tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57922036127508538252011-11-27T16:06:40.041-08:00Having a piece of paper that says you're educated just makes you feel stupid. Musings from one stupid graduate.Dingnoreply@blogger.comBlogger791100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-91917705362273960372009-09-26T02:40:00.000-07:002009-09-26T02:48:31.270-07:00

I've finally gotten round to registering for some proper web space and got a nifty free domain name with it, so, www.davidhing.com is now my very own internet realm.I am in the process of setting up a new blog called "Chaotic Tortoise", partly because I'm fed up of telling people the name of my blog and then having to say "no, it's nothing to do with the film". Admittedly, I'll probably have

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-5832771881097775572009-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:002009-09-09T17:30:34.865-07:00

Recently, our cozy little flat has undergone a reshuffle. Best friend, Best friend's girlfriend (who is also a friend) and four Chinchillas have moved out, leaving in their wake a lot of space. My girlfriend and myself have stayed behind in the belief that we can use this space. There are definite upsides and downsides to this scenario.Pro: There is a lot more space.Con: I miss my friends.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-55185007218734684742009-08-24T05:35:00.000-07:002009-08-24T06:02:53.122-07:00

I was reading a follow up report to some of the short listed writers for the CBBC masterclass that were selected from a competition that I entered with a script that I realised slightly too late was probably a bit too similar to "Star Wars" mixed in with slight derivative "Final Fantasy VII". The writer in question, a Michelle Lipton, writes that they were shown a clip from a show written by

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-25567362980668679662009-08-20T04:37:00.001-07:002009-08-20T05:00:45.103-07:00

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to have a go at writing a version of Robin Hood for television. The angle I was going to take with it was that Robin Hood was not a noble folk hero acting as the original working-class-hero, but that he was just a very consistant thief who stole everything that wasn't nailed down. The story was going to start with him being blackmailed into acting as the

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-91941743027333732812009-08-18T11:39:00.000-07:002009-08-18T11:40:56.831-07:00

When you write things, you sometimes catch yourself writing them and thinking "when I read that in a month's time, I'm going to be confused."The following has made it's way into a brief scene summary in my script: "The Sheriff discusses his motives for being near the docks at this time of night."

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-14631341623085996112009-08-18T10:13:00.000-07:002009-08-18T10:20:54.966-07:00

An oft mused upon subject of mine that occasionally leaks its way out of my brain is that sort of meta-creation whereby something comes into being as a result of being bored, or not knowing what to do. This blog entry is an example of such a creature. What happens is thus: A writer, artist or otherwise creative type gets their own particular brand of writers block and is unable to think of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-34837128685305741362009-08-12T01:58:00.000-07:002009-08-12T02:02:10.839-07:00

Some may ask "so, David, where have you been and what have you been doing lately?"Admittedly it's not exactly an FAQ, but inbetween panicking an essay out (it's not a piece of writing, it is a piece of panic) I have been having my soul slowly drained by this site. The TV tropes wiki.Now, I was introduced to this a good few months ago and didn't see what the fuss was about. Then randomly I

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-41752430046931004642009-07-31T02:38:00.001-07:002009-08-10T01:53:55.804-07:00

In the lobby of my office, there is rather inexplicably five large letters hanging up that spell "HELLO". I don't know whether this is meant as some rather vacant company motto, or if it's meant to warmly greet you as you trudge past their cold metallic gleam into the fluorescently lit despair of the office, but it appeared a few months ago and I've gotten used to it now.I did say when it first

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-8768189188520819442009-07-21T02:37:00.000-07:002009-07-21T02:41:08.482-07:00

I’ve always had a profound love of cartoons. I feel like I’ve probably said all this before, but I distinctly remember that as a child I would much prefer anything animated over anything with real life actors in, because anything with real life actors in was either gritty and boring or wacky and annoying. Sometimes it was a mixture of all four, which as you can imagine is difficult to pull

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-40927865667878589272009-07-20T06:01:00.000-07:002009-07-20T06:10:28.611-07:00

