Weekend Update
Posted: Sun 31 August, 2008 Filed under: Domestic Leave a comment »Not a great deal of news over the weekend, to be honest. It’s been spent with domestic rubbish like shopping, as well as getting more corn for the hens, sorting out some business banking stuff, and the like.
Sunday involved a visit to a local arts/crafts event which was good fun (once you’ve tried to forget the Morris Dancers) and also allowed me to collect a few more business cards for people without websites.
All told, it’s not been too bad at all – quite nice to have a fairly quiet one for once – but it does mean we haven’t anaged to complete a fair number of the jobs we were planning to do.
Ah well, could be worse.
Devious Bitch
Posted: Fri 29 August, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »I meant to write about this a while ago, and completely forgot. (Well, I think I did – I don’t remember writing about it, so *shrug*) But anyway, the other week, Hound finally confirmed my suspicions that she’s a devious cow. Let me explain…
At home, Psycho Cat has his food in one particular room, which Hound is kept out of by means of a stairgate. (like people have to prevent children from going up stairs) When she was younger, she used to jump the stairgate, but since we’ve moved to Norfolk she doesn’t even attempt that any more.
If for any reason the stairgate is left open and the cat’s food is down, Hound will go in and scoff as much of it as possible. At that point, because of Hound’s megaoesophagus, she’ll then spend the next 30 – 60 mins puking it back up and re-eating it. This will continue until either a) it stops of its own accord or b) she pukes it up, one of us gets her into her cage, and then clears up the (now warm, and eaten several times puke.
Herself always says that this thieving of Psycho Cat’s food is just because she’s a dog, and thus a scavenger at heart who can’t resist stealing food. Which is fair – but when we were in Bracknell, I often wondered why Hound wouldn’t jump the stairgate to steal the food when we weren’t in the house.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I came home and Hound was fast asleep. I went in to the kitchen, and could suddenly hear her scoffing away in the room with the cat’s food in. Hound had gone in there – the stairgate was open – and hoovered up the entire of the cat’s tuna.
But she’s shown her hand now. Because I know I didn’t open that stairgate. So the devious cow can resist stealing the food while we’re out, because she knows she won’t be able to go and puke in the garden. Therefore, she also knows that stealing the food will make her puke it up. She understands cause and effect – she knows that if she scoffs that food, she’ll be ill, so she waits until someone is around to feel sorry for her before she does it.
And in my book, that makes her a devious conniving bitch. And no longer will she have my sympathy when she’s stolen the cat’s food, and is now looking all mournful and “I couldn’t help it, it was just there” while she’s puking it all over the back garden.
Pants
Posted: Thu 28 August, 2008 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism 1 Comment »On the BBC today, this story of a man who found his phone banking password had been changed made me laugh.
Pissed off with the twunts at Lloyds TSB, the man changed his password to (a remarkably tame) “Lloyds are pants”. And someone within Lloyds changed it to “no, they’re not”. Even better, he then wasn’t allowed to change it back, and wasn’t allowed to have “Barclays is better”.
“The rules seemed to change, and they told me it had to be one word, so I tried ‘censorship’, but they didn’t like that, and then said it had to be no more than six letters long.”
Now if it were me, at that point I’d have chosen “Fkwitz” and insisted that it was my great-grandmother’s maiden name. But then, I’m malevolent like that.
Also, no-one has yet raised the issue that actually, it looks like Lloyds TSB staff can see your entire password. Which isn’t particularly secure, is it?
Scripting
Posted: Thu 28 August, 2008 Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Resolutions, Thoughts, Writing Leave a comment »A couple of weeks ago, Dragon wrote about a challenge to get a short film written, filmed and edited in 30 days – which sounded interesting.
So I submitted a brief idea to him – one that wasn’t written, and actually wasn’t anywhere except in my head. Even the brief was only written down for the first time in the first email to him. Admittedly, the initial plan was to have a completed script that just needed something doing to it – which would certainly have been possible in that thirty day limit.
