Previously blogged planns are coming to pass.

I applied for a job with Sony doing web content management and user account management. I went for the first meeting with the job agency, where I was told they are very keen. In both qualifications and experience I am a little overqualified for the position I applied for, but as I'd like to try something else (NOT web development) it seems like a good idea. The work is easier, the stress is lower and the pay is higher. I am now awaiting the second interview.

I've found the perfect Masters degree to apply for , Web Design and Content Planning MA at the University of Greenwich. Whether I will accept a position if I am offered one depends on my work situation; if I get and really love this new job, I'll just settle in there for as long as possible and worry about getting a Masters a long time from now.

Yesterday I spoke with the MD of this company and told him I wanted the longer hours and payrise promised in September that have yet to materialise. I will stay here while looking for a new job, which hopefully take less than a month.

So I came into work Monday morning heavily thrashed from an intense weekender of partying from Friday night to Sunday night. After staggering in the door I am called meaningfully into the MD's office. The e-commerce system we've deployed on one of our client sites has been messed up all weekend by not sending payments through, costing thousands of pounds of business.

Cue me sitting for hours desperately hammering away to find the issue, the MD visiting me every half hour to offer moral support in the form of 'Have you sorted it yet?!'. Stress building. Brain melting out of side of head.

Finally at 4pm yesterday the MD visited one more time with the threatening sounding 'If you can't fix this, we'll find someone who can'. All I've established in a day is that files are missing everywhere, and there is no time to sit and re-write whats missing.

This morning I came in and poked around on the server file tree to find several directories have been moved. I put them back to their original position and things almost work - at least new errors came about.

There are two types of work and both will eventually break you down mentally - boring or stressful. At this stage, I am so done with stress, I would like boring for a while. Who needs a window cleaner?

I had thought so anyway, but today my boss confirmed NJM Services will be keeping me on permenantly! Also my pay increases next month (slightly).

This is brilliant, it means for the first time in a long while I can do serious planning. There is very little point making long-term plans when you could be out of work for any length of time in the foreseeable future.

If I can find a place for no deposit, I'll be in a new place by October, otherwise I'll be moving in November. In the areas I'm looking at I can easily afford a flat, or maybe just a room in a nicer houseshare.

THIS IS MY EXCITED FACE.

Its been exactly one month since I began working here. So far, fucking awesome job. A highly satisfied boss and company, a friendly and calm atmosphere to work in and the only major issues have all been hardware related.

I am temporarily going on full-time hours for a month or so, which will line my pockets for a while.

Possibility - I could land a full time job here as of September, move to Letchworth or Hitchin and live happily ever after. However I won't weigh up my chances of this happening just yet, I don't want to jinx it. If this doesn't happen, I'll just have another couple of months living like this then off to find a new job. Either way, immediate future = secured.

New temporary position began today in the Letchworth company.

Thus far I really like Letchworth. As mentioned I intend to rent a place here asap which I'm working on. The company seems good, non of the classy benefits of working in Shoreditch or Liverpool Street that I've gotten used to in my last few freelance jobs, but a good friendly attitude is more than enough.

They say they may offer me a full time position after the temporary freelance work is complete. They always tell you that. I think they are joking. Or lieing. Frankly I'll be happy to be working until September.

For a month after leaving EQ Creative, I only got one interview offer.

Since I got accepted for this new job I've had two more offers of interviews. I was beginning to worry that my experience level wasn't very attractive on the job market at the moment, but apparently it is.

My celebration has been planned to take place at Slimelight this coming Saturday, so all who can attend come, I plan to make it a mad one.

I will be in Wood Green tomorrow viewing a place. I'm told its an alright area, I don't have a lot of experience of the residental areas of London so I'll make up my mind tomorrow. Assumingly it'll be cheaper to move into a nearby houseshare than travel on a daily basis to Luton, but that might be an option also.

Not long ago me and Yasmina were planning to move in together in Luton, but I decided against it. Amongst other reasons I need some flexibility in where I live at the moment while I start a new job.

The protests against soldiers coming home from Iraq in Luton this week are giving me mixed feelings. I don't doubt some of what the troops did is Basra may have been disagreeable, but apparently the people holding this protest included several who want to see the UK turned into an Islamist state. (I have actually seen a few posters in the Bury Park area proclaiming the UK will be an Islamic nation in the future. Which, isn't entirely implausible, but not what I want). Another case of wankers calling each other wankers?

Finally something came up.

I've got a job as a front-end web developer in Liverpool Street. I am so psyched, I really wanted to get into front end development.

My pay is higher than it was at the last couple of places, they give me a free macbook and iphone and I get shitloads of bonuses and very impressive holiday time.

I can't believe my luck. LETS PARTY THIS THE FUCK UP.

