Well its been one heck of a week – i spent Wednesday and Thursday in London which was, frantic to say the least!

After arriving into town on the Wednesday i spent about 30 minutes walking around trying to find the hotel which was hidden down some random back alley but was quite plush to say the least – £250.00 a night doesnt buy you a cheap tatty room i guess. I got into my room about 8pm and just generally kicked back for the rest of the night, except for venturing out to get some random indian food from a corner shop!

On the Thursday i got up at around 7am after a pretty dreadful night’s sleep due to the traffic and crap air conditioning system. I was on the tube at about 8.45am – which in hindsight was a terrible idea, as it was HEAVING to say the least, but i ended up making it to my interview etc on time. The interview went well and i got home into Manchester around 4pm and finally had chance to relax after one hell of a 10 days!

Tech wise, i went ahead with a crazy decision and purchased a Coolermaster Cosmos 1010 case – RRP £150.00 i managed to get one for a snippet at £95.00 – dont ask how I sold my Antec 900 for £40 to help pay for it too. Needless to say, it looks – amazing, is absolutely HUGE – do not underestimate how big this case is – you can fit 10.5″ graphics cards with at least another 8″ to spare at the end of it. Its glorious!! i coupled that with an addition of a Zalman fan controller, a Zalman VF-1000 graphics card cooler and an OCZ XTC memory cooler. I also installed my Intel Pro1000 dual port network adapter so im running on intels – quickness! Finally, i installed a HR-05 onto my Northbridge to allow better cooling – allowing me to overclock my processor (q6600) up to 3.6Ghz per core – bloody quick!

Next stage is to either upgrade to my S5000XVN as my desktop system, or leave it as it is (being fast as heck), my next stage is to upgrade my case fans to 2000RPM Sharkoon 120mm fans, install the Coolermaster clear-side panel i ordered, the UV blue cable ties and the blue cold cathodes and it should be sorted. The only thing i want to buy after that is a Intel X25 SSD, and then my system is complete for at least a year!

Over the last 2 weeks a few things have happened which i’ll write about! I applied for a few jobs for when i move back to Manchester at the end of this month and one of them, ICT Support Engineer at a Consultancy firm actually emailed me and asked me for an interview. After a preliminary phone interview they were apparently so impressed they decided to offer me the job outright – which means they obviously see something in me This is good because it means ill be earning roughly £150 a week working 16 hours part-time, which means no being super poor! Hurrah.

Aside from the employment, it was my 21st birthday! I went home on the weekend before my birthday for a huge family party. On the Friday, me and Fran went to the rugby to see Wigan vs Hull (her first game EVER of rugby!) which we won 66-6 – so smiles all round! On Saturday we had a big family party to which about 40 people turned up – family and friends! On sunday, i took my birthday money and a bit of my own and bought an Xbox 360, games, extra controller etc and ive been addicted to it ever since

We came home on the Monday night and had a fairly quiet one. On Tuesday i went for a meal with Fran to Frankie and Bennys which was great fun followed by a few drinks etc afterwards and other stuff

Rest of that week and this week ive generally just been wrapping up loose ends in Swindon – i packed up and sent home 40% of my stuff when we went back up to Manchester, and the rest of my stuff is gradually being torn down and packed up. I lost internet connectivity on the 10th August as we didnt want to pay another £20 for an extra month worth of internet, it just means i dont have much to do on my PC anymore – lack of internet and Xbox 360 has led to that! On a side note – Fight Night Round 3 is arguably one of the best console games ive played in YEARS – so addictive in Career mode lol.

As far as life goes, im just getting ready to leave Intel and Swindon, move back up to Salford – start my new job, and wait until October when i start my final year of my degree again. Its very exciting times in the world of Sam Marsh – stay tuned!

Well, im confused. My bank balance is X, but my available balance is X – 170 quid. Thats after ive paid for, my Linkin park and Jay-Z tickets (x 2), Yay. And all the crap i bought at the weekend!? The worlds gone mad.

In other news, ive bought and built my parents PC so that one is done. Regards to my own rig, ive decided against buying one and instead im going to use the freebies i get from intel to build it (cheers all). Apparently ESX requires a SAN, however theres apparently a Linux distro you can use to replicate a software-based SAN to fool ESX, so i’ll probably do that hehe.

Also, me and Fran are going up to Manchester next week because i have to do a university presentation on my placement year (fun fun fun). She’s also going to meet the parents too (oh no..). Should be interesting!

PS: Mi Shakes are amazing.

Well, we went to some place called Billy Rox in Manchester last night for Kilo’s birthday, and it was, insanely fun to say the least lol Its like a normal bar, but everyones on skates, and theres a big skating ring in the middle where a dancefloor would be. Its so messed up but such a good laugh lol and i didnt fall over once, woo. Ended up seeing loads of old mates in their aswell funnily enough, and for once, from a lads POV, the boys:girls ratio was 50:50 at least! Fantastic, not a sausage fest.

Well, its time to have a parteeeeehh again. This time for Conor’s 20th birthday. Should be carnage as usual, i expect nothing less!

Havent been up to much this week. Got 50% on my Client/Server assignment, but im happy with that considering its programming and i cant be arsed with it.

Well, what a crazy night. Firstly, we ended up sat at the back of the Pav; Conor, Joe, Matt and Me, drinking straight JD from a bottle looking at the stars lol Then Hannah rang me and told me she was coming after all, so i went to meet her. As we were walking down, i see the boys with Gally and a few birds, and one of matts old mates. Happy days. So we all went back to the house, and had a ROYAL pissup. At least 4 bottles of JD, Vodka, Buckfast etc got drank in 2 hours. Great tunes aswell hah Was a crazy night. Hannah ended up sleeping at mine, and i woke up with the worst headache in the HISTORY of man, dear god it felt like my brain was pushing against my skull, and Hannah, being a woman, would NOT shut up. Arrrrrrgghhhh. I managed to get rid of her about 10am, and finally got some sleep. Woke up at 6pm, and we’re off to the Pav again after ive got some painkillers and coke down me! Good times boys and girls.

Well, im so bored that exams have finished and im not working. All we’ve been doing is dossing around on the field day after day lol Brannigans on Saturday with the house 36 boyo’s and Hannah and her mates, then back to ours to get the party started heh. Also been talking to Shaun, the guy who im living with at intel trying to sort out what we’re doing RE: Sky, Interweb connection etc. Its a real hassle moving house!

Roll on Saturday. Fun fun fun.