The Decade In Review
Dec. 16th, 2009 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xmakinaLooking back, it's been quite the decade...
Given that the entire of the past decade sees the big changes happening around September (that being the time one goes up a year at school) I shall be doing my "years" as September to September.
Situation: Secondary School, Year 8
Age: 13
What happen?: Thinking back, the only real piece of interest I can think of is my first exposure to an Internet Meme, namely the All Your Base Are Belong To Us one. At the time I didn't know it was a meme and being an owner of Zero Wing I remember being quite chuffed that everyone (my friends at the time were (and still are) significantly older than myself) seemed to be quoting from something I owned.
Most of my social time was spent in the library at school playing Alien Versus Predator (a collectible card game) with a group of people who I've only recently re-established contact with. Other than that, I can't think of anything major happening.
The most significant thing this year, however, was me getting the Internet. It's hard to believe this was 10 years ago, but my corrupt_uk_2000 account is proof: Member Since: 09/07/2000. Whether this is the 9th of July or 7th of September is one of the many curses of the American date system.
Situation: Secondary School, Year 9
Age: 14
What happen?: Year 9 was the year I had to do SATS and probably the start of my distaste towards academia. The SATs were spectacularly pointless (the only bearing they had was on the school's ranking) but watching my classmates get worked up was quite frustrating. This was also the first year I am really aware of being a loner. My older friends had left school (yes, they were that much older) and the guys in my class I did get on with had started to use drugs, so this was also probably the year I developed my distaste for those and the people who use them as well.
Looking back, this is quite a bitter year for me in a social sense but it was the year I really started to develop the computer programming skills that would launch my future career. If I remember right, which is doubtful, but I believe this was the year I got my hands on The Games Factory, which was when I first fell in love with creating things for the PC. It would also be the year I started to learn HTML which would lead quite clearly into my current career.
Situation: Secondary School, Year 10
Age: 15
What happen?: The start of GCSE's at school. I'd chosen ICT (this is not the same as, say, programming), History and Graphics Design (we had to pick a "Technology" subject, of which ICT apparently wasn't one). A further cementing of my distaste towards academia throughout this year. ICT was absolute crap of the highest order, consisting entirely of "This is what you need to do" and tick-list completion of tasks. The enduring quote is "This is not a monitor, it's a Visual Display Unit". Nothing was achieved (literally, nothing) throughout the whole year in Graphics Design and two distasteful girls took a dislike to me because I actually knew something in History making the lessons disrupted to frustrating throughout.
The other big feature, naturally, was coming home to find Mum watching the telly shortly before (or just after) the towers collapsed. It was at this point I took an interest in world politics and became aware of just how bad an idea it was to have idiots in charge. To this day, I'm still deeply opposed to the repercussions of 11/9.
Situation: Secondary School, Year 11
Age: 16
What happen?: Continuation of GCSE's throughout the year. We got a new Graphics teacher who, realising what a state our projects were in, forced us to work in silence during his lessons and made us work hard. To this day, I've yet to thank him for dragging me from nothing to a C.
During the June of 2003, I discovered a video game called DarkSigns, a hacking simulator which would be where I would really cut my teeth on programming. I found some of the old scripts I wrote a while ago and surprised myself at just how good they were. A Tamagotchi that could starve, become obese, become depressed (to the point of suicide, I was already a pretty dark kid) and had a complete shop system all in a procedural language was quite a feat for a 6th or so project.
Every year I would come back to this and promptly drop it again. It became a bit of a joke after a while.
Situation: Sixth Form, Year 12
Age: 17
What happen?: The start of Sixth Form. I'd taken AVCE Business (2 'A' Levels for the price of 1), AVCE ICT (oddly, this one didn't carry the 2 for 1 status that business did) and Economics, the plan being to set up an IT Company.
This would be the year I met Gina, my only other girlfriend. To say the girl was a mess would probably win understatement of the decade for she had more issues than the Beano. Not the best introduction to relationships but, hey, a learning experience. It was through my breakup with her that I would go on to meet the people I would call friends for a long time afterwards and from them I would go on to meet someone very special.
During this year I would visit Aberystwyth, Birmingham and finally Stafford Universities. At Aberystwyth, I was informed that without at least an AS in Maths I'd struggle to get on their Software Engineering course. At Brum, I found out about the Year In Industry and promptly signed up. At Stafford, I found the University I wanted to go to.
Situation: Sixth Form, Year 13
Age: 18
What happen?: After flunking Economics (with all it's exams one after the other so a year of learning in the space of 3 hours) I transferred to Maths. About 2 months in I learnt from Stafford that as long as I did well in Business and ICT I wouldn't need maths to get on the Software Engineering course. This would lead to a very frustrating year, attending a lesson I both hated and sucked at. Less than half a U was the reward for my endeavours.
