Month: March 2006

You know…

(stolen from the ever lovely Gunnella)

… you are living in 2006 when:

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

12. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

13. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

14. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

I’m only posting this because I did (14) and I am laughing. For the record, I don’t do 6, but have a wife who does… and 3 should be expand to say that you don’t KNOW the numbers as they are stored under names on your mobile. These are the times.

March 24, 2006

Enough

Thank you ALL for responding so generously over the past couple of days. It’s been fun for me, and I hope not TOO boring for you.

I’ve got a few ‘action items’ from it, least of all the comment form order thingy, but mostly I’m just happy that YOU seem quite happy coming here. Putting aside the “I do this for me” ethic of blogging there is an amount of satisfaction to be taken from “doing it for others”… and I’ll leave that statement dangling for you to add your own double entendre.

~

A quick word of thanks to Lyle who has, again, helped me with a small coding issue for the new “post of the week” site. I’m hoping to get it finished by the first week in April or so, along with another bit of work for a project that I can’t mention (yet). Hopefully that’ll free me up for a third bit of design work for a certain blogger. We do like to keep busy.

The backdrop for next week is mainly long long hours in the office. It’s the ‘final week’, pressure is on and so we all settle in for the long haul, hoping that getting ‘free’ pizza will be enough to maintain morale. It doesn’t. And it’s not free anyway… stop stop, I don’t blog about work..

~

It’s Mother’s Day this weekend and I know my Mum understands that this particular year will be a hard one for Louise and that I’ll need to be there for her. Louise has been up and down in the past few months as we plow through a series of ‘firsts’ — first Xmas and New Year, first time seeing her Dad again, first time back in the flat in Spain, first time Crufts has been on (my in-laws bred Golden Retrievers for a few years) — and there are many more to come. None of them getting any easier.

On Saturday we are going to visit my Mum, give her a great big cuddle and tell her that I love her, and then on Sunday, weather permitting, we will be joining Louise’s brother and sister (and probably a couple of nieces and nephews) for a walk round Cashel Forest where we have a tree dedicated to Grace.

It’s odd. I’ve hardly mentioned Grace’s passing on here, obviously still too raw, or too personal. She is so very sorely missed.

Actually, I know why I’ve not mentioned it. It’s hard to type with tears streaming down your face.

~

Wrote the above late last night, tired, emotional and drained. Wrote the following this morning.

~

Friday at last, a quick week that has left some things unmentioned; Only a few days until the smoking ban kicks in for which I’m mainly glad I won’t stink of smoke after a night out.

Having discussed 4x4s before I’ll just say that the Chancellor isn’t fooling anyone as the people who can afford these big inefficient cars can afford the hike in tax and that I’m not against 4x4s but “gas guzzlers” (but do think some people have 4x4s for the wrong reasons).

And finally, what a refreshing change to hear a politician talk sense. The First Minister (“Big Jack”) was quoted in this mornings Metro as saying that “whilst Flower of Scotland was a good anthem at a rugby match, stirring the fans and inspiring the players… Scotland the Brave is a better choice for things like the Commonwealth Games as it’s largely the tune that is important in those occasions”. Spot on. He also states that we DO need a common national anthem, and I wholeheartedly agree, ohh and, while we’re at it, can we get one to give to England please. They seem to think “God Save ‘Our’ Queen”[sic] belongs to them… quite frankly they can have her if the rest of us can stop singing that drearily awful song.

March 24, 2006

Answer

Well that was interesting. A few random thoughts about yesterdays… um… experiment. Yes, let’s call it that. Makes it sound a little more like I planned it rather than just fell prey to the insatiable “muse of frequent blogging” (she’s beginning to get on my nerves mind you, I much prefer the caring caress of her sister the “muse of quality over quantity”).

Do you ever sometimes think you should just delete a sentence or, and this is purely for example, the previous set of parenthesis? I digress (quite often).

So many of you were kind enough to take the time to comment yesterday I thought I’d better make some effort to respond. As I said it was purely a post born through time constraints but my, aren’t we an eager lot when asked a simple question!

It seems that, in no particular order:

  • Some people come here mainly because of the content
  • Some people come here through habit
  • Some people feel they “just should” come here
  • Some people enjoy the content but don’t enjoy the diary type stuff
  • Some people take solace that other people think the same way they do
  • Some people prefer the Overflow (miniblog)
  • Some people like that I make them think

All fairly common reasons for visiting any blog I reckon, but it’s good to have a little bit of proof sometimes, no?

