So today i finally became one step closer to my dream job. I decided to start working towards an Open degree with honors. I reserved a place on the first course, "Data, Computing and Information" with the open university. Hopefully will be starting in September.
I have 2 other course in level one to make up 90 points, then I move onto level 2 stuff... Client/Server side of application development and Java programming.
The course costs £380 (donations happily accepted ), hopefully I can get some financial support from them.
The overall degree is going to cost £5600 or something, and take 6 years to get and has a total of 17 different course ranging from £210 to £630.
My dream job is a web applications developer, Database developer and website designer. I do quite alot of it already, and I'm considering starting up my own site design / development business. I've spoke to my bank and Im writing up a business plan.
Unfortunatly, I dont have much business experience, however, I will be going to visit my dad for a few days next week. He owned quite a big business and hopefully he will be able to help with the advice
So yea, Im pretty happy at the moment.
Life Goals:
Start working towards open degree
Attempt to get my business going and earn money
Work as a web developer / web designer / database developer / IT security analyst. Its all good
Ahh. So I've decided to to something useful with myself. I've decided I want to start doing stuff for charity. Cancer Research to be exact. Theres a few people I've known who have suffered from cancer, my grandad, my partners grandad, 2 people I work with and so on.
I've always wanted to help out in some way, but I've not known how, so ive decided I want to start doing something.
Dartmoor Dartmoor is a massive national park a few miles from where I live. Its basically a pre-historic area which in the past used to be volcanic. Where the magma has been pushed up, it creates big tors. (See picture below) Its home to Okehampton army range, which hosts the Ten Tors. Ten Tors is an army course which allows teams from around the county to trek over 10 of these tors. In the past people have got lost and seriously injured themselves on this trek.
What Im Doing I will be attempting this trek on my own. I will be starting from the south side of the park, and walking to the north side. Its approx 50-60 miles depending on my route. I will be aiming to complete it in 2-3 days.
Dangers The park has over 400 miles of footpaths, 160 tors with the highest tor, high willhays (just over 2000 feet). Dartmoor is a range of open wilderness, deep valleys, high rocky tors, bogs and forests.
Getting lost Many people have got lost on dartmoor, with one recently making it into the papers. One of the most dangerous things that can happen on dartmoor is the fog. Because its generally quite high up, the clouds can cover it easily. The clouds are so incredibly thick sometimes visibility is reduced to no more than 5 meters (I've been caught out by this before : ).
Bogs The next most dangerous thing is the bogs and mires. This happens when it rains. The soil soaks up the rain and causes massive bogs which look like normal grass, but when you step in them, you sink. If you're lucky, you'll step on some type of rock, but if your unlucky, it'll easily swollow you up.
Day 1 - Training So now I've decided what to do, who to do it for, and when. Now comes the training. I've split the training into multiple sections:
Walking Training
Navigation Training
First Aid Training
Endurance Training
I've already done ten tors. I understand what needs to be done and how to do it. I've already gone through Navigation and first aid training. The most important step now is walking.
I start training on the weekend (Sunday 12th July) and will be walking from plymouth to sheeps tor (roughly 8 miles). I aim to do this walk once a fortnight in as many different weather types as possible.
More Information Im in the process of creating a webpage giving details about everything I plan on doing, from routes, to progress. When I actually start the trek, The website will provide live updates on my whereabouts, and also mini-blogs about what has happened so far. Ill keep you updated about the status of the website!
Donations If you want to donate money, I've set up a webpage which sends donations directly to cancer research upon completetion of the event. Every penny matters so It doesnt matter if you donate anything from 1p to £10. I appriciate everything. My target is a minimum of £500. http://www.justgiving.com/dartmoor_trek <-- Donations page
Thanks everyone Ill keep you as updated as possible.
so as some people know, i manage for Royal Mail. And since its the awesomeness that is christmas, I will be taking on a team of temporary agency workers for 4 weeks.
The good part: because this year, my team size will be over double, i get a bigger pay rise. An extra £200 per week.
The bad part: the team has 80 people in it. I only have 55 seats I can put them in, they start tomorrow, and I havent finished all my paperwork. Infact, Im so behind, i need to go into work at 3am tomorrow morning just to finish off the essesential stuff.
So what do I need to do:
- work out break plans. I need to give 80 staff, a 10 minute break every hour, and also stagger breaks. IE, 13 people must go on break every 10 minutes.
- Assign 80 user accounts to 6 different networks, meaning 480 user accounts in total, then make sure that 1) they all work 2) Each user knows there username and password.
- Im under pressure to bring around 30 staff up to the working targets Ive been set, in less than 1 week.
- Do a handover from my old team which I've just left, to their new manager
- Create a statistical spreadsheet to monitor users performance
- complete all paperwork for each of the 80 staff
- manage overtime requirements
- create a seating plan for another team
So, as long as I get all that done between 3am and 6am I should be fine.
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Logz's blogs, last updated : November 26, 2008
), hopefully I can get some financial support from them.
and has a total of 17 different course ranging from £210 to £630.
: ). 
