All done
Posted: Thu 22 December, 2005 Filed under: Festering Season, Work-related 2 Comments »Halle-keffing-lujah.
I’ve completed everything for work’s deadline tomorrow. Now it’s just down to a bit of testing, and seeing whether other people have managed to sort their shit out too. But mine’s done – as promised and expected. To say I’m happy about this would be an understatement – it’s a huge weight off my mind for the Festering Break.
Of course this is just version 1. On Jan 2 (or thereabouts) there’ll be v1.1 with some extra stuff I haven’t had time/inclination to do for this first major deadline. But all the stuff that was in the spec for v1 is done, dusted, and ready to go. But this is just the start of the process. There’s a long way to go yet.
Also I’m done with Festering Stuff. Everything’s wrapped and ready to go. I haven’t (so far as I’ve figured) forgotten anyone. I’m done.
We’re off to Norfolk tomorrow for the Christmas Period. Hound goes into kennels tomorrow, then we sod off. There’s posts in the wings waiting to be posted while we’re away, but I expect most people will be not reading them ’til Wednesday when everyone’s back.
But for now I’m going to sod off, walk Hound, then drink a couple of beers. It’s been a good – if busy – day/week, but fucking hell I’m glad I’m at the end of it…
Premature Congratulation
Posted: Thu 22 December, 2005 Filed under: Festering Season Leave a comment »Yes, the Festering Season is just round the corner. And to celebrate such depressing facts, I’ve changed the title bar a day earlier than I planned to. Live with it.
Lunch today is the work’s “office lunch” – in an Italian, no less. Could be worse – the aim is for no effing Turkey, anyway. It’s only the third work Christmas Do I’ve ever attended, which isn’t bad in eighteen years of working.
Posts may or may not be done this afternoon. Depends on my mood / workload / level of scroogery.
In the meantime, enjoy the title image. It sums it all up, so far as I’m concerned…
Homeless
Posted: Wed 21 December, 2005 Filed under: Cynicism, Festering Season, Thoughts 1 Comment »As some regular readers may recall, around this time last year I did a bundle of photography (and got paid for it!) for a charity in Manchester that worked with the homeless and prostitutes.
This year, my eye was caught by something in one of Herself’s magazines that deals with nursing and care. It was talking about a document called “A Christian Response To Street Homelessness” (I’ve saved a copy on d4d™, it’s an 810Kb PDF if you’re interested) which has a lot of suggestions and ideas, primarily for the London area of Westminster.
The final page of the document is called “Ten tips to help a rough sleeper in Westminster”, and one of the suggestions made me absolutely howl with laughter…
Think about what subjects you might talk about and read up on them – remember that very few rough sleepers have TV sets, so talking about the latest plot of ‘Emmerdale’ might not work.
I mean, how stupid would you have to be?
“So, you’ve been homeless for 8 months, and sleeping on the street?”
“yeah”
“Blimey, that’s rough. So, did you see Emmerdale last night?”
‘Tis the Season
Posted: Tue 20 December, 2005 Filed under: Festering Season, Thoughts 3 Comments »So seven viewers complained about Gordon Ramsay slaughtering turkeys live on his Channel Four program, The F-Word.
Several points occur to me.
1) Only seven people complained? Blimey, that’s good going. According to unofficial viewing figures that edition had 2.5 million viewers. Seven complaints equals (breaks out the calculator) a whopping 0.0000028% of the audience that complained. Fucking hell, what an outrage.
2) Hmm, it’s not really a shocker, is it? Gordon Ramsay has always believed that any publicity is good publicity. Even if he’s remembered as “Gordon Ramsay, the man who killed turkeys on live TV”, he’s still remembered. And if people don’t like the way he works, that’s their problem, not his.
3) Equally, Channel 4’s never been exactly publicity shy, and tries to push the envelope where possible. So they’re not going to be upset at all the free advertising in the press.
