Over and Done
Posted: Mon 1 January, 2024 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »
Welcome to 2024
Back to the normal intermittent rubbish, as and when I think “I haven’t written anything there for a while!”
I’ve got a bundle of things bouncing round my head that I should jot down – thoughts and plans for the coming year that are emphatically not resolutions , that kind of thing.
But in the meantime, it’s really just a sigh of relief to get to the end of another Festering Season.
Attacked
Posted: Sat 22 April, 2023 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 2 Comments »Over the last week or so, D4D’s been getting attacked from Sources Unknown, which has made things into a real Pain In The Chuff.
More worryingly, it turned out that my hosting company haven’t been keeping decent backups, and managed to not notice a bundle of key files being changed (repeatedly) on the sites I have with them.
Now OK, I’d been slack, and had a lot of those domains all under one username/file-owner , which was lazy of me, and shouldn’t have been done. (On the other hand, having to remember a different username/password for each site/domain is… complicated, and leads to people writing down far more stuff than they should. Swings and roundabouts)
So there’ve been a number of remedies and updates I’ve been going through, but there were still facets that weren’t working – mainly because of those key files that got over-written, and that either weren’t backed up, or weren’t backed up regularly enough. (Needless to say, that’s now changed – I’ve got backups in various places, so it shouldn’t happen again)
It’s ended up with a scorched-earth strategy, where I’ve effectively changed everything that’s possible – new username/password, new file-owner name and password, new folder location, and then reinstalled everything in a completely fresh clean copy of WordPress, and only then updating the config file to use the same database as before. And even the database tables have had their references changed.
It’s now all back and operational, and there’s been a fair amount of learning/remembering along the way. But honestly, I’ll be very happy to not have to do that again for another decade or so!
Cold
Posted: Thu 9 February, 2023 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Health 2 Comments »I’ve not been feeling up to writing much recently. Primarily it’s down to my usual combination of keeping myself busy, a lack of impetus, and keeping on thinking “You know, I really should write something”. However, this week that’s also been tempered by the addition of a large and rotten cold. (And yes, it’s just a cold – nothing flu-based or Coviddy, thankfully)
I don’t get them that often, and bloody hate it when I do have one. For whatever reason, I just end up with a streaming nose, and currently look like Rudolph.
It started on Saturday, and has got steadily heavier through to today, so hopefully it’ll now start to ease off a bit before the weekend!
All fun and games. And snot, of course. Lots and lots of that.
*Sigh*
2023, We’ll See
Posted: Sun 1 January, 2023 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »And lo, a new year has happened.
No idea what it’ll bring. For the most part it’ll be interesting to find out.
I don’t make resolutions or whatever. We’ll just see what happens.
I would like to write more here. It’s a habit I’ve got out of, and one I at least have the best intentions of getting back into. Mind you, I said that last year. And the year before.
We’ll see.
2022, Off You Fuck
Posted: Sat 31 December, 2022 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »The end of another year. And what can I say? It’s been… yeah, it’s been.
For me, purely personally, it’s been OK. I’ve moved location, (mainly) settled in, and organised a bundle of stuff – both getting new things I needed, and getting rid of stuff I didn’t.
As a country, it’s been shit. We’re seeing strikes, discontent, and the culmination of a generation of politically inept kleptocrats. But I don’t need to tell anybody that – we’re all living through it already.
Hopefully 2023 will contain some improvements – or at a bare minimum just be slightly less crap than 2022 has been.
It’s fair to say, though, that 2022 really won’t be missed.
2022
Posted: Sat 1 January, 2022 Filed under: 2022, D4D™, Domestic, Making Plans 1 Comment »So, welcome to another New Year.
I don’t know what it’ll bring, what new things will happen, and what other things will fuck up. We’re still in the midst of Very Very Weird Times, and I don’t think they’re going to go anywhere any time soon.
For the first time in a while though, I’m making some plans for this year – not resolutions by any stretch, but some changes and plans all the same. I’m not going to publicise them at the moment, but we’ll see how things go.
One thing I do want to do is get back to writing here a bit more (which is a pretty low bar, on the evidence of the last year or two) but we’ll also just have to see how that goes.
Anyway, here’s 2022. Let’s see whether it’s any good.
September Restart (Hopefully)
Posted: Wed 1 September, 2021 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Health, SAD, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts Leave a comment »So, yes, I’m still alive. There’s been a bundle of stuff going on that isn’t blog-friendly (or even interesting) and August has been it’s usual shower of shit.
I don’t know why it happens, but it does, and it’s not a conscious process at all. But I’ll have about two weeks where pretty much nothing goes right, and it whacks my brain hard, and then I realise that yes, yet again, it’s bloody August.
Obviously this year I also got slightly walloped by July, but well, who’s counting?
As is obvious, I got through it all – and in fairness, it’s nothing major that’s been occurring, I’m still in the same house, same job, nothing epic has altered. But it hits me hard anyway, like I’ve had enough energy to keep going ’til now, then I just feel like I’ve been slammed into a wall, and there’s little to no time or energy to do anything for a few weeks.
So anyway, yes, September. Let’s see how things go from here…
Spamtastic
Posted: Mon 26 April, 2021 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »At the moment, I’m seeing a lot more spam comments here than I used to.
It’s not insurmountable – only about 15-20 per day, and none of them actually show up on the site – but it’s still a pain in the bum.
I’m not sure why they’re happening – nothing’s changed at my end, I’ve still got the same set of plugins running as always. So I assume there’s been some kind of loophole found, and the spammers are trying to take advantage of it. (Although it seems pretty pointless in a site as under-used and under-viewed as this one now is)
All told, it’s just something else, another irritation I could do without.
Slowly Opening Out
Posted: Thu 15 April, 2021 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Lockdown 2 Comments »It’s been very quiet round here of late – mainly because of Lockdown 3.0, and there really hasn’t been much to do, or to report.
Thankfully, things seem to be slowly opening up again, and that’s making things look a lot more positive for the rest of the year.
Last weekend had some fun, in that the “Locked Up” crime writer’s online festival was held – organised by Luca Veste and Steve Cavanaugh (who also do the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast) It was all done via Zoom, with a range of (roughly) hour-long sessions with various writers. And it was thoroughly entertaining.
Even better, the entire thing was done to provide funds for The Trussell Trust, and was entirely reasonably priced at £20 for the whole thing.
I can actually see events like that being more common in the future – I think they make a lot of sense, allowing a sort-of-social event without needing to be social, and reducing costs along the way (it’s a lot easier to get people to talk for an hour from their own houses/offices, rather than having to bring them all in to a location, accommodate them etc.) while also opening it up to a larger audience, rather than limiting it just to people who can actually get to the location.
Birfday
Posted: Thu 5 November, 2020 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten) 2 Comments »Somehow, I’ve managed to make it to 49.
Forty-fucking-nine.
In my head, I’m still mid-twenties at best. (Until I go out with a group of mid-twenties people, at which point no, fucking hell, I’m not) But no, forty-bloody-nine is where I’m at.
Usually over the last few years I’ve done a list of what I’m planning to do in the next year, and what I’ve achieved in the past one. I’m not doing that this year on either side – 2020’s been such a horrendous clusterchuff in so many ways, and there’s not really any positive end in sight, so I’m looking more at spending the coming year figuring out some of that stuff.
Of course, 2021 could be (hell, is likely to be) even more of a grimdark shitscape than 2020, what with Brexit, Covid, America, and whatever else is hovering on the horizon, waiting to dump it’s crap over all of us.
And on that happy note, let’s get on with it.
Quiet
Posted: Sat 28 March, 2020 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Health Leave a comment »A lot has changed in the last month – not really for me personally, but for the world. As a result, I haven’t felt much like writing, but while I’m here and not doing much, I thought I’d at least update a bit, catch up on some posts, some thoughts and braindumps along the way.
But regardless of that, I’m still here.
All Quiet On The Western Front
Posted: Tue 17 December, 2019 Filed under: 2019/20, D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts, Writing Leave a comment »Needless to say, it’s been quiet here for the last month or so.
There’s been a fair amount going on in reality, but primarily it was just about taking a break.
OK, I can’t deny, a lot of this year has been a break on D4D, and that’s something I plan/want to change. (That’ll be another post)
The last month, though, has been an intentional break rather than the accidental ones that’ve been occurring. I wanted to take a break from even feeling like I should be writing stuff on here, and to see whether there’s been any further drive to write anything away from here.
It’s been kind-of successful – I’ve got ideas of things I want to write outside here, but I’ve also had ideas and thoughts for posts here as well, so I’m regarding it as generally a positive thing.
There’ll hopefully be more about those things and thoughts over the next few posts, and we’ll see how things to.
2018/19 – What Happened?
Posted: Wed 6 November, 2019 Filed under: 2018/19, 2019/20, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective, Self-Doubt, Single Life, Thoughts 1 Comment »So, I had some plans for the last twelve months, and it’s time for an update. It won’t make for hugely positive reading…
The list from the post a year ago is as follows.
- Keep on working on losing weight.
This one is a long-term thing, and one I’ve written about before. For me, it’s a struggle – I’ve worked with a number of resources this year so far, and feel better-informed than I was, but there’s still a long way to go. If nothing else, this year so far has eliminated a lot of options and bullshit.
RESULT : Absolutely sod-all difference. Which is both positive (I’ve not gained any) and negative (for fuck’s sake, nor have I lost any) - Keep on improving fitness/health
Linked to losing weight, I’ve had more success with this one over the last 12 months, but there’s still stuff to do and improve.
RESULT : Fitness and strength have continued to improve, with very few visual clues/hints that it’s happened. - Continue doing the stuff I enjoy
Various bits here – but basically, do stuff I want to. Not as a “fear of missing out” (“FOMO”) thing, but just as in “I really want to see/do [x]” and doing so. (This is, of course, in direct contrast to ‘doing less’ in the list below, so it’s a bit of a balancing act!)
RESULT : This one’s been a success, actually. Although it’s not been a great year in many ways, at least I’ve kept on living my life and generally enjoying it. - Be more sociable
I’ve realised this year that I’ve been utterly crap with seeing friends – I’ve been doing a lot of stuff, but at the same time it hasn’t been overly sociable, hasn’t involved going to see friends at all. And that needs sorting.
RESULT : And this one’s been a failure. In fairness, it hasn’t got much worse, but it hasn’t got any better either.
I’m getting rid of some of the longer-running goals. They’re still things I want to work on – I’m not giving up on the plans, just on the having them as goals – but it affects me more when I see my ongoing failure to complete/do/start them year on year.
So I’ll note them here as reminders, but they’re not part of the main “What I’m aiming for” list. See if it works better for me as advisories, rather than as targets/goals. And those reminders are…
- Writing
I want to do more writing – I’ve got the ideas, but it’s finding the time, inclination and drive to get them actually going. I hope to schedule more in – I’ve also invested in some tools that should allow me to do so – but we’ll see.
RESULT : Nope, hasn’t happened. Even more ideas bouncing round in my brain, and an absolute zero on getting them addressed - Business plans
As with the writing, I’ve got the ideas, but need to allocate time and energy to getting them to work. In some cases I’m frustrated by time, in others by funding for getting them how I want them. We’ll just have to see how things go.
RESULT : Nope, nor this. Ideas are still there, but I’ve done keck-all with them - Doing Less
This is kind-of related to the above two – if I could sort my brain out so that ‘doing less’ was better, then I’d hopefully have more time to spend on the writing and business ideas.
RESULT : Nope. Still been an idiot all year and kept busy for about 95% of the time - Plan Better
And the final one, which controls all of the others – make better plans, notes, and be better organised.
RESULT : Again, Nope. Not even close.
So, all things considered, while it’s not been a bad year per se, it’s also not been a good one. Which also goes to sort of explain why I’ve been crap at getting this organised/written, and why I haven’t yet thought about whether I’m doing this for the coming year, or just sacking it off.
48
Posted: Tue 5 November, 2019 Filed under: 2018/19, 2019/20, Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten) Leave a comment »Usually at this time of the year I write about what’s happened over the last year, and what I’m planning for the coming twelve months.
That’ll probably still happen – it just won’t be perfectly in line with my birthday this year. How do I know that? Because today’s my birthday, and I’ve done sod-all about preparing those posts and thoughts. Which might be a bit of a hint.
So anyway, today I’m 48. I don’t feel it at all, but there we go, that’s how things work out sometimes.
Anyway, blah, resolutions stuff later.
The Last Month
Posted: Sun 11 August, 2019 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »It’s been awfully quiet here on D4D over the last month – and that’s primarily been because it’s not been at all quiet in reality.
Some things never change, I suppose.
However I do acknowledge that it’s been dafter than usual of late – work stuff kicked in as well as private projects and social life – but I’m hoping things will calm down again from here, so I can do a bit more writing.
In the meantime though, I’m still alive.
Chaotic and Packed
Posted: Fri 21 June, 2019 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Single Life Leave a comment »The last couple of weeks have been quiet on D4D™ because life got in the way – and life was just stupidly busy.
Over the last two weeks, I have
- Attended the 2019 Lead Developer conference at the Barbican in London (involving driving to London late on Monday, two days of conference and hotel, coming home mid-evening on Wednesday)
- Late-night ferrying of friends after their wedding anniversary meal (and padded out that time by going to the cinema)
- Done a day on a sponsored walk thing with friends at a fitness group I attend – my own contribution was 32 laps of the 600m track set out for the event, adding up to 19.2km (just under 12 miles) which pleased me
- Seeing the parents
- Attending the “Chefs Reunited” one-off meal at Monica Galetti’s “Mere” restaurant – all courses cooked/created by either Monica Galetti or Rachel Humphrey, who worked together at La Gavroche
- Attending “Conversations with Nick Cave” at the Barbican
- Been on-site on two separate days in Chesham
- Done all the usual work schedule stuff as well
and - Before the end of this week, I’ll have also attended two food events this weekend.
I must be utterly, utterly barmy.
Scheduled
Posted: Wed 5 June, 2019 Filed under: Advertising, Bad Ads, D4D™, Domestic, Food, I Don't Understand, People, Solo Dining, Television, Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »At the moment, there’s an advert on TV for Just Eat, and it freaks me out a little bit.
There’s one part of it where they talk about people “ordering their usual”, and doing so at a specific time – implying that it’s the same thing every week. And that just weirds me out, that there are people out there who do the same thing every week, who eat the same meals with little to no variety.
At the same time though, it’s odd in other ways. I’m just as bad at being uninspired when it comes to meals and so on – but that’s when I’m just cooking for myself. If I’m paying for it (i.e. a takeaway, a restaurant meal or whatever) then I’m going to go for random stuff that I fancy eating.
So I think it’s the combination – that there are people who are paying for their meal and still only having the same thing at the same time – rather than *just* that it’s the same thing every time.
Anyway, it weirds me out – even though in some ways I’m also a massive hypocrite about it, as I’m semi-guilty of the same thing, but only in the privacy of my own home…
Slump
Posted: Wed 17 April, 2019 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Insomnia, Rebuilding, Thoughts 1 Comment »Things have been quiet on D4D of late. Basically, I’m in a bit of a slump, and at the moment I’m not quite sure how to get out of it.
