How do I have the time?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by JC

Life at the moment seems to be quite uncontrollably busy, I don’t think I realised how much work was going to be involved when I started the university degree. I’m not sure how it is fitting in along side a lot of the other work that I do. I don’t seem to have much free time between multiple part time jobs, some volunteer work and now a part time degree.

I’m often up til quite late hours, or early morning hours getting through everything I have. I’ve had a few In Course Assessments (ICAs) that I’ve struggled to get the word count for. Each one has only been for 1500 words however I’ve always been taught that when writing I should use minimal words for maximum meaning… or in other words… less words for same meaning. This is not useful while writing essays as I natuarally reduce my wording. I tend not to when writing blog posts as write as I think the thoughts instead of re-analysing reference matterial and re-writing it automatically.

I don’t write here as often anymore, I just don’t have the time too. Only now, after finishing one of the ICAs in the middle of a night, or an early morning… Looking at the PC clock its coming up 6.20am. I’ve not worked all night, I felt tired and slept for an hour or two and then continued with the work.

My reading speed has increased again still, I seem to be absorbing information yet when writing the words are not always coming to me. In conversation, and in classes, I’ve been able to contribute well but not so much in the writing – it is something I am working on and although I really hate these ICAs, they are helping me in remembering topics better.

I do like to be busy, I like to be involved with many things and with many people. That I don’t have the issue with, it just seems at the moment, there is just that little bit too much and it is getting on top of me. February is looking quite a calm month at the moment, but I guess the university will fill that one up too – it usually seems too especially when I’ve just got to the point of thinking its free.

I do not regret re-starting university however I am having to re-organise my normal life a lot to accomodate the extra hours outside the classroom. I had estimated around 30 minutes for three work days, and 2 hours on the weekend. Its actually closer to 45 minutes a day plus 3 to 4 hours on the weekend on top of the class work (Excluding when its ICA time where more time is required again).

Happy New Year 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by JC

Its been an awesome 2011 for me, I’ve learned a lot and grown in ways I did not expect. I didn’t do everything I wanted but did give it a good go and in the process found more things that I enjoy.

I hope that you all have an Amazing New Year, and that 2012 be the start of something that just gets better and better.

2011 – Its been a good year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by JC

At the end of last year I wanted to try so many things, I made a list of stuff I would like to do and a few of those things I have managed but done so much more as well.

I found a few new passions for life, my work life changed – more of a new mix of things to do rather than a particular job change. The change allowed me to section things really well meaning I’ve had more focus and enjoyed things more.

With no real headaches/migraines anymore my concentration levels feel like they’ve gone through the roof, I felt I’ve had more time to do things although I’ve got very good at filling all that extra time up again. Since stopping the consumption of chocolate, I have only had 3 headaches I could consider up to migraine pain and it only knocked me out for a day so it wasn’t too bad. It seems worth the trade although I really do miss chocolate.

Going quickly down my list from last year and how its turned out so far:

Play the guitar
– I managed a few cords and tried for a few weeks but didn’t really feel any passion for it to keep it up and other things took priority so I stopped.

Trampolining: Sumasaults with no help
Not managed it yet, but been learning Bounce rolls too, I’m getting the rotation just not quite the confidence or trusted coordination to actually complete the moves.

Rock Climbing – more technique
I’ve went with friends while in Leeds but not so much locally. I have learned how to climb, how to tie knots and belaying but not really done a lot with it. I tried the club locally and although they seemed friendly, it was all a bit too cleeky and I didn’t feel I could just go some weeks and not others and then other things are now happening on the same night so not so easy to go anyhow.

A new passion in work, or something in life that I don’t want to put down
Work: Well I’m still in the same main job, but have a few others now aswell that make life a lot more interesting and challenging.

New cooking styles
I’ve been making sweets this year, a mixture of things such as Banoffee mixtures, Toffee sweets, Chilli & ginger chocolate and most recently ginger creams (same basis of peppermint creams, just ginger essence instead of peppermint) as well as things like Chilli Popcorn, Spicy BBQ Shreaded Pork and Spicy Chicken

Dance
I wanted to become more fluid, confident, and relaxed in dance and expand the styles but that would involve me actually going out and doing it, that didn’t happen this year which was strange but something to look forward too for next year.

