halclive.co.uk

Nokia!

2011-06-28T13:45:00.000+01:00

I'm way too slow at updating this "blog" - I've been working with Nokia now as a trainee for a month and a half. I'm loving it here, and hope to continue to do so beyond the end of my "summer" trainee contract at the end of the year.

I'm working in the IT PMO working on methodologies and processes, so while I'm quite far away from the actual business of making mobile phones, it's great to work in an industry I really enjoy being part of.

The reason I'm posting this right now? They've been telling us trainees that we should keep our online presences really up-to-date. Whoops! At least my twitter gets updated quite regularly, even if it is often flooded with foursquare check-ins...

HalWiki

2011-02-17T20:00:00.000Z

I've been playing with various things, and have installed MediaWiki on halclive.co.uk as a learning experience. It's amazing how easy they make these packages.

Feel free to go and have a look - though I've not really put any content on there yet, and probably won't.

http://www.halclive.co.uk/wiki/

Helsinki Calling

2011-01-17T21:15:00.002Z

Well, life has moved on again since I last posted on here. I've made the big step of moving to Helsinki and look forward to spending many long, happy years here. It's still pretty bloody cold though at this time of year!

I've also made the (not quite so big) step of rebuilding halclive.co.uk; partially to show off some of my web development skills, but also because Blogger no longer does ftp uploads. The current set up is still not ideal as it's not possible to view or make comments on posts from halclive.co.uk, requiring a visit to Blogspot to do so - as such, if I find time I might make a custom system using PHP and MySQL. Any SEO benefits from this would be a bonus...

Either way, welcome to my redesigned and relaunched site - especially if you're a prospective employer!

3 years later...

2009-10-06T23:45:00.000+01:00

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted here!

Since my last post, I've been to camp again, I've spent a summer in Helsinki, Martha has celebrated her third birthday and I've come back to Edinburgh to do an MSc in Information Systems Development. A whole lot more has happened too, both good and bad, and although I'm certainly not planning on updating as regularly as I did in the summer of 2006, I'm going to try to update here every so often.

Coming soon: Camp Cal video productions from 2008, for which (in contrast to the ones from 2006) I did much of the writing, directing and editing.

Bertha Deloris

2006-09-26T11:53:00.000+01:00

Another video from camp - this one a parody of MTV's show made.

Click here for full-size!

Uncle Hal!

2006-09-25T17:17:00.000+01:00

As of a few days ago, I'm an uncle! My oldest brother's wife, Anya, gave birth to Martha Eve Susan Clive just a few days ago. We went down to London to see her yesterday, and she's absolutely beautiful.

She's incredibly long-fingered and legged, and I was amazed at how aware she seemed after just a few days of life - she seemed to be taking in everything around her.

In other, less exciting news, I've got another Camp Cal video uploaded - a VH1 Behind the Music Parody following the rise and fall of Mr. Mullet and the Perms of Destruction.

Click here for full-size version!

Camp is over!

2006-09-02T22:46:00.000+01:00

At last camp is over and I'm back home in Yorkshire. I'll try to write more about everything that's happened when I have the time to do so, but the main point of this post is to show you a video from Camp this summer that I uploaded the other day.

More will come!

Click here for full-size version!

The camperless counsellor

2006-08-06T21:24:00.000+01:00

It's been a week since my last update, and a week since I've started in my camperless cabin.

I've had a great time, but as I expected, having no campers has led to this being an utterly different experience. In particular, updating the Bunk1 website has been a lot of work and been taking a lot of time - despite the fact that I'm given a free period during the day, I can only do the updates after the evening activities when all the kids have gone to bed. In fact, I'm writing this update while the computer is resizing the images to post on the web.

It's also been wet this week, very wet indeed. The storms here are incredible, with what seem to be solid walls of rain dropping from the sky producing raging torrents across camp. As a result, a load of activities on a load of days have been cancelled with special "rainy day" activities being run in their stead. While I'm glad that this is all happening in this session with relatively few kids making all of this an easier experience for the counsellors to sort out, I feel really sorry for the kids having all their activities disrupted when the weather for the rest of the summer has been so great.

Yesterday I had my day off, which as usual started with a night at a local bar, and continued with a bus at 8:30 in the morning to Pula (yeah, getting up at that time after a heavy night before was painful). We went to a small reserve near Pula called something that sounds similar to "Crematorium" - I think it was actually "Prematorio" or something. Anyhow, it was really beautiful, and we did a bit of cliff-jumping and swimming around there, which was awesome fun.