There’s a lot of reasons behind it, but mainly it’s down to an overbearing feeling of stagnation, or being a bit bogged down. I’m used to having change in my life, and at the moment it’s not really there. Some of that is inertia, some of it is still the final stages from the bankruptcy process and some of it is the current state of things. But it all adds up to an overall sludge – and while I know I want things to change, I also don’t quite know what I want to do next, or where I want to be.
Domestically, I’ve been in this house for seven years. That’s by far the longest I’ve been in any one place since I left the family home. I was looking at moving last year when the tenancy came up, but that was only just after the bankruptcy finished, and I didn’t want to push things while it was still showing up on credit checks and the like. So I’m thinking about it for this year – but there’s also nowhere that’s dragging me, nowhere that I’ve been and thought “OK, this is where I want/need to be”, and it’s all a bit up in the air. There’s still time, though.
Workwise, I’ve been working on the same project for more than three years. (Probably closer to 4, all told) And while we’ve got a lot done, there still feels like no end in sight (things keep on being added in to it, or stuff is more complex than initially expected) which doesn’t help. I like contracting in general for exactly this – that each contract is finite – even though they can (and usually do) get extended, they still have an end date where I can say “Nope, I’m done”. This one is open-ended, and it’s feeling more and more like a proper job and blah blah.
Outside of those two things, there’s so much doubt about what’s going on in the UK – with Brexit being delayed even further, it’s left everything in limbo again, of not knowing what’ll happen with it, and what’ll happen with jobs, economy and so on if and when it happens. I can’t deny, that all contributes to the current sense of stagnation.
I’m not depressed – well, no more than usual – and I’m still getting out and getting other stuff done. It’s just that I’ve not got the time or energy for anything extra. I wish I did, but I don’t.
I’m going to keep on working on it, though. I know I need a couple of new projects to be getting on with – but I also need to find the motivation to get it going. That’s where the stagnation is really hurting – I know I need and want to change, but right now the drive to change things is also being blocked.
I’ll figure it out, I know – I always do, and always have done. And hopefully it won’t take too much longer to turn the corner.
Fortnight
Posted: Mon 18 March, 2019 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Single Life Leave a comment »On D4D™ it’s been a bit of a quiet month so far.
That’s mainly because it hasn’t been a quiet month in reality, and updating here took a back seat. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.
Thankfully, from here on things are getting a bit quieter for a while, so I’m hopeful that I’ll have the time and brainspace to update here more regularly again.
I’ve got some thoughts and been letting my brain chunter off on a few subjects. With luck that’ll lead to some more posts and so on as well.
It’s been a long old month, considering we’re only three-quarters of the way through it…
Not Dead
Posted: Mon 4 March, 2019 Filed under: Creativity, D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »It’s been a month since I did an update here – not for any really good reasons, just that I didn’t really feel like writing.
Some of it has been because February was a ridiculously busy month, which left me feeling generally knackered and not in the mood. I’ve done weekends in Newcastle and Manchester, plus day-trips to Somerset, Bristol and Birmingham, as well as several to London. There’ve also been smaller trips and day events that also resulted in not getting home ’til gone one in the morning, and those were all on work-days.
So that’s all not helped my energy levels, and nor has February tending to be just February, with the grey skies and so on that don’t improve my mood or give the sunlight that helps me through. Thankfully the days are getting longer though, and that’s now noticeable.
I’m aiming to get back to some semblance of normality though – although we’ll also see how things go. I’m working on other ideas and so on, and there’s only so many hours in the day (and only so many of those that one can dedicate to writing) Also, it’ll involve trying to find a balance between D4D™ Stuff and Other Stuff.
We’ll see how it all goes. But for now well, at least I’m not dead.
Ten Years Back
Posted: Mon 14 January, 2019 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Looking Back, Memory, Norfolk, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts, Weight Loss 1 Comment »This weekend there’s been a bit of a “ten years ago” meme going round social media, and while I won’t get involved (mainly because I don’t do photos of me, let alone photos of me from a decade ago) it did make me go back to the archives here and have a look at what was going on. Which was quite interesting (to me, anyway)
Ten years ago, I was still with Herself, we were in the Norfolk house, and sleeping abysmally while also sick as chuff with a chest infection of sorts. So, some things never change. I was working in a local-government job I hated – and the post about that was exactly ten years ago today – and generally doing OK.
I did also find a post about my weight – and again, not much has changed. I’ve lost a bit of weight since then – which I’m happy with – but all told it’s really stayed pretty stable. (There’s another post back in Jan 2005 about the same thing, with similar figures to where I’m at now)
Of course, there have been a lot of changes in that ten years, but it’s also interesting to see what’s stayed much the same…
Average 50
Posted: Mon 26 November, 2018 Filed under: Commuting, D4D™, Domestic, Driving, I Don't Understand, Laziness, M1, People Leave a comment »At the moment, my daily drive is on the M1, which has roadworks on it through ’til mid-2022. (Yes, it’s a joy) Throughout those roadworks there’s a speed limit of 50mph, which is monitored by average-speed cameras. And as I’ve been going through them, I come more and more to the conclusion that the average speed stuff isn’t actually all that safe.
More accurately, I don’t think they’re that safe when it comes to British drivers, and the habits that a lot of them have – which don’t appear to be the same as those of drivers in other countries.
The main problem with averaged 50mph limits is that it means everyone is driving at the same speed – cars, vans, HGVs, all at 50mph (or close to it) That means that the British-normal of last-minute lane changes for junctions are nigh-on impossible (although that doesn’t actually stop people from trying it) Instead, you need to be aware of the other lanes, and plan to be ready for the junction far further in advance.
Additionally, British drivers being what they are, turn off their brains completely when in average-speed areas, and will just stick to a particular lane with no regard or understanding of anyone around them, or of moving over into empty space to allow others past. On any given day, it’s terrifying to see just how many drivers are there, zoned out, sat in the outside lane and overtaking two lanes of fuck-all.
All told, it adds up to a whole bundle of unsafe situations at any given time of day. I can see (and have seen) people doing this shit at 6am, at 4pm, at 10pm, and at 2am. It just seems to be the way things are in these situations.
Fun and games, fun and games.
47
Posted: Mon 5 November, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 2 Comments »Blimey – I’m 47 today.
How time flies, and all that gubbins.
Sweet Sixteen. Well, Sixteen.
Posted: Thu 9 August, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts Leave a comment »I nearly forgot this – technically, I did forget, and have just post-dated the post.
But today D4D™ is 16. Yes, the first proper post on here was all that time ago.
How time flies when you’re having fun, eh?
Time Flying
Posted: Mon 30 July, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Time, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I had a thought about when I was living up in Manchester, and I wondered how long it had now been since I was living there.
The only easy way to be sure was to check on the D4D archives, and it turns out I left for Bracknell in December 2004.
Fourteen years ago, at the end of the year. That’s pretty scary – how time flies, and all that jazz.
Getting Quieter (Kind of)
Posted: Mon 9 July, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »As I’ve said before, I’m intending that this quarter (July, August, September) will be a bit quieter than the last six months (OK, at least six months) have been.
It’s not going to be complete radio-silence, because I’ve still got stuff booked in, and things during the week. But there are empty weekends, and I’m trying to keep them that way.
I won’t deny, it’s a struggle. I see those blank calendar weekends, and they make me twitchy. I am really bad at not doing much, or not having stuff planned. I know I need to do less (and I’m intending that there are other things to replace those insanely busy weekends) so I’m working on it. And I’m getting there. Kind of.
The first week of July was a bit quieter – I didn’t travel much on the weekend, for one thing – although I still ended up being out and about more than I’d planned to be. (It turned out that other friends were helping out with a local event, so it was only fair to go and give a bit of support on that score!) My “I’ll turn up for an hour, and then fuck off” turned into five hours. So there’s still room for improvement on the whole “not doing much” – but at the same time, I didn’t do much except for talking to friends and so on.
It’s early days/weeks. I’m hoping it’ll work out – but we’ll see. This coming week I’ve got a couple of things going on in evenings, but then there’s nothing at all lined up for the weekend. That’s going to be interesting…
The Thermal Properties of Coke
Posted: Fri 6 July, 2018 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »In the UK, we’re in the middle of a heatwave. Other countries would absolutely laugh at how crap we are at dealing with heat (and in their eyes, it’s “only” 30° C, after all) but for the UK it’s more than enough. As with snow, we’re a nation of mid-range and changeable weather, so we’ve never had any need to invest in infrastructure to deal with more ‘extreme’ (and again, that’s in the context of our weather, not other places in the world!) temperatures. We generally don’t have air-conditioning in houses and offices by default, nor the stuff for dealing with snow, winds, rain or anything.
Anyway, for us, it’s hot. And every time it’s hot like this, I’m reminded that Cola (whether diet or full-fat) is a strange, strange beast.
Obviously Cola is best drunk cold – as cold as possible. But it’s crap at staying cold. Leave it for ten to fifteen minutes and it’ll be warm.
On the other end of the scale, leave it in a car to get hot, and it’ll stay hot for hours. The full-fat sugary one is the worst for it, but even the diet ones do this, so I don’t think it’s a facet of the sugar content.
There’s no real point to this – I just find it interesting that it’s a liquid/substance whose thermal properties are different according to whether it’s hot or cold.
Yes, I need to get out more.
Half past 2018
Posted: Fri 22 June, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised Leave a comment »Somehow, we’re nearly halfway through 2018 already. It’s been a hugely busy and eventful six months, but right now I’m hoping for a bit of a break. (Yeah, we’ve heard it all before, I know)
At the moment, I’ve got very little scheduled in for July and August – and while I’ll still be going out and about, my current plan is to not be as hyper, at least.
There’s other things in the plan instead, which I’ll write more about as and when I get the chance (and as and when they start working out)
There’s another week of being chaotically busy to get through first, but the end is in sight, and that’s a good thing right now.
Bourdain
Posted: Mon 11 June, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Health, Mental Health, News, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Last week, I was as surprised as everyone else to hear that the chef Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide.
Bourdain was a huge influence on the catering world – you only have to read the many obituaries (including this one) to see the influence he had, and the respect in which he was held.
Depression and suicide are bastards. They make you think you’re not worth anything, make you think the world won’t miss you, make you insignificant. They’re lying bastards.
Twitter and Facebook have been full of people expressing shock, and making depression and mental health a subject to speak about, to help remove the stigma around it all, and make more people aware of how prevalent these things really are.
If nothing else good comes out of the deaths of celebrities, then at least it’s making people talk, making mental health normalised and spoken about. And that can’t be a bad legacy really, can it?
Busy Busy
Posted: Sun 10 June, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, M1, Single Life, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »I slacked off from writing posts last week – primarily just because I was ridiculously busy, and didn’t get round to it.
The week before had already been daftly busy, including travel to Newcastle for a couple of days, and then social and busy bits on both weekend days.
I can’t even remember now what I did on the Monday – I know I was out, I just can’t recall where/why. That can’t be a good sign.
Then Tuesday evening I was seeing The The at the Royal Albert Hall, and on Wednesday evening seeing them at Brixton Academy, as I may have mentioned before (on more than one occasion) Both nights were great, but on neither occasion was I home before 1am, nor in bed before 3am. And also working during the day.
Thursday was no better, although at least it was more local, by going to the local Geek Night for a bundle of presentations and connections.
And then Friday was supposed to be quieter, “just popping out” for food at a local event, that then meeting friends and chatting, meaning I didn’t actually leave ’til gone 11pm.
Saturday was a day in London, starting with cocktails and lunch at one of my favourite places, The Alchemist in Bevis Marks (near the base of the Gherkin) followed by a play called “Sancho – An Act of Remembrance” at Wilton’s Theatre.
And today was another food event in Milton Keynes, and this evening I’ve finally stopped and been able to relax a bit.
So. That’s my reasons for not updating over the last week. I think it’s a pretty good list, but other opinions may differ. 🙂
Aging
Posted: Wed 11 April, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Introspective, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »One of the reasons (I think) for the current phase of my feeling somewhat flattened is relating to me feeling a bit old currently.
That’s not as in “Oh my God, I’m old” and so on, it’s more just some realisations that I’m no longer the age I am in my self-image. Mentally – and many would say emotionally – I’m nowhere near 46. But this year so far I’ve been feeling older – the fun stuff like new aches, just generally feeling rougher than I have previously. It’s all just a bit wearing, no fun at all, and quite demoralising.
Alongside that, over the first three months I put on some weight, which wouldn’t then easily shift in the usual ways I use. Also quite demoralising.
The final bit of the jigsaw was getting an eye test a couple of weeks back. While the prescription hasn’t changed much, it’s changed enough, and we’re looking at my next set of glasses being varifocals. So yeah, I’m feeling a bit old at the moment.
I’m working on it – and that’ll be a follow-up post to this one – but at least I am working on it, and so far that feeling of being flattened is at least lessening as a result.
Flattened
Posted: Wed 4 April, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yet again, things round here have eased off a bit, I haven’t been updating as regularly as I could/should be doing. In fairness, that’s not just something that’s been happening here, it’s also been breaking through into other aspects of life, and I’m working my way through the whole thing.
I’ve been describing it to myself as being permanently tired, although as per the title, “Flattened” is perhaps a better description. So, probably, is “Depressed, but Functional” They’d all be fair, for sure.
Thing is, I don’t feel depressed. I just feel tired. I still get up, go to work, do all the idiot stuff I do on weekends. But in many ways it feels like I’m doing a lot of it on autopilot – because I’m tired.
It’s meant I haven’t done some stuff, and some new things (or revisited things) just haven’t happened yet, because I’m too tired, too flat to make the effort.
I don’t know quite what to make of it. I’m figuring it out, and I think (hope) I’ve turned a bit of a corner over the weekend, so in some ways it’s a case of waiting to see what develops. I know that in some ways I’ve done more new stuff this week already than I probably did in the previous three months.
I’m not going to force the issue – as I said previously, Q2 of 2018 also involves more downtime, which I’m hoping will free up some mental bandwidth, and allow me to start doing some of the stuff that’s currently sitting in my brain saying “Well? Get on with it”.
That’s how it feels at the moment, anyway. Whether the same will be true tomorrow morning, or next week, next month – only time will tell. We’ll see.
Q1 Done
Posted: Mon 26 March, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Getting Organised, London, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »This coming weekend, the end of March, is the first weekend this year that I’ve had free.
Until Friday, it wasn’t free, but plans changed – which is fine. It had been a chain change – yesterday became free because of another change, which meant I could bring the planned day-trip for next Sunday back to this one, and it all worked out pretty well.
It meant that yesterday was daftly busy, with a day-trip down to see friends in North Somerset, with an early start leaving by 6.30am – just what you need on the day that the clocks also went forwards an hour – to get down there, and getting home at 23.30 in the evening. A Looooooong day, but a good one. I’d already spent the Saturday in London, doing a fair amount of walking, and seeing Macbeth at the National Theatre (having already seen the RSC’s version of Macbeth last Saturday!)
Anyway, that all means that, at the end of the first quarter of the year, I actually have two weekends on the trot where I have nothing booked in or organised. Which is pretty weird, and is already making me somewhat twitchy.
I’ll still be doing things, and I’ve got some plans in place for both weekends – but they’re all more random and disorganised, it’s nothing scheduled or appointments.
And to be honest, that’s just fine with me.
1 Month Passed
Posted: Thu 25 January, 2018 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Festering Season Leave a comment »Already, it’s a month since the Festering Season.