Fitness
I’ve enjoyed my trampolining this past year, rock climbing, and swimming and other exercise I’ve got up too, but the newest thing has been ice skating, I’ve always wanted to try it but not had the opertunity to really try it, I’ve tried to get lessons but could never get on the courses.

Then about 2 months ago, I saw an advert for some free lessons put on for local residents and went for it, it was a set of 5 beginner lessons over 5 weeks. I’ve had my own boots for years but only had used them once before the lessons. I’m no good at it, I now know how to start of, get up, fall with style (not part of the lessons), kinda stop and greatly increased confidence in going for it…

I went with some friends after the lessons, and didn’t feel that confident – I was afraid of falling and hurting myself badly. I didn’t relax… I was fine until the last 5 minutes of the timeslot where I went flying and just burst into laughter skidding across the ice. It hurt (still does) but it was an eye opener. Next time I went, I was less afraid of falling and relaxed. It was so much easier and a lot of fun. Its something I hope to do multiple times a month now. so… Falling was a good thing.

— End of last years list —

So, What else has been happening

New Year Start…

The New year started in London with a close friend, we went to celebrate the new year in the capital to see what it was like. We thought to head to the waterfront in plenty of time and set off for around 6pm on new years eve, seems that was not early enough. We were diverted around different streets and never quite got to the waterfront and ended up in Trafalgar square. We had a good view of the fireworks when they started although the build up was quiet but friendly. We had a good time, and a long walk home – we were not attempting London transport that night.

Spring

In April time, I went to spring harvest and spent some time out from normal life. I spent a few weeks in Northampton, I used a site called spareroom, and rented a room for a month or for the two weeks I was there. It worked out a lot cheaper than trying hotel, or even B&B accommodation and gave me a lot of freedom. I got all my washing sorted from the previous week at spring harvest and the weather was awesome. I think it was in the late 20’s to early 30’s in temperature – it was really nice to be able to laze out in a back garden and just read a book. I saw a lot of friends from the area, and caught up with some I’ve not seen in years – an awesome holiday/time out.

Summer/Autumn

During the time which we could consider is summer time I got to thinking about my future again and for the past year or so, I’ve thought about returning to university. I’ve wanted to get that degree in something just to prove to myself I can do it and really not wanted it in IT anymore. IT is something I can do but not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

It was an interesting experience applying again and wondering Will I Get in? and finding out the day before I was due to start that I got in, and I would be a student again. I am finding it hard work but very enjoyable. I found my first post on this site, and how unhappy I was in the IT university course – it feels very different this time round and I look forward to what I am learning instead of the thoughts of “I have to get through this”.

For as long as I can recall I have always wanted the rights of people to be served right and people get what they are entitled too. I’m not interested in this suing of everyone for anything. I think it’s stupid in a lot of ways but I don’t think it’s right that people are cheated out of things. I’ve been one that reads the terms of most things to see what I’m signing for or against and often enjoyed debating with others even things I totally agree with them about.

On the 30th November 2011, I was involved in Strike Action to stand for the rights of my pension. It doesn’t really affect me directly, but does many of my friends and my Union voted to strike, so I stood by them. I was asked why I striked as they reckoned everyone is loosing out, why not me…

How would you like this senario: You have an all expenses luxury holiday planned for 30th July next year, when you get there you will get the best weather for the place, you won’t have to pay anything more but it will cost you £250 each month for the next 6 months to go. You agree and start the payments. After a couple of months, the company doing the package turn round and change the terms. Now you have to pay £300 per month, and its no longer available in July – its now in October. Its no longer all expenses paid, you will have to pay for food, and those facilities that would have been included.

Would you agree to this? Pay More, For longer for less in the return and you wonder why people would want to fight for their right?

Christmas

I had friends down for Christmas this year, waking up and opening presents from one another and then visiting their families. In the afternoon we went to my parents place where my family was all together. There was around 14 of us around the table all eating and celebrating together for the afternoon. I got to meet and actually spend time with some of my cousins that I’ve only known by names before Christmas. I had a really good time and felt truelly blessed to have spent it with friends and family that care so much for me.