We came back via Pula and had a quick look around the city. It's an ancient Roman city, and has the largest intact Roman ampitheatre outside of Rome itself in the entire world. The forum and ruins around there were beautiful, and I only wish we had a little more time to do a little more exploring round there and perhaps have a look inside the ampitheatre itself.

Today, we had a special afternoon activity with a superhero theme. As one of the people wandering about both to miscellaneously help and to take photographs, I wasn't obliged to dress up, but how could I resist?! I covered myself with green paint, put on my angry face and became the Incredible Hulk. Everything went really well, much to the credit of the organisers, and we got some great photos too. Perhaps I'll manage to get some of those uploaded here soon too.

Anyhow, I'd better get back to work as it looks like all my pictures have been resized. If you read this Dad, get better soon - I'll Skype home as soon as the necessary computer is working again.

New photos online

2006-07-31T13:19:00.000+01:00

As promised yesterday, I've uploaded a small selection of photos into the gallery section of this site at http://www.halclive.co.uk/gallery. So far all of the pictures I've uploaded are the ones that have me in them (although I'll admit it's a bit like playing "Where's Wally?" in one or two of them), but I might upload a few I took myself too if I can find the time to sort through the tens of thousands of pictures we have on this computer.

As has always been the case, if anyone has any photos that they think I might want to host here, just e-mail them to me and I'll see what I can do. It's also nice to know who's reading this and looking at my pictures, so please leave comments here and in the gallery if you can.

Another session done.

2006-07-30T08:39:00.000+01:00

It's a little over a month from when I last posted on here, and I thought it was about time to provide an update.

As of yesterday, session three is over. As of today, session four starts.

The past month has been awesome with so many different things going on that I don't know what to write about. There've been so many people who've been really great who I've had to say goodbye to, and that's not so good - there've ben a load of campers I've been really sad to see leave, but counsellors leaving hits hard in a different way. My co-counsellor of last session, Euan from Scotland, left yesterday morning, and over the next week Charan from New Zealand and Kate, the camp nurse from England, will also be returning home.

In fact, because of a guy called Max leaving camp to return to Russia, I'm now effectively in charge of digital photography with all the associated responsibilities. Not only do I need to do all the photo uploads onto Bunk1, the saite where camp hosts all it's pictures, but I also need to build the closing campfire slideshow. Max did such a fantastic job that'll be a really hard act to follow, but as session 4 only has 68 campers, the powers that be have decided to put me in a camperless cabin to ensure that I have time to do what I need to do.

It's the first time I've ever been in a cabin without campers, and the experience is bound to be really quite different, especially with my new jobs. The atmosphere in camp is likely going to be different anyway with so few campers about (normally we have over a hundred, up to around 160), but I'm kind of looking forward to a slightly slower session.

I will try to get some new pictures together to upload to this site at some point, but in the meantime most of you should be able to access the camp's photo page at http://campcalifornia.bunk1.com where you'll get the chance to see my beautiful face if you've been missing it.

I'd better move now.

2006-06-28T17:15:00.000+01:00

I've managed to find myself a little more time to add something to this blog.

As I said before, everything's going awesomely in camp, and I thought I'd post a little more about it.

I've currently got a cabin of 9 kids, helped out by two other counsellors - Sam, who's also from the UK, and Zoltan who's a Hungarian. Actally, Sam's having to move out of our cabin today into another one to help out in a cabin where one of the counsellors is having to go for a few days to work out the Teen Adventure program.

We're all going to Teepee Village tonight with a couple of the other boys' cabins, a mock American Indian area a little way out from the rest of camp. All going well, we'll eat, play and sleep out there, all lit by a good old-fashioned camp fire.

That said, last night a load of the girls' cabins went to sleep out there last night but returned when the wind started picking up, making the teepees themselves dangerous for obvious reasons. Other problems with teepee village are the thousands of mosquitoes desperate for an all-they-can-eat buffet and (perhaps surprisingly) the cold.

While daytime temperatures are high and humidity stratospheric, making the conditions extremely sweaty, at night the temperatures can plummet, making sleep under the stars a chilly experience.

The musics playing over the PA system. That means my free period's over, and I have to go.

Graduation and Croatia

2006-06-27T21:54:00.000+01:00

It's been a while, but at last I'm going to post an update up here.

