999

I tried to not comment too much about the idiot Cambridge student who called 999 to get some paracetamol because frankly anyone that lazy and stupid doesn’t deserve the publicity. However, Reynolds then spoke about it a bit in his blog and it was interesting to see it from the point of view of an ambulance driver/paramedic too.

Anyway, after that I was thinking (and yes, I commented on Reynold’s blog too) about what would stop people from calling 999 for fucking stupid non-urgent calls. Personally, I would think about having a charge that could be levied (in the same way that some parts of the Fire Brigade do) for spurious calls – a charge of, for example, £250 would soon stop a lot of people from calling for stupid reasons. The other alternative was to charge a smaller fee, say £10 or £15 per callout (with some age limits, so that certain age groups/demographic sections weren’t charged) would still stop people making non-urgent 999 calls.

Both have pros and cons – personally I don’t like the £15 per callout idea as it heads too close to the US’s “pay for every medical service” model, but the £250 “penalty fee” could stop some people from calling even if it were an urgent call.

So – discussion time while I’m away for the weekend – what do you think would work?

Air Freshener 2

Harking back to earlier in the week, I can now understand why the air-freshener spray in the toilets at work has “Do not inhale” written on it.

The thing bloody stinks. In fact it’s worse than the original odour.

Pink stuff

While I’m not necessarily one to blither about every single charity day, I do think that Wear It Pink day is a good idea. (Even if the site is a piece of shite that only really works in IE) It’s part of the Breast Cancer Campaign, which has always been a worthwhile cause.

And it seems like a pretty good occasion to point out the Walk the Walk charity too – I’m planning on doing the London event (although I don’t plan on wearing a pink bra to do so) next June, and publicity is always a good thing…

Bank of Mum and Dad

Over the last three or four weeks, BBC has had a series called “The Bank of Mum and Dad“, where people who are hugely in debt get advice on how to budget etc. from their parents. It’s been an interesting series in a way, although I also consistently find myself being abusive to the idiots who have run up the debts.

I find it interesting the way they seem to have no concept of debt, that when they owe thousands of pounds in loans and so on, they have to be paid back. But I also find the psychology of it fascinating, that so many of the people seem to spend in order to feel better about themselves. It’s a very materialistic way of living, and in some ways it’s not something I really understand, although I know I can be careless on occasion – but I know also that I owe very little money to anyone. I think that’s the difference.

There’s a lot of background that’s never really explored; particularly the obvious parent-child relationships that are on view. However, even with the abuse I hurl at the idiots, it does make for an interesting programme.

Daylight Saving

Oh God, it’s THAT weekend again. The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday, and suddenly we’ll be heading home from work in the dark, and it’s definitely winter. I’ve been noticing over the last month that I’ve been getting more sluggish, not feeling as bright, and the SAD is slowly coming in again.

Daylight bulbs go some way to helping, and they’ve been in for long enough that I think I might get away with deceiving the brain a little bit again this year. Coupled with that, there’s a lot of other stuff where I need to be staying busy, and perhaps that’ll help take my mind off it.

Last year I tried staying manically busy, and that didn’t work. I’m not going to be doing that this year, although with work, interviews, and travelling I’m still going to be pretty busy – but I’m going to work on avoiding the manically busy stuff, all the same. We’ll just have to see how this winter goes – but it can’t be as grotty as the last one.

Searching

Even before the post below, it turns out I’m number one in google for “Robert Kilroy-Silk Prick“, which I’m hoping will also come up when the words “Is a” are included. (Ah no, just checked, I only come in 9th for that one)

Also, I come in 3rd for “things to do in Oldham when it’s wet” (although if Google were truly all-knowing, it would just answer with “fuck all“)

Leaving the Party

I can’t deny it, I found the story of Kilroy-Silk walking out on his UKIP colleagues in European Parliament yesterday.

It was also amusing to see the self-serving twat “insisting he had pre-empted a move to expel him from Ukip’s 12-strong parliamentary group, [and depicting] himself as a moderating force who condemned his former colleagues as extremists.”

According to the BBC, “The East Midlands MEP said he was remaining in the party but would not work with his colleagues in Strasbourg.” which just makes me wonder what the point of the entire thing was in the first place.

Then again, I’ve often wondered that about Kilroy-Silk.

Irony

I witnessed a glorious piece of behaviour at lunch-time today. Because it’s half-term, a bunch of the local schoolchild scallies were hanging round the shopping centre. They were all dressed in the trademark tracksuit and baseball cap, emblazoned with sportswear logos etc. – the sort you can see here any day of the week.

Yet they were abusing other people (and rightly so, in the case of the woman in the pink tweed suit and pink faux swede knee-length boots) by calling them “Chavs”. I just thought it was a spectacular demonstration of absolutely zero self-awareness.

Banned

Did you know that if you try and access the site of George Bush’s presidential re-election campaign from outside the US, you get a message saying “Access Denied“? The BBC has a story about it – now, who mentioned “Insular”?

UPDATED : The US has tried explaining why they’re blocking access – well, not really. “It’s for security reasons” isn’t a valid excuse, although in light of the “War against Terror” it seems to be seen as one.

ONE:Life

From the following review from the Guardian, I’m really quite glad I decided to give the programme a miss…

It was probably a mistake for Gary Hart to take part in ONE Life: Asleep At the Wheel (BBC1). Hart is the man whose Land Rover crashed on to a railway line at Selby in 2001, causing the deaths of 10 people. Hart says he didn’t fall asleep, a jury disagreed, and he was given a five-year jail sentence. He was released after serving half of it. Now he’s told his side of the story.