During the February I secured a placement at Rolls Royce for the coming September. That June I met a very lovely girl named Jess. You will know her as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_amaranth. What started as a "see me through to uni" would grow and blossom into our current relationship. The summer of 2005 is one I will always have very strong and fond memories of.
Situation: Gap Year Placement, Rolls Royce
Age: 19
What happen?: The start of this year was a bit crappy. I was stuck in a job that was much more restrictive than I was expecting. By a very happy coincidence, however, there was another fellow who was in a far too challenging position working with Visual Basic. We arranged a transfer and in January 2005 I joined the Trent 1000 (the engine powering the Dreamliner and A380) Project Management Team. There I would go on to produce two pieces of software which would eventually be rolled out across the company.
I remember this year very fondly. Me and Jess grew ever closer, I joined the amateur dramatics group BSP, I remember having enough money to lose both a Nintendo DS and a mobile phone and some fantastic working hours (never in before 9, always out before 5). This was an extremely good year and definitely the peak of the naughties (that is, 00's) for me.
Situation: Stafford University, Year 1
Age: 19
What happen?: The start of University, on a BEng Software Engineering course. In halls I ended up with a corner room so had the biggest by quite a long shot. Highlights include The Beer & Shoe Box Computer, which we used to run a few game servers and a general feeling of boredom. The course was more-or-less universally uninspiring as they had to spend the year dragging up everyone to an actual level of competence.
One thing I did notice in this year was how many people lacked things I'd come to consider not only vital but basic of all humans. Things like goals, career plans and a desire to do the course they were on. The amount of people on Computer Science who had never even programmed, had no idea where they were going with their lives or what they wanted to do afterwards shocked me. I was also very glad I had a girlfriend because goodness me the ratio in Stafford was just awful.
My results were good, but could have been better. However, by this point academic apathy had set in. The Year In Industry hadn't given me a rest before uni, it had made me want to get into the world of work and set about making things that people would actually use, not writing "Hello World" for the hundredth time in another language I wouldn't use.
Situation: Stafford University, Year 2
Age: 20
What happen?: Probably the worst year so far. I ended up in a house with a bunch of people I didn't know. The kitchen was beyond filthy, the room was cramped and had a set of drawers in it I had last seen in my cousins room when he was 8. I remember spending the year miserable and desperate to spend as much time away from University as possible. Even when I moved back into halls I never settled and was just sick of university.
As part of our course, we had to spend the third year in a work placement. The University had quite a lot but none of them were remotely in the area I wanted to work (Derbyshire, so me and Jess could get a place together) but "location" was such an alien concept I had to find a place myself. Thankfully, I was able to contact the Year In Industry again and secured a place with them.
Due to financial constraints (read, having no money) I started my placement extremely early. Whilst most students wouldn't start until September, I started in May, as soon as University finished.
Situation: Junior Software Developer, AFAA
Age: 21
What happen?: This was the year me and Jess got a place together. Our very own house (well, rented) and we both got jobs. The placement was marred by a very bad decision from my manager. Turns out he had no idea what he was actually hiring me for and so I spent the entire year more-or-less doing nothing of value to the company owing to an enormous skills mismatch.
However, on a personal level, I did learn a hell of a lot. I made a Facebook Application called BandTrack, which was really quite a feat of web design looking back. The best thing to come of it, however, was being approached by Seatwave who paid £300 for the source code. I readily accepted. The great bit is, there was no contract so nothing is stopping me making a bigger and better version, which is exactly what I'm doing currently, but that's for another post.
Situation: Junior Web Developer, Red Technology
Age: 22
What happen?: The year got off to a very bad start. Unsurprising as it was, it was still a major problem when AFAA went against what they had told me just a few months prior and decided not to extend my contract from May to September. May would be spent job hunting like a madman before securing an interview with an Oxfordshire based company.
However, on the 26th, after a 4 hour train journey, on a gloriously sunny day, I got off a bus in a small village called Eynsham and made my 15 minute walk to the nearby industrial estate. I remember hoping I got this job, simply because I couldn't afford another train ticket (I'd already had to go to London for a previous interview).
Thinking back, I'm actually quite chuffed with myself for going from losing a job to securing another so quickly, especially considering this was just as the Credit Cruch began to be a popular term.
Just 2 days before the interview, on the 24th, Jess and me when to Birmingham Pride. There, we learnt that once a year there was a gathering of bisexuals. Me and Jess both jumped at the chance, mainly because Jess was not out at home and meeting other bisexuals would be a great way to spend a weekend.
Situation: Junior Web Developer, Red Technology
Age: 22
What happen?: I barely know where to start with the last 4 days...
And there we have it.
Given that the entire of the past decade sees the big changes happening around September (that being the time one goes up a year at school) I shall be doing my "years" as September to September.