The last week has been absolutely insane, starting with me as a student in Edinburgh and ending as a graduate in a summer camp in Croatia.

First of all, I'll tell you a little about graduation. Karoliina's parents came, which was pretty cool, and I wore a kilt (Welsh national tartan) to the ceremony. Karoliina graduated the next day, and I had to move all of the stuff that I wasn't taking with me to Croatia to Tom's flat.

After two hours sleep, I started on my journey to camp at 3:30am.

For those who haven't known me for very long, you might not know that I spent my summer two summers ago here in a camp called Camp California in Croatia, right on the North-Western Tip of Istria at Savudrija. Well, I'm doing it all over again, partly because I spent most of last summer wishing that I was actually here, and partly because I want to stall having to get a job in the real world as a graduate.

I'm here, kids are here, and the place is awesome. THings have changed in a few subtle ways since I was last year, like the main stage (called "Hollywood Bowl") has been completely rebuilt.

Oops! Time up.

Better get back to Work!

I'm going to be an uncle!

2006-03-10T19:47:00.000Z

That's right!

James (my oldest brother) called me last night to tell me that his wife, Anya, is pregnant. I'm so happy for them, and I can't wait to meet my new nephew. I say nephew, because knowing our family, it couldn't really be anything else.

Maybe I'll be eating those words come September...

Quick photoshop

2006-03-03T00:21:00.000Z

On the home stretch to a degree...

2006-02-21T19:12:00.000Z

After an eventful week, I've finally finished my essays and dissertation - the relief is incredible. All that's left of my degree now is the project I'm currently working on (that I mentioned in my previous post) and a four hour synoptic exam that's going to test everything I've learned over the past four years. I'm slightly apprehensive about it, but it's not going to happen for a little while yet.

I've changed a few settings on the site so I can now e-mail in updates, which should make the process of updating when away from my own computer that much quicker, easier and more secure. I should even be able to do it from my phone. Incidentally, this post is a test to see if it's working properly.

Also, the gallery has had its software updated, so check it out.

Good news everybody!

2006-02-15T20:19:00.000Z

I know it's been ages since I've updated anything here, but I thought I'd post on the off chance someone might see this at some point...

I'm going back to Camp Cal this summer!

I really can't wait. The 2004 season was brilliant, and I can't wait to get my degree out of the way so I can just get back out to Croatia. Check out my gallery for photos from my last time out there, and www.campcalifornia.com for the camp's official site.

As for the degree, things are coming along nicely enough. I'm in the essay week of hell at the moment, having handed in essays yesterday and the day before that, with only my dissertation left due the day after tomorrow.

I'm also working on a project at the moment, which I've been working three days a week on since the beginning of term - I start full time work on it from next week. It feels great to actually be doing real research, discovering previously unknown stuff that could ultimately help cure muscular dystrophy. It beats sitting in a lecture theatre, incidentally something I'll never have to do again as of last week...

The real world seems to be approaching ever more rapidly.

Hello from Helsinki!

2005-12-30T12:32:00.000Z

Christmas is over and 2006 is rapidly approaching.

I'm planning on seeing 2006 in here in Helsinki with Karoliina, though there were times yesterday when I feared that I wasn't going to make it.

Over the past few days there have been some serious wintery storms across Europe, including England. My train was delayed by the snow, but seeing as I took it for granted that my train was bound to be delayed knowing GNER to be as it is, that wasn't such a problem.

I had a connection in Copenhagen to get all the way to Helsinki, but there was pretty much a blizzard there. Sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, I saw the takeoff time for my connection through to Helsinki come and go, and thought that I might be having to stay the night in Denmark.

when I found out that that flight was delayed, it was actually the only time I'm ever likely to be glad that my flight was delayed.

Eventually I landed in Helsinki three hours late, with poor Karoliina and her mother picking me up at 4:20am local time.

Sorry about that...

I'm on Holiday!

2005-12-18T19:05:00.000Z

At last I've had my last exams for the term and I have Christmas and the New Year to look forward to!

Karoliina went back to Helsinki yesterday so I'm all alone in my flat - and as I've just realised, it's the first time that I've spent any substantial time here by myself. Before term began Lari was staying here while he was getting his own living arrangements organised, and since then I've had Karoliina here all the time, so being here alone makes this place unusually quiet.

