Month: January 2007

Change versus Routine

Reading time: 2 mins

As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy change. I think most people do, as the dull and predictable, staid and static life soons becomes a ditch-water dull drag.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for routine. The familiar lends itself to easy comfort.

At the moment I’m trying to balance the two, change and routine, routine and change. My work routine of the past few years has changed and, as that has the largest bearing on my time, the rest of my daily/weekly routine is changing too. But that’s fine, it was expected. Anticipated change is a good thing.

The main stuff is first, when to leave the house in the morning, when best to leave the office at night, that kind of thing. Of course it has to be fitted into the ‘home’ routine; Monday and Tuesday nights Louise is out early, I’m out on Wednesday evenings. After that come the secondary activities, running and design work for me, then the daily tasks and finally the downtime for watching TV, reading books and so on.

Naturally that routine is up for change, but by and large it can be consider constant, within acceptable boundaries…

Of course what this doesn’t really factor in is those curveballs life enjoys pitching at you. That unexpected expenditure, the unplanned DIY (think broken fence post), and other less pleasant life events.

And that’s when stress becomes a factor. The unexpected change to routine hits hard and you start to fight back, desperate to keep your routine, to keep things normal, to stay in control as much as is possible.

But if you take a different viewpoint then, well, it’s just more change to deal with so I guess I need to clarify my position. I enjoy EXPECTED change.

Now, if you’ve read this far you are probably hoping I have some sort of point. Naturally I don’t. I’ll leave that up to you lot.

Which do you prefer? Change or routine? And are the two mutually exclusive?

United 93

Reading time: 2 mins

Movie info from IMDB
Movie reviews from Metacritic

Having cancelled our UGC/Cineworld monthly passes towards the end of last year, we’ve kind of fallen away from watching movies at all. However we are now getting to the point that the movies coming on TV (via Sky Movies) are ones that we missed at the cinema, starting with this one.

It’s the story of the final flight that was hijacked on September 11, 2001, the flight that didn’t hit the intended target. The passengers decided to fight back, and the plane crashed in a field. No-one survived.

Putting aside certain issues – at what point do movies like this cross the boundary from ‘faction’ into documentary – it’s a hugely engrossing and moving film. Shot in a very documentary like fashion, we see all sides of the story in real-time. The incredulity that quickly turns to a stunned fear on the part of the ‘officials’ involved at the FAA, and in the military, the spreading fear and anger that permeates the aircraft itself, and the determination and nervousness of the terrorists themselves.

Of course the movie is entirely made up of guesswork, most of which comes from the transcripts of calls made by people on the flight to their loved ones back home. However, by keeping the flight and it’s passengers central to the movie, you are never given any let up in the tension, and this leads to a hugely affecting movie. Despite knowing how it ends, I did begin to feel myself drawn in, to begin to hope that the passengers would be able to wrest control of the plane itself. The final moments are shattering.

This movie caused a lot of commotion when it was released, but I suggest it’s a movie that should have been made when it was, and one that should be watched.

The perfect loser

Reading time: 3 mins

I’m a terrible loser. Awful. No matter how I might try and disguise it, I hate losing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m resigned to the fact that there are people out there who are smarter, faster, stronger, fitter, and lots of other “-ers” than I, and that’s fine. But if I think I should win something, and I don’t? Ohh my, not a pretty sight.

Hissy fit central.

Of course I do use this mentality for my own benefit, particularly since I took up jogging. It’s not always applicable of course, especially as it’s not a competitive jogging group (e.g. it’s not a running club), with the focus very much on the team ethic. But when it comes to the races (OK, I’ve only done one so far) well then I can turn my hatred of losing to my own advantage, taking unadulterated pleasure in running past people. Even if she was 72…

However I am currently failing at a couple of things, and it’s really beginning to bug me.

Failing 1

Funnily enough it’s the running. I’ve been too ill to contemplate going out, and the one jog I did last week set me back about two weeks. I thought I was doing OK, thought the headaches, congestion and hacking cough had calmed to a mild runny nose.

And it had.

Then I went for my first run of the year, and the next night I barely made it in the door and spent the entire evening, motionless, on the sofa. Despite being fully dressed, including added fleece, being ensconsed under a blanket and having a hot water bottle wedged under my jumper I just couldn’t get warm. I was shivering and lethargic and… yeuch. Not nice at all.

So I didn’t go out on Sunday as I had planned. I didn’t go out on Wednesday as I had planned. I won’t be going out this Sunday as I had planned.

And I hate that. I’m falling behind in the schedule, and that, to me, is failing.

Yes there is little I can do about it but that’s not the bloody point!

Failing 2

Click. Whirrrrr.

Or not, as digital cameras don’t make that kind of noise these days (well mine doesn’t since I told it to shut up).

