Moving Office

Posted: Fri 7 September, 2018 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As well as all the other stuff I was doing last week, I also moved office. As you do. Because of course life wasn’t already busy enough, and all that.

As it was, it wasn’t that much of a slog – I’ve stayed in the same building, but moved three floors down, and to the other end. So why move?

Basically, the previous office (which I moved to about a year ago) suffered from the absolutely shitty combination of ridiculously thin stud walls, and being surrounded by excessively noisy and selfish people. It was tolerable for a short(ish) while, but all told it conspired to end up pissing me off.

Of the three companies around my office, I had one lot who simply operated at maximum volume all the time, and who I could hear through the ‘wall’ all day every day. I had one lot who weren’t too bad, but were a counselling organisation so you’d sometimes be able to hear people breaking down and crying etc. in the middle of a session. And the final lot were just incapable of closing their door, so again I could hear everything that they did. (And if I returned the compliment and left my door open with the radio on, would complain that I was disturbing them, while paying absolutely no heed to the fact they were doing the same consistently)

There were other bits too that ended up pissing me off – the way others would turn all the lights on, but be incapable of then turning them off again (I suspect they had partners at home who just followed them around turning stuff off, as they were so incapable of doing so) and leaving the communal toilets either stuffed full of bog roll, or completely unflushed – and doing so Every. Fucking. Day.

So all told it just got to be too much, and I wasn’t enjoying going to work. I looked at offices in other places (particularly with the added issues of the commute for the next two-ish years) However, none of the ones I looked at had the convenience of location and facilities around, and all seemed to be at least three times as expensive as where I currently am.

However, I ended up talking about that with one of the directors of the foundation that owns the current building, and it turned out that a different unit was just becoming available. Ideal. Quieter end of the building, better walls, and just generally an improvement.

2017/18 – What’s Next? The Coming Year

Posted: Sun 5 November, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2017/18, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

As is traditional round these D4D parts, I lay out my hopes and/or plans for the coming year on my birthday. Like New Year’s Resolutions (and as likely to be completed, it seems) but on a different arbitrary date. Because why not? It’s as good a day as any.

That list for last year (2016/17) wasn’t massively successful, mainly due to my inability to get out less, so I’m hoping to be slightly more realistic this year…

So, the plan for the coming year is…

Keep rebuilding the finances, adding to savings and so on.
By the end of this year, I’ll have completed the whole bankruptcy process, and it should be off my credit history. (As I understand it. Some people have said it only comes off at six years from the end of the bankruptcy period, which’d make it September 2019. We’ll see)
Exercise more, lose weight, improve health
Another ongoing process, carried over from 2016/17
Complete September’s walking marathon
This imploded epically in 2017, so it’s another carry-over. And this year I’ll do some more training, and not destroy my feet four weeks before it…
Write more
Actually complete some stuff, and see what to do with it from there.
I’ve also got some tech answers to this, giving me more time and space for writing (I hope)
Do less
I’ve written about this before, but I am *really* bad at doing nothing. Lazy days do my head in, and I end up feeling stupidly guilty about “wasting” a day. But conversely, I’m acknowledging that I do need downtime for other things. So I need this as a reminder.
Business ideas
Look at completing some of the business ideas and plans, and see what I can do with them from there.

And for now, that’s it. I’m hoping it’ll be a bit more successful than last year’s list!

Moving Emails

Posted: Mon 14 August, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Amazon, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Own Business, Technology, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, I ended up moving a lot of my email processing over to Amazon’s “Workmail” product. So far, it’s gone pretty well, but we’ll see what happens over time.

The email server/service I was using (via a company I do a lot of my hosting with) was generally OK, but had some significant issues which they didn’t appear to be able (or willing) to fix. The main one was that emails with attached files – particularly PDF and Word documents – would occasionally disappear. They wouldn’t bounce back to the sender, and they wouldn’t tell me (the recipient) that something had gone wrong, they’d just disappear with no notice to anyone.

Generally it’s been survivable, but last week there were things for HMRC and others that didn’t make it – things that were, safe to say, bloody important.

So I’ve moved the primary accounts over to Workmail, and it’s been quite smooth. The setup didn’t take long, and while there were a couple of teething errors when it came to migrating the emails from Old to New, it all worked pretty nicely. Once I knew what the hell I was doing (and/or looking for) it became even easier/better.

After that, the main ball-ache has been putting the new accounts onto all my devices, and getting everything to syncronise properly again. It’d be nice if you could just push the new account to your devices, but that’s a level of tech that’s above and beyond what we’ve currently got, sadly.

Still, it’s all worked, I’m fully moved over with all my key accounts, and it hasn’t made me want to throw computers through windows. Even that is pretty noteworthy, I think.