I'm heading back to Yorkshire on the 21st to spend Christmas at home with my family which I'm really looking forward to, but I'm particularly looking forward to flying to Helsinki to spend New Year's Eve in Finland with Karoliina.

I'm really excited about seeing Finland in the Winter, but it's likely to be quite chilly... I guess I'm going to have to try out the famous Finnish saunas to keep warm.

First exam gone, still not feeling on top of the world.

2005-12-07T13:27:00.000Z

That's genetic approaches down.

I'm still not feeling great, but hopefully it didn't affect my results too badly. unfortunately, it was kind of difficult to do my usual heavy revision for the last couple of days with the feeling of my tonsils trying to strangle me on Monday and my head feeling like it was about to burst yesterday. Having my sleep patterns messed up wasn't very convenient either.

I've told the people who need to know about it in case it mucked up my exam worse than I realised. It makes me feel like a moaning hypochondriac doing it, but I know that it's the only sensible thing to do. That and going to the doctor, which I'm going to try to do this afternoon.

I just hope that I'm better for Friday and can do myself justice in my next exam...

Yuck. I appear to have caught the lurgy.

2005-12-05T04:47:00.000Z

After a week of Karoliina being ill, I thought I was safe from the nasty lurgy she has, but I was woken up by my tonsils about an hour ago and they're refusing to let me go back to sleep again.

I really hope I don't get this as badly as Karoliina did (she's getting better now). The timing's meticulous - my finals start on Wednesday.

At last, I have flights booked!

2005-12-04T23:53:00.000Z

I'm going to Finland for New Year!

I managed to find flights that weren't horribly expensive through Scandinavian Airlines, leaving London City Airport at sensible times on the 29th and returning on the 5th of January...

I'm really looking forward to seeing Finland suring the winter, a pleasure I've not yet had. I'm also looking forward to seeing Karoliina's family who were absolutely great when I last got to see them.

The only thing I have left to worry about now are my 4 exams coming up in the next couple of weeks. They're pretty important, but I'm feeling better prepared than I've felt in the past about my exams.

Why is organising trips abroad always so difficult?

2005-12-01T23:54:00.000Z

A little while ago I decided that I wanted to visit Karoliina in Helsinki over New Year's Eve, but I'm having a nightmare working out how I'm going to get there and back.

Having researched the flights, I could get extremely cheap flights to an airport 2 hours away from Helsinki (£10 plus taxes). However, that would involve me either having to spend most of the night at Stansted airport waiting for a 6:15am flight, or arriving at in Finland 10:00pm in the evening, cutting it extremely fine for any chance of public transport down to Helsinki. I sure as hell don't want to get stranded overnight in central Finland in late December when there'll likely be nowhere to stay.

Flying back is giving me a similar headaches, with me having to be able to get back up to Edinburgh.

I wish I could just blow a couple of hundred quid to make the whole problem easier, but I'm too much my mother's son.

Mucking about in photoshop

2005-11-30T16:08:00.000Z

I've just been mucking about in photoshop (a bit of task cycling so revision doesn't frazzle my brain) and made a picture of a gryphon. I think it's ended up looking quite good:

The evolution of halclive.co.uk

2005-11-20T16:41:00.000Z

As I've learned more and more about the intrecacies of setting up and running a website, this one has been through several versions. Only three have made it off from my hard-drive and onto the web, and you're only like to have seen two of them.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be) I never deleted those pages from my webspace, so you can follow the links below to see them:

Obviously, you've seen this version (powered by blogger), because you're looking at it right now.

The last version before this one wasn't dynamic and looked considerably more bland. It really sucked having to go and manually code the html every time I wanted to update, too.

The first version to make it onto the web was the most embarassing one. It was almost scarily ugly, and only a couple of people ever had the dubious honour of getting to see it.

Shiny new site!

2005-11-18T14:52:00.000Z

It's taken the best part of a year, but I've just made an update that fundamentally changes how this site works.

Superficially, this means that the front page has changed (and will likely change more in coming weeks and months) and you now have little comment buttons to play with. I'll be surprised if anyone ever uses them, but at least it's nice to know that they're there....

I've also transferred my posts from earlier versions of this page to stop it from looking so sparse.

As for me, I'm now in my final year of my biology course on a genetics honours course. It's quite hard going, and I have a lot to do, but I'm really enjoying it.

To top it all off, I'm now living with Karoliina (my girlfriend) in a really nice little flat in a great location.