Shelves

Ok, this is the last of The set of blogs from today, and this is a little more dull than perhaps the other two, (perhaps I shouldn't have saved it for last...)

I have twice as much shelf space as before nowadays and the other day I spent a little time re-arranging my wardrobe to accomodate all my shoes shirts and jeans, this was the result

ooh isn't it all neat

and an artsy one of shirts... I have quite a lot of white t-shirts...

... So there that is.. not really sure what so say,  I could do with more shorts to fill up the shorts but that may end up being used for shoes or something, perhaps even more white t-shirts as my collection expands.

I did also buy myself some new button down shirts, and two fancy/dress shirts and a suit jacket, but I'm not going to model them or even post pictures of them in Isolation because I've already put the camera away, I don't want to unfold and refold the shirts and finally I dont really want to emo, selfshot pose in my wiggly mirror with my DSLR, thats one of those Images that could too easily come back and bite me in the ass.

hope you enjoyed my shelves

...Wade

Oh Shit...

Last weekend was Rugby weekend, which was good as I needed to be out of the house, (Karys was collecting some of her stuff from the flat with her family, and I wanted to avoid any undue awkwardness)

Me and JD had pizza for breakfast and watched Goyte and Walk of the Earth Videos and Polished off a few stubbies (ahh morning alcohol abuse) Until it was time for the first match of the day,

Italy vs Ireland
it was pretty fair to say we knew which was this game was going to go (after all Italian rugby is a Joke) and we got the feeling Italy knew this too as we watched, they equalised the score to 10 10 by half time, but their hearts weren't in it, so we decided to go outside and play a little rugby of our own,

This is where the 'Oh Shit' of the title happens,

We got changed into the lowest rent rugby kit anyone has ever worn (mostly bits and pieces from JD's floor and wall) Ryans shorts had huge holes in the knees and Big G's short barely covered his thighs (he is a beast of a man) and we began playing touch rugby, to ease ourselves in, and to get those of us that had been out of the game a while (or had never played before) the chance to learn the rules and practice catching the egg shaped ball.

nothing bad so far... I became aware that my broadly sedentary lifestyle has left me with incredibly low stamina, so after only 20 minutes of play I was gasping for breath and feeling a bit queasy (embarrassing, but hardly an 'Oh Shit') The others seemed to be suffering no such effects so I dug deep and carried on (after standing still for a little while and getting my breath back during a break in play of course) following this, someone suggested we play full contact as its more fun, (by this I mean they just tackled the next person with the ball and it was decided)

and here it comes... the bad thing

First play, the ball is kicked off from my team to the other, the ball is passed to Charlie Hearsum, Siblys biggest, meanest, and (arguably) most talented player, the Gem of the Sibly team, and he's running right towards me and my puny breakable body

still not the Oh Shit,

I run at him and just like my old school days grab him around the waist and tackle him down (its one of my surprising skills, I am a good back player) unfortunately.. (and here it comes) as he falls his foot gets trapped between my leg and the floor, so as he goes down over it, there is an enormous crunching, snapping noise, (people claim to have heard it from right across the field) and Charlie's is lying on the floor sporting a band new broken ankkle

Oh Shit.

I cannot believe that on the First play, of the first game I have played in nearly 5 years, I have broken the team's star player.

After that the ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital and patched up, he didn't seem too upset with me over the whole thing, ("it was a decent tackle could've happened to anyone")

Following this no one much felt like playing anymore so we retreated inside to watch the England v Wales game (Wales won, and good on them England were being boring, and playing bad rugby Wales wanted it more)

JD revealed to me that when he heard the cracking noise he thought I had farted as I had tackled Charlie and that was why he had fallen down with a pained expression... if only.

that evening was the Sibly Halls Spring Formal, for which me and Big G managed to score Tickets (Because we are awesome) we both suited up and returned to Sibly by which point pretty much the entire place had heard about my accident, but everyone seemed to be impressed more than anything else and I got dubbed a hero by more than one person (probably mostly due to the fact I am so small and Charlie is so big)

The Formal was lots of fun, as I'm sure everyone there can vouch for, but no more on that, a gentleman never tells.. :)

...Wade

Beat Magnets!