But even if what he says is true, and that the car hit something or suffered a mechanical failure, as a PR exercise this film was a disaster. He just comes across as a really nasty piece of work.

Yes, people were bereaved, but so was his family, he says – it was like a bereavement for them having him in prison for two and a half years. He’s suffered the same way as they have. And what about his car insurance? Who knows how much it will be when his ban is over.

Finally, when Hart looks at a photo of the post-crash carnage, the first thing he thinks about is not the people who died but his Land Rover. “I loved that old truck,” he says. It’s hardly surprising the victims’ families are struggling to forgive him.

The BBC had carried a story yesterday about the programme which made me fairly sure that it would be one of those weaselly PR-based programmes to say “it’s not fair, it wasn’t my fault”. (in much the same way that Rogue Trader did for Nick Leeson) That’s normally one of the types of TV (along with party political broadcasts) that just ends up with me shouting obscenities at the screen. So all in all, yeah, I’m glad I missed it.

Sweary

I can’t believe I’d missed this bunch of nerfherders, but Vicky at Highrise points out the – frankly hilarious – Cuss Control Academy.

“You probably swear because it is easy, fun, candid, emphatic, expressive, breaks rules, and somehow partially reduces anger and pain. But the negatives outweigh the positives.” Nope, I swear because sometimes what the situation deserves is a healthy yell of “Fucking Buggery Bollocks!”.

“You really don’t win an argument by swearing.“. Wanna bet?

“ You don’t prove that you are smart or articulate. You don’t earn respect or admiration.“. Again, wanna bet? Some of my swearier fests have brought praise from many others.

“You don’t motivate, you intimidate. Swearing doesn’t get you hired, promoted, or romantically connected.” Well, perhaps. Although it can get you fired, demoted, or romantically chuffed.

But that’s just a small sample of the site’s triteness. It’s well worth reading just for humour value. Or just to email them to say “Fucking Hairy-arsed Cunty Badgery Bollockweasels”. Which is what I’ve done.

UPDATED : And Green Fairy also comments on the same thing..

John Peel

Bloody hell, John Peel has died of a heart-attack while in Peru on holiday. RIP. Late night radio just won’t be the same without him.

Previous

I’m still trying to work out quite how I feel about the proposed legislation announced yesterday that means some juries may be informed of a person’s prior criminal record. I’ve never sat on Jury service, which will come as no shock to anyone who knows me – but if I were to do so, would I want to know about prior convictions?

To me the potential for this is to erode the concept of “reasonable doubt” – a jury is supposed to decide the merits of the case they’re trying, and come up with a verdict from that. However, if a case hasn’t been fully proven, where a jury would previously have opted for “not guilty”, if they know that someone has been accused and tried for a similar offence in the past, is there not a chance that they’ll then opt for “guilty” – “he’s done it before, the chances are he did it again“?

Blunkett said the measure would allow juries to have greater access to information about previous convictions and other types of misconduct “without unduly prejudicing the fairness of the trial”

“Trials should be a search for the truth and juries should be trusted with all the relevant evidence available to help them to reach proper and fair decisions,” said Mr Blunkett.

© Guardian Newspapers

I find this to be a troublesome concept – the jails we have are full to bursting, yet this initiative seems likely to find more people guilty, rather than less.

I think that when all’s said and done I would prefer to look at a case the way it’s done now, on the basis of the merits and evidence of that case, without having the information about what the accused has done before.

Lemon-scented

The gents toilet at work has (finally) had a new can of air-freshener put inside it. Being the sad git I am, I had a look at the warning label on the can.

“Caution : Do not inhale spray”

Um, it’s bloody air-freshener…

Email

It’s now officially one of those days. I’ve had two emails today regarding putting documents onto the intranet. On the first one they’d managed to not attach the “attached” document – not once, but twice. Which is impressive. The second one was rather more succinct.

“Can you please put the attached document on the intranet ASAP.”

That was it. Fair enough, the document’s attached on this occasion, but the intranet is over 2,000 pages, split between five major groups and then all the little fiefdoms under that. So God knows exactly where it’s supposed to go. But it’s definitely shaping up as one of those days. Roll on 5pm.

Nuptials

Ye Gods, last week was obviously the week of the blogwedding, what with Graybo getting hitched to Hels and also Stuart and Krissa doing a similar thing in the US.

All the best to both couples.

Gone Quiet

I’m not sure quite what’s happened today, but there seems to be very little going on. The roads were quiet this morning, and the office is virtually deserted. On a plus point, Stinky® is on a week off, which is a Good Thing and gives me some peace, and my sense of smell some recovery time.

But it’s definitely quiet, and there’s not a lot at the moment worthy of commentation. (if that’s a word – I suspect it’s not) And it looks like Gordon is suffering the same problem.

Defrosted

Of all the things that aren’t much fun to do on a Sunday, cleaning out a freezer comes high on the list. Particularly when it wasn’t planned at all. It looks like at some point this week I’d not closed the freezer door properly, so everything had defrosted to some degree, and the freezer resembled a small cross-section of the Polar regions.