Beginnings

Posted: Wed 4 January, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Resolutions, Single Life, Thoughts, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »

The first week of the year’s started well so far, with a fair amount of preparation being done for the rest of the year.

Among other things, I’ve signed myself up for a couple of training programmes for more technical stuff, as well as laying out some plans and concepts for the main development things I want to work on this year. I’m currently hoping to have got at least one of them launched by the end of January, so I can see how it develops.

Along the way, I’ve figured out a couple of starting points for writing as well, which may or may not work out.

So it’s all a bit promising for now. We’ll see how it works out.

And not to be ignored, I’ve also started work on losing some of the weight I put on over December. It’s safe to say, I’m not overly happy with how much got put on (although I’m not back to where I started this time in 2016, so it could be worse) in the space of a month, but as we’re now back to a point where I can (and will) eat more sensibly again, it should all work out OK in the end.

Onwards and upwards, and all that piss.

2016/17 – What’s Next? The Coming Year

Posted: Sat 5 November, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Bankruptcy, Change, Do More, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »

As usual, following on from my posts about what’s happened over the last year, it’s time to think about – and write about – what I want to do over the coming year.

Similar to last year, I’m going to keep it fairly simple and open, rather than being too detailed. I’ve got better details in my head, but they’re not going to be written down.

The basic goals are going to be :

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’ tknow if anything will happen with it or not)

I could go into more detail – although that’s handled more in my notebook of to-do lists and ideas – but for now this’ll cover things.

On first viewings, it should be an interesting year.

A busy week

Posted: Thu 8 September, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Films, Food, London, Media, Own Business, Single Life, Sociable, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Suddenly, it’s a week since I last updated anything here – and there’s a good reason (or ten) for that.

Mainly, the good reason is that I’ve been sodding busy.

Since last I wrote here, there’s been (in no particular order)

Driving to Marlow for a late lunch at the Hand and Flowers
Driving to London (Saturday at ungodly o’clock)
Visiting Meatopia – on the Saturday, along with several friends
Seeing The The’s “Infected” film at the ICA in London on the Saturday evening
Staying overnight in London
Visiting Meatopia on the Sunday, just me, but ended up meeting several other people, as well as starting some business discussions (Win!)
Driving home from London, having walked 20 miles over the two days
A vaguely normal Monday, with added shopping and faffery
A normal Tuesday working, then meeting friends and going to the cinema to see Hell or High Water – heartily recommended
A semi-standard Wednesday, and then cinema to see Morgan – also recommended, for different reasons, and thoughts on both films will follow
And tonight, being at the Milton Keynes Geek Night, just to top things off.

So yes, not much going on at all.

It’s been pretty positive all round, but it has left me feeling like a stunned monkey. So there’ll be more writing as and when I get round to it. I’m back in London this weekend, but look like having one day that’s (currently) quiet, so that’s at least vaguely promising…

Resilient – or Not

Posted: Wed 27 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over recent weeks, I’ve been having dealings with a number of companies I don’t usually deal with. There’s probably more on those to come, once the issues are sorted, but what’s struck me initially is just how ill-prepared they are for anything going wrong.

I’m not talking (necessarily) at the whole ‘disaster recovery’ level, where the business will die if it doesn’t have backups and a spare data-suite etc. hanging around on the off-chance. This is more at the customer level, but (to my mind) no less important for all that.

In three different cases over the last couple of months, I’ve been promised call-backs from various people, all of which haven’t happened. The excuses differ, but basically come down to “the person who organised that was away and no-one else knew anything about it“. Now, I get it, stuff happens: people go on leave, get ill, or change jobs. (And sometimes all three) But that lack of handover, lack of communication, lack of back-up procedures and so on, is a worry.

What would have happened if – for example – I were a customer, wanting a quote or whatever, and expecting a response that doesn’t happen? Or when complaints are waiting to be handled, because the only person who knows about it has chuffed off somewhere?

For my own business and work, I make sure my end client always has access to a copy of the stuff I’m writing and doing. They get to see what’s changed, and can see that work’s being done, even if not necessarily the details and the ins-and-outs of the code. But they have access – so that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, or go off with some kind of long-term illness (or any of the other options) then they can carry on. I don’t kill their businesses by being unwell, or dying.

In this age of technology, it’s not even that difficult. Calendars and emails can be shared, and accessed by colleagues (assuming the procedures are in place) when the owners are away. Out-of-office notifications can be set at the server level by IT if they’re made aware someone’s long-term ill etc., and emails can be auto-forwarded to someone else if the original person leaves.

It’s not at all difficult – but it still seems to be too much effort for any number of companies and organisations to set up. Lowest common denominators, and all that.

