So much to write about!!

I haven't written in so long, I feel I need to update on what's been happening, especially in light of the news that I got today. But first things first!

1. I got a job as a games tester testing Japanese and English Games - been doing that since late October; it isn't consistent, but it's not a bad job!
2. I now have a full time job as a junior presales consultant with a company called Kelway; I am so glad because now my search is over and I am very happy! This also means I have to cut my time with the other company now, but this time has come.
3. Not long til my 25th birthday! :) Still keep forgetting about it though.  Haha.

Finished learning the material for the first Linux + exam!

This post is simply for me to know how long it took me - i didnt study on weekends for most of it, so it was fairly straightforward! For the next exam, I will note down when i covered each section, like i did with the CCNA one. :)

Work is going great.. Time to start studying again!

So far in this project, work has been going great! I am loving it :) Today, I got the news that I need to start studying for Linux+, which will help me understand RSA related work, as that is what I will be using. Therefore, I got that fire started in me again to learn this material! I can't wait to get started! Today, I start! What I also noticed is that there are 2 exams I need to take in order to get the Linux+ Cert. I am looking forward to this.. Seeing as I have minimal experience in Linux, this will be a definitely learning curve, but that is ok! I was born to win!

Good weekend.. Soon to start studying for the Security+!

It has been a good weekend; and for those who work, today is an extra day off! As for me, I will get started on studying for the Sec + soon (just reading the into chapters today, which don't deal with the actual content.) Yesterday, I went to Andrew's engagement party- it was very good! Lots of culture and very good food (so good, they told us to come up for seconds, and that is a first!) I also took food home, so that is what I will eat for lunch :)

I am now a CCNA! :D

I told myself I would take this test in 2 weeks and pass it; and God helped me do that! I did it :D And after all this, I want to study some more haha. I got a project that starts on Tuesday in Slough and I am looking forward to it! Passed with a 00001001 00000110 0000000 / 1000 :D

SO happy !

So, for the past 3 weeks I have been studying (well 2 and a half) for my first Networking certification; and now I am happy to say I got it now! I am now CCENT certified! The exam was very nice and I got a score of out 00001001 00000111 00000011 of 1000! (use google to find out the number; its in binary! haha.

So happy :D Now to start studying for the full CCNA! :D (I will start a bit now and then full on from Sunday!) Thank you God so much :D

I HAVE GRADUATED!!!! WOOHOO

AWW YEAH! FINALLY, THE DAY HAS COME WHEN I HAVE GRADUATED!! (enough of the caps lol) The day was great- getting Mom and Nannie Winnie, then heading to Reading to meet up with G who came all the way from Jersey to see me :) Then after the breakfast and prizes, it was off to London Road. Got to gown up as seen here:

Then, I met up with some friends, chatted, got my tickets to give to Mom and Boo and then waited for my procession; and I wasn't nervous or anything at all, UNTIL i got into the Great Hall and waited for my name to be read- It was such a great moment and to hear from the Chancellor "Congradulations on my First - really well done!" was a great moment for me :D After that was over and I saw Vince Cert, one of the co founders of the Internet get his honorary degree, it was out the door for pictures - and I got loads of them! (See facebook) But the best one I felt was this one:

After that, went for Lunch and then dropped off everyone (Georgia left while we were eating to go home) and then came home! Now, just got to get that Job! Thank you Lord for absolutely everything :)

The results are in!!!

I Got a First! I can't believe it! Through it all, God has been there every step of the way! Praise Him!

Camp Meeting, Japanese, Media Fast and more!