So, For the next year…

I would like to try a few things for the next year and hope I continue to enjoy life. I can say that I’ve felt a true sense of happyness in the last few months – I’ve got involved in a lot of things I’ve dreamed about doing and just went for it with a new focus I didn’t seem to have. I’ve discovered that I find more and more I can do in life and look forward to what is coming next.

Trampolining: Sumasaults with no help
More cooking styles
Dance: become more fluid, confident, and relaxed in dance and expand the styles
Great grades and new friends through University
Be more involved with Harvest
The traditional – I want to get fitter, healthier etc

So thats me done for the year, so much has happened and I can see so many posibilities for the future and although its hard work and will get more of a challenge, I am looking forward to it while working through everything I have on.

Happy New Year!

Strike! – Is it wrong for to fight for your pension? #N30

Posted on November 30, 2011 by JC

I’ve been reading how so many people find it wrong that people working in the Public Sector are striking due to changes in their pensions. I work partly in the public sector and I am affected by the changes if only a little. I have friends that are and have been working in their jobs for many years putting money into their pensions. This is not the state pensions, this is something more.

Strike Action - 30 Nov 2011

I see people arguing that they shouldn’t be disrupting the public services and should just go with it. Would you have a problem if you were buying a car or a house or something else and you had paid for months, even years to an agreed outcome… you will get that item at the end of it all and while you have been paying your part in, someone decides to change the terms. Its not that you won’t get something at the end of it all, just that you won’t quite get what you were expecting and a few other things… It will take you longer to get it and the price has changed… Would you be happy with that? I know I wouldn’t and generally in UK Law that would break all sorts of terms of the contract.

Think of a holiday, you’ve been paying to go on this holiday all year, you know that on the 30th November that you will be going on an all inclusive holiday and everything is pre paid for, your not going to need anything more because you’ve already paid for it. Then someone changes the “contract”, you no longer get to go on holiday on the 30th November, now you have to wait til January, you have to pay more each month as the price has changed and its no longer all inclusive, you have to pay for stuff now as the value has changed… Would you be happy with that?

Is it wrong that schools are closed and people are off work as people strike, is it creating issues? If it didn’t cause any issues, would it even be noticed?

A day lost of education for children or anyone learning… yet last year, and even next year there is an extra bank holiday due to the Royal Wedding last year and next year the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – these also lose an extra day for education but thats fine as everyone gets a day off… we still lose a day but its not about peoples unhappyness so thats OK.

Regarding pensions in general, I started mine in my early 20’s and I’m only in my early 30’s now but always put something aside and that is seperate to the state pension that we all have to pay into (if we work). In all my part time jobs, I have a pension in them – I pay something into it if only a little. These changes don’t directly effect me immediately as I am on a relatively low wage for those jobs but I will have to work years more than I joined up for.

I can remember times in the 80s when my parents were on strike and it was a hard time then. House interest rates were huge often having a number one or two before the current rates. Wages were a lot worse and people were suffering. People are still suffering although life has changed a lot since then.

Often the government and a lot of people don’t see the Public sector makes any money so they are not important but take a day like the 30th November 2011 where there is a strike against pensions and people are not working, there are quotes of costs lost… if the public sector doesn’t do money… how does it lose money by not providing their service? The services they provide, allow the private sector to work and without them it does cost so in reality they do provide some actual cost.

I have lots of views on these things but can’t explain them all. There are so many complication involved its hard to explain them and so I leave it as this. These are my personal views but that doesn’t mean they are wrong.

ICAs – One Down

Posted on November 10, 2011 by JC

I’ve had an ICA (In Course Assessment) due in this week (Thursday) and it was an essay based question of 1500 words. I’ve had the assignment for a while and I have had loads of notes but to convert into an essay with discussion about the topic, that is something I’ve had real difficulty with. Piles of notes, references, and the question itself in front of me – I could answer it if in my normal circumstances in less than 200 words including references for why but to fill 1500, thats a new challenge.

My home is now a lot tidier than it has been, all washing is done and I’ve written so many ideas down that it will keep me busy for years. Why ideas comes to you about things totally different to what you want when you don’t want them is an annoyance but I needed to write them down as otherwise I tend to forget or keep remembering and can not get back to what I need to do.

