I’ve been working as a freelance designer for almost four years, and it’s come to a point where I will be stopping indefinitely. This is because I am training to be a civil engineer, and as such must concentrate my efforts in this area instead.
I have enjoyed the past few years working for a range of wonderful clients and hope to stay in contact with them all in the upcoming future.
For anyone who is wondering what civil engineering actually is (I get asked this a lot), here’s a little video that should explain it a little clearer.
Okay, so I have decided to make my first open-source e-commerce theme. I was originally going to sell it but simply decided: hey, I may as well give it away! Well… something like that anyway.
It’s basically a clean, easy-to-use and highly adaptable theme that can be used for just about any kind of online store. Installation instructions are included in the ZIP.
It’s designed for the latest version of Magento (1.5), which is available to download for free at www.magentocommerce.com.
I would kindly ask that if you like it, please do put a link back to my site in the copyright area!
Before you say it, I know, that sentence has been said quite a bit as of late. This time, however, I really think there is a new contender in the realms of streaming. It’s name? Bloom.fm.
A product made in the labs at mflow, it’s their new application through which they’re hoping to win some of the market. They’ve turned their efforts away from their original browser-based offering, which I think is a good decision. Spotify has always won here as it’s got a brilliant interface, is highly reliable and works outside of the browser. This, coupled with the offline mode available by upgrading, has always been one of Spotify’s greatest perks.
A few hours ago I returned from the African continent back to a surprisingly sunny Britain, and I have to say the past few weeks have simply been amazing.
The Ghanaian children’s enthusiasm has continued to amaze me, and whilst we went there to teach, I think we too have a lot to learn from them. It’s undeniable that people in Africa are far less materialistic than those in Western countries, but it also seems apparent that they’re happier than us. It does make you ask the question of why we are so obsessed with money and success in countries like England, when this seems to have no correlation to happiness.
Anyway, back to teaching! This week I began with teaching transformations, which includes reflections, translations and rotations which I planned with my friend Stuart. These were the first lessons that I had taught alone since arriving, and I have to say I really did enjoy the challenge this brought. Whilst team-teaching can allow you to focus more on individuals, working alone does provide better value for money as the teacher is teaching a larger volume of students. I tried to make these lessons as interactive as possible, through getting them to complete and design mazes to discuss translations, and reflecting the pupils outside. They seemed to take to this well, and also appeared to be enjoying it.
So I’ve now been here in Ghana for just over two weeks, and it’s been absolutely fantastic. I have met some challenges this week though, and I will come to these later.
To explain exactly what we have been doing, we’ve been running Summer schools in some schools located near the capital – Accra. Whilst we were previously told we should be running the school from 8.00am to 1.30pm, the headmaster requested that instead we ran lessons from 9.00am to midday. For me this didn’t feel anywhere near long enough, though apparently these were the times the parents had expected it to run.
Last week we left England to head to Accra, Ghana to teach summer schools with Warwick in Africa. So far it’s been an amazing experience, where I have gone from only teaching a handful of maths lessons in Birmingham to leading lessons each day in Summer schools in Africa.
Over the past four weeks I’ve been working on site at a fire station being built in Gloucestershire, known as GFRS Cheltenham Road East site. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve learnt a lot about construction over a relatively short period of time. The fire station is one of four being built across the county as part of the scheme, with this one featuring a community centre using Glulam – a laminated wood veneer structure.
The site is just finishing working on the sub-structure of the station, where they are putting the drainage in across the site, and over the past few weeks the steel super-structure has been erected, and first and second concrete floors have been set.
So, my next move now will be to shoot off to Ghana, Africa for three and a half weeks! I will be teaching Maths as part of the Warwick in Africa scheme, where we are hoping to make a big difference to the children there through running Summer schools. Whilst I’m incredibly nervous about it all, I know it’s going to be a fantastic experience and really cannot wait.
Not too long ago, Mailchimp released a new design that allows you to easily create new designs for your admin area, which is great for agencies that might do work on behalf of clients. They call it co-branding.
So, in July I will be off to climb not one, not two, but three mountains in 24 hours! Who knows how it’ll go, but one thing’s for sure – it couldn’t be for a better cause.
I’ll be raising money for Warwick in Africa – a charity that sends a number of us Warwick students over to South Africa, Tansania and Ghana to raise the quality and standards of teaching. It’s had huge success since it’s launch five years ago.
Quick note: most applications don’t open until around February 2012 for the upcoming year, so please bookmark this page for details on when they’ll open…
I thought it might be useful to some people to have a concise list of where you can go to work at the festivals this Summer. Hopefully below will act as a starting point to what might be the best moments for you this Summer!
Before you say it, I know, that sentence has been said quite a bit as of late. This time, however, I really think there is a new contender in the realms of streaming. It’s name? 
So, in July I will be off to climb not one, not two, but three mountains in 24 hours! Who knows how it’ll go, but one thing’s for sure – it couldn’t be for a better cause.