I am now back home! Camp meeting was an experience I will not forget (It was in Camber Sands at Pontins, and funny enough, I went to that area about 2 years ago and didn't realize until my friend told me about the beach experience I had there with some donuts!) The whole time there was great: from the chalet (although the ants being there kinda sucked in a way), to the presentations from health to media. And It made me reconnect with Jesus in a new way I feel. It also made me put things into action, the first being a media fast I wanted to implement for the next month, starting from Wednesday. Within that fast, I would use the time I would otherwise use to watch anime or game, to spend time reading the Bible or just something else so I can appreciate other things. I also got a lot of interviews this week- 4 in total! That is phenomenal and crazy haha! First 2 is tomorrow; one physical, the other telephone. At the same time, I am going to be dedicating time to studying Japanese from a new book I found called Minna No Nihongo. I will see what it is like and update on that as I go along, as it's part of my study in order to pass the JLPT's :) At Camp Meeting, I saw loads of people I haven't seen in a while and also made some new friends, which was very good for me. I also learned that I have stress and anger problems that I need to overcome and deal with. In other news, I am going to start my clean regime and stuff from Thursday (random day I know, but I just picked it). I am looking forward to getting rid of the junk food and unnecessary stuff and just eat properly and train properly. It will take time, so I can't be looking for results straight away, but I do have time and I will get it done! I also found out that the Job i wanted in Maidenhead, they had to hire someone more experienced at the moment, but in the near future, they could hire me, which made me feel very good, as it was the closest I have gotten to getting a graduate job! The drive to and from Camp meeting was about 2 hours; I drove back and It wasnt a bad drive; i was able to just enjoy myself and reflect and experience all the beauty that God made in the landscape and sky and even the color of the motorway! My results come out on Tuesday and I am looking forward to it; Boo's graduation is the day after, and it is nice to be able to celebrate with her this occasion. I also have to write down my goals and to be able to break them down so I can see what needs to be done. But for now, time to eat :)

Its been so Long! But so much has happened!

Right, I figured I needed to blog as its been ages since I have last done so! So Lets get on to that! First things first: Uni is over! All the exams are done, and Computer Networking went really well I feel. Afterwards, I saw Zaid and some other guys and we hung out for a bit near the Great Hall. It was good seeing Zaid after nearly a year and nothing has changed haha. I also got a call about a company I applied to called Trayport and I went to that assessment day the other week. (Think it was last week!) I am waiting to hear back from them, but I think that went well as well! The SCARP conference was good, although I had to change my time due to an interview I couldnt change the time of (didn't get that job in the end, but looking back, I wouldn't of wanted it anyway). The presentation went well, and ther was a school photo; after that, me, Adam, Jacob and Dave went for McDonalds and then went back for the rest of the conference.

Once that was over, I headed back home and I was like "Uni is now over!!"

And so recently, I have been trying to think what to do with my life (most of it at home watching anime and not trying to feel too guilty about it haha) and just chilling. But I have also been applying for jobs as well. Another big event that happened was that I went with Boo to our first marriage retreat last weekend and it was great! The hotel was great, the events and activities were awesome, and we got a a photoshoot session as well :D So good times! Yesterday, I had an interview in Maidenhead, which went well and Just had a call from a recruitment company about working for Vodafone! So the job roles are coming in and I want to make sure my database is up to date! I also had the job of organizing music for Church for this month and i got that done yesterday to get it out of the way; It was a bit hard at first, but I can see why Boo split it up cos doing that for all the year on your own is hard work! And today is her Birthday! So I made her breakfast in bed and got stuff planned - but i wont say what that is until tomorrow or so! (in case she reads this). Also, we are to Spain from Sunday to Thursday for our anniversary! Woohoo! Lots of pictures will be taken and we are going to the same area we been to before :) Also, I am going to start getting serious again with Japanese, and my goals have now changed for it- they are: - To pass N4 of the JLPT by Next July ( I want to practice a lot) - To pass N3 by December of that year (or Next July after that so 2017) - To pass N2 by the next July following (July 2018) I have been slack but I will put small goals to help accomplish this - this came about because I was helping a friend with her English and she is really good, so I thought "why not?" I meant to do it and was told to by my teachers, but I never did (laziness and a bit of nerves), but hey! I will do it! So I will buy the books and get serious again! Same with Guitar, although I need to assess what it is I want to do and set clear goals, otherwise, I wont pick it up (and that aint cool!) And so that's where I am at now :) (as well as planning for my graduation mentally- i would have a party, but I can't be asked to plan it lol) :D See ya

Finally, I am posting.. what a week! and the review of the term at large..

