Happily Imperfect‎‎ NEW

We wish you a thingywotsit…

Posted on December 5, 2011

Yes, it’s definitely that time of year. The music has started to be played on the radio (where are all the NEW Christmas songs??), the first dusting of slush has plopped itself all over everything, and I’ve got a cupboard bursting with presents ready to be wrapped, not to mention cards to be written and posted.

Oh yeah, and this year I will have a Christmas tree.

It’s also that time of year when you look at your calendar and think… ‘right, when shall I fit in some sleep?’ because all of a sudden there are only a few weekends to go and you’ve got one or two nights out in a row and you start to feel old and wonder if you can manage but then you go out and it’s fab and you think ‘hey, I don’t really NEED sleep’ and then suddenly one day you sleep for 14 hours and are quite happy to do the same the next day, just as you are happy to eat trifle for breakfast, demolish a chocolate orange for lunch, and takeaway is a chore because it means getting up off the sofa to answer the door. Meanwhile your living room is strewn with wrapping paper, half-empty coffee mugs and wine glasses huddle together (you did start to tidy up but it was just too much effort) and you start to wonder if you are getting a cold.

Then the next night out comes along, you struggle out the door and whoooosh, alcohol happens and it’s fab and you think ‘hey, I don’t really NEED sleep’ …

Repeat until January.

I fuckin love Christmas.

Prick

Posted on August 17, 2005

I had a “morning constitutional” down to the doctor this morning, well the nurse as it turned out. I was getting some blood taken to get my cholesterol checked. Previously this was done with a pen-like gadget, a quick prick on the end of your thumb and it spat out a reading:

“FAR too high you lardy so-and-so”

Slightly disconcerting when you are expecting it to read 5.4…

Anyway this was the proper “you’ll only feel a little prick” type of blood gathering and, after my childish giggles had been abruptly stopped by a rolling of the eyes (I wonder if nurses hear any NEW jokes?) I departed with a teeny plaster that apparently fell off on the way home and the instructions to phone the surgery a week on Thursday after 2pm.

it’s odd, I know the reading will come back high as it was high the last time it was taken a few years back and the doctor already has notes on why (the whole hereditary thing), and whilst I’m conscious of what I eat at times, mainly I’ve not bothered as I always figured I’d end up on medication like my Dad.

It’s only just struck me that that day could be sooner than I expected, I’m wondering if I’ll get called into see the doctor in a couple of weeks and that’ll be me. Pill-popping for the rest of my life. Do I still have time to control it through diet? Is that even an option? Guess I should have a chat with my Dad.

The really odd sensation is the realisation that I’m middle-aged, things don’t work they way they used to, I have aches and pains when I get up in the morning and I’m realising how badly I’ve treated my body – my temple – in the past. This thought has been developing over the past few weeks, ever since my Dad’s heart attack, and for once I’m losing weight, exercising more and I’m not really thinking about it as a chore. I’ve not eaten chocolate in weeks, even when I was out at the weekend I had a few glasses of water at various points through the night, and abstained from my usual post-club snack.

This all goes to prove to me one thing; you can have all the knowledge of what you should and shouldn’t be eating, how much you should be exercising, and so on, but if you aren’t in the right state of mind it won’t make the blindest bit of difference.

Something inside my head has clicked though. I have offered myself no incentive to diet and exercise, there is no reward, or competition to spur me on, yet I feel more determined than ever.

My name is Gordon McLean. Three weeks ago I sent the scales over the 18st mark, this morning they are just over the 17st mark and I ain’t stopping there.

Podcasting

Posted on July 26, 2005January 5, 2018

Ohh it’s the new blogging, is it?

Could be, everyone’s at it, and it’s guaranteed to be “mainstream” now that iTunes support it but, and please don’t think of me as some neolithic oaf but what IS all the fuss about?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking those who are doing podcasts, I’ve heard some very good ones recently and as an extension of a blog they give an extra dimension to the personality behind the microphone of a type you only normally get when you meet some in person (real life, remember that? fresh air, no keyboard and REAL people, what a concept! It’ll never catch on that one…).

However let’s get this straight. A podcast (blogcast, whatever) is, unless I’m hugely mistaken, mainly a recording of someone talking, with the occasional spot of music thrown in. Right? Err… and this is a new idea? Well obviously it’s not (and just in case you miss my point, I’m referring to that old favourite, of the more refined knob twiddlers out there, radio) but I’ll tell you what is.

