Free Videoing for Gigs Events etc!

Well it's been far too long since I've posted on here... but have no fear I've not deserted the internets. Just been more active elsewhere.

Mainly this is the fault of the real world... I mustn't complain, I've been doing some pretty interesting things lately, filming for Alternative Karaoke:



Also I've been going out to Oxfords famous Intrusion Goth night and getting about over the Christmas break (and getting stuck in it see here). Hopefully that'll change, but then I say that every year!

This year I'll hopefully have more to write about and fingers crossed I'll somehow make the time to do it... reason is I'm trying to make a business out of a hobby... and no not this blog (no one in their right mind would pay me for these ramblings). But instead my videoing skills. Now I'll be the first to be modest and say I'm no James Cameron, but I know my Camcorder pretty well, and it's a killer piece of equipment (yeah it's no 2k 3D jobby... I can't justify the expense of something like that), with the addition of a 0.7x wide angle lens and a compressor microphone (courtesy of my parents for Birthday and Christmas) and a truly superb monopod and shoulder mount (courtesy of Nomis Mum and Step Dad... yes I'm fully aware I will look a total wally wearing the shoulder mount), I'm now fully geared up to get right into the thick of it at conventions, gigs and other events.

I love videoing... to the point that even a Japanese tourist would say is excessive. So to get paid for it is a dream, and one that's either impossible, or extremely far off. So now here's the thing... if you're in a band, run an event/convention or anything that would benefit from a video of some sort, drop me a line. I'll take on all comers, and if you're willing to give me a free ticket to get in I'll do it for nothing... and that includes my skills editing and transforming whatever it is into a fully fledged trailer/YouTube clip/music video/film/DVD or everything in between and beyond. Whatever you want I can give it 100% All I ask is the opportunity to hone my skills. And you know what... I hope my work will either make whoever I work with famous or both of us.

A good friend of mine is helping me out by making a website just for this purpose and to showcase my work... this will eventually be online at www.roamingjay.co.uk but my work can always be found on www.youtube.com/roamingjay and occasionally I'll mention it on here.

So if you're reading this and not already bored to tears why not try me out... in an economy like today's getting something for free is not something you see every day!

Rainbow

Unfortunately by the time I could get to my phone I wasn't in a good position to photograph this. But the minute I walked out of the office I saw a double rainbow that I could see both ends of (IE a full 180 deg). First time I've ever seen a rainbow touch the ground both ends... Let alone a double one!

Trees

There's an old Manor House with some parkland next to my work, it's circa 150 years old.

Occasionally I have to park in their overflow car park, as a result I have a nice walk through some woodlands on the way into the office :-)

These old Oak tree's always intrigue me, hundreds of years old, and gnarled through age they reminds me of how fleeting human lifespans are compared to the rest of nature. These trees were there long before I was born, and will continue to be there long after I am dead and forgotten.

Education Renders Us Fit Members For Well Organised Society

Today I went to Oxford Brookes Universities open day... I was hoping to find a course that I could go on to advance my qualifications (I already have a BSc, so I was looking for a MSc or MEng).

I suppose it all started to go wrong when I got there, and realised that there was no parking... at all... unless you have a disabled badge... I suppose you're expected to catch the bus, or instead cycle there. When I eventually found a space (Many thanks to the guy running the corner shop that pointed out that outside his shop was the only place I could park without a permit (Tho even that had a limit of 2 hrs).

I imagined an open day at one of Oxford many universities to be a grand affair with many lecturers to talk to... sadly was mistaken. When I arrived I was presented with the customary bag of goodies and pointed in the direction of a room where all the faculties each had a stand. Not at all what I was expecting... 2 people to a desk and once for each faculty... my god I thought, each faculty has positively tens of courses... where are the other lecturers? I quickly found the Technology desk, and noted they had about 4 leaflets, none of which at first glance appeared to have any relevance to what I intended to study. So naturally I inquired to the only chap that was free at the table, only to be informed that his area was in Audio Visual engineering (IE Films Tv etc), now whilst I would never say I wouldn't do that line of work (I've always fancied being a SFX modeler/tech, especially pyrotechnics :-) ) it wasn't what I was there for, so I asked if there was someone with knowledge in that area around? "erm he'll be back soon" was the response... 10 mins later I decided that I'd take a load off and sit down, so I asked them to point him in m y direction when he showed up.

