Sam Thompson

So much to write so little inclination

Sam — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:00:15 +0000

You’ve probably noticed as an avid and obsessed reader of my most excellent website, that the site has been through somewhat of a huge transformation. Gone are the forums and the traditional gallery. Replaced with a heavily mashed together mix of MSpaint, Wordpress and a few plugins lovingly moulded together with the help of a bottle of Red Rioja. Or three. Comments would be appreciated.

It’s been about 7 months since my last blog post and so much has changed in my life it’s going to be impossible to update you without me getting bored, and you clicking on your facebook bookmark! As such I’m not going to even attempt to recap the last few months.

Instead I’m going to look forward to what’s coming up over the next few weeks. First of all I’m heading out on a canal boat for some serious chillaxin’ in Yorkshire for a long weekend. Then back to Woking to move into my new house which really isn’t going to be as fun as it sounds. Then the next weekend is Leeds festival for some serious partying! I’m sure photos will make it up sometime in the future.

It’s also the start of the premiership in a week so it’s time to put together the fantasy squad for the year. I think I’ve got a good team this year although I’m still undecided if I should risk putting Ronaldo in! I’m convinced he’ll drop in price and then I’ll buy him.

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For a bit of a giggle and when I have a bit of free cash I’m going to try my hand at the stock market. Maybe only £300ish but should prove to be a lot of fun. I’ll have to look into the whole legality of it first though, as I’m exposed to a lot of information some people aren’t. It isn’t fun if I end up in jail!

So yeah let me know what you think of the site and also the team.

Till next time,

Sam out

Circle Line Party

Sam — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:59:34 +0000

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The Deep South, now without Country Music

Sam — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:53:29 +0000

There’s a common belief among people from the North (or above the Watford Gap), that all southerners are poncy pricks with a born belief they are better than the smoggy north. After 1 month (yes it has been that long), I am able to come up with a more appropriate and justifiable opinion. That being that most of the people you meet down South are people from the North who couldn’t find proper jobs back in the smog. It is therefore safer to wear a United shirt in Woking than it is a Chelsea shirt. Interesting, but what you gonna do?

Quite pathetically I’m actually enjoying the commute into work each morning. It’s long enough to be able to read a bit of a book ~19min and not long enough to make waking up too painful. Already I’ve read every book in my meagre collection so I’m planning a mass buy in the next few weeks down one of the charity shops. Gotta love a bit of Tom Clancy or John Grisham to semi-work the brain. Nothing too hard in the morning you’ll notice. It also gives me chance to listen to a new album almost every day. I’m glad I have a big enough collection to stop me getting bored too fast. I love the coldcut albums at the moment.

The job is going well you may be glad to hear. The work colleagues are all pretty safe and happy to keep a straight face as you ask the same question for the 300th time. Not surprisingly there is an absolutely huge amount to learn which could also be said for the different way of life I’m attempting to adapt too. The biggest difference is sleep patterns. If you know me in any depth you probably know, given any opportunity I spend most of the time before midday in bed and you’ll be hard pressed to see me in bed asleep before midnight! Just look through the posting times on the blog (which covers over 2 years now) and you’ll see an embarrassing amount of them are posted between 3-4am! Suffice to say early starts are a hard pill to swallow.

Quite weirdly the income is my second problem. Having never earnt more than beer money in my life, it’s a major difference to be able to buy Heinz beans without a major pang of guilt for not buying the cheap smartprice ones. I think it’s going to take more than a few months to get the student out of me. I actually caught myself using a little less washing powder than is probably necessary because back in student days that would have been an extra wash. I’m hoping I can find a good balance between value and a better standard of living. I might even consider dumping Primark as the ‘only’ clothes store.

Talking of students…..my shrimp of a brother has started uni at Sheffield. I’m very pleased and I think it was a great relief off my parent’s backs when he got in. He’s doing a masters in mechanical engineering which is a little mental considering he isn’t exactly the studious type, but I have a little faith left in him yet. Its weird thinking of your brother starting uni when your already paying off the debt you amassed when you were there. I feel obliged to tell him all the mistakes he’ll make and what he should and shouldn’t do but I think half of uni is finding those out yourself! I hope it goes well for him though. Not like you can afford to fail a year anymore. £3000 is a fucking joke. Uni’s will have to start actually providing value for money. I know for a fact I would be up in arms at Manchesters admin if I was paying that kind of money for the joke of a service they provide.