Focus.

I can tune into hundreds, nay thousands, of radio stations right now and with a bit of searching I’m certain I can find a station that suits my interests. However the limitation of radio is that, because it’s being broadcast, it has to try and appeal to as many people as possible, even if the core subject is fairly specialised. Podcasting doesn’t have that limitation. Because YOU choose to download and listen to it, it can be as specialised and insular as it wants, the only person it has to please is you.

Anyway, if you’ve been on the ice planet Hoth for the past few months, then here are a few links to get you into podcasting. Ohh and ignore the “pod” part of the name, it’s not limited to iPods or MP3 players, you can create and listen to them on your PC.

iPodderX – podcast client and newsreader
Odeo – listen, sync (download), create (publish), with Odeo. From the man behind Blogger.
A quick how to from mike (scroll down) – leading the way in the UK (I should be a slogan writer really…), except Pete’s been doing it longer and he offers a “how to” as well.
Microsoft prefers to call them blogcasts – but not really
How to make podcasts with .Mac – for the Appleheads in the audience.
Enhance your podcast – add in images, links and more.
A must read article – some thoughts on Apple’s entry to this area (hat-tip Adrian)

As for me, well I’m gonna leave this one alone for the meantime preferring to remain elusively enigmatic and mysterious. Or maybe I just can’t be bothered (you can always listen to me on the radio if you’re desperate – 2.7MB MP3).

So, are podcasts the future of blogging? Possibly but I doubt it, at least not for a while. Too much like hard work at the moment, so until it becomes a lot easier to do I think it’ll remain on the outskirts for a while longer. However once it becomes a simple point and click exercise then I think they’ll soon be popping up all over the place. But then I’m sure they said the same about “audio blogging“, but they’ve been wrong before.

The real question is whether anyone can bring something NEW to podcasting. That’s where the challenge will lie, a true blending of the internet and radio is what is required and what has been sorely lacking so far. However cracks that one will leap ahead and we’ll have our first A-list podcaster.

ALL NEW BLOGGER

Posted on May 10, 2004

Check out the new Blogger: Dashboard.

I’ll chuck up a screenshot for this without a blogger account. Meanwhile I’m off to play.

Update: Blogger now has built-in comments, and now displays how many posts have been made on each blog (2,563 on this very site).
Update to the Update: A test blogspot site – new templates are part of this new version as well, and very pretty they are too.

BTW – Was it Peter’s bingo house that won all that money on Saturday?
UPDATE: It was!

Habitually the Same

Posted on March 6, 2002

I’m in a rut. Not a bad one, or a particularly deep one, but it’s there and I’m aware of it’s sides and length and can’t seem to clamber up out of it. I’m in a ‘surfing’ rut.

I have a list of 25 or so sites I visit every day (most tracked with Blogtrack) and I visit MeFi daily (twice daily on occasion) as well. Beyond that I start to struggle, I occasionally check out some book reviews, buy some CDs or DVDs online, or find a walkthrough or cheat to help me through the game I’m currently stuck at. I’ll occasionally follow links and post them here too.

But I can’t find anything new. There is SOOO much information available that I can’t seem to concentrate on any of it for longer than a few minutes at a time. Look back through my archives (once I get them working again hmmm) and you will find no common thread.

So I’m going to spend this evening finding NEW resources, new places to visit regularly, then in about 6 months time I will go through this process again no doubt. The changing of habits is hard.

New Something

Posted on January 7, 2002

So first day back at work. Still the same gripes and moans… none of which I’m going into in case someone from work reads this and thinks I’m trying to undermine things, ohh and if someone from work IS reading this, come and sit in on one of the project meetings, they’re a barrel of laughs!

Still not switched ISPs, will be phoning my new ISP tonight, and getting that end sorted out. Then I need to finish the re-design I’m still playing with, and then I need to shift this site, and two others to the new ISP, and get all the links and pointers sorted out… Oh and update the other two sites I maintain, as I’ve not touched them for about 6 months (me bad).

So it’s a NEW Year, I wonder what it will bring? Well I’m no fortune teller, but I do currently feel like updating the site a bit more often, and I’m actually looking forward to my first serious exercise for over 3 months. Yes 5-a-side has started again. I give myself 10 mins before I cough up a lung or three (everyone’s got 3 lungs right?).

And yes I’m on a diet.