How time flies when you’re having fun…
Only eleven more ’til the next one.
Missing Time/Posts
Posted: Mon 22 January, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, SAD Leave a comment »So we’re only three weeks into 2018, and already I’ve lost a week’s posts. Just didn’t do them – started stuff, but life and other stuff got in the way, so I’ve started the year by being crap. (Not that that’s anything unusual, but there we go) Sure, I could cheat and backdate some things, but that’s not really the way to go. I could, but I won’t.
It’s sort-of annoying, but at the same time it’s a result of being a) stupidly busy and b) that overall sense of Grey. Thankfully,the tail-end of last week involved some brighter days where blue sky was visible along with direct sunlight, and that’s helped a lot.
This year I don’t know that I’ll always keep to the posting routine – but I’ll do my best.
Anyway, here we go for the rest of the year, and let’s see how I do…
Grey Skies
Posted: Fri 12 January, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic, SAD, Weather 1 Comment »January is a funny old month in some ways – and particularly so when I look at how it affects my SAD and so on.
As usual, this January has been grey. Different degrees of grey admittedly, including some brighter/lighter grey days, and a fair bundle of darker ones.
Grey days are the ones that affect me the most, regardless of the degree. I find that a grey week with no sight of the sun really affects me – I still get out for fresh air and some daylight, but a few days without direct sunlight and it leaves me feeling far flatter and more tired than usual.
As it is, I’ve found more and more that I can deal with shorter days (although obviously I notice them, and they affect me) so long as they’re bright, and have sight of sunlight. The days now are getting longer – almost imperceptibly, but they are. But with this weeks lack of sun, it’s actually been a far tougher week to get through.
Hopefully the coming week will have more chances for some decent daylight.
2018
Posted: Mon 1 January, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »So here we are, another year down, and welcome to 2018.
As always, there’s going to be more rubbish here over the coming weeks and months. I’ve got a bundle of thoughts and ideas, and we’ll just see how things go.
Happy New Year, and all that cliched rot.
Countdown
Posted: Fri 15 December, 2017 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »Eleven Days to go. That’s all. Eleven days.
You can do this, Lyle. Just breathe. This too shall pass.
2016/17 – What Happened ?
Posted: Sat 4 November, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Bankruptcy, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Introspective, Rebuilding, Single Life, Thoughts Leave a comment »So, a year ago I listed the following as the plans for 2016/17…
- Continue rebuilding the finances, and keep boosting the savings
- Exercise, improve health, lose weight
- Complete September’s walking marathon – ideally in under seven hours. (My target is more ambitious than that, but I’ll be happy with 7 hours)
- Write more. (And ideally complete/publish some)
- Do more of the ideas around my own business
- Get out less. Ideally, some kind of middle-ground between being ultra-quiet/sensible, and the idiocy of the last year
- Look more at some political ideas, and see how that goes. (This one’s the random ‘maybe’ one, I don’t know if anything will happen with it or not)
How did it go?
- Finances : Yeah, not bad. Not at the totals I wanted to be at (which is a familiar theme) but I did what I wanted to, so I’m happy with that one
- Health : Less so. I haven’t gained any weight, but nor have I lost much. Good intentions have been undermined by an utter failure on Number 6, and life getting in the way of things
- Walking Marathon : Failed utterly, as I’ve wittered about at length. But I’m already signed up for the 2018 one…
- Write more : Failed utterly. There are ideas, but as with Health, I’ve been abysmal at doing less, so yeah. Bugger.
- Own Business : Kinda. I’ve written out more of the plans, got some ideas in code, and been looking at other stuff. But actually done? Nope.
- Get Out Less : Also an utter failure. I’ve been out loads, and in many ways have kept even busier than I did in 2015/16 – less Michelin-starred restaurants, but more things
- Politics : Looked at the ideas, but in the current political climate of Brexit and so on, getting involved on that score strikes me as…. less than wise.
So what’s on the list for 2017/18? Well, we’ll cover that tomorrow…
Fifteen Plus
Posted: Mon 4 September, 2017 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »When I wrote the other day about seeing the Sisters of Mercy, I wondered how bloody long I’ve been writing D4D™.
I usually do a “birthday” post, which seems to have gone astray this year.
So, belatedly, it turns out that D4D™ turned 15 last month.
Fifteen, FFS. That’s terrifying.
No Time To Cry
Posted: Fri 1 September, 2017 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Gigs, Music, Thoughts | Tags: Music Leave a comment »This weekend, along with everything else, I’m seeing the Sisters of Mercy play at Camden Roundhouse.
I knew it was a while since I’d seen them – but I hadn’t actually realised how long ago until I looked back on D4D™, and discovered it was actually in April 2003. How the fuck has it been that long? (And how the hell long have I been writing D4D™?!?)
In a lot of ways, I’m trying to not get too excited about the gig – I’m not expecting greatness, as they’re all a lot older, and a very different lineup now to how they used to be. But still, it’s the Sisters of Mercy, and I’ve been a fan for a long time.
I’ll write about it after the weekend either way, I’m sure.
[No, the title doesn’t mean I’m sad/unhappy – it’s a Sisters of Mercy lyric]
Saturday – Slow
Posted: Wed 16 August, 2017 Filed under: Charm School, Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Health, London, People, Sweary, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »While I was walking in London two weekends ago, I posted a ranty bith on Facebook, asking
HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE, WALK AND THINK SO FUCKING SLOWLY, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE?!?!?
To which Gordon asked how I live with being so irrationally angry to others. The answer to that ended up as a bit of a rant, but was still absolutely true, and I thought I’d add it here as well, rather than losing it to the vagaries of Facebook.
That answer was this…
In fairness, my friend, if any of them had any awareness of what was around them, I’d be fine.
I fully acknowledge I walk a buttload faster than most people, and think/move/avoid at similar pace. I take on at least 90-95% of the responsibilities for getting out the way, and for understanding/accepting that difference.
All I ask – well, hope for – is for people to have the ability to see this fast-moving juggernaut of a human being, AND NOT WALK AT ME.
Fair enough, I’m enough of a fat bastard that I obviously create a gravity well and people just fall at me. I get that, I accept it. But they could make a bit of sodding effort.
It’s not even like I’m hard to see. But still these motherfuckers walk at me, stop in my path, decide to suddenly stop and take selfies (which is how I’ll end up on fucking Crimewatch, I just know it) or just look me dead in the eye, stop, and see what I’ll do, like they’re expecting me to slam into them.
So yeah, if there were even a smidge of acknowledgement, avoidance, observation, or even just a conscious fucking thought, I’d be fine.
But no. None of it. So you get the rants.
All told, it was a bit of a throwback to the D4D of old…
I Don’t Understand
Posted: Fri 28 April, 2017 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, I Don't Understand, People, Write More Here, Writing Leave a comment »As part of the whole “write more here” ethos, I’m introducing a new occasional topic, which is quite simply “Things I Don’t Understand About People“. Not the snappiest of titles, but it’ll do for now.
Of course, most of them can probably be explained away as “Because people are generally horrifically shit“, but I’ll try to do a bit better than that.
It may be a short-lived theme/topic, or it might be something that keeps me going for a while. There’s certainly a few bouncing around in my head already, so we’ll see how it goes.
Getting Scheduled
Posted: Mon 24 April, 2017 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Write More Here, Writing Leave a comment »Over the first dollop of this year, I’ve been trying to write more here, as it’s all become a bit intermittent. It’s been kind-of successful, but it’s still not great. I’ve found it too easy to lose several days at a time, and once it’s broken, it’s harder to get back into.
I’ve also got some other writing ideas going on (as briefly mentioned in other posts quite recently) which are also slipping, so I feel like I need a bit of a plan.
Gordon this week wrote about something similar, and about aiming to have more of a schedule for writing, which is something I’m going to try out for a while.
So, starting today, the plan will be to have new stuff here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday. It might not be much, and it might be rubbish – but it’ll (hopefully) be on schedule. Even if it ends up that I have a day where I braindump three posts for the week and schedule them, I’ll be OK with that, to be honest.
Of course, it may not be written on those days – I may write things and then just schedule them in. But having at least a set of target days seems like a good plan.
A Decade
Posted: Wed 22 February, 2017 Filed under: Change, D4D™, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Thoughts, Time Leave a comment »For a number of reasons, I’ve been thinking a lot about time past, so I had a look back at what was going on here ten years ago.
Man, there’s been a lot of change in that time.
Back then, I was newly in Norfolk, living with Herself (and Hound and Psycho Cat, of course), still in the rented place and in the process of buying the Norfolk place. Working in Cambridge, and generally settled for the time.
How time flies, and all that piss. Food for thought, etc etc
A Paucity of Postings
Posted: Sun 15 January, 2017 Filed under: Creativity, D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, SAD, Thoughts, Weather, Writing Leave a comment »Despite the best of intentions, this week’s been quiet here on D4D™.
Mainly, it’s because I’ve been absolutely snowed under with work, including beating the living hell out of databases – and cursing the clowns that wrote Microsoft Access, which is what I’ve been taking data out of and putting into something decent. One of these days I’d like to meet the people who created it, and ask just what the fuck was going through their minds when they made certain decisions.
Along the way, there’s been a whole bundle of other stuff, insomnia and the like, and well, it’s just January.
I have a hard time with January, for some reason. It’s part of the reason I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions, because I know I’m never good with the start of the year. The thing is, I don’t really know why it’s such a tough one for me.
I’ve got my suspicions – and primarily it’s about preparation.
I know I get affected by autumn and winter, as the nights draw in and so on, and I can fight it for a long time. Then there’s the standard dislike of the Festering Season, which I’m ready for and can keep on fighting. But now we’re through all that, the days are getting longer, and we’re through the whole Christmas period.
This is where (I suspect) my problems kick in – the days are still short, even if they’re lengthening. It’s just not doing so quickly enough. This week in particularly has been pretty much solidly grey and overcast, with little to no sunlight coming through. And I’m just tired, with no real energy for continuing to fight the whole Seasonal thing.
It leaves me flat, tired and uninspired. It shouldn’t, in all sense, but regardless, it does.
So yeah, this week’s been more about downtime, about being tired and grey, and not really in the mood for doing much. I’ve got a fair amount of stuff in the coming week as well, which will help. But this week’s been a flat and down one. Such is life, and all that rot.
More Posts in 2017?
Posted: Mon 2 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts, Write More, Writing Leave a comment »One of my aims/hopes for 2017 is to write more stuff here. It slackened off massively for a while, and I’ve never really got back to the same levels as back in the first few years. I’m not necessarily aiming to go back to those levels either, but it’d be nice to write more here, and it’ll be related to other stuff that’s planned, so it kind of makes sense.
As part of that though, I did wonder about my annual post counts, so through the wonders of databases, I came up with the following…
- 2002 – 411 posts
- 2003 – 987 posts – the busiest year
- 2004 – 882 posts
- 2005 – 950 posts
- 2006 – 823 posts
- 2007 – 666 posts – the year of the beast, obviously
- 2008 – 491 posts
- 2009 – 535 posts
- 2010 – 362 posts
- 2011 – 43 – all time low, for reasons known to regular readers
- 2012 – 141 posts
- 2013 – 245 posts
- 2014 – 233 posts
- 2015 – 179 posts
- 2016 – 151 posts
I’m not disheartened by that – I know I’ve had other things going on in the last couple of years, and that 2016 in particular has been madly busy with stuff that I haven’t written a lot about, so it all works out somewhat. And even then it still works out as about three posts a week, which isn’t abysmal.
We’ll see, come the end of the year, how things have gone. But for now, the plan is to write more here, as well as elsewhere.
It’s Begun
Posted: Wed 9 November, 2016 Filed under: Advertising, Charm School, Cynicism, D4D™, Festering Season Leave a comment »So here we are. Not even ten days into November, and the run-up to the Festering Season is fully underway.
The Christmas adverts have kicked in- and the ‘event’ ones like John Lewis etc. will be launching over the next few days.
The supermarkets have got all their tat out already, the cards, mince pies, chocolates etc., and even the fucking Christmas trees in the entrances, for shit’s sake.
Of course, the TV schedules are filling up with the standard reality TV run-ups, the BBC’s “Strictly” and ITV’s “X-Factor”.
Seven weeks or so to go, and it’ll be over for another nine months or so. In the meantime, D4D will be brought to you courtesy of the words “For”, “Fuck’s” and “Sake”. As usual.
Still Not Moving
Posted: Sun 25 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Come November, I’ll have been in my current house for 4½ years. For me, that’s pretty scary – it’s already the longest I’ve stayed in one house since I left home. (For long-term readers, I lived in Manchester for longer, but that was split between three houses)
I’m also now signed up for another year, so that’s even scarier.
As I’m sure I’ve said before, my current location (between Milton Keynes and Bedford) isn’t my dream place by any stretch. It’s suited my needs, but that’s been more by luck than judgement.
There’s been two key reasons for staying here (and a subsidiary third) which are pretty simple to explain.
The main reason is how easy it is to get away from here. I’m on the crux of two major roads – the M1 North-to-South, and the A421 for East-to-West. Plus I’ve got two easy rail routes for London and the like. It opens things up for social and fun stuff, but also work-wise, gives me a lot more variety/locations than I would’ve thought. (Of course, the irony is that for two years of that, I’ve been working from home, or on my shortest commute in decades!) An hour’s drive (which I still consider as an ‘easy’ commute) covers a massive distance – and a two-hour drive covers a huge dollop of the country.
Secondary to that is that I simply haven’t found anywhere that I more want to be. There’s some places I’d move to, but there’s no real desire or urge to do so. (Also known as the “Yeah, it’s nice. But…” verdict) Previously, there’s usually been a good reason (or at least a reason) to move, and at the moment there’s just not. So I don’t bother.
Connected to that is also the increase of credit-checking when it comes to new rental agreements. I don’t think it now would cause me any great problems, and my current landlord would provide a decent reference – but equally, if I don’t have to test the theory, why bother?
So here I am, and signed up ’til November 2017. No real plans to move – and even more bizarrely, I’m actually OK with that.
Holiday Thoughts
Posted: Mon 19 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Travel 4 Comments »As I said before, I’m away at the end of the month on a break to Cornwall. And as usual, it makes me do a bundle of thinking.
I am, I totally acknowledge, utterly shit at taking proper holidays. Always have been, and I suspect always will be. I want to do more of it and see how things go, but it’s about balancing that with work and so on. I need to be stricter with myself on it too – there’s two options really.
Basically, I either book dates at the start of the year so they’re a fait accompli, or I’m stricter with myself about taking holidays between contracts by forcing a delay on looking for new ones by taking time between jobs. Honestly, I don’t know which option works best for me, so that’ll be something to work on next year.
As it is, I’m just seeing how stuff goes this time. I want to see how everything works out with this break. There’s been a fair amount of preparation going on, as I’ve said before – but it’s also about seeing how I feel with taking the break, and also how the cats handle it. This week away will be the longest they’ve not had me around, and I want to see how they deal with it, and with my return. They’ll probably be OK, but if they descend into vileness and retribution, I’ll have to rethink.
So all told, it’s going to be a bit interesting. I’m looking forward to it, but also somewhat anticipatory. It’ll be interesting to see how it all goes.