Time Flies

Posted: Tue 28 June, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 06, Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Lead Developer 2016, London, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

The Lead Developer conference this year was at the QEII Conference Centre – a spectacularly bad location (right next to Houses of Parliament, and round the corner from Downing Street) for the days of the Brexit Referendum and its aftermath.

It made me think of the last time I was there, though – which was for one of the @Media conferences, the first one I’d been to. Looking back, that was exactly ten years ago. Now that’s how to feel very old very quickly!

As well as the various talks and so on, it was also good to catch up with friends, including Topper and Pix, as well as meet some new people. It made me realise (yet again) that I really should be a bit more sociable, catch up more frequently and so on – although at the same time, it’s also always good to meet up with people and just drop into conversation as if you last saw them a couple of days ago, instead of a couple of years.

Unchecked

Posted: Mon 27 June, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Geeky, Lead Developer 2016, London, Milton Keynes, Own Business, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week, I was in London for three full days, travelling down each day. On both the Thursday and Friday (while attending the excellent Lead Developer conference) I was using the trains at peak times. Onn Saturday it was a busy time when I went down, and busy-but-late on the way back.

At no point in those six journeys did my tickets get checked. Not at platform gates, not on the train, nothing. I could’ve gone through the entire thing without paying a penny to Virgin Trains.

Of course, Sod’s Law being what it is, if I had braved it and gone without a ticket, there’d have been about six checks per journey. I know that – and it’s why I always buy a ticket. But it does annoy me, how rarely these things are checked, and it makes me wonder how many people do take the chance, and go without paying for the ticket.

Leaving 2015

Posted: Fri 1 January, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Looking Back, Own Business, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

It’s the end of 2015, and for the first time in a long time, it’s been a good year. It’s had its ups and downs for sure, but the general direction has definitely been upwards and positive.

On the ‘ups’ side, we have…

worked all year on the same contract, which has made things a lot easier
built up some savings, for the first time in at least a decade
started up my own company and business, plus laying the groundwork for next year’s developments
been out to a good range of restaurants, and had a long weekend in Edinburgh
done some writing, and developed some ideas for working on in 2016

On the ‘downs’…

When I say ‘worked all year’, I mean it. Holidays and breaks have pretty much not happened. Certainly nothing more than that long weekend in Edinburgh
I’ve not built up the savings as much as I could/should have – but that’s been down to stuff with the car, the restaurants, and actually having a decent year of non-monastic living
having my own company again means I also have to deal with HMRC, Companies House, and bastard accountants
I haven’t actually finished any of the writing things

So it’s all swings and roundabouts, but all told it’s been a good year with a lot of stuff I’m really pleased about and/or proud of.

2015/16 – Business and Work

Posted: Sat 14 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Business, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

At some point in the coming year, I’ll be changing contracts. That’s just par for the course (although I’ve been in the current one for a year now) so it’s not a worry. I’ve mentioned it before in relation to finances and so on, but this post is going to be more focused on the work side of things.

One of the bigger changes within this year was that I’ve also gone back to working through my own limited company, instead of through PAYE Umbrella companies, which means I’ll be better off in the long run.

I’m pretty much sure that I’ll be sticking with contracting for the coming year at least. There *may* be a perm role somewhere out there with my name on it – but I’m not convinced, and not looking for it.

In fairness, I have had some good perm roles (or as they’re sometimes known, “proper jobs”) along the way. However, it’s also valid that every single role I’ve fucking hated (or has involved working for an utter shitwhistle) has been a perm role. The last couple in particular have left me not wanting to go back down that route for the moment. (And yes, that could come back to bite me on the arse, I know)

So for now, I’m aiming to stick with the contracting. Along the way I’m also looking at developing some of my own stuff properly – like the writing post, I’ve got a huge number of ideas on the go, but unlike the writing post, I’ve got a goal, a target, and a particular product/concept to focus on.

There’s a timeline for that, which is the end of this 2015/16 process. At that point, there’s a conference and exhibition going on, where I want to be able to have a product I can launch and discuss with the target market.

That’s the goal, and the plan. Things may arise to change those aims, but for now it’s looking promising.

2015-16 – What’s coming up next?

Posted: Thu 5 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Bankruptcy, D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More | Leave a comment »

Following on from yesterday’s “what happened in the last year” post, now we get to the fun stuff, the “What’s going to happen in the coming year?” post.

Although, to be honest, some of those goals aren’t going to change much. I currently see 2015/16 as a year that’s more about consolidation, of building from the foundations of 2014/15.