So yeah I’m off to the Southern pub to meet all the guys from the North, wearing my forest shirt, and bitch about all the poncy Southerners. Shame I haven’t really met one yet. I hope I don’t, I hate buying halves.

I hereby proclaim the South – ‘Mini North’ or simply ‘the place you go to make money to get back out again’.

Till next time,

Sam “Southern Fairy” Out

A major life upheaval

Sam — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:24:38 +0000

Have you ever stared out a moving train window and felt completely alone as the world rushes past. I think it’s the most surreal feeling I’ve had in a while. Such a lot has changed in the last 3 months I’m kind of lost mentally as well as geographically. Looking at the big picture I struggle to see anything but panic and confusion. Fortunately everyday I spend in this new life I seem to be able to find something positive to look back on and it’s making it almost bearable.
If you haven’t managed to keep in touch recently I’ll try update you since the last blogs were written eons ago. I was working at Stealth for a few months and then between lots of parties, hangovers and holidays I spent the last month prior to moving doing nothing but living a bum’s life. I have now moved to Woking and have been working at Fidessa (my new employer) for the last 3 days. This meant moving house 3 times in as many days and starting a new job in the same week. Manchester – Nottingham – South London is no small distance! Not to mention the fact I’m a few hundred miles from most of my mates and the proverbial comfort zone. A major life upheaval I’m sure you’ll agree.
Work is going fine and it’s a relatively easy first few weeks as the company throws me into as many training courses as they can find in an attempt to get me somewhat financially competent. I’ve only been on a few day courses and I already feel I can use the words stocks, shares and dividends without feeling totally out of my depth. Its helped in a huge way by the company of the other graduate starters who are all 21-22 and are making the whole transition a whole lot easier. Primarily this is because I still feel like I might be at university due in no small part to the long lectures and assignments.
The new flat is sweet too. I’m living in Surbiton (KT6 4GS for anyone wanting to Google map it), in a 2 bedroom top floor flat. The kitchen, bathroom and living room are big and spacious and are all modern. The bedroom is also proper sweet and is big enough to accommodate a double bed and one of my big desks. It did force me to cut down on clothes though as I have 25% of the cupboard space I had before. Not too expensive though but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t more than I’m used too. Damn London. Robin my flatmate is also really sound and I feel to be getting on really well while not getting under each others feet. Commute is only about 40min door to door which is more than acceptable as I think it took at least 30min to Stealth and I wouldn’t label that a real commute. The £140 ticket per month on the train is a bit of a joke though. And to think used to bitch about the Nottingham prices.
As an end note I must apologise to anyone that has sent me texts or tried to contact me in the last week. I have lost my phone charger so there’s nothing I can do until I can find time to go shopping or the one from eBay turns up. I have also just got internet and am gradually replying to emails/messages. Accept the apologies please.
Till next time
Sam out