20 mins later he showed up... looking pretty bedraggled... hardly an advert for the course. Must have had a tough day I thought... so I posed my questions about the course, and he adequately answered them... all the time munching his way through a stack of biscuits that had been laid out as hospitality to the prospective students (His long day can't have afforded him much of a lunch!), suffice to say as a spokesman for the university I was quickly beginning to doubt that this was the place for me. Especially when I discovered that the course on Advanced Engineering Design was primarily focused on Automotive Design (Oxford being home to various F1 design housed I should have guessed this in advance), which unfortunately is completely irrelevant to my current employer, and frankly far detracting from my chosen career of Aerospace and Defence Engineering.

Ho hum... I now continue to look... hopefully a few well placed letters to some Universities may come up with something of interest.

Bussing It

As where I work now is so big we have a special site bus to get us around. It's kinda cool really... Gives me a chance to catch up on my Manga reading just like when I worked in London :)

Accessable Keyboard

My first thought when I saw this was "It's a Fisher Price keyboard!"... Then I read the sign... And thought what a good idea, why's there not more of these about? If I had the balls to go freelance I'd be designing and making all sorts of "accessibility" products. I think it's there's a market for stuff like this. Everyone needs their independence.

Scorchio

Had a slight misshap at work. Forgot to set the tool height correctly. Resulting go this. Thankfully the tool I was using wasn't meant to cut on its end, so all it did was glow red hot and leave a scorch mark behind :(

Ferry cross the Solent

Work is sending me out to the Isle of Wight every week now :) I'm getting used to this ferry ride. It's nice and relaxing... Well usually... Today the ferry is full of school children. Sounds a bit like a chicken coup :-( no rest before work for me.

Rust Proof

I've never given it much thought to be honest, but since I've been working for a company that deals with a lot of carbon fibre I've realised why expensive sports cars are made from carbon fibre... They're rust proof. Not to mention light as well, but most important you'll never see a new rusty Aston Martin.

Just Plain Pissed Off

Haven't ranted in a while... so fear the wrath of my spleen!

I love computers... especially fixing them. Sure they can be a bugger at times, but I like the challenge.

So for the last week or so I've been fixing some of the older computers at work. And much to the delight of many I managed to get one aging dead computer to fit inside a newer computer (Thus saving the space of an extra monitor etc) and all the weird bespoke software to work. Not only that But I managed to set it up so that it backs up, something that was never done before (Highly dangerous considering it has CNC programs for a lot of our stuff on it, representing hundreds of hours of programming time). That was all good.

Now here comes the bummer... a new PC was playing up, it was far too "powerful" for the software we was trying to run, so I downgraded it, removed the fancy graphics card and went back to the on board Intel extreme drivers (Which was the best it required). All ran perfectly... still a few glitches, so I connected it to the network. Unbeknown to me in doing so it ballsed up the hardware keys (Somehow tied to the network ID) preventing the software from running... ARSE. Now instead of them calling me and screaming WTF have you done they spent 3 hours trying to fix it! Which they couldn't.

So I get in get an ear full about it told not to touch it and basically placed in the dog house.

I've of course now fixed it... using a simple system restore... why our IT expert didn't do this is beyond me... tho why they didn't call me is also beyond me.

So now I'm really hacked off about being bad-mouthed when a 30 second phone call (Or a tiny bit of IT knowledge) would have fixed it.

ARGH

Right my spleen is satisfied and I'm off my soap box... I shall return to my corner and grumble away like a active volcano.

Red Funnel

My job sometimes takes me to exotic locations... Well the Isle of Wight anyway :-)

To get there we have to get a Red Funnel ferry across from Southampton... They're just like a small version of the cross channel ferry's just without the duty free shop. It does take quite a while to cross tho... As Southampton is quite a way up the Solent.