As it is, I’ve opted for the safer choice, and simply chucked out everything. (Well, except for the vodka, but that doesn’t care about being defrosted) It’s a pain in the arse, but less of one than a dollop of food poisoning can be. And besides, it gave me a chance to clear out stuff and be done with it. But now it’s cleaned out, defrosted, and probably running a bit more efficiently. Just would’ve been nice to have to clean it out on my own timetable, rather than having it inflicted upon me. Ah well.

Scissor Sisters, Manchester Apollo

I’d had tickets to the previous Scissor Sisters gig in Manchester a couple of months ago, but missed it due to some work commitments – they don’t happen often, but when they do they have to be handled.

Anyway, when the next tour was announced, I picked up tickets again, and was determined to see them this time round. And wow, it was worth it. The camera did a bit better too, and came up with some stuff I’m really quite pleased with. The support act were decidedly odd – I think they were called “Fifi and Herm”, although it might have been “KiKi and Herm” – memory fails. Very odd bunch of New York cabaret-style cover versions (although the initial “Hit Me Baby One More Time” was deeply noteworthy, as was the ability to mix up “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”) were amusing, but not really successful as a warm-up to the main attraction. On the other hand, DJ Sammy Jo who provided the music in between acts was superb, and warmed people up far more than the support act had managed.

When the curtain went up for the Scissor Sisters, they’d managed to transform the stage into a type of glam ballroom, chandelier and all – and a light-show that wouldn’t have been out of place at a much larger venue. They kicked in and played everything off their album, as well as three new tracks which sounded like they’d fit right in, and hold a lot of promise for the second album when they get round to recording it. (I think that first of all they need to get some time where they’re not touring!) They even managed to make Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” sound good – quite an achievement in its own right.

Over all the entire gig was superb, full of energy, and with the passion and sound to go a long way further – I reckon the next venue they play in Manchester might well be headlining at the Evening News Arena. They’ve already played there as support for Duran Duran, and I can see them playing there several times before long on their own merit. Well worth catching any time they play in the vicinity.

West Wing Season Four

I’ve just finished watching the DVDs of Season Four of the West Wing. It’s taken me longer than usual to watch the complete season, primarily because there’s been so much other stuff going on in life at the moment, but I’ve still got through the last two discs in about three days.

And the combined effect of those two discs can be summed up as either “Wow” or “Fucking Hell!” depending on who you’re talking to. I’ve always been impressed by the series, by the scripting, the acting, and the story curve – but I have to say that the final three episodes of Season Four are an amazing example.

And the only other reaction I’ve got having seen those last episodes is to thank the Lord that Season Five is already showing on E4, and TiVo has got sorted so that I can find out what happens…

Hungry Caterpillar

Amazingly, the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is now 35 years old today. Since being published, it’s sold at least one copy every second minute (My mistake) of every day somewhere in the world. That’s quite something.

The piece in the Guardian is fascinating, detailing the way it’s been popular with not just children but also teachers, education authorities, artists, and even US Presidents (Bet you can’t guess which one…) There can’t be many people who don’t know the book, and I think it’s a stunning achievement to have been constantly in print for 35 years. Long may it continue. (Along with “Where the Wild Things Are“, which is slightly older at 37years old.)

Buzz

Apparently, Boots are considering going into partnership with Durex, and selling vibrators and sex toys in the new year. So far I’m impressed that no-one has called this “A shake-up of the business plan“.

Anti-chav

Interesting to see that Liverpool is launching a campaign to get people to remove hats, helmets, or hoods before going into shops. I can see that this is – potentially – a good idea, having seen the number of little scallie bastards in Manchester who use these items to conceal their faces. In the majority of cases I’ve no idea whether they’re doing it to “buy into” the stereotype ‘urban criminal’ look, or whether it’s because they intend to steal/threaten – however, it’s deeply unsubtle, and I’ve often wondered whether in fact that style of appearance doesn’t attract more attention from store detectives and CCTV operators etc., instead of providing the intended anonymity and prevention of identification.

Deprived

You know, there’s one brilliant indicator that’ll tell you if an area is depressed or not. And that sign is this :

When the local “pound shop” is closing down, and has a sign on the window reading “Closing Down. Everything Half Price“

Oldham has a shop doing this.

Nicely Avoided

Further to the guff from yesterday about the work Christmas Do, an email has just come round saying that all the remaining tickets have now been sold.

Even better, not one of the tickets has been sold to me. A couple of people yesterday suggested I should go, but well, no, I think I’ll avoid it. Wednesday the 23rd is going to be my last day in the current job anyway, so to finish and then go to the Christmas Do would be dedication above and beyond. Besides, I can think of several better things to do. Watching paint dry, for one. Celebrate the end of the contract, for two. Pack a bag for the Festering Season being another.

But now it’s a moot point – the tickets have been sold, and I’m not going. Works just fine for me.

Festerous

Do you have days where you simply despair of both the retail world, people in general, and really just the Festering Season™ altogether? Yes, you’ve guessed it – this is one of those days. And it’s only October.

Superdrug has all its Christmas-theme wrapping paper stocked up at the front of the shop, Tesco has a load of boxed chocolates and special Festive-type fare (including Mince Pies, for fuck’s sake) and – as observed last week – Next in the city centre has bloody silver christmas trees in the window. (And I must remember to get photographic proof of that one…)

However, not content with that little lot, this email came round last night at work…

DEAR ALL,
There are only 35 tickets left for the work’s Christmas Do on Wednesday 22nd December.
We have been informed that if anyone wants to go, they are going to have to
be pretty quick. It is definitely first come first served now.
Can you let me know by tomorrow at the latest who wants a ticket, so we can
reserve them.
We have been informed that at the rate they are going, all tickets will be
gone by Friday.
Be quick if you don’t want to be disappointed!
[the organiser]

Two bloody months beforehand, and people are buying tickets for a work Christmas Do. I dearly hope I’m never that organised…

Turned Down

A while back, I said that I’d submitted a selection of my photos to a local exhibition space who were looking for new work.

