Jamie R

Well, it’s now June 2008, which is half way through 2008. I feel like I’ve done sod all this year so far but I guess that’s most likely just my own convoluted opinion. Who knows.

Me and Hannah are seeing lostprophets next weekwhich should be good. Missed several chances to see them last year, bad mistake on my part, but sorted now. Anyone coming to the Astoria next week? 11th? It’s not a “proper” tour gig as such, it’s one of several gigs that lostprophets are doing as “warmup” gigs for the big festivals that they’re playing at this summer - Download etc. Should be good laugh.

Me and Miss LJ have been together for 20 months on the 8th. Heck, almost 2 years. You know what? I’ve loved pretty much every minute of it, except from a few little niggles which we’ve passed now. She’s awesome and we’re awesome. Love you

Ermm…ooh and yeah, before I forget. For you IE7 users (I still pity you but I guess it’s better than IE6 and below), I’ll get the main navigation on the site fixed at some point during this week. I’ve been bogged down with all sorts so haven’t been able to get it done.

I’ve started my third and final IT Applied exam today, a day earlier than I first thought, so getting out of bed early was a bit of a shock! Finishes on the 11th though, then TTC sixth form is finished. Leaving TTC will be strange, but I guess it’s gotta be be done at some point in my life. I’ve had a good laugh there and I’ve met some fantastic people, but I guess it’s time to move on and leave Tendring Technology College in the past.

This summer should be good, I hope. Lots of good weather, I HOPE…lots of beaching it with everyone, I HOPE and spending it with the people dearest to me.

Anyway, I’m gonna go get eat my lasagne. For anyone taking school/college exams/driving tests/whatever else, GOOD LUCK!

Jamie.

Well, I’m now officially 6570 days old Which means I’m now 18!

Happy birthday me!

I have just learnt on the BBC news website earlier today of the death of Leon Greenman. Leon was one of the last surviving survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two. He lost his wife and son in the camp, and after the camp was liberated returned to England and has dedicated his life to telling people about his story in Auschwitz and campainging for equality. I met him in 2004, and I really wish I could have met him again. He really was an inspriation.

Rest in peace Leon.

[I'm sorry for the length of this post, it just got a bit out of control!]

Well at the end of the day a blog is somewhere where one can convey his thoughts, so I thought I’d do just that. Some would say I’m far too open about stuff, and randomly post it on the Internet. However, I’m me. I’m just me…

Christmas…

My Christmas was fairly boring in parts. I can’t really say I did much, other than just the usual Christmassy things of seeing family and friends, unwrapping a few presents and indulging in far too much food and alcohol. Ah well. Now I’ve got to loose it all.

I got some really awesome presents for Christmas. Laura made me a really fantastic little boxy thing with lots of lovely bits in there. She also gave me a new lava lamp (just what I needed cos I’d broken my old one) as well as a hand decorated cup and mug. It was really, really awesome of her. It’s all so awesome. She’s really creative creative like that. Danke

New Year…

I spent new year round Nick’s house in Frinton. Me, Nick, Alex, Lloyd, Kris, Graeme, Jamie, Alarick and Ross had a proper good time and saw the new year in with lots of booze and loud music. It had to be done. Some of the antics we got upto were rather amusing. Let’s just say, J knows not to be the first one to fall asleep at a party

New Years Day was welcomed by a trip down to a cafe in Frinton. Full English breakfast (it’s bad, read below) all round was duly deserved after the drinking that went on during the previous evening. All sorted lads.

New Years Resolutions…

I’ve been thinking about what I would class as a “New Year Resolution”, and I can’t think of one single thing - I can think of lots of things. With most people breaking them within a month, I guess there’s no real point in actually making a few. However, I am going to do so. There are a few suspects which I guess I could call a suitable candidate for being a NYR. Unfortunately, it won’t be anything that special or fancy, but they are connected with me, and only me in a way. I guess, for the 5th or so year running, the main one that I would call NYR is to loose weight. I’m pretty annoyed with myself, because in the last two months (well, counting from the beginning of November), I seem to have put on about a stone. Now, due to lack of decent scales I haven’t weighed myself yet. I’ve been about 16 stone for the last couple of years (yeah, it’s scary), but I think it’s increased. I can no longer get into *three* pairs of jeans that I could fit into 2 months ago, nor can I get into my Vans t-shirt.