Its been a while since I updated. Some events worth sharing:

• Planet Angel on the 13th was amazing, wish I had pics to post. Maybe the best rave I've ever done. Definitely best Valentine's Day.


• Had a brief affair with a girl I didn't really know before Planet Angel. Seems to have simmered down a little and we're not spending all our time together now, but it was a good trip while it lasted.


• Got an interview to do front-end web development again. Wish me luck.


• Me and above mentioned girl are getting a place together. Not to settle down together - the affair has already dried up and we're back to friends, we just both need to get a place. And if there's potential priviledges when we're bored that's a bonus.

Tomorrow night going to Glow Ball. Its being billed as a 'cyber rave', and I've been warned it'll be very dressed up. Expect pics.

Been an interesting week.

Last week my temporary stint as an SEO manager came to a head when they finally found the recruit they were looking for. It was a little cheeky that they interviewed him while I was snowed in, but frankly the company didn't appeal to me in any special way and I'm happy to be going back into development.

Tomorrow I have an interview in Kendal for a integration developer position. I was reccomended by Ash. I really hope I get it, although it will mean spending a little while up North. I'll be raving on mint cake for a while.

Went to Gravity and Wonky Disco last Friday. The music on the flyer for Gravity was tempting - industrial, ebm and noise meets hard house, hard trance and psy-trance. It was a good little party, but not bustling. Wonky on the other hand was ram-packed. I think its the first psy-trance event I've been to in a legit venue that went on until 9am.

Going out with someone this Saturday for Valentine's, but won't say who. :)

Today I'm working from home, since the trains are not running into London.

Working from home is a double edged sword. On one hand I don't have to make my usual absurd commute of 2 hours into Ware. On the other I'm at home when I need to be working, and when I'm at home I'm never as productive as I am in an office.

Saturday night I went along to the new night at the Scala, Unholy. The concept was fantasitc, a Goth floor, an EBM and hard dance floor, a rock floor and an electic chillout area. Unfortunately in practise it didn't seem to work. Most of the place was overrun by the alternative rock crowd, some god-awful glam metal bands played and the by the time the ebm floor got around to playing anything decent I had developed a migraine. Which, no doubt, was the main cause of my not enjoying myself much. Still, I've heard at some point after 2 there was a crowd of people leaving Unholy to go to Slimes down the road.

Seriously wondering if I want to go much further down the SEO route or if I'd be better off returning to web design/development. Either way, apparently tomorrow is another snow day.

Tomorrow I begin my role as 'Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) manager'. This basically involves making websites rank higher in search engines.

This could go either way. I could fail horribly, not get a single client into the top 3 of Google by the end of a month or so, then be back the on the job market as a web developer. On the other hand, it could pan out and I could be on £40k by the end of the year. Those are the stakes right from the word go.

It will be in Ware, a little town in Hertfordshire. If things are looking good I'll buy a place there or in London near a station along the way. To begin with I'll commute from where I am. There is a risk factor and I don't want to end up on housing benefit in Ware if it doesn't pan out.

'Hope for the best, plan for the worst'.

I had an interview for a front-end developer position on Friday. They told me it went well and its looking good, but nothing confirmed as of yet.

I have an interview confirmed for Thursday morning for an internship front-end developer role. This might sound like a complete fail, but even though the pay won't be significant I will get a good project and good experience down on my cv which in another 6 months could be the force to get me up to £30k.

I've had a couple of calls from agencies, but no jobs promised.

Considering I only found out I was going to be laid off last Tuesday, to already have been shortlisted for a few positions is a good sign. In fact it looks like I'll be on significantly more wages wherever I go apart from the internship. Then there's my freelance gig, which is currently bringing in £150-200 a month. I speculate being laid off might have been the push I needed to find a new, better paying job doing more interesting work.

It seems fitting don't you think,
to dress the ground in white and grey
-VNV Nation, Beloved

Yesterday afternoon I got the unfortunate news that I am to be layed off soon as the company is in a financial crisis. They told me the developer position wasn't the only one on the chopping board so I suppose I shouldn't be paranoid that its some other reason.

I still have one freelance client currently running, so I can claim to be working part-time after I leave if no web developer or web designer places turn up. Frankly, the prospect of finding work right now looks rough, but I'm no longer a n00b out of uni, I have a lot of industry experience on my side and I will work this out somehow.

Pro's:

• -Lots of time to devote to freelance work


• -Personal time and space to de-stress


• -Time to devote to reading, writing, music, and so on

Con's:

• -ZOMG where am I going to find a job at this time?!


• -Much less income (although I reckon I'll bring it up significantly with freelance work


• -If I don't find anything in a few months, the prospects of finding work look dim

I went into town to pay for my new place lunchtime yesterday, but I couldn't because they need me to come back Saturday. Did the Fates save me from buying a place hours before being told this?