As to whether I care about WHY people visit, rather than just that they visit at all, I’ll turn all that stat watching on it’s head and claim that I enjoy writing, I enjoy the discussion, I enjoy the people (that’s you lot).

It does tell me that no-one comes here specifically for the photos and, judging from the tone of most comments and the fact that most people have been visiting for a while, that the archives aren’t hugely important to the large majority (I’m extrapolating slightly though, feel free to contradict me). Neither section is going away mind you as *I* enjoy them.

The real surprise? No-one commented on the fact that the order of the comments box had changed (this is why).

Next question: How often do you visit without leaving a comment?

And yes, I’m aware that some of you wisecrackin’, smartarsin’ jokesters will bend this question to your own nefarious needs, but do try and fight the temptation, for a change… 😉

March 23, 2006

Question

This is not a plea for re-assurance, nor a cry for help. It IS a quick and easy post for which I make no apology whatsoever.

Look, just humour me, ok? Yes… AGAIN.

Why do you come here?

March 22, 2006

Stuck in draft

Patiently they sit, biding their time. Eager for limelight and growing nervous. What if they pass unnoticed?

As the slow trickle of sand reaches an end some of them wonder if they have already missed their opportunity and, if so, what then? In past times they were given a new life under a different guise, a subtle shift of opinion or view rendering their colours vivid, but now their fate is less certain. They have watched, with transfixed gaze, as others have been removed and deleted and, whilst this knowledge offers little hope, some succumb quietly knowing full well that this is always how it was going to be. Fate is a fickle mystery and holds no comfort.

And still, silently, they remain. Waiting and hoping for that one brief orgasmic release,  that sublime moment of dazzling light and unfettered attention. They wonder how it will be to sit alongside their own, to be considered whole and part of the same rather than singular outcasts viewed with sympathy.

Why do we tempt them so? Why do we write them only to watch as they writh and languish as our eyes pass over them each in turn only to fixate on the empty space below. Is it that we prefer the blank canvas? The renewed possibilities that tease us and offer new directions, a view uncluttered by hindsight?

We must, for how else can we suffer the incomplete, the ignored and neglected?

The lonely congregate together, drawing little solace from their shared condition, but quiet unspoken strength from their numbers.

Silently, and patiently, they wait.

March 21, 2006

Weekender

A stop/start weekend. Saturday saw us heading into Hamilton for some more supplies for Louise, a quick jaunt out to MacArthur Glen shopping outlet (more supplies for Louise) and then racing through to Dumbarton in an effort to beat the traffic that was sure to build up for the Cup Final on… um… Sunday. Thankfully my parents had also thought the Cup Final was on Saturday so I was glad it wasn’t just me… or I was slightly disturbed that I’ve started thinking a little TOO much like my parents… jury is still out on that one.

We caught up with my sister-in-law in the evening. She’s recently decided to put her university course on hold and it was good to see her looking stress-free and relaxed. She hates when I say stuff like this but I still have no idea how she manages to bring up four children (on her own), hold down a part-time job AND study and work for a degree. I admire her more than she realises, and certainly far more than I can express.

Needless to say with everything that has happened in our family over the past six months or so (only the major one was reported here) she was at the end of her tether. Thankfully the university administrators gave her the option of coming back next January to continue her course.

Sunday and whilst I flitted between computer and TV, Louise pushed on with the wedding invitations she has been making and has the bulk of the work completed. Photos will follow (for her site).

So, with another good Grand Prix passed, the week looms large and busy. I have one site to finish, another to wireframe, and all that Scottish Blogs stuff to look at (which I’ll admit has been pushed on the back burner for the time being). All I can say is, roll on April!

~

A quick word on the Commonwealth Games. I’m not following them in great detail, but I did note that Scotland won another couple of gold medals yesterday, and the Isle of Man won their first gold for 20 years. Bravo indeed.

I also have to mention the rugby. Congratulations to France, and well done Ireland for a thrilling win over England. To all my english readers, yes he DID step on the line, yes Cohen DID NOT step onto the field of play when he took the quick throw-in to himself but that isn’t why you finished so low in the table. Crying about it won’t change that fact.

And so, in closing, I’ll say “Congratulations” to the English ladies team who won their Six Nations tournament. Of course, it would be churlish of me to suggest that they probably wouldn’t have been mentioned on BBC Breakfast News this morning had the men’s team won… right?

March 20, 2006