September 1999 - September 2000
Situation: Secondary School, Year 8
Age: 13
What happen?: Thinking back, the only real piece of interest I can think of is my first exposure to an Internet Meme, namely the All Your Base Are Belong To Us one. At the time I didn't know it was a meme and being an owner of Zero Wing I remember being quite chuffed that everyone (my friends at the time were (and still are) significantly older than myself) seemed to be quoting from something I owned.
Most of my social time was spent in the library at school playing Alien Versus Predator (a collectible card game) with a group of people who I've only recently re-established contact with. Other than that, I can't think of anything major happening.
The most significant thing this year, however, was me getting the Internet. It's hard to believe this was 10 years ago, but my corrupt_uk_2000 account is proof: Member Since: 09/07/2000. Whether this is the 9th of July or 7th of September is one of the many curses of the American date system.
September 2000 - September 2001
Situation: Secondary School, Year 9
Age: 14
What happen?: Year 9 was the year I had to do SATS and probably the start of my distaste towards academia. The SATs were spectacularly pointless (the only bearing they had was on the school's ranking) but watching my classmates get worked up was quite frustrating. This was also the first year I am really aware of being a loner. My older friends had left school (yes, they were that much older) and the guys in my class I did get on with had started to use drugs, so this was also probably the year I developed my distaste for those and the people who use them as well.
Looking back, this is quite a bitter year for me in a social sense but it was the year I really started to develop the computer programming skills that would launch my future career. If I remember right, which is doubtful, but I believe this was the year I got my hands on The Games Factory, which was when I first fell in love with creating things for the PC. It would also be the year I started to learn HTML which would lead quite clearly into my current career.
September 2001 - September 2002
Situation: Secondary School, Year 10
Age: 15
What happen?: The start of GCSE's at school. I'd chosen ICT (this is not the same as, say, programming), History and Graphics Design (we had to pick a "Technology" subject, of which ICT apparently wasn't one). A further cementing of my distaste towards academia throughout this year. ICT was absolute crap of the highest order, consisting entirely of "This is what you need to do" and tick-list completion of tasks. The enduring quote is "This is not a monitor, it's a Visual Display Unit". Nothing was achieved (literally, nothing) throughout the whole year in Graphics Design and two distasteful girls took a dislike to me because I actually knew something in History making the lessons disrupted to frustrating throughout.
The other big feature, naturally, was coming home to find Mum watching the telly shortly before (or just after) the towers collapsed. It was at this point I took an interest in world politics and became aware of just how bad an idea it was to have idiots in charge. To this day, I'm still deeply opposed to the repercussions of 11/9.
September 2002 - September 2003
Situation: Secondary School, Year 11
Age: 16
What happen?: Continuation of GCSE's throughout the year. We got a new Graphics teacher who, realising what a state our projects were in, forced us to work in silence during his lessons and made us work hard. To this day, I've yet to thank him for dragging me from nothing to a C.
During the June of 2003, I discovered a video game called DarkSigns, a hacking simulator which would be where I would really cut my teeth on programming. I found some of the old scripts I wrote a while ago and surprised myself at just how good they were. A Tamagotchi that could starve, become obese, become depressed (to the point of suicide, I was already a pretty dark kid) and had a complete shop system all in a procedural language was quite a feat for a 6th or so project.
Every year I would come back to this and promptly drop it again. It became a bit of a joke after a while.
September 2003 - September 2004
Situation: Sixth Form, Year 12
Age: 17
What happen?: The start of Sixth Form. I'd taken AVCE Business (2 'A' Levels for the price of 1), AVCE ICT (oddly, this one didn't carry the 2 for 1 status that business did) and Economics, the plan being to set up an IT Company.
This would be the year I met Gina, my only other girlfriend. To say the girl was a mess would probably win understatement of the decade for she had more issues than the Beano. Not the best introduction to relationships but, hey, a learning experience. It was through my breakup with her that I would go on to meet the people I would call friends for a long time afterwards and from them I would go on to meet someone very special.
During this year I would visit Aberystwyth, Birmingham and finally Stafford Universities. At Aberystwyth, I was informed that without at least an AS in Maths I'd struggle to get on their Software Engineering course. At Brum, I found out about the Year In Industry and promptly signed up. At Stafford, I found the University I wanted to go to.
September 2004 - September 2005
Situation: Sixth Form, Year 13
Age: 18
What happen?: After flunking Economics (with all it's exams one after the other so a year of learning in the space of 3 hours) I transferred to Maths. About 2 months in I learnt from Stafford that as long as I did well in Business and ICT I wouldn't need maths to get on the Software Engineering course. This would lead to a very frustrating year, attending a lesson I both hated and sucked at. Less than half a U was the reward for my endeavours.