Holiday Prep
Posted: Fri 16 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »At the end of the month, for the first time in years, I’m taking a week off, and going down to Cornwall. Being self-employed, it’s not a cheap option, and I seem to be doing a ton of preparation in order for it to happen, but it’s all paid for and so on, so it’s definitely happening.
I’ve been spending time organising everything in the last couple of weeks – booking in a delivery of shopping/food for once I’ve arrived, sorting out a carer for the cats while I’m away, paying off some of my domestic bills early (rent etc.) so that it’s all going to be smooth, and I’m not stressing while away about things I’ve forgotten. It’s been a mess of to-do lists and so on, but I do feel like I’m on top of things.
In the meantime, I’m also writing some bits for here that’ll auto-post while I’m away, and organising a bundle of other bits too.
I’ve only been to Cornwall once before, and that was before I was driving at all, so it’s going to be interesting this time – and covering a lot of miles. There’s a list of things I want to see/do, although that’s *not* a to-do list where I feel I have to check off everything – I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back again, so that’s all fine.
So yeah, while you wouldn’t necessarily notice it, I’m going to be away for a while. Enjoy.
Quiet, Because Busy
Posted: Sat 13 August, 2016 Filed under: BurgerCrawl, D4D™, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Films, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, Single Life, Solo Dining, Travel Leave a comment »It’s been a quiet week chez D4D™, although that’s primarily been because life has been idiotically busy instead. In fact, all of August and September are ridiculous, with very little in the way of spare time. Weekday evenings are (generally, kinda/sorta) available, but weekends and so on are completely blocked out.
Last weekend was spent in London on the Saturday (including food at Benares, which was excellent) and then meeting friends on the Sunday. During the week I was then at the cinema one evening, back in London on another, and handling all the standard domestic tat in the meantime – as well as work, which wasn’t an easy week, with lots of rewrites and rethinks of stuff that had been written a while back.
This weekend, today was spent (again) in London, visiting Blues Kitchen and MeatMarket, and then seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre. Tomorrow is likely to be a daytrip somewhere, and walking round or whatever.
From here, there’s another meal (this time at Hibiscus) and then a concert, a birthday event, and the Threepenny Opera at the National.
September is even dafter, including : Meatopia, watching The The’s “Infected” film, and seeing The Alchemist and Doctor Faustus – both at the Barbican, so I’m there three weeks on the trot, as I’ll use their parking for Meatopia as well. Finally, at the end of September, I actually have a week away, down in Cornwall. Much-needed currently, it has to be said.
I’ll be writing more stuff here to be going on with, but that’s why it’s been quiet round these parts over the last week or so.
Sticky
Posted: Fri 22 July, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Weather Leave a comment »Among other things this week, the heat (or at least the heat in UK terms – in most places it’s barely temperate) also had another effect at my house.
Sometime in the week, I’d thrown away something sticky – I suspect one of the fresh lemonades that’d gone out of date – and while I was out at work yesterday, it’d obviously gone off, fermented, and popped the bottle. In the bin. Which meant that I came home to a kitchen floor covered in sticky gunk, that had then become an absolute snack-bar for flies. There were hundreds of the fuckers.
In the end it took a load of paper towels to absorb the majority of it, plus two full moppings of the floor before it stopped being sticky. The flies took longer to fuck off, along with judicious application of fly spray to annihilate the twats, but all was well in the end.
It was another of those things that I could’ve done without – but also it would’ve helped if I hadn’t thrown the sodding things in the bin anyway.
Lockdown (Experimental)
Posted: Fri 20 May, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Security Leave a comment »In the interests of – well, really just geekery – I’ve turned on HTTPS encryption on D4D™. It should be an invisible process to users of the site, but I want to know if it actually is or not.
I firmly believe in making all internet connections more secure, for a bundle of reasons I’m not going to go into right now. So I figure I might as well do some testing of it here (as well as on some other projects I’ve been running, or that are coming up and haven’t been mentioned here) to see how it goes.
In other news, it’s been a busy old week again, but I’ll write more about that in a different post.
VD
Posted: Sun 14 February, 2016 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Valentine's Day Leave a comment »Yet again, it’s Valentine’s Day.
And verily, I say to thee, Bah Humbug.
I know that’s not seasonally apt, but there’s no equivalent for Feb 14th. So Bah Humbug will just have to suffice.
Writing More
Posted: Sat 16 January, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Write More, Writing Leave a comment »This year, I’m trying to write more – both here (which so far seems to be pretty successful) and also to get more fiction stuff done as well.
Here on D4D I’m aiming for at least a couple of posts per week, getting back into the swing of things. I don’t know that I’ll ever go back to the daily (and multiple-times-a-day) updates of a few years back, just because I’ve changed, life’s changed, and I just haven’t felt the need to update this stuff as often anyway.
On the fiction side, I’m hoping to write a short piece a week – short-story level, maybe a thousand words at a time, and see how things go. If it all clings together into something more, then even better.
There’s also the chance of writing something bigger, but I’m not going to guarantee anything on that one so far.
We’ll see what happens – but for now, at least it’s starting off pretty well.
Into 2016
Posted: Fri 1 January, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »So here we are, another new year.
As usual, I’m not making any real resolutions – although I do have some plans and ideas, which I’ve been writing down and putting into lists over the last week or so, in order to get it all sorted in my head.
The main thing for me for this year is to continue with the progress that got made in 2015. That’s the main goal – to leave 2016 in a better state than I’ve come into it, and to keep building.
D4D Performance
Posted: Fri 25 December, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Getting Organised, Technology 1 Comment »This year, D4D’s performance as a site hasn’t been that great. I’d noticed a lot of times when pages timed out, or seemed to get lost along the way, but couldn’t find what was causing it, despite looking hard on several occasions.
Last week, I finally found what the problem was – and it wasn’t in something I’d done, which was nice. More importantly, it also wasn’t something that was showing up in code or settings – because it was a plugin that wasn’t doing what it had been told to, for whatever reason.
I’ve got a security plugin on D4D that’s supposed to take automatic backups, to add some safety and recovery to the site. That was set to take a backup every week, and to only store three backups, then overwriting the oldest.
Except that wasn’t what was happening. Somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong, and it turned out that it was taking a full database backup (with a different filename each time, so no over-writing etc.) every fifteen minutes. Then storing them in a folder that was hidden away in a non-obvious location, with a non-helpful filename.
Even on a server that says it’s got unlimited space, that was taking the piss. It was making the server work extra-hard for no good reason, and causing a whole load of problems.
I finally found it all, and ended up both deleting the old files, as well as killing off the backup task completely. (I’ve written my own automated job now which is working fine, and not causing any problems. The moral of the story? Don’t trust other people’s code.)
Since doing that, I haven’t seen the site crash. I’m hoping that the problems are now fixed, the stability will improve, and that 2016 will be a much better year for D4D™
Fingers crossed.
Lists
Posted: Mon 21 December, 2015 Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective Leave a comment »As we come to the end of 2015, I’m spending some time making notes, lists, and plans for what I want to get done in 2016. It’s not resolutions or anything similar, but I’ve found over the last couple of years that having lists for things helps me to keep it all straight in my head over the year.
The lists aren’t hard-and-fast structures, more like reminders and ‘this is the stuff you wanted to do’ – but it’s a method that I’ve found to be working pretty well for me. I never used to think it would, that I’m not that organised and so on, but it’s been a surprise.
I don’t know if it’s usual, but I have two formats for the lists – my day-to-day ones sit on the mobile, but the bigger plans for the year tend to sit in my Notebook Of Doom.
A lot of the difference is in how things get crossed off, if I’m honest. Day-to-day “what I’m doing this week” works with just a tick gesture on the phone list, and that’s fine. But there’s more of an emotional and mental ‘achievement’ when it comes to physically crossing things off on a piece of paper, in a notebook, it’s a gesture of finality, of “done that”, which I really like.
Even though I don’t necessarily write about everything on here any more (and there’s some thoughts about that, which I’ll probably write and update over the Festering Season) and I certainly won’t list everything here, there’s a lot of stuff on the lists for 2016, which needs some thought and prioritising a bit.
I tend to over-load the lists too, give myself more on the plans than I’m likely to actually manage. But I’d rather have items as a backup for if I get everything done, or when a planned thing turns out to be unattainable and it’s time for Plan B/C/D.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to crossing off a lot of those items.
Confirmation
Posted: Thu 17 December, 2015 Filed under: Bankruptcy, D4D™, Domestic, Finances 2 Comments »As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve made my final payment to the Insolvency Service, following on from my bankruptcy in 2012.
Last night, I came home to a letter confirming that it’s all been received and that I’m paid up and done with that process.
That’s been a real boost. There’s still nearly three years – two and two-thirds years, to be exact – to go before it comes off my record completely, but this is the final hurdle on the way.
Looking Forward
Posted: Thu 26 November, 2015 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »This is almost a part of the tradition of the Festering Season round here now, but I still feel it’s quite fitting anyway.
Just think, in one month’s time, we’ll be done with Festering Season stuff for another nine months. And we’ll have Easter Eggs on the shop shelves tomorrow. After all, it’s only three months away (March 27th 2016 is Easter Sunday)
2015/16 – Writing
Posted: Thu 12 November, 2015 Filed under: 2015/16, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts, Write More Leave a comment »This post has been nagging me – I’d written the title and post-dated it for publication, but been stuck on what to actually, you know, write. And then I did it again.
It’s somewhat ironic that the post about my plans for the coming year’s writing has been published blank/empty not once, but twice.
So – third time lucky.
I’m not honestly sure what will happen with my writing plans over the next twelve months. There’s a couple of options (as well as the fallback point, of “do nowt” or “fail”) which is never a good start, as it leaves me in a quandary from the beginning.
The thing is, I’ve got lots of ideas. Loads. I just haven’t yet clicked on how they could stick together. Or even if they could adhere at all. I’m missing that bigger picture, the whole that all these parts could/should/might fit into. Or maybe each one is a different tale, and I need to focus on one or two of the better concepts, and just develop those. Maybe that will allow the others to rest, or maybe to develop along in their own timelines. Maybe.
I’ve definitely got two concepts which are kind-of similar, but separate. They fit into different moulds, different methods, so I could do both at the same time. Or I could focus on one and then the other. Or. Or. Or.
And that’s what’s sticking me up at the moment. Too many ideas, not enough drive.
I’d love to be ironic (or meta) enough to be able to write about a writer that is stuck on the writing, so that it’s turtles all the way down. But that’s beyond me.
I think the plan for the coming year will be to do just one project, focus on it, see if it works. If it doesn’t there are others waiting in the wings. If it does, there are others waiting in the wings.
Between now and 2016, some of it is just going to be brain-dumping stuff onto paper/keyboard as a record – perhaps that’ll help too.
So yes, I think that’s the plan. But now, which to choose as the first one. Which to choose…
FortyFour
Posted: Thu 5 November, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 3 Comments »Blimey.
I’m 44. Who’d have thought it?
The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
Posted: Wed 21 October, 2015 Filed under: 2014/15, 2015 vs 2014, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Looking Back, Single Life, Thoughts Leave a comment »In preparation for another post (one of the usual ones for a couple of weeks’ time) I’ve been looking at things from (roughly) this time last year, and it’s been a bit odd in some ways.
There’s a distinct synchronicity between the two years, which is surprising. Last weekend, I bought some new tyres for the car – and it turns out I did the same a year ago. It also got a full service done – which I’ve just booked in again.
It’s also just under a year ago that I started doing the day-trips when I could (and/or when I wanted to) on weekends, which has continued and been pretty cool. I haven’t done one in a couple of months, mainly due to a madly busy period with no weekends ‘off’, but that doesn’t mean I won’t again.
Along the way, there’s also been a lot of good stuff.
Comparing where life was last October to this is like comparing pearls with cow shit.
October 2014 was a low point, although nowhere near my lowest. (There’s some competition for that ‘honour’, mainly September 2010, April 2012 and August 2012, although I’m sure there’s a couple of other close-runners too) At the start of it, I’d just walked out on ShitCo with nothing to go to, nothing even in the pipeline. That was a bit scary, but infinitely better than the prospect of staying working for them. I know, I still haven’t written much about that time, and probably won’t – safe to say, it was No Fun At All.
I got a new contract within two weeks though, and that was the start of the recovery process and climbing back to where I find myself now. I’m still working for the same people, and will be ’til at least the end of the year. It’s been good – and helped by being a role where I work for/by myself for four days a week. I’ve rented an office in central Milton Keynes, which works best for my schedule and environment, and keeps me vaguely sane. (Which working from home four days a week probably wouldn’t)
I’ve done a lot of rebuilding again in the last twelve months, and I’m pleased with how it’s gone.
Onwards and upwards!
Into August
Posted: Wed 5 August, 2015 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Health, Introspective, Looking Back, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »Somehow, we’re into August already. The year’s racing by (as usual) and here we are. August.
August is a funny (as in ‘odd’, not as in ‘ho ho’) month for me – for some reason it’s always been rather more eventful than others. It seems to be generally a month of change for me, in ways both negative and positive.
It’s definitely the month I get twitchy about, more than any other. I’m sure that’s because my parents first pointed out what a consistently change-laden month it was (which may have also gone some way to making it a bit more self-fulfilling) but I try to not focus on it. By that, I mean that I don’t consciously go “oh, I’ll do that in August”. August just seems to happen.
As examples…
- D4D™ got started in August. Not intentionally (well obviously it got started intentionally) in August – that was just when everything came together for it to happen
- My bankruptcy was in August. Again, that’s just when it came about.
- I finally passed my driving test in August.
- I’ve had *lots* of job changes in August, contracts ending and so on.
This time round, it looks (so far) like things will be a lot calmer.
I was a bit twitchy, as my current work contract had an end date next week – and even though I was 99% sure it would extend again, there’s always that “But it’s August, and thus could bite me on the bum” nagging doubt. However, it’s been confirmed this week that it’ll extend again, through to October (which will mean I’ve been doing this one for a year) so that’s all good.
To the best of my knowledge I’ll be staying in the current house for at least another year. That’s the plan (and renewal isn’t ’til November, so not a concern) and I see no current reason to change it.
There’s currently nothing else of major import and change looking like it’ll happen. I’ve got stuff planned for the month, but nothing change-laden. All the same, during August I’ll be…
- Doing a 10Km sponsored walk for Marie Curie
- Seeing Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet (a happy surprise instance, brought about by a friend of a friend not being able to go)
- Possibly another London visit, or alternative Day Trip
- Sorting out (renewing) car insurance again
And there’s a bundle of other stuff as well, alongside the weekly working normality.
So with any luck, this August won’t be too eventful and change-laden. We’ll see.
April 1st
Posted: Wed 1 April, 2015 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cynicism, D4D™ Leave a comment »And so, another International Day of Japery and Shit Tricks/Jokes/Pranks.
Happy Happy Joy Joy.
Normal programming will be resumed tomorrow.
6666
Posted: Tue 10 February, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky Leave a comment »When I logged in today, I spotted this…
Nothing special to it, but I did like that nice balanced figure for the comments…
Somewhat Calmer
Posted: Sun 18 January, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I’ve been working on reducing the impact of whatever/whoever was attacking D4D™ (and many others, I’m sure)
Looking at log files, it became apparent that a number of the issues were related to a particular site primary user-name that’d become known. Not massively surprising- it wasn’t the strongest in the first place, although the password was- and while it hadn’t been cracked/opened, it was getting hit so many times that it kept on getting locked out. And because it was the primary user-name (which I used all the time) it meant I was getting locked out as well.
