Month: May 2010

Too early

I AM WITHOUT LIE-IN, AND I AM ANNOYED!

It’s really not fair you know, the least we could get is a warming or quiet word to let us know it’s gonna happen but noooooooooooooo.

One day I’m perfectly able to sleep until 10am on a Saturday morning, the next and I’m lucky if it’s 8am.

I’m sure this is an ‘age’ thing.

With apologies to my olde wiser readers, whilst these things may be common knowledge to you (and if it is, could you PLEASE update the life user manual please, ta) it’s a recent discovery for me, and not really a pleasant one.

Along with the realisation that the hairs growing in my ears are longer than those on my head, this new desire to be awake before 8am at the weekend seems unnatural, unfair and entirely pointless.

Can’t I revoke this, or at least appeal on the grounds of IT’SNOTFAIR?

Worst still is that this newly found desire is worsened by the intake of alcohol. A couple of weeks ago, after one too many (or three too many, I lost count after the first Jägerbomb) I awoke, and please bear in mind this is after getting to bed at around 1.30am and that I was very drunk, not only before 8am but before 7am!

In that instance I can only conclude that my brain had been enjoy my drunken state so much it decided, after all about 4.5 hours sleep, that I should wake up again.

Seriously. What the fuck?

In saying that, it does mean that I’m starting to develop a very nice mid-afternoon napping habit…

May 15, 2010

First things first

I’m in the midst of interviewing to fill a vacancy for a technical writer in our team. I’m also thinking ahead as to how to get them integrated into how we do things. And then I remembered what we have done previously.

“Hello, welcome to our wonderful company. Here is a copy of the software, and the installation guide. Go!”

OK, it’s not quite like that but it is a good opportunity to check over a part of the documentation that is crucial but can be neglected.

Product installations come in all shapes and sizes, from those simple wizard driven screens to systems which require all manner of pre-configured and pre-installed supporting applications. The latter can be the trickiest as often there is a myriad of possible, valid, scenarios, and can lead to a lot of presumption.

Regardless, the installation is the first time the real users get to get their hands on your product and so it’s a good place to get reviewed by the closest person you’ll have to a new customer. A new member of your team.

May 11, 2010

Live music

In the past few weeks I’ve attended 3 gigs (with a 4th happening on Thursday). I’ve not written up any thoughts about any of them, a habit I’ve fallen out of because I know I struggle sometimes to capture my thoughts about live music, and I’m guilty of always having just attended the ‘best gig ever’.

I should pause and try and recall things in the cold light of the morning rather than when I’m still bubbling from the atmosphere and emotions a gig usually instils.

So, with that in mind I won’t ‘review’ the gig I attended last night (Band of Skulls), instead I’ll go back a couple of weeks and start with Ash (the band, not the volcano).

Ash have always intrigued me. I like some of their stuff but some of it doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but having last seen them at T in the Park many moons ago I thought it would be worth a punt. And it almost was.

They are touring to support a ‘greatest hits’ style release so they played all their well known tracks, a couple of new songs (one of which was excellent and I’ll need to track down) and even threw in a cover of a Weezer track (Only In Dreams) and two verses of Teenage Kicks to cover up when the bass guitar failed.

Alas, just as when I saw them at T in the Park, and that was with a different line-up, they remain distinctly raw when playing live. Several times either bass, drums or guitar would wander away and take a few moments to come back to the beat or melody. Suffice to say they are not the tightest of bands. I’m still less than convinced by Tim Wheeler’s vocals either but that doesn’t seem to have held them back (or has it?) yet, despite those flaws, it was a fun gig and great to hear some of their tracks in the relatively cosy setting of the ABC in Glasgow.

Contrasting that to the next band I saw, at the larger O2 Academy, would be foolish as they are worlds apart despite being closely related. Doves are a band that have been in my collection for longer than I realise and upon skimming through the setlist I realised just how many tracks of theirs I know well.

What was odd, as to my ears they are can be very poetic in lyric and gentle of melody, was the “Oasis-lite” style crowd. Maybe I’m missing something, as I definitely have Doves closer aligned to Elbow than any of the yob-rock outfits the Gallagher brothers inspired.

Regardless, Doves rocked. A much bigger and more rock orientated sound than I had been expecting, they rolled out thumping track after thumping track, and balanced their set well. Was great to hear tracks like Pounding in that setting, and I can confirm it is perfectly named.

Bonus moment was an extra encore of dance beat driven jamming, a nice little homage to their days as Sub Sub. I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Doves live but I was pleasantly surprised.

I’ll write up my thoughts on the gig last night soon.

May 9, 2010

X marks the spot

Outside there is the most eerie golden glow as the sun sets. Half the sky is light, half the sky is dark as the rain falls from a thick dark cloud.

The weather, it seems, is undecided which, funnily enough was my state of mind a couple of hours ago.

There I stood, pencil in hand, ready to put a cross in a box but… which one?

Sometime in the next few months I’ll be leaving this constituency, so that wasn’t a huge consideration for me and, like many others I’m sure, I know that I didn’t want to vote for the Conservatives.

There is, of course, an odd slant in my ‘online’ life where most of the people I follow have a similar mindset to mine and I’d take a fair guess at many of them voting Lib Dem, some voting Labour and others voting Green. I’m sure one or two of them voted Conservative just as I’m sure one or two of them won’t have voted at all.

All of this didn’t really help me though, looking at names I barely knew, and trying not to associate the leader with the party politics. We don’t elect a Prime Minister, we elect a party so quite why there is such a large fuss about the personalities of the party leaders still puzzles me. Yes, of course one of them will be Prime Minister in the morning but it would’ve been good if the newspapers had focussed on policy rather than the fact that, for example, Gordon Brown called a bigoted old woman a bigot.

I will probably watch a bit of the coverage on TV then retire to bed, knowing that, come what may, someone will be in charge of running the company and I won’t agree with all of their decisions and policies. I will take care of my own affairs as I always have and deal with the consequences.

Others will rant and rave, moan and complain but, ultimately, there will always be politicians and as the type of person who is usually attracted to being a politician typically ends up more interested in power and money than the people they are supposed to be representing (exceptions to every rule granted) it’s safe to say that in a few years time I’ll find myself, once again, standing ready to cast my vote without ever being completely sure if anything really ever changes.

May 6, 2010

The excitement continues

Yesterday found me 15ft up a ladder, clinging on for dear life.

Today I have muscle aches in odd places, particularly in my lower back and legs.

I’m hoping the two are related.

In other news, the house is still on the market…

Ohh and the paint on the porch is now dry. I watched it.

Rock and fucking roll, eh!

May 4, 2010