So, the outline goals are going to be

Continue rebuilding finances.
Continue with health/exercise/weight-loss stuff
Write more
Develop more things based around my own business
Get out more

There will be some significant changes during 2016 that I already know about and/or expect – as well as a number of things unexpected and un-planned-for.

Among the expected changes, I know that I’ll definitely be looking for at least one new contract sometime in that year. As yet I don’t know exactly when, but I can live with that – when it happens, it’ll be fine.

Also, the final financial stage of my bankruptcy will come to an end early in the year, and I’ll have paid off the three-year repayment plan. (That’s happening later than the three-year anniversary of the actual declaration, because it takes time to organise and sort out in the first place) I plan to keep making that payment, but into my own savings account, which will (obviously) help build things up.

Finally, I may end up moving by the end of the year. Or I may not. I don’t know for sure. Actually, that most likely won’t be in this time-span, as my 12-month tenancy agreement renewal starts today. I may know that I will be moving (as I’d have to give a month’s notice to end the tenancy etc. etc.) but the odds are that I won’t have actually moved. If I decide to do so.

I’ll write in more detail about those outline goals over the next few days, and see what they bring.

For now, I’m just happy to have some ideas about what’s going to come next.

Inherently Lazy

Posted: Fri 20 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Introspective, Own Business, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Weirdness, Work-related | 1 Comment »

As I’ve said before, I’m inherently lazy – but in some ways my laziness makes me put in more effort. Weird, but true.

My new office is up on the fourth floor. The building has both lifts and stairs to get there – and that’s where my laziness kicks in.

You see, the lift takes ages – and I’m too lazy to wait for it, and then dawdle up to the fourth floor. So I slam up eight flights of stairs – eighty steps, all told – and always get to my floor before the lift does.

I know that’s no-one else’s version of laziness, the whole “can’t be arsed to wait” thing. It just always strikes me as somewhat amusing that my version of laziness expends more effort than anyone else’s. It probably says something about my brain, but well, the fact my brain works in strange ways (or possibly in Strangeways) has never been in any doubt at all.

Business Account

Posted: Fri 13 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Bankruptcy, Business, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Among other ongoing things, I finally got confirmation today that I’ve sorted a new account for my limited company, so I can start doing things properly come April.

There’s still a bundle of other things to sort out along the way – but it’s a major step forward.

It’s progress for me personally as well, because this account has needed credit-scoring to get it started, and it’s still been accepted. That’s definitely A Good Thing, and bodes well for the future.

Office Space

Posted: Mon 19 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective, Own Business, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

With the way work is going this year, I’m going to be looking again at renting some office space for the time being.

Last year I rented a desk in a shared space for a while, and that worked fairly well, but wasn’t perfect for a number of reasons. So while that’s still an option, I’m looking at stepping things up a bit this time round, and actually doing a proper office.

As with all large towns, there’s a number of options available in both Milton Keynes and Bedford, and I’m looking at my first one tomorrow. It sounds promising – designed for small and start-up businesses, monthly contract, central Milton Keynes and so on – but I need to see it and figure out the necessities. I’ll write more about it in the coming days, I’m sure.

Why do I need some space like this?

Well, I’ve got a lot of work coming up, and while working from home is OK, I find that it’s occasionally difficult to keep up motivation when there’s no real push to be “at work”. Also, I find it’s suddenly very easy to not actually interact with anyone for several days a week, and that’s not ideal either. I know I could easily become very hermit-like and insular, and I don’t actually want to do so.

So renting an office space will at least give me back a commute, a journey to/from work, and because the building is shared with a number of others, it’ll probably allow me to make some connections and interactions along the way. Never a bad thing.

Renting a desk is OK – but limits me to the times the main office is open, which I found more restrictive than it could’ve been, and limited the available hours I had. I’m hoping that a rented office will give me more flexibility, enabling me to do longer hours when necessary and so on.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens and how it all shakes out. I’ll know more by the end of Tuesday…

43

Posted: Wed 5 November, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 2014/15, 42-43, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Weight Loss, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Today, I is forty-bloody-three. It doesn’t seem like a year ago I was forty-bloody-two, but there we go. Time flies when you’re having fun. (Or dashing around trying to avoid a shower of shit. Either way)

I’ve looked back to what I wrote this time last year, the usual ‘plans’ post and it’s not been too bad for once.

And in general it’s worked out for the most part. Goals in bold, explanations in normal text.

