Projects.

Since I'm new to the great, exciting world of blogging, it's not really likely that you're aware that I'm currently out of work, and while I'm looking for a suitable job I'm keeping myself busy with a couple of projects.

First, I know what it sounds like, saying I'm out of work and looking for a suitable job. Tootles is one of these lazy buggers who sits around passing up job opportunities because he feels like he's above them. Well, not entirely. I'll admit that as an honours Information Technology graduate, I don't exactly want to have to stack shelves at Aldi (though should it come to it, a job is a job); and much of the work for which I'm qualified is simply non-existent where I live. But Tootles just commute or relocate, I can hear you saying. For some of us, it's not as simple as that. First, commuting from near Blackpool to the Manchester area would work out at approximately half of my wage and involve me getting up at all sorts of ungodly hours in order to get to work. And should I relocate, I would need a significant amount of money at my disposal, which would be pretty hard to do.

So I'm holding out as far as IT-related work is involved, and working as a part-time volunteer at a Cancer Research shop, to give myself a little motivation to get up in the morning. I am also in the process of rewriting my CV so that it says 'employ me, I'm awesome' instead of 'I go good computerstuffs.'

In the meanwhile, however, I need to keep myself from stagnating; that is part of why I started this blog. I am attempting to keep myself from spending entire days playing Minecraft and Unreal Tournament, by way of working on a couple of projects which are actually productive.

I would like to point out at this juncture that I am not in receipt of jobseekers' allowance, or any other benefit than the kindness and patience of my parents, for which I am infinitely grateful.

The first of these projects is a piece of music, which currently stands at around half-done. I am a fan of Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, among other rock/prog-rock groups and artists, and had the idea to write a prog-rock-inspired piece along similar lines to Pink Floyd's The Wall or The Who's Tommy, looking back over my life to see who I am and who has made me who I am. This project is preliminarily titled 'Riding the Threads' and while I've made it a point not to make the latest stuff I've worked on available to the general public, a copy of the WIP/demo can be heard here.

Riding the Threads has been a fun project so far, and very engaging; in order to do it I have needed to learn how to play a number of musical instruments, including guitars and keyboards. Before I started doing this I could only play the ukulele.

The second of the projects is writing. I have always had aspirations to be a writer of some sort, and while I've had idea after idea for novels, and always thought well, I haven't got the time. Including in the eighteen months since I graduated.

Now, I've heard and read it said by a lot of authors that the only way you're going to write a book is to sit down and write. So all the time I spent swearing silently at prospective empoloyers for not giving me that job, playing Minecraft in a vain attempt to distract myself and/or rage-quit from the job-hunting scene.

So I'm taking up the time I'm not smearing the insides of my brain all over a keyboard, applying for jobs, or rewriting my CV writing bits of fiction. I am currently working on what I'm hoping will end up being a novella which will look at the possibility of technology being developed too fast.

I will keep you posted. Maybe.