Month: April 2005

TodoToday

Reading time: < 1 min

Being on holiday has it’s advantages. I can get up at 8.30 am, watch the penultimate episode of Huff, then ponder what to do with the rest of my day. Outside it’s murky grey and a sheen of drizzle is coating everything.

So I’ll be writing up a list of “recorded” DVDs (did I mention that I’ve now got a DVD recorder? It’s great, can record movies on Sky+ then dump them to DVD), cracking on with the HaloScan Wiki as there is a bit of a stooshy going on in the forums there (partly because I lost my rage a bit at continued sarcastic comments… yeah I know.. me getting annoyed at SOMEONE ELSE being sarcastic, who’da thunk it?), and I guess I’d better push on with the design for that other site for that new venture that I’m deliberately being cagey about to make it seem mysterious when really it isn’t.

Or I might read a book.

Or .. ?? Hmmm dunno.

In other personal news – this IS a fascinating post, isn’t it – having split open the wound on my back after I got my mole removed, the wound scabbed over. It’s been there for weeks, until this morning. It’s gone. The scab that is, not the wound. The scab was about the size of my thumbnail and quite thick, but I can’t find hide nor hair of it…

But then I did dream that I was eating sultanas last night…

April 26, 2005

Weekender

Reading time: < 1 min

Saturday I had a lie-in. Lounged around all day, watched football, X-Men 2 and pretty much did nothing. The most challenging aspect of Saturday was deciding when to go to the toilet. It was a much needed lazy lazy day after the last couple of weeks at work. That and I’d had a tickle at the back of my throat for a couple of days and figured I was fighting a small bug.

Sunday and with the blue skies calling us we headed out into the garden. I dug over a small area at the front of the house, ready to replant some Montbretia. However that was about it for me, I pottered around a little, then we stopped for lunch after which I fell asleep on the sofa for two hours. My darling wife left me sleeping and cut the grass!

My parents came over for dinner and I decided to take a couple of days off work.

Today I’ve been out in the garden, a little weeding, splitting and moving the Montbretia and more pottering about. Very pleasant.

I stopped at about 4pm and wandered to the bookcase as I’m currently without book. What do I spy there? Getting Things Done, the very book I mentioned on Friday. So I’ve started that AND The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, as I’ll need a literary distraction as well as a productivity “bible”.

Not entirely sure what I’ll do tomorrow, depends on the weather although the forecast isn’t good. I’ve a few things to tackle but I’ll make a decision tomorrow, once I see what kind of mood I’m in.

April 25, 2005

BANANAS!!

Reading time: 2 mins

Well apples actually… ohh ok Apple – the people who make all those lovely laptops, widescreen displays and the little white music boxes.

I hate them you see. Every where I turn I seem to be reading more and more about their latest little white box (and boy, is it tasty).

And now I really REALLY want one. And before you start pointing fingers (especially THERE, this is a family blog you know…) it’s not JUST because I’m materialistic and love their adverts. No no, there is a very good reason for this. Two in fact.

Reason One
The thought of simplifying the music choice for my commute to work appeals. Frequently you can find me standing at the platform at 7.50 am running my finger round and round the scroll of my iPod. Round and round and round I go, pausing, changing my mind, pausing, changing my mind. At 8am the train pulls into the station and I just randomly pick whatever track I’m on. Within seconds I’m wondering if maybe I should change it for something else… and I’m off again. Usually takes a good ten minutes to finally make a decision.

So an iPod shuffle would ease my problems. Every morning, plug it in, let it grab some random tracks, and just push play. Simple.

Reason Two
I don’t actually have an iPod. LOUISE has an iPod, I just use it more than she does. I’m fed up of her reminding me of this fact. I’m also fed up having to have a playlist of her music on … er.. her iPod. Don’t get me wrong I’ve nothing against the entire catalogue of crap 80s pop, honest, it’s just that… well… it’s crap and there is a danger that someone I know might see that I have “I think we’re alone now” by Tiffany on my iPod.

So if I had my own iPod Shuffle this wouldn’t be an issue. I could put MY music on it exclusively. You’d be saving my marriage. Think of it as an act of charitable goodwill.

So if you have a spare £100 lying around, I’ll have the 1GB model please. Thanks! (awfully generous of you, you shouldn’t have bothered, no really.. ohh it IS lovely, isn’t it…)

What? You want an incentive!? Aren’t saving my marriage and solving my “what music do I want to hear this morning?” issues enough for you?