Degree Classification and new Job

Sam — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:28:19 +0000

I haven’t been on a train with my laptop for the last few weeks, hence the lack of a blog. That’s not to say I haven’t been travelling around the county, because I seem to have been everywhere recently and have loads to write about. Essentially this blog will cover the most important result and biggest decision of my life so far. Namely the fact I received my degree classification and I made a decision about getting a job and career.
Without dragging it out I am officially now Sam Thompson BEng having received a 2.ii in my Computer Systems Engineering course from the University of Manchester. I would be lying if I said I was totally thrilled with the result. I feel a 2.ii to be somewhat of an average degree and I feel I haven’t quite done myself justice. Makes you think back to all those times you could have put in that little bit more effort. Still I am very happy that I have achieved a degree and feel to have made my parents proud which means a great deal to me. That’s life changing news, item number 1.
Immediately after finishing my exams and before I had even got my degree classification I had started the graduate job search. I had been warned by many people to expect a hard and long slog to finding any jobs never mind one I wanted to do. After spending a week on the CV only to scrap it and start again I eventually got down to applying to any jobs I fancied in the papers and on the net. Getting to the point, as of 3rd September (pending signing of forms and contracts,) I’ll be working for Fidessa down in Woking, Surrey. That’s life changing news, item number 2.
Maybe I’m lucky, but out of 8 applications, I received 3 rejections, 3 Interviews leading to 2 job offers and a possible third. The other 2 jobs haven’t stopped taking applicants yet. Who said it’s hard to get a job? Of the 3 jobs only 2 really ever grabbed my interest. The offer from Experian as a Server Technician was too much of a manual job and wouldn’t have provided much brain activity or career prospects. The pay was also 2/3rds of what I was being offered elsewhere. The other two jobs, Bell Fruit Games and Fidessa offered me much more career prospects and were both good careers. I chose Fidessa simply because the jobs were very different, one being a programming job and the other technical support. I just couldn’t see myself being a programmer and enjoying my life.
Anyway I’m torn at the moment if it was a good idea to move so far south. I think it was probably a good career move but could be a bit of a tough move psychologically. I have such good friends and support in Nottingham and having missed it so much when I was in Manchester I can’t help but feel I might get a little lonely for a few months. I think I’ll try and overcome it by going onto the flat share websites and just finding a big house with loads of other young professionals and build friendships from there. Either that or just work so hard I don’t notice I have no social life.
Until the 3rd September I will mostly be working at stealth earning a bit of pocket money and paying off the rent to the parents. I also plan on moving into the house with the guys for the few weeks I am in Nottingham before moving to Woking.
It gets a little bit more complicated in the next few weeks though since I need to juggle moving from Manchester to Nottingham and then from Nottingham to Woking. That includes finding somewhere to live that is completely foreign to me and that takes 5 hours to get to. A 10 hour round trip somewhat rules out day trips and hotels aren’t cheap in London. Combine that with 2 holidays during August and it looks like I could be under quite a lot of pressure in the next few weeks. Ohh and I also have my driving test which is another thing for me to fit in. Ohh and I miss my girlfriend.
Till next time.
Sam out

Uni, Check. Degree, Check. Life, Abort Abort Abort!

Sam — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:29:43 +0000

University is over. 3 years of working and the end result doesn’t feel exactly like I thought it would. I expected my life to be so simple from now on and it seems that’s not exactly the case. All my life I have been working for a degree and now I have one I feel a little lost.
I guess the next stage in the life path is ‘career’ followed by the scarier ‘family’ prospect. I think I’ll attempt to block that out for the time being. So what have I being doing to get my start on the career ladder. The answer is nothing.
The reason for doing nothing is primarily because of the desire for no responsibility for at least a few months, but also because I have no idea what I want to do with my life. My plan is to apply to as many different kinds of jobs as possible and se which ones take my fancy. I really don’t plan on working at stealth any longer than necessary. The hours are so long and the pay is appalling. Not to mention the fact that the hours are at just about the worst times and irregular. Not really selling it as a job am I! Anyway I’m hoping my degree is at least a 2.2 and then I can apply to ‘proper’ jobs.
In the meantime I plan on getting a house with some of my best mates. We’re primarily looking at getting a 6 person house, (which i slightly larger than I thought,) but should be awesome anyway as long as there’s enough showers in the morning. If you need an image you can think of a T-Rex with a meteor up its arse and that’s basically me without a shower as soon as I wake up. I don’t really need much from a house but a good shower and bed is essential. Lyd’s house lacks a real shower and i have about 4 days before I get cranky. Baths are inherently wrong. The house hunting begins proper this Friday and I hope to have it sorted 14 days after.
My one real reservation about getting a house is the commitment. I love, and I really need to stress this, I love the idea of getting a house with my mates. I just don’t want to end up putting my friendship in an awkward position if I need to move out due to a work or job opportunity. Unfortunately most of the large houses are student lets and this means a renting period of 9-12months. I can’t guarantee I will be in Nottingham past Christmas and to sign a contract for that length of time just wouldn’t be logical. Especially since my brother has experienced exactly the same thing with his flat in Leicester. At the moment he shells out £250 a month for a flat he doesn’t even use! I need to make this clear from the start and then hopefully it wont be a problem should it occur. I just hope it doesn’t come across like I’m not interested in the house.
Right I have a CV to write.
Till next time.
Sam out