Last week newly formed indie rock outfit 'Beat Magnets' (for whom I am the guitarist) has their first ever gig, in brixton supporting 'The Wombats' no less... well sort of, we played their after party at a pub/music bar called 'The Jamm'

Prior to playing we went up the road to the most packed weatherspoons pub I have ever been in, and wet our whistles with a couple of abbots and a good luck mystery shot, my Dad and Uncle who were with us had to have J20's as they were both Driving, I thought about buying them a packet of crisps each because thats what kids usually get when they go to the pub with parents, but I wasn't sure if they would appreciate the homour. 

All in all it was a good night we played well, if a little more quickly than usual (nerves I guess what are you gunna do) and we pulled a good crowd, with a little pocket of dancing starting up near the front of the stage, which was very encouraging. We did get berated by the sound guy a little, who seemed very snobbish and impatient with our lack of sound stage knowledge, but ultimately we just let him get on with whatever he was doing, followed his instructions and rocked out regardless.

After we played we put all our gear away and enjoyed a kebab, which we bought from a place a little further away from the venue, mostly because the kebab place opposite the venue had suspiciously greasy windows, we didn't trust that. We watched a couple of the other bands, one of which had a 8ft tall bassist that didn't look like he could possible be a real person, and another of which had the most cocky, arrogant frontman we have ever witnessed (after the show we saw hm walking across the bar combing his hair with a flick comb...) but we quickly became bored as it was late and we weren't drunk enough to fully enjoy the situation, and with improperly poured Guinness costing £4 for a pint (a suspiciously small pint mind) we decided to call it a day and head home without actually waiting to see the wombats DJ set (I'm sure they did very well)

our next gig is a little closer to home... Literally it's around the corner from my house, I could walk there in under 5 minutes. tomorrow night at 'The Facebar' where we are headlining hopefully another fun night to come!

...Wade

Quite a week (and a half)

Well this week (coming on week and a half) has been most eventful.

Firstly and as most of you who read this will already know, me and Karys split up on Wednesday and since then I have been occupying the house by my self. I won't go into any more detail about the break up, other than to wish Karys all the best for the future.

Following this event I proceeded to to get drunk over a number of days with a variety of people.

Wednesday - G and JD
Thursday - Sober
Friday - G (until 3am whilst watching beauty and the geek in its entirety)
Saturday - G and my Dad (starting at lunch ending at midnight)
Sunday - Sober
Monday - JD and Ryan
Tuesday - Sober
Wednesday - Sober
Thursday - JD Xio and the real ale society for a pub meet,
Friday - JD Ryan, Strutt and G (got turned away from the clubs had a sibly hall party)
Saturday - Sober (recovery Maccy D's)
Sunday - Home for a bit of a rest ant to try and write my essay

Needless to say some of these stories need to be elaborated on and these shall be the subject of my next few blogs.

Coming up also,

news from my band "beat magnets"('s) first gig! (at the wombats after party no less)

England vs Wales (Rugby) on Saturday banterrr for me and Ryan

And episode 2 of attempting to get into reading nightclubs SUIT UP!

...wade

This Week

Ok, so in keeping with my new years resolution here is a new blog about this week and the things that I have been doing, hold onto your hats people here it is...

On the subject of hats, I bought a new one this week, on friday me and Karys went to london to trawl through the sales at 'big' shops. (This was a particularly heroic trip for Karys as she braved the outside world despite feeling under the weather)

All in all the trip wasn't a massive success in part due to the fact I am a very picky shopper, and also because I am a very small specimen of man and find it difficult to find clothes that fit, However I did get a hat, and some new shirts, (which I am modelling below)

It should be noted Karys does not approve of this shirt, due to there being a lady on it, but kindly agreed to take the picture anyway.

Karys, bought a Jumper with a boat on it.

Also during this trip Karys revealed that she doesn't know the difference between Hugh Laurie and Ryan Reynolds.

hmmm...

She revealed this by pointing at a picture of Ryan Reynolds in a Hugo Boss advert on the subway and quoting a line from a TV advert for a face cream product starring Laurie. She later claimed that she was making some form of witty comment, but I think that this was to save face at having made such a horrendous mistake.


