bookmark_borderSpain was Spain

Peggy enquired how we got on in Spain last week and I guess I should mention it.

Thing is it’s not really a holiday as such. It’s more a sojourn, or retreat, or… some other words that has the connotation of going somewhere warm and doing sweet fuck all.

On holiday I like to do things, visit places, learn about the area, sample the cuisine, the nightlife, the culture etc etc. But when we go to Spain we are there to visit my father-in-law and so we fall into his routine. We’ve seen the surrounding area and he’s not big on doing tourist stuff anyway… so our days were pretty straightforward:

  • Wake up around 9am, sometimes later, sometimes earlier.
  • Breakfast, coffee, then up onto the roof terrace for some sun.
  • Midday, lunch. Usually in the flat, sometimes out for tapas.
  • Either back to the roof terrace or out to the local shop for supplies.
  • 4pm, pub for a couple of hours. A couple of beers and a coffee or two (Dos cafe con leche, por favor)
  • Home for dinner.
  • Siesta at 7pm.
  • Back to pub at 8pm
  • Home around midnight for a nightcap and bed.

We did venture up into the mountains one day, and had dinner out a couple of nights but that is largely our schedule for the week.

Peter, my father-in-law, like other ex-pats in the area, tend to develop such a routine. We see the same people come and go in the pub(s, he visits more than one) whilst we are there, and if someone doesn’t appear on time a phone call is made to check up. It’s a very tight knit community out there, and it makes it much easier on Louise to know that her Dad is taken care of… not that he needs it of course, but his little girl does worry about him sometimes.

Louise and I occasionally walk along the beachfront and just to prove that I was in Spain, here I am trying to look nonchalant whilst the locals were walking past wearing jackets, hats and scarves.
Continue reading “Spain was Spain”

bookmark_borderHappy being ordinary

I think it’s safe to say I am a fairly average guy, with an average life. I spend my working week at the grindstone, pottering about in the evening, watching TV occasionally, playing computer games, or mucking about on the computer. Weekends are usually full of family or the usual lot of the average man; B&Q, IKEA, and as much time spent sprawled on the sofa watching footie as I’m permitted. Occasionally we got out for dinner, or visit friends, or attend parties. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

It’s safe to say that I am not extraordinary.

And you know what, I’m quite happy with that. I’ve made peace with the fact that, whilst everyone is unique, mostly we’re all similar. We have similar habits, similar patterns to our daily to-ings and fro-ings. Yes, I’m happy being ordinary.

To a point.

Not being extraordinary does mean that you miss out on things. It means realising that others, those that shout louder, will get the attention and all too frequently the glory. I mean they do say “Nice guys finish last”, don’t they.

That makes me sound bitter when I’m exactly the opposite. I’m sweet. I’m sugar. Candyfloss and marshmallow am I.

Because, you know, one of the advantages of being ordinary is that when you do make a little noise, it goes a long long way. The rewards swing round, and you realise what you suspected all along.

Sure, the extraordinary noisemakers get the glory, but us ordinary people, we get respect and kudos. And you know what.

That suits me just fine.

bookmark_borderThe Big Picture

Deliverables are dead. Long live multi-format, anytime, anywhere delivery of information!

The more I think about it, the more I am beginning to see that creating content, writing and styling and planning, for “print” is no longer valid.

Quick caveat: Know your audience and the requirements. Many places mandate printed documentation in one format or another. I am purely talking about my own experience in a software environment.

I’m the first to admit that whenever I start thinking about updating a manual I think in print terms. I think of entire chapters of information, I think of how the user will be able to navigate and understand the layout and construction of the document. Changing those habits is proving hard but I’m slowly getting there.

Part of that change has come about by focussing on the information types we are going to be using as the building blocks of our single source system. Making each topic unique and complete within itself requires some thought and planning, and with that planning being focused on tasks, you soon get a simple outline of the required documentation including the type of information that you’ll be writing for each chunk.

As that realisation begins to sink in, the possibilities of re-use suddenly make themselves clear. It becomes a simple matter of drag and drop to create an entirely new manual, and a new delivery method becomes a simple matter of publishing to a new format.

The latter fits nicely with some current thoughts around how we get our technical information to our customers. Whilst I don’t think Author-IT would be the best solution, or at least the complete solution, I can see us focussing more on a web-based delivery of information, pulling other available content (from mailing lists and wiki pages) into an MSDN-like community website. Add in a blog and some interaction and it could very well be the shape of things to come.

As I’ve mentioned before, for a lot of people in the software industry, the internet is THE source of information. So rather than try and force how we want the information to be delivered (maintaining legacy documentation) I’m looking at how we can deliver something our customers will use, without succumbing to the Web 2.0 crazies. Yes it could have a blog, but does it need one? Yes we could use Twitter to provide ‘from the floor’ thoughts from the development group but who would sanitise them first!

Wikifying the doc set (to borrow a phrase) is a possibility of course, but that would only be part of this solution, and would have to include the ability to package it up as a different deliverable (PDF for example) so the information can be accessed when the internet isn’t available, a requirement of our documentation.

There are other considerations of course, all of which are still being thought through and will need discussion and buy-in.

Exciting times ahead I think. More on this as it develops.

bookmark_borderReady or not

I have made the lists.

I have checked the lists.

The lists do not lie.

I think I finally have a grip on … dammit … just remembered something else.

OK, let’s start over.

The coming few weeks will be hectic. The arrival and fitting of a new kitchen requires preparation, the erecting of a new fence in the back garden requires a little preparation too, and there is the small matter of an (overdue) website, on top of some new stuff at work which is REALLY exciting and which I’m trying not to let intrude into my ‘downtime’ (I’m failing on that count but I don’t really mind).

