...Good grief...
Friday, went to see new place. Took a Barclays rentacycle. Spent a fuckton of energy and damaged my ass on the cycle seat. Got lost and never did actually see the room, which was too far away from the city centre anyway. Came home, got about 3 hours of sleep and did my best to revise for the exam. But due to lack of sleep - about 6 hours in 48 - I couldn't recall the names and years of most of the legislation, so I'll definitely be retaking these at the end of the course. Crashed for 12 hours, woke up, drinking and eating anything I can find, and trying to gather enough energy together to pack up everything I own and move into the hostel I've booked as I'm out of here to tomorrow one way or the other.
I tried to manage the situation best I could, and if I got at least one question right that's one more I don't have to get right during the retake, which means something as for two pins I would've blown off the exam yesterday entirely for getting a good nights sleep, and I think I got more right than that.
After I've moved, on Tuesday at the latest I'm writing the revision materials for the exams next weekend. A week's worth of revision minimum and not rushing should mean I roll up to the exam as fresh as a daisy. Going to do the next one right.
Then I'm going to look for a new room somewhere. I'll still have the deposit money and can pay for somewhere new so I'll only be in a hostel for a couple of weeks or so. It wouldn't be so bad.
...Just trying recover enough to move my stuff out...
---
One thing that pissed me off yesterday was my course tutor. I asked if I could go early and the guy says that he's going to have to make a note that I'm making a habit of not staying to the end of the weekend classes...
Well, yes. Last time, during the weekend of hell, I left because I was super fucking tired, had the flu, and just spent 3 days trying to gather the materials, pass a fitness test and an exam, now I've just spent 3 days trying to find somewhere new to live and trying to pass 2 exams. This is what is called extenuating circumstances. Transitory reasons as to why something to occurring the way it is. Two bad weekends one after the other.
I couldn't have foreseen flu before my fitness test. I couldn't have done anything more about being evicted. Shit happens, right? What pisses me off is that he didn't seem to give a damn about my situation. I mean, it didn't get seem to register. Leaving early was the point, but a little consideration as to why I was doing it didn't even cross his fucking mind.
Find, note that I'm skipping the end of the classes. When I've got a moment I'm going to tell the organizer of the course at the college why and register a complaint that I have a couple of good fucking reasons, prick.
I don't know what it is about police people, past or present, but some of them seem to entirely lack empathy or comprehension of ongoing circumstances.
That fitness instructor was aware that I wasn't acting right, but didn't care why that was and did something cruel and stupid; made me worry for days that I had failed my Day 2. My course tutor said he worked as a chief inspector or something and was a policeman for 30 odd years, and ignores temporary circumstances which cause this event in favour of disciplinary notification that now I have to worry about.
I mean, it's even written in the Blackstones manual to policing that taking action to suit the situation is what is required in almost every circumstance; don't arrest and process if a warning would do, don't beat senseless if cuffs would do, etc. Sensible stuff. And then you actually interact with some real police people and find that they ignore context for rules. Everyone was concerned about my health at the fitness test, except this one instructor. Telling me to try to be more prepared if I can for the next week would've done, but my lecturer decides that making an official note is the right course of action.
My point, as I said about the fitness test, that there is really no point in applying disciplinary procedures to someone who cannot help that the situation occurred. Don't punish someone for being immobilized when they got their legs broken in a car accident someone else caused. It's not right, it's not fair, it makes you look like a right cock blaster, and the only effect it has is to make the situation worse for the guy up to his neck in it already.
I really don't like other people.
---
Anyway, 5-10am today I'm packing, check in at 12 at the hostel and move my stuff for the rest of the day, then organize myself as best as I can.
Tomorrow I'll tally my resources, pay rent for the rest of this week, book another hostel for next weekend as I wasn't able to, write revision materials and try to catch up with my college work ASAP. Plus try to find 20 quid to cover the cost of that fucking doctors signature form.
What I want is about another 12 hours sleep, a few square meals, and a couple of days to recover so my calves stop cramping and my ass doesn't hurt so much.
HEH, good joke.
Whatever.
Showing posts with label sleeplessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleeplessness. Show all posts
06/07/2014
21/06/2014
On Hell...
Well that was hellish.
