Posted: Sat 3 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Thoughts, Work-related |
In direct contrast (Ha, just typed that as contract – Freudian Slop or what?) to the work-related events of my week, it’s interesting to see the way Apple handle job offers and contracts in the US.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to work for Apple – and I still have real issues with the ‘Apple are great. Full Stop.” evangelism that comes through in that post too – but it’s still an interesting thing to see.
Posted: Sat 3 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable |
This last week in London has been one of the more manic of the last couple of months.
Coupled with feeling rather rougher than the average badger’s arse due to a vile cold of snot-exploding proportions, I’ve ended up meeting up with friends on two out of the four nights – not that I’m complaining at all. In fact it’s been good fun, and I rather wish I could’ve done more of it during my time here.
On the Tuesday I met up with Lori, who I haven’t seen since the days of the Manchester blogmeets. (A disturbing five+ years ago, we realised) As a result, it was really good to catch up, put the world to rights, and generally talk and drink. Mind you, by the end of it my voice sounded like I should be working on an 0898 phone-sex line, it was that hoarse and rough. Very scary.
On Wednesday I met up with Sevitz (Or Svetzi, as he should be known) and Dragon. He’s another of the ones I’ve known online for years and always got on well with, so it was grand to meet up properly at last and properly put a face and voice to the name. (Mind you, think “Bottom-era Ade Edmondson”, and you’ve pretty much got Dragon in your mind – very odd, but absolutely no bad thing!) Having started off in the Concrete bar at the Hayward, we ended up eventually grabbing some food in the nearby Wagamama at about 11 before going our separate ways.
It’s been a really good week for being sociable – allbeit while also being an utterly crap week for both being a sneezing/coughing wreck, and all the crap about contracts etc. But it’s been enjoyable, re-connecting with old friends and connecting ‘in reality’ with others.
Who said the Internet’s anti-social, eh?
Posted: Fri 2 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Weirdness |
Here on D4D™ the single most popular post has been one I made back in January 2005 about the government’s plan to stop the painkiller co-proxamol from being prescribed. At the time of writing, it’s got 744 comments, and became almost like a forum for people ordering c0-proxamol overseas etc.
Strangely though, it seems that everyone has stopped using that post over the last month or so.
There’s possibly a few reasons for this…
- The regular commenters have all gone somewhere else
- The issue has disappeared entirely underground now
- They can’t find the page since I stuffed about with the URLs a while back.
I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t really mind one way or the other. It’s just odd to have gone from at least a couple of comments per day to nothing for a month.
Ah well.
Posted: Thu 1 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Depression, Introspective, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
Now here’s something I don’t do often – respond in a proper piece to a comment on another piece.
In this case, in yesterday’s “Changing Plans” post, Andy commented…
I have to say, following your blog & Twitter, that your contracting seems like a monumental effort/nightmare/arsepain. There’s a lot to be said for a regular job, not least: a) a bit of security (so you’re not always worrying about what next week brings) and b) the luxury of a bit of time to think and plan your next big move (i.e. away from what you’re currently doing).
You don’t strike me as someone who’d be content/comfortable with a regular job, no matter how short term – but it seems to me like you’re in a cycle that you need/want to get out of as it’s causing you grief.
And I couldn’t agree more, to be honest. Maybe I do need to bite the bullet and look at a “proper job”. I don’t know. This year has been utter shit when it comes to contracts, and work in general. In fact I’d go so far as to say it’s been the worst work year I’ve had.
You’re right, there is a lot to be said for that “proper job”. I get that totally. It just doesn’t (for whatever reason) chime with me at all. I don’t know why – and I’ve looked into it a lot – but it just doesn’t. Maybe I’ve just never had a positive experience of that regular job, but maybe my mindset won’t let me have a positive experience of that regular job. Either way, I’ve never been happy in a regular job.
I’m not happy with what I’m currently doing. I’m good at it, but I’m no longer happy with it. However, I know I need to keep on doing it (whether as contracts or regular work) until I get things sorted for doing Something Else. That doesn’t help. Getting fucked over and treated like crap also doesn’t help. (Although in my experience that’s something that happens regardless of a job being proper or not)
This week, I also feel like crap anyway. I’ve picked up a cold from a friend (who will be receiving a snot-filled slap when I next see him) and honestly, I’d rather be at home.
The change of plans, when everything was ready and in place, has added to that, and knocked my confidence a bit too. That’s down to being a control-freak, and not liking it when I get stuffed over with nothing I can do about it.
I’ve got three or four ideas about what I want to do instead of this, which have been chatted about a few times with friends over the last couple of days. It’ll take time – unless I get incredibly lucky – to sort them out and decide what to do, as well as to implement the ideas, make the changes, and get those things off the ground.
It’ll take time – but the last week has illustrated pretty perfectly why I need to do it, and make the changes. And if nothing else, it should make for some more fun on D4D.
Posted: Thu 1 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts |
There’s a story on the BBC today – a headline story, no less – that extra police patrols have been placed on the street in Leicestershire where Fiona Pilkington lived with her daughter before killing them both after years of taunts and intimidation.
Ms Pilkington killed herself and her 18-year-old daughter when she set fire to her car in a lay-by in October 2007.
So it’s taken two years for those extra patrols to be put in place – conveniently (from a media and PR perspective) just after the inquest verdict came out that the lack of action/response on the part of police was at least partially to blame for the deaths.
Talk about locking the stable door once the horse has bolted. In this case that horse has run away, broken its leg, been put down and turned into glue before Leicestershire police have got round to doing anything about it.
Way too little, way too late.