Now the thing is, I’ve said that I will try and diet countless times in the last few years. Yes, I have lost small amounts of weight here and there. However, I’ve never really properly dieted. I guess one would call me a bit of the lazy side. However, I want this to be the last year that I have to say “I’ve said that I will loose weight as a new year’s resolution for the last 5 years and it hasn’t worked”. I want to actually make a go at it. I don’t want to loose much, only probably a stone or two. I want to be able to get back into them jeans. I want to be able to bike around without feeling out of breath. I want to do it for myself.

I really want to make a go of it. Anyone who will know me knows that I can be a bit of a slacker at times. I have motivation to do things that other people have told me to do (for instance, if someones needs help with something), and all that kinda stuff. I however have little motivation most of the time to actually do anything that concerns me. I guess you could call it that I’m slowly pushing a self destruct button.

I’ve been saying that I’ll try and loose weight for ages. I’ve also been saying I’ll try and get a job for ages. I really need to actually change my attitude towards all of this, because at the end of the day, no one else can. Only me. I guess this blog post is a way of trying to kick myself into actually doing something about it rather than sitting on my arse and doing nothing about any of it.

Self motivation?

Self motivation is one of the demons of Jamie R. I battle with it. Half of me says, stuff it. Do it tomorrow, and I’ll go back to the forum that I’m currently browsing or continue a half witted (or sometimes deep, complex) conversation with someone. The other half of me tells me to get on with it. It’s like college work. I’m in the middle of getting my examination prep. work done for Tuesday. I have a 20 hour examination (over 2 weeks) on Microsoft Excel (of all things…) starting on Tuesday. I guess I shouldn’t be here now writing this blog post, but to be honest, I’d rather do this.

What I’m really like…

I guess for the people who have never met me and don’t know me personally, their only idea of my personality would be through my website - predominantly the content of my website of my blog, and the style of my writing. You will probably see that the website doesn’t get updated much and that there are things which say “will be done soon” or whatever. I’m not gonna make any excuses, like I’ve done in the past. This website doesn’t get as much attention as it should. This website doesn’t have half the stuff on it that I like it to have. However, I just don’t have the time anymore. I don’t have the time, and to be honest, I stopped doing most of my web development related stuff coming up for 2 years ago. I guess you could say that was my old life. I’ve moved on.

Moving on…

On the subject of moving on and change. I was thinking the other day about how things are generally in my life now, and from about the beginning of 2006. That’s a whole 2 years ago now. Thinking retrospectively, a heck of a lot has changed. Not just with my life, but with people and their attitudes in general. At the end of the day though, it has to be said. People get older and people move on. Maybe that’s what I don’t like. I don’t like people moving away from me. I like the people who are close to me to stay close to me. I don’t like drifting apart from people. I guess the whole talk of university and everyone going their separate ways puts me in that frame of mind, I don’t know.

Laurababes…

This year, Laura will be off to university. I don’t know what’ll happen between us after then. All I can say is that I hope we stay together. She means the world to me, I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s just everything to me right now. I guess the three weeks apart from her while she’s been in Australia has done me some good. Whilst I’ve hated it because I’ve missed her, it just makes me realise how good the last 15 months has been with her. She’s back from Australia soon, so I’ll be able to hear all the tales she has to tell. I really can’t want to see her, she’s back on the 7th. Maybe that’s why I’m so happy atm. Ily

10 years time…

I wonder what my life will be like in 10 years time. I’ll find out in 10 years time. Will I be single? Married? Have my own place? Know many of the people I know now? Will my mum and dad still be about? What kind of job will I have? How much money will I have?