4) As Gordon said, if you’re going to be offended, why keep on watching? You’ve seen one get killed, the odds are the rest are going the same way. Switch over, or switch off. Otherwise it looks like you’re the kind of prissy mealy-mouthed Mary Whitehouse type who watches in order to find something to be shocked about.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to see turkeys slaughtered on TV any more than I’d want to see cows slaughtered. I’ve seen it before – it doesn’t bother me per se but it’s not stuff I’d want to see. That’s what the other channels are for. Or even the off switch. But, as Ramsay has been saying all the way through, the killing is part of the process. He was using it to show his children the way the world works, and it’s really no surprise that he’d extend that to showing other people. I suspect that a large majority of people never think of their christmas turkey as being alive, or the killing and work that takes place before they get to the shelves of Tesco or wherever.
And to me, the more people that start basing themselves in reality, of knowing how these things happen before they get to their nice little hermetically sealed package on the shelf, the better.
Memetic
Posted: Wed 14 December, 2005 Filed under: D4D™, Festering Season, Thoughts 1 Comment »Snaffled from Pix…
Welcome to the 2005 edition of getting to know your friends. What you are supposed to do is copy this entire blog entry and paste it onto a new blog entry that you’ll post. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then publish! Leave a comment if you do this.The theory is that you will learn a lot of little (random) things about your friends, if you did not know them already.
- What time did you get up this morning?
7am - Diamonds or pearls?
Neither – Jade for a preference, or polished cabochon (not cut) sapphires - What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Harry Potter IV - What is your favourite TV show?
West Wing, although there’s also a liking for stuff like House, CSI/CSI:Miami (Not New York), Have I Got News For You and a few others. - What do you usually have for breakfast?
Cereal with dried fruit, and an Orange Juice. - Favourite cuisine?
Edible - What food do you dislike?
Raw Tomato - What is your favourite CD at the moment?
Tough One – taste changes too much even in one day. - Morning or night person?
Night - Favourite sandwich?
Subway Melt or Club on Honey Oat bread - What characteristic do you despise?
Being self-centred - Favourite item of clothing?
Currently my long (knee-length) wool coat - If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
A place where no-one else went - What colour is your bathroom?
Light Blue, with White tiles - Favourite brand of clothing?
No preferred brands – just whatever fits - Where would you retire to?
Somewhere else. - What was your most memorable birthday?
Thirtieth. I’d always said I’d spend it on a beach somewhere, and did so in Lanzarote. - Favourite sport to watch?
Snooker, or British Touring Car. - Who do you least expect to complete this?
Anyone - Person you expect to complete it first?
*shrug* - Person who is least busy?
*shrug* - When is your birthday?
5th Nov. Every year. - What is your shoe size?
11 - Pets?
Two, Psychotic Cat (Turkish Van), and Hound (collie) - Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us?
Nope, not yet. - What did you want to be when you were little?
Bigger - What is your favourite flower?
Passion Flower. Or a carnivorous one. - What date on the calendar are you looking forward to?
27th December, when the Festering Season’s over. - One word to describe the person who you snaffled this from?
Knockout.
Bastards
Posted: Tue 13 December, 2005 Filed under: Festering Season, Work-related 1 Comment »When I got in to work this morning, the office had been done out in bloody silvery streamers and so on. Apparently this is “festive”, as opposed to the correct word, which is “tacky”. Bah Humbug.
It also appears that my colleagues may have got the impression I’m not a fan of the Festering Season. Where they’d have picked up this idea is anyone’s guess. *cough* So the rotten bastards have used my desk as a nexus for all that’s tinselly and tatty.
I hereby predict it won’t be long before there is either a) a *cough* fire-test to see if the tinselly crap is fire-retardant, or b) some kind of accident where the area around my desk suddenly becomes rather clearer of twinkly tat than it is now…
Postcode Finder
Posted: Mon 12 December, 2005 Filed under: Customer Services, Festering Season 2 Comments »At last – it appears that Royal Mail have finally let their Postcode Finder be used without having to sign up for the service first.
It may be just over the Festering Season – I don’t know – but for the moment it’s sat on their homepage. This is where it should be all the time, and I hope they’re finally learning. Of course, my registered email address of ” fuckoff@youtwats.com” is hardly useful to them, and I’m sure I’m not the only one using such useful email addresses in order to register with business…