I’ve now received a letter saying thanks, but no thanks. No explanations of why, though, so I’m going to reply, and see if they can give me any feedback. As with so many things at the moment, as with so many risks, there’s nothing to lose by trying.

I can’t deny, I’m a bit keffed off about it – but then, reality kicks in, and why the hell would I expect to be accepted on my first submission?

But it does seem to sum up the day for me today. Ah well – tomorrow’s something else.

Mis-reading

I’ve looked at this story about Abu Hamza three times now, and on each occasion I’ve misread “soliciting for murder” as “murdering solicitors”. I think I need to get out more.

Busy?

I’m sure there’s a load of stuff I’m supposed to be doing today, but quite honestly I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was. This is not a good state of affairs.

Up it

It’s obviously one of those days. Blogrolling appears to be chuffed (again) and Blogger is taking a dog’s age to upload anything. It might be them, it might be my workplace’s connection, but either way, it’s definitely all officially Up It.

God-daughter

We went over yesterday to see my god-daughter. It’s already six weeks since the birth, and it was the first time I’d seen her. Cue a disturbingly mushy Lyle – be afraid.

Marc Almond

Having been travelling most of the day, I can’t believe the news that Marc Almond is critically ill in hospital following a bike crash. The BBC is now reporting that he’s ‘stable’ in hospital. (first time he’s been stable anywhere – but that’s as good a place as any, I suppose)

Fingers crossed that he recovers from this.

Autumn/Winter Blogmeet

As most regulars now know, I’m only going to be up here in Manchester another couple of months, and my weekends are manic. So – while I’m away this weekend, and can leave this back up at the top of today’s posts, who’s up for a Manchester blogmeet one weeknight between here and the end of December? (or January, at a push)

Comments and answers either in the comments box, or email me if you’ve got the address. (And really, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find…) *Grin*

Scrooge

It gets earlier every year, doesn’t it? Last year I don’t think the old sod made an appearance ’til November, this year there he is, decorating a post for 14th October. (EDIT : Actually I’ve just checked the October archive page and he’s on one from the 18th)

Bloody Christmas crap in the middle of October. Grrr.

All the 3s

I’ve just looked in my diary. In three weeks time (three weeks today, in fact) I’ll be thirty-three. Thirty-bloody-three. Where’s the time gone? It doesn’t seem like a year (OK, currently 49 weeks) since I posted this for the last one.

But this time I’ll be down in Kent, staying at Prospect Tower. That should be fun – I’m certainly looking forward to it.

Stolen

It’s Friday, and yet Scary’s story contains no porn, vomit, or shit.

I think someone’s stolen Scary, and replaced him with an android running Mary_Whitehouse_1.3.1

Next

It may be just up here, and in fact dear God I hope it’s just up here, but has anyone else’s Next store got silver christmas trees in the window?

Repeat after me : “IT’S TOO FUCKING EARLY!“

Writing and Webstuff

Well, the application I was utterly logjammed on yesterday has now been submitted. No idea how well I’ll do, but the supporting letter ended up being deemed OK on its third re-write, and then got checked by two good friends, tweaked slightly, and it’s now winging its way to the organisation concerned.

I’ve no idea how it’ll do, but I do know it’s a position I’d like to take up. In fact, the only stumbling block with the job itself is the title that goes with it.

Why do some organisations stick with the title “Webmaster”? It’s bloody atrocious, and as one person said last night, “evokes memories of Dungeons and Dragons, some image of a gnomish wizened character casting spells to make the site work”. It’s wank, and worse it’s early-90’s wank, with a healthy dose of pretension. Given the opportunity, the title may get subtly changed.

But in the meantime, what do other organisations use as a title for that “webmaster”-type role?

Sarcasm

Oops. Ever have a day where a dose of minor sarcasm is really misguided?

*Phone rings*
“Hello, IT, Stinky’s phone”
“Ah, hello, is Stinky in?“
“No, he’s not come in yet.”
“OK, I’ll call back later – will he be in for 9.30?“
“I’m not sure – he’s not in yet.”
“Oh, I’ll call back at 9.30 then.“
“OK, but he might not be in ’til ten. Do you want me to check via telepathy?”
“I’ll try him at ten. Let him know it’s *IT Chief Exec, Stinky’s boss’s boss’s boss.*“
“OK”. *puts phone down* “Oh, bugger.”

In fairness, he a) was being effing stupid, and b) didn’t give his name ’til the end of the call. But all the same, Ooops.

Boy,4, saves sister.

You know, there are times (and yes, today is one of them) where stories like this one about a 4yr old boy saving his little sister from drowning that enrage me. Great, the little darling saved his sister when she had an epileptic-type fit in the bath. No problem with that. What causes me the problem is explained in the next couple of paragraphs from the story.

Sophie’s fit began without warning while she was in the bath with Bradley at the family home in Chadderton, near Oldham.

Andrea, who was bathing them, had gone into the bedroom to get their pyjamas. She returned immediately and found Bradley had lifted Sophie’s head over the side of the bath to stop her drowning.

