bookmark_borderAn open letter

Dear sitcom writers,

I’m getting a little fedup watching endless repeats of Friends and Frasier, and whilst Everybody Loves Raymond has some funny moments it’s a little sub-standard. Of course I’m quite content to fill my time with QI, and the like but ultimately I miss watching a good sitcom. I’ve tried most, few are palatable.

I’ll happily admit that I’m quite a fussy TV watcher (which is why I’m currently trying out things like The Wire) easily ditching bog-standard TV fare for a good (or bad) movie or live sport, after which you lose me to gaming, books or other non-TV activities. You seem to be aware you are losing this battle but you aren’t really putting up much of a fight, are you?

Yes, I know those writer people are on strike, but this has been going on for a while now. Lost, Desperate Housewives filled the void for a while but lack longevity, and Heroes is a completely different kettle of fish so don’t even start me on that.

I quite like a good sitcom, and their popularity suggests that others do as well (mind you, that also suggests that Coronation Street has some value.. hmmm) so, when you get a moment, could you please resurrect the concept and write a decent one, please!

Yours hopefully,

Gordon McLean

(And to my readers, ARE there any reasonable sitcoms out there? Am I missing out?)

bookmark_borderWhat of Scottish Blogs?

But first, a cat update: Ollie is fine, no cone as, apparently, they don’t use stitches any more? He was a little groggy last night but was up and hungry as usual this morning. And I said this wouldn’t become a ‘cat’ blog. Hmmmm.

And so, onto Scottish Blogs. The website lost hosting late last year, and whilst I have a backup of the database that was only a week old, most of the site details in the directory are safe. However I’m now faced with starting over from scratch which, from a coding point of view, is a good thing. When I built Scottish Blogs it was largely done piecemeal as I was learning PHP as I went, leading to problems later on that, with my lack of knowledge, I couldn’t have foreseen. So, a clean slate is a good thing and would allow me to ‘get it (more) right’ from the start.

However, to be frank, I’m not sure I have the energy, inclination nor desire to rebuild and relaunch the site and, judging from the paucity of emails bemoaning the death of the Scottish Blogs website, I can only presume that no-one else is missing it either. So why am I bothering?

At present I’m not sure what, if anything, will replace the Scottish Blogs directory. Whilst I harbour grand plans of growing an online community, I’m not entirely sure I have the bandwidth to do so at present. With that in mind I’ve quite deliberately not done anything with the website since it died late last year and the overwhelming silence confirms that it was probably about time I killed it anyway.

Yet somewhere, in the depths of my brain, I am sure the site was useful to some, so I remain unsure as to the final fate of the website. Perhaps I need to co-opt some volunteers to help get it back off the ground, perhaps I need to hand over the entire thing to someone else (unlikely, but possible), or perhaps I need to make more of an effort to illicit some feedback from others.

Regardless, this isn’t something I’ll be looking at anytime in the next couple of weeks, that’s for sure.

bookmark_borderToday I am mostly…

He may be a new addition to our house but little Ollie is already well settled. We understand his moods and wants, and he’s already squirmed his way into our hearts.

Which made leaving him at the vet this morning all the harder, doubly so as, when I bent down to say goodbye he stuck a little black paw through the railings of his carrier cage. Bless.

Ahem.

In other news, the Conservative Party plan to make people to ‘community work’ if they have been unemployed for over two years. If they don’t do it, they don’t get their benefits.

I quite like the sound of this, given that the perception is that a fair number of people who are claiming benefits are doing so with no good reason and are quite happy leeching off others and not contributing to society then I welcome this kind of scheme.

Yes, yes, of course there are people who are genuinely unable to work, and I’d hope this scheme deals with such cases, but I like the sound it! Let’s get those lazy buggers contributing to society!

But, of course, this is likely to be an infringement on their civil liberties, human rights, or somesuch. In other words, there will be some way of getting out of this scheme as well.

