Month: January 2008

bookmark_borderLondon Calling

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On Friday the 15th of February I will be flying to London, I’m only there for a couple of days and I’ll be attending a birthday party on the Saturday night. That does mean that I have, at present, Friday night free.

So, my London-based blogging friends, are you about? Fancy a social gathering? I’ll be based in Wandsworth but I’m willing to travel. I have little to no knowledge of how far is too far when it comes to London, and I have little to no idea of where might constitute a reasonable place for some strangers to meet.

Ohh yes, we are strangers, don’t kid yourselfs. I may know a lot about you, and vice versa but it’s never the full picture now, is it.

Anyway, don’t let that put you off. I know many of you have been through the first tentative blogmeet type things, so let’s not call it that, let’s just say that some of us will meet in a pub/bar somewhere.

And yes, I know that what I’m basically asking is for someone to organise a blogmeet on my behalf but, honestly, I AM worth it. Honest.

So, Friday 15th February. Anyone free?

bookmark_borderThe happy luddite

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Pen in hand I pause, tongue creeping out over my bottom lip in concentration (a McLean trait), and try to remember what the hell it was that I was about to write down.

I’ve been doing that for the past week or so, transcribing lists from notepad to notepad, striking out completed items with slightly too much fervour, and replacing each one with another two things that need done, phone calls that returned and so on and so forth.

I spent 34 minutes on the phone to New Zealand the other day, an incoming call thankfully as I was at home. And then spent a further 10 minutes talking to two different people from the same place, convincing both of them that the matter was in hand and could they PLEASE stop calling ME and talk to EACH OTHER.

AHHH!!! I need to get the number for the company that replaced our fence last year.. that was it.

Some other items I forgot to note the other day, include my sister’s skydive on Saturday (for charidee), which I won’t be able to attend as I really need to get a haircut, take four boxes of crap to the dump, and another two to the charity shop, before I head into Glasgow to pick up some new shirts for work.

And it’s also dawning on me that I need to start considering what to pack to go to Spain (not clothes, BOOKS!) and there is the small matter of a trip to Hungary in May. It’ll be a relief to sit still for a while on Monday morning whilst visiting the dentist.

Anyway, this is all leading up to my main point. I think everyone is, or should be, aware that I’m a bit of a gadget freak, and whilst I have been trying to simplify things for a while, there is one thing that I don’t think I’ll ever manage to convert from the current lo-tech method.

Lists.

Without pad and pen I am utterly, utterly lost. The past fortnight has been manic and it’s telling that, whenever I’m under pressure I go back to basics and start scribbling. The immediacy of writing and maintaining a list by hand isn’t something you can replace on a computer or PDA.

I know this is all obvious stuff but suffice to say that I’ve now made my peace with it… although that isn’t without it’s problems.

After all, pad and pen are still ‘gadgets’, right?

bookmark_borderFive things

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I haz been tagged. In fact I’ve two meme duties to fulfill, so let me get this one out of the road first (it was way easier than the next one).

The idea of the meme is to list five things in your life now that you would have never thought would be in your life when you were 25.

1. A cat
Louise and I both grew up with dogs. That is we both had dogs in our families, we weren’t raised, Mowgli-like, by packs of wild canines. However as we both have full-time jobs, and are out of the house during the day time, we knew it wouldn’t be fair to get a puppy. However we both like cats, entertaining a neighbourhood white persian on occasion, and the possibility of getting Ollie came up we jumped at it.

Last night I fell asleep with toasty warm feet, and the soft purring lullaby of our little black kitten (he’s not even 5 months old yet, even though I think he’s older).

2. A posh car
Having spent a fair number of years commuting by train, I switched jobs and needed a new car. Something reliable and functional, and bigger than our previous car (a great wee Peugeot 206). The Honda Civic wasn’t the first choice but other than a few minor niggles I have to admit that it’s been brilliant. Yes it is a little more expensive to run but I gain on fuel economy (it’s a diesel and I’m fairly economic when I drive, most of the time).

