Today I was out in Norwich, doing some photography for an event. A couple of the people I did the NCFE Photographyt course with were involved in the planning, and had volunteered us to do all the photography. And today was the day.

It was actually really enjoyable – although I’m knackered now, of course – and pretty productive.

I focussed (pardon the pun) on people more than anything, as that’s always my weakest subject. So ad hoc street photography ahoy, and  a fair dollop of wandering around the area, just trying to get the right shots as they came up.

I’ve got about 150 photos out of the event, some of which I’m pleased with, some less so. I know I’ve got a lot of editing to do regardless, as there’s blown-out highlights in lots of them. Still, it’ll keep me busy for the week.

So last Thursday and Friday I was in London for the Webdirections @Media Conference. It was the first time I’d been in a couple of years (I last attended the 2007, I think – holiday for the ’08 one, and tubularity stopped me from attending the ’09 one) so it was interesting to see what had changed – and of course what had stayed the same.

Of course the big difference was that @Media is now run/organised/owner by WebDirections, rather than through Vivabit as it has been in previous years. I’d not heard of WebDirections before, but apparently they’ve done a number of similar conferences in Australia etc.

To me, it seemed that the focus of the conference had changed quite a bit this year (or maybe over the last couple of years, I don’t know – can’t really comment on the ones I didn’t/couldn’t attend) to be more about design and programming, rather than the accessibility and user experience themes of previous @Medias I’ve attended. And that’s a disappointment.

The focus this year was very much on Javascript (which used to be a real no-no) and about telling designers to not worry so much about making designs work in all browsers and versions. There was virtually no mention at all of accessibility, except in one session through the two days. For a conference where accessibility and so on were paramount at the start, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

The other thing I really noticed this year was how corporate some of it seemed. In previous ones there’s been sponsorship from big companies and so on, but this time it was more going down the “stands in the public areas” type of promotion. Again that could be something that’s happened more in the last couple of years that I’ve missed, so it’s not such an eye-opener for other more regular attendees.

It was a good conference though, don’t get me wrong – I’ve got a lot of stuff to take out of it, bits that I’ve learned, bits that will make sites I work on better in anumber of ways. I’ve enjoyed it – it’s just been interesting to see what’s changed.

You may recall that back in March 2009, the accountant I had for my company went bust. The basic summing-up of why he went bankrupt/insolvent (not sure if they’re the same or not, and don’t much care) can be listed as :

1. Franchising isn’t a great idea – the fees he was paying to Tax Assist were huge
2. If you’re in trouble like this, don’t take out other loans to shore up the business. It all comes back to bite you on the arse.

Yesterday I got the final official documents from The Insolvency Service, explaining that (as expected) they’d got absolutely sod-all from the cunt’s assets, so no-one who’d paid him fees in the run-up to tax-return time would get anything at all.

Even better, they’d managed to attach the asset-release summing up for a completely different person with the same surname, from two years previously. Oh whoops.

I’ve made them aware of it, but had no response currently. I’ll get nothing from my useless fuckstick bastard of an ex-accountant.

All told, not a great day.

It won’t give up, it wants me dead
Goddamn this noise inside my head

© Nine Inch Nails, “The Becoming”, Downward Spiral album

That’s not quite where I am at the moment – but somehow it still seems to be the best lyric for describing things at the moment.

I’ve written before about my regular issues and history with depression, and the way I normally fight my way through it. Recently though, that’s not been the case. If I’m honest, the last three or four years have involved fighting, but only getting to an impasse, a holding action to keep ground, rather than a victory.

I’ve made lots of plans, and had the intention to do things. It’s just that I never seem to find the time or the final motivation to get them done.  I keep on trying, and I keep on failing – and at the moment there’s no good reason for Why. I just don’t get to it. That final bit, that final push, is missing, AWOL.

So I’m working on getting through it, but I’m also going to go a different route this time. I’ve a doctor’s appointment in a couple of weeks time, and I’m going to aim to get some anti-depressants. Not something I’m overly happy about, but I think it’s time for me to try them again.

I had a very negative experience with them many moons ago, so I have some really serious reservations about them. But if I can give them a go and they work, so be it. If not, it’s another avenue tried and I need to find other options. But at least I’ll be trying the avenues this time.

Yesterday I was at the Web Source East conference at the King’s Centre in Norwich.  And all told it was alright. Not brilliant, but alright.  I’m going to write more about it over on my company site, but thought I’d put a brief review here as well, just for the hell of it.

I think I’d probably have been more impressed if it had been a bit more organised. For a conference based on web stuff, it’s a bit of a worry to go in and be checked off with bits of paper, no tech in sight at all. It’s even more of a worry when it takes them the whole morning to sort out internet access over the wireless network.

Those niggle aside though, it was a pretty good day.

For me there wasn’t a mass of new stuff to take away from the conference, but there was enough to keep it interesting, so that’s all OK then. Some interesting ideas and bits, and it’s always good to see what other people are saying about the same subjects.

Tonight’s actually been fairly productive.

With Herself away I’ve been able to catch up on some rubbish TV and get cracking on the website work I planned to do this weekend.

So all in all a quiet night, but a productive one.