Onwards and Upwards

October 27th, 2004 - 18:42 | 6 comments

Today I closed down Ballistic Duck Systems. I’ve been preparing for this for a while, and today the letters went out to my clients. I’ve shut down the website too, though the email addresses will still work. Although I liked the idea of running my own computer company, I wasn’t terribly good at it, and was increasingly unhappy. Kate was the only thing keeping me going for most of this year, and even before we split up I was thinking of cutting back substantially. Mum and Dad have been rocks over the last few months while I’ve been deciding what to do and basically rebuilding myself from the ground up, and I’m incredibly grateful to them. Also Ben, Lynsey and Nod have been great listeners and have shown me that nobody thinks I’m a failure, which is something I was worried about, and I owe them huge thanks too.

So here’s the plan. I’m working on two A-levels from home through the National Extension College. One is Maths, as it’s always riled me that I dropped it early at college, leaving me with a D. I think that I now understand the value of learning, something I was completely unaware of at college, so I should do much better this time around. The other is Physics, a subject I’ve become increasingly interested in over the past couple of years. I’m filling my time with piano lessons, computer games and reading; I also want to get into a regular routine to get some good writing in. My writing course fell by the wayside a bit during my OU courses, so I shall try to get back into that. I’ve got to be more social as I’ve realised that, despite my theories about doing fine on my own, I’m at my happiest when surrounded by friends, so shall try to proactively arrange get-togethers and similar.

Assuming that I enjoy the physics A-level as much as I think I will, the plan is to then do a physics degree. Of all the universities I’ve visited Oxford is by far the nicest, so I’d love to go there. I’m not as brilliant as the people I know who went, though, so we’ll have to see how the A-level goes.

So that’s that. Another new beginning for me. I’m hoping that this one won’t falter. I’m simultaneously scared and excited. Last week I received an email from myself sent exactly a year ago. I can’t imagine where I’ll be this time in three.

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6 Responses to “Onwards and Upwards”

1 Edward Oct 27th, 2004 at 10:58 pm

Woah - this is gonna be tough. Good luck with it all!
2 Simon Oct 28th, 2004 at 1:24 am

I have always admired you for getting out there and setting your own path. I wasn’t sure if your business would work out, what with the lure of budget computers from large retailers with in-house ’support’. However, you seem to have made it work and from what you have said its more personal reasons for your decision. Its great that you have the courage to go back and start again and I am sure you will make a success of whatever you set your sights on. Good luck with your A-levels.

Regarding Oxford, make sure you squeeze everything you can out of Ben, and myself and Ed ofcourse, before you make a decision. I haven’t experienced other unis but I am sure it is a very different kind of place and I know that I experienced a reasonable amount of depression there at times. Whether thats just uni or the system there I don’t know, but its worth making sure
3 Nodster Oct 28th, 2004 at 11:41 am

Best of luck matey, you already know i think your gonna excel at it!

And Yeah! we really ought to set some stuff up damn those people with m-f 9-5 jobs
4 BodHack Oct 28th, 2004 at 8:39 pm

I wish you the best of luck, as always…and thanks to your excellent choice of subjects I can even help out if you get a bit stuck and the textbook/tutor doesn’t help (as invariably happens!)

As Simon says, feel free to ask any questions about Oxford, I’d be more than happy to answer them. Maybe you should get a prospectus and have a flick through?
5 Lil Oct 31st, 2004 at 12:48 pm

Wow, that sounds like a pretty great new beginning to me =D Like Simon said, Ballistic Duck was an achievement - and now you get to go on and achieve even more =) Of course, I personally think anyone who does Physics is insane ;D
Good luck, and enjoy! =D
6 Joe Adam Nov 1st, 2004 at 4:09 am

Hey, good to see you made it all the way across in one piece. You have now seen far more of the US than i have, despite the fact that i’ve been living here for two months i haven’t yet left Boston cos MIT is evil and piles work like you’ve never seen on you before.

Still random road trip next weekend and Las Vegas at thanksgiving. Then NY at Xmas

Hope your doing well back in Blighty, shame to hear about flying pig systems, but if anyone asked me to run a company i’d run as far as possible in the other direction.

Joe

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