Signing On and In

Aw'rite man, hooz it goin'?

I may have to speak like that now as I'm now claiming Job Seekers Allowance (aka the/tha dole, benefits, ... oh dear I can't think of any other slang terms, that's quite poor. If anyone has any other terms please put them in comment).

Of course, I'm being quite derogatory to people who are unemployed by stereotyping them but it does seem true when I'm waiting in the job centre. (Which obviously makes it OK). Apologies though.

I don't think I'm alone though. According to Joe I was brandished as "dolescum" by Bruce and Peter during a recent "web communication session" (ISOCHRONOUS?) which I didn't realise. But there you go.

I was initially put off claiming JSA because of a few concerns: there is a certain amount of stigma attached to being unemployed and having to claim money from the Government (as demonstrated by myself), and I think that after 5 years at Uni I thought I would have a job in a good company, so it doesn't reflect very positively on myself. In the end I decided to get it as I'm actively looking for a employment anyway and I kinda need it.

The interview for the ISLI went well as I was told at the end of the day that I had been shortlisted. I believe there is about 16 candidates that have been shortlisted but there is only 8 places available (due to funding). The interview was carried out by two of the head guys but it wasn't like other interviews I had been to because they where trying to discern if I really wanted to do the EngD.

The next stage is for my CV to be sent out to companies looking for sponsorship, only once that is secured will I be able to study for a EngD. In the mean-time I have accepted their offer of a MSc in System Level Integration as a back-up in case they don't find a sponsor by October. In which case they will keep looking until one is found and I can be transferred across. However, there is no guarantee. The first year of the EngD is equivalent to doing the MSc anyway so I'll have a better chance come next year of being sponsored as I would already be a year in to the EngD. I will get my fees paid (circa 3,500 pounds) and be given a stipend of 6,000 pounds so I would be stupid not to do it. It's only another year anyway... (I'm won't be so positive come exam time ;))

This would mean I would become a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. I have an information pack about freshers' week and that, which is quite strange as it's like I'm starting Uni all over again.

I might not actually have to go on the MSc anyway as I had an interview with Spiral Gateway, which went well, I think. It was carried out by the CEO and the founder, which was quite good. I was quite interested in one of their products called RICA (Reconfigurable Instruction Cell Array) and asked a number of questions on it to show that I had prepared and was interested in working for the company. They have a fourth person to interview next week so I should hear back from the soon.

I was informed today that I have got a telephone interview with ARM next week. This is the first stage with a pool of 5 students, 2 of which will go for a face-to-face interview in Cambridge and then 1 will be selected for sponsorship. As the EngD will be carried out in either Sheffield or Cambridge, the ISLI phoned me to say if it was OK to accept the interview as I had said that I would prefer to stay in Scotland. I thought that I would just go with it to see what happens.

I've had several emails from interested recruitment companies who have seen my CV on Monster.co.uk but they haven't got back to me yet. I don't think there would be much point chasing them up as I'm going to do the MSc anyway.

I guy from a small recruitment firm called me to ask if he could send my CV to a company called Memex (they maintain a huge criminal intelligence database) and one called 4i2i (they mainly develop video processing solutions on FPGAs, for the likes of NASA). I said yes to both although I wouldn't actually want to work for Memex as it involves...shock, horror... Windows programming, which = BLEUCH. I was very interested in 4i2i even though it would mean I would have to move the Aberdeen, however, they are doing quite well and apparently are looking to set up in Edinburgh too, which would be better. However, I phoned him on Monday past as I hadn't heard from him in two weeks, to hear that 4i2i weren't interested (boooo!) as I wasn't specific enough for them or something (he didn't really explain why exactly even though I asked him twice). He also said Memex would make a decision in a couple of days but I don't care though so I'm not going to follow it up.

I still haven't heard back from the teacher I had tried to contact about a HMGCC reference (I phoned the school on again on Monday there), so I'm going to give up and ask someone else.

On Saturday there I got back from a weeks holiday in Lochaline (which is in Morvern and getting there from Oban seems to do bad things to Google Maps) which I spent with Mariken and her Mum in a cottage overlooking the loch. Mariken's Mum, Dineke, was at the Edinburgh festival and as she doesn't like driving in cities we had to make our own way there, by getting the bus to Oban, then the ferry across to Mull, then a 10 min taxi ride along a bit to Fishnish to get the ferry across to Lochaline. I had never seen much of the West coast (not even Oban or Fort William - poor, I know), so it was quite an eye opener to see how beautiful, dramatic and serene it was.

As the weather was a bit rubbish (mostly wet with short lived dry spells), we mostly went touring around the area along scary single track roads in Dineke's wee car, which was fun as it combined dryness, site-seeing and little physical activity :) A few times we did go on walks that were really enjoyable anyway, like one time we went to the fossil burn to find "devil's toenails" (the remains of the Bivalve, a small shell comprised of a flat underside lid and a curly upper section). And we went for a walk along the beach and tried to find muscle pearls that involved smashing open the muscle with a rock and fingering it's insides. I got the smashing part done but the fingering part was too manky for me so I just left them lying on the rocks. Go me: destroying innocent life. Mariken and I also did the rock walk, which involved crossing a stretch of volcanic jagy rocks. I was obviously the "main man" so I took all the more difficult tracks causing slight injury to my knees. Oh yeah. There was a super-size crunchie at the end of it so it wasn't all just for kicks.

We also walked to Loch Tearnait (which is the loch in the middle of that map). There is a bit of interesting history here about the place, just scroll down to "Traditional History". That was amazing as we crossed through about 5km of absolutely serene, hilly, landscape. Once we got there we visited a bothy that overlooked the loch and were invited in my two guys for a cup of tea. After much protesting against me actually wanting a tea they just gave my a cappuccino. We talked to them for a bit to find out they were employed by the estate owner to fix up the bothy and had been coming here for some years. They also told us about a fox they enticed into the place and a otter that lives down by the loch. We also saw a shrew in the bothy which was nice.

Other places that we went were: Drimnin where we met a long serving postie that Dineke knew and that was that, Strontian which gave its name to the element strontium that was used in radioactive shielding and TV sets, you can read about some of the history mentioned here. Will save me the hassle :) Went to Fort William too but it was raining and misty so couldn't see much of Ben Nevis.

On the way home I got the bus from Fort William to Glasgow and we passed through Glencoe, which was one of the most stunning and worst bus journeys I have ever been on. Stunning due to the scenery and worst due to there being fuck all leg room (that resulted in red scratches and markings on my knees) and this fucking tourist in the seat next to me who kept on dozing off to sleep, which meant she kept head butting my arm as her head swooned when crossing over to ZZZ-land. <;-(' (which apparently means that "I'm spitting mad").

That's one long post....

There are pictures too, which will go up in the NET soon, aren't you so excited, eh? EH?!

Toodle loo,

--
mond