Came to the end, I had 1464 words – so glad thats done, next one due in January (or December if you want a draft handed in first) and glad to leave it for a while. I’m going to continue with the reading though, I’ve discovered how to read a lot more and write notes as I go along that have been helpful. I’m faster at reading already – good job really, 10 pages here and there really doesn’t cut it on a Law degree – you need to read faster, there is so much of it.

Good idea: Get presentation folders. I’ve not needed them in years so when I went to get some to hand in assignment, I found I didn’t have any – off to Tesco, glad they are 24 hour stores round here, it ensured I had them quickly and on time.

Time management in past is something I’ve been quite useless at. I can provide a great projection and design plan of how to move forward, planning times and dates for everything to be done but to put it in action – that doesn’t usually go quite to plan. I’m glad I made one for the assignment – I thought I had loads of time to do it but as I worked through the plan, I realised I had not. I now have references, and notes that I should write up somewhere for future projects but not done yet.

I think my time plans are starting to make sense now, I’m starting to realise how long it takes to do things and I am meeting deadlines instead of an ideal plan deadline.

Always busy but happy

Posted on November 5, 2011 by JC

Its always going to be a while between updates now a days on here. I am a lot more busier that I ever used to be. As mentioned in a previous post, I’m now a student again and this time I’m working through all I’m given to get the best possible result I can – this however is taking a lot of time. I think more time on studies than first time round, and that was full time.

We have been given an In Course Assignment (ICA) about Contract Law, its due in during the next week and I’ve found it hard. I’ve got my points of view, and even lots of references to show where I got to my point of view but how to write it, thats the bit I’m struggling with. I’ve written reports for years but not really essays then I thought about this… is this a style of essay, if not best grammer and all but the ability to write and try to communicate my views to the reader. I must be doing something right, as people still seem to read this when I put it out.

I’ve found myself having more time for study than I thought I could manage, and I’m feeling like I’m not getting through all the reading but what I have read seems relevent most of the time, and can recall the points made in class. Mixing a few thoughts on paper with the references to reading had helped with the assignment points and hope it will help when it comes to revision times next may.

Many evenings after work, I can be found in the Library at university, somewhere with large desks that I can lay out lots of books and read through and have room to move. I don’t really have the space at home – there is tables, and desks but then there is not peace and lack of distraction. I didn’t think I’d enjoy just sitting in a library, reading and writing – I think that I’m doing something right.

I thought I would never attempt Law study – “its hard”, “there is lots of reading”, “You will have no free time” is what some people have said to me. They missed the part out about how enjoyable, and challenging it would be, the many new friends I would make and how happy it could make me feel. I never considered myself “smart” enough to do this or many things in life. I’ve always struggled with lots of things except IT stuff – that just sort of made sense but in general, I’ve had to work hard at anything that has given me a great joy.

My general weeks now consist of days of work between 2 or more jobs, lots of study time, university, some trampolining, and this past week I’ve started ice skating lessons – just the very basics. Its something I’ve wanted to do for years and I bought some hockey ice skates a few years ago and used them once. I found through reading online that there was some free classes for adults for people in Stockton on Tees so I signed up. I can’t stop yet, but can get some speed up forwards and backwards – if I want to or not.

I hope to continue my trampolining, return to dancing, get better at ice skating – I just want to know enough I can enjoy time out with friends without falling over so much. I also want the Law degree, although thats 4 to 5 years away as well as a happy life. The last part seems to be going well at the moment.

The only thing that is really lacking is time to eat properly. I am still having meals but its more sandwiches or quick fixes and I enjoy my food. I enjoy mixing raw ingredients together into a mixed stir fry or some thing more. I am missing the fresher foods and its one thing I need to re-manage when I find time to do so… Weekends seem a good time for fresh mixes of food, but it should be every day shame I’m often out 15 hours at a time some days.

A Student Again

Posted on October 5, 2011 by JC

When I initially went to university (in 1997), I went because it was the thing to do – to have a good time and hopefully learn something along the way. I did a degree in Computing and came out with a HNC in Computing – not so great, but been working since so worth something. I did IT as its something I could always do so thats where my life took me. Usually good to have something you can do and helps others.

