Category: Life

Boston in the fall. Lovely, even though I only had a few hours to wander the streets and take the duck tour. Gorgeous place, friendly people, definitely one to revisit.  I was a little bit spoiled by the fact it was around 21C in glorious sunshine but, nevertheless, Boston has a charm that is almost European (understandably so). Winding streets, glorious parklands, and an air of history. Yes, I liked Boston very much indeed.

Chicago in the fall. Grey, cold and regimental. Whilst it was nice to have the opportunity to visit (I was visiting some of our customers in the US of A last week) I was less than impressed with Chicago. Again, the weather played a part but the city itself seemed very anonymous. Again, I only had a few hours to wander so without doubt I didn’t get the best of what it could offer but I won’t be hurrying back.

It’s been a hectic month. Between struggling to build a website (I’m a month behind schedule, which I hate), things at work being even more mental than normal (which is a good thing, we are TOO busy), and the last week of travel (London, Boston, Chicago in the same week), suffice to say I’m reeling a bit.

Hopefully the next couple of weeks will ease me into December nicely, and then onto 2012.

I have a terrible memory, if I didn’t have access to a calendar (app/website) I’d be completely lost.

The flipside of this is that, because everything goes into my calendar, it’s easy for me to see that between now and Christmas I have something (a gig, a wedding reception, nights out and other commitments) planned every single weekend bar one.

This is not a bad thing, but does force me into having to plan more and more of the rest of my life to make sure everything that needs to get done, gets done (things like paying bills, cleaning, etc) and that I leave time to do things that I want to do, some of which are scheduled, of course, but many of which are less time constrained.

It does mean I struggle, at times, to “go with the flow”. Because my life is scheduled, part of me is always aware that there is SOMETHING that NEEDS DONE by a certain time or date. It’s hard to switch that off, but I’m learning.

In fact, I’m developing a weird sort of schedule where I’m marking days in my calendar as “do nothing” days (or evenings, if needs must). Is that weird? It seems weird…

One thing I am definitely trying to do, but struggling to schedule, is to keep up the cycling. I’m not all that keen in going out in howling gales and hailstones (as we had here last week) but I’m sure I can handle a bit of drizzle now and then. Alas with the weather being somewhat unpredictable at best, I can’t really schedule it. Can I? Should I?

We will see.

What a funny word… meander.

Anyway, Saturday saw us doing just that, walking from my flat, down Byres Rd, stopping off for a coffee, a peek round some antiques shops, and on to the Riverside Museum where some mental people on bikes were flying through the air.

After that, we wandered… sorry meandered… back up the road, stopping at a couple of pubs on the way for a beer or two  (tip for Bloody Mary lovers, try the one at Brel on Ashton Lane, spicy!) before giving up and jumping in a taxi for the last stretch back to my flat.

I quite like days like that, no real plan, only a rough sense of some things that we could do. No rushing, just taking our time. Of course it did help that Saturday was a gloriously sunny day.

One of the most popular posts on my blog was written a few years ago but still gets a lot of visits and comments; How to embed linked images in Word 2007.

Some of the comments have offered better solutions and one in particular I found myself searching for today. Having upgrade to Office 2010 I’ve realised that Microsoft has, again, “improved” the user interface by moving things around!

So, courtesy of Sarah, here are the updated instructions for how to embed linked images in Microsoft Word 2010:

1. With your Word document open, click the File tab, top-left of the window.
2. On the left-hand side, select Info.
3. On the right-hand side, near the bottom, click Edit Links to Files.
4. In the dialog that is displayed, select and highlight the images you want to convert from the list.
5. Check the Save picture in document checkbox.
6. Click the Break Link button.
7. Click OK to confirm.

The links are removed and the images are now embedded in your Word document.

A quick check of the filesize of the Word document should show a marked increase and you can now distribute the Word document, and the Word document only, safe in the knowledge that the images are embedded.

At work I have a laptop running Windows 7 and every lunchtime, as I lunch away from my desk, I lock the machine.

Except what I should do is pause iTunes, set my IM status to Away, and then lock it but I forget to do all that most days and just bash Windows+L.

However, I’ve found two small, free, applications that will now allow me to do all that with one mouse gesture, specifically it will pause iTunes, set my IM status to Away/Idle, mute the laptop speakers and turn off the screen.

Hot Corners handles the mouse gesture (and allows you set to other actions), and MonitorES handles the media player, IM and screen actions.

Simple and effective.

I do like it when things just work.

And yes, I know the Hot Corners idea is a direct lift from OSX but they wouldn’t buy me a MacBook… 🙁

Right!

Yes, right.

I think, yeah I’m pretty sure, well as much as I can be, that my mindset is in the right place.

I pick up my bike on Saturday (finally) you see, hence the change of mindset this week, in preparation.

Hmmm, I’m waffling. Let me explain.

For a long time, many many years, I’ve been overweight (clinically obese at times but what do doctors know!).

I’ve dipped in and out of various fitness attempts and diets, with varying success. Play 5-a-side football, hit the gym at 6am, got down to 15st 10lbs at one point which is, as far as my ailing memory serves, the lightest I’ve been in my adult life, then put it all back on again.

Jogging seemed to be working for me before I injured my knee, and recent visits to the gym have dropped off, bad habits returned and I managed to get all the way up to 17st 12lbs.

With 18st approaching, I realised I had to do something so I’ve been a bit more sensible with my diet, and have slowly, oh so very slowly, gotten down to 16st 12lbs. I went to the gym a few times but seem to have plateaued.

Then I heard mention of a cycle to work scheme and, having moved to within cycling distance to my work (it’s about 8 miles) I realised there was maybe something I could do and would enjoy. The number of cyclists I see on my way to work seems to be on the increase and that only encouraged me further.

I’m not great in the gym, I don’t find it stimulating at all and whilst I know that, for health reasons, I need to go, it’s not something that fills me with great joy (yeah yeah, I know, nothing unique there). However, give me something outdoor, that I can, in my own head, turn into a competition (can I catch the guy in front? can I beat the car to that junction? what was my time yesterday, can I do it faster?) and my interest level rises and I really start to apply myself.

With the arrival of my new bike imminent I’ve actually started to be a bit sensible, rather than leaping on it and doing my usual (overdoing it and injuring myself). I went to the gym last night, will go for a swim tomorrow night and back to the gym on Thursday, and I’ve just ordered all of the fruit and veg in the world to be delivered later tonight (thank you Tesco!).

What I don’t fully understand, but I’m not really questioning, is how my mindset can so quickly change. Last week I was all about the pizza and the chocolate and the ‘fuck it’ attitude. This week, healthy, healthy, exercise, exercise. I’m not prying into that though, I know I’m best to look forward and set myself some goals.

So, whilst it’s not easy it does appear that I’m in the mood to do this so I’m doing my best to stay focused.

I also apologise in advance if the next few blog posts are slightly “cycle heavy”. And, of course, when I say “cycle heavy” I mean “cycle gadget”… no, I’m not buying a trip computer just yet, but I do have a couple of apps on my iPhone at the ready!

It’s also only fair to mention, now, that I do have a goal in mind for all of this. In September I will be cycling from Glasgow to Edinburgh. I will be raising funds for charity. You have been warned!