Insert An Interesting Title About University Here

This week has been... er... weird.

Well, I say this week, I actually meant today.

Fuck, I really need to find ways to improve my word count other than blatantly lying to my audience.

Anyway, hello. This morning, as I woke up, I gazed upon my phone to see if I had any emails. I had one from one of the admin dudes in university, so I assumed that it was just another day in the office.

Then I noticed the subject. Then took notice of the content of the email.

Basically, they are asking my permission for them to use the work that I created for my course to show potential students what can be achieved in the course. Or something.

And I honestly have no idea what I think of this.

Obviously, I gave my permission. I have no problem with anyone using my work for advertising proposes, as long as they credit me, that's fine.

But the thing is, I'm questioning myself over this. Have they asked because they think that my work is really good? Or did they pick names at random and unfortunately for them, mine came up?

I don't know. I'm just finding it difficult that they'd say that my work is worthy for use as promotion for the course. Maybe if they were using it as a this is what students in our course who received a certain grade has created or something with far better grammar. I need a day job.

In other news, I suspected that my grades were updated, and they had. Remember the assignment I had to do? You know, the investigation into 3D theory? Well, in that module (which I think is falled Graphic Design Technology and Integration) I have earned a 2:1. Considering this was one of the modules I was shakey at (due to my lack of experience with After Effects and everything 3D), I'm bloody ecstatic over this.

Maybe having a 2:1 overall this year is possible, eh? Who knows.

In other news, the CLICvlogs are somehow getting popular. Well, what I consider popular for something that's only been live for less than half a year. One of the videos on CLICplay has had nearly fifty likes on Facebook. That's insane, that.

Also, for future me, stop being such a twat. But if something happens, update me, ya?

And that, as they say, is that.

- Do do do do do do do do do... FIN FIN

Redesigning Clic

I've been off from studying for roughly four months now, due to me not needing to do exams during my introductory year in university. It has only been in the past four days that I have actually used the techniques that I've learned during the year of learning.

I looked at the Clic homepage, along with a few other websites that I cannot remember the names of, and I came up with a new front page idea for Clic. And before I start, I don't think it's better than what Clic has currently, it's just an idea that holds more ideas. If that makes sense, free e-cookie to you.

There were a few ideas that I had in my mind when I came up with this design. The first thing was to try and use the Clic Network bar (which is at the top of every website in the Clic network) in a way that doesn't hide it once the reader scrolls down the page. More on this later.

Anyroad, if you've clicked on the link above to Clic, you'll see the current homepage. the images for the articles are above the article name. What I found, though I might be the only one to be like this, is that when looking at the homepage, I view the image first and the the title of the article. I have no idea why I do this, I just do. As the title is more important to the image of the article, I thought what if we merged the two? So that's what I've done. For the featured articles, the text is only overlaying the lower half of the image, while for the two next to the Flash area (the place that says "Welcome to Clic"), it is completely overlaying about half of the image. I also got rid of the information as to where the author of the article comes from and the time the article was published, though these'll still be seen on the article itself (well, in my mind only the published time will be, the information on the user will be on the user profile).

I also changed the social media icons to be the Clic icon with the social network design within them. These can be seen on the very top of the design and the What's being said on Clic area, which I've now merged the Twitter feed and the commenting on the site into one feed, as I thought it would be better to have one feed instead of two.

Another thing I changed was the links at the top of the design. In the original, they are in eight boxes of sorts. Personally, I prefer the way that the links look on the Wicid homepage, in a straight line and not having a holding box. That's why in this design, I've done is so then the links are in one line, though having the same holding box. Is holding box the right term for it? Who knows.

Obviously, I've kept the same theme as the original. That was done by someone at Burning Red, I believe. So a da iawn to them for a good theme design.

So yeah, without a do of a further, here's the design that I've done.

If this isn't that good in the terms in visibility, then click the image to make it biggerer.

As you can see from it, the Network bar at the top of the website has been replaced with a button thing that hugs the left side of the screen, and the idea is that every time you scroll up or down, it will follow you. This will be the main place to log in, sign up to the site and to go around the Clic network, but instead of a drop down menu, there will be the full map of Wales visible the moment you click on the button.