So I have a list of things that need to be purchased. A list of things that need to be done, ordered by when they need done by (paint the kitchen ceiling before it’s fitted, for example), and split into things that need done on the computer, and things that don’t. Fairly simple.

This is always the way of things, I no longer get (too) stressed out knowing that, in the end, things will come together and with everything safely stored NOT IN MY HEAD, then I can tackle the tasks as and when needed.

Although I’ve just thought of something else I need to do…

Right, I THINK I’m prepared now. Maybe.

Lemme just check that list one more time…

bookmark_borderLondon Calling – Take 2

Back from Spain, unpacked and back into the routine. The next few weeks will be busy, preparing for a new kitchen, finishing off a website (two on the go at the moment) as well as a few other things that have cropped up in our absence that need dealt with.

However, before all that and as I’ve already mentioned, I’m in London this coming weekend. Friday evening will find me in Charing Cross in the Ship and Shovell pub from around 4pm.

At the request of some, I’ve setup an Upcoming event for this momentous occasion. As I was told (or at least this is how I remember it) this is an incredible opportunity for you all to meet and greet the 17th most important blogger in Scotland. OK, maybe I’m over-egging it a little but I’m DEFINITELY the most important blogger in my house.

If you can be bothered to come along, and you have an Upcoming account, then it would be handy if you’d sign up to this event so I know how many people to expect. I know the pub has a maximum capacity so this will help me gauge the interest in what may be a once in an evening occasion.

I realise the location won’t suit everyone but as I’m hauling my ass down from Scotland, it really would be a little rude of you to complain, so suck it up. I will bring some signed photographs and if you are really lucky I may even let you buy me a drink. It’s only fair.

Hope to see you all there.

bookmark_borderDay in the Life

“Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head” sang Paul. And everyday I do the same thing, except the comb thing as there isn’t really that much there that needs combing…

I recently completed an article outlining a day in the life of a technical writer (well a day in MY life as a technical writer), and thought I’d take a stab at filling out the rest of the day on here. I can’t publish my ‘working day’ article until the magazine comes out, so there will be a big gap there but it’d just bore you anyway.

My typical weekday starts at 6.30 am. Well it used to, it now starts whenever a small black furry creature decides it’s time to leap up onto the bed and gently knead one of us awake (that sounds odd, cat owners will know what I mean). Regardless, the alarm goes off around 6.15 am, and the snooze button is quickly employed, at least once, sometimes twice depending on how many times I’ve awoken during the night. I tend to sleep lightly until around 3am so any noises or, say, cats leaping onto the bed, tend to wake me up.

Rolling out of bed, the first and usually most pressing matter to be dealt with is my bladder (too much detail?) and then it’s a quick shower and time to get dressed. I’m lucky that my darling wife doesn’t trust me to iron my shirts properly so there is usually one waiting for me, a quick check to see if my boxer shorts will last another day or whether I need to change them (I’m KIDDING!) and then an important part of my morning.

My office is based in a fairly out of the way location with no shops within walking distance, so the restaurant/canteen downstairs is our main source of food. I’ve tried my best to be disciplined and to make my lunch to take with me but it just doesn’t work and I usually end up buying my lunch at the office. With that in mind, when the company launched a salary sacrifice scheme for the canteen I signed up immediately (they are contributing 30% on top of what I put in so I’m saving money this way, kinda).

That means that I need to make sure I’ve got my wallet with me or I’m stumped. I still carry a couple of pounds in change, just in case, but after slipping my wallet into my back pocket, strapping my watch to my wrist and grabbing anything else I need for work (iPod, USB drive and occasionally my notepad or a book) I toddle downstairs for a glass of fresh orange.

Feed the cat, check his litter tray and generally potter until we are both ready to leave, usually just after 7am. The commute takes around 40 minutes most mornings, and I tend to drive the bulk of it as it involves a short spell on a country road which she doesn’t like driving. She’ll leave me at the office and take the car with her as she works about 10 minutes away. I don’t have a fixed time to start but have gotten used to the timings which allow us to miss the bulk of the traffic in the morning, and allow me an hour or more of peace and quiet until everyone else arrives.

These days I eat breakfast in work, typically Fruit and Fibre in a throwaway attempt at being healthy, then it’s coffee and my working day has begun.

[This is the bit that is getting published. It’ll get posted to my other blog in due course.]

As the clock rolls past 5pm I start thinking about going home. Louise and I trade the odd email during the day so I’ve usually got a fair idea of what is planned for that evening. She picks me up around 5.20 and we doddle home as quickly as the traffic allows to be greeted by Ollie who has, obviously, learned what our car sounds like.

We usually have a cup of coffee when we first get into the house, sort through any mail and double-check plans for the evening. Although since Louise changed jobs and we now commute together, we’ve usually covered all that so depending on what is in store sometimes it’s a straight dash for dinner. Louise is currently dieting (really well too, almost 2 stones in 4 months!) so she’ll prepare something that she can eat, and I’ll take a bit of whatever is on offer.

A little bit of TV whilst dinner digests, typically something we don’t need to concentrate on (hello Friends, Frasier, Simpsons, and Everybody Loves Raymond) and it’s time for some household chores. Of the two of us I’m the tidier, and tend to focus on that type of thing, which is handy as apparently I don’t hang the washing up correctly… hey that’s what I’m told, don’t blame me!

I don’t tend to watch “live” TV these days, unless it’s sport related, and the decision is usually to do some work on the computer, play a game (PS2 or Wii) or chill out and play with the cat. One of us will knacker him out at some point in the evening and the rest of my night, and more nights than is healthy, the PC will win the battle for my attention.

Bed beckons around midnight.

Boring huh. Still, it filled a blog post.