Also this week, I have been working with a group of advertising students, who are considered sworn enemies of the graphics group, but actually are just normal creative-y types like us. we have been working on making a new celebratory day, and after three days of banging our heads against walls came up with a day of logging precious memories to raise for dementia awareness day. The idea being that in logging a persons most precious memory and putting it on display, they think how bad it would be to lose that memory and thus awareness of the plight of people with dementia is raised. We will be setting up a website and optional money collection to collect and display the memories.
The main problem we are having currently is avoiding bad taste jokes in the run up to the event, things like:

"Don't forget, Dementia awareness day, 17th september 2012"

or

"Remember! 17th September 2012 is Dementia awareness day"

Finally this week we got some rather exciting 'Beat Magnets' news which is super exciting and awesome, but unfortunately I am unable to divulge that information for a little while, so until then you'll just have to keep franticly checking our facebook and twitter pages in the hope of getting a hint.

...Wade 

Beat Magnets

To start the backlog of blogs from 2011, I'm going to start with one of the most recent events, (that also happens to be the easiest to find images for)

The new band 'Beat Magnets'

We formed a towards the end of the year after much frustration at not being musicians anymore (we'll at least on the part of myself, Duffield and G) we found a new Bassist (Pearce also known as P'sneer) and Drummer (Smithy, also known as James Smith) and a place to practice and we were set, we have our first gig coming up (28th of November at East West bar Reading if you are around) and I for one am very excited, feels like forever since I've performed with a band, and its one of my favorite feelings.

As ever we had trouble coming up with a name for the band and eventually settled on beat magnets after deciding that the best formula for a band name was:

A one syllable word, followed by a 2 syllable word

Having decided this we just threw together names that followed this rule until we hit on one that we unanimously thought was... "Ok, I guess" 

"ok... I guess"

The band builds on the (somewhat shaky) foundations of 'Ricky and the Pigeons' and 'Battery Powered' with the aim of a fuller rockier sound, we have decided to forgo labelling our music with a genre, other than 'rock' because its an easier way of saying "we play music with guitars and it is loud and might make you want to dance a bit"

...and thats pretty much it, the new band 

Us, complete with harsh lighting and logo

...wade

Still in the game

Hello Blog Readers!

This is my 3rd attempt at writing this blog today after discovering it whilst trawling through my various online profiles. It's my 3rd attempt because on 2 occasions blogger decided I didn't really want the 2 or 3 pages of text I had written and simply deleted them instead of publishing them like I asked.

Anyway despite this I am once again writing to this blog as I realised I havent done so for a whole year, and when I looked back at 2009 and 2010s posts it saddened me a little to think that I would have to rely on my 'fuzzy at best' memory to remember the events of 2011.

Aside from the massive amounts of newsworthy stuff that happened in 2011, (if you want to read about that stuff you are in the wrong place this is a highly introverted and narcissistic about Me!) it was a full and action packed year, so much so that I can hardly believe I didn't blog about it.

For example in 2011:

1. I finished my first year of university (apparently we dont get a grade, but I passed, so... yay)
2. Whilst celebrating point one with my course mates I drank so much I nearly died and lost my drivers licence, which I am still yet to replace
3. I moved out of my student flat, and into a normal flat, in reading with Karys, where I am responsible for paying for everything (...yay)
4. I started/joined a new band 'Beat Magnets' with Duffield and G from 'Ricky and the Pigeons' and new friends Pearce and Smithy (who play Bass and Drums respectively)
5. I began applying for internships and placements at graphic design firms.

Its point number 5 that brought me here and to writing this blog, as a graphics student applying for internships much of what potential employers think of you is done before they meet you, and may even dictate if they want to meet you at all. So with this in mind I have been going through my online presence making sure I am available anywhere a potential employer is going to look, and that I don't look like a fool when they get there.

Currently my online arsenal consists of
- A professional and personal Tumblr
- A professional and personal Twitter
- A professional and personal Blog
- A professional website
- A linkedin profile (which is like job facebook)
- An Online portfolio

I keep track of most of this through my iPod or Phone (I want to get an iPhone as I find the iOS interface much easier and quicker to use, have to save up my pennies) and on top of this I also help manage the band's online presence as well.

My new years resolution this year is to:
- Tweet as a graphic designer twice (at least) every day I am in Uni
- Blog as a graphic designer once a week (at least)
and
- Keep on top of my personal blogs and twitters and things, I want to update this blog for instance about  once or twice a week with what I'm doing so it doesn't slip into obscurity like last year.

 until next time

...wade