Messy

Sam — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:30:28 +0000

Woah its been a busy few months
Really only three major events to speak of since the last blog. Mine and Lyd’s 21sts and the handing in of my dissertation.
Lyd’s 21st was the first of the events and it proved to be exceptionally messy. Not really for me as i seemed to retain good balance and composure despite the effects of 15+ beerskis. Lyd on the other hand seemed to suffer the effects of many a wine and stellas. We danced till i couldn’t move and then danced some more.
21st presents are always a bitch to think of so the fact it was the girlfriends was a terrifying thought. I ended up getting her a white gold and diamond necklace which was her birthstone. Why can’t her birthstone be granite or limestone? Either way she seems to like it
It was my 21st exactly a week later (yeah im a little toyboy) and i had been asked to put together a list of things i might want as presents. It was impossible to think of nearly anything that was remotely feasible. Most of it involved complex electronics or was way over anyone’s budget. Core2Duo anyone?
On the day of the 21st i was up bright and early at 11am to go for a cheesecake with Mel and Paul (my housemates from manc) who instantly agreed that the French waitress was as tasty as the cheesecake. I of course made no such judgement and thoroughly enjoyed my coffee. At 1pm my family started ariving and by 3 i was enjoying the very nice buffet and on my 4th bottle of assorted larger. The presents were also rolling in as were the cards with very generous amounts of money. Shame you only turn 21 once! Lyd bought me an absolutely gorgeous watch and among other great presents i got a wallet from my bro and driving lessons from the parents. Oh and a thong and fake breasts. Awesome!
The night out was legendary in my eyes. I was absolutely stonkingly drunk by the time i ot into town and then after the 5 shots of hell, including a chilli shot courtesy of the lads, i was well and truly gone. After revos we hit stealth vs rescue where i drank anything and everything seeing as i dint pay for a drink all night. Buzzing off my fake tits and badge/balloon now firmly lost somewhere in the bowels of the venue i danced hard till it hurt then drank till it stopped. Dancing quickly resumed till 5am when i was persuaded it was light enough to go home.
Unfortunately i was rudely awoken at half 7 by the sounds of guests that had stayed round at the house. At half 9 and the grand total of maybe 2 hours proper sleep i attempted to say goodbye to my guests while still off my face and trying to hard the fact i couldn’t really stand. It was messy! Thanks to everyone that made it so memorable (although to be honest i don’t remember all of it).
After all that excitement i then had the daunting task fo writing my 50 page dissertation. I wont bore you with the details since i have bored myself to death already but suffice to say i spent many many nights attempting to stay awake trusting in the powers of caffeine.
Now in keeping with all my blogs i am true to form writing this on the train. Little bit special this one though seeing as i am in virgin 1st class! Its amazing. So wish i was rich. The reason i have the ticket is that i ordered so far in advancei got tickets for £30 each way. Add in 33% student rail fare and a £5 voucher i have it turned out cheaper than standard which had already sold its cheap tickets. So far have had 3 free coffees, cokes and a full meal. Well worth the extra £1.20.
Till next time,
Sam Out

Flogging a Dead Horse

Sam — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:31:25 +0000

I never knew it’d be so fucking hard to sell a phone! I have spent so long and so much effort trying to sell my 6280. I’d understand if it was a little bit knackered but it’s brand new and still has its box. People don’t know a bargain when they see one! So yeah, if any of you blogo fans want it then you can have it at a knockdown/mate rate.

The reason I’m so annoyed with the situation is because I really wanted to sell all my unwanted stuff and hopefully pay off some of my insane debt. I know it’s bound not to be as bad as some people, but I haven’t really lived an extravagant few years and I am still in 10K debt. Scary prospect to be quite honest.
So yeah, the eGay sale really went rather badly with me only actually making £25 net profit! Hardly the £200 I was expecting. If you see anything on the list you want I’ll sell it for pennies just to stop reminding myself how shit it went.