Career…

I guess one thing leads to another there. However, I really want a career in IT preferably, doing network administration / management etc. A position in a large company’s IT department as a network administrator / technician would be awesome. At the minute though, I need a contracted job, but I’ve got to start small. I do freelance(ish) IT work for a few small businesses where I live and support a few private people I know. It’s a start in the IT industry and it provides me with valuable experience. Also, when I was helping out at my college, it was really invaluable. I learnt so much there.

Theatre Tech…

I guess I’ve come to the conclusion that although I love doing lighting/sound etc for shows, concerts etc, it probably won’t be a career path for me. I don’t know why in a way. I absolutely love doing it. Something just doesn’t feel right about it. I think I’ll always end up doing it here and there as a hobby, but I don’t think it’ll be a career. There again, I might be doing something totally different in 10 years time!

2008…

I think 2008 will be an extremely important year for me. I will:

1. Turn 18. Will be good,apart from paying tax.
   
2. Start driving (some of you may remember that I took my first driving test in August. I’ve now failed 4 times. I have bad concentration sometimes, and during that kind of test, it flattens me)
3. Finish sixth form education. Do I go to another college? or uni? Depends on the next point
4. Hopefully get a full time job. If I succeed in getting a decent job then I won’t go to university. I’ve applied for the 2009 season anyway.
5. Hopefully shed a few stone, but that down to me I guess. As are 3 of the above points.
6. Hopefully go abroad. I’ve never had a proper holiday abroad, so it’d be nice.
7. A few other bits…which I can’t really discuss here because it’ll just cause problems.
8. Lots of other stuff I can’t think of. It’ll come to me - there are other things, but it’s 3:25am.

A good kick up the arse is just what the doctor ordered…

I’ve had enough of saying to myself that I will do something, and then not do it. I want to actually make a go at doing the things that I keep on kidding myself at. Loosing weight is the main thing. I know I can do it. Everyone says I can do it, it’s just…doing it. If it took 5 minutes, it wouldn’t be a problem, but that’s not the case. It takes will power, iron determination and a good kick up the arse. I start dieting, but then I revert back to when I’m bored or a bit annoyed, I’ll eat. I’ve done that since I was 7 years old. I’m fed up of it. I’ve promised Ems that I will try, so I have to now. I’ve promised…

Why so long?

And for the record, I decided to write this rather long, kinda varied blog post rather than what I did last year because I wanted to do something different for a different year. It’s a new year, and a very different one. A lot of things are going to be different this year. A lot of things are going to change. I’m fairly sure that some of the people I knew last year I won’t know by the end of this year. In the same context, I’ll meet a lot of new cool people this year. 2008 is a new year for new experiences and new challenges. I want to leave the shit behind that’s plagued me over the last few years and start afresh. I find it hard to forget the past, but I want a fresh start in a fresh year.

My friends…

I have a lot of awesome friends and I thank them for being them. The usual sorta thing. You know who you are, I won’t mention names this year.

Learn from the past, look to the future…

Anyway…as my college’s old slogan was “Learn from the past, look to the future”, I’ll take that…and somewhat agree.

Well if anyone actually reads all, or even any, I thank them. Please leave a comment if you want to. I think I can safely say I’ve written the longest blog post ever.

Have a good 2008. Have fun!

Best wishes,

Jamie R.

Enter Shikari on 6th November was bloody awesome. I couldn’t keep up with the fast moving energetic crowd and had to get out of the pit a few times. I lost Weston, but then found him again, he couldn’t survive it either. After getting lots of free water from the bar we went back in for a bit and endured a load more 14 year old wannabe-emo kids smashing into me. It was an awesome concert, but I don’t think I’ll see them again for a while. Don’t get me wrong, they are a FANTASTIC band live, who play FANTASTIC stuff and the atmosphere at the gig was awesome, it was just too violent in a way! I can survive a Metallica gig no problem, but 4,000 young people crammed into the Brixton Academy isn’t really a nice thing, especially if you’re at an ES gig! Too hot!