As it is, the script has been being written by me at any spare moment, and is now just about complete. I’m sure that we’re not going to make the submission deadline of the 15th Sept – and I know that a fair dollop of the responsibility for that falls on my shoulders, as even with the writing deadline (and perhaps even because of it) my mind blocked up solidly for the best part of a week on how the entire thing should progress.
It’s been an interesting challenge already though – and we’ve already decided that the short film will be made from it as well, it’s just that it won’t get in to this year’s submissions. It’ll be getting submitted for next year though, you can be sure. (Well, so long as it actually works as a story, anyway)
It’s also the first time I’ve actually written a screenplay/script – so that’s been a learning curve in and of itself. But it’s certainly got the old creative juices flowing – there’s already the thoughts and plans for at least three other pieces to be done once this one is finally completed and out the door. (Well, out of the email box, to be pedantic)
Once again, the biggest bit of the challenge has been to get myself motivated to do the writing – and on that score, Dragon’s challenge has been a complete winner.
Just have to see how long it continues now, I guess…
Photography Course
Posted: Wed 27 August, 2008 Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Photography 3 Comments »In the last week, I’ve signed up for a Digital Photography course based in Attleborough. It’s a year-long course, and will lead to NCFE Level 1 and 2 qualifications in Digital Photography.
I’m actually aiming for the Level 2 more than the Level 1, as I’m pretty certain I don’t count as a “beginner” in photography at all. What I’m hoping is that the course will also include some grounding in some of the basic photography stuff that I still don’t fully ‘get’ – apertures, f numbers, and calculating the appropriate shutter speed for a particular aperture/Depth of Field.
Additionally, I’m hoping that just having the extra impetus of this course will add some motivation for getting out more and taking more photos. It’s something I’ve been struggling with all year, the entire thing of keeping on going out and taking photos, so I hope that having something to work on will help on that score.
The course starts on 23rd September, so I’ll know more at that point. Should be interesting, anyway.
Canine Excuses and Licences
Posted: Tue 26 August, 2008 Filed under: Animals, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »There’s a story on the BBC news site today about an inquest into the death of a toddler who was killed by a Rottweiler. I don’t want to use terms like “attacked”, because it seems that dog grabbed the child because it saw the child as a new toy.
The dog had apparently been kept in a yard, and hadn’t been walked or exercised once in more than five months. Now, I can’t envisage keeping a dog un-exercised for five days, let alone five months- even a small lap-dog, let alone a lopping great Rottweiler.
The coroner called for “stricter controls” on the breeding and sale of dangerous dogs – but to me, this isn’t about a dangerous dog, it’s about a bored dog. The coroner should be recommending stricter controls on the owners of dogs – dangerous or not – rather than on the breeders. (And yes, in this case the dog was bought “in a pub” from an unregistered breeder. Personally, though, I don’t believe that every dog in a similar situation is a dangerous dog – a lot of it depends on how that dog is then trained and brought up, rather than its initial situation)
And you know what would make that control of dog owners easier? Simple, the return of the dog licence. I’d be happy to see it administered by a non-governmental organisation, such as Dogs Trust or RSPCA – and you can’t/don’t get a licence until you’ve been visited by a registered inspector from [administrating authority] who fills out the licence there and then. And you can’t buy a dog without showing your licence, your approval to be a dog owner.
Yes, you would still end up with deals done ‘in a pub’ – but you could also have the offence of having a dog without a licence, and make it a very expensive proposition. For example, a £1,000 default fine per unlicensed dog with higher penalties if that dog is also mis-treated. Even, perhaps, a fine that is 50% discounted if you get a licence within 14 or 28 days of being discovered – which still leaves a significant amount to be paid.
Even when you’ve got the licence, you’d be liable to be checked on at random, in order that the inspectors could check your dog was still being well looked after, exercised etc.
To me that just all makes sense. So why isn’t it happening? Have I missed something that makes this harder to do?
Signed Up
Posted: Mon 25 August, 2008 Filed under: General Leave a comment »Following on from the visit to the gym last week, I’m now signed up for a six month stint.
My first day there, and the induction and initial checkout etc. will be on Wednesday 3rd September – and I must admit, I’m actually quite looking forward to it.