Dear readers,

The time has now come when I have ended my additional education in my field of choice. I have successfully completed a BTEC National Diploma for I.T. Practitioners course, a Diploma of Higher Education in Web Technology and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Web Technology (the latter, I hope anyway). Throughout my educational rein, I have always been caught up in the rule changes for the worse. I did English GCSE when the rule came in so you couldn’t take in your poetry anthology into the exam. I did the BTEC IT course and the following year it was restructured with more media-based units that I would have enjoyed. The degree course changed its CAT points scoring system so all that is now different. SO what next? Well now I have finished education and the job market has crashed here in the United Kingdom.

I want to teach computing / information technology at college level (ages 16 to 19). This covers the U.K. further education sector after compulsory schooling. Despite the job crash, I was told numerous times that teaching is still in demand, especially in the technology sector.  I yet to see where this is meant to be happening. Nearly all college institutions are displaying no vacancy messages on their websites and any job I do find is part time / temporary cover. I have contacted some colleges, one having recorded my details with a national agency and another requesting my C.V. All I can do is wait and keep searching, especially in the summer break.

Jobs are scarce at the moment. Luckily I have a part time weekend job with a local shop chain and have been with them since 2006. I should really thank myself lucky, especially due to the laid back approach at work. I have worked my way up to store supervisor and that I am proud of to say I’m only a weekend part timer.

Is anyone else having trouble finding work at the moment? I have just completed a BSc(Hons) degree (await final results) and it is still a struggle. Would like to see some other peoples views on the matter.

Regards, Adam.

Hi readers of Tweaked for your Pleasure,

My topic for this post is a daunting one in the fact that is covers a lot of us and has great impacts when you really think hard about it. This topic looks at feeling old and I want to share my thoughts with you all.

I am a typical 21 year old student from England. Born in January 1989 seems like a very long time ago to say we are now in 2010. More recently, I have started to think as I am ‘out and about’ all the franchises, trends and lifestyle habits that have nearly vanished. Many people have that perception that things from the late 1990′s and early 2000′s is not that long ago. But thinking about it, that is 10 years or more now. It is scary.

James Bond was at its height in the late 90s to early 00s. Pierce Brosnan was a great 007 and I mostly remember his first debut in GoldenEye. That image of Brosnan as James Bond is very old now, 8 years since he stared in a Bond film (2002′s Die Another Day) and 15 years since GoldenEye! It feels modern to think of the Brosnan Bond era, but as a matter of fact it isn’t.

(above) GoldenEye 007: Bond and Xenia

I caught a glimpse of a modern Pokémon cartoon episode the other day thinking, WTF? The approach, voice actors, creatures and costumes are all different and I dread to understand who the new guys were. The original Pokémon era of the Indigo League and Orange Islands brings back so many childhood memories but that is 10 to 12 years ago in the distant past. Never again do you get that childhood back which ultimately means nothing in your life will ever be as magical as a fictional creature world such as Pokémon. The original Game Boy games Red and Blue are well over a decade old now and I still remember playing it for the first time when I borrowed it from a mate! Old old old.

(above) Pokemon Ash and Gary

Nintendo has moved on dramatically since the 1990s. I remember that day in 1997 when I went round a friends who just got their Nintendo 64 with Mario Kart 64. It was Mario Kart in actual 3D! I was shouted from the upstairs to come quickly. I knew what it was and I pelted it up them stairs. How stunning it was. 3D Mario in a kart with 3 red shells circling around him, I never wanted to leave. That is 13 years ago now. Its moved on to wireless motion controls and WiFi battles now. I got my own N64 in 1998 and remember Super Mario 64 popping onto my 14 inch portable TV for the first time, “It’s a me, Mario”.

(above) Mario 64 Castle

Music has 70% gone to pot in my eyes. All it is now is RnB rapping and dirty tracks. The good old 90s and early 00s dance,pop and house is desperately trying to survive. I collected all the Now That’s What I Call Music CDs from now 39 to the present day. My god doesn’t that show you a music transition over the years.

(above) Now 41 CD, 1998

I remember the days when political correctness was in-existent and you could walk out and about without being on guard for thugs. I remember the days when you were actually scared about getting in trouble by your teachers. I remember the days when money for games, CDs and videos was a special occasion and not a spoilt weekly thing. My god I waited and waited for a copy of 007 The World Is Not Enough for the Nintendo 64. I remember the days when you ate and ate without gaining the pounds or being warned by the government that you may die of obesity. I remember the time before I had a computer! Pass time was playing N64 or drawing.