For you lampie folk out there, this page describes the technical side of the concert. Equipment includes High End Systems Studio Beam washes, Martin Mac 2000’s, Martin Atomic 3k DMX strobes and a Flying Pig Systems Hog 3 iPC for control.

Christmas is, at writing 20 days away. Laura’s off to Australia for Christmas and New Year, she’s leaving on the 14th, so no Laura for 3 weeks. I wish I could fit in her suitcase. Meh ah well - I’d happily trade in most things to go out there with her! What are all you lot doing for Christmas? Going out and getting sloshed? Staying at home with typically-Christmassy chestnuts and mulled wine? Going to Florida or Sydney or wherever? I reckon I’ll just be staying at home - might go and get my pipe and slippers as Nick would say - “fetch me my pipe and slippers young chap, I am a MAN now!” lol.

I found a really embarrassing photo of me at PLASA 2007 on the Avolites website earlier today. Man I look awful. It’s alright though, I found an equally bad one of Ricky at PLASA 2004 (I didn’t find any of us at PLASA 2006)…he’ll hate me

My college’s sixth form revue is on Wednesday 19th, which will be fun. I’ve been busy getting things ready for the lighting side of things. Should be good. This year’s theme is aliens and sci-fi, so I’m thinking lots of green/purple/strobes/whatever I can get my paws on. Hopefully everything will go to plan.

In terms of site news, I’ve added a donations page. Anyone who likes what I do and would like to contribute something to my PayPal account, they can do so through my site. Anything, however small will be greatly appreciated. I’ve also added a new section called “Essex Stage Crew” which is an area of the site which will be detailing more of my theatre work in the future. It’s not up yet but it will be soon!

Over and out

Jamie.

Phantom of the Opera was FANTASTIC. Having wanted to see it for ages, me and Laura went down to London on 20th October and saw it at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket. Whilst we were there, we checked out a few of the sights of London and went to Chinatown. Chinatown was better than I thought it was. Being a bit of a food man, I did have to go and check out a few of the restaurants around. I think I might have annoyed her a bit though, because the word “buffet” kinda interested me, and so I dragged Laura into the nearest all you can eat restaurant…yeah, bad I know.

And so there I was, I guess doing what I do best - When we left, I found the real Chinese restaurants down the road, leaving me regretting not taking time to actually look around, and putting my money in the nearest restaurant that said “buffet”. Oh never mind.

The hotel was quite nice. We got a package deal from a company called “Premier Ticket” which included one nights hotel and theatre tickets. In the end, the hotel wasn’t bad. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Regents Park. Overall, it was a rather nice two days! That was the main thing we did to celebrate our year anniversary.

Anyway, Friday 26th was the release of OS X Leopard, Apple’s long awaited successor to 10.4 Tiger. I haven’t had a chance to get my paws on a copy, yet (even though I don’t have a Mac that will run it - I have 2 G3’s with 10.4 :/) so I can’t really say anymore. On Saturday 20th (the same day that I was in London), Apple opened their store at Lakeside, not too far from me. I was planning to go to the opening and grab meself a free t-shirt. However, when I saw the opening date I nearly shot myself, but oh well. I also missed the opening of Leopard due to having other stuff to do at the time

November November November…Well, it’s getting cold outside! Tis no good. I’m going up to Colchester on Monday 6th to see my mate Nick’s band Scorpio Toy play. I’ve been meaning to go to one of their gigs for a while, but haven’t yet cos I’ve been busy. I’ve made an effort to ensure that I can go this time, cos Nick keeps telling me to go! On Tuesday 7th, I and Jamie W are off to see Enter Shikari at Brixton. Should be awesome!

All the best,

Jamie R.

Hey

Today (October 8th) is mine and LJ’s first anniversary. We’ve officially been going out a year It’s awesome, I’m really surprised she has stayed with me for a year, lol (given my obscure ways sometimes!), but she has, and we’re really happy. I took a trip up to Colchester and met her after college which was cool - we wandered about for a bit, did the usual Monday afternoon ritual of going into Costa or Starbucks and drinking Frapuccino (iced coffee).