Finally, I am able to blog! What a week I have had! Evolutionary Computation was a nightmare! I will start from what happened this week and go from there. This whole term I had coursework to do, which was that, and it was so difficult at first to get started, because I just didn't know what to do. The longer I left it and procrasinated, the worse it got for me. Finally, I was able to make a breakthrough and got it done. However, I went to a lot of effort to do it. So let's start from there.. So the work I had to do was my SCARP work (things for my final year project), Data Mining(which wasn't that bad and I had fun writing the report), and EC. The first two I got done last week and it was just EC to do (bare in mind that I had some ideas of what to do, just had to get on with it). Also, I let the job hunt go on hold really; so in the week gone by, I had a telephone interview and an assessment day with HP. I had to get up at 5:40 to go and the trip wasn't that bad. (Just really early). The assessment day was good and it was a half day - they will let me know by next week (at this time, I'm not worried, just letting God deal with this stuff). So after that, I went to my friend's house to go and do EC. And that took all night, so I had to stay there and write report and jazz. Man, it was so long; I went to sleep at 2:30 and woke up at 6: 30 ish and carried on; and then I got to uni and finished it off there. My first and last every all nighter (in a way). After that was done, I went to tidy up the house and off we went to Stevenage; it was so nice coming back here! It has been great coming back here! So we got to Stevenage and went to the Leisure Park and had Pizza and all sorts. Then we went back home, where Mom and Boo went thru all my history and all that stuff. I was just happy to be home to be honest. I wasn't as tired as I thought though, due to the energy I had. What I'm planning on doing for the first two days starting from Monday is to game and just relax from the term I just had. Man, what a term! One thing i will take from this is that if I had to relive that term, I would have done work a lot faster than I did, that is for sure, especially with EC. But the grace of God is that good, cos i got it all done. Boo is enjoying Stevenage so far and tomorrow we are having dinner with more family back at the house- should be interesting for sure.

SO.. what have I been up to lately?

• Since I last wrote, I have now finished being a tour guide for the Japanese Students.. It was so fun being it, but also just as tiring! (but i am also getting paid for it :))
• Been going to the Gym consistently with Boo and I am actually starting to see changes little by little! (Keep going me!) 
• I brought some new courses on Udemy, like Node.js as well as making apps as well (it was cheap at the time, so i thought why not?) I want to add some skills to my CV after all. 
• Because of all the work that I need to do for Uni, I have put Jazz and the game dev on hold for now (it was tough to do that, but it has to be done until all the work is handed in). 
• Today was working pretty much from 12-7 with some little breaks in between. But my time management needs to be better. 
• Tomorrow, I am going to see a recruitment agency in London, one of the first visits of many I guess- the job hunt continues! I will not give up! 
• Uni is finishing very soon for me! Very soon I will have my last lecture ever! (that is going to be weird, but I have been so busy, I don't even think about it!)

And that is for now :) 

Time to blog.. and what a lot I have to blog about!

It has been a crazy time in my eyes in the last couple of days so far!!!

First of all, gotta talk about going to B'ham and that trip. *that started on Wednesday afternoon*

So.. The trip going up there was nice; got a haircut and trim from the local barber, got some pizza and headed for the station. Made sure i got the receipt and headed to B'ham. It took me 2 hours to get there and the journey was nice. (also first time I used my laptop out and about as well in a way).

Heading to B'ham

Once I got there, getting the bus was interesting; because I didn't know exactly how to get to the hotel, I got off one stop early and realized that the stop I wanted was only about 5 mins walk away. The manager was real nice and told me how to get around. I ironed my clothes, took some pictures of the place, practiced my presentation and went to town to get some food.

My room

 At first, walking around there was cold, but it was nice; Micah directed me to a place where to eat, but i found another place, as it wasn't a buffet. The place I went to was called the Big Wok; the food was alright, nothing to write home about really.

 I also felt a bit lonely as I was on my own. After a while, while talking to Sinjeet and Boo and Micah, I felt better and headed back to the hotel.Once there, I made a plan for the next morning and went to sleep.