Sophie has suffered convulsions for about a year. They occur without warning and cause her to shake violently and lose consciousness.

So let’s get this one right. The girl has had these fits for a year – and they kick in with no warning. Yet the mother has both her kids in the bath, and walks off out of the room to get their pyjamas?!? Is the woman bloody unhinged? Or just disorganised?

I wonder what the story would have said, had she buggered off out of the room and come back to find her daughter drowned? Whose fault would it all have been then? She’s flaming lucky that the boy was there, and knew something of what to do. He does deserve to be recognised for that, definitely – but equally the mother deserves to be recognised as the kind of idiot who leaves her young children in the bath unattended, regardless of whether one is prone to fits or not.

RoSPA (The Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents) on its page about Child Safety says “Never leave children or babies in the bath unsupervised, even for a moment.“. (down near the bottom of the page, under “Drowning”) According to their figures on the same page, 20 children a year die of drowning – this woman is lucky her daughter didn’t become one more part of that statistic.

Bob Marley (we’re Jammin’)

Yesterday France passed a law allowing jamming of mobile phones in certain areas (cinemas, theatre, etc.) On the BBC’s site today, they ask whether we should have the same thing in the UK. Having spent plenty of time in the “Quiet” coaches of trains with the Nokia ringtone blaring out at top volume, I can honestly say that the answer should be a resounding “YES!“.

What say you?

Writing

Gah. Why is it that I can write stuff on here all day if necessary (and given the inclination/material/time) yet when I really need to get a supporting statement for a job application done, the entire thing just falls over and fails me?

What’s worse is that this one is for a job I actually quite fancy doing – charity-based, fairly well-paid, decent location, and mega kudos on the CV. Plus they’re not likely to be a fly-by-night organisation that just folds up and fucks off. So it’s all well and good, and I’m more than qualified. I just can’t get the supporting stuff to flow properly. Gah.

Photography

Over at the BBC it’s time to vote for their photographer of the year. Some of the images are quite spectacular – enjoy.

Search Terms

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but a couple of search terms today have made me chuckle.

Apparently I’m #7 on Google for “spastic retard name calling how do people with learning disabilities feel“, which is probably one I shouldn’t publicise too much. I also come in at #11 for “Psychologist Gordon Ramsay” – no idea what that actually means, but there we go. I’m amazed I’m not higher than #17 for “Debenham is Shit” (because it IS shit, and so’s their website) and completely befuddled at being #4 for “Queen Bouddica fashion“. Woad is me.

Moving Home

A quick pointer (slightly belated) that Pixeldiva has moved home, and is now back on her original domain at www.pixeldiva.co.uk. The blogroll has been edited to reflect the changes for both her and Kitchentable.

At some point I may even get round to adding a couple of new people to the list!

Applications

Do you ever get to a point with a job application and think “Oh, fuck that for a game of soldiers”?

I did last night – I’d done most of the basic guff, and was looking through the job spec for extra details on what they did and didn’t want. It was at that point that I started getting worried. I’ll get exact quotes later once I’ve got back home, but for a job with a closing date of 19th October, the part of the specification that said “Have site content prepared and ready for testing by the end of September 2004” became a bit of a worry. Explaining that “team leaders are very busy and will avoid discussion of the extranet project” showed the entire thing to be a bit of a political problem, and “Demonstrating the extranet to people who will be extremely averse to using it” was the final straw.

At that point I realised that no matter what, some things are just too much stress and hassle, and that this job was one of them. I deleted the application form (it was a – badly formatted – Word™ document) and decided I’d got better things to do.

Retirement

Stuart at Kitchentable has decided to retire. Fair enough – and good luck for the future. Kitchentable’s provided me with many a smile over the last year or two, so I hope he does well, and gets all the happiness he deserves.

Le Weekend (mini linkfest)

So, other than Urbis, what else did we get up to over the weekend? Well, Saturday involved a trip into the city centre, avoiding the fans of the England vs. Wales match, and instead looking round at a whole range of places including Green and Benz (and no getting any ideas about why we were there!) and Pyramid Glass, and then a meal in the evening at Beluga, which is still one of my favourite places in Manchester. They’ve just launched a new menu, and it’s just as good as the old one, although a couple of my preferences have now disappeared. But £60 for two people, including wine, strikes me as pretty good all round. Utterly recommended.

Sunday involved an exceptionally lazy morning, and then a trip out to Ladybower Dam and the Derwent Valley (the link goes to last year’s photos of the same area) in the afternoon along with a late lunch at the Yorkshire Bridge before going off to the gig in the evening.

And that’s how to do a weekend…

Cowboy Junkies, Manchester Academy

In a word. “Wow”. An utterly superb gig. I haven’t seen them in about fifteen years – and scarily they celebrate their 20th anniversary next year – so it was a bit of a priority to get tickets when they went on sale. And well worth the effort, it has to be said.

Support came from Vic Chesnutt, who I hadn’t previously heard anything by. That situation will soon be rectified – I haven’t laughed so hard at lyrics in a long time, and anyone who can get away with describing a frozen lake as “so cold that even the ducks are avoiding it” is fine in my book.

The only real downside of this concert was that the lighting was exceptionally dim, and so photographs were a problem. Out of the 50-odd that I took, about 5 were actually useable, which is a bit of a disappointment, but there we go. I’ll add on a couple to this once I’ve sorted them out a bit.