The last year with Miss Laura-Jade Klée has been fantastic LJ spent the last three months making me an anniversary gift which was a complete secret until all was revealed today. She made me a story book, with pictures and paintings of us and our adventures over the last year. She also wrote a song which accompanied the book - each page has some lyrics on it. The whole idea is that you listen to the song and turn the pages in accordance to the lyrics. The Story Book Song is fantastic, and it really brought a tear to my eye when I saw what she’d spend the last three sold months making! I’m so grateful, she’s just fantastic. Thank you so much babes! I love you

I have more than one reason to be happy. My hosting company emailed me earlier and notified me that my web space has been increased from 500mb to 1GB without any extra charge. I’m damn happy, cos they wanted a shed load of cash for extra space (£10+ vat per year for 100mb!).

I’ve uploaded PLASA 2006 and 2007 pictures to the gallery. I went to PLASA last month. I went for 2 days out of the 4 days that the show was on. The opening day was DJ day, so there were a lot of kids etc there who were DJs. I wanted some kind of T-shirt that said “I’m not a DJ!” I also went back on the closing day (Wed 12th Sep) to find a much quieter exhibition - just what I wanted. I actually had a chance to talk to company reps about stuff, meet people etc and get decent practice/play time on different products. I got over an hour on the Avolites Diamond 4 Vision, which I was pretty happy about seeing as I didn’t get much of a looking on Sunday 9th. For people wondering “WTF has he just gone on about”, the PLASA show is the Professional Lighting and Sound Association’s annual trade show up at Earls Court. It’s where exhibitors from the entertainment industry all come together to show off their new products. It’s a fantastic show, and I recommend anyone who’s interested in lighting, sound, AV etc to take a treck along to next years show.

In other news, soon you’ll be seeing the launch of a new part of my site. I’m gonna add a section about the theatre work that I do and the kind of things that I have lit and done technical stuff for before. Wait and see.

Anyway, take care!

Jamie.

Yesterday (13th) LJ turned 18!

I dunno why I thought I’d post this, but I just wanted to say a big public happy birthday to her on my site! So, happy birthday babes!

We went out for a drink in Colchester and then went out for a meal with her parents which was awesome. I’m really glad she had a good birthday!

I’ve got another 8 months to go, oh well!

I love you

J xxxxx

Yo

Over the last few days England has defiantly lived up to its name of being soggy, or at least it has down my way. It’s been raining on and off for the best part of three days, with Sunday being the last day when we had a decent amount of sunshine. Ah well, that’s England for you I guess.

I’ve been pretty busy with things really - I’ve spent the last few days renovating my bedroom with help from my brother and dad, giving it a bit of a modernization. The old floorboards, paint, carpet, shower tiles etc have all gone and have been replaced with beech effect laminate flooring which looks nice. It’s wanted doing for ages - it looks clean, modern and tidy now. New 12v low energy spotlights have also been put in the ceiling, so there is now a lot more light in the room. If I get bored, I might get one of them dimmer switches and change the standard on/off light switch with a dimmer switch. Could make the room look a lot romantic!

In other news, I know it’s a bit late but I picked up my AS results last week from college. I got a C overall for IT, and a C for Media. I’m not too happy about some of the grades for IT, because I put a lot of fucking hard work into the units. Ah well. I’m happy about the C for media, because that was the grade I thought I’d get anyway - I didn’t put as much work in as I could have done I admit, hence why I’m happy.

I also did my driving test last Thursday. It was my first test, and unfortunately I failed. Although I failed, my examiner had a good reason to fail me - I admit I made a few mistakes (for instance cutting a car up at a roundabout) when I should have given way to it, so he was fair. I’ve re booked it now, but I’m keeping the date fairly quiet! I have a car now as well. Well, I kinda have a car. My dad’s Ford Escort van is in for repair, and because he didn’t want to be without a car, he brought another car to use while his can is being repaired. When it’s back, the car will become mine. When I pass, I’ll be driving a Ford Escort SI Estate - 1.8 litre, 16v. I’m happy because I have a fairly decent car, with a fairly decent engine and a lot of space. Just what I want.