(above) Christmas Family 90s

Remember the good old days when family and friends stuck together all day long. You could hang out with mates in your bedroom for hours on end without one ounce of boredom. Nowadays people want to be roaming the streets all day. Families generally tended to be so supportive and did things like arrange seaside trips. Today it is seen as to much hassle to organise.

To conclude, I feel very old and I want to know your thoughts? Please add your memories and what’s changed. Tell me how you feel if you really really think about it.

Due to recent findings and memory jogs in the history of Wrights Productions and Tweaked for your Pleasure, I decided to devote my first main article to our relationship in the past and where this is leading. I hope you will enjoy the article and all comments welcomed.

Back in 2005, this website was known as Ellisfamily.tk and was hosted by Forumer. I began studying a college course (Short IT course) with Snat (Matthew) in the September of 2005 and we became good friends. Snat introduced me to the world of websites and recruited me as staff on Ellisfamily.tk. I posted regularly and eventually controlled thread categories and became an administrator. During this time, the website finally parted from Forumer and went stand-alone. I also began enjoying web development at college and Matt encouraged me to continue outside the college environment. In December 2005 I began planning the Ellisfamily.tk Fan Site.

This Fan Site aimed to cover general areas of interest expressed in the main community board; TV, Film, Gaming, Technology and Computing. I had started to produce homemade video back in 2004 as a spur of the moment thing, new digital camera etc. I had filmed a Harry Potter story and a Dunes Tour documentary about a forestation area I used to hang out in with my cousins and friends. 2005 was my biggest video year as I started to produce homemade Doctor Who (and did so for 5 continuous years). Originally using putfile.com to upload these episodes, the quality and limitations of free website companies started to disgrace the videos. The decison was then made to incorporate Doctor Who videos on the Fan Site. By doing so, the Wrights Productions name for video featured for the first time on Ellisfamily.tk.

The Fan Site launched in January 2006 as its original black version (matching the EF.TK design) and was re-designed in February 2006 to match EF.TKs new theme, orange and white. Sadly the Fan Site was discontinued due to lack of support on Ellisfamily.tk with the forums also effected. Matthew was about to reinvent the site by merging EF.TK with Ultima Development Labs (UDL), a hosting and web services company Snat ran. I decided to leave at this point as the time felt right. Other users such as Patrick began to sort the forum boards and the Fan Site was no longer an important project. I was busy with the restoration of marioportal.com which me and Snat purchased and was ready to build my own website, Wrights Productions. Mid to late 2006 saw the closure of the Fan Site and the re-birth of EF.TK as the new Ultima Boards.

So, no Fan Site and no video showings. Wrights Productions became an independent website powered by HTML and iFrames. It also began to host other videos of ours like Dunes Tour and newer Doctor Who’s. Wrights Productions was hosted by UDL and still supported the new Ultima Board via the odd guest appearances. 2006 was also the year I joined the new craze, YouTube. Videos were now embedded into the site rather than linked. 2007 was a strong year and the website went from HTML to MKPortal, a popular content management system that Snat used for UDL and Mario Portal. This brougt the first WP forums powered by MyBB, phpBB2 and 3 and others over the time. 2008 saw mass video catalogues and the site went from MKPortal to E107, a more sophisticated system with video modules. Mine and Snats joint site Mario Portal (changed to Nintendo Portal) went to E107 also.

2009 was a stepping stone for a re-collaboration. As 2007/8 saw the Ultima Boards downfall, the community was eventually merged with snat.co.uk (Now Tweaked For Your Viewing Pleasure), causing the site to have articles from others and not just by Snat as a strict blog. However, Wrights Productions videos and the increasing popularity of Internet video caused Snat to develop Tweaked for your Viewing Pleasure, a blog chat show which demonstrates or discusses something of public interest. Wrights Productions was granted the permission to publish this series on the WP site as well. Nintendo Portal TV Series also joined me and Snat on joint ventures in 2006, 2008 and 2009 along with Behind the Science, a show Snat produces for WP (2009).

2010 arrived and things looked good. WP and Tweaked did a merged video to end 2009 and plans for future joint videos were stated. Snat and myself commissioned a new Behind the Science series for 2010 and Nintendo Portal developments brought us together.

Any comments on the situation or historic details, please post away

Updated: 21 January 2010

Reason: Tweaked & Wrights Productions history findings

Dear snat.co.uk viewers,

I wanted to spend some time to introduce myself properly. This new year (2010) will see me contributing regular articles on Matthew’s website in collaboration with my website Wrights Productions. Therefore it is only fair that you know who I am and why I am doing this.