Awake more than 24 hours, barely any food, flu, and I get through all the fitness tests for the police with a pass [although the medical was close given that no sleep fucks up you royal]. Then of course I get to the fitness test and this short black haired women in skin tight yoga pants and quite distracting pale blue eyes, actually, decides to reprimand me for unprofessional conduct and bad attitude.
I hate my life. Just hate it.
I go through hell to get through the Day 2 with somewhere close to reasonable chance to pass my exam and then probably fail it due to pissing off an examiner with bad attitude.
I don't honestly know what the fuck it was I did. Abruptness and lack of social skill or some such nonsense was her complaint. No one else complained. No one else said a thing. But no, to her my attitude was all wrong and needed correcting.
Explained to the staff processing documentation and the other applicants about my flu and things and they were sympathetic and understanding. They were all fine. But this one women didn't care about that. It only mattered how she perceived me.
FINE, fail me for it. I'm going to appeal if it comes to it or simply retake the entire day in six months with a request that she has nothing to do with my Day 2. At the moment, with an exam in seven hours with 2 hours travel time to boot, I just can't find any fucks to give.
My landlady is apparently upset about me not paying my rent until Monday. I mean, seriously worried upset about what her landlady is going to do. She is nice, and she just wanted me to talk to her to ensure that she understood that my rent was going to be late, and I don't really have any desire to piss her off either.
That said, what the hell do you want from me lady?
I couldn't have seen that Amazon was going to remove that money from my account like that because of an Amazon Prime subscription I didn't even know they were going to process for fucks sake. Hadn't logged into Amazon for over a month.
Her landlady might be pissed that their rent is a hundred or so short, but she isn't really going to storm in here and demand that you leave, don't be stupid.
Eating salad and then doing exam revision until dawn and then going to college.
What I want is more sleep, 3 pints of caffeine, and to not be wheezing and trying to breath for mucus.
That's not much to ask, but what I'm getting ya see is cheese salad, no caffeine, 5 hours exam revision, two hours travel, an hour exam and then being lectured at for 6 hours.
I hate my life. -_-
Awake more than 24 hours, barely any food, flu, and I get through all the fitness tests for the police with a pass [although the medical was close given that no sleep fucks up you royal]. Then of course I get to the fitness test and this short black haired women in skin tight yoga pants and quite distracting pale blue eyes, actually, decides to reprimand me for unprofessional conduct and bad attitude.
I hate my life. Just hate it.
I go through hell to get through the Day 2 with somewhere close to reasonable chance to pass my exam and then probably fail it due to pissing off an examiner with bad attitude.
I don't honestly know what the fuck it was I did. Abruptness and lack of social skill or some such nonsense was her complaint. No one else complained. No one else said a thing. But no, to her my attitude was all wrong and needed correcting.
Explained to the staff processing documentation and the other applicants about my flu and things and they were sympathetic and understanding. They were all fine. But this one women didn't care about that. It only mattered how she perceived me.
FINE, fail me for it. I'm going to appeal if it comes to it or simply retake the entire day in six months with a request that she has nothing to do with my Day 2. At the moment, with an exam in seven hours with 2 hours travel time to boot, I just can't find any fucks to give.
My landlady is apparently upset about me not paying my rent until Monday. I mean, seriously worried upset about what her landlady is going to do. She is nice, and she just wanted me to talk to her to ensure that she understood that my rent was going to be late, and I don't really have any desire to piss her off either.
That said, what the hell do you want from me lady?
I couldn't have seen that Amazon was going to remove that money from my account like that because of an Amazon Prime subscription I didn't even know they were going to process for fucks sake. Hadn't logged into Amazon for over a month.
Her landlady might be pissed that their rent is a hundred or so short, but she isn't really going to storm in here and demand that you leave, don't be stupid.
Eating salad and then doing exam revision until dawn and then going to college.
What I want is more sleep, 3 pints of caffeine, and to not be wheezing and trying to breath for mucus.
That's not much to ask, but what I'm getting ya see is cheese salad, no caffeine, 5 hours exam revision, two hours travel, an hour exam and then being lectured at for 6 hours.
I hate my life. -_-
19/06/2014
On Crazy/Stupid...
Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy or stupid or crazy stupid or stupid crazy...probably best to go with all three, really.