Virgin Media

So the day *Thursday* came and I was up at 6 and did all the plan said I had to do. Once I got to Virgin Media, the day got better. There was 4 exercises in total, 2 group and 2 individual. To make a long story short, I felt I did ok and I will find out the result by this week. I was so tired afterwards when it was over, that when I came home, I wanted to sleep so badly. (I did in the end).

It was tiring in all aspects of the word. But It was a good experience.

Church was good on Saturday ( I know I skipped Friday; not much really happened besides housework and a bit of note taking); there was a surprise birthday party for a friend, which he enjoyed and today, I was a tour guide for Japanese students.

Me, Darren, and Joel (the little baby) :)

I really enjoyed it; they asked me loads of questions from how I met Boo to what made me want to study Japanese; it was windy and cold, but overall very fun!

Actually, something did happen on Friday- I remember wanting to be a part of a team developing games, so I checked on Unity and now I am getting emails and so on about being parts of different teams, which is great! I got off Skype a while ago with a guy who I am interested in working with; overall, I am in it for the experience, and if money comes in as a result, then that is really good and I can be proud of whatever happens.

So yea, it has been big the past week and a bit! And tomorrow, I am going to meet a second group of Japanese students from the airport! For now, I am just going to chill and do some trucking (got Euro Truck Simulator 2 + an add on), so see y'all later!

What a past couple of days it has been!

I meant to blog yesterday about my assessment day but didn't get a chance to do so!

So!! here we go!


Saturday: The day was good! Church was great and Pastor preached on Matthew 8:5-13; In the evening, the ladies went out and I went to Kish's house (A friend from church) and we hung out with his mom (she is funny!)

Sunday: All I did was prepare for the assessment day the next day; i spent the day making a chart of all the experiences and questions I had prepared and that the RED award sign off gave me. I went over the presentation and everything else, and I felt ready! went to sleep early..

Monday: What a day! I woke up early and Boo gave me a lift to the station; the journey was long - 1 hour and 20 mins in total. I had to make 4 changes. Slough - Windsor - Windsor Riverside - Staines - Weybridge - Hersham. Then after that, a 15 min walk to the company. It was long for sure! I arrived first and it was a smaller group of people than I thought (only 5 of us). One of them was very chatty and kept letting off the fact he was so nervous and so on; another one was also chatty and it felt as if he was surprised we was getting free stuff. (we got a small notebook filled with sticky notes and tabs, a memory stick, a pen, a coffee mug and something else i forgot).

So we started with some presentations from the assessors and then I was first to do my presentation; i felt ready to do it, and I think it went well! (In my presentation, in the end, I gave a small Japanese lesson! I also played music to set a good atmosphere.) What I forgot to mention was that the place was tightly locked up; so you couldn't get places without a pass.

After everyone did theirs, we had lunch ( I didnt get to eat much cos i was talking so much with the assessors, just trying to network and stuff). Then we had interviews; I had 2 people and it was very easy (I say that because I got to prepare the night before). Then we had the group exercise; it was to build a structure using &^%& (I'm not allowed to say in case anyone wants to apply for the company- although I didn't mention what the company was in the beginning! Haha). Either way, we managed to get it 100% correct!

Then we were able to leave and I will find out the results by the 20th. Walking back to the station, I wanted to find out about HP; I got told via their HP Careers they left me a voicemail last week, but i never got anything! (Plus, I thought, if i failed, they wouldnt of bothered phoning me to tell me that). So I am relying on God to sort that out. I got back home in the end and I was so tired!

We had dinner and gamed and went to sleep.

Today: Woke up early again and headed to Uni; Data Mining was good - found out there was no Law and Management, so that freed up my time. Afterward, did some small work for my project (logbook entry) and ate and spoke to a friend. Then I had the weekly meeting for Computing Networking, which went well and then I went back to Slough and hit the gym. It was good and i went intense.

Around this time, I messaged Virgin Media, asking about the telephone interview, and they told me i could have it tonight! I nearly went :O (but the day before prepped me for it!) So I got myself ready; wasnt sure what to expect really!

(on another note, on Friday, Vodafone came back and told me that they re-instated my application! how often does that happen!?) So I got their tests to do by Thursday I think.