As a result, that user has now been massively demoted, and I’ve created a couple of others with more-secure usernames and similarly secure passwords.
It’s not been the easiest of processes, and I’ll be keeping an eye on it over the next few weeks – but at least things now seem to be calmer and less slogged-down with hassles and shit.
Under Pressure
Posted: Fri 16 January, 2015 Filed under: D4D™ 1 Comment »For whatever reason, D4D™ has been getting hit hard this week, by a combination of spam-bots, brute-force log-in attempts, and a whole heap of other shit all flying my way.
I’m pretty sure it’s just an attack on WordPress-driven sites – and I’ve got a pretty decent security set-up anyway – but it’s thrashing the network and server quite impressively, which becomes quite frustrating.
Anyway, I’m working on repelling attackers, but it does mean that things may be a bit slower and sparser here while I do so…
Ick – Temperature Control
Posted: Thu 8 January, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Health Leave a comment »One of the weirdest things about the batch of illness I’ve had this week was how much it messed with my body’s temperature. In some ways it almost went feverish, with extremes (or at least wider-than-normal ranges) of temperature from hot to cold.
It’s something I’ve had issues with before – although usually as a reaction to ridiculous stress-levels – where I overheat, and end up sleeping for about 18 hours. It’s been a long time since I had one of those episodes, thankfully. But each time I’ve had one, the verdict has been to take some paracetamol, which apparently helps to reduce core temperature. (That’s only on reported understanding, don’t quote me on it)
Anyway, this last couple of days I’ve been running hot enough that I wondered whether I might end up sleeping 18 hours again, but this time it hasn’t happened like that.
I don’t think there’s any real point of information on this, it’s just me dumping my brain onto a keyboard again.
Ick
Posted: Wed 7 January, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »There’s not been much written here this week so far – and that’s for a fairly good reason. I’ve been unwell. Not man-flu, nor anything life-changing etc., but just unwell.
More dramatic souls would probably attribute it to food-poisoning, but I’m not so sure. It’s just been a generally unpleasant bug – thankfully no puking, but all the other usual effects.
It started Sunday night, and lasted ’til this morning – and in that time, I lost half a stone. Today has been more about gentle recovery, letting things come back to a semi-even keel.
I’m tired, and feel horrifically unproductive, but OK. It’s just that it all meant I had priorities other than writing. Mainly getting to the facilities in time…
New Year, Same Shite
Posted: Thu 1 January, 2015 Filed under: 2014/15, Cynicism, D4D™ Leave a comment »Well blimey, here we are in 2015. The thirteenth year for D4D™, which is quite a surprise.
There’s a lot of stuff going on, some new bits, new projects (and some continuations of existing projects) but there’ll also be a lot more of the same old shite here as well.
Happy New Year, and all that regular rot.
Obsessional Issues
Posted: Mon 29 December, 2014 Filed under: 2014/15, Creativity, D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Time, Weigh Less, Write More, Writing 1 Comment »For the New Year, and as part of the whole “Write More” part of the resolutions etc., I’m trying hard to get back into writing – and other aspects of creativity – on a regular basis. (Which explains why D4D™ has become a bit more busy this month too!)
2014 hasn’t been a good year for my writing in general, although I have been able to get started on a couple of things in the last three months, and want to continue building those up, making progress.
The thing is, I’m not really good at the whole “writing obsessively” thing – or indeed doing anything obsessively. For whatever reason, I just don’t possess that obsessive section of brain/emotion. I’m a crap collector, because while I don’t mind building up sets of things, I don’t care/obsess enough about it all to get the rarities, the things that true collectors always dream of. It doesn’t matter whether that’s books, stamps, music, or anything else – I just don’t care enough to obsess about the rarities.
As a result, it’s work to write etc., and that’s what I’ve been attempting to build up over the last few months – generally successfully.
With D4D™ I’ve been writing more, but pre-dating some of them, so I’ve got the time. But it’s building up a writing routine.
In the same way, I’ve been forcing myself to get out and do walks round the village a couple of times a day, just to keep things moving, and to get some exercise. I do that whether the weather is good or bad – and actually enforce it more when the weather’s bad, because then I’ve no excuse when it’s good.
So I’m working more on building up routines, getting used to doing these tasks and activities, and making them part of the day. The writing is part of that, the things I have in my head to write this time round aren’t essential brain-splurges of healing ventage, they don’t *have* to be expelled from my brain for my own health and sanity.
I’m getting there, and 2015’s looking like it’ll be an interesting time…
Bah Humbug, and all that
Posted: Thu 25 December, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Festering Season 1 Comment »Yes! It’s here!
It’s Christmas Day, which means that by the end of the day all the Christmas tat will be over and done with. Happy, happy day.
I’m offline for the day, so have a good one, whatever you’re up to.
Crunch-free
Posted: Wed 24 December, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Finances Leave a comment »Looking back over the years at D4D™, I’ve just realised that it’s now five years since that accident I had while driving in Norfolk.
That means that – assuming I don’t do anything dumb in the meantime – my premiums should drop significantly next time I go through the car insurance renewal.
It’s also quite surprising to see how much has happened – and how much has changed – in that five years.
Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun…
Solo – Introduction
Posted: Sat 20 December, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Single Life Leave a comment »Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing quite a lot of thinking about being single / solo, what it means to me, and what it’s like.
Some of those thought processes haven’t been the happiest/perkiest, but in general it’s been a good process, and much needed. If it had been happening earlier this year, it would all have been a lot darker and depressive (some of it still could be, but you know, we’ll see) but as things stand I’m pretty happy with how life is.
Anyway, I’m going to write a few bits about it all over the next couple of weeks. They’ll all have titles starting with “Solo” (like this one does) and be filed under the one category of “Single Life“.
You have been warned.
Backed Up
Posted: Mon 1 December, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Media, Photography, Technology Leave a comment »One thing that’s changed over the last four years is the way that I back up data. I used to have a big-ass (for the time) hard-drive that held all my backup files, but I haven’t (hadn’t) fired it up in years.
Now I use DropBox for most things – at least the things that aren’t commercially sensitive or need extra security, etc. I don’t necessarily trust/rely on them, but it tends to be where most of the stuff sits (as well as on through another paid-for service for my work stuff and so on) and it suits me to use them for the moment. That may change a bit over 2015, there’s a more secure and privately-held service that might do better, but for now, DropBox suits me.
However, I recently realised that all my photos and music files were still sat on that old hard-drive. Which has sat untouched for four years, through four or five moves. Oops.
I fired it up over the weekend, thought I might as well bite the bullet and see if all’s well or if it’s dead and I’m screwed.
Thankfully, everything worked first time. I’ve pulled all the music data off, and that’s now sitting in multiple locations again. Next will be the photos – although I’ve also spent some time looking at old images and seeing what’s what (and just looking back at events of the last eleven years, which is what the drive holds) It’s been quite the journey…
Coastal – Felixstowe
Posted: Sun 30 November, 2014 Filed under: A428, D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Photography, Thoughts, Travel 2 Comments »Over the years, I’ve always known that I love being by the sea. It’s an environment I love – although it makes a lot of other bits of life more complex. (For example, working in London or other techie environments) I’ve lived by the coast a couple of times, and would certainly consider doing so again.
Which all makes it a bit weird that the location I live in currently is about as far away from the sea as it’s possible to be in the UK. And I realised recently that I haven’t actually been to the coast properly since I moved here. Which is quite a surprise for me, it’s fair to say.
So today I upped sticks, and buggered off to Old Felixstowe. It’s an easy run, but still two hours. (And all coast is at least a two-hour run, from the look of it) It made for a really enjoyable day, leaving earlyish, getting over there, walking along the seafront, having lunch, walking back, sitting on the grass above the – well, it’s not a cliff, I don’t know quite what to call it – and just enjoying the sound of the sea on the shingle and so on.
I had been going to take the camera as well, but in the end I couldn’t be arsed. I did get some nice stuff with just the iPhone though, so even that qualifies as a bit of a win.
Felixstowe Ferry
I had sort-of forgotten how much I like that environment, and it’s certainly something I’m going to look at and consider as part of the plans for 2015 and 2016, depending on how things go. Ideas are bubbling, so we’ll have to see how things go…
Looking Back
Posted: Thu 6 November, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Time, Travel Leave a comment »While looking back at historical D4D™ stuff for other birthday-related reasons, I realised that this month it’s eight years since I moved to Norfolk with Herself.
How time flies, eh?
Of course, in that time I’ve lived in
- 2 places in Norfolk
- 3 in Suffolk
- 1 in Bedfordshire
Six places in eight years. Some things never change – but apparently my living situation isn’t one of them.
Anniversally Regular
Posted: Tue 12 August, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday it occurred to me that this week has actually had quite a lot go on with it over the years.
Among other things…
- On the 9th August 2002, D4D™ came into being
- On the 9th August 2012, I declared myself bankrupt
- On the 11th August 2003 I passed my driving test (at long last)
There’s been other stuff too over the years, but it is a bit odd to have even those three semi-major events all in one week…
Brain Lock
Posted: Tue 6 May, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Weirdness Leave a comment »Sometimes I really worry about my own brain.
Today I’ve woken up with the word “Sesquepedalian” embedded in there, and it just won’t sod off.
No idea where it’s come from, or why – there’s no context. It’s just a word that my brain has fixed on.
Annoying.
Anti-Spam
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2014 Filed under: D4D™, WordPress 2 Comments »Since updating to WordPress 3.9, D4D™ was getting thrashed with spam comments – something that hasn’t happened for a long time. Nothing else changed, so I assume that there’s an issue somewhere within 3.9 that’s opened up again.
Anyway, having seen upwards of 200 spam comments per day, I asked around for some advice on other things to block it, and on Twitter Laura came through with a suggestion to use another plugin called WP Hashcash which I’ve done.
So far, it appears to be working very nicely, and I’ve not seen any more spam comments coming through at all. Definite win.
Of course, it may be that some valid comments get blocked too – if so, email me at lyle2 at the domain name…
Christmas Day
Posted: Wed 25 December, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season 1 Comment »And lo, Christmas Day is upon us once more – and hopefully some semblance of retail sanity will return soon after. (I’m not entirely convinced it’ll happen, but we can still hope/dream)
Have a good one, whatever you do, whoever you are, and whatever you believe in.
Festerous
Posted: Thu 21 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, D4D™, Festering Season, Marketing, People, Shopping, Thoughts Leave a comment »This year I’m trying hard to not get ranty about the Festering Season – which is no mean feat, I can assure you. (I’ve also just discovered that I’ve not used that Scrooge image for nearly three years in a Festering Season post, so welcome back owd fella)
After all, my local Tesco Tosspots had Christmas Cards on sale at the end of September, for fuck’s sake. They’ve had mince pies since August, but I didn’t even bother getting any photos of those.
Since then, it’s just been going on and on. Their tree went up (fully decorated) before Hallowe’en was done. The foodstuffs have been in since November 1st.
I know shops need to have the time to sell all their festive shit. I suspect that they’re also stretching out the season ‘because of the financial climate’, allowing their customers to spread the cost of the Festering Season over greater time, rather than being crippled in December. I get that, and I don’t mind. (Too much)
It still narks me that everything is so obsessed with materialism, gifts, and the social-status inferred therein. I can’t help it. I don’t like seeing it in the shops for three damn months, or hearing poxy bastard carols on shop sound systems for two months. But it’s pretty much unavoidable – I try to limit my exposure to it all, but there still has to be some, sadly.
But I’m trying hard to not be too ranty about it. For now. That may change over the next few weeks – after all, there’s still a month to go…
Nearly 6,500
Posted: Wed 20 November, 2013 Filed under: 500, 6, D4D™ 1 Comment »At some point soon (and which I’ll probably forget about closer to the time) I’m going to write my 6,500th post on D4D – for reference, this one is number 6,491.
6,500 is nothing special, just an arbitrary “oooh look, that ends with a 500 or 000” post, but all the same, it’s not a bad thing to become suddenly aware of. In an ideal world, #6,500 would’ve been “Why I Blog“, but that’s already been done, so I’ll just have to think of something else to fill that particular space.
Of course at the same time it also means I’ve been writing this rubbish for one hell of a long time, and with wildly varying levels of quality. But there we go, that’s the way this show shambles on into the future.
Why I Blog
Posted: Wed 13 November, 2013 Filed under: Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Words, Writing Leave a comment »[Inspired by this post with the same title over at Gordon’s place]
I started writing D4D™ back on August 9th 2002. Eleven years ago – damn, that time’s flown past.
I’ve said this before (almost certainly more than once) but I started blogging primarily because I wanted a project to keep on working on. I’ve always been a lover of the written word, since I learned to read, and I wanted to see if I could write. I’d done other projects along the way, short stories, novella-length and a couple of novel-length as well.
But the main reason was that I know how bad I am at not going through with projects. I start them, and then I move on to something else. I know that about myself, and the basic reason behind D4D was to keep a project going – as well as to get into the habit of writing, and to see whether it spawned anything else.
D4D’s been part of my life ever since. It’s been there through the ups and the downs, and a lot has changed in that eleven years. I had a year or more where the writing fell off a cliff, but this year I’ve worked quite hard to get back into it, and I think that’s been quite successful. There’s still a way to go, but I’m getting back into the habit and the routine of it.
And has it spawned anything else? Well, yes and no. I got into the writing of D4D, but in some ways that supercedes the writing on anything else, and I need to rediscover – or perhaps find at all – the balance between writing here, and writing elsewhere. I’ve got more writing ideas, stories and screenplays, but I need to find the time to write them.
D4D will keep on going for the foreseeable – I’ve still got a long way to go, and I want the ability to look back on things afterwards. I’ve changed a lot in this eleven years, and so has my writing – none of which is surprising, considering that time span – and it’ll be interesting to see how things develop from here on.
And that’s why I blog. Writing, routine, a diary, a repository of ideas and thoughts. D4D is all of that, and more.
Legalised
Posted: Tue 22 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Corbett, Cynicism, D4D™, Geeky, Legal, Marketing, Stupidity, Time Leave a comment »It’s now two years since my little spat with Ian Corbett (of Toyota Ireland) and his legal advisors was completed. I said at the time that the way they’d requested things to work out wouldn’t actually get rid of the search engine results that annoyed him so much. But he’s a marketing manager, so one assumes he knows these things, and that I would be wrong.
On a random whim, I searched the other day on Google for said person – and lo, I was right. Even when searching for just name + company (with no mention of D4D™ at all) up comes D4D™ with a nice healthy 4th place in the search results. And now there’s also Google Images, I can also see what the glaikit bawbag looks like, too.
All told, I can’t deny, I do find this very amusing. And there’s nothing at all I can do about it, it’s all in the hands of That There Google.
Getting Back To It
Posted: Tue 10 September, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Writing 2 Comments »As regular readers may have noticed, I’m making an effort with D4D™ to write a bit more again, and get back into the routine of writing here.
Things have trailed off here a fair bit in the last two or three years – and how the hell has it ended up being that long?!? – but I do want to keep on writing it, so we’ll see how it goes.