If someone is logged in to the site, the username of the user will replace the words "log in or sign up". The new function of this sidebar thing when it is clicked is not just so they can go around the Clic network, but an easier place to upload articles/events, edit their information and the like.

I also had an idea to expand the "My Clic" thing that is currently available. So far, all that's there is the ability to add content to be moderated, change your information and to send a support ticket if there is a problem with the workings of the site. I had an idea that this could be a living hub for the user, and add the ability for users to favourite an article/information page, in the originally thought out process that I'll call "Clic'd".

The idea I have is this. On the top of nearly every article or page on Clic, there are options to share it with your friends or followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively, though (for the time being, at least), there is no option to favourite the page on Clic itself. Hence the name "Clic'd". If someone likes an article, and wants to return to it or just to show others that they liked the article in question, they could click the "Clic'd" button and a link to said article will be added to the user's "My Clic" area. And, as well as the amount of people who liked or tweeted the article, there'd be a new icon on the top of the article stating how many users had "Clic'd" the article. Aren't I inventive?

So yeah. for the past four or five days (well, on and off), I've redesigned Clic (sort of). Not because I think I can do better than the original design (far from it), but because I needed to do something in between playing endless hours of Final Fantasy XIII and sleeping. My, how my life has improved these past few years...

So yeah, please let me know what you think of the design. All comments will be taken on board, even if it is "man, this is worse than [insert something horribly bad and rubbish here]". I'd rather know than not. Also, let me know what you think of my ideas. I want to know if these are actually interesting ideas or just inane rubbish that flows in between the satellites of mine called ears.

Well, see ya.

- Your FIN ends here. And your meaningless existence with it (yeah, I really love that battle in Final Fantasy X...).

Freak On A Leash

Well hello there.

I need to think of better intros.

So yeah, I've a-got a stiff key on my keyboard. The '-' key... though I think it's better now.

This week, I have two exams. Both the third exam of the sciences, and yet they call them CH4 and PH4... ironic?

Nah, but let us pretend that it is, to make my post look evermore amusing...

Anyways, Chemistry's the first one. Not really confident with it, though I doubt I'll cry myself to sleep over it. Then Physics should be better, just about. But on the whole, I bloody hope I get at least C's in both of them, and high ones.

Why?

Well, to put it simply, I need the UCAS points. And on that note, I've got three offers now. WOOP.

The first offer was a couple o'days after my interview with the Atrium... and you can guess where I got the offer from. Yep, from the Atrium (I couldn't think of a witty thing for there). It's a conditional offer (well, all three of 'em are), and I have to get 280 points to get into there to study Creative Technologies (Multimedia). To be fair, I'll probably end up having this as my first choice. Yeah, boy.

The second (and third, since I had them on the same day), I only realized on Friday that I had it (thank you YahooMail for giving me a notification...). Both courses - Interactive Digital Media and Multimedia - are asking for 160 points... with at least two D's. So yeah. I haven't actually seen Swansea Metropolitan University, but they are supposed to be one of the best Universities in Wales (and the UK.. possibly) for digital media. But the Interactive Digital Media course might be my second choice.

I have two more courses to come back to me, both of them are Music Technology for the two Universities that I've applied for (y'know, Atrium and Swansea Met).

And I just saw an advert for a show, and one clip on it made me want it to be Monday and for me to be in school now. Fuck, I thought that was over ages ago. Nevermind...

In other news, which is kind of connected with the university section... Wicid.tv will be launched fully this Wednesday. But since I have a Chemistry exam on that day, I'll probably either miss it or go later, after school (because there's a Physics lesson after the exam). The site's up now, I think. Or at least a test one's up. But yeah, the link's there for ya, bruv.

And yeah, I've started to grow a hatred towards sleep now.

Because, since the beginning of this year, I've had either trouble sleeping, or a really fucked up dream. I either wake up feeling really paranoid, or screaming (well, only once that;s happened) or just thinking where the fuck did that come from? Anyone have any ideas on how these can disappear and allow me to have nice dreams? Ta bruv. =].

Er. I shall go now.

- NIF.