During the February I secured a placement at Rolls Royce for the coming September. That June I met a very lovely girl named Jess. You will know her as
miss_amaranth. What started as a "see me through to uni" would grow and blossom into our current relationship. The summer of 2005 is one I will always have very strong and fond memories of.September 2005 - September 2006
Situation: Gap Year Placement, Rolls Royce
Age: 19
What happen?: The start of this year was a bit crappy. I was stuck in a job that was much more restrictive than I was expecting. By a very happy coincidence, however, there was another fellow who was in a far too challenging position working with Visual Basic. We arranged a transfer and in January 2005 I joined the Trent 1000 (the engine powering the Dreamliner and A380) Project Management Team. There I would go on to produce two pieces of software which would eventually be rolled out across the company.
I remember this year very fondly. Me and Jess grew ever closer, I joined the amateur dramatics group BSP, I remember having enough money to lose both a Nintendo DS and a mobile phone and some fantastic working hours (never in before 9, always out before 5). This was an extremely good year and definitely the peak of the naughties (that is, 00's) for me.
September 2006 - September 2007
Situation: Stafford University, Year 1
Age: 19
What happen?: The start of University, on a BEng Software Engineering course. In halls I ended up with a corner room so had the biggest by quite a long shot. Highlights include The Beer & Shoe Box Computer, which we used to run a few game servers and a general feeling of boredom. The course was more-or-less universally uninspiring as they had to spend the year dragging up everyone to an actual level of competence.
One thing I did notice in this year was how many people lacked things I'd come to consider not only vital but basic of all humans. Things like goals, career plans and a desire to do the course they were on. The amount of people on Computer Science who had never even programmed, had no idea where they were going with their lives or what they wanted to do afterwards shocked me. I was also very glad I had a girlfriend because goodness me the ratio in Stafford was just awful.
My results were good, but could have been better. However, by this point academic apathy had set in. The Year In Industry hadn't given me a rest before uni, it had made me want to get into the world of work and set about making things that people would actually use, not writing "Hello World" for the hundredth time in another language I wouldn't use.
September 2007 - May 2008
Situation: Stafford University, Year 2
Age: 20
What happen?: Probably the worst year so far. I ended up in a house with a bunch of people I didn't know. The kitchen was beyond filthy, the room was cramped and had a set of drawers in it I had last seen in my cousins room when he was 8. I remember spending the year miserable and desperate to spend as much time away from University as possible. Even when I moved back into halls I never settled and was just sick of university.
As part of our course, we had to spend the third year in a work placement. The University had quite a lot but none of them were remotely in the area I wanted to work (Derbyshire, so me and Jess could get a place together) but "location" was such an alien concept I had to find a place myself. Thankfully, I was able to contact the Year In Industry again and secured a place with them.
Due to financial constraints (read, having no money) I started my placement extremely early. Whilst most students wouldn't start until September, I started in May, as soon as University finished.
May 2008 - May 2009
Situation: Junior Software Developer, AFAA
Age: 21
What happen?: This was the year me and Jess got a place together. Our very own house (well, rented) and we both got jobs. The placement was marred by a very bad decision from my manager. Turns out he had no idea what he was actually hiring me for and so I spent the entire year more-or-less doing nothing of value to the company owing to an enormous skills mismatch.
However, on a personal level, I did learn a hell of a lot. I made a Facebook Application called BandTrack, which was really quite a feat of web design looking back. The best thing to come of it, however, was being approached by Seatwave who paid £300 for the source code. I readily accepted. The great bit is, there was no contract so nothing is stopping me making a bigger and better version, which is exactly what I'm doing currently, but that's for another post.
May 2009 - 23rd August 2009
Situation: Junior Web Developer, Red Technology
Age: 22
What happen?: The year got off to a very bad start. Unsurprising as it was, it was still a major problem when AFAA went against what they had told me just a few months prior and decided not to extend my contract from May to September. May would be spent job hunting like a madman before securing an interview with an Oxfordshire based company.
However, on the 26th, after a 4 hour train journey, on a gloriously sunny day, I got off a bus in a small village called Eynsham and made my 15 minute walk to the nearby industrial estate. I remember hoping I got this job, simply because I couldn't afford another train ticket (I'd already had to go to London for a previous interview).
Thinking back, I'm actually quite chuffed with myself for going from losing a job to securing another so quickly, especially considering this was just as the Credit Cruch began to be a popular term.
Just 2 days before the interview, on the 24th, Jess and me when to Birmingham Pride. There, we learnt that once a year there was a gathering of bisexuals. Me and Jess both jumped at the chance, mainly because Jess was not out at home and meeting other bisexuals would be a great way to spend a weekend.
24th August 2009 - Present
Situation: Junior Web Developer, Red Technology
Age: 22
What happen?: I barely know where to start with the last 4 days...
And there we have it.
