Perfect Present

Ideal for Scary, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the iDuck. You couldn’t make it up.

Surely some mistake

Maybe I’m in the minority here, but the story about Saddam Hussein being arrested by Coalition forces today left me more than slightly confused. Weren’t they supposed to have killed him three months ago?

So how do we know that truth is being told now? In short, we don’t. Instead it’s yet more turns of the propaganda screw, and no-one really knows what the hell they’re up to. Then again, I don’t really think that they’ve got any idea either…

Godsend

Unaccustomed as I am to being nice about Christmas shopping and so on, I have to say that today’s shopping “trip” has been bloody fantastic. Amazon, EasyArt, Trainline.com, Go Places and MicroDirect. Everything ordered and sorted – and delivered to the correct people. No crowds, no hassle, no stress. My kind of shopping for the Festering Season.

I’d also like to say – and yes, I’m referring to you, Postershop and Leather Bean Bag Co– that I can’t believe there are some stores who have an online presence and e-commerce system that either a) doesn’t accept Switch, for fuck’s sake, or b) uses e-commerce that actually just emails the details to the shop – no stock-checking, nothing. Sacks of shite.

Snap Happy

via Slashdot, I found an article from Fortune magazine about the future of digital photography. More to the point, would Ansel Adams have used digital cameras if he were alive today?

Ansel Adams was always one of my favourite photographers, and provided many inspirational shots of nature, and natural phenomena. And yes, having seen the results that even my shonky little camera can come up with, I have no doubt at all he’d have used a digital camera if he could’ve got his hands on one.

The other part of the article that interested me was the idea that apparently digital photography and image manipulation are seen to be very much the same thing. I find that odd – maybe it’s because I’m not a professional photographer, or something, but it’s rare that I twonk about with images at all. About the most I normally do is crop an image, or adjust the brightness and contrast – which is what a “traditional” photographer would do too. Perhaps I’m just a realist – I don’t like the feel of images that have been messed about with, no matter how professionally. I’d rather leave a lamp-post in a shot (for example) to provide contrast. Life isn’t perfect : photos shouldn’t try to be either.

Modern Communications

Sometimes words fail me. I’ve just received a call from someone in another department, telling me they’ve sent me an email. It’s not the first time either – this is a weekly process, a document that gets changed every Friday. Every week I get an email of the document, which goes up onto the intranet. Every week this moron calls me to tell me she’s sent it. No matter how many times I tell her I don’t need a call, come the next Friday she still calls.

Now, call me picky, but if you’re going to send an email, just send it. There’ll be a bounced message to say if there’s a problem with it. I don’t need a fucking phone call to back it up.

Gimp

Since writing the piece below about SAD and how hard it’s hit me, something suddenly occurred to me. When I moved in September, I didn’t take my daylight-imitating lightbulbs with me. Well, that’s some kind of proof that they work, I suppose. What a complete twat.

Ups and Downs

I wish we could get some dotty old whackjob to invent a time machine. It might allow days like today to draw out a bit so I’m not utterly swamped with stuff. It might also allow the next month or so to disappear into the past without affecting me quite so much on the SAD front.

On the high points of today, I’ve finally finished a big dollop of work in PHP. Considering that six months ago I knew PHP in the same way that I know the ins and outs of local morris-dancing customs in Mongolia, I’m quite ridiculously chuffed with myself. Yes, I’m sure a hardened PHP coder would look at it and wimper, but my concerns were that a) it works, and b) it’s easy to use. Both criteria have been well and truly fulfilled, and I’ve got a load more confidence in the stuff now. Of course, that means that it’s time to get Projects #2 and #3 off the ground, which are rather more complicated. Rod for my own back, and all that jazz.

Also on the high points, I’ve been getting in some new work, which will keep me busy for a while. There’s also a couple more bits on the horizon (although not – as yet – the website for that “web designer” talked about below) which look promising, as well as one huge dollop of on-spec work which may or may not result in a steady regular income.

On the low side, well, it’s December. The SAD is hitting harder and harder, but at the same time I know it’s nearly time for the recession to start. In eleven day’s time, to be exact. Roll on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Once that’s done, the nights can start getting shorter again – and not a moment too soon, because this bollocks of getting up while it’s still dark, and then coming home while it’s dark too is really whacking me out this year.

So, this time machine. Any ideas?