23:20, I've got to be up and moving in 4 hours 40 minuets for a FITNESS TEST, and I'm blowing yellow goo out of my snout and listening to the popping noises from my nose.
At this point, I just said FUCK IT, SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK and decided to write up answers to the Week 5 Victims and Witnesses Certificate in Policing exam on Saturday.
Had to pause around Question 4 because I just realized that, beyond the nonsense about legislation and you can arrest a chap for this but only if this and if he crosses the room and stands on one leg whilst blowing his nose you cant arrest him for that but you can arrest him for this but if he drops the tissue on the ground this gets added to it BLAAAH, I actually kinda love the information analysis and management as much as games design.
They're equally as fascinating for their depth and complexity.
During the Day 1 mental interview I took at the same place I'm off to later on today they had us do scenario interviews with people and I enjoyed that too. Reading what had gone on, formulating questions, finding out information, it was very engaging.
It was odd just how much I enjoyed it really seeing as most of my life I've avoided people on principle, but I guess it's the difference between social engagement and social work.
I'm not here to be their mate, I'm here to find out what they know and make everyone's lives better and safer. It's system management, not interpersonal socialism, and I can do the former with a concussion.
Point is that I think I'm going to enjoy being a copper, which is awesome news because things I don't enjoy I tend to subconsciously fail.
Anyway, all I need do is roll up at MPS offices tomorrow, ask a few questions, do a few laps, explain about the raging flu and mucus [god dam you universe] and then come home and memorize this victims and witnesses lark for the follo...for to-mor-row...[god dam you universe].
Landlady might be pissed that I'm not paying a couple of hundred in rent I owe until Monday, but life can be hard sometimes, like being evicted mid first-job-in-five-years-six-month-employment-process [bitch].
My ability to see the other person's point of view, normally something that makes your average star look a lil tiny by comparison, has been severely diminished as of late.
Sometime around flu the week of a fitness test/exam was when it happened, I think.
Still got the utmost consideration for other people, that's built in, but those assholes who made my personal situation worse still have a target on their foreheads.
Breaks over, I think, back to it.
Day 2, sleep, revision, Wk5 Exam, SLEEP, then probably running around on Monday seeing to getting Day 2 form info I'm currently missing and doing week 5 of my college course, plus moving out.
Won't be so bad. Place I'm going to is about half as cheap as it is here so I'll have spare money from my benefits, I'm putting most of my stuff into storage before hand, and to be frank, having to go to the library or not having wifi in my room [last I checked it was either wifi on the first floor or a goods nights sleep on the second floor as the ground floor has live music at night] to do college work will probably do quite a bit for focusing my ability to concentrate.
My main goal and occupation in life is to pass the certificate in basic policing course, and thus far I'm blagging it. Doing tests because I've created a database of course content and searching it for the answers. I've not memorized most of the information from the first four weeks or done the optional reading or activities. I've not looked like an idiot thus far because my tutor is a pillock who reads presentation notes from the online database and most of the work is common sense, and I'm morale and smart so.
Gotta memorize that nonsense too. PACE, very important. Describes my future powers and code of conduct and things.
Must get on with this...
23:20, I've got to be up and moving in 4 hours 40 minuets for a FITNESS TEST, and I'm blowing yellow goo out of my snout and listening to the popping noises from my nose.
At this point, I just said FUCK IT, SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK and decided to write up answers to the Week 5 Victims and Witnesses Certificate in Policing exam on Saturday.
Had to pause around Question 4 because I just realized that, beyond the nonsense about legislation and you can arrest a chap for this but only if this and if he crosses the room and stands on one leg whilst blowing his nose you cant arrest him for that but you can arrest him for this but if he drops the tissue on the ground this gets added to it BLAAAH, I actually kinda love the information analysis and management as much as games design.
They're equally as fascinating for their depth and complexity.
During the Day 1 mental interview I took at the same place I'm off to later on today they had us do scenario interviews with people and I enjoyed that too. Reading what had gone on, formulating questions, finding out information, it was very engaging.
It was odd just how much I enjoyed it really seeing as most of my life I've avoided people on principle, but I guess it's the difference between social engagement and social work.
I'm not here to be their mate, I'm here to find out what they know and make everyone's lives better and safer. It's system management, not interpersonal socialism, and I can do the former with a concussion.