Makes for a nice little pleasure cruise before I start work :)

Note: Spelling for Wight changed... why cant they spell it "White" like it sounds?

Spill Snake

At work we have these things called spill snakes... they're a 2m long flexible tube full of absorbent materials. The idea being is if you spill something large you can throw one of these around it in a loop to stop if spreading whilst you clean up. I use them on our Milling machine as it has a tendency to leak when you run the coolant at full pelt:

Excuse the video being on its side, just turn your monitor :-)

I was a little bored one day, so I decided to "decorate" one of the spill snakes:

No one's spotted it yet... :-)

Training is over

It was a long week but now i've finished my training course i kind of miss it. Designing mechanisms and all manner of wierd things as practical examples to further my knowledge of the Solidworks CAD system was great fun.

Now i'm back to the monotony of my everyday work, which doesn't challenge me.

I think i need to find somewhere i can let my designers mind roam free and do what it does best. Perhaps freelance could be worth a shot... Just wish i was that brave!

Carbon Cutting

I've been spending the week doing drilling trials to test a new material we've been asked to work with, as a result I've been away from my nice warm office and in the workshop.

It's not exactly gripping, but for those that are interested (More so those that aren't engineers) here's a short video of a 6 axis milling machine doing a simple linear cut and a "pecking" drilling cycle.

Hope it entertains

Today is not a good day for tooling :(

Today is not a good day for tooling, this is because so far i've made 3 schoolboy errors in my programming. Which has resulted in 3 smashed tools and me feeling a twat. God I need to go home and have a beer.

Training

I'm on training all this week for solidworks which is the CAD system of choice for my company. I've been working with CAD for quite some time now (Damn I'm getting old) and have used most of the industrys standard packages, this one i have to say is one of my favourites. Easy to use and intuitive, I've grasped it's use quickly... It's obvious that it's based on pro-engineer (the creators of solidworks started off working on pro-e) through the way the menus work, it has some differences from pro-e that I either miss or find annoying, but life can't be perfect :-) hopefully I'll be able to bring some new knowledge to the table when I get back to work.

One good side effect of this course is that it's only just up the road from Naomi... So i'm getting to spend lots of time with her at the moment :-) Life is good :-)

Mums never really think their sons grow up

No matter how old you are mums always view their children as children. My mum will still be wiping my face with a tissue (why do all mums have one up their sleeves?) When I'm 40.

I found this in my lunch today... I'm still a big kid at heart so it's now sitting on my desk :-)

You're never too old for kinder eggs :-)

Long Nights

Got myself roped into doing a few late nights to get a few hours off in lieu. So late nights aplenty for me... days like this I miss Red Bull :-(

Back To The Shop Floor

Being an engineer is a passion for me... I've always been interested in engineering since a young age (Due to my fathers influences), so naturally when it came to choosing a career path when I left school I traveled the oft neglected road of an engineer... now I've yet to meet a super wealthy engineer, as by the nature of the job we tend to do it for the love. But after the first few agonising years as an apprentice living on a pittance it can be such a relief to finally break through into the "big time" as it were, this I did several years ago, and although I'd always welcome more (Who wouldn't) I'd say I've got the balance right with a career that not only interests me, but also leaves me with a comfortable feeling in my wallet.

With my new job I hope I'm going to go far... today, for the first time in nearly 10 years I've been working on the shop floor and learning the processes involved in making the things I design. Now I'm not ignorant to how the various machines work, but it astonished me the advances that have been made in as little as 10 years, this combined with the fact that we use a lot of "fancy machinery" to achieve cuts in 6 axes at once left me looking like a slack jawed newbie (Most common or garden machinery only uses 3 axes). I'm hoping to learn a lot here, as I've always prided myself on the fact that as a designer I know what the machinist is having to do to make the finished item, therefor I can make his life easier :-)

A New Start... Hope It Lasts

Well here I am again starting at a new job... lets hope this one last as I'm fed up with moving about. *shakes fist at sky* Come on I deserve a break!

Everyone's so nice... especially by boss and the MD (Probably helps that they're father and son) . I really think I can go far with this place... I get a good vibe from them :-)