The Cowboy Junkies themselves though were superb, and just about flawless. It was good to see that they didn’t just focus on the latest album but instead played stuff from just about every one they’d done (with the exception of “Black Eyed Man”, which always was a piece of shit) right back to “Whites Off Earth Now!”, the first album they recorded. Definite value for money. All told, they played for about ninety minutes – and after nineteen years of recording, obviously they weren’t going to play everyone’s favourite track, but they made a pretty good attempt at doing so. Now I just hope I get to see them again far sooner – I’m already looking forward to it!

Oops

Of course, it’s fixed now, but the big “Go Live” switch on of the new content-managed website over the weekend was – to be frank – a bit disastrous. A small matter of the web server failing to connect to the database was the main problem. And of course with a content managed website it’s – um – all on the database. So, bit of a clang there then.

Other than that, it kind of went OK. There’s still stuff from “testing” that’s visible on the live site which isn’t really something you want happening. And the style-sheet was pigged on a basic problem, as a certain person *cough*Stinky hadn’t remembered to make sure the page background colour was defined – thus the site looked shite if you’d got a background colour set to anything except white.

But it’s all fixed now, and beginning to look pretty good. About bloody time!

All Quiet

It’s a peaceful weekend chez Lyle – the calm before the storm of the rest of the month. Tonight is the Cowboy Junkies gig, and I’m hoping I can get some good photos from it too – it’s at Academy 3, so a nice small space. We’ll see.

Other than that, it’s a far nicer weekend than had been expected weather-wise, and yesterday involved a large wander around the city centre, and my first (and last) visit to the inside of Urbis. The design of the building is fantastic, and as regular readers know, I love it to bits. I just wish I could say the same for the contents. Thank chuff it’s free to get in…

Global Vote 2004

(via ChasingDaisy)

Even if you are not a US citizen, the November 2 presidential election will have a huge impact on your life. The very idea of democracy requires that you should have a say in choosing who determines your destiny. This site therefore allows non-Americans to vote in the 2004 US presidential election.

GLOBALVOTE2004.ORG is totally neutral. You may vote for any candidate. Your vote will be kept secret. And you may only vote once.We will count the votes 48 hours before the election and submit the result to the US media. Just letting US citizens know how the world has voted could influence what looks like a tight race.

Go on, add your vote to the global “Die, George, Die!” appeal.

Testing Times

Just under a month ago, I booked for a driving theory test. At the time the website was shite, needing Internet Explorer, and about 4 pop-up windows. And all it said at the time was “Pearson Test Centre, Oldham”. Not the most helpful. But hey, it’s OK, because “confirmation will be sent out by post”. Will it fuckerslike.

So, I call them today (yes, I should’ve done it a couple of days ago, but it’s been manic) to ask where the frig the centre is, assuming it’s in the town centre somewhere. Um, no, it’s on (they say) Whitney Court. Which, according to Streetmap doesn’t even exist. Anywhere in the UK. Not the most helpful.

So, because I’ve no confirmation of the test, and no clue how to get there (the expression “Just by the station” doesn’t help much in this case, as Oldham doesn’t have a station.) I ask to move it to another date – not an unreasonable request, I’d have thought.

Oh no, that’s most unreasonable. It’s not their problem that they haven’t sent out confirmation, and it’s not their fault that the location doesn’t exist according to any other sources. This is all my fault, I should apparently know where to go, via some form of telepathic connection with the test centre. They’re not prepared to move the date, nor to refund the charge. So far as I can tell, this comes down to the company being utterly shite. So it’s going to be a fight… Joy.

Now to be named “Lucky”

I didn’t see this yesterday, but there’s a little story on the BBC about a deer that got hit by a car, and survived. The driver thought he’d only hit a stone (unlikely, even a muntjac deer is likely to have rather more size/weight than a stone, but OK) and carried on to work. At which point his colleagues pointed to the deer that was still wedged – alive and only with cuts and bruises – in the front of his car. There’s a photo included in the story, so look and be amazed.

New Opportunities

It seems like it’s taken forever, (although I know it’s actually been an exceptionally speedy process) but I’m pleased to announce that I’ve got my first contract to do some photographs. Oh, and design a website too – although that’s nowhere near a first. But the photographs are the real thing, I can’t believe it, it’s a start. It’s for a local charity dealing with soup-kitchens, the homeless, and disowned and dispossessed around the area.

Over the next month I’ll be out with the people involved in the charity, doing photos at the soup-kitchens, and also in the red-light areas. We’ve discussed some ideas already, and then we’ll see how it goes. It’s a start, and if it does work out, it’s got the potential to open up a lot of other markets for me too. Where it’ll all take me, only time will tell – but these first steps feel damn, damn good.

Bizarro Mundo

This announcement has just come round via work e-mail.

THe Café – the Civic Centre’s new dining area – is now up and running.

THe café (the ‘e’ is for electronic, as in e-mail) will serve lunches between 11.30am and 1.45pm every day, with coffees and snacks also available until 4.00pm.

The new facilities include a coffee area where you can relax, chat and enjoy a drink or snack. There is also a more formal seating area, with tables and chairs, where you can enjoy a lunchtime meal.

Yes, they’ve finally added in a canteen. There used to be one years ago, apparently, which was then withdrawn because it wasn’t cost-effective.

I’m still to work out the relevance of that “the e is for electronic” – corporate bollocks at its best.

