Well it is update time and the past week or so has been busy but not all around great. Not terrible just few things going wrong most of which have been remedied.  Also A few little rants a bout things mostly job applications and the passing of an acting legend Sir Christopher Lee.


So job applications, it is that time of year when graduates who do not have a job spam out applications left right and center in hopes to get a job. I am no exception, however, some of the jobs that I have applied for have been asking for a minimum of 260, 280, 300 ucas points.

Now this would be fine if my ucas points were that high but due to a not so good sixth form I went to university as a mature student. Here I have more than proven my determination at working and that I can get good grades, likely to get a high 2:1 and that I can combine that with an active social life. While at university I have undertaken archery, fencing, football, dancing( both latin and ballroom) and competed in them.

So because of this I just wish jobs would judge you on you latest qualification and achievements, because after all that is who I am/have been for the past 4+ years.


It has not all been applying for jobs I have also been trying to get Ad Sense working on my blog and having issues with ads being shown but not displayed in the layout manager. Turns out if you have an add blocker it hides the ads even in the layout manager, so after disabling it I could then remove most of the ads that were spamming my blog page.


I have been trying to seek out work in other areas such as free lancing on sites such as Elance. This site seems pretty good so far giving you choice of pay limitations and what work you take on. However I came across an issue when trying to add my address, no matter what address I entered I always got the error;

'Please enter a valid location.'

This was slightly irritating so I tweeted Elance and they responded quickly asking for user name and screen shot of the issue. I am still waiting to hear from them about a fix but until then I can work without an address.


Now to the sad news, I woke up today to hear the passing of Sir Christopher Lee at the age of 93.He was well known for his iconic acting roles as Dracula, Saruman, count Dooku the list goes on. He was in the Wicker Man, the man with the golden gun and countless other, he has had an amazing acting career. I have not seen everything he has been in and I doubt many people reading this will have too or just not realised it. I think that I am going to have to have a Christopher Lee marathon of films at some point soon.


He passed away at 8:30am on Sunday 7th June 2015 due to heart and respiratory problems. He is now out there with some of the great actors and my sympathy goes out to his family and friends.

Busy Bee

Well everything is going well at university. I am keeping busy with work, sports and social.

Dance sport: I am getting better at dancing now which is good as I have put myself down for competition in Warwick in November. I am very nervous and I need to go shopping for some dance shoes and clothing. I have a brilliant partner who puts up which my foibles and every one in the society is awesome and mad and I love them all :). I do fit in well with them. So stay tuned to see my results.


Fencing: On Saturday I took part in the novice fencing competition with five others. During the day I didn't lose a match, to which I was shocked, but the final is on Tuesday. I am nervous about it as everyone else will be there for training but I will give it my best and hope I win. 


Football: Football is going well had our first proper match today which didn't go brilliantly. Hopefully our next match will go a little better. Definitely a good way to wake up though.


Uni: Got a few assignments handed out that are proving to be fun and a few more to be handed out. Got one on WebGL creating a model solar system and one to write a report on agile and another on vision.


Social: Well after a few comments on a post in our computer science page on Facebook I have become the social representative for computer science. So looks like I will be organising the socials for a while, which I am not to fussed about. Hopefully, more people will turn up.


SSCC(Staff Student Consultative Committee): I have also joined SSCC which means I will be a representative for my subject and year. So people who want to raise issues then I can report them back to people higher up who can sort them out and improve things or help out at the time if possible.

Some work and some play

Well It has been a bit more than a week since I last updated this but it has been very busy. I have signed up to a few sports and I am fully into my lectures after a bit of module switching.

So first up uni work, well after swapping Space robotics for Computer vision I have more or less settled in nicely. A few assignments/tasks have been handed out and they look really fun and...awkward. I am having a bit of trouble with one of my modules as it involves a lot of maths, such as matrix transformations. All the rest are really interesting and hopefully should all go well.
Now for the extra curricular activities...
First up I have joined the Aberystwyth robotics society to work on various bits and bobs. One main area of interest is quad-copters and other flying machines. I am also soon to start looking at a Reprap 3D printer to try and help get it working.

I am also a part of the Digs football team, F.C. Beaver. First training session didn't go brilliantly and it chucked it down with rain mid way. Should get better :). I have my first friendly tomorrow against Ivory Toast so should be fun and shall see how that goes.

I have also taken up fencing which is very fun but tiring and stressful on the legs. I have learnt a few moves such as lunge, disengage and circle parry and a few others. It also works up a bit of a sweat wearing all the gear. I am however considering putting myself up for vote to be novice representative.

Finally I have also taken up ballroom dancing. This is brilliant fun and shows me how much I know about my right and left. So far learnt the basics of Waltz, Cha, Jive and Quickstep and a few little bits such as the new yorker. I have also put myself down for competing at basic level which could be interesting so lots of practice.

Well that is it so far, I am keeping busy and loving every moment. Stay tuned for more news. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MentalMarriott