Weigh Less – Successful. I’m now more than two stone lighter than I was a year ago. There’s still a considerable way to go, but it’s been significant progress throughout the year.
Write More – Also successful, albeit not to the degree I’d have liked. I’ve got more ideas and more plans of what I want to write in the coming year, I’ve got two projects started and significant progress, and completed some shorter stuff, including submitting three pieces to competitions. None were successful, but it’s still progress.
IAM – Didn’t do. Mainly because of the fluctuations of the year, the IAM thing just didn’t happen. It will do this coming year, though.
Own company – Successful. Again it’s been knocked a bit by fluctuations and inconsistencies, as well as a couple of let-downs, but generally successful.
Business Ideas – Kinda successful. I know more about the direction, but need to do the work.
Rebuilding the finances – 50/50. It was successful – but then with those fluctuations, and the shower of shit, it’s back to square one at the moment. At the same time, it didn’t descend into “being in the shit”, although it was close. So, you know, little victories.

And for my 43rd year? Much the same, I think…

Weigh Less (continued work)
Write More
IAM Test
Own Business Ideas
Build the Finances

There may be others, there may not. But if I can have the successes of this year without the downsides and letdowns, it should be pretty positive. That’d be nice.

Location Fixation

Posted: Fri 16 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Bankruptcy, Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Housing, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about location – where I live, where I work, where I want to live, all that. I’ve been in the current house for two years now, and I know I’m getting a bit twitchy.

The current tenancy doesn’t expire ’til November though – due to an initial six-month one, followed by 12-month ones. As a result, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, look at the pros and cons, and – I think – I’ve now pretty much made a decision.

As has been noted on many occasions, I’m not all that good with permanence – I like change, embrace it even. It suits me. So two years in the same place is enough to make me twitchy, to start to feel that itch in the back of my skull.

It’s not too bad at the moment though. I’ve certainly had it far, far worse than this. If I were still in the same job as well, the options would be different – I’d be needing to move on in both cases. As it is, I’ve been back on the contracting since July, and it’s kept things decently varied – which means the house side of things can relax a wee bit.

There are places I’d like to move to, some new locations and some old. (Or at least close enough to qualify as revisits) They’re more about reflecting how much life has changed in the last few years, most particularly the ability to drive, which opens up whole new vistas.

For example, I’d like to go back to the North-West, live around the Peak district somewhere. I wouldn’t live in Manchester itself again, but there’s loads of places around it that I really like. It’s still a front-runner when the move does happen. The same applies for the South Coast, and Dorset in particular. It’s an area I love, but didn’t really get to appreciate as much as I could’ve done, because I didn’t drive. So yes, that’s also a front-runner.

There’s other places too. A revisit to Bath and/or Bristol wouldn’t be out of the question – particularly when not combined with an insane commute, ideally – and there’s new locations too. I’d consider most places, but Nottingham and Derby have always been good to me, and there’s a whole heap of other places. (Plus a long-standing idea to sod off to somewhere like Cork)

However, right now there’s also a bigger plan in place. Rebuilding after the bankruptcy, seeing what comes next, as well as looking at work and finances and what the hell I want to do/be when I grow up. There’s ideas on that score, but I need to have the time and inclination to do something about them. Time I’ve got. Inclination? Less so, right now. But that’s a post for another day.

I could move, sure. But practicality-wise, where I am right now is pretty much perfect for me right now. It’s not a long-term location, but for now it’s good. I’ve got all the transport links I need – my commuting radius for work covers an insane amount of miles. It makes my contractor life a lot easier. Location isn’t in many (if any) of those calculations I have to do. For me, right now, that’s an important factor, and outweighs pretty much everything else.

Financially, it’s easy. If I move North then the odds are that my rent would drop. But for where I am, for what I’ve got right now, I couldn’t do much better. I’d like some extra space, an extra room or two – but it’s not something that’s necessary right now either.

All told, while I would kind-of like to move, I don’t need to move. And staying put has its advantages too – location, money, blah blah.

That means that – in the lack of a good reason for moving other than “But I want to” – I’ve decided I’m going to plan to stay where I am for the next eighteen months. The six months from now for the current tenancy, and then extend it by another twelve.

Of course, the landlord might decide to sell up or something, or work may throw up something that makes me have to move. Neither option is likely, but they could happen. But short of those kind of eventualities, I’m going to face up to things, and not move.

By that time – November 2015 – I’ll have been in this place for three and a half years. Then I think it’ll be time to move on – or at least move up. If my work is still keeping me based in a way that the current location is still OK then I’ll just look at moving to a bigger place locally. If things change or work isn’t a limitation (I can work from pretty much anywhere, after all) then it might be a big location change too. We’ll see.

Connected?