I've found myself happier lately by playing a lot less Warcraft. I still probably play a little too much, but it's a fun amount as opposed to a second job.I've been scanning over this during my lunch hour (some strong language and humour that might not make much sense unless you also play Warcraft or some other MMO) and the following is probably what frustrates me about my evenings that I've

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-55612487482086230572009-07-17T06:02:00.001-07:002009-07-21T03:06:24.626-07:00

You should always have an escape route. I don't think I have one.There has been much talk about redundancies at work at the moment. The long and the short of it is that we're probably cutting work flow by about 50% with about 50% of the workforce possibly having to disappear.The long and the short of it in terms of me is that I'm a little grumpy, irritable, prone to swearing a lot and sitting

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-46590400837961942092009-07-08T01:37:00.001-07:002009-07-08T01:43:20.053-07:00

A while ago I mentioned I was working on an unusual project with a friend.Well, here it is:http://www.redtowergames.com/play/spaceman-preludeIt has come out quite nicely, and although I feel my graphics are a little rough around the edges (the bigger the ships get, the more rubbish they get), they're already being smoothed out in the work I'm doing for the sequel.This has been a learning

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-5001359501628344882009-07-06T02:23:00.000-07:002009-07-06T02:24:04.271-07:00

Last week, I spent two days in a night club getting incredibly hot and sweaty, slightly bored and having to dance every now and then against my wishes. However, whereas I normally have to pay an entrance fee for this sort of experience, this time they were paying me, because I was one of about two hundred background artists being filmed as part of Ricky Gervais’ latest venture into the world of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-65883131730891317512009-06-25T06:43:00.001-07:002009-06-25T06:44:12.919-07:00

Must. Get. Into. The. Hang. Of. Writing. Smaller. Blog posts.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-39350752394971284052009-06-25T06:14:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:16:16.615-07:00

I have now seen all of this unholy trilogy that is being constantly referred to as “the summer movies”, a phrase that makes me wince ever so slightly, as if the only reason I’ve seen these films is because they have been carefully and perfectly marketed to me in order to catch some kind of summer vibe that requires, nay, demands to see things fight each other, win romantic conquests, blow up or a

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-38702997906078615982009-06-23T05:25:00.000-07:002009-06-23T05:26:28.102-07:00

I like to think of myself as a bit of a riter. I mean that. I know I’m not of a professional standard, I have no real credits to my name and my only real completed projects are half baked essays and a series of underdeveloped comics. I am a riter. Almost a writer, but not quite enough credentials to really qualify.It is with this in mind that I consider the following might be a pointless thing

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-88151043169856799702009-06-22T03:31:00.000-07:002009-06-23T01:15:24.896-07:00

I finally retook an exam that I had failed over the weekend. I feel better now, but equally terrified.Just to provide a quick background, my GDL law course that I recently finished off comprised of 7 major exams for 7 main topics, 1 research assignment that had to manifest in a 5,000 word essay, 1 case analysis test where we were given a fictitious chain of events to disassemble, and 1 statute

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-58573620776698439802009-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:002009-06-19T06:26:28.217-07:00

In recent news, we have been hit by a few strikes of late, namely from the RMT tube strike (that admittedly doesn’t exactly affect the whole country, but living in London makes it easy to forget that the tube network isn’t everywhere) and the postal strike that seems to have jumped out on us today. Working for an insurance company that maintains a trade union client base, you would hope that I

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-90403016928953389622009-06-19T01:38:00.000-07:002009-06-19T01:46:41.452-07:00

For the last two months, I have been deaf in my left ear. This was due to my body's rather strange stress response to fill the ear canal with wax, almost like nature's way of putting ones fingers in your ears and going "LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU".Far from alleviating stress, it does in fact do the opposite, because you can't hear anything.I finally got around to getting it sorted out

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-20744989176688462422009-06-17T04:44:00.000-07:002009-06-17T04:49:23.337-07:00

