Zcly Wen

I don’t know about everyone else but I think it’s becoming more and more difficult to choose a good phone. Or, let me rephrase that, the best phone. No smart phone that comes out in the UK today is truly terrible – although other countries certainly have phones that aren’t as good as they should be – but the hard part is getting the most for your money.

Even someone like me, who regularly keeps up to date on the latest phones, finds it difficult to choose one when friends ask me. I know that out of all the phones at the moment I’d probably choose the iPhone 4S if money wasn’t an object. Most people don’t want to get the most expensive phone though. They want one that works, is fun to use and affordable. At the moment if people ask me to recommend a phone like this I choose the BlackBerry Torch 9810. I think it’s a fantastic little phone that you can get for a decent price.

Most people don’t listen and go out and get a phone that is much too expensive for them though. This is a shame, but ultimately people have to get the phone that they want the most. I wish people would look at the overall cost of a contract over the length of the deal though – I think people would be shocked when they realise they’re paying out close to £1000 over the course of two years for an iPhone.

Do they really need to get that phone? Are they a tech person who’ll make use of all the functions and features? Or are they just getting it to look good? It’s difficult to tell, but usually if someone is getting an iPhone without researching it then they are just going on what they’ve heard, which often means that they don’t really need a top of the range phone.

Until recently, I’ve always thought that getting a new phone with all the updated features is a bit of a waste of money. I’m now converted though, after buying the HTC Desire a few months ago!

The problem with smart phones – or so I thought – is that they are difficult to use, and don’t do a particularly good job of the basics. If I have a phone, I want to be able to ring people easily and send them texts – that’s pretty much it. Smart phones aren’t built for these functions, they are made to do a bit of everything.

This seems to be a problem of the past though, because phones like the HTC Desire seem to be able to do it all. I’ve had no problem ringing people, and sending texts is easy. The touch screen took me a while to get used to, but overall I think it’s a pretty good addition and means you get much more screen space.

I’d also heard bad things about the apps on Android. This is partly true – there aren’t many great apps available. Games like Angry Birds are starting to be ported over from teh iPhone though, so it seems this will improve. There is an issue with a lack of screening for harmful apps though.

There are a few problems – the main one being the frustrating battery life. If you’re going to be away from your charger for more than a day – and intend to actually use all the features of the phone – then it will run out of battery. You CAN increase the battery life by turning off  Wi-Fi and GPS, but then you’re left with a shell of a phone.

One feature that I don’t think many people are aware of is the system control widget. This allows you to turn on or off all the services which eat up battery life from your homescreen. This is a better solution, because then you’re only using GPS etc when you actually need it rather than all the time.

Getting the phone in the first place was quite difficult too. I spent ages trying to find HTC contracts that weren’t overpriced or tied me into a three year(!) deal. Luckily I managed to get a pretty decent one, but you can forget trying to get a free gift with your Desire – it just isn’t going to happen.

I posted a while back about my employment woes. I had hoped that by now I would have some positive news to report, but things seem to be getting worse not better

It has been a lean Christmas, I had a great time with my family but not being able to buy nice presents for them was a bit of a kicker, and I was not able to do much with my friends.

I stayed in on new years eve which was a bit boring. My friends offered to pay for me to go out with them but I did not like to take their money.

On new years day I had a mooch online and started reading up on the various debt solutions that are available. I contacted one site for some personal debt advice after reading that it may be possible to write off some of my debts or even declare myself bankrupt!

Unfortunately bankruptcy would not clear my student debts (which are the greater part of what I owe) and I hope to buy a house in a couple of years if I can find work, so did not really want to get into anything that would have an adverse effect on my credit rating.

As it stands I can manage, I have been making balance transfers to keep my interest down on my credit cards and keeping up with the minimum payments. This works really nicely as I only pay 3% per anum (which is the transfer fee). The only risk is that if I miss a payment I go onto the eye watering 28% APR, so, I have to make sure those bills are paid promptly!

The other think I have learned is to cut up the credit cards as soon as the balance is transferred to make sure I do not take on any more debt.

As for the student loans, the idea of writing them off through Bankruptcy was an amusing thought, and to be honest, I would have done it if I could have, I do not have any assets they could take anyway, and the amount I owe on those loans would be worth the pain of a poor credit rating, but I guess the government thought of that little scheme!

I dont have to pay anything back against those until I am working anyway, so its no big deal.

I just hope I find a job soon.

Running has always been something that I’ve wanted to get into – but the thought of getting up on a cold morning and running around the block isn’t the most attractive! I’ve decided to do a 5k fun run next year though, so I need to start training. 5K may not sound like very far, but if you’ve never run before then it seems like an impossible distance! I thought I’d keep this blog updated on my progress – it might help to keep me motivated through the next half a year or so.

Here’s my plan. Firstly, I need to get a good pair of running shoes. I don’t know anything about running, but I do know that not having a good pair of shoes can cause endless problems. I’m thinking a pair of Asics would be good, but they are very expensive. Any recommendations here would be extremely useful! I found some great info on mens running shoes which I have been working through, and it seems that I need to get shoes for overpronation. Not sure if that’s good or bad, but at least I know!

Once I’ve got my pair of running shoes I’m going to start building up mileage slowly. I may even just start with half a km and see how I go from there. I’ve heard that you should make sure you’re comfortable with a particular distance before moving on, so I’ll probably stick with a distance for two weeks and then increase it by half a km. I’ve got plenty of time, so it shouldn’t be a problem getting to the 5km by next summer.