Posted: Tue 4 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: BT, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Geeky, Own Business, Utilities, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Since before Christmas, my broadband connection has been pretty flaky, occasionally cutting out completely and so on. I reported it to BT at the time, and they did fuck-all. (Imagine my surprise at that one)

Last weekend, it suddenly got much, much worse – no connection at all for most of Saturday and the router descending into an endless cycle of attempting to reconnect. Sunday started in the same vein, so I called BT’s fault department again. Twice. (The first person tried to transfer the call, fucked it up, and disconnected instead. Slow handclaps)

They ended up escalating it to the ‘second tier’, who would investigate and call me the following day. As that was a Monday, I asked them to make my mobile my primary contact, as I’d be at work, not available on the home number. You’d think that would be pretty easy/sensible, but it took them three attempts.

Yesterday, I got the first call. Yes, the line’s fucked, but they can’t tell where. It could be inside the house (we’ll gloss over the fact that when there is a line, the connection is fine, and all the in-house equipment works well with no issues) or on the line itself. So they’ll need to send an engineer.

How’s tomorrow?

No, I’m at work. How’s about a weekend?

We don’t do engineer visits for this kind of thing on a weekend.

OK, so I’ve got to take time off from work in order for this to be checked at BT’s convenience. Who do I invoice for my time?

Oh, we don’t do that. We won’t pay for your time. You also need to be aware that if the problem turns out to be with your equipment, or something like corrosion of BT equipment, you’ll be charged £130

So this could be an expensive proposition. (And how much do we want to bet, fellow cynics, that the issue is ‘corrosion’, and thus makes me liable?)

I asked at that point for a call back from a supervisor, because I wasn’t happy with the entire thing. They promised to call me back between 12 noon and 1pm.

The call didn’t happen. I got home, and found a message on the landline at 4pm saying “I tried calling you back, but you weren’t available”. No shit, you fucking moron, I was at work – as it said on the fucking ticket. I called them back, and we’re now in the land of official complaints. Again.

On a more positive note, a random check on BT’s page last night showed that my exchange should be getting Fibre (and BT Infinity) this month. Which may just make things worth sticking with BT…

Year End

Posted: Tue 31 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Resolutions, Thoughts, Web Development, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Here we are, at the end of 2013. It’s been an eventful old year, what with one thing and another.

In no particular order – and probably leaving out a load of lesser stuff – my 2013 has consisted of…

Having Mondeo kill itself in the outside lane of the M1 – always an interesting experience
Renting a Renault Megane for two weeks – the shittest car it’s ever been my displeasure to drive
Buying the Saab as a replacement for Mondeo, and it’s done well so far. Handing back the Megane was also an absolute joy
Countless meetings all over the country
Completing my bankruptcy period – it stays on the record for four more years, but it’s discharged now
Being made redundant from the job I started the year with
Going back to contracting and
- getting the first job I applied for – indeed, they offered it to me at the interview, and wanted me to start immediately
- And the second – although it turned out to be shit
- And indeed the third – on that one they offered after phone interview, without even meeting me
Forming my new company, which will start trading from mid-January
Sorting out an ISA savings account – which actually has some money in it!
Continued writing, and getting some ideas out onto keyboard/paper – time will tell how successful that stays
Been able to purchase some stuff I didn’t have in the new house – like a proper bed-frame, etc.
Caught up with friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long
Attended two weddings – and another one’s already booked for 2014

All told, it’s been pretty busy, somewhat hectic, highly changeable, and not a bad year at all. Sure, things could have been better/smoother, but when all things are considered, I’d say it’s been a positive year.

Time Out

Posted: Fri 20 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

From the end of today, I’m finished with work ’til a week on Monday. Ten whole days off.

Of course, being a contractor, it also means I don’t get paid for them – but that would’ve happened for the Wednesday and Thursday anyway.

Besides, for once I don’t mind. I’ve pretty much burned myself out this year – and the last couple of months in particular – so it’s going to be quite nice to have some downtime.

I’ve still got stuff that needs doing – Slab’s booked in for it’s 100,000 mile service on Monday, and Christmas Day on Wednesday with its associated travels – but for the most part it’s going to be time for relaxing a bit, catching up on sleep, and generally sorting my life out a bit.

Should be good – and right now it feels like it’s much needed, a battery recharge before the start of 2014.

Pre-booked

Posted: Tue 10 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Gigs, Own Business, Project 42, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Next year is already starting to look busy for me, which is quite fun (and somewhat back to ‘normal’ after a couple of much quieter years)

Right now I’m already booked in for :

At least one meeting in Jan (as well as probably getting a new contract)
Setting up new company / business
Attending an exhibition/conference in Feb
A wedding in Derbyshire in March (not mine, of course!)
One concert in April in London
Two concerts in May – one in London, one in Manchester
A food festival in Manchester in June
Another conference in November (although that’s not yet 100% confirmed)

Of course, that’s not including the usual sociable stuff which’ll definitely involve trips to Manchester, Bristol, Somerset, Kent and others. Plus the other business stuff, work, writing, and a bundle of other bits.