I’ve recently obtained some work as an extra. I’ve done some work as an extra before, and if you have made an extensive study of the film “Starter for 10”, you will have seen me a grand total of 3 times, but then, actually, if you have seen me and made a note of the superb performance that I gave, then I’ve been a lousy extra as they’re meant to melt into the background...The thing I’ve noticed

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-8504807585181207402009-06-02T03:09:00.000-07:002009-06-02T03:10:08.436-07:00

After a brief stint of student-ship, I am now back to the treadmill of life and the setting is probably just one notch faster than is strictly comfortable at the moment, but that might just be because I’m not making the effort to keep up.The things I have doneOver the last couple of months that things have been a little quiet here, I have knuckled down to revise for my law exams and taken them to

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-14793522193087370232009-05-15T05:33:00.000-07:002009-05-15T05:41:02.204-07:00

You know those little picture things that come up when you want to post something on the internet, or register for something, or sign in somewhere for the fourth time having forgotten your password the first three times? The ones that ask you "in order to filter out spam and to check you're a human being, please type in the letters and numbers you see in the picture below" and then you enter in

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-87460625992009714042009-04-27T06:24:00.000-07:002009-04-27T06:31:40.977-07:00

There has been a large gap between posts here. It seems any website I run seems to get one of these posts every now and then, due to my prophesized failure on the attention span front, but I do have a few excuses that I would like to invoke and abuse.Well, I have one excuse: Exams. For some reason, the period of time before exams, I turn into a hugely unpleasant person that is not capable of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-63451868058243587372009-04-01T05:49:00.000-07:002009-04-01T05:50:40.422-07:00

As I rapidly approach my final exams for my law course, I realise that it was naïve to the think my days of preparing for exams were at an end in my final year of university. Even if in the future, I never take another exam in my life, I’m sure I will still face some form of revision in my professional capacity, whatever that may entail. Everyone needs to revise things every now and then; they

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-72717319081272647582009-03-25T04:41:00.000-07:002009-03-25T04:43:46.815-07:00

I have been known to draw comics. I have even published one. I’m not saying they are good comics, but they are undeniably examples of sequential art with dialogue balloons that can not be mistaken for comics. Just to get the excuses out of the way now, I’ve been working on an overhaul for my comic site for a long time and it’s getting there. I also want to go in to a bit more detail with

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-55627647116839654422009-03-23T03:42:00.000-07:002009-03-23T03:44:53.900-07:00

A friend of mine has a quote from Kierkegaard that attaches itself to all the emails he sends. Although I often skim over any “clever” quote that someone has as their signature, or at the very least read it and roll my eyes, I’ve seen this one so many times now it’s stuck in my mind: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards". I have obviously resigned this little

Dingnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-66608125345132377612009-03-16T03:09:00.000-07:002009-07-21T07:26:12.209-07:00

Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to get my act together to write a script for a TV series that I’d like to submit to the BBC. To anyone that knows me quite well, this is a brilliant sign that I have an essay deadline hanging over me, but regardless, it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, so I thought I’d just try and get on with it.So far, I’ve struggled. It’s always an

Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-3184403900740480182009-03-12T04:41:00.000-07:002009-03-12T05:01:44.646-07:00

I once asked a writer for some advice on how to improve my own writing and he replied with a question: “What does a writer do?”When I get asked these sorts of questions, I tend to freeze up. Part of me knows that they’re looking for an obvious answer, yet the rest of me is too busy looking for the less obvious answer to listen. Also, I sometimes just freeze up when someone says something

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-31731562919788830842009-03-10T04:18:00.000-07:002009-03-10T05:14:10.043-07:00

This film didn’t stand a chance.I want to qualify that in all actuality, it did better than I expected and is probably as good as you can get as an adaptation of what is very obviously an incredibly difficult thing to bring to the cinema. Not only that, but it was a good film and one that I would recommend to fans of the book as well as people who have never heard of it before. Despite this,

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-6845759714110713602009-03-03T06:06:00.000-08:002009-03-03T06:12:38.441-08:00

