Tag: REALLY

bookmark_borderGrand Plans

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Speaking to my Mum on the phone earlier, we both discussed the need to have a “good clear out”, something we’ll be forced into next month as we are getting a new kitchen fitted. What better time to declutter one room and try and build some momentum to carry into others.

As we are getting the kitchen done then there is, of course, other things to be thought about. Tiles for the walls, flooring, heating (the kitchen is too small for a radiator), and assorted soft furnishings and final fittings. Today we visited a couple of tile shops and we’ve managed to agree on both tiles and flooring, it’s a miracle. Honestly, we have different tastes when it comes to these things and whilst we’d both kind of agreed roughly what we were looking for (a grey tile for the walls, and probably slate for the flooring… slate effect laminate that is) we are both equally fussy about the finer details of such things.

That said, if we can be careful with costs it is possible we might be able to get the bathroom done as well, even if it’s just replacing the mushroom coloured suite for a nice white one, and retiling the place. We’ll see.

It’s pretty much all go here at the moment, with a lot happening. Not only are we dealing with kitchen paperwork and considerations, we are still getting to grips with Ollie even though he’s made it very easy for us by being so laidback about things, we need to replace the fence in the back garden as it blew down in the high winds on Monday night (this time last year the other side was damaged!), we have our nephew’s 21st birthday next weekend, we are off to Spain early February and I’m down in London the week after that.

I’ve also been tasked with producing a long list of my ‘best’ photos, from which Louise will choose her favourite 12 to put up on the walls. We have the picture frames bought, having been inspired by Heather and Jon, so the onus is on me to get the next stage complete.

And finally, when the weather clears a little, we’ll need to paint the fence in the back garden and the porch needs re-varnished.

I really, REALLY, shouldn’t have bought a Wii…

bookmark_borderDilbert does it again (again)

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(What are the odds? If he smashes the nail on the head again tomorrow I WON’T post it here, I promise)

I really don’t know how Scott Adams manages to tap into these things, or is the software industry REALLY that similar the world over?

As the discussion of what we call ourselves, how much we should earn, what we do, why and what we need to justify, and why few seem to really GET what we can offer to a company (but that last one is kinda our fault), continues to rage across two mailing lists, this seems timely:

(click for bigger)

bookmark_borderDilbert does it again

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I really don’t know how Scott Adams manages to tap into these things, or is the software industry REALLY that similar the world over?

Regardless suffice to say that, in our Extreme Programming (XP) development group (XP is a form of Agile development), todays’ Dilbert raised a bit of a chuckle:

(click for bigger)

bookmark_borderFAO (some) bloggers*

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Dear, …grayblog…, A beautiful revolution: blog, Amateur Shutterbug, An Unreliable Witness, Autoblography, Back in a Bit, Becky’s T-Blog, bitful, Blackbeltjones/Work, Blogging and Knitting; The Home of Domesticated Bloggage, Blogzira…, bloomfield.me.uk, Blue Witch, bob’s yer uncle, Boob Pencil, Boob Pencil, Chasing Daisy, Comfortable Disorientation, d4d, Dave Gorman, Day to Day Life of a Very Lazy Gardener, Delboy’s Daughter, diamond geezer, dooce, eachman.com, frizzyLogic, Fuddland, furtive minx, Girl with a one-track mind, GirlonaTrain, Glenn Wolsey, greavsie!, Hydragenic, I like, iand.net, JonnyB’s private secret diary, Justin Blanton, Kitchen Witch: a farrago of obscene witlessness., le petit hiboux | owls gone wild, Life Without Toast – Sibling Rivalry, little.red.boat, mattobee.com, McFilter, meish dot org, Mental Kipple, minor9th.com, My Boyfriend Is A Twat, naked blog, neil writes the blog, NON-WORKINGMONKEY, Not a blog, Pandemian, Peregrinations, Pete Ashton’s Weblog, petite anglaise, Pewari’s Prattle, plasticbag.org, Private Secret Diary, problemchildbride.com Blog, Quixotic Evil, Random Acts Of Reality, Random Burblings, Razor-blade of Life, Real E Fun, reasons to be cheerful…, Redemption Blues, Rise v4, S A S H I N K A, s e v i t z d o t c o m | all feeds feed., Sad, Sweet Songs & Crazy Rhythms, Scam City version 9.0, slothblog, Smaller Than Life, Some Guy On A Journey, Sometimes Funny is All I Have, Sore Eyes, Speaking as a parent, status anxiety, SwissToni’s Place, Symbolic Forest, Tabula Rasa, the blog, The Misssy M Misssives, The Scottish Lemon, the Ulterior, TheCatGirlSpeaks, This Is The Goo I’ve Got, This Is This, timboblog, Tired Dad, Tired of Men, troubled diva, washing-up, What makes you happy ?, what’s new, pussycat?, Woke Up This Morning, www.croila.net,

Just wanted to let you know that I may not have commented in a while but I’m still reading.

Your avid reader,

Gordon

(no, this post didn’t take long to pull together at all, read on if you want the how to…)
Continue reading “FAO (some) bloggers*”

bookmark_borderBecause it's all that's in my head

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Don’t hate me.

Please.

I don’t do this kind of thing on purpose. Honest I don’t.

But it does seem to follow a pattern, doesn’t it.

Ohh wait, you don’t know what I’m talking about yet, do you.

Let’s start over.

Don’t hate me.

Please.

But I’m really REALLY busy and just want to jot down everything in my head so that I don’t forget. I COULD do that on a piece of paper of course but then that wouldn’t get posted and as I’m feeling that weird bloggers remorse thing of not posting regularly then.. well… ohh look. It’s my bloody blog. If you don’t want to read on, then don’t. Presuming anyone has gotten this far (I’m beginning to bore myself actually).