Incomprehensible

I’ve just taken a call from a telesales person, trying to sell my company “mobile upgrades and savings”. Supposedly the company was called “amoco” (pronounced “ammer co”) only she didn’t explain enough for me to be able to get any kind of link or website to verify.

However, considering they were calling a business *cough*, they were amazingly incapable of providing any details. In fact, the conversation ended up with…

Telesales : “We’re offering to get you some upgrades and savings”
Me : “Ok, what’re you offering, how much will it cost me, and what does it do?”
Telesales : “Oh, it won’t cost you anything, it’s just some upgrades and savings”
Me : “On what?”
Telesales : *click*

So it was a completely wasted effort, and I’ve still no idea what they were bollocksing on about. Most bizarre.

Progress

Well, the entire Content Management project is progressing slowly – the new site will go live on Friday in time for the CPA starting on Monday, although there will be some bits that won’t be working immediately. With luck (he said, hopelessly optimistically) the idiots in the departments will be able to engineer the assessors away from the missing sections while they get updated/migrated/sorted.

So, a couple more days of struggling against the chuffwits, and then it’ll be back to a slightly calmer atmosphere while fixing what idiots who don’t understand the process have done.

As a result, updates here may be slightly less than normal. As well as the CMS deadlines here, I’ve got a couple of job applications to get completed, and two other deadlines that are approaching rapidly too.

It never rains…

Jungle: The Challenge – BBC2

Can a sales manager from Putney take on the Outdoor Quest in the jungles of Borneo, running, biking, climbing and kayaking over 200 miles in 40 degree heat and 90% humidity?

This is the fastest adventure race in the world, offering four days of physical and mental punishment.

I’ve just watched this programme, and it’s left me stunned. I’d never really seen or heard of adventure racers before – but wow, I’m impressed by them now. 200 kilometres of racing in 90% humidity and 35°C heat over four days, running, cycling, rollerblading, kayaking, swimming, and even an abseil.

So far as I’m concerned, anyone who completes even one adventure race is heroic beyond normal measures. To keep on running them like Team Saab Salomon is dedication bordering on insanity. I’m in absolute and utter awe.

Organised?

Today (and in fact the rest of this week) is shaping up to be utterly shit. Fair enough, for the last fifteen months I’ve been pissing and moaning about not having much work to do, and it’s been true.

However, next week the place I work has it’s CPA (Corporate Performance Assessment) which I’ve blithered about plenty of times before now. However, the arrival of this Inspection and Assessment appears to be news to most of the departments, as they’re all only now going into a mad panic and realising that their web-pages and so on are – to be blunt – fucked.

So not only are we working at getting the new Content Managed site up and working in time for Monday, but we’re getting mad panic from all areas wanting their Internet and Intranet pages updated in time for – you guessed it – Monday.

The entire process should be filed under “Organised, Couldn’t, Piss in a Bucket“. Murder may have been committed by Friday.

You Don’t Say

Ooops. Donald Rumsfeld has now said that he doubts there was ever any connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Nice work, Einstein.

Of course, the problem with this is that the “link” between the two was one of George W.’s main cases for the war against Iraq. Anyone with half an IQ point (which, of course, excludes George) knew already that Bin Laden and Hussein were more likely to be deadly enemies than allies, as Hussein had that eeny-weeny loathing of the Kurds, which is (of course) the main section of support for Bin Laden. So, bit of a clang there then.

Right since the start of this bullshit conflict, I’ve always said that the best thing that Bin Laden could have done would have been to eliminate Hussein himself. I’d love to have seen what the result would have been, had Public Enemy #1 been seen on TV holding the decapitated head of Public Enemy #2 (aka Hussein) in his hands. Of course, it never happened, but I still smile at the idea of GW having to say “Thanks” to Bin Laden….

Celebrations. Ish

Well, I can’t help but celebrate to learn that Paul Sykes, the biggest contributor to the UK Independence Party has donated his last. Slightly more worrying (and potentially listed under “Death, Kiss of”) is that he’s switched his allegiance to the Tory party.

Mr Sykes told the Today programme the Conservatives were the only Eurosceptic party capable of forming a government.

Damning with faint praise, methinks.

High-Rise

In a rare event, today the office where I work will be allowing access to the roof of the tower – although only in small groups. It’s one of the highest buildings in the area (15ish floors, and then higher still by virtue of being on top of a hill anyway) so the views should be interesting, to say the least.

The camera’s going up with me, anyway – as is the UV filter. We’ll just have to see what I manage to get…

Communication

This week we’re due to start testing the new version of the website. It’s (supposedly) got an IP address that the consultancy company can use to load-test the site. (which is really just the Web equivalent of “smack it with a hammer – hard – and see if anything breaks. Then keep on doing it.”)

Now, none of that should be difficult. However, it occurred to me that this one IP address is going to be getting hit hard over the next week while they try to break it, so it might be worth checking that the company firewall to make sure it’s not going to sound the various alarms that say “Help! I’m being attacked by hackers!”. Of course, no-one had actually thought of doing that – the joys of corporate communications.

As it turned out, it was lucky I did speculate about it, because the numpty twadge who’d set up the IP address hadn’t informed the firewall team at all, so it wasn’t actually working at all.

There’s an air of despair around my desk today. Roll on December 23rd.

Double-checking

I know I’ve posted about this before, but it still drives me bananas. What IS the point of sending an email, then calling up to say “Have you received the email I’ve just sent you“?