I've been reading an interview with Alan Moore, writer of Watchmen, the soon to be released film adaptation of one of my favourite comics, and at some point he says the following:"If you haven't got any money, you're going to need lots and lots of imagination. Which is why you'll get brilliant movies by people working upon a shoestring, like the early John Waters movies. People are pushed into

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-18619043114460338462009-03-02T02:16:00.000-08:002009-03-02T02:29:23.444-08:00

Life is one long opportunity for new and interesting excuses. Due to a busy streak at work, I may not be updating with quite the regularity of recent weeks, but I am still here.It’s a nice reversal as well, making an excuse to not write a blog so that I can focus on work as opposed to making an excuse to not work so that I can focus on writing a blog.Additional Notes:I’m essentially honing my

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-82997124986519569362009-02-24T06:54:00.001-08:002009-02-24T07:01:27.699-08:00

For anyone that is curious, I've been quiet for the last few days due to the fact that I've been in Belgium. I shall be returning soon and normal service shall resume presently.In the mean time, I appear to be struggling with the Dutch language, the language of Fien's half of Belgium, to varying degrees of success. There are some interesting quirks that I've picked up on in my experience, namely

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-85117239129762980042009-02-18T02:12:00.000-08:002009-02-18T02:14:59.423-08:00

I find I’m treading the same old ground a little bit here, what with previous discussions, but I really do think I’ve hit on something that’s the key to getting things done.The trick appears to be to do the thing that you need to do. There’s nothing clever about it, you just start working on the thing that you want to work on until it’s finished. It’s a little bit like getting up in the morning

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-10941756525961501872009-02-17T05:32:00.000-08:002009-02-17T05:34:07.522-08:00

You may have noticed a slight eerie silence that descended on the blog last week. This is because I fell victim to a rapid acting cold that knocked me out for a couple of days and temporarily melted my brain. Hopefully, you won’t be able to catch it from reading the site, so don’t worry. I did actually meet someone once who thought that she could catch a computer virus herself, but I'm

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-51105095133690184352009-02-17T03:41:00.000-08:002009-02-17T06:00:30.601-08:00

Below is a small list of things that you can do with your life once you’ve finished university. All of this is to be taken with the knowledge that I don’t really know what I’m talking about, I haven’t tried half of these things, and I am constantly going through stages of melancholy with regards to my own post-graduation situation, never knowing if I’m doing the right thing anyway. What I’m

Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-58257604424765418562009-02-16T06:12:00.000-08:002009-02-16T06:16:26.021-08:00

This weekend, I found myself wondering how many couples don’t survive a romantic comedy. If you type “Romantic Comedies build high expectations + Study” into Google, you will be astonished at the number of sources that will tell you that studies have shown that a romantic comedy will ruin you relationships, tarnish your expectations and probably run off with your partner in the process.I can see

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-71915127272872487282009-02-12T02:51:00.000-08:002009-02-17T05:59:30.771-08:00

I Bumped into someone that started working here at the same time as me the other day and they were worried about whether they were doing the right thing by staying here and not looking for work somewhere else. I remember when we started working at the office that we both discussed how this was a temporary position for us and we’d only be here for a maximum of six months, and that actually, we’d

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-19078405669370739942009-02-09T02:59:00.000-08:002009-02-09T03:00:10.991-08:00

Myths and legends have been around since the ancient world. One could possibly argue that it even goes further back than that with cave paintings possibly depicting miniature epics of the trials and tribulations of Neanderthal heroes, but that would be an unconvincing argument. Regardless, we’ve had mythology for as long as we can remember and it is a cornerstone of the human experience. When

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-86915880831370574552009-02-06T06:35:00.000-08:002009-02-06T06:38:17.209-08:00

Fien suggested today that I’m using this blog as some kind of therapy, opening up a little bit about myself and trying to make some sense of it, building an inner narrative of events and helping myself to understand them.My initial reaction was “Rubbish! I don’t need therapy” and then I started asking myself why I had such a strong reaction and whether that had anything to do with my childhood..