Boo came and got me from the gym and We had fish and chips, which was good :) Then the interview started and i wasnt even home! They called me and Boo was joking about how she would make noises in the background (she didnt though so that was good)


I didnt expect the interview to be so short ( and in fact, quite informal!) it was only a couple of q's and that was it. I really enjoyed it (I like these sort of scenarios for some reason!). Anyway, I will find out on Friday if I get to go to the assessment center next Thursday in Birmingham! Never even been there before haha.

So now, im chilling listening to music and need to make a small to do list for tonight.

What a great couple of days! :P

Life and Uni so far

Since the last blog post, quite a lot has happened; and here, I will attempt to break it down as I remember it.

1. My project is going really well; I need to meet with my supervisor to discuss some another section to do; otherwise, I have left it alone for now. It is on schedule again :) 
2. Modules are going good; they aren't hard to understand and I make sure to at least go through the lectures when I have the time (which is a lot, but I need to structure it better). 
3. I am going to a tour guide for Japanese students coming over in late Feb and March! I get to pick one school on a coach and then take one group to Oxford and another to London; and I get paid for it :)
4. I also got the RED award completed once again! This time, it is more relevant for my interviews that are going to come up soon. I need to write a chart of experiences I have had recently so practice them for interviews. 
5. Speaking of inteviews, still waiting on jobs to get back to me; got an assessment day for Air Products on Monday and I had to make a presentation; I did it on Japan, and I loved it last night! Looking forward to that one. 
6. Jazz guitar lesson went good; practicing for it is good as well- it makes me consistent as well with playing. 

That's it for now :)

Day 1 of Spring Term - Done

Today was the first start of term for me- i had to wake up early, and that was a bit new for me (didn't have to back in the xmas period lol).

However, I left my phone charger at home. (that was the biggest mistake as today i had to go conserative to make sure my phone didnt die, and in the end it did after i left the gym.)



Today was a good day; I had stir fry for the fist time at Uni ; lectures were good, although I nearly fell asleep at lthe last one.

Gym was good; I pushed myself today :)

Now, I am going to do some project work then chill out. :)

What a weekend it was ! And now Uni starts again!

This last week was chilled out and towards the end of the week, it got more active. Finally, the chest of drawers is nearly done! ( I say nearly because I have the small drawers to do haha).

Boo's mom came over so we didn't have to get her on Friday itself for the funeral. The funeral itself was well attended (Loads of people came). I also got to travel in a limo of sorts and saw the horse and carriage before me bring the casket around the areas we went to.

It certainly was a long day and I was so tired when I got in, that I ended up going to church a bit late, but made sure I had things sorted out so that it wasn't stressful for anyone else or me.

Saturday Night, I took Boo out to our hotel (it is becoming that now lol) and we had a good time; then we ate breakfast at Harvester (another usual now lol) then went home and chilled out.

While at the funeral ceremony, I saw someone play some jazz and told Boo that I wanted to do that while she would sing; I think that is our joint goal, so currently, I am looking for jazz lessons around Slough and Windsor.

The good thing about Uni this term is that I have Monday and Wednesdays off so I can use that for a bit of me time if needed. What needs to get done though ASAP is my project work- I slacked off a lot during the holidays, and I Can't do that anymore.

In other news, I am getting high results for my Uni work - everything recently has come back either a 2:1 or a 1st in terms of the marks- even though Boo thinks that will mean little when I get my classification, it won't to me- it just means that I know how much more effort to put in to make sure I get that 1st.

I was also thinking about how much I have learned whilst being married; it makes me realize that I can't be selfish, and it is a learning process everyday; and when i give time for reflection, or while doing something like the dishes, I can see where I can change.

I also am determined to have this year be the year that I do more with my talents and use them in any way I can; recently, someone from Uni (staff member) contacted me about wanting to help with some Japanese students and I said I can help out when needed (also i want to attend the meetups that the Berkshire Japanese Group do as well, as I have never been to one as of yet).

I need to take a more determined hold on these things, otherwise I will talk and do nothing about it.

So yea, that is the plan; plus my workout schedule is going ok as well- just need to watch the eating and keep on the intensity with the gym and it will go to plan :)