As things stand, I want to get back to writing more anyway. Having a routine with D4D™ is no bad thing for that – sure, it slightly affects the time I have available for the other writing projects, but it’s always better than avoiding doing any writing at all.
With luck I’ll get back into having at least one thing a day for the most part. Time will tell.
11
Posted: Fri 9 August, 2013 Filed under: 2012/13, 2013/14, Change, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Somehow, D4D™ has now made it to its eleventh birthday. I never expected it to do so, but I can’t deny, I’m actually fairly proud that it has.
Events over the last eighteen months have meant that the writing here has slowed down, and lost its frequency (and in some ways I feel it’s also lost its way a bit) but I’m going to see how we do over the next year, and wait ’til this time next year to see what happens. I might close it down, I might just keep it with irregular updates. Right now, I just don’t know.
The last couple of years have been – interesting, I think it’s fair to say. D4D’s been through that time with me (well, obviously) and will continue to do so, I think. There’s still a long way on this old journey, and I think/hope the next year (or two) is going to be instrumental in whatever comes next.
Impetus
Posted: Wed 5 June, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Technology, Writing Leave a comment »One interesting side-effect (currently) of the new laptop is that it seems to have caused a resurgence in writing, or at least the desire to write.
I don’t know why though – although I guess some of it is down to having a nice new clean (and reliable) keyboard that makes things a bit easier.
I’ve also installed a couple of bits of writing software – Scrivener, and my old fallback, CeltX – as well as the LibreOffice package. (an open-source version of Microsoft Office, and much better in my opinion)
We’ll see how things go with a potential writing resurgence, but at least it’s starting off pretty well.
Equipment Longevity
Posted: Mon 3 June, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Technology, Thoughts Leave a comment »As part of yesterday’s post about equipment failures, I realised just how long I’d actually had the previous laptop, which was quite surprising.
Looking back, I should have realised it was quite a while, thinking back to where I was and so on at the time I got it.
I’m pretty tough on technology, so it’s actually quite impressive that the Dell laptop lasted just under four years. I do a lot of travelling (as has been written about too many times to mention) and the laptop will always just get shoved in my backpack, rather than using a ‘proper’ laptop bag. (Mainly because I’ve seen too many idiots carrying laptop bags over one shoulder, seen how easy it is for people to steal them, and how much it makes you a target, a sign of visible wealth/gadgetry)
I dread to imagine how many hours of use the Dell laptop has had, but I’m pretty sure that it’s more than paid for itself over the four years.
Where Are They Now
Posted: Wed 29 May, 2013 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »Over on the newly revitalised Uborka – now there’s a blast from the past – they’re doing a series of “Where are they now?” articles/interviews with Old Skool Bloggers, and this week it’s Yours Truly.
So hop on over, and have a look!
Increased Security
Posted: Sat 13 April, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Getting Organised, People, Security, WordPress 1 Comment »At the moment, there is a huge attack going on against blogs using WordPress.
It’s primarily attacking the blogs who’ve kept a lot of the default settings – particularly keeping the primary user as “admin” with weak/known passwords – but still, it’s better to make sure that things are secure.
D4D™ has always been on an altered install of WordPress – mainly because I’m really bad at leaving things alone – so I’m less concerned about it, but all the same, I’ve added in a couple of security plugins just to reinforce things. I’m also making use of Cloudflare to add another level of security.
It’s going to make things interesting for a lot of Blog Owners on the WordPress platform, though. Basically, if you’re on WP you need to :
- Make sure you’re not relying on the “admin” user
- Add a new user to WP , give it admin rights (and a strong password)
- Set “admin” to have the lowest possible permissions (contributor), or delete it completely.
- If possible, make sure your database isn’t using the wp_ prefix for all wordpress tables.
- Use Cloudflare or similar
- Install the Limit Logins plugin
- If you know what you’re doing, also install the Extend WP Security plugin
- Take backups!
There’s other stuff along the way, but those really are the key points.
Under Attack
Posted: Sun 10 February, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Technology Leave a comment »Over the last few weeks, D4D has been getting a really heavy load of spam hitting it, and I don’t really know why. Akismet is installed for antispam, and reports itself as working, but the load is getting ever higher. It’s been two to three hundred a day, and while none of them get to show on D4D itself, they’re still a pain in the tits from my side.
As it turned out, a lot of it was coming from a small collection of IP addresses, so I spent a little bit of time today blocking everything from those IPs – and lo, the spam has fallen massively.
It may be that with time they’ll change IPs again, but if I see it happening, I’ll just add those IPs to the blocked list too.
January Progress
Posted: Mon 4 February, 2013 Filed under: 2012/13, D4D™, Diet Coke, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Write More, Writing Leave a comment »Back at the end of 2012, I said I’d got two main plans for this year,
- Weigh less
- Write more
So, one month in, where do we stand?
On Point One, I’ve lost half a stone. Obviously that’s not insignificant, but there’s a long way to go still.
As part of it, I’ve been keeping a food diary for the last month, which has been interesting. It’s allowed me to keep track of what I’m eating and illustrate any bad foods (or even bad days) although it’s shown more that the intake side is lower than it should be. (I’m averaging about 1600 a day, from current evidence)
As I’ve written before, I’ve also had the health MOT this month : blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid, blood sugar, the lot. It’s all come through OK, so that’s another thing.
And, of course, I’ve cut down my intake of Diet Coke significantly. It’s still got a small way to go if I’m to cut it out completely, but it’s still massively reduced from where it was.
Now it’s a case of upping the exercise levels as part of that project point.
For Point Two, I’ve managed to do some writing, although not as much as I’d hoped. I’ve got a short story mostly done, which I want to get completed in the next few days. I’ve also been writing a new idea, and that’s currently about a fifth of the way through it. Again, it’s something I’m working on, and it’s already better than it was last year, but there’s a long way to go.
Still though, it’s been a good start to the year.
Infamy, Infamy, they’ve all got it infamy
Posted: Mon 28 January, 2013 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, Legal, Marketing, Privacy, Thoughts Leave a comment »Eighteen months ago, I had to issue a retraction of comments I’d made about the professionalism of a marketing manager and his company, due to some seriously heavy-handed legal threats from over the water.
As a quick “I wonder”, I did a Google search today on the name of the marketing manager and his company. And yes, D4D still comes up as the first result on Google for that search.
When you think about it, that’s really funny. (And is also what I warned them would happen when the legal people insisted I use his name as part of the apology on the title)
After all, this is a marketing manager of a major company – a company whose products also use the name D4D on some of them. He’s also always had the right of reply, I’ve never closed the comments on any of those posts. Nary an acknowledgement, not a rebuttal or apology for damaging the privacy policy of his own company, not even a “thanks for the apology”. Which, I suppose, shows the quality of the man.
And still, there I am, at the top of the search results.
It amused me, anyway.
2013
Posted: Tue 1 January, 2013 Filed under: 2012/13, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Health, Weigh Less 3 Comments »And so – a new year. (Again)
As per many years previously, I don’t really do New Year Resolutions, they’re not my thing.
So my plan for 2013 (as written about very briefly back in November) is pretty simple. It’s not resolutions, just a bit of a plan, and that plan can be summed up thus…
- Weigh less
- Write more.
And that’s it. There’s other stuff along the way, but that’s the two key points, really.
Anyway- have a good one. I certainly hope to do so.
Closing Out The Year
Posted: Mon 31 December, 2012 Filed under: 2012/13, D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »Today proved to be a day for getting things done that I hadn’t got round to doing for a while. The full list is ineffably dull (as these things usually are) so I won’t bother with the full thing. Suffice it to say, it’s been a pretty productive day.
The real key thing though is that I’m now registered with the local GP – I don’t need to be, per se, but well, I figure it’s better to be registered than not.
As longer-term readers of D4D™ know, I bloody hate GPs in general, but still, it’s better to be with a local one, rather than the one in Suffolk I was registered at.
Anyway, all told it’s a decent way to close off 2012, getting a few things off the list of stuff that needed doing.
Apostrophes
Posted: Wed 26 December, 2012 Filed under: Charm School, D4D™, Education, Literacy, Writing 1 Comment »One of the better explanations I’ve seen for using apostrophes and abbreviations. (And I didn’t write this originally, honest)
Maybe if it were taught like this in schools, people would remember it better.
Christmas
Posted: Tue 25 December, 2012 Filed under: D4D™, Festering Season Leave a comment »Happy Christmas, and all that.
What a Year
Posted: Mon 24 December, 2012 Filed under: 2011/12, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts Leave a comment »It really has been quite a year.
In the last twelve months, I’ve…
- Moved house. Twice.
- Changed jobs. Twice. (And also gone from Contractor to Permanent Employee)
- Declared Bankruptcy
- Started rebuilding everything
There’s been a fair amount of other stuff going on as well – not least, a constantly increasing workload – but they’ve been the main events.
This time last year, I had eased off D4D a lot – there was only one post in December, for example – but that’s slowly coming back. It’s not back to the old glories yet – maybe in 2013, who knows – but things are definitely on the way back up.
All the 12s
Posted: Wed 12 December, 2012 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »This has been posted at 12:12 and 12 seconds on the 12th December 2012.
Yep, 12:12:12 on 12/12/12
I am *so* infantile.
Greying
Posted: Tue 11 December, 2012 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »One (of many) questions about aging that keeps occurring to me :
What the hell is it with hairs growing on ears? It never used to happen – why has it started to as I get older?
This Time…
Posted: Sun 4 November, 2012 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »- six months ago I moved in to the new place
- twelve months ago I was up in Manchester, seeing friends – and seeing Tori Amos in concert
- two years ago I was setting up a new house, having been in it a month. Oh, and having a new Bengal kitten, and attending Pixeldiva‘s wedding.
- five years ago, we were – um – settling in to another house, although we’d been in it a bit longer. And realising just how fucking dark it was out in the country with no streetlights.
- ten years ago, I was seeing Pink in concert, having an interview that didn’t go well (and I can’t recall at all) and visiting Leyland (I assume for the interview)
How time flies. And how patterns emerge…
Getting back in the habit
Posted: Sun 7 October, 2012 Filed under: D4D™ Leave a comment »As things go on, I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing – both here, and on other things as the mood takes me.
How much it’ll happen is still up for discussion (or just for ‘wait and see’), as is whatever I opt to write about.
Outside of D4D, I’m whiffing on some other creative ideas, but bouncing on how to formulate them etc.
So, we’ll see how it goes. But well, at least I’m trying. (Again)
New Appearance
Posted: Sun 23 September, 2012 Filed under: D4D™, Redesign, WordPress Leave a comment »If you look at D4D™ on the site, rather than through an RSS reader, you’ll have already noticed I’ve put a new theme on the site for the time being.
There’s no real reason for it, I just fancied a bit of a change. There’s been a lot of change this year for me, which has also come through onto D4D (for obvious reasons) so it felt like I should change things here visually too. Besides, it’s been the existing theme for a very long time now, so time for a bit of an update.
It may also be the indicator of a new mode for D4D™, I don’t know yet. We’ll see.
Ten Years Old
Posted: Thu 9 August, 2012 Filed under: D4D™ 5 Comments »Strewth, D4D™ is ten years old today.
Who’d have thought?
Getting Back in the Saddle
Posted: Tue 26 June, 2012 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Writing Leave a comment »As things change chez Lyle, I’m trying to get back into the regular writing here. I’ve slacked off a lot here of late, and definitely fallen out of the habit of writing.
At the same time, in a lot of ways I haven’t felt I’ve got a lot to write about – there’s been a lot of stuff going on, but it’s not anything I’ve actually wanted to write about, so I haven’t.
So yeah, see how it all goes. I won’t guarantee daily posts or anything – but I’m going to keep on trying. Some (most) of it will be shite, but at least it’s written shite.
Overall there’s a lot I want to write about – not just here, but in other media as well – but first and foremost I need to get back into the habit of writing, and that’s always what was at the core of D4D. So I’m going to try and get back into it again, and we’ll see where things go from there.
Unpleasant Experiences
Posted: Fri 4 November, 2011 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Hypocrisy, Legal 1 Comment »The last few weeks have involved legal threats on behalf of a particularly unpleasant individual who works as a Marketing Manager in Ireland. Regular readers will recall, back in June 2009 that I received an email from this company which broke their own privacy policy – the Marketing Manager in question had used CC for the addresses instead of BCC – and I made some comments about my personal opinion about his intelligence, professionalism, and general competence.
Over the intervening two years, that Marketing Manager has been in touch once – yes, once – to ask (not tell – ask) me to temper my comments. As it was, I felt perfectly justified in my personal opinion of him, so I didn’t change the content. I did write another post, to show how much nastier I could be, but other readers prevailed upon my common sense, so the post was removed.
Yet this wasn’t enough for our Marketing Manager.
Oh, don’t forget, the post was always open for him to put his own point of view in the comments, or to apologise, or to contact me. In 2 and a half years, this man couldn’t be bothered to put fingers to keyboard and explain or comment. Indeed, he never even bothered responding to my email explaining my position, and that it was all a personal opinion.
Then about three weeks ago, I got a letter by email from Gore Grimes solicitors in Ireland – don’t be mean to them about their website – insisting I retract my comments about the Marketing Manager, because they were untrue, (no, the categorisation of this man as someone who didn’t know what he was doing was utterly true) defamatory, (not really – they were in response to his own error) and malicious. (also not true – although I wish now that they had been)
And so I offered a version of a retraction, which wasn’t accepted. So I’ve put up their version instead, and deleted the posts in question.
I’m not allowed to mention the name of this Marketing Manager. I’m not allowed to identify him – so I’m only describing him by his role. I can’t identify him on any site I control, or any social media I use.
Everything I’ve written on D4D™ is a personal opinion. In nine years, only one person has complained about what I’ve said about them. Personally I think it’s bizarre for someone to go running to lawyers instead of dealing with an issue themselves. I think that people who work this way should be named and shamed, but I’m not allowed to do so.
Anniversal
Posted: Tue 13 September, 2011 Filed under: D4D™ 2 Comments »It’s just occurred to me that I missed D4D’s 9th Birthday, which was on 9th August.
So yes, bloody hell, I’ve been writing this rubbish (on and off, and currently more off than on) for nine years. Fark.
Ian Corbett and Toyota Ireland – Retraction Of Comments
Posted: Thu 8 September, 2011 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, People, Stupidity, Sweary, Toyota IE 7 Comments »Following a request from his legal advisers, I am retracting these comments forthwith, and have deleted the original post(s) to reflect this. I apologise for any harm caused.
(This retraction has been approved by Gore Grimes Solicitors. My personal view hasn’t changed, but legal stuff prevails over personal opinion, it seems. Maybe next time he’ll remember about BCC, and privacy concerns resulting therefrom)
Impetus
Posted: Mon 27 June, 2011 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »You know, there’s been a number of things that’ve gone on over the last few weeks that I should write about here. And yet, I don’t know, I just don’t want to.
I don’t know whether that’ll change again in time, but right now it feels like D4D has come to a natural pause. There’ll still be bits here and there, I’m sure, but the personal bits that became a theme here? I just don’t want to go down that road again at the moment.
We’ll see, I suppose.
3.1
Posted: Thu 24 February, 2011 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, WordPress Leave a comment »Yesterday, I updated to WordPress 3.1 here on D4D™. No idea what the real differences are, or whether there’s anything that’ll rise up and bite me on the backside.