One of my silent resolutions for this year was to take more photos. Now I’m not beating myself up about this one too much as we are only 20 days into the year, but surely a good start would be to take my camera with me more often?

Looking at it, sitting gathering dust on my desk at home, whilst the new lens remains unopened, shames me. It’s not that hard to lift it alongwith the rest of my stuff. Especially now I am taking the car to work, it’s not like I have to lug it about with me, and even then it’s not that heavy…

Yet I continue to ignore it.

Admittedly I don’t really have the time to wander about with a camera during the day, and there isn’t really that much in the area surrounding our office anyway. Admittedly the office building is hugely photogenic, and I will start taking some photos of it, but will need to suss out some of the quieter times in the office.

The commute doesn’t really lend itself to many photo opportunities either so I’m faced with scheduling some “photo days” or something. Naturally these can be coupled with days out, visits and whatnot but, as I continue to experiment, I’ll want to spend more time and care over the act of taking the photos, rather than my current “pause – shoot – walk on” method.

I also need to learn how to hold the camera steady, but that’s a different topic.

So there you go. I’m not perfect. I know it’s a shock to many of you, but I think it’s healthy to have a few faults. Or, in my case, two.

Cos, you know, those aside… I’m perfect me.

I is not racist

Reading time: 3 mins

Deary me. Such a silly little TV programme causing such a stir. Let me just mount my “I haven’t been watching it this time” high horse, and we can get started.

Firstly I’ll state that I’m not interested in who said what, as my firm belief is that any kind of racist statement is a deplorable outcome of ill-education.

Secondly I’ll state that whilst I haven’t really been following this, it does seem to be very much a “reap what you sow” kind of situation, with the sickening implication that Channel 4 are probably, privately, pleased with the increased viewing figures and profile for the show.

Thirdly, it would seem that the main conflict isn’t race but intellect*.

After an exchange of words with Shetty, in which Shetty told Goody she needed elocution lessons, Goody launched into an expletive-ridden rant to Lloyd and O’Meara in which she said “fake” Shetty needed “a day in the slums”. [via]

The key issue, for me, is not how we correct this now, but how we MUST act to correct this for the future. And yes, as ever, it’ll be back to that old adage, education, education, education.
Continue reading I is not racist

All change!

Reading time: 2 mins

So, there are a few things around here that are still a bit.. erm.. broken. In the spirit of transparency, and in case I’ve missed anything that you’ve spotted, here is everything that will be fixed or changed in the coming week, fortnight.. month?

  • Archive page – this will be slightly different from the previous one, depending on what plugins I can get to work
  • Comments – still some work to do on these, I’d like to be able to highlight MY comments, and I still think it needs some tidying up. I’d definitely like to “pretty” up the comment form itself.
  • The “First Visit/Previous Posts” area still isn’t quite how I want it. Might need to span both columns to stop it wrapping at smaller window sizes.
  • Search results need work, mainly showing more, truncated, results on a page. Also need to decide whether to lose the sidebar for ‘single’ pages (a decision that rolls out across other areas of the site).
  • More whitespace between the columns? Maybe.
  • The link colours still elude me, I quite like the contrast between the main content links and the sidebar area.
  • Blogroll needs a drastic update!
  • CSS issues – a variety of annoyances thanks to IE collapsing margins, most notable in the comments (the numbers are cropped in half).
  • Double-checking the banner is properly centred!
  • A “go” button on the search box at the top of the page will be added.

Suggestions are encouraged as ever. I write the content for me, but how the site used is solely aimed at you, dearest reader. And no, I’m not changing the font (it’s been this one for AGES, that bit didn’t change!).

Of course all of this is simply procrastination, but I figure if I post this list I might actually get some of the items fixed. Maybe.

In the meantime, I’m sure the Post of the Week site will keep me busy.

I should…

Reading time: < 1 min

… mention the whole “Act of Union” thing, give my view of it as a Scotsman, and whether or not I think it should be changed.

… discuss the documentary on Margaret Mead that was on BBC4 last night (part 1 of 3 of a series on anthropology).

… point out that the Brits are fast becoming a farce and I really don’t care who is nominated today (although I’ll still want to know).

… be trying to source some new music. I was asked on Sunday if I’ve been listening to anything new and for the first time in ages I had to say no.

… be contacting Sky and finding out why they charged me an extra thirty quid last month.

… be continuing to work on this site.

… have something else to say, ANYTHING else to say.

But.

I’m not. I won’t. I have no inclination to bother.

This is mainly as I’m still adjusting my ‘schedule’ to my new job. This is mainly because I’m getting home completely wiped out. This is also because I’m still trying to get rid of this feckin’ cold.

And, of course, this means that tomorrow (or more likely later today) I’ll have several flashes of inspiration. Funny how that works.