I’m still loving my job. It no longer feels like a new job so I’ve dropped that adjective, but it’s still good. Getting a little hectic though but nothing more than usual chaos that surrounds every product release I’ve ever been involved with, at every company I’ve ever worked at. Thankfully we don’t have project managers here, hovering over our desks with Gantt charts and cost-analysis sheets. It’s quite refreshing to be left with only your professional pride to keep you in check, it’s quite a powerful motivator as it turns out.

As well as product release stuff, I’m also looking ahead to early next year, planning what the team will be focussing on next time and that particular piece of thinking is growing wings everytime another thread is introduced.

Hang on, I just broke my own analogy. Put it this way, in a nutshell full of winged threads:

If we (the team) undertake long term project A, it will make short term project B easier for us, but likely kick off other short term projects (for other people) in which we’ll need to be involved as they’ll directly impact on B, with the knock-on effect of slowing down A. Considering A is all about being faster and more efficient.. well that’s not a good thing.

I realise that makes no sense to anyone but it’s the first time I’ve written it down and *ping* I think I understand it a little better now. It does make senses if you know what A, B and ‘other’ mean. Promise.

Elsewhere I’ve been slacking off. Almost a full month of not doing anything purely because no-one was chasing me. I feel a little guilty as I promised two freebies, so I’ll try and blast them out ASAP. Then I need to properly consider a new design template, and there is the not inconsiderable event that will see me stand in a room of my peers, and present my thoughts and experiences of using a Wiki in the workplace. Must make time to go over the presentation a couple more times I think..

I’m also still ripping CDs, they last batch (100 or so) are piled on my desk to try and force me to deal with them, but if I just shove them over to the wall a little then.. yeah, there is PLENTY of room to work, I’ll get to them later…

Photos will be next of course, and for that I really want to clear the space so I can get the scanner up on the desk, rather than tucked away on top of a set of drawers. But to do that, I’ll need to clear the desk… of CDs. Dammit.

Lastly there is a rather large occasion looming on the horizon. I’m doing my best to ignore it but, to be honest, we’ll need to make a start. Only a few weeks I’ll be lugging boxes of decorations and nonsense down from the loft and then there will be no escaping the fact, Christmas will have arrived.

I’m not moaning about any of this, far from it, it saves me from sitting watching crap TV (like that Strictly Come Saturday Factor thing that seems to be on every channel at the same time) and means that I’m saved of any DIY projects until at least February.

“Sorry darling but I’m just soooo very busy, and I promised I’d get it done, you wouldn’t want me to let people down, would you?”

Every cloud and all that.

bookmark_borderAnd more begat more

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Join up! They say. It’s fun, it’s cool, you can add friends, link to hundreds of people you don’t really know. And on and on. Whether it’s from the service itself, or from people using the service, the friendly, fun, “2.0” emails continue to flood my inbox.

Ignoring most I eventually pick one to try, and then it’s private messages, friend requests and a myriad of other nudges, pokes, tweaks and annoyances that . This is not the age of social interaction, nor the time of ‘community on the web’, this is the sneaky school bully, tripping you up as you walk past, leaving notes stuck to your back. Of course he never gets caught, he’s far to sly for that, but he’s always there needling away.

And so it is with some of the current crop of social or “Web 2.0” services. They are deplorably sneaky, sucking you in, enticing you with the promise of… well, what exactly? Are they preying on our insecurities, and offering pseudo-popularity that is based on the quantity of people you have in your list of “friends”. Or are we to believe that use of such everyday terms is pure chance? In saying that, it’s probably pure laziness that led to that decision, after all, what IS the collective term for “a group of people I know online” Webuddies, perhaps?

Presuming you fall for their charms (don’t feel bad, I did too), you’ll soon be peppered with even MORE spam (bacn?) from all those other poor saps that are desperate to be popular, desperate to be cool and hip and ahead of the curve (don’t feel bad, I do too). Of course there is no chance of any web service making you cool, no, not even blogging. I can say this safe in the knowledge that, despite several rather desperate attempts at such, I have resolutely failed to be cool at any point in my existence and have since given up any aspirations in that direction (don’t feel bad, I really don’t give a stuff, honest).

And here’s the thing. Once you have signed up to one of these ‘social services’, the more people you add, the more stuff you have to cope with, the more stuff you have to accept, delete and ignore. And on and on it goes, like some weird but friendly marshmallow that slowly engulfs you, lulling you with soft, sweet, deliciousness until you realise, a moment too late, that you are about to suffocate.

Of course such websites.. sorry “services”, love it. The more users they can attract, the higher their profit, the more users, the more interactions, the more invites, the more users, the higher the profits. And on and on. Some people have said this is the viral nature of the web, to which I ponder, what’s the cure? Where is the antidote? At what point does it stop?

When I opt out of course.

I ditched Facebook a few weeks ago, I don’t pownce on anything, and have no desire to be in bebo. My space is mine alone, and I’ll stumble upon where I like.

I will continue to use LinkedIn for the purpose of having a professional directory (links), and Twitter remains an amusing diversion into which I dip when a micro-distraction is required, but I know that that too, over time, will fade.

For me, sites like LinkedIn serve a purpose. The deluge of other sites seem to be useful but ultimately, are they? What do they do for you? And by that I mean what service do they REALLY provide, what value do they hold in your online life?

Don’t feel bad if you’ve sent me an invite that has been ignored, if you’ve tried to interact with me on any of the sites mentioned above, and more. This isn’t a dig at anyone just a reaction on my part, or more a realisation that, from here on, I’ll go looking for solutions to my problems, rather than reacting to the buzz.