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-33668952802391480652009-02-06T02:23:00.000-08:002009-02-06T06:39:35.359-08:00

A lot of people know whether they are the sort of person that pushes themselves or if they just coast through life. I’m never sure which is better. For interview speak, once you’re sitting in front of an interviewer, I think everyone is someone that likes a challenge and is constantly pushing themselves because we’re told that’s what employers want from us, but some people just aren’t like that.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-12826222459551982282009-02-05T05:13:00.000-08:002009-02-05T05:29:06.477-08:00

I generally don’t fill in these things, but the specifications for this one were vague enough that I didn’t resent the idea of it. The rules are that you’re supposed to write down 25 random facts about yourself. There’s something else about tagging 25 people that you want to know 25 things about, sending it around the internet and receiving £1,000,000 if you cross your fingers and chant “I do

Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-66309261445110702502009-02-05T03:19:00.000-08:002009-02-05T05:23:16.169-08:00

As a student, you often find yourself living with people that are very tolerant of background noise and late nights. Sometimes it takes a while to realise that 11PM is actually quite late for most people in the real world and that maybe that isn’t the best time to be doing anything too noisy. I know this, you know this, everyone knows this, but just occasionally we all forget. I was reminded a

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-61367792345281388502009-02-04T03:29:00.001-08:002009-02-04T04:05:01.234-08:00

I have been referred to quite a good article about the "Generation Crunch" over at the telegraph. The author makes some good and valid points, such as the problems with doing a masters degree. I particularly like the idea of avoiding paying off a student life altogether:"Another friend, who was educated by Benedictine monks, receives regular letters from one of the brothers, advising him to join

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-42020584550359988762009-02-04T03:13:00.000-08:002009-02-05T00:15:18.928-08:00

I’ve recently obtained a copy of “Rock Band” for my beautiful and reliable and ever so un-necessary luxury item, the Playstation 3, and have been struck by how quickly and slowly different people take to the same thing and how persistent they are in their efforts.The game is a simple colour matching rhythm game that taps into the base-line fantasy of being some kind of demi-god of rock and roll

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-64765115688141374032009-02-03T02:40:00.000-08:002009-02-03T02:42:39.647-08:00

It’s amazing how everything falls to pieces when something unusual happens. The whole of London tends to collapse with just a little bit of snow, as I discovered to my joy yesterday. I was able to have the day off work, because if the HR department can’t make it in, they can’t tell if anyone else has turned up either, and I was able to spend the day doing frivolous things and relaxing with Fien

Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-69839668121686992592009-02-02T02:48:00.001-08:002009-02-02T02:48:57.214-08:00

Unfortunately, I am unable to get to my blog today as there is too much snow.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-81507308253236999062009-01-31T02:34:00.000-08:002009-01-31T02:37:40.370-08:00

The Wrestler is not the sort of film that I would have gone out of my way to see. Despite the fact that Mickey Rourke is a good actor and the film has been well received by critics, it’s just not the sort of thing that I end up seeing, but some friends of mine were seeing it and I was in the area so I thought I’d tag along too.The film is about a past-his-prime professional wrestler going by the

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-18708990249273126942009-01-30T06:13:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:15:50.365-08:00

I came into work an hour and a half early this morning to let some engineers in so that they could do some work on our network that required it to be taken offline. This was going to be done before anyone else turned up so as not to interupt anybody's work. I decided that whilst they were working, I could start doing my work and browse the internet a little.Who else can spot the subtle flaw in my

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-2936919121244939122009-01-30T06:08:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:13:14.757-08:00

I don’t understand why there is a TV channel called Dave. I don’t understand how someone thought the concept of it was a good idea. I don’t understand why I find myself watching it.For those out of the loop, Dave is a freeview channel that almost exclusively shows repeats of programs such as Have I Got News for You, QI, Top Gear, Mock the Week, Dragons Den etc. It often sounds and looks like a

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-4214285521654872772009-01-29T03:16:00.000-08:002009-01-29T03:48:37.257-08:00