So 2014 is looking nice and quiet…

6,500

Posted: Fri 29 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Weight Loss, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Yes, this is the 6,500^th post on D4D™, according to WordPress. So what better time to look at what may be happening here over 2014? (There’s no guarantees, it’s more about where my head’s at right now)

In just over a month, it’ll be 2014. As usual, I’m not making any resolutions for 2014 – that old ‘everyone else does it, so I’m not‘ thing kicking in again – although there is the stuff from Project 42 (i.e. what I want to do from November to November) to consider. Which all means I have to balance out time across a number of things – something I’m renownedly abysmal at doing.

So – what may happen is that D4D may step back a bit, maybe not have the daily updates. (Of course it might stay the same, too. It kind of depends on everything else) I’ve got some writing ideas – as well as some other things I’m not going to go into right now – and I need to make time for them. I’ll still be updating, it just might not be daily.

This coming year is going to be interesting. There’s a lot of potential ideas and plans, a lot of stuff I’d like to do, but I do need to figure things out in order to be somewhat realistic about it as well. I’m going to take time over December to get things in place, work out priorities, form that limited company that needs doing, and a bundle of other prep crap to let 2014 be as productive as possible.

As for D4D™, it’ll keep on going – on and on. I can’t guarantee another 6,500 posts (who could?) but it’s not being planned to die off anytime soon.

Listing

Posted: Tue 12 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Geeky, Getting Organised, Own Business, People, Project 42, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working a bit more at getting organised, at knowing what needs to be done and getting it done. To this end, I’ve found myself making lists, and being able to cross things off once they’re done – and I’m finding it quite helpful.

Not in an OCD “Got to do it, it’s on the list” way or anything, but just so I’m not storing everything in my head. I’m not usually this organised, but at the moment my head’s full of umpteen bits of random crap, so I’m finding it easier to write down what needs doing, and go from there.

Interestingly (well, to me, anyway) I’m finding it’s actually quite a productive way of doing things, and it’s also quite satisfying to be able to cross through the things that’ve been done.

Whether this development will last or not, only time will tell. But for now it’s working for me, and in a way that to-do list apps and online methods don’t seem to. Weird, but true.

The Coming Year

Posted: Tue 5 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 42-43, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Project 42, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As is tradition chez D4D™, this is where I list out some of the things I want to do in the coming year. I’ve kind-of nicknamed it “Project 42” this year, for no particularly good reason (other than that it’s the year of being 42 – which, as everyone knows, is also the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything) but it’ll do.

The top two stay the same as last year, but there’s some extras that I want to get done or work on, as well as a bundle of other stuff that’ll come up along the way. Anyway, these are the main bullet points…

Weigh less
Write more
Take the IAM advanced driving test
Sort out my own company again – although there’s a lot that goes into that
From there, develop a couple of business ideas
Keep on rebuilding finances throughout the year.

That’ll do, I think

Q4 – Plans

Posted: Tue 1 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, 2013/14, Creativity, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

So here we are, the start of the final quarter of 2013. Where has the year gone? It’s been pretty busy, but hard to believe that we’re already three-quarters of the way through the year.

Anyway, such is life. Onwards and upwards, and all that rot.

The final quarter of my 2013 is going to be used preparing for 2014 – at least that’s the intention so far. Whether or not it happens in the way I hope, well, time will tell.

The main things I want to do are about preparation, about going into 2014 with some finished developments, stuff to build on/from, and see what happens. There’s likely to be a fair dollop of work being done, and it feels like the right time to be doing it.

Along with the new contract, which should take me through to the end of the year, I also want to :

Form up a new limited company for some of the business stuff I’ve got in my head and…
- Write the primary framework for at least one of the ideas
- Write the primary business site to attract attention to the products
- Possibly attend a couple of related exhibitions and trade-shows, in order to drum up some more interest
Also do some maintenance on stuff I’ve inherited (well, been asked to keep on working on) from Previous Employer
Get on with some writing – there’s one idea in particular I want to work on
Continue to work on the losing weight / gaining fitness thing

That’s the ideas, at least. It’s going to be a varied three months, I think, but that’s the basic framework…

2013 : Final Third

Posted: Mon 2 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Creativity, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Web Development, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »

So here we are, the start of September. Which means we’re two-thirds of the way through the year. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

For me, the first two thirds of the year have been more about staying stable, getting stuff done, getting things in place and ready for whatever comes next. It’s been pretty successful: I’ve got through the bankruptcy period,, I’m pretty settled on location and house for the moment, and I’ve changed jobs, with all the fun that entails. (Oh, and got some pretty good contacts and future opportunities from people within ex-employer) It’s looking pretty positive.