Hopefully I’ll be able to run a decent time when the race comes around! I’m going to try and increase my practice distance to at least 7-8km, so I can really go for it the entire race.

Well since I recently finished University and still have no work, I figured Id take a little time to create the ultimate University Survival Guide :p.

Dont Buy a Kettle:

Preparing to go to University can be a scary prospect for many students but remember that everyone will be in the same boat as you. There are many things that you will be wondering about. What is the best way to make friends? Will the workload be really hard? Do I need to bring my own kettle? Lets go through the answers and all the things you need to know, from the point of view of a student who has been there, done that and has the ? beer stained T shirt.
Do I need a kettle? What to take with you to University
First things first, you do not need a kettle! When I started University there was a very funny (well, funny to a corridor full of slightly tipsy students at 4am…) incident where 10 out of the 12 people who lived on my corridor all bought a kettle and all put it in our small shared kitchen. There was already a kettle in the kitchen that had been supplied by the people who ran our halls. The kettles stayed in the kitchen and cluttered the place up till Christmas when we had to get everything out of the kitchen. So the lesson there is, don’t take a kettle! Your accommodation will provide one.

Useful things to take with you to University are:

• Extension leads – you will DEFINATLEY need these
• Printer – everyone needs a printer at university, the queues for the printers in your department will be really long and they’ll cost a lot. You can buy a cheap printer from £20 although watch out for ink prices as these can be hefty.
• Taxi numbers for the local area – just in case you find yourself in an area you don’t know and can’t work out the busses!Cash -  get some cash out before you arrive as you don’t know when you’ll have the opportunity when you arrive at your halls/house as you’ll be really busy unpacking and meeting new people.
• Alcohol – take your favourite tipple with you as they may not be time to find the local offy before the big inevitable welcome night party.
• Ethernet Cable – if you are living in halls then it is likely that you will have to connect to the internet via a wall connection, not many halls have wireless internet, for this you will need an Ethernet Cable.

What is the best way to make friends?

The most honest best advice I can give when it comes to making friends when living in halls is take biscuits. Take a tin of sweets or biscuits and leave it outside your door with a sign that tells people to take some. People will be drawn to the sugar and therefore to your door. A doorstop is also a good idea, no one will make the effort to talk to a closed door! Keep your door open, maybe play some music and say hello to everyone who passes. Ask people questions, the most common questions you’ll get asked are: where are you from, what degree are you doing and (if you meet someone outside your halls) where you’re living. Another good piece of advice is don’t try and be someone you aren’t, people will see through it!

Will the workload be really hard?

I wouldn’t waste time and thoughts on worrying about the amount of work you’re going to get given, you’ll have so much spare time you’ll be able to fit in all your assignments. Just make sure you don’t get left behind when it comes to handing things in. They say that the first year doesn’t count marks wise but you still need to get the information in your head!

As I have been out of work for a while now I’ve been looking for constructive things to keep me occupied. As my friends will tell you I am partial to playing games consoles from time to time, but really try to resist the urge to play them as much as possible.

Games consoles are great fun whilst playing with friends, or in some kind of social context. However sitting up to the small hours of the morning trying to Halo Reach is not really what I want to be doing. That said, playing Halo Reach in multiplayer mode with your friends is absolutely fantastic. I can’t justify multiplayer by treating it like a telephone conversation, in that I get to chat and catch up with my friends whilst gaming.

However the purpose of this post was not too reversed again speak that to mention my new hobby, which is, photography. My dad was always into photography and I guess I got an interest in it from him. I’ve had a digital camera for some time, and I’ve taken some okay pictures with it but it is quite limited. It’s only a compact camera, what I would call a happy snapper.

With the last of my available funds are managed by an old Nickon D50  digital SLR camera. This thing has been an absolute revelation, the things you can do with it are absolutely fantastic. I never realised how much control you could gain over an SLR camera, and the fact that its digital (as all cameras are these days) makes learning photography very easily. I mention this point as some of the books I have read (which are quite old) refer to 35mm film and talk about it processing and developing photographs. It immediately struck me how much things have changed now in that we can view our results immediately. I guess everything has to happen “now” these days, everything is instant.

I guess we lose something by having everything is now now now, for example the anticipation of waiting to see your photographs of week or so after you took them, however being able to take pictures and view the results instantly means you can learn instantly!

I plan to post some photographs here soon, autumn is approaching, or even upon us! I should go to get some good shots of the woodland around where I live, the colours are quite beautiful in autumn.

Since leaving university I’ve been completely unable to find any suitable work whatsoever. Having spent the last three years working hard on my degree, this is a very bitter bill to swallow.

The simply are not as graduate job or graduate training schemes on offer in sufficient numbers, and although I have a good degree in engineering, companies just are not recruiting at the moment.

It seems to me that I have a choice to make, either I take a job as a pizza delivery boy or I leave the country. I don’t really want to go and work abroad, I quite like it here and I don’t want to leave my family right now. I always had in my mind that would like to go travelling at some points but I wanted to go on my own terms, not feel that I was being forced to buy a poor economic situation.

I guess it’s going to have to bite the bullet is no point in staying here wishing my days away and applying for endless positions that I am just not suitable for all know that the competition is just going to be too tough for.

Perhaps if I can get some good work experience abroad, and perhaps improve my foreign language skills at the same time I will stand a better chance of finding the kind of role I want on my return.

I have not made up my mind one way or the other at the moment, but the way things are going it really looks like I’m going to be going away for awhile.