One of the most jarring things about going from a student to a graduate for me was the change in lifestyle. The way that I’ve adapted my life to fit around work and a slightly stricter timetable isn’t perfect and I’m sure it could have been done better by someone with more willpower, but it works for the most part.I am aware that not everyone had the same student experience as me. Some people

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-38604426240326920612009-01-28T01:46:00.000-08:002009-01-28T01:49:29.957-08:00

I like to think of myself as computer literate and I like to believe that I am capable when it comes to the computing end of technology. Therefore, I really wish I knew why every now and then, a computer will just stop working or cease to function in the way that it has for months or years before. I’m not saying this happens to me on a daily basis, but it’s got to the point that I’m never too

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-3792081118324338472009-01-27T02:43:00.000-08:002009-01-27T02:45:35.475-08:00

Yesterday, I took a day off work in order to try and burn through a few things in my Quest-log. When I’m at work, I often feel that if I could convert the amount of work that I put in during the day at the office into time spent working on my own personal projects, that I could write epic novels, symphonies and produce telephone directory sized comic books on a daily basis. As a result of having

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-37601955550986266802009-01-26T03:22:00.000-08:002009-01-26T03:29:23.390-08:00

It’s very difficult to squirrel away money for a later date. For the foreseeable future, I know that I am consigned to renting an overpriced flat and that any thoughts of a mortgage or getting a foothold on the property ladder have been successfully stamped out by an over-inflated market that is only now being reconciled, but this doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be trying to collect funds for a

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-62385086186114481332009-01-26T02:36:00.000-08:002009-01-26T02:41:52.713-08:00

Due to a mixture of a rarefied existence at university and a natural lack of life experience, I often find myself assuming that everyone is trustworthy and deep down a generally good person. I often find myself saying “oh, but they’re ok really” and I’ve recently started to wonder if that’s always going to be the case.This sentiment is often called naivety, but it made me think that maybe it’s

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-34165224299438391702009-01-25T01:58:00.000-08:002009-01-25T02:00:13.961-08:00

About a year ago, I found a self-help blog that had a fantastic article on how to make money from a blog. The blog, by one Steve Pavlina, is one with a massive archive of original articles, many of which are interesting, helpful or a mixture of both. There are undeniably some things that he posts about that I don’t agree with, but with the sheer volume of posts that he’s made, that’s hardly

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-19359396237362398322009-01-25T01:39:00.001-08:002009-01-25T01:43:19.521-08:00

I was always taught to never rush in to things when it came to going shopping for certain items. Doing the research about whatever it is you’re buying is absolutely essential if you’re wanting to avoid being consumed with regret.Over the last couple of years of living independently of my warm and fluffy home in the Cotswolds, I have experienced first hand why you must be careful in what you buy.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-4501429448663886972009-01-23T06:31:00.000-08:002009-01-23T06:32:39.829-08:00

We’ve all been stuck in situation where time appears to have actually started going in reverse. The following short tips can apply to pretty much anything, be it a board meeting, a tutorial or lecture for a much loathed subject, or even family commitments that you couldn’t think of a decent excuse to get out of in time.1) Don’t watch the clock: This is my absolute number one rule to avoid time

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-69498426485805442172009-01-23T03:06:00.000-08:002009-01-23T03:15:48.266-08:00

It’s Friday, so it must be time for some pointless prattle from me.The BBC have an on their website under their “Also In The News” category that caught my attention this morning. Apparently, the Royal Society of Chemistry have been running a competition inviting people to provide a solution to the ending of the film, “The Italian Job”.The Italian Job ends with the characters in a coach full of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-43228282179760440542009-01-22T02:22:00.000-08:002009-01-22T02:29:14.047-08:00

It seems that Anna Sam, the French checkout girl that I talked about yesterday, isn't the only person to make the best of a bad situation with a blog. It seems people the world over need to discuss and vent about problems with their new jobs and I'm looking forward to seeing some substantial posts on this one.Additional Notes:Honestly now, who in their right minds would actually want that job?

