My Now Page

It’s been June for quite a while now and I’ve not updated anything on the site! I’ve not abandoned it - I promise, there’s so much I want to write, but I’ve been either too busy or too tired depending on when you ask. I should probably just write - it seems to feel a lot better even now. Anyway, in the last month, quite a lot has happened.

I’m officially no longer living in Scotland, I’ve ganned hyem to Newcastle. That also means I’m also no longer a student. I’m not sure what I am currently (not in an existential crisis sort of way - although, again, depends when you ask!), but in more of a social identity sort of way. The technical term is “unemployed”, but I don’t feel that way. I’m hoping to become a something sometime soon - I want to use the many skills I’ve spent nearly all of my life so far teaching myself to do something, but quite what mostly remains to be seen.

I have also recieved good news about my degree! It seems I’ve achieved enough marks for a first class honours - although we’ll have to see if it actually translates out to that after going through the various processes, but I’m very hopeful! The degree hasn’t been easy at times, and has taught me far more than purely UX design, but I’ve grown so much academically and personally in that time, which I’m very happy about.

Away from all those boring old “have-to-be-done” sort of things, I’ve been doing a bit of radio. I’ve been putting calls out on the handheld in 2m/70cms, and have been active on a few repeaters too. I’d like to do a few projects with radio when I get the chance, most of which involve poshing up the Baofeng a bit, like building a beautiful-sounding custom audio stage for it using my recording studio hardware, building a halfwave dipole and a 3-element beam to get better RF performance, and working out a way to get continuous power to it without reducing the recieve gain so much that everything dips below the squelch level as seems to happen now when I leave it plugged in. I realise the sillyness of putting all of this nice equipment on what is - by any objective measure - not a particularly good radio, but I’m doing it with the view of making accessories which are pretty much universal, and when I come to upgrade my transciever, it can simply be slotted in to my existing system. I also realise the sillyness of using a handheld effectively as a desktop transciever, but regarding that, dear reader, you shall just have to humour my sillyness this once…

The website, as mentioned, has seemingly fallen by the wayside a bit. I’ve been busy with moving and the like, but also as mentioned, I’ve got ideas ready to go if only I can find the time (read effort) to put finger to keyboard. I’ve updated the /me page to reflect the new chapter of life in which I am now living, if that counts.

Music has also gone by the wayside recently too. It’s not that I’ve stopped writing or recording anything, it’s just that I’ve either not been able to finish things, or not been happy with finished things recently, so I’ve not put a song out for over a year. I should probably do that, and perhaps now that my life is going to be significantly more settled than it ever has been in the past three years, that might get a chance to happen (also, my university room had some of the most terrible standing wave problems you’ve ever heard (a high SWR?! I love it when two of my hobbies intersect! Hobby intermodulation! I’ll stop)).

Something I’m really looking forward to in a few days is seeing Sam Fender live at St James’ Park on Thursday. It took me a while to get into his music, that’d be fair to say, but once I did there was little stopping me. There are few other artists for whom it is true to say I know every word to every song. Perhaps it’s the common ground that comes from being a fellow Geordie, perhaps I just really like the depth those songs seem to muster with comparitavely few words, but that concert will easily be a highlight for me I hope!

This is all, I suppose, to say: yes, I’ve been quiet recently, and I might be for a while yet, but good luck getting me to shut up!

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