And finally, I am still without Wii, thanks to Amtrak courier services for not allowing me to specify a pickup time, and as they only allow you to pick it up from their depot after TWO failed attempts, I won’t get it until Wednesday at the earliest.

Still, I’ll have a poor wee cat, tottering about with a cone round his head for the next few days, so I guess I’ll have my hands full as it is.

bookmark_borderWriting for Translation

In the coming month I’ll be migrating some content from FrameMaker to AuthorIT and, whilst doing so, I’ll be taking a little extra time to re-write the content to be as re-usable friendly as possible, mainly because it’s likely we’ll be starting to localise our product at some point this year.

I’ve a good idea of what is required when it comes to engaging a translation agency, I was involved a little in this area at a previous company, but have to admit that I’ve not really given the writing style required as much thought as I should’ve.

Still, hindsight is 20/20.

A phrase which, of course, would be hard to localise… ironic.

So I’m doing a little research but thought I’d ask here to see if anyone has any pointers (I’m going to be asking more questions here than I have previously, and I’m also going to steer clear of mailing lists a little, too much noise these days).

Writing for translation then, any top tips? Suggestions or advice?

bookmark_borderWhat’s in store for 2008?

Back after a couple of weeks of merriment, over-eating and general lazing about. Hopefully the festive season was as good to you as it was to me.

But enough looking back, this time of year is all about looking forward. So what is coming up in the next 12 months?

Well, I’m hoping to start migrating some content from Structured FrameMaker to AuthorIT, having decided that the overheads required to get DITA up and running just don’t stack up against the cost of ownership of AuthorIT. I’m a big fan of the principles behind DITA, and I will keep up-to-speed with progress, but it doesn’t suit our needs here.

I’m also hoping to post a bit more often here, and I’m also toying with writing up an article or two for the ISTC magazine, Communicator. As ever, those will be the first things to go when project deadlines need to be met, but I’ll give it a try. One thing I won’t be doing is undertaking an MA in Technical Communications. The course starts this month and there is just too much going on in my life at the moment… maybe I’ll join the September influx. We’ll see.

I will, of course, be expanding on the themes I’ve been posting about recently, specifically the role of the modern Technical Communicator in a forward-facing software company. I’m hoping to make some strides in this area and I’ll be sure to write up my thoughts on a variety of topics. I’m also hoping to hear more from YOU, dear reader. Whilst I did start this blog as a way of getting my own thoughts straight, it’s been great to read your comments over the past year. Blogging is all about the conversation, so please, don’t be shy.

Here’s to a wonderful year!

Right, I’m off to write up that article I had completely forgotten about.

bookmark_borderContrary

Back to work in the morning and I’m quite looking forward to it, be good to catch up with people, and start the new year with enthusiasm.

Or am I just saying that?

And, even if I am just saying it, is that enough to actually make me believe it?

You see, despite coming across as a fairly happy kinda guy, and whilst I have nothing to complain about in my life, I do tend towards morosity (if that’s a word), pessimism, cynicism and down right dour-facedness. It’s just that I tend to keep that part of me bottled up.

In fact, I am so conscious of the fact that I tend to over-compensate and that leads to my current state of mind where I find myself managing to affect my thinking simply by suggesting what I want it to dwell on.

So, instead of pondering the awfulness that is my first 6am rise in just over 2 weeks, I am focussing on what I have to get done in the next week and wondering about what other people have been up to, and with that I find myself looking forward to the first few days back in the office.

It’s the same with the whole “Humbug” thing. I’ve been actively fighting that mindset for a couple of years now and have to admit that, last year, I embraced Christmas a whole lot more than I have done previously.

I guess, after going through a (thankfully) short bout of depression several years back, I tend to find the good in situations and people because, if I don’t, I ended up all gloomy and morose. I’m not forcing myself into any sort of false cheeriness or anything, but I do seem able to better control my moods these days.

Although that does mean that I’m in danger of turning into one of those awful people who is constantly cheery about everything, all the time. I went to school with a guy like that, couldn’t stand him.

Anyone else do this kind of thing?