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-1872042551133285372009-01-22T00:27:00.000-08:002009-01-22T00:28:25.336-08:00

Whenever I’ve taken an exam, I’ve always found that I’ve never done enough preparation for it or that I’ve over prepared the wrong bits. Those first few seconds when everyone turns over the first page of their exam booklet to frantically find a question they feel they can answer is always followed by an almost audible collective slap as palms of hands connect with faces throughout the exam hall

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-88046310254923424122009-01-21T16:27:00.000-08:002009-01-22T05:45:04.541-08:00

A few weeks ago, on some bitter Sunday morning, our washing machine decided to throw a tantrum. It had obviously decided that it had done enough spin cycles for its lifetime, and although it was going to keep doing them if we asked nicely, it wasn’t going to do them quietly and it would make it audibly known that it had reached the spin cycle to ourselves, to our neighbours, and to the rest of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-14101295490903809462009-01-21T06:44:00.000-08:002009-01-21T06:46:00.440-08:00

Even when I was at primary school writing stories as part of our education in English, part of me knew that “It was a Dark and Stormy Night” was the default way to set a dramatic mood. The rest of me knew that you never rely on the defaults for these sorts of things unless you want it to look like everything else. This sort of cliché can take a lot to break out of and you can find yourself

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-84783335798041803322009-01-21T02:06:00.000-08:002009-01-21T02:08:38.132-08:00

I was directed to this article this morning about how a French checkout girl called Anna Sam has gone on to write a best seller based on her eight years experience working behind a till in a supermarket. This has been pulled together from the blog that Anna Sam has been keeping as a vent for various frustrations provided by the nature of the job and above all else the customers. If you speak

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-42962122390429652252009-01-20T04:37:00.000-08:002009-01-20T04:46:14.035-08:00

There’s a fantastic cartoon from Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” that shows two adoring parents proudly watching their son play computer games and imagining job adverts in the future that require expert Mario players with hours and hours of video game experience. The world we live in today might be coming closer to that, but it’s still a long way off, however, computer games and employment are

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-89677813103150927652009-01-19T03:02:00.000-08:002009-01-21T02:09:23.158-08:00

I don’t regret going to university, but I would have done if the only thing I got out of it was of an academic nature. Through the use of my psychic intuition, I get the impression that a lot of people that have been to university probably feel the same way.The very nature of academia can seem shallow to those not entirely immersed in the student ethos. I got through university and was spat out

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-32755033171138171002009-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:002009-01-18T13:21:41.153-08:00

Wanting to be able to accept the things you cannot change and change the things you cannot accept is a wonderful sentiment. I’m not entirely sure where it comes from; a quick search on google for the adage reveals it is used by various religious groups, self help books and alcoholics anonymous.I find the first bit particularly different. As a matter of course, if there is a problem, I like to

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-89151031050794012892009-01-16T07:38:00.000-08:002009-01-16T07:40:19.766-08:00

Studying is good for your level of happiness. This is probably because it is constantly challenging your definition of happy as you wade through countless lectures, tutorials and deadlines that you thought you had put to rest at your graduation ceremony, but it is still good for your level of happiness. Let me climb back onto my soapbox and tell you why it is a good idea for you to study again

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-17765991438293451222009-01-15T05:53:00.000-08:002009-01-15T06:01:33.142-08:00

No amount of natural intelligence or education will ever prepare you for the absurdity one will face in the world of work. My theory is that on paper, a lot of things work incredibly well but they often fail in practice due to small over-looked details. If you magnify this way of thinking, that is what you get in the workplace.Our own office is currently suffering from a constant bombardment of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-57378578723105722242009-01-14T05:50:00.000-08:002009-01-14T08:14:24.088-08:00

Over the last few days, I’ve had one of those strange illnesses that sometimes strikes you. It was the type that you realize is not overly serious and that you could sit at your desk feeling like you are slowly melting into a puddle of exhaustion without too much effort, but that still knocks you out anyway. In the end, I took the cowards way out and made the critical error of taking a couple of

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-9052910759507538562009-01-09T18:34:00.000-08:002009-01-14T08:14:32.441-08:00