This time around, I’m doing something I’ve always been interested in but never thought I’d actually be able to do. I’m going for a Part time course – a degree in Law. I didn’t get my degree last time and have always wondered if I could get one – Not particuarly for a better job, but for me to acheive it – Its something I want to do, and at the end of it (and probably during learning) I will be able to help people in a new way.

I started on Tuesday – its twice a week for the total of 5 hours plus lots of reading and study time, I’ve been re-arranging my hours for my jobs and free time over the past few months and now the education fits in well with that assuming I can keep to my plan.

The group/class seems quite good so far, I’ve only spoken with about half of them but people come from all different backgrounds – different current workplaces as well as a range of ages. Everyone so far has been friendly, and I think everyone was a little nervous for the class but jelled well. I think it will be a good class. Already we have started mini assignments in the classes, and people have worked well together directing and helping each other find things to complete the answers on the sheets.

I am at a point in life now that I am ready to really learn again, I didn’t think it would happen – that I want to sit down, have time out of the crazy life I have and learn. Being a student again is different now. Previously, it was lot about going out and learning how to mix and thats came invaluable but I’ve done that now… and yes, I will go out probably with this group but I have a stronger sense to actually sit down and work for things. Maybe its got something to do with having to organise the payment for the course as last time there was no fees for the course – maybe I didn’t value what I was getting.

I can see many opertunities ahead, and really am looking forward to even the insane amount of reading that will be needed, I may complain but will work through it.

I came out of the first set of classes expecting to be exhausted, I’d been working since about 8.30am with about 2 hours for food and breaks during the day and finished at 9pm but felt so energised – I wanted to do something then… I ended up cooking, eating and preparing veg for the next few days of food. On wednesday though.. Quite tired but with a smile

How to replace the Hard disk in a Zoostorm Freedom 10-270 netbook

Posted on September 30, 2011 by JC

My netbook is out of warranty and the hard drive has died, or just not working very well. My first hints should have been the noise coming from the netbook – it wasn’t quiet anymore but I’d just got used to it.

I contacted ZooStorm (manufacturer) via email at “technical@zoostorm.co.uk” to see what they’d suggest. They got back to me quite quickly – well within 24 hours which is good I think. They suggested a hard drive failure after my explanation of chkdsk freezing, and the amount of error messages. I assumed they would but couldn’t find where to change the drive. No info online, and nothing in the manual/papers I could find.

They told me I could replace the hard drive myself but it does involve a complete strip down of the unit. They say they do not have guides on how to do this and I’ve not found any online either so I share a basic overview:

1. Remove all screws from the bottom and remove the wireless card.
2. Remove the keyboard
3. Undo all screws under keyboard
4. Disconnect the screen and take the top c plate off
5. You should see the hard drive.
6. Replace the hard drive

You will also require:

a small cross headed/philips screwdriver
a flat edged blade
Lots of Patience
Somewhere to store all the screws and bits
Optional: A camera

It sounds simple enough, and I found out that you need a 2.5″ SATA Drive before starting. I had an old one from another laptop, I re-Imaged the Netbook image onto the old drive on another PC before attempting the task of netbook di-section.

The Process as I did it (following the guide above)

I have some pictures to go with this lot but have not been able to transfer them off my phone yet, so will update this when I do.

I would recommend you take pictures as you go along, it will help you when putting it back together as you can do everything in reverse.

1) Remove all screws from the bottom and remove the wireless card.

I found there to be 8 screws on the bottom of the netbook, 2 for case compartments and only 2 for the wireless card which when removed springs outwards but is still attached to the board. There is a delicate connection wire to the wireless card that needs to be removed.

2) Remove the keyboard

This sounds easy but doesn’t seem to be loose to be removed easily. The front of the case opens up but not the whole thing. I’ve removed every screw I can find but so far, not there.

After about an hour or so of searching for a way to remove this, I decided to re-contact zooStorm Support as without bending back the plastic and watching it snap, I was not getting any further.

I got these instructions the next day:

To remove the keyboard you need to push up the 3 clips along the top, one just off of the ESC and F1 keys, one about halfway along, and one towards the other end. While doing this carefully raise up the keyboard and it will then come away, the keyboard is attached to the motherboard via a cable which will need to be unclipped.