Well, tell you what, how about I throw in a Flickr Pro account for ya, sweeten the deal? Ehh.. what else? A signed photo? Of course! Least I can do. Hmmmm what else? Go on, what would it take for me to get YOU to buy ME an iPod.

What can I do for you?

(You know this makes me feel cheap, and possibly even a little slutty, but I really don’t care…)

April 23, 2005

How the web works

Reading time: 2 mins

Or “The advantage of tabbed browsing”.

Before I start this is NOT a pro-Firefox post but I will be mentioning it as it’s my browser of choice. There are other browser that offer tabbed browsing.

Anyway, I was just randomly surfing when a post on Caterina’s site caught my eye. It’s about the book “Getting Things Done” which I’ve seen mentioned at 43 Folders and have on my Amazon wishlist, she links to a particular post on the 43 Folders website that itself contains several related links: a summary of the GTD methodology, a PDF of an annotated workflow of the method, another site with a more Windows based slant on some of the productivity solutions and the website for the man who wrote the book and started the cult of GTD (to uses Caterina’s phrase).

Caterina also mentions her new love for a certain brand of notebook, and offers a link to another blog post about them from where I find a link to a reseller of Caterina’s notebooks of choice and to the oft mentioned moleskin notepads.

Phew.

So why is this particular to tabbed browsing? Because I no longer need to move back and forward (or between open windows) to see the links between these sites as I used to do when attempting something like this using a single browser window (and you techies can keep your semantic definitions of windows to yourself, thank you very much). Maybe a quick screenshot will be better than my attempts to describe this.

Tabs opened in Firefox

It may LOOK confusing but you can follow my surfing thread from left to right, from Caterina through 43 Folders, GTD specific sites, on through David Allen’s site and to the moleskin notebooks.

And THAT, ladies and gentlepeeps (and everyone else inbetween) is why tabbed browsing is a good thing.

Now I just need to find a Firefox extension that will let me produce a list of all open tabs, and their URLs, and I’m a happy, although still knackered, bunny.

(And yes I’m aware of Session Saver but it doesn’t let you generate a list of the tabs stored)

This is all very much an excellent example of how a technology has been mapped to the way people work. Information design, if you will.

April 22, 2005

Meme: Fahrenheit 451

Reading time: 2 mins

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Not any of the ones that are incinerated. Simple really.

OHH not LITERALLY, but literaturally? (ohhh I just invented a word, ohh, no I didn’t). Anyway, I’d choose to be Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Why? Because of the songs of course (whaddya mean there are no songs in the book!!)

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Possibly Smilla from Miss Smilla’s Sense of Snow, or Gill Templeton from the Rebus novels, but nothing significant as yet.

The last book you bought is?
The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall. Not read it, and only bought it as I’ve been thinking about getting another tattoo at some point. Never heard of it before either so very much an impulse buy. I have to admit that I do occasionally buy books “by the cover” and I’ve yet to be disappointed.

What are you currently reading?
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. I normally have two or three books going at at time, but as I’m trying to actually FINISH some of the books I start I thought I’d stick with the tried and tested, one at a time method. It’s working so far.
I’m enjoying this book more than I thought I would if I’m honest, which is good because it was recommended by… er… dammit… memory like a … thingy… you know… fins… water…

Five books you would take to a deserted island
1. HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (a Trilogy in Four Five parts) – funny, makes you think, and would allow me to drift off into imaginary worlds.
2. How to get off a desert island.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
No-one as a meme is a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution (and I’m lazy).

April 22, 2005

Matchstick Men

Reading time: < 1 min

Awful nights slee… well I fall short of calling it sleep as it was more a night spent tossing and turning, checking the clock. Isn’t it amazing how much vitriol and hatred we can heap on such a simple device, after all it’s not the CLOCK’S fault I was up most of the night yet it was the focus of my hatred, desperation and more as it tracked my insomnaic process through the wee small hours.

So to work then, with a roll and sausage (lorne that is) and three cups of coffee to the good already. Cakes later will provide a sugar rush but I fear for the afternoon, poised as it is after lunch and knowing already of it’s fate. Stupor and quite possibly snoring.

Water now, by the glassful and Basement Jaxx blaring to “Plug it in, plug it in baby” but where? What source can I tap into to stem sleep, to fight off the dazing demons of daydream. I fear I will wander this day, lucid but stupefied, removed by a blur.

Fuck me, I’m knackered.

April 22, 2005