I have a huge challenge ahead of me with all this work I have to do at university now. I want to do well, but its so hard to tailor it to what they want from you.. But at the same time I am strangely relaxed (I sometimes get very stressed). It has to be put in to perspective of life in general - life is a beautiful delicate thing... its difficult to explain. These sorts of things really aren’t the most important in life.. you have to make your own mind up about that, instead of what society tells you. I want to do this degree so I can use my knowledge to help with some pressing issues in the world, but I can only do my best. If I am afraid its because I want something else, the feeling of success etc.
I was reading an article about illusion - about wanting to draw attention to oneself once you get in to power, (or before) and then that detracts focus from any good work you are trying to do. And thinking you are more important or greater than other people is an illusion, and seeing it in yourself is the most difficult thing. What do people think about that?

It looks as if TIGUK is on its way to becoming a reality. I hope we can make it absolutely amazing!! A group of us met up recently to decide on what we want to do and how we can move forward. The main ideas involve providing a greater platform for people to have their say in government, helping with local IT clubs, mentorship, using student unions to get to more young people, providing workhops and a TIG café serving as a place for info and networking, IT, huge board games and fair trade chocolate (yay!) which I personally am very excited about, but it might be too ambitious. I don’t want to let myself get too excited because there are niggling worries that it might not work probably from my previous experience a year or so ago when I tried to set it up. I tried really hard in all the ways I could think of to find other people to do it with me (i.e not just helping), putting adverts in publications, attending lots of conferences and so on. But at least I made some good friends and contacts along the way.
Sometimes effort really isn’t enough, everything has to be in the right place for it to work maybe… the right people for the engine to work have to come along. It looks they have now, and if you are reading this I was very glad to meet you all! Thanks especially to Luke for his can-do, hardworking attitude.

It looks as if TIGUK is on its way to becoming a reality. I hope we can make it absolutely amazing!! A group of us met up recently to decide on what we want to do and how we can move forward. The main ideas involve providing a greater platform for people to have their say in government, helping with local IT clubs, mentorship, using student unions to get to more young people, providing workhops and a TIG café serving as a place for info and networking, IT, huge board games and fair trade chocolate (yay!) which I personally am very excited about, but it might be too ambitious. I don’t want to let myself get too excited because i have niggling worries that it might not work out probably from my previous experience a year or so ago when I tried to set it up. I tried really hard in all the ways I could think of to find other people to do it with me (i.e not just helping), putting adverts in publications, attending lots of conferences and so on. But at least I made some good friends and contacts along the way.
Sometimes effort really isn’t enough, everything has to be in the right place for it to work maybe… the right people for the engine to work have to come along. It looks they have now, and if you are reading this I was very glad to meet you all! Thanks especially to Luke for his can-do hardworking attitude.