Point is that I think I'm going to enjoy being a copper, which is awesome news because things I don't enjoy I tend to subconsciously fail.
Anyway, all I need do is roll up at MPS offices tomorrow, ask a few questions, do a few laps, explain about the raging flu and mucus [god dam you universe] and then come home and memorize this victims and witnesses lark for the follo...for to-mor-row...[god dam you universe].
Landlady might be pissed that I'm not paying a couple of hundred in rent I owe until Monday, but life can be hard sometimes, like being evicted mid first-job-in-five-years-six-month-employment-process [bitch].
My ability to see the other person's point of view, normally something that makes your average star look a lil tiny by comparison, has been severely diminished as of late.
Sometime around flu the week of a fitness test/exam was when it happened, I think.
Still got the utmost consideration for other people, that's built in, but those assholes who made my personal situation worse still have a target on their foreheads.
Breaks over, I think, back to it.
Day 2, sleep, revision, Wk5 Exam, SLEEP, then probably running around on Monday seeing to getting Day 2 form info I'm currently missing and doing week 5 of my college course, plus moving out.
Won't be so bad. Place I'm going to is about half as cheap as it is here so I'll have spare money from my benefits, I'm putting most of my stuff into storage before hand, and to be frank, having to go to the library or not having wifi in my room [last I checked it was either wifi on the first floor or a goods nights sleep on the second floor as the ground floor has live music at night] to do college work will probably do quite a bit for focusing my ability to concentrate.
My main goal and occupation in life is to pass the certificate in basic policing course, and thus far I'm blagging it. Doing tests because I've created a database of course content and searching it for the answers. I've not memorized most of the information from the first four weeks or done the optional reading or activities. I've not looked like an idiot thus far because my tutor is a pillock who reads presentation notes from the online database and most of the work is common sense, and I'm morale and smart so.
Gotta memorize that nonsense too. PACE, very important. Describes my future powers and code of conduct and things.
Must get on with this...
05/06/2014
On Bureaucracy...
For all my intelligence I'm amazingly stupid at times.
Sensible would've been to, on Tuesday, do college work after tidying up my room and getting some exercise.
Stupid is what I went with, which was to play Hearthstone for two days almost straight, noticing how the skin just under my ribcage is tightening up against what little muscle I have there because I haven't been eating. Not, not eating right. Just, not eating at all.
My budding anorexia is surprising though seeing as I have one of those metabolisms where I could eat a cracker or two and live for like a week. 6.1ft, built like a jungle ape [including body hair], and yet I could live on airborne plankton, if such a thing were floating through the ether.
I just forced myself to consume two platefuls of beef curry, but didn't really want it. It's not that I haven't been hungry, it's just I haven't eaten because I've been playing bloody Hearthstone.
Idiot.
Currently been awake since 11am yesterday. It's not 7am the following morning, I'm seeing blotches of color on my vision, missing keys, and still behind on my college coursework.
Plus my landlady said something about the property owner [I'm subletting from my flatmates] coming by today to check that the place is ready for viewing or is in one peace or something, and she needs to see everything, including my room, and I haven't cleaned in over a week.
So stupid. I need to do my college work and I need to get sleep at night like a normal person. Why don't I do what I'm meant to. Why does a little voice in my head keep saying 'One more' and 'Last one' every time I go to shut Hearthstone down? Stupid...
Anyway, after my shitty Tuesday I did finally get some good news.
---
Somehow, and even I can't believe I managed it, I passed my in-person aptitude interview with the Met Police Service where they graded my intellect, communication, and observational skills.
I did it on 4 hours of sleep, no food since 6pm the night previously, and more or less dehydrated, plus wearing street casual [blue jeans and a tee] instead of business casual like everyone else. Why was I not prepared to take an important interview I can only take every six months? Because if you weren't paying attention above, I'm an idiot. Oy vey.
Somehow I still passed their tests, which either goes to show I'm just that dam good, or their standards for judging the aptitude of police offers is really not that high. Worryingly so really given that they're hiring budding law enforcement personnel who are future peace officers, detectives, and wielders of firearms.
Need to start prepping for the Day 2 now. This is much easier as it's only medical and fitness testing and a boat load of paperwork to fill out in the next two weeks.