Under the keyboard you will see more screws that will be required to be removed. Additionally you will need to remove the screen, this will have 2 screws holding it in place located under the hinge caps. You can remove these by placing a small flat blade between the back of the hinge and the metal plate and twisting slightly which will then lift it up.

Once these screws are removed the top and bottom panels will start to separate, please note that there are 3 plastic clips within the battery bay holding the top on, you will need to use a flat bladed screw driver or knife to release these.

So I’m back attacking the system again.

2 screws for screen
6 screw under keyboard

To unclip the keyboard you need to raise the black strip up and the cable just falls out easily.

Drive has a caddy, its held in with 4 screws around it, the caddy holding the drive also has 4 screws. Remove the screws and the drive slides out. It took me ages to find the fourth screw holding the caddy in place as its down the side and is black, the same colour as the surrounding.

I used the pictures I’d taken in reverse to put back together. When attaching the keyboard and other things with the light flat ribbon cables you need to raise the black part up and then put cable in and lower the black down clipping it in place. It does make quite a strong hold.

Once everything was put back together it was the moment of truth, I switched it on and the boot screen came on followed by the windows logo and then everything loaded up. It was just as though it was new again (well new to last backup) – works fine and well now and proved to me that taking backups was worth it. Everything re-synced and windows wanted to update itself but otherwise the PC was back up and working.

so.. Result!

Dead Netbook

Posted on September 29, 2011 by JC

My netbook seems to have died – well at least it looks like the hard drive has died. It starts to load windows and gets so far and then just stops and stays on a nice screen with nothing useful except a mouse cursor that moves around.

I thought, oh no – another re-install due to coruption (i’d tried the startup repairs and none of that had worked neither had safe mode that crashed in same place) so a Re-Install. That’ll be easy – I have a ghost image of the netbook.

I ghosted it last time I re-installed and update windows and other software. I removed all the “freebies” you get like trial AV & Office software and installed a free AV (Avast) and Open Office as well as a few other apps. Ghosted it using “Symantec/Norton Ghost” – its an old copy – it booted from 3 floppy disks originally (now bootable usb) but just works.

To restore should have been a simple 20 minute job, it didn’t work. Ghost wouldn’t even load which was odd but I thought, oh well lets chkdsk the drive.

So I did the full “chkdsk c: /r” to check the drive. That took a while, I guess it would have taken forever really as it got to stage 4/5 and froze. It stayed on 0% for over 14 hours at which time I stopped it, rebooted and tried again. It froze again implying major faults on the drive. My inital hint was the hundreds of error lines where it couldn’t read parts of the drive and finding orphan files all over, so yes – a deaded drive.

Backing up

Its really important to backup, and people previously have said that I am paranoid about losing stuff. My routine may be a little over the top sometimes but at times like this it really pays.

My backup routine consists of a daily backup of all documents and work to an external HDD, aswell as uploaded to personal web space over 2 servers located in different parts of the world. Once a month, DVD/Blu-Ray Disks are burned of the backups and stored in a safe in an offsite location (These backups contain all work and sometimes ghost images of the system). My documents are also saved in Dropbox, and anything I want to keep private I password protect (to a point)

Documents and general settings were safe. I don’t use my netbook for anything major – just usually thoughts and web/email stuff. I use IMAP for email so everything is stored on the server and Dropbox for documents which is shared on other PCs. I also copied my pidgin & firefox profiles into my dropbox there by syncing them elsewhere so nothing was lost.

Useful Backup Tools

SyncBack – Useful to auto backup to external drives and online, as well as automatically make archival copies of stuff. I use the SE edition (which is paid for) but the free version works well.

Ghost [Amazon Affiliate link] – Great to make a copy of your system as it is on a set day. If anything goes wrong you can usually have a system up and running in about an hour.

Dropbox – a set of about 2GB of disk space to auto sync documents and work, and share with friends if wanted. Great for collaboration work or just to share an idea.

Web Disk Space

You can get webspace almost everywhere but a lot of them will complain and is against there terms of service for you to use their space as storage for non-web based things or even as an FTP server. I’ve found the following to be good.