Wedding Train

There’s a nice little story on the BBC’s website today about a couple getting married on a train. OK, it’s slightly bobble-hatty, but at least they’re train-workers rather than train-spotters!

Maybe I’m just feeling slightly mellow today, but I do think that – regardless of how it wouldn’t suit me – it’s quite a nice way to do it, and acknowledging a joint interest.

Updating Bloggery

I’ve been thinking for a while about a redesign/revamp of d4d – it’s slowly happening, but there’s still a way to go. Simply put, part of the problem (well, part of the reason it’s taken so long) is that there’s one hell of a lot of stuff within d4d as a site now, although a fair bit of it hasn’t been updated in quite a while.

I haven’t updated the thoughts and rants in the best part of a year, and the blog has become the main part, along with photos etc. So – do I get rid of the rants and so on, and leave the site primarily as the blog and photos for now? And work on altering the old pages to fit into the new style as and when I get round to it?

It’s possible for me to do it that way – the new navigation I’ve worked on is a dynamic “include” file, so I know I can have a small selection at first, and then change the navigation when/if I update the older sections. This section of d4d will migrate over to WordPress (assuming I ever suss it out properly – I’m currently thinking of just reinstalling the basic template and working from there) along with the new style-sheet etc., and then it’s just decisions about the future of the other sections.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about is effectively running two blogs within d4d, one standard, and one “photoblog”. However, I’m still in two minds about this, as I don’t come up with enough photographic stuff as yet to justify a daily-update photographic blog. Still, it’s all stuff to be thought about for the future.

So – what are your thoughts on keeping the older sections etc.? Should I bother – does anyone ever really go back and read the rants or thoughts, for example?

De-focussed

RIP Richard Avedon, who died today aged 81.

At Home

Amazingly, for once I’m actually not travelling this weekend. I’m at home, in Manchester. It’s a very strange feeling. Friday evening’s are normally spent cursing Virgin Trains and abusing the text message system in order to vent ire and wrath, as well as information on my delayed ETA to whatever destination I’m aiming for.

This time I simply went home, cooked, and did feck all. Even more amazingly, housemate is staying here this weekend too – it’s the first weekend we’ve both spent in the house since she moved in three months ago. That’s a pretty scary average, all things considered.

Still, it’s nice – and even more surprising is that next week will be more of the same, although on this occasion Herself will be coming up here, and we’ll be seeing Cowboy Junkies in concert on Sunday night. But that’s next week – for now I’m just going to enjoy this one.

Bad Day

I thought I was having a bad day, but Scaryduck has convinced me I’m wrong. Don’t read it if you’re trying to look serious, or like you’re doing work.

Festering Season

It’s always nice to see common sense reigning for once. Aylesbury Council workers “got the date wrong” (because Christmas is such a moveable feast, and isn’t on the same day every year or anything) and put up Christmas trees in the middle of September.

After several complaints, they’ve had to take them down again, but I bet they’re back up by the middle of November…

Memetic – What’s on your Wall?

One of my regular reads, Terreus is trying to launch his own meme, titled “What’s on your wall?”. Or, as he puts it,

“Let’s all see what favourite work of art you have in the most prominent place in your home. You know, Vladimir Tretchikoff’s ‘Chinese Girl’ above the fireplace, or van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ on the bedroom wall.”

I quite like the idea of this, although I find I’m slightly stumped as there are a couple that I love, so I’m going to go with two that I’ve got, and one that is due to go up this weekend.

The first one is a semi-cliche now, but it’s also a painting I’ve loved for at least five years now, so what the hell. I do like a lot of the work by Jack Vettriano, but still I find myself coming back to “Dance Me To The End Of Love” as a favourite. There are others too, but well, this is the one that’s ended up in central position in my main living room. There are so many things about it that I like, including the feeling (which, as it turns out, is very like Edward Hopper’s work) where the people are actually quite solitary, no contact except for each other, and looking away from the “camera”. You don’t see their faces, everything about the painting is in the body language, and it’s just an image I love.

The other print I have in the main living room is a portrait shot of New York’s Flatiron building, and this print is huge – 100cm x 50cm. (approximately 3 feet high and 1.5 wide) yet the photoclarity is perfect throughout the shot. I’ve no idea what kind of lens was used, or what skills – it could be a wide-angle lens that’s been vertically aligned instead of horizontally, but I don’t know for sure. For some reason I love triangular buildings, as a result of which I’m also a committed fan of Manchester’s Urbis building too, and have even tried taking a similar photo of the Urbis, so I could have the two side-by-side. It’s never worked yet, but well, I’m getting better at this photography malarkey all the time.

And that’s where the newest print comes in. It’s been ordered, and as yet hasn’t arrived or been framed. That should happen this weekend, with luck. The basic underlying photo was OK, but then I decided to have a play in Photoshop, effectively thinking about adding “filters” in post-processing. It’s not something I’d ever really thought about before, and a lot of the things I tried were, to be charitable, “OK”, but nothing special. In a couple of examples, they were actually bloody atrocious. It’s all a bit of a learning curve, Photoshop’s such a huge bit of kit and I wonder if any one person ever uses more than about fifty percent of it.

Anyway, on this shot I played with some colour layers and opacity etc., and suddenly I’d got this, which I really liked. I just hope it works as well when it’s been printed. Oh, and if you want to see it at a bit of a bigger size, just click on the image.