Granted, in the way of my life, my lungs are currently painted with vile tasting mucus from a bout of bronchitis I had two months ago, gained by running the frigid night air in early spring, which is really worrying me. No illness I've ever had lasted more than two weeks. It doesn't hurt or anything, it's just an occasional wheezy cough with bad tasting mucus I can't quite clear out of my throat and into the sink.
The issue with this lingering side-effect is that in two weeks I need to take a bleep test, which is basically running. If I can't breath heavily without coughing my lungs up then there's no way I can run now and get ready or on the day.
At the moment I'm taking mucus cough meds made by Sudafed, after trying Beachems and some other brand. This one seems to be working. I was coughing hard last night but I'm two doses in and seem to be OK. Maybe this one has a different drug in it which works focuses on the lungs instead of the sinuses and it's clearing it. Hope so cus I really don't want to fail the Day 2 since winning the Day 1 by a hair.
If it's not sorted by Monday I'll find a doctors and see if they can give me something industrial strength or the precisely correct drug to clear it and then hit the track. I mean, the bleep test isn't long, I don't need to run for two hours like I normally do, and it'll be indoors in a hall at the recruitment offices in central London, but I need to do SOME running before hand.
---
In other news, SEGA turned me down for a games testing position I was interviewed for last week.
Their reasoning was that the candidate pool they were screening had a lot of good people in it and I just didn't make the cut.
Well, fair enough, games industry position, lots of people want in, it's understandable that...wait...let's just evaluate this for a second...
I go to the Met Police service, those fine ladies and gents who patrol London, who are responsible for keeping the peace and catching criminals, take their communication, observation, and intellect test and pass it, GG.
Once I finish my training I'll earn 1.5-2x minimum wage, with excellent job security and promotion prospects plus a benefits package and access to career training programs.
Then I go to a computer games developer, SEGA. This company badly damaged one of the best games franchises of the Megadrive/Super Nintendo era of computer games from a rival for premier gaming icon to an internet joke. I take an easier test than the one I did for the police [in more or less the same physiological condition btw cus I'm just that stupid], and fail it.
If I had passed I could've looked forward to a zero hours minimum wage contract, with no job security, no chance for real career progression, no benefits, and if I wanted more training I'd have to pay for it myself.
Hm. Dodged a bullet there maybe?
I planned on doing it whilst at college for the next few months to make some extra money, and my vocation is that of games developer so if that had worked out I might just dropped my application to the police all together for real entry level experience at doing something related to what I love; games.
I'm fit to be a policeman, an officer of the law who needs to cooperate with people and protect them from crime, but not fit to be a games tester, a bug hunter who just needs to be able to play games which I've been doing since I was five.
This is the world we live in apparently.
---
My 24+ Advanced Learning Loan, which I applied for and have now received to pay for my Certificate in Basic Policing course, went through yesterday.
Only took a speedy three months, the course had already started, the college had asked me to cough up or they'd boot me, and I had to lodge a complaint with customer services in writing before they'd finalize it. Wasn't bloody annoying or anything.
What was the hold up?
Apparently when I sent in my application form I hadn't ticked two boxes regarding prior loans. I didn't tick them because I didn't know if I was in arrears on my prior 3 years plus maintenance loans that I received to attend the University of Portsmouth for the Computer Games Technology course [don't even ask about that, bloody morons]. I assumed that they would email or phone me, I could ask them to check it out [they have it on record anyway], and that'd be that, job done.
In a sane world, yes, it would've been that easy.
It doesn't go through and my college blocks my access card which is scanned in at their gates for access to the campus. Phoned them up and they said what information they were missing, after I confirmed who I was via a security check and told them what the answer to the information was, but they had better check their systems to make sure.
They did and confirmed I was right, but asked me to send a letter which I had signed to confirm it anyway. I agreed on the basis that it was nonsense but nonsense that would take all of ten minuets in the library and post office. Same information - not in arrears, check your systems - and no reply.
They get the letter but then sit on it for nearly a month. Eventually I get annoyed and file a complaint with their internal complaints department who look into it. They phone me up [waking me up twice in the process and costing me about 4 hours of sleep total by the way] and tell me to send them another letter, but this time to make it the form from their website with the correct boxes ticked.
