Bizarre

Posted: Wed 31 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Weirdness | 6 Comments »

When I moved to Attleborough, I discovered there was another blogger in the town, Mr Lionel Rarsh. Hardly a shocker, knowing there’s another loon in the same small market town. After all, I suspect there were several in Bracknell, except no-one would dare admit it. Coming from there, I mean.

Anyway, in an email today it transpires that he lives exactly three houses away from me. And in a street/road of about 30 houses, those odds are pretty fuckin’ high, it has to be said.

Bizarre indeed.

Dungeonesque

Posted: Wed 31 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Work-related | 4 Comments »

Way back on Thursday, I came in to find my desk in darkness. The light-fighting above it had broken (well, wasn’t working) – not that I minded, because it was quite nice to not have any glare on my monitor, and it meant the display worked a lot more nicely too.

Anyway, they tried replacing the fluorescent tubes in the light fitting, to no avail. A couple of flickers, then zap, back to darkness. So they decided to call in an electrician.

He came in yesterday, took a look at it, and left. Still in darkness.

It’s been replaced today, so I’m back to the world of light, and glare.

I have to say, I preferred it when the light fitting was broken.

Vista?

Posted: Tue 30 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Geeky, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

So, today Microsoft launches its new Operating System, Vista™. Whoopee-Doo.

Will I be going for Vista™? Hell no – and there’s a few reasons why.

First of all, I’m just not one of those people who simply has to have the latest greatest newest versions. Hell, I only started using XP on my home computers last year. Until then, Windows 2000 had done me very nicely indeed, thank you. In fact, I still don’t like a lot of XPs ‘features’, although I’m getting used to them.

Secondly, as with every other Microsoft OS, the first release will be a bug-fest. It’ll be horrific, and it’ll piss off a lot of people – particularly those who’ve paid to be able to ‘upgrade’ (I use that term *very* loosely!) as soon as Vista is released, and then find that various odds and sods Just Don’t Work. In my opinion, you’re always best to wait ’til at least the first Service Pack has come out, which will fix most of the major bugs. But I also despise the Microsoft attitude where you pay for software, and are still effectively a beta-tester of the OS. That just sucks.

Thirdly, there’s all the DRM (Digital Rights Management) that’s built in to Vista – and that’s something I really object to. In fact, that’s a whole different rant, but basically why the hell should I have limitations on something I’ve bought, and decide I want to listen to on my PC, or MP3 player, or wherever – and why the hell would I buy a piece of software that enforces rights management on items I’ve legally paid for?

So, three good reasons why I have no intention of upgrading to Vista until its absolutely necessary for me to do so. Which, by my reckoning, will be somewhere around 2011.

Fencing

Posted: Tue 30 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, Domestic | 2 Comments »

When we moved into the current place, we realised that the landlords had a rather different idea of what a “dog-friendly” or “enclosed” garden was than we did. By which I mean that we discovered that the fence and hedges had a number of holes in them that would allow Hound to explore the gardens of our neighbours.

She’s had a great time exploring, as you can imagine. About a month ago, we bought some wire fencing and posts, and put them up in the places where she was getting through to the neighbours.

So she found other places. Cowbag.

Over the last two weekends, we’ve bought more bloody wire fencing and fenceposts. The entire side and bottom of the garden is now pooch-proofed, and the other side is a stream, so she’s not going to escape that way. Well, she’d fucking better not, anyway.

So we’ve spent about £100 on extra fencing and posts. Of course, we can take it with us when we move to the new place, but it’s still a pain in the arse at the moment.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see where Hound escapes to next.

Gotcha

Posted: Mon 29 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Green | Leave a comment »

Ah, the joys of seeing someone hoist on their own petard – in this case, a former environmental advisor to President Blair, who now commutes 500 miles weekly by plane, going from Gloucestershire to Edinburgh.

To coin a phrase from the Government’s rulebook

Do as I say, not as I do

New Links

Posted: Mon 29 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green | Leave a comment »

Somewhere over there on the right, I’ve added a new category of links – Organic Gardening.

It’s something that we’re aiming to be doing a lot of in the new place, growing our own veg and plants, so it seems like a good plan to be building up some links, some back-up, and some ideas.

Extensions

Posted: Mon 29 January, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Weirdness, Work-related | Leave a comment »

So, I’ve now finished working at the current place through an agency.

And today I start working at the current place for myself, albeit still with Parasol as the umbrella company that handles all the invoices, tax, NI, and the multiplicitous malarkey that would be additional responsibilities for me if I were simply self-employed.

I’m now here for at least another two months, probably three – and quite possibly six, as they’re already mid-discussion about that one. Absolutely barmy. Particularly when you also consider that I didn’t get the permanent position (doing the same thing) but I’m still fine for doing it as a contractor. For twice the money I’d have been paid as a permanent employee.

Still, if they’ve got cash to throw around, I suppose I might as well be the recipient of some of it.

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