Still, it’s good to be on top of these things. Allegedly.
Moving On ?
Posted: Fri 24 December, 2010 Filed under: Change, D4D™, Domestic 3 Comments »2010 has been – to say the least – a year of changes round here. There’s been a lot going on, and a lot of thinking being done over the last couple of months.
One of the things that has gone by the wayside a lot in that time is D4D™ – and for the first time since I started writing it, I haven’t missed writing here. In some ways I feel like I’ve run out of things to say here – or perhaps more accurately, things that I want to say here.
Back in the day, D4D™ started off as a writing project, somewhere to put my thoughts and head down. It wasn’t going to be super-personal, wasn’t going to be lots of things. It was a kickback against people telling me I always start projects and don’t finish them. And it’s true- there’s a whole ton of things I’ve started and not completed. It’s still true today. I don’t like that part of me, but it is part of me.
D4D™’s ended up being quite personal in places, and that’s caused issues this year. It became less about fiction, and more about reality – or at least my perception of that reality.
So I don’t know, I wonder if D4D has come to the end of its life. Maybe still here for the odd random update, but in general time to go into hibernation, or perhaps even cryosleep.
I’ll still be writing somewhere once I get my finger out – between the stuff I do on CeltX for ‘proper’ writing, and a couple of other online writing projects I’ve got in mind, it’ll keep me busy anyway.
I’ll decide for sure over the Festive Break, I think. Just see how it all goes.
It’s been good, though. Now for the next phase.
Wp 3.0.3
Posted: Thu 9 December, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, WordPress Leave a comment »Just a quick reminder – if you’re running WordPress, update to the latest version ASAP.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since 3.0.2 came out, but it’s definitely A Good Thing to keep up to date.
Quiet
Posted: Tue 30 November, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 2 Comments »For the first time in eight years or so, it’s gone a bit quiet here at D4D™
There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, and a great deal of thinking is happening too. For once I don’t really want to write about it, but more to the point I don’t feel the need to write about it. Whether or not that’s a good thing is something only time will tell, really.
So for now, it’s a bit quiet.
39
Posted: Fri 5 November, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, People, Photography, Travel Leave a comment »Today, I is 39.
Today, I is travelling down to Bristol to be at Pixeldiva‘s wedding. A camera will be in attendance too.
Today is a good day.
Weekend Downtime
Posted: Mon 1 November, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »Another weekend, another quiet weekend on D4D™. These things seem to be becoming a bit of a regular pattern.
Culling 1
Posted: Tue 19 October, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »The observant readers of D4D™ may have noticed a bit of a cull in the blogrolls over there ?
Basically, I went through and got rid of a load of blogs that either no longer exist, or that I no longer read. It was a bit of a Night of the Long Knives, but it’s cleaned things up quite a lot.
The thing is, a number of the blogs I no longer go to via D4D™ anyway – I use the Google Reader RSS Feeder, and get everything there. There are some who I go to direct as well, but the majority are primarily via RSS now.
Missed Dates
Posted: Mon 11 October, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky Leave a comment »In having lots of other stuff on my mind last week and over the weekend, I missed out on some date fun.
I missed yesterday’s 10:10:10 on 10/10/10 .
I meant to do a post, but other stuff came up instead.
Bum.
D4D is Eight
Posted: Mon 9 August, 2010 Filed under: D4D™ 2 Comments »Somehow, D4D has managed now to be being written for eight years.
I am simultaneously pleased that it’s gone on so long, and gobsmacked that it’s gone on so long.
So, So Tired
Posted: Thu 5 August, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »I don’t know why, but this week I am just so tired.
Some of it is down to the usual suspects – bad sleep, disturbed sleep, poxy animals, the usual.
Anyway, today is where I’ve hit the limit. Hence, very little in the way of updates etc. A head full of rubbish and fluff.
See you later.
Upgraded
Posted: Fri 18 June, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, WordPress Leave a comment »D4D™ is now running on WordPress 3.0.
The upgrade process was remarkably simple – a couple of mouse clicks once I’d backed everything up – and job done.
Consider me impressed.
iPhone + D4D
Posted: Wed 9 June, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, iPhone, Photography, Thoughts 2 Comments »Since getting the iPhone a couple of months back, one development has surprised me more than any other. And that’s been the difference in how I use the phone and how D4D™ has changed since I got it.
Despite it’s comparatively crappy camera (bearing in mind that the previous phone had an 8Mp camera compared to this one’s 3Mp-ish) I’m using the camera part of the phone far more than on any other mobile I’ve had, and that has really surprised me. Some of it is, I suppose, the ease of taking photos off it – I primarily just email them to myself, and it’s a painless process, as opposed to that on the previous Sony-Ericsson phones. I don’t really know what the rest of the reasoning is, but whatever it is, it looks like D4D™ is becoming more photographic in nature.
That’s no bad thing of course. It’s just surprising (to me, anyway) that I’ve gone from pretty much all-written to having a noticeable portion of the posts having photos in them. Strange the way things work out, isn’t it? I don’t plan for D4D to turn into a full-on photoblog – I’ve got other plans on that score, thanks – but it’s just another change in the evolution of D4D™, I think.
Censored
Posted: Mon 26 April, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 4 Comments »Some of you may have noticed a post that got done earlier this week and has now disappeared.
I got asked to take it down by one of the people involved, because – basically – they didn’t like what I’d said. So I’ve taken it down.
The opinion I’d expressed was an honest one – it was how I felt, and still do feel. But it got deemed as being pompous and potentially offensive to a couple of particular people.
So it’s been deleted, in the name of family peace and all that.
I can’t say I’m entirely happy about it – if I’m honest, it makes me wonder whether I should just give up writing D4D entirely. Time will tell.
Spring Forward
Posted: Sun 28 March, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »Don’t forget to put your clocks forward…
On a side note, I won’t be sodding about with trying to set D4D™ to use BST instead of GMT. It’s a pain in the tits, and I really can’t be arsed. So posts will be appearing earlier/later/whatever than they should ’til we return to GMT. Live with it.
Script Frenzy
Posted: Thu 18 February, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, The '10 Writing Project, Writing Leave a comment »This may be a really really bad idea, but I’ve signed up for this year’s Script Frenzy in April.
The challenge is to write 100 pages of screenplay in the 30 days of April. Should be interesting – assuming I can get my brain and motivation into gear.
Anyway, I’ve signed up, and we’ll see how it goes.
01/02/2010
Posted: Mon 1 February, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 4 Comments »Already we’re one month into 2010. Where the hell did January go? (I know for me it went mainly in a blur of broken databases, fixing inherited ropy code and just generally fire-fighting)
Still, at least February starts with a nice palindromic date. I know, geeky as fuck. Live with it – we won’t have another one like this for another 110 years…
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Posted: Fri 1 January, 2010 Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts Leave a comment »As is the tradition on years with a zero at the end, I’m taking this opportunity to look back over the last ten years.
It’s strange really – in some ways, the turn into 2000 seems like only yesterday, in others you count back and realise just how much has actually happened in that decade…
Ten years ago, I was up in Manchester, in a very different relationship, working on a contract at the Equal Opportunities Commission, living in a rented house in a grim bit of East Manchester, and beginning to realise I was nearly 30. (And as an aside, that must mean I’m heading towards 40 now. Fuck.) D4D™ didn’t exist, wasn’t even a glint in the eye.
In the last ten years I’ve
- made friends
- lost friends
- written a shocking amount of rubbish here
- changed relationships (including a couple of very quiet intervening years)
- moved four times (New place in Manchester, Bracknell, Attleborough, Here)
- bought a house with Herself
- had more jobs and contracts than I care to think about
- seen the world change in many ways – not least through the impact of terrorism
- Closed a business
- Opened a new business
- Been utterly stuffed by a fuckstick accountant
- Inherited insane animals
- moved on
- stayed the same
I wonder what the next ten will bring? Lots more changes, I suspect.
00:01 01/01/10
Posted: Fri 1 January, 2010 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »OK, 2010, let’s see what you’ve got in store for me.
I’m pretty much ready for you, I think.
And 2009, you can go fuck off.
111,111
Posted: Sat 12 December, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Driving 1 Comment »Yes, I really am this sad…
111,111 on the odometer
And yes, I was parked up at the time (as the speedo needle shows) but I did have to pull in to a car park just so I could take the photo.
Slowing Down
Posted: Sat 28 November, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Writing Leave a comment »Things might slow down here on D4D for a while – I’ve got a couple of writing ideas that I want to make a start on, and I’ve only got a finite amount of time for writing.
So there’ll still be regular updates here, just that for the next [time period] it might not be a daily thing. We’ll see.
Of course, if the ideas don’t pan out, I’ll be back to writing this stuff instead. Swings and roundabouts, and all that rot.
Outage
Posted: Tue 24 November, 2009 Filed under: D4D™ 1 Comment »For a few hours this morning, D4D was unavailable.
The hosting company that I use for D4D suffered what they describe as “a massive network outage” which took nearly three hours to fix.
It’s back now, but there may be other blips over the next couple of days while they work out what the hell went wrong.
Pseudonyms
Posted: Mon 16 November, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Thoughts, Writing 1 Comment »Over the weekend, Belle De Jour, one of the last remaining published ‘anonymous’ bloggers (which should really be pseudonymous bloggers, but let’s not be picky) has come out and revealed her ‘true’ name. There was also a piece in TechCrunch by Paul Carr about this, which made for interesting reading.
While I (for obvious reasons) don’t have an issue with pseudonymous bloggers, I do think that Carr’s point is equally valid – if you’re going to write something under a pseudonym, don’t go out and get a book deal. The concepts of pseudonyms and fame are pretty much mutually exclusive – yes, there are some people who’ve managed both, but not really during the current media-driven Age of Celebrity.
For me, some (OK, a fair number) people know my ‘real-life’ name. I write as Lyle to keep things separate from the real world – I don’t want a Google search on my real name to bring up D4D™, and I don’t want searches on D4D™ to easily bring up my name. I believe it is possible to make a connection or two these days, but I still try to keep the two apart as much as I can.
But I don’t want fame or a book deal. If I were looking for that, I would’ve done things very differently with D4D. (I mean for one thing, I’d have had a theme for it, rather than just random sweary rubbish) And for the writing I do where I would like/love/dream of getting it into production, of seeing the writing become properly known, I write in my own name, and on a totally different site.
I don’t have a problem with people writing pseudonymously, nor with them deciding to remove that pseudonymity in order to re-join the two parts of their lives. That’s fair enough. I do object to the media forcing people to lose their pseudonymous lives (as happened with Girl With A One-Track Mind when her book came out) but that is – apparently, at least – not what’s happened with Belle de Jour.
As usual, I don’t really know where I’m going with this – it’s just a random spattering of thoughts. I suppose I just end up being bemused a bit when people get the book deal and still think/hope they can stay behind the pen-name.
Obsessive Behaviour
Posted: Wed 11 November, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Health, People, Thoughts, Weight Loss, Weirdness 1 Comment »Over the last few months, as I’ve written about before, we’ve been attending one of the local Slimming World groups in an effort to lose a bit of weight. Obviously I’ve got more to lose than Herself, but we’re both working on it.
So far it’s been fairly successful – we’ve both lost a stone over that time. We could, in all honesty, have lost more, and/or in less time if we followed all the rules and weighed everything obsessively.
But that’s the key word – in my opinion, there’s an awful lot of this weight-loss stuff that is actually about doing stuff obsessively. We’ve seen three (I think) “group leaders” now, all of whom have lost significant amounts of weight – and absolutely fair play to them for doing so, they’ve done fantastically well – but all of whom are (to be polite about it) just a little bit crackers. There’s a number of examples of this, although right now I can’t be arsed to list them.
The one that keeps on coming back to me, though, was the one who was still utterly obsessed by food – all she’d done was replace high-calorie foods with low-calorie ones. But there was still that slightly crackers gleam in the eye when she was talking about being able to eat “whole bowls of no-Syn trifle to yourself” and so on.
And I find I just don’t have that obsessive part to me – and to some degree it actually leaves me feeling quite uncomfortable. I’m not obsessed with food, nor do I collect anything obsessively, or really anything else. It’s simply not part of me.
I don’t know where I’m going with this, to be honest. It’s just something I’ve noticed and wanted to write about it. And maybe that’s it, maybe writing is my obsessive behaviour, whether it be D4D™ or other writing projects. In some ways I’d actually be quite happy if that were the case. I just don’t know if it is.
Remember, Remember
Posted: Thu 5 November, 2009 Filed under: D4D™ 2 Comments »It’s November 5th, which means I’m now thirty-fucking-eight.
Poo.
Taking a Break
Posted: Fri 16 October, 2009 Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »Today, Herself and I are off down to Berkshire for the weekend. Partly it’s about seeing friends in the area, partly just for a weekend away from the world, and partly just because.
Hound is coming with us and will go off to stay with the people she used to see when we were down there, so she’ll be happy.
Psycho Cat will have the house to himself for the weekend (we’ve got one of the family to pop in for purposes of feeding/watering, and dealing with the chickens) so he’ll be as happy as he ever is – although he’ll also cop a strop when we get home, because we’ve brought Hound back with us.
The Girls won’t care one way or another, so long as they’re let out, fed, watered, get their eggs collected, and get put away at night.
So all told, everyone should be happy.
D4D™, on the other hand, might be a bit quiet. Depends how many things I get to write and set up for future publishing, really.
Site Difficulties
Posted: Thu 15 October, 2009 Filed under: D4D™ 3 Comments »Some of you may have noticed some problems over the last few days with getting D4D™ to load.
For once, this wasn’t down to me being a fuckwit and messing something up, but instead down to some problems with my hosting company.
Initially they lost all connectivity and everything on them disappeared completely from t’Internet, although that got fixed pretty quickly. When that all got restarted though, it appears that another user of the server cluster D4D™ is on was doing Something Naughty, which led to further outages for D4D™ and some other ones I deal with.
All should be back to normal now, but I thought I’d just post it up in case anyone cared.
Fading Out
Posted: Fri 2 October, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Weirdness Leave a comment »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.
Online/Offline
Posted: Fri 18 September, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »For me (and I know I’m not the only one), meeting bloggers etc is always a somewhat strange experience – you know so much about their lives yet have no idea what they look like, for example. (Unless they’ve posted proper photos, of course)
Even after (ye Gods) ten years of doing this kind of thing, whether through blogging or other internet connections, it’s still something that’s odd yet fun to do. And in my experience people never look like you imagine they will. Regardless of what you imagine, reality isn’t the same.
Anyway, in the spirit of this, I went off last night to see Mike ‘Troubled Diva‘ for his hour on The Plinth as part of the “One and Other” project. I’ve been reading TD for at least seven years, and he’s one of the few remaining bloggers I’d wanted to meet (the other remaining unmet ones are Gordon, Diamond Geezer, and – um – that’s about it) so being based just up the road, it simply had to be done.
And it was a fun evening – Mike is pretty much what I expected, but it’s still fantastic to finally meet, having read his life over all that time. We didn’t get a chance to talk for a long time – there were lots of people around – but it’s been great to meet, anyway.
Five Nines
Posted: Wed 9 September, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Thoughts Leave a comment »For no good reason except numerology, this is posted at exactly 09:09 on 09/09/09 .