Apart from the saving of money I have mostly been spending it at about the same rate. Last weekend I went back to Nottingham for the Phildo’s 21st and to see Forest beat Gillingham. If truth be told I was really quite drunk most of the day and I really struggle to remember some parts of it. That’s what drinking from 1pm till 1am does to you. At least I didn’t take all my clothes off (Lambert). I have also been spent a good few quid on my project which I hope to be able to claim back at the end. It’s all coming together now, and it looks like I’ll be ready to do most of the write up over Easter.

Talking of Easter I am back for 3 weeks from this Saturday so make sure all you bitches wanting to dance let me know on the old SMS system. I’m gonna party like its 2003. Yes its going to get ‘sixth form’ messy. I’m mostly looking forward to the raft of 21st b’days that are occurring these next few weeks. We have Paul’s followed by Lydia’s crowned off with mine. Should be good if not a little lethal.

At the moment though, I’m still at uni, all alone in the house since both of my flat mates have gone to Switzerland skiing and snowboarding. Lucky bastards. I’m so jealous since I haven’t got any holidays planned this year. Its £500 saved though. Unfortunately I also have a few bits of coursework due in (earlier today) that I still haven’t done so it’s making me feel a little moody and depressed on top of feeling bored.

Less depressingly i recently found looking at a website called http://speedtest.net/ where you can test how fast your internet connection is. Mine is below and if you could paste your results that would be interesting. Especially if you read from a work connection.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/101994477.png

I am also going to start a new trend in my blogs where I state what I’m currently watching TV, film and musically wise. This week it is:

TV: Heroes and Studio 60
Film: None as I didn’t catch Orange Wednesday
Music: Snow Patrol

Till next time
Sam out

Cash in the Attic. An eGay special.

Sam — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:32:56 +0000

Its that time of the year. I am absolutely skint and the wrong side of the balance line so its time for eBay! I have a huge amount of things to sell and no time to do it. Below is a mini list of all the stuff currently being sold on eBay followed by all the stuff on Forums.
Black Nokia 6280. As NEW Condition.Boxed + Accessories.
Nokia 8310 + Charger. FULLY UNLOCKEDn
Classic Nokia 7110 MATRIX Phone. Great Condition.
Fully UNLOCKED Sony Ericsson T630. + Charger
Small Stylish Bluetooth Handsfree Headset UK seller
Sony T665C CLIE PDA. MP3 playback. Touchscreen. + Acc’s
OFFICIAL Sony CLIE Foldout Keyboard. PEGA-KB11
* Cheetah Fibre Optic SCSI Drive: Model ST136403FC. Bought in error from Ebay. £5 + Postage
* RAM 128MB PC100: £5.50inc
* RAM 128MB PC100: £5.50inc
* RAM 128MB PC133: £6.50inc
* RAM 128MB PC100: £5.50inc
* RAM Unknown Value SDRAM: Its Ram but i have no idea what value it is. Numbers on a sticker show THMY6480PICEG-80 TOSHIBA 356491/9950EKC. Could be a bargain at £3.50inc but may adjust prices if it turns out to be 1gig
* All 5 x SDRAM above £22inc
* Slimline CD Drive: Sanyo Branded. Not much else known about it. Bought for a project that never happened. £8inc
* Slimline CD Drive: Samsung Branded. Not much else known about it again but its model number is 24E. Bought for a project that never happened. £8inc
* 2 x Drives = £10inc
* Slimline HDD adaptor to IDE £4inc
* BUNDLE: 1.2GHz Athlon, Abit KT7A, Akaska Cooling, Geforce2 64MB. £30 + Postage
* Trust 5.1 OPTICAL Soundcard Trust Model 514DX 5.1 Sound Expert Optical £15inc
* ATI Radeon PCI 7000: Was used in 4 monitor setup but replaced in favour of 2. Boxed. Scan Link £16inc
* 2 x Identical 17″ CRT Samtron 76E Monitors Pair of Samtron CRT’s used as my dual screens. Recently bought an LCD and these have to go. Collection only! £15 each or £25 the pair.
Suffice to say its quite a list of stuff. I’m hoping to get at least £200 once i’ve sold it all though its hard to sell some of the stuff. Fingers crossed.
While i’m doing that though, i’m meant to be working on my essay. Suffice to say it blows. Only got 2000 words left to do though then i can start on the other 2.
Till next time
Sam out