1) arvixe.com
Allows loads of space and their servers seem quite fast. I once got one script slightly wrong and it transferred over 200GB of data to their servers – No complaints or comments sent to me. I once ran a PHP script to make thumbnails of all my photos I’d uploaded and it was done quite quickly. I’d ran the same elsewhere and it had taken about an eighth of the time here.
Costs: Around $60 a year or £37 after exchange rates and you get a domain name too (which is helpful and usually around $10/£8)

2) 34SP.com
Great support but not a lot of space. Good as a starter set – Not tried the scripts here. But I’ve been with them since 2003 and in that time there has only been around 4 times of downtime that affected me and none of that in the past few years.
Costs: Between £4 and £8 per month (£48 to £96) also free domain name

3) UKWSD.COM
I know some of the people that run this company. They spoke about it when we were in college together and soon after they started it up. I’ve been with them since early 2003 and they have been helpful to me whenever I’ve needed it. Occasionally I’ve really messed up DNS Records and they’ve put them to how I’ve needed them and explained what had happened. Which has been a blessing in the learning curve.
Costs: Depends on the account you want. A basic hosting account will cost around £54 a year – I use the reseller account that gives me more space and control and costs near to £24 per month.

If you want a full control area, you could go down the VPS route but they don’t usually come with backups of the space with it. If interested, a good one is:

* Linode – Linux Based where you can put whatever you want on (within their terms of service) and it will just live there. Comes with a good chunk of space for the smallest package. Costs around $20/£13 a month

Next… Replacing the Hard Drive in the Netbook

University – Will I get in?

Posted on September 23, 2011 by JC

I dont write much online anymore, and if I do its in spurts. Mainly because I don’t have free time to stop and think and word what I want down – it doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say just that I only get it if on holiday usually away from home life otherwise always working on that other project thats on my mind.

I am hoping that I get into University, I’ve a place on a conditional offer on them getting proof of my results from college and GCSEs – I’m not sure why they need to see them as already studied with them a while back and was on a degree course with same requirements but they insist on seeing the proof.

I have not found them and had to pay the exam boards for them to send confirmation to the university – they won’t send out certificates unless you have a crime reference for their loss. I’ve not needed them for any job interview, or other education and moved house multiple times since getting them so they could be somewhere in the house but after searching all drawers, cuboards, boxes and even the loft I could not find them.

I sent for results to the boards that covered my area. They say it takes up to 28 days – I only had around 40 days to get it before the course was due to start so I thought OK, I’ll send it to them. After about 2 weeks I get a call to say one board had only had half of my results but the rest were at their other office and to get them I had to pay again and send to that office – again with 28 days. Why you have to pay twice, from the same company for results that were all taken at same time by the same board is annoying and expensive to say the least.

So far, the univeristy have all my results except maths and english results – which in most places are the most important ones to get. The course is due to start in about 2 weeks time – in start of October. I’ve not been able to prepare much like sorting books etc as you need to be enrolled to get more details and can’t enroll until the place is accepted. So now I wait.

I am going for a part time Law degree. I’ve spoken that I wanted to do something related to Law but never had got round to it. Now I’m going for it, although its taking a lot of time just to get onto the course. I know it will take a lot of time to work through it but have been busy for the past few months re-organising and building a structure so that I will have the time to work on it and through it. Its something that will be hard, challenging and help me grow again. It could even give me new direction in life.

I’m not interested in the idea of getting money back, sueing people all over but more in the defending and protecting people side of it all but to have a knowledge of it all means you can try to see things from all angles and where and what people may say from your statement so you can defend it and not be caught off guard.

While at university the first time around, I would have discussions with lots of friends but often there was only one side to it. I would often take the complete oposite view, even if I agreed with the other side just to get a discussion/argument going. I learned a lot from them, as could see what led people into different directions for pursuing their point.

I used to challenge one friend in particular as he had strong views, he was one of my closest friends while at university. He didn’t realise I was doing it for fun and challenge for a while, and was not so pleased when he found out. I didn’t do it to hurt, but after explanation he understood the reasoning and I think still often forgot when discussions started again.

Fschooliascoff

Where the inner voice speaks aloud

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