The further along the road of life that I plod, the more I come to realise that most of the people considered great in this world for their deeds and accomplishments did not achieve what they achieved through luck, sheer intuitive skill, or innate intelligence. The majority simply work hard for it and are as a whole incredibly productive a lot of the time. I think everyone realises that the time

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-17870038439618845762009-01-07T03:07:00.001-08:002009-01-14T08:14:40.713-08:00

I can't help feeling that everyone at some point in their life has thought how great it would be to be self employed. After all, you won't ever be late for work, you can normally work from home, you can take holidays whenever you like and to put things simply, you are your own boss.That has to be a naive view of the situation.Immediately after graduation, I was in a situation many of my

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-7710192414862708792009-01-07T02:23:00.000-08:002009-01-07T02:24:00.325-08:00

I was planning on just not mentioning my rather colossal break between updates but couldn’t help thinking of various excuses that I could use to explain it. This is exactly the sort of thing that I do if I’m running late for work; I go through a list of very plausible, very reasonable, and highly sympathy-inducing reasons as to why I’m late and then normally just end up saying “I’m sorry I’m

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-79436043392477486282009-01-06T05:11:00.000-08:002009-01-14T08:14:55.396-08:00

According to a birthday card I received, the key to being successful is looking like you already are. My initial reaction of coughing and spluttering and my vehement disagreement has subsequently softened significantly.I have recently emerged from beneath a mop of hair that can only really have been classified as “too long” after a much needed and much delayed hair cut, to discover that we really

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-52993626645950902652008-04-13T12:56:00.001-07:002008-04-13T13:55:50.143-07:00

I was thinking of a broader name to catalogue any comments on films I may have that would be clever and wistful. Unfortunately, this failed and I have instead settled with "Film". It’s not too original or particularly clever, but it does get the message across that this post will be about a film. I suppose the only possible confusion you may get is if you are a photography enthusiast but never

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-69260795937868362202008-03-19T06:19:00.000-07:002008-03-19T06:54:07.470-07:00

Everyone has heard this piece of advice before. "Just Be Yourself" is the one thing that everyone knows that you should do, but nobody ever does. I know that I for one am very rarely myself and I know that those around me are very rarely just being themselves. This doesn't mean we are all compulsive liars, just that we act with restraint, and inevitably tailor our behaviour to those around us.

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-64519558494864776242008-03-17T05:36:00.000-07:002008-03-17T05:48:55.333-07:00

Currently, at work, I am in a bit of a quandary, as I have 60,000 letters to print out and send to union members and I have until last Friday to do it. Add into this the fact that I only started this (Monday after the last Friday) morning.Put simply, it is utterly impossible to meet this deadline. There is A Certainty of Failure.However despairing this may be however, it is also quite

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-50881441171134751972008-03-09T04:56:00.000-07:002008-03-09T05:03:41.495-07:00

I recently embarked upon my long abandoned webcomic project. For ages, I had my homepage on my home computer set to my webcomics page, and for ages, every time I opened it I was confronted by the cold, harsh, embrace of the "Cannot Find URL". I think every time this happened, it chipped away at me and made me chew my lip a little more.Finally, I managed to draw a few new pages, and get my website

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-16223185564083732522008-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:002008-04-13T13:58:18.188-07:00

Just over a year ago, I made the fairly crucial error of signing up for a free trial of "World of Warcraft". I'm not going to link that, because if you haven't heard of Warcraft, you are almost definitely living in a cave and therefore not linked to the internet and therefore not reading this post. (I want to make it clear that I in no way intend to insult you if you do in fact live in a cave,

Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-27766525086613744472008-02-23T18:01:00.000-08:002009-01-07T02:24:15.828-08:00

If I've learnt anything from my academic career of writing endless meaningless essay based reports (which I possibly haven't) it's that a long introduction can really detroy the rest of what you're writing.With this in mind, allow me to say my name is David Hing by the online moniker of Ding. I work in administration. I study law. I used to study History. I live in Camden with a girlfriend, a

Dingnoreply@blogger.com0