I say 'OK, just to be clear, I've phoned you, confirmed my identity, told you the answer, then send you a printed and signed letter with the correct information, and you've checked your systems twice now and confirmed it, but to finalize my loan you need me to print off a form you've already received to tick two boxes?'.
I felt sorry for the women on the line who started quite literally to splutter at me as she tried to justify the reason I should do as she asked.
After I got up and ate me wheeties my college then emailed me and told me it's gone through, they've received the money and that my place on the course is secure, at last.
---
Can't work in the games industry for minimum wage, but I can work in law enforcement for a pension.
Can't get an adult learning loan because I need to feed information into the human machine with the right hole punched as they don't hire people who can color outside of the lines.
That, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is bureaucracy at it's very finest; retarded actions done because it's protocol with a complete absence of good judgement, common sense, and intelligent thought.
But that's OK though, because if I don't go do my college work I'll never pass the CKP course, and be able to take the training which will lead to employment, and then be able to pay the loan back once I'm earning, so it'll work out alright in the end heh...heh...oooh...
Bai.
Sensible would've been to, on Tuesday, do college work after tidying up my room and getting some exercise.
Stupid is what I went with, which was to play Hearthstone for two days almost straight, noticing how the skin just under my ribcage is tightening up against what little muscle I have there because I haven't been eating. Not, not eating right. Just, not eating at all.
My budding anorexia is surprising though seeing as I have one of those metabolisms where I could eat a cracker or two and live for like a week. 6.1ft, built like a jungle ape [including body hair], and yet I could live on airborne plankton, if such a thing were floating through the ether.
I just forced myself to consume two platefuls of beef curry, but didn't really want it. It's not that I haven't been hungry, it's just I haven't eaten because I've been playing bloody Hearthstone.
Idiot.
Currently been awake since 11am yesterday. It's not 7am the following morning, I'm seeing blotches of color on my vision, missing keys, and still behind on my college coursework.
Plus my landlady said something about the property owner [I'm subletting from my flatmates] coming by today to check that the place is ready for viewing or is in one peace or something, and she needs to see everything, including my room, and I haven't cleaned in over a week.
So stupid. I need to do my college work and I need to get sleep at night like a normal person. Why don't I do what I'm meant to. Why does a little voice in my head keep saying 'One more' and 'Last one' every time I go to shut Hearthstone down? Stupid...
Anyway, after my shitty Tuesday I did finally get some good news.
---
Somehow, and even I can't believe I managed it, I passed my in-person aptitude interview with the Met Police Service where they graded my intellect, communication, and observational skills.
I did it on 4 hours of sleep, no food since 6pm the night previously, and more or less dehydrated, plus wearing street casual [blue jeans and a tee] instead of business casual like everyone else. Why was I not prepared to take an important interview I can only take every six months? Because if you weren't paying attention above, I'm an idiot. Oy vey.
Somehow I still passed their tests, which either goes to show I'm just that dam good, or their standards for judging the aptitude of police offers is really not that high. Worryingly so really given that they're hiring budding law enforcement personnel who are future peace officers, detectives, and wielders of firearms.
Need to start prepping for the Day 2 now. This is much easier as it's only medical and fitness testing and a boat load of paperwork to fill out in the next two weeks.
Granted, in the way of my life, my lungs are currently painted with vile tasting mucus from a bout of bronchitis I had two months ago, gained by running the frigid night air in early spring, which is really worrying me. No illness I've ever had lasted more than two weeks. It doesn't hurt or anything, it's just an occasional wheezy cough with bad tasting mucus I can't quite clear out of my throat and into the sink.
The issue with this lingering side-effect is that in two weeks I need to take a bleep test, which is basically running. If I can't breath heavily without coughing my lungs up then there's no way I can run now and get ready or on the day.
At the moment I'm taking mucus cough meds made by Sudafed, after trying Beachems and some other brand. This one seems to be working. I was coughing hard last night but I'm two doses in and seem to be OK. Maybe this one has a different drug in it which works focuses on the lungs instead of the sinuses and it's clearing it. Hope so cus I really don't want to fail the Day 2 since winning the Day 1 by a hair.