Note: it’s not THAT posh but it’s the first time I’ve had cruise control, A/C and other ‘nice to have’ stuff. Plus it’s easily the most expensive car we’ve owned, and by FAR the fastest… er… allegedly…

3. A Mac
Well I HAD to have a techie thing in here, didn’t I.

Nine years ago, Apple were a bit of a laughing stock, and whilst I’d always been impressed with their software, I wouldn’t have gone near it with someone else’s bargepole. Roll back to last year and I was positively itching to get a MacBook. I’ve been loving it ever since. I only wish I’d decided earlier and gotten a MacBook Pro to replace my previous PC. Still, there is always next year…

4. Jogging
I hesitate to list this one but the long-term aim is to get back out there and, considering I’ve been through various spells of trying ways to lose weight and get fit, jogging is the one that I’ve enjoyed the most. To be fair that is all down to jogScotland as I still don’t really enjoy going out alone but twice weekly sessions with a group of people sharing the same desires and abilities (plod on!) made a huge difference.

God I really need to get back to it, come on knee, get with the programme!!

5. All of you
OK OK, it’s a little twee but I spend so much of my time writing this blog, and reading yours, that I have to list you guys and gals that take the time to read what I write as I waffle on. It amazes me that, as I head for my tenth year of online publishing (that CAN’T be right!) I still have people willing to read what spews from my head. Thank you. Sincerely.

And, being a meme I now get to tag 5 people. How about Lyle, NML, Jane, Cat, and Bob. And yes, that is a very carefully chosen list!

bookmark_borderMuji Manifesto

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Can’t recall where I saw this but it struck a chord so I grabbed the main tenets with a view to expounding on them at a later date.

However, as simplicity suggests, I really don’t need to bother.

  • Because there is complexity in purity.
  • Elegance in plainness.
  • Intricacy in streamlining.
  • Richness in reduction.
  • Depth in minimalism.
  • Surprise in uniformity.
  • Innovation in re-use.
  • Cool in the avoidance of cool.
  • And there is true sophistication in simplicity.

These were not written about Technical Communications but they might as well have been. I’m seriously considering printing these off and pinning them up on the wall.

bookmark_borderGrand Plans

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Speaking to my Mum on the phone earlier, we both discussed the need to have a “good clear out”, something we’ll be forced into next month as we are getting a new kitchen fitted. What better time to declutter one room and try and build some momentum to carry into others.

As we are getting the kitchen done then there is, of course, other things to be thought about. Tiles for the walls, flooring, heating (the kitchen is too small for a radiator), and assorted soft furnishings and final fittings. Today we visited a couple of tile shops and we’ve managed to agree on both tiles and flooring, it’s a miracle. Honestly, we have different tastes when it comes to these things and whilst we’d both kind of agreed roughly what we were looking for (a grey tile for the walls, and probably slate for the flooring… slate effect laminate that is) we are both equally fussy about the finer details of such things.

That said, if we can be careful with costs it is possible we might be able to get the bathroom done as well, even if it’s just replacing the mushroom coloured suite for a nice white one, and retiling the place. We’ll see.

It’s pretty much all go here at the moment, with a lot happening. Not only are we dealing with kitchen paperwork and considerations, we are still getting to grips with Ollie even though he’s made it very easy for us by being so laidback about things, we need to replace the fence in the back garden as it blew down in the high winds on Monday night (this time last year the other side was damaged!), we have our nephew’s 21st birthday next weekend, we are off to Spain early February and I’m down in London the week after that.

I’ve also been tasked with producing a long list of my ‘best’ photos, from which Louise will choose her favourite 12 to put up on the walls. We have the picture frames bought, having been inspired by Heather and Jon, so the onus is on me to get the next stage complete.

And finally, when the weather clears a little, we’ll need to paint the fence in the back garden and the porch needs re-varnished.

I really, REALLY, shouldn’t have bought a Wii…

bookmark_borderLeveraging the dynamics of writing

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I’ve spent the last couple of days writing an article for an industry magazine. It’s not something I’ve done before and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. It was aimed at CEO/CFO level, so was heavy on business aspects and lingo, not something I’m comfortable writing to be honest, I prefer plain english.

However, what really surprised me was how quickly I got into the mindset and soon I was “dynamically leveraging” and “interactively promoting” all sorts of things. Now I need shake myself to make sure it doesn’t creep into my normal technical writing.

Still, it was an interesting exercise and the skillset is the same, it’s only the language that differs. I still needed to write with the correct user in mind, needed to phrase and structure the information in a way that makes sense to them, and I needed to pitch the technical level of the article correctly.

Of course, as the article is for a magazine, the tone could be a little lighter and it was fun to experiment with this. For example, I opened the article with a first-person scenario which although I’ve been writing a blog for a few years now was still a challenge, for this humble technical writer!

I’m waiting on feedback from the PR company, but hopefully it’ll get published. Fingers crossed.