Month: March 2004

Reading time: < 1 min

Thank you all for your flattering comments about the re-design. I’ll let you in on a wee secret though, all I did was change two graphics, and two margin settings in the stylesheet. So the horizontal background image (repeated across the page previously) was replaced by a vertical background image. The banner was the other change. Then it was off to the stylesheet to make sure the background repeated vertically, to remove the ‘auto’ left margin and make the content column a little wider. Total time – 15 minutes. Sorry. It IS a good advocate for CSS design though.. sooo easy to change things.

Not finished yet, ohh and whilst I remember, for those STILL using 800×600 (you know who you are) I apologise for the horizontal scroll, however my main aim was to ensure the content remained visible at all times as that, I think, is the most important thing.

So onto the next phase of tweaks:
1. Add a little more room between the posts – possibly re-introduce a graphic between them?
2. Show/hide for the blogroll and the archives.
3. Figure out a way to make the miniblog stand out.
4. Make a decision concerning the URL – I’m swaying towards gordonmclean.co.uk as the MAIN domain, with the .com and snowgoon.co.uk as redirects.

Of course I’m far too busy to do any of this… no really.. I’ve got real work to do, but well you know how it is.. put things off until the last minute… scared of failure… not confident in abilities… yadda yadda yadda… Oy! enough with the psycho-analysis already!

Reading time: 2 mins

(thanks for that word Lyle)

A quick bit of background: We are with Telewest who also supply my our broadband connection and cable TV package. We’ve been with them since we moved in here, about 2 and a half years ago. I’ve paid every bill by direct debit.

So, Friday afternoon I realise our phone line is dead. I phone customer support and they arrange an engineer for Monday (today) between 11a.m. and 2p.m.
Doorbell goes at 1.02p.m. I’m not surprised by this having had Telewest engineers out 3 times since moving here and they’ve always appeared on time.

Come on in, I say. The engineer says that there isn’t any need as he’s been trying to fix my problem for the last two hours but hasn’t been able to get anywhere.

Confused I ask him what he’s talking about. He explains.

Basically, seemingly (ridiculously) Telewest have ‘lost’ the fact that I have a phone account with them. So they disabled the service. This is despite the fact that on Thursday last week, the monthly bill came through, and I checked it to see how many international calls we’ve made (to Spain to Louise’s Mum and Dad) to see if the International calling package I’d had added to our account the previous month was saving us money (which it is).

GRRRRRR – surely there is some step in their procedure that states: if the person has been paying for a phone line, and has made calls USING the phone line then they are entitled to have the phone line. I mean it’s not like I was trying to cheat them but using a phone service I hadn’t paid for…

So they are going to phone me (!) to clarify the issue. I’m not sure if they will contact me on my mobile (which should be fun as the reception in the house is lousy) or if they will re-enable the phone line to do so, either way the matter of three days of lost service will be discussed!

Reading time: < 1 min

Was thinking of heading to bed early last night, decided to take a last flick through the channels and was rewarded with the opening scene for Man on the Moon. This was a movie I’d wanted to catch when it was at the cinema, and never managed it, I guess I could’ve picked it up on DVD but it kind of slipped my mind.

The film deals with the life of Andy Kaufman, best known as Latka Gravas in Taxi (you know, the one that spoke in a funny voice and wore white overalls). If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey in a serious role I’d suggest you watch this movie, he handles the role extremely well, handling the demons that came with Kaufman’s character with some empathy.

Rumours abound that Andy Kaufman staged his own death, but I doubt that.. although the film does hint at this in the final shot. Needless to say, when the movie ended I decided to find out a little more about the man, and came across a very good Andy Kaufman site (thanks Google).

Reading time: 2 mins

Bit blurry today, helped neither by the clocks changing nor the two bottles of wine last night. Still a quiet day planned, helped largely by the fact that our phoneline is dead (engineer out on Monday). So that leaves today free to… bugger.. do some work. Mind you, the wireless connection and the laptop mean I can do it from the comfort of the sofa (where this very post comes to you from) and have, currently, the Woman’s Premier League Cup Final on, although I’ll be switching over in about 30 secs for the Old Firm game, and probably watch Arsenal take apart Man Utd. later on.

Ohh and there are emails to deal with including two (well one was a comment) from friends of my parents, all prompted by my 1000 words entry, not to mention a hazy memory of agreeing to do a 12 mile walk for charity sometime in June. This falls nicely into place as just yesterday Louise and I were talking about doing more, getting fit, losing weight… all that stuff. For me this means exercise. This time last year I was playing football twice a week, the occasional game of basketball and even going to the gym now and again. Since breaking my foot late last year I’ve done precisely nothing to improve my fitness. Embarassingly I find myself out of breath just nipping up a flight of stairs. I’ve never been this unfit in my life and I’ve had enough.

I know all the ‘tricks’, take the stairs, get off the train one stop early, stop eating an entire pack of Jaffa cakes by yourself.. common sense stuff. I’ve considered Yoga (my flexibility is awful), jogging (not until I lose some weight), and will start by doing situps, pressups, and all that stuff you used to do at school. What I need is a cheap (free) home based exercise routine. Suggestions?

(Yes, I know I said I’d stop asking for suggestions but what can I say, I’ve been so impressed with your responses recently I thought I’d try with this – if nothing else it could be fun finding out just how fit us bloggers are… no?)

Reading time: < 1 min

This’ll be brief. It’s Friday, you’ve got better places to waste your time and I’ve got no time to waste. Likely I’ll be working this weekend. Mis-communication at it’s worst. Ho fuckin hum.

Finished reading Michael Marshall Smith’s One of Use. Very good. If a tad odd towards the end. Don’t want to say anything and I would recommend it to others… if you HAVE read it… well you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Things I won’t be covering today:
1. Celtic – well done, although I’m still surprised that the press are surprised by this as they made it all the way to the final last year with the same team!
2. Haywood and Padgett’s All Butter Melters – get thee down to your local and buy some. Just don’t look at the ‘nutritional information’ (you’ll need a large glass of milk to go with them too).
3. The fact that, having just had a deadline re-introduced, that bloody Rolling Stones track is playing again. What is this? Karmic retribution via iTunes??? Time is NOT on my side!!

Reading time: < 1 min

Today is not Thursday. Today is meeting day. I will return at some point, until then I give you the following. It was culled from a mailing list and seems to be equally valid for those who indulge in this world we call ‘blog’.

—
You are in a large lecture hall… the speaker is boring, or off-topic, or offends you, or is speaking about something you don’t understand. Since you are an adult, you can choose how you react:

1. Jump up on the podium and beat the speaker with the microphone.
2. Complain to the manager of the lecture hall.
3. Wait for the Q&A session, then ask the speaker a pertinent question.
4. Research the speaker’s topic and think about it for a while. There, you just learned something new.
5. Ignore the speaker and talk to the people next to you. Hey, the stuffed chicken is not too bad, and look! You can order drinks here!
6. Wait quietly for the next speaker. After all, the lecture was free, and you can’t expect to be happy with every topic.
7. Leave the lecture hall and come back later.
8. Leave the lecture hall and never come back.
—

All those for option 1!