience and was fairly
cheap considering it was for five days. I will surely go down to
Cornwall someday, probably when I have my own car.
Glassjaw
at Brixton 7.7.7. [Sunday,
July 8, 2007 @ 3:30
am]
Glassjaw at Carling Academy Brixton last night was so bloody amazing.
The place was packed and you hardly move or easily be able to visit the
toilet and get back to where you were standing.
I was there pretty early, around past 5 in the afternoon and there were
already 30+ people in line. You could really feel the excitement as you
can clearly hear remarks from other people who have been waiting for
this gig since 2003 and some who couldn't simply believe this was all
happening.
I was early since I was supposed to hang out with other GJN fans from
the forums but opted not to due to my lack of social skills. So, I
spent another gig in London completely alone.
By 7, they opened the doors and being early in, I was among the first
inside and decided to buy me some merch since it was Glassjaw and that
there still a few people buying stuff. Opted to buy a tshirt with a
limited design exclusive for that night. It was 18 quid but it was the
first band shirt I bought.
Stuffed the shirt in a pocket on my pants and proceeded to purchase a
beer and some food.
By 8:15 DJ Krazy Glue and Jarvis from Head Automatica spinned. Mostly
rock tunes which were ok but everyone was really waiting for Glassjaw.
Even though their set was mildly entertaining, everyone was already
standing up and the front section was starting to get packed.
I was pretty close to the front of the stage, it was a pretty good spot
with quite a good view.
DJ Krazy Glue wrapped things up by 9 and 15 minutes later, Glassjaw was
up on stage. The drummer came up first, testing the drums which
happened to be placed on the right leaving a wide open space in the
middle. Then the guitarists came up and a few moments later, Daryl
Polumbo. They just stood up on stage for a good two minutes with slight
drum rollings and just blasted off with a new song.
At this point, I was still close to the front middle and it was quite
crazy. There was a steel barricade behind me and I could feel myself
getting crushed against it so after two songs I decided to move back a
little to a much calmer place but with a great view still. The whole
place just went crazy with every song. The crowd screaming
every word of each song. Daryl was also quite crazy on stage and moved
a lot which would explain the wide space in the middle. They played a
set which was almost an hour 20 minutes long and included new songs as
well as songs from every album including EPs.
Of course they had an encore which was three songs long and really
pumped the crowd more. It was really bloody awesome and crazy.
There were no more after show festivities since like I mentioned
earlier, I did not hang out with the GJN crowd so I decided to go home.
I pass Wembley station on the way home and around 4-5 trains which
passed by where packed of people who just finished watching Live Earth.
I have no regrets missing Live Earth as Glassjaw was an out of this
world experience. I hope they would have a tour back in London when
they launch their new album. I'll be sure to be there.
I have no good pictures from inside Brixton since I only had my mobile
phone, plus it was quite chaotic so I really could not pull off a
decent pic. Plus the stage was pretty dark most of the time.
However, if you really want a picture here is one in my GJ shirt.
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A Decision Made[Wednesday, July 4, 2007 @ 11:23
am]
These tickets arrived in the mail yesterday. Apparently, I
have already made my decision that I would be watching Glassjaw
whatever happens.
The process of acquiring tickets to Live
Earth was a little different. When they first announced the
event and that tickets were going on sale, a lottery on their website
was setup. One would have to fill up a form wherein you would be sent a
text message informing you that you have been picked to purchase
tickets. This was back during April when I first got here.
When I read that the raffle had already ended and messages
have already been sent to those who where picked, I thought I wouldn't
be able to purchase tickets. No big deal really as I only wanted to
really see Bloc Party and a couple of other bands.
A month ago, Glassjaw announced the 7.7.7 gig at Brixton which
I immediately pre-ordered tickets for. My mind was really setup to
watch Glassjaw and I even joined the GJ forums for some company.
Last week, I received a text message indicating that I
qualified to purchase tickets to Live Earth which I immediately
purchased on a whim thinking I could sell them on ebay or something.
Sadly, got the tickets yesterday and 3 days before the event.
This means it is a little too late to sell on ebay. They cost me
£55 each plus the £10 handling/delivery fee for a
grand total of £120. Actually, selling on ebay is not a good
idea as they deduct 20% of the selling price for a charity and by the
rate tickets are selling now, I'd be selling at a loss.
I still have the tickets in hand so I would like to ask if
there is anyone out there interested in the tickets? Yeah, right.
Anyway, there are a couple of classified ads websites such as Gumtree
and Craigslist
which could be of use.
I chose going to Brixton for Glassjaw instead of the huge
event which is Live Earth simply because it is Glassjaw. The last time
they actually performed in London was back in 2003. There were tons of
canceled gigs in between so this is something different and totally
huge considering the new album that they will be releasing soon. Plus
the people in the forums seem like a nice crowd, albeit very much
younger, to hang out with for pre and after gig parties.
I would have liked to see Live Earth because of the few bands
I'd like to see like Bloc Party, RHCP, Razorlight, Foo Fighters,
Beastie Boys, Kasabian, and Metallica. I am really only crazy about
Bloc Party which I could always see on a different date but it would
have been nice to watch other bands and acts I would never see perform
by themselves like Metallica and the Pussycat Dolls.
Also, I think Live Earth is not the last of the "Live" series.
It took twenty years in between Live
Aid and Live 8. Now only two years after
Live 8 we now have Live Earth. It's just like Edsa Revolutions in the
Philippines.
The gist of this post is that Live Earth simply losses because
it was up against Glassjaw.
Glassjaw also announced another show in Barfly Camden on
Friday which no one knew about. The venue can only hold around 200
people. A very intimate gig which I am missing out because I did not
check their website before I went to bed which was already around 5 am.
When I woke up around 12 noon, tickets were of course sold out and
selling on ebay for £40 and up considering the ticket price
is only £16.50. I am not being greedy as I would still be
seeing them the next day but one could just imagine how awesome it
would be to see GJ in such a small place. Damn.
Oh, and if anyone back home is reading this and feels a little
jealous, relish in the fact that Transformers will not be shown here
until the 27th. Bah!
