Collecting postnominals (by alaric)

I've been collecting letters after my name. I reckon this is a noble goal; I hope that one day software development will be regulated by strict codes of conduct, like other skilled professions upon which lives and careers rest. Also, I think it's important that the IT profession have a voice of its own in politics, as opposed to the sometimes all too loud voice of IT companies.

Anyway. It all began when my degree earned me associateship of the City and Guilds of London institute.

However, all this seems to entitle me to is the postnominals "ACGI" - unlike the professional bodies I joined later, it doesn't seem to have any other benefits. Then again, they're not asking for an annual membership fee, and compared to the others it's a truly ancient institution, being based around engineering in general rather than software or electrical engineering.

Noticing that having "ACGI" after my name clearly made me highly attractive to the opposite sex, I decided I'd see if I could join any others.

After a few year's of work experience, in which I tackled some pretty interesting projects, I became a full member of the Institution of Analysists and Programmers, thus adding "MIAP" to the mix. I like the IAP; they're very helpful and friendly. They encourate networking, putting members in touch with each other, publishing a directory of members who are available to do freelance work, that sort of thing.

The next step has been joining the British Computer Society, thus adding "MBCS", too. These folks seem a lot more widely recognised than the IAP, and are involved in things like helping the ISO set IT standards. I'm hoping to get involved on their forums; I think the world will be a better place with more teamwork in the computer industry. However, they're a bit less personal than the IAP, and they cover a broader field, so I'm glad to have both.

The next step with the BCS will be to apply for Chartered IT Professional status - the IT world's equivelant of being a chartered engineer. This will involve some probing interviews and background checks, so I will leave it until I'm a little less stressed.

I wonder what to join next after sorting that out... IEE, IEEE (famed for their standardisation work), or ACM (famed for their meetings and SIGs)?

Perves with Camera Phones (by sarah)

I've been to two Halloween parties this weekend 🙂 The first I dressed as a deamond with a red wig of straight hair, with two little horns sticking out the top. The rest of the outfit was my red corest and red flare tousers!

Al went as a canabil 🙂 Black clothes, long lank hair and lots of fake blood, not to mention the knife and fork!

It was great fun with a devil or two, Aoife as the most gourgous pirate ever, fallen angles and a faceless man, not to mention the spider and little red riding hood, but the prize had to go to Carina's Goth fairy! (ok, ok so it was just Carina with Aoife's wond) 🙂

Much merryment was had!

On the way home on the tube some guy sat opposite me , Al and Carina had his phone out at some very suspect angles for some time, Al came to the same conclusion as us, that he was probably taking 'sly' photos, not sure why or which on of us he was picturing.

Anyway, today we went to mandrake themed party!!! The story goes that people used to think the Mandrake was a little human thing (them being a parsnip type root veg with a split that looks like legs) that when you pulled it out of the ground screamed horribly cos it was dying and anyone who was within ear shot would be killed. However, the root is a natural anaestetics and was used for occult purposes, so they would tie a dog to it and walk away so they where out of ear shot and then call the dog. Alaric therefore was a Mandrake and I was a dog 🙂

The party had a wicked vegatable feel to it with carved marrows and spooky beans, brain like veg and parsnips with creepy faces (al painted these i did the beans).

They party was in full swing but we had to leave, last train n all 🙁 On the way home we became the scrutiny of a couple of teenage 'chunky', lesbians who again held they're cameras at suspicous angles, they also felt that they had to keep a running commentry up on what every I was doing (some of which I felt intimidated by) 🙁 , and didn't seem entirely sure on Als gender, they also yelled stuff at us, that we did'nt understand. I know I was dressed as a dog but why it cuased that reaction I don't know?

Oh well time for bed

Strange Days (by sarah)

Well the world is a strange place as you all probably know, my uncle Benny died yesturday, he was the on with Downes, he was in a wheel chair at the wedding due to the strokes he had had. I find myself releived though as he was in lots of pain, he had pneumonia but was getting better until they put his feeding tube in his left lung and then got the x-rays mixed up so thought it was in his stomache. The short of the story is they accidently filled is lung with the food, which they cleared, but it was to late, he went on a machin thing thats like a respirator but isn't. The hardest part is how its affecting my mum and all my aunts and uncles, we can't even organise the funeral as there has to be an inquest and possibly the police will have to be involved. This week has been very stressful as most of it has been spent in hospitals 🙁

Pod Belt (by alaric)

Well, I've had a busy month, with nothing interesting enough to blog about for a while...

However, today a nice parcel arrived: my Pod Belt.

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New welded tongs (by alaric)

Today my mate Mike and I made new crucible tongs.

Check out my dodgy welds:

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