If it's not sorted by Monday I'll find a doctors and see if they can give me something industrial strength or the precisely correct drug to clear it and then hit the track. I mean, the bleep test isn't long, I don't need to run for two hours like I normally do, and it'll be indoors in a hall at the recruitment offices in central London, but I need to do SOME running before hand.
---
In other news, SEGA turned me down for a games testing position I was interviewed for last week.
Their reasoning was that the candidate pool they were screening had a lot of good people in it and I just didn't make the cut.
Well, fair enough, games industry position, lots of people want in, it's understandable that...wait...let's just evaluate this for a second...
I go to the Met Police service, those fine ladies and gents who patrol London, who are responsible for keeping the peace and catching criminals, take their communication, observation, and intellect test and pass it, GG.
Once I finish my training I'll earn 1.5-2x minimum wage, with excellent job security and promotion prospects plus a benefits package and access to career training programs.
Then I go to a computer games developer, SEGA. This company badly damaged one of the best games franchises of the Megadrive/Super Nintendo era of computer games from a rival for premier gaming icon to an internet joke. I take an easier test than the one I did for the police [in more or less the same physiological condition btw cus I'm just that stupid], and fail it.
If I had passed I could've looked forward to a zero hours minimum wage contract, with no job security, no chance for real career progression, no benefits, and if I wanted more training I'd have to pay for it myself.
Hm. Dodged a bullet there maybe?
I planned on doing it whilst at college for the next few months to make some extra money, and my vocation is that of games developer so if that had worked out I might just dropped my application to the police all together for real entry level experience at doing something related to what I love; games.
I'm fit to be a policeman, an officer of the law who needs to cooperate with people and protect them from crime, but not fit to be a games tester, a bug hunter who just needs to be able to play games which I've been doing since I was five.
This is the world we live in apparently.
---
My 24+ Advanced Learning Loan, which I applied for and have now received to pay for my Certificate in Basic Policing course, went through yesterday.
Only took a speedy three months, the course had already started, the college had asked me to cough up or they'd boot me, and I had to lodge a complaint with customer services in writing before they'd finalize it. Wasn't bloody annoying or anything.
What was the hold up?
Apparently when I sent in my application form I hadn't ticked two boxes regarding prior loans. I didn't tick them because I didn't know if I was in arrears on my prior 3 years plus maintenance loans that I received to attend the University of Portsmouth for the Computer Games Technology course [don't even ask about that, bloody morons]. I assumed that they would email or phone me, I could ask them to check it out [they have it on record anyway], and that'd be that, job done.
In a sane world, yes, it would've been that easy.
It doesn't go through and my college blocks my access card which is scanned in at their gates for access to the campus. Phoned them up and they said what information they were missing, after I confirmed who I was via a security check and told them what the answer to the information was, but they had better check their systems to make sure.
They did and confirmed I was right, but asked me to send a letter which I had signed to confirm it anyway. I agreed on the basis that it was nonsense but nonsense that would take all of ten minuets in the library and post office. Same information - not in arrears, check your systems - and no reply.
They get the letter but then sit on it for nearly a month. Eventually I get annoyed and file a complaint with their internal complaints department who look into it. They phone me up [waking me up twice in the process and costing me about 4 hours of sleep total by the way] and tell me to send them another letter, but this time to make it the form from their website with the correct boxes ticked.
I say 'OK, just to be clear, I've phoned you, confirmed my identity, told you the answer, then send you a printed and signed letter with the correct information, and you've checked your systems twice now and confirmed it, but to finalize my loan you need me to print off a form you've already received to tick two boxes?'.
I felt sorry for the women on the line who started quite literally to splutter at me as she tried to justify the reason I should do as she asked.
After I got up and ate me wheeties my college then emailed me and told me it's gone through, they've received the money and that my place on the course is secure, at last.
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Can't work in the games industry for minimum wage, but I can work in law enforcement for a pension.
Can't get an adult learning loan because I need to feed information into the human machine with the right hole punched as they don't hire people who can color outside of the lines.
That, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is bureaucracy at it's very finest; retarded actions done because it's protocol with a complete absence of good judgement, common sense, and intelligent thought.
But that's OK though, because if I don't go do my college work I'll never pass the CKP course, and be able to take the training which will lead to employment, and then be able to pay the loan back once I'm earning, so it'll work out alright in the end heh...heh...oooh...
Bai.