Yesterday I went to work after 26 hours with no sleep, diahrea from drinking prune juice and I drank 1.5 litres of Relentless energy drink.

After doing a whole days work and going over 20 hours without food and being awake 36 hours, combined with an intense caffeine high, I felt dizzy and the room appeared to be spinning. It was comparable to being drunk. It was possibly the best day at work since I started.

I took Ash's crossdressing gear in a box to be picked up yesterday morning by DHL. Whe asked I gladly explained to the office it was his crossdressing stuff, and that the only part I didn't fully understand was the tampons. The reactions were amusing.

Finally.

I've spent the last few months lunchtimes and breaktimes at work doing my fanzine website, [Neuro Punk]. Now it finally has a url:

http://stephan.001webs.com/index.html

Give me some hits!

There's still a great deal of work to come, but the core shell is there to see. The aim is to get contributions from your average fan of industrial, powernoise, EBM, etc. I broaded the range to include darkwave, psy-trance, breakcore etc as in my experience the crossover with other alternative electronic genres is so common amongst the fanbase of each a unified fanzine becomes more rather than less relevant to an industrial audience.

This, I have to stress, is the prototype - the final version will be a comprehensive club listing/music release schedule/music reviews/live and festival directory site built largely up from user uploaded content. The contributation form is still a work in progress, but email any club listings, festival listings, music reviews or whatever to me and it'll go on there.

Thanks in advance all who have a look!

Awesome weekend, mainly featuring The Coven on Saturday night.

Despite only being the 13th, this was considered the 'Halloween Special' of sorts. Which you can excuse if you flip 13 around so it becomes the 31st, and I'm not above partying more than once in a single month to celebrate Samhain.

The dancefloor at some peak time


Me and Marna


Me and Jay


( Halloween is not just once a month in the Goth scene )

Enough work and clubbing for the weekend, now I should get on with university work. Anyone in the UK - notice its getting darker outside right now? The evenings are drawing in, its only 6:16pm and its dusk. The seasons are shifting. This weekend was only Samhain/Halloween round 1!

If anything, no one can accuse me of not living life to the maximum. The world is my party, and I've been partying everywhere. My wanderlust has carried me across Sweden, Germany and all over the UK, from as far north as Bradford to as far down south as Glastonbury. I've met more people than you can fit in your phones sim card. I've studied new languages, been to clubs all over Europe and been to about 4 or 5 different clubs in the UK, most several times. I've done 4 music festivals, stayed in motels in foreign cities and camped in swamps.

And the year hasn't even finished!

Still, what I'm experiencing now isn't the same old wanderlust which has carried me on all these adventures. ( Text best accompanied by a bong hit )

'Where does the offspring go from here? The net is vast'
-Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost In The Shell

I may be late with the tribute, but here it is.

RIP Sophie Lancaster

Soon enough they will be searching for someone to look down upon
We share a pain and a passion they could never understand
-Rupesh Cartel, Defence Reaction

The story:
Lancashire Telegraph article



Sophie Lancaster, age 20, was murdered by a group of teenagers aged 15-17 on the 11th of August during the early hours because they didn't like her manner of dress. They ripped out her dreads and beat her so extensively she was comatose and had severe neck injuries when she was discovered. She died hours later in the hospital. Her boyfriend Robert Maltby, who was also attacked was comatose for several days, but has since awakened.

All this 'chavs vs alternatives' stuff, its got to end somewhere, right?

What causes a group of kids in their mid-teens to brutally murder a 5 foot tall 20 year old stranger based on her clothes is beyond me. The scary part is, that could have been any of a number of people I know had they been there at the same place and time, myself included. I think that's why this story has really hit a nerve within the 'scene'. VNV Nation frontman Ronan Harris mentioned it during their Infest set.


( As an added bonus, some information on my life )

Comrade Marna has asked me to create her foot fetish site. I said fine, I could use the money and experience. I'm now working in the sex industry, yikes.

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
- Buddha

Hail life, for it is spring, and after uni finishes in a few months, me and yellowa will be celebrating being alive and young at Glastonbury Festival. We may be taking along her best friend from Sweden, Anna, and I may be taking along Sil, and maybe even Dale. There will be much psy trance, hippies, worthy causes, free love and the like.

I'm preparing to buy my early bird ticket for Global Gathering. Me and darren_daz had the time of our lives last year (as those of you who have seen the post I made would probably agree).

In April I should be going to Sweden to meet yellowa's parents, and in the mean time I'm scrambling to learn Swedish. Wish me luck, ja?

Alas, there's bigger changes in the works for me. I am currently looking for a new job. After a year and 3 months of service to the patients of the L&D NHS Hospital I think the time has come for me to move onto bigger things. ( The specifics of which are here, briefly. )

So, there's change and big events on the horizon. Such is life, and life is good.