Adam Wright as The Doctor, 2009

Firstly, some background information. My name is Adam Wright and I am known online as popmanw. I became interested in computing during year 2000 and got into more technical aspects in 2005 when I started college. 2005 was also the year i was introduced to web development. I had my first home computer in October 2003 which is fairly late compared to other computer literate students. Currently I am studying the final year of my Web Technology degree, due for completion in May 2010.

Secondly, what do I do? Education-wise, I look at web technologies and build websites. Simple as it may sound, their are more complex matters involving HCI compatibility and accessibility, legal issues between countries, emerging technologies and ways to apply web in terms of entrepreneurial business thinking. Social-wise, I love swimming and biking. I am also a big lover of TV and film including the likes of Doctor Who, Harry Potter and James Bond. I also love to laugh as many of those who know me will say. Everybody knows I have a liking for Nintendo, the videogame giant. Hobby-wise, I love homemade video development. Since 2004 when I started to mess about with a digi-cam, I have produced various series and movies in sci-fi, documentaries, chat shows and review shows. From the early days using Windows Movie Maker, I have currently produced graphical-intense productions in Doctor Who and Torchwood using Magix green screen techniques and Adobe Premier visual effects.

Thirdly, why am I here? I was a member of the ellisfamily.tk community board back in 2005 just as it moved from Forumer to its own stand-alone hosting. Essentially, that website is what this website has evolved from, even more so for Just A Community (this sites new community board just like the original ellisfamily.tk). I also developed the EF.TK fan site with info about movies, tech and TV. Wrights Productions home-made video also featured there and started off the birth of WP. However, in-between then and now we have seen numerous changes and closures. I left ellisfamily.tk and discontinued the Fan Site in 2006  as it turned into Ultima Forums due to the diminishing community and posting support. Other reasons included the start up of my own video site wrightsproductions.co.uk and the purchase of gaming fansite marioportal.com (now nintendoportal.com) which me and Matthew were a part of.  Currently, Matthew’s snat.co.uk site (Tweaked for your Pleasure) supports Wrights Productions by allowing us to publish his video series Tweaked for your Viewing Pleasure. Matthew also produces a WP series for us called Behind the Science. I am returning the favour and will be helping Matt out, hence the articles. WP originated from here within the 2006 Fan Site so technically, working together is how we started off.

Regards,

Adam Wright (popmanw)

This is actually just a test post to see if WordPress is sending a tweet with each update.

Thats right, you will soon be able to get Twitter updates when this site is updated

www.twitter.com

Lately I have been having problems installing XP and Vista, but this is about XP not Vista.

So I will chat about the things you can’t do with XP, you ready (lol):

1. You cannot install XP from a CD-RW.

2. … erm, well at the moment that is all I can think of, but please comment on what you have learned in the past that XP can’t do, please.

Thanks For Reading

Many people have seen that I ain’t been online lately and being at a public libary long enough to make this one post, I will explain.

The other day, I was upgrading my Linux system and for some reason it stopped. After rebooting it, it wouldn’t do anything. I have tried re-installing Linux and hell, even Windows but nothing is happen. I have replaced the HDD, killed by CMOS and nothing has worked as of today.

Typically this wouldn’t be a problem as I will just use my PC but that is, well to put it in the exact way I too understand – Is Missing. The only internet access I have right now is a PSP (And sending messages on that takes forever) and an really old laptop that has seen many better days. On a side note, I got my bluetooth working <_<

So, what does this actually mean to people who care. It means, I am hard to contact. A few people used to chat to me all the time over MSN, Skype and Google Talk but sadly, I am unable to chat on these right now for long.

So, if contact is needed by me directly then e-mail me at snat <at> ultimalabs.co.uk and I will get it and reply to it. I have made time to check my e-mails three times a day. If support is needed from UDL, then contact the most under used department there – Support.

If you are having a billing issue related to UDL, contact rydia <at> ultimalabs.co.uk – She will get it sorted for you. If you are having problems with one of my sites, leave a message on that forum. If you are someone that owns me money NOT related to UDL, contact me at webmaster <at> snat.co.uk.

I hope that this problem won’t last much longer but I have been working on it for over 72 hours now with no luck. If it doesn’t work today, I will be putting in an order for the parts for a new PC.

So, to sum it up. E-mail me, if you need me and don’t go mad if I don’t reply quickly liked I used too or you will find that I won’t ne nice in return. UDL clients would be best to contact our support rather then rely on me directly.