Useless, but fun.
National Express searches
Posted: Tue 8 September, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, D4D™, National Express East Anglia, Travel Leave a comment »Is it very childish to be rather pleased that D4D™ now comes top in a Google search for “National Express East Anglia fare rise” ?
It also comes in fourth (currently) for “National Express fare rise”
Ah, the small things that please my tiny mind…
Belated Birthday
Posted: Thu 27 August, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Redesign 1 Comment »Buggeration. I’ve just realised that I missed D4D™’s 7th birthday, back on the 9th August.
I’m normally pretty good at pointing out birthdays on here, so I’m quite surprised (and somewhat annoyed) that I failed to mention this one.
It’s also made me realise that all the stuff I had done for custom headers etc. on certain days has gone by the by since the redesign as well. So that’s something I need to work on a bit when I get the chance. (And I wonder if I’ve still got the list of dates somewhere. Hope so!)
But anyway, wow – D4D™’s been going seven years now. That’s pretty good going.
And Happy Belated Birthday, little D4D™. Long may you continue.
All Quiet
Posted: Mon 10 August, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic Leave a comment »A quiet day here at D4D (I know, again) for no good reason.
Plenty to be getting on with, work to be done and the like.
I’ve been working on some more of the night photo images, seeing if I can get anything out of them, and in general I’m fairly pleased with how that worked out. Still lots of other ideas on that score (Painting with light, among other things) but time will tell how that goes, I think.
Not Dead (Again)
Posted: Tue 21 July, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »Over the weekend, we had a couple of dead days on D4D™ – something which I’ve noticed/realised has been happening quite a bit over the last few months.
I don’t know exactly why – I used to be really good at writing here at least daily, and generally I’m still pretty good at it, but for whatever reason, weekends just seem to mean I’m not updating as much as usual.
Of course that could be because we’re pretty busy over the weekend, along with the fact that after a week, I’m generally fairly naffed off with computers come the weekend. But still, it used to be that I made time for D4D™, whereas now D4D™ has to make time for me. Who knows, maybe that’s even a sign I’m growing up, or something.
Still, it could be worse – I could be not writing stuff here during the week, too.
Wembley Stadium Parking Revisited
Posted: Thu 9 July, 2009 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, Music, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking 1 Comment »Ten days ago (roughly) I was at Wembley Stadium, and at the end of the evening had a total farce of a time getting out of the car parks. The following morning, I sent off a complaint email to both CS Parking and Wembley Stadium’s “customer services” people.
In fairness to CS Parking, I got a response back pretty quickly from the MD of the company – impressive in itself – after which there was a fairly long email ‘conversation’ about what had happened. That all got closed off by last Friday (i.e. a week after the even) and was all fine. I still think the parking situation is
- Shit
- Unmanaged for people leaving Wembley Stadium
- Farcical
but I can at least now understand why it’s shit, unmanaged, and a total Grade One ClusterFuck.
Wembley Stadium’s customer services, on the other hand, have only just come back to me today, and their email is rather more of a “Not our problem, mate. Go complain to someone else” effort…
All event day parking is managed by a contracted 3rd party; City & Suburban Parking in partnership with the local authority Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police.
The official car parks were full, accommodating in excess of 3,000 cars and in addition there were approx 3,000 cars parked in unauthorised car parks and a further 1,000 vehicles collecting from the area after the concert. As a result of the high volume of traffic, there were delays clearing the car parks the main car parks were not clear until 1½ hours after the end of the concert. We do not believe that these delays are acceptable however the local roads are under the control of Brent Council, not Wembley Stadium. We will be reviewing the exit plans with Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police for future concert events.
Thank you once again for contacting us. We hope you will be able to visit Wembley Stadium again in the future.
Considering that I’ve since had comments here on D4D from people who had the same problem with Wembley Stadium’s Parking after the Take That concerts, I think it’s fair to say that you’re actually far better off if you can avoid using the car parking at Wembley Stadium. Well, either that or make use of the “pirate” car parks around the stadium, rather than the Stadium’s piece-of-shit “official” car parking.
Two More Years
Posted: Fri 3 July, 2009 Filed under: D4D™ 3 Comments »Gobsmackingly, this D4D domain name is now six years old – which means D4D has been going for seven years. (we had a year at destruction-for-dummies before Wiley’s tried sueing me for using it)
Lord only knows how long I’ll keep on writing this rubbish – I know it’s taken a bit of a dive of late, there’s still a post in drafts about that – but I’ve just renewed this domain name for another two years, so we’ll see what happens.
Still, I’m sure people will be pleased to know that this rot is here ’til 2011 at least. *cough*
2.8
Posted: Thu 11 June, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, WordPress Leave a comment »The new version (release 2.8) of WordPress came out today – and it’s already been installed here at D4D™.
I have to say, since I updated D4D with the redesign and brought the WordPress install up to date as well, one of the things that has impressed me the most (despite some of its potential security issues) is the ability to update WordPress or the installed plugins directly from the site. It makes life a hell of a lot easier.
In this case, even updating the core files for WordPress was a matter of a couple of clicks, letting the file download, then a final click when everything was completed.
All told, it’s a pretty impressive way of doing things.
As for the use of 2.8? Well, there’s certainly been some changes, but I still have to explore most of them, so I’ll write more about it sometime in the next few days.
Blocking Spammers
Posted: Thu 28 May, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 1 Comment »Yesterday, D4D came under attack from a spammer using the name “Ebay Sniper”. They hit D4D with about 200 spam comments overnight, and they kept on trickling through during the day.
For whatever reason, Akismet was stopping them from displaying, but not blocking them completely. In addition, despite adding them to the discussion blacklist in the settings, the comments were still getting through.
So anyway, eventually I’d had enough of the crap, and ended up going to the big guns – blocking it by IP at source. So the server now blocks everything from the IP address where all the spam was coming from (and it wasn’t an IP used by any of my normal readers, thankfully) and redirects it to www.fuck-off-spammer.com . I don’t know if that site exists – but if it doesn’t, it should.
Funnily enough, since I put the block in place I’ve had no spam comments at all. Go figure.
Low Interest
Posted: Tue 28 April, 2009 Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Writing Leave a comment »I know, a couple of quiet days here at D4D™ – for some reason my writing mojo has disappeared recently.
It’s annoying, because I’ve actually got a few things on my mind that could do with being splurged out onto paper (Hello, Google) or screen, just to get them out of my head. But the writing bug just isn’t there, so it’s all still just sat up there, taking up space and not doing much.
In other news, Hound was at the vets this morning – and most unimpressed about it – for some tests, including blood tests and shit tests. (Which has also meant Herself collecting bits of Hound shit in little plastic bottles over the weekend – we needed three days worth!) We’ll find out the results in about a week, but it’s another thing that’s been on the mind, for obvious reasons.
Ah well, I’m sure normal service will be resumed shortly.
Small Break
Posted: Mon 13 April, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 3 Comments »So, for once in my life I didn’t have the posts written to see me through a couple of quiet days with D4D™. Quite the rarity, I know.
Still, it’s been an OK Easter break – we got most of the jobs done that were on the list, and a few more besides, so could be worse. I’ve still got a ton of stuff to do, although there’s only a couple of “urgent” things for tomorrow, so I’ll get on with those in a bit. Procrastination, hallowed be thy name.
So – I’m sure it’ll be back to normal here tomorrow. But in the meantime, how was your Easter?
What’s That Book?
Posted: Mon 6 April, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Memory, Weirdness Leave a comment »Recently, my brain has been slightly locked with a question – one even the mighty AQA couldn’t come up with an answer to.
So I’m hoping that posting it on D4D™ might just find someone who knows what the hell it is I’m whittling on about.
Anyway – I read a book a while back, and I’m now trying to remember what the hell the book was. The scene I clearly recall involved one protagonist meeting the other for the first time in a school playground, where they were playing marbles. (At least, I think it was marbles – could’ve been tiddlywinks, or something)
Anyway, Person One knocks one of Person Two’s marbles out of play, and out of school grounds. As a result, Person Two throws one of Person One’s marbles out of the school grounds, and it degenerates into each one throwing the marbles out of the playground.
It’s a stupid scene, but I can’t remember where the hell it came from.
So help me, Interwebs, please…
Abbreviated
Posted: Thu 2 April, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Thoughts 9 Comments »This post is about RSS feeds and so on. If you neither know nor care what an RSS feed is, don’t even bother clicking on the ‘more’ link below…
Parking
Posted: Mon 30 March, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cynicism, D4D™ Leave a comment »Today’s XKCD comic is just great.
It also probably sums up at least one reason why Herself will never allow me near oxy-acetylene cutting gear…
Summer Time
Posted: Sun 29 March, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky Leave a comment »Ah, the start of spring – the clocks went forward this morning, and that should be A Good Thing™.
The minor downside of Daylight Saving Time is that in theory I should change the way the time is displayed here on D4D™. Only I can never be arsed – so the entire site runs in GMT, regardless of whether it’s GMT or BST that we’re on.
Primarily this is because WordPress goes a bit odd when it comes to changing times – it becomes a global change, and all the time-stamps on the earlier posts get changed too. So I can’t be bothered to faff that much, and thus the decision was made to simply stick with GMT.
It’s not too much of a hassle, though – I just have to remember we’re in Summer Time when it comes to knowing when I want a future-post to go live.
Anyway, stop reading this rubbish, go out and enjoy the sun instead.
FAIL
Posted: Thu 19 March, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Domestic Leave a comment »Shit (boring, dull, utterly pointless) day, followed by terminal sense-of-humour failure.
Back tomorrow.
Spam Honesty
Posted: Wed 18 February, 2009 Filed under: Advertising, D4D™ Leave a comment »Now there’s a title I never thought I’d write.
All the same, I can only be impressed at a spam comment received recently here, whose content read…
Hello! It’s spamer’s programm. Please delete this topic to let me know, what this forum/guestbook is moderated!!!
Now fair enough, it’s about as literate as most spam emails, but at least it was working exactly as advertised.
Analytics
Posted: Wed 18 February, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Redesign Leave a comment »Damn, knew I’d forgotten something with all the redesign stuff that’s been going on here. And I’ve just discovered what that something was.
Google Analytics.
So for the last four days, according to Analytics no-one had visited D4D™ at all. Ooops.
It’s all fixed now – but all the same, a pain in the backside.
Goals
Posted: Tue 17 February, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Depression, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, The '09 Writing Project, Thoughts, Writing Leave a comment »Yesterday, in a comment on the post about colour-schemes for D4D™, Gordon wrote :
Step back a minute.
Why do you have this blog? What do YOU want from it?
Which seemed like a pretty good starting point for a post, to be honest.
1. Why do you have this blog?
There’s a number of reasons, but the main one will always come out as “Because I wanted to see if I could“. Over the years, I’ve had many many projects that I’ve started up, got about 75-80% of the way through, or even all the way to launch, and then got bored and not completed them. (or not continued putting energy into them) There was always something new to try, something else to work on.
D4D™ was a way to combat that. It was an ongoing project, sure – but it’s been one I’ve kept on with now for six-and-a-bit years. Maybe it’ll fade out at some point – the odds are that it will – but it’s kept going, kept me going, and I haven’t just faded off with it. Sure, it’s nowhere even close to what I envisioned when I started – them’s the breaks – but it’s kept on happening.
Also, it was a way to get me back into regular writing. Not necessarily about anything – even a quick trawl through the archives will easily show there’s no consistent theme to any of this rubbish – but to be posting at least one piece per day, every day. Years back I’d written two book-length stories as well as an absolute shed-load of shorter/smaller stuff (some of which is utterly cringeworthy now, but some of it still works to one degree or other) but they were fuelled by depression and a need for catharsis on certain experiences. Between then – about 1995 or so – and 2002 when D4D™ came on the scene, I hadn’t written a damn thing. Since then, some 750,000 words – and it must be coming up to the 800,000 mark by now – have gone through D4D™.
Of course, at some point I want to be doing more “proper” writing, as I’ve mentioned before. So at that point, D4D™ will either mutate once more, or get put on hold. Or some weird bastard-child intersection of those two things. Or something else entirely.
2. What do YOU want from it?
Now that one’s a bit harder. I don’t really know what I want from D4D™ – other than to be a braindump space, where I can splurge out some of the things and thoughts that keep on happening. It’s a healthy venting spot for my more cynical moments, but it’s bugger-all use for the more creative stuff I want to be working on.
I suppose I could add a different section to D4D™ now that a lot of the other stuff has gone The Way Of The Bin, which deals with the bigger stuff, or even get back to doing a “Page” for a longer piece every so often. (That’s what I would do with the old rants etc. anyway, should they ever make a comeback) Or I could just have a different site for that writing stuff. I don’t know yet.
So I suppose what I want from D4D™ is to maintain a status quo, to allow me to keep on writing – with no aim of becoming BWABD (Blog With A Book Deal) or anything other than just that general dumping ground for whatever’s going on in my brain at the moment. Or at least whatever’s going on in my brain that is a) not related to other sites/writing and b) not related to the multitudinous other business ideas etc that are forever battering round the brain cells.
In fact, I think that’s what the aim will be for now – to let the site keep on going, to keep it doing the same kind of things it has for the last six years.
Of course, that means that I’ve got an open hand when it comes to colour schemes etc. – but for now that’s going to stay the same too, and the yellow will remain as a reminder of the reasons why D4D™ came into being at all…
Yeah, different again
Posted: Mon 16 February, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Redesign, Thoughts 3 Comments »OK, so I’ve made a decision following on from a couple of posts over the weekend re style/colouration etc.
And yes, before anyone chimes in with it, this is one of the benefits with using WordPress – shedloads of templates that are available and lovely.
With some hindsight, there were some things I wasn’t happy about with the FluidYellowBlack (FYB) template, although it fitted fine under “that’ll do”. And having re-looked on the dev version of D4D, and trying out a different template instead of FYB, I found myself liking it more and more.
So three days after relaunch/redesign 1, welcome to the new redesign 2. Not so much a redesign as a different template, in fairness – but I’m pretty sure I prefer this one, all things considered.
No, it still doesn’t have much of a connection to the full D4D name – but this one feels more like me, for some reason I haven’t yet ascertained.
Enjoy.
Colour Scheme
Posted: Mon 16 February, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Redesign, Thoughts 5 Comments »Following on from a conversation via Twitter on Friday, I’m wondering about the colour-scheme and design here. I know, go through a redesign and migration (and organisation) and suddenly I want to do another one. Live with it.
The fact is, it took me ages to find a template with a significant dollop of yellow in it – obviously yellow isn’t all that popular when it comes to designs.
Those with long memories will know that D4D™ was initially called “Destruction For Dummies” rather than “Dummies for Destruction”, and the initial design (if I can call it that) was based on the “For Dummies” range of books. Then I got that ‘cease and desist’ email from Wileys telling me that “[Anything] For Dummies” was part of their trademark. So the name changed (but stayed as D4D) and here I’ve been since. And the yellow’s stayed too.
Of course, with the new template I don’t need to have the rubbish with the colour switcher. But I do wonder whether I should screw about even more, and possibly change the appearance of D4D™ beyond all recognition from the old version.
I don’t know yet. We’ll see.
And of course if you’ve got any views, let me know in the comments, yeah?