Obnoxious Travellers and new Software

Sam — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:34:58 +0000

So this is a new one. Yep I’m writing a blog on a train. This time it’s slightly different though and I’m writing it on the way back from London. Yep this is sarcasm. Doesn’t come out too well in written form. It is however slightly different to usual though as I’m writing the blog under Linux or more specifically on open office rather than Microsoft word. It’s pretty much the same except for the fact that I appear to rely upon autocorrect an awful lot more than I was aware of. Every second word seems to be slightly wrong. I’m sure I’ll figure it out but that’s on top of the fact I can’t for the life of me get sound to work under Linux. All I seem to get is very low volume through the headphone socket. Personally I thought they were hardware linked but it seems I was wrong as usual. I can however get wireless to work now but that took forever and a day and it was no where near as easy as an install of XP. I can imagine vista is even easier to install. So yeah I quite like ubuntu Linux but its near where near as good as XP. I’d like it to be seeing as its free but I just can’t imagine me switching anytime soon.
Anyway back to the train. I’d like to think of myself as a fairly frequent traveller on the Manchester – London route and always book well in advance. Therefore I am always asked for a seating preference. I always specify forwards! Not once have I been on a train and been placed on a seat going the right way. Even when I was placed on a table I was put backwards. In fact I don’t think I’ve sat in my designated seat for a few months now. That is until today. The train is absolutely packed and I’m stuck between an alcoholic, (already into 4 cans of Stella,) and a another wanker with only 35 minutes of the 3 hour journey gone. I’m hoping the wanker is looking at my screen as I he’s literally right on my shoulder and his breath stinks of cheesy puffs. He’s listening to an ipod well too loud (especially since he’s listening to some rap shit) and eating loads of junk food. I wouldn’t mind someone having a quick bite to eat but I actually have bits of the mans sandwich on my feet and cheesy puffs on my trousers. Not to mention the man can’t close his fucking mouth. I’m now hoping he bothers to read what I’ve written and although you won’t be able to see it now I have enlarged the font to make it easier to read. For fucks sake I’m wearing earphones and replaying the same song just so I don’t have to hear him eat! So yeah I’m no enjoying this train ride. It’s also the train that gets me into Manchester at 1am, which with the added walk and bus home means I usually get into bed well after 2am. Not the funniest time to be walking through moss side. Especially given the recent spate of shootings that occurred just 10 min north of my house. Nice.
I am also contemplating buying a new battery for my laptop when I get home as I’m fed up of running out of battery after a measly hour and a bit. they’re only about 50 quid and if that means I can watch movies the whole journey instead of listening to this mans mouth chomping on the same piece of bacon over and over its got to be worth it for my sanity alone. Still my bank account leaves a lot to be desired and if I was to make the purchase it would push me further into debt. Something I guess every student knows at least a little about. Me more than some others I guess. I can only guess what it must be like to be actually struggling to pay bills. Half the reason I’m at uni really. To avoid ever being in that situation.
At uni I am currently undergoing 2 major pieces of work. One of which is my project that I plan on adding a secondary blog for and the other which is an essay on how to be a successful entrepreneur. It would help a lot I think if I even knew how to spell entrepreneur without the help of a spell checker. The reason I plan on adding a second blog for the project is that it is mainly based on a final report and knowing me I’ll leave the words to the last minute and not get a good mark. If I write a blog at least I’ll have a step by step technical document on how it was made. It may however be over the heads of a few blogo fans so don’t worry if you haven’t got a clue what I’m on about. Most of the time I’m just blaging it myself anyway. Right I’m all out of battery and the wanker has started on some strawberry chews which is doing wonders for my sanity and the noise levels. Assuming I don’t get thrown in jail for slashing this twat.
Till next time
Sam out