Tomorrow people are picking up their GCSE results (the year below me kinda thing) so good luck to anyone who is doing so tomorrow.

I’ve also posted photos of the Walton on the Naze 2007 carnival over on my gallery.

All for now,

Jamie.

Well at the moment it’s 23:59, so almost Sunday 17th June 2007. I’m sitting here in a rather philosophical mood - with one main question bouncing around my mind. What does the future really have for us? I mean, some people say that everyone’s lives are already planned, and that we are living them day by day as they’ve been planned, but is this really the case?

Most things which you do, well some things, affect the way that something else in the future happens, or how events will turn out and end up. If you think of an event, and think about how it ended, you can usually work out how it ended like that, and how if you’d changed one or two things during the goings on, how different the ending would have been. I guess that’s the story of my life sometimes - you don’t know the ending, or the beginning, but how if you’d changed a few things how things would have been so different. I can’t really think of a specific example, but I’m just saying in general. There are things I guess which I could fit into this.

In life, you get these little things which test your strength as a human being and your ability to cope with things. It varies from person to person, but at the end of the day we’re all humans and we all have some form of mental strength - some people have more than others - some people can deal with things better than others can. However, it’s not always the case of how we deal with things, but more so what we do as ways of dealing with things. Mentally, you can do anything - in your imagination you do anything that you want, but in real life, you can’t - you can’t do anything which you might just imagine.

Well, I really am talking shit tonight, but I’m in that kind of I’m-going-to-talk-shit-and-bloody-bore-the-pants-off-you mood - I’ve had an alright evening I guess. Rows with dad about shit and all that kinda malarky, but apart from that I’m ok.

I’m looking forward to the summer now. When I woke up this morning (well, OK I’ll be honest - 12:30pm) it was hot and perfectly sunny. No clouds around or anything. Ten minutes later however, the rain clouds had moved in quickly and it was pissing with rain. Lame…it’s been like that all day - one minute nice, then rainy etc.

This summer will be different from last summer, because it’ll be shorter and most people will be working somewhere or other. The biggest difference will be that last year was GCSE year, and the holiday was 11 weeks rather than the standard 6 which we usually get. It’ll also be the last summer holiday in between years before people go off to university, so we HAVE to make it a good one. Some people are or will be driving - myself included. I passed my theory test on June 2nd (got 32/35 on the questions and 61/75 on hazard perception) which was good. I should also be taking my practical test in mid July. All I need now is some money for a car and insurance and other things needed for it.

Me and LJ are encroaching on 9 months - woo, three quarters of a year. Now it’s awesome, but it’s rather strange in a way. I mean, I never thought that when I first started dating, the relationship would last this long, but it has - and it’s still going strong. She’s lovely

My cat is sitting next to me at the moment (I’m sitting on my dining room table for some reason - I don’t usually sit here) and she’s sitting next to my computer on the table with her eyes fixed in one position on my face. I think she’s hungry, so I better go and feed her. Beautiful little puss cat she is

My website hosting and domain registration is up for renewal soon so I better get that paid up otherwise this site will be going off-line!
In terms of IT news, most people who keep updated with it will know that Apple have released Safari for Windows. Hopefully, it’ll mean that the previously Mac OS only browser will now grab a much higher market share than previously. It’s been out for Windows for barely three days, and within a few hours several flaws were discovered in it. Now, as of writing now, the Windows version (which is a public beta of version 3) has been downloaded over one million times. Hopefully it will mean that because Safari has been released for the operating system platform which has the biggest market share in the world, its browser market share will increase even more.
Anyway, I know most people have already done their GCSE and A-Level exams - I did my 15 hour IT practical exam last week which went alright. For anyone who has done exams, or is doing them soon, here’s a rather belated Good luck - GOOD LUCK!

Well, I’m off - ttyl.

Jamie.