But now it’s time to step things up a bit. There are things I want to do, or at least want to start, and see how they work out. The plans and ideas are there, but now it’s implementation time. (Yeah, I know, heard it all before) I’m not saying they’ll all work, I’m not even saying they’ll all get out of the starting gate – but I want to at least try.

For this next period there’s really three main projects going on, alongside the general gradual development/sorting of finances, which is now just an ongoing process. The other three are :

Health / Fitness
Project Development
Writing

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. But a bit more detail…

Health / Fitness

One of the goals for 2013 has been to improve fitness, improve health, and lose weight. So far it’s kind-of happened, but not properly. I’ve been going to the gym, but it’s not really working for me – and even less so when it’s now in the exactly opposite direction to where I’m going for work… So it’s time to rethink (again) and get back into doing something. I’m not yet sure what it’ll be, we’ll see. There’s a couple of ideas, anyway.

Project Development

As always, I’ve got some ideas for some web-based businesses. I think I’ve now got the overall plan, so it’s time to see how things work out. The primary ideas are all based round a particular theme this time, so who knows, it might actually work out. I’m aiming to get the main sections for the first significant project written by the end of the year. Maybe more, with a bit of luck, but I’d like to be ready to get it launched in early 2014 and see where things go from there.

Writing

Similar to the above, I’ve got two ideas that I want to get into some kind of shape over the next four months. I think that’s a reasonable timescale. We’ll see.

So yeah, the next four months ’til the end of the year should be quite interesting. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway…

Time Out

Posted: Mon 29 April, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, London, Own Business, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts, Time, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

This week (and some of next) I’m actually on leave from the job. This is A Very Good Thing.

I don’t have much in the way of plans, the main thing is just Not Working, and taking the much-needed time out.

Of course, there are things I want to do, or at least get onto “paper” and out of my head, but that’s all going to be done on my terms, rather than within the demands of an office.

I’m sure there’ll be a couple of days out and the like along the way, but really the main thing is just time out. It’s been a pretty hectic first third of the year, and the next one isn’t looking like it’ll be any quieter, so downtime is definitely a good plan.

Progress – What’s Next? 2010/11

Posted: Sat 6 November, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2010/11, Change, Depression, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Introspective, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 2 Comments »

So, following on from how (badly) I’ve done in 2009/10, what’re the plans for 2010/11 ?

Honestly, I don’t really know. I guess the main points can be brought down to :

Write more
Take more photos
Do more websites
Get more business
Pay stuff off
Get off the antidepressants

Other than that, more of my activity will be down to altering life, seeing friends, travelling, doing other odds and sods along the way.

I don’t know what the run-up to 40 will bring, but right now the thing that I do want to do is not stress about it over the next year.

We’ll see.

Progress, or Lack Thereof

Posted: Fri 5 November, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2009/10, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Introspective, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

This time last year, this was the list of what I wanted to do in 2009/10…

Mortgage renewal
Build up own business
Design/Launch some of the sites I’ve got ideas for (I know, that’s an ongoing thing – but different sites/ideas this time, as always)
Write more – I want to get at least one solid piece done. I failed in 2009, but it’s still a plan for 2010 instead.
Photograph more – again, I’ve got some ideas for big projects on this, I just need to get started on them.
Lose more weight – I want to lose at least another stone in the next year, and ideally more. But a stone will be the target for now.
Get to the gym more – something I’ve really slacked on this year
Do some business planning, and figure out (to some degree at least) what the fuck I want to do next with my life.
Get back in touch with (and visit) various friends I’ve been useless with for the last couple of years.

So, how did I do?

Yeah, didn’t do the renewal.
Still working on that, allbeit slowly
I did launch a couple of new sites over the year, but nowhere near as many as I wanted to. Mind you, I’ve also culled out a number of the ones that aren’t going to work out, too.
Certainly written more, along with submitting a couple of small pieces to competitions and the like.
Photography hasn’t been so successful. I haven’t had the inspiration or motivation as yet – there’s been a number of things I have done, but not what I was planning to do.
Lost weight – I’m down a stone on where I was, with the intention of losing more.
I didn’t get to the gym at all
I didn’t really do much in the way of business planning, although equally I’ve had enough to keep me going over the year.
I got in touch with friends, saw a few, and then went back to being crap.

All told, not a great year for achievement. Stuff’s been done – just not as much as I wanted to, and/or not in the sections I planned it to be. All told, it’s a bit of a worry, with the culmination in a year’s time of that five year plan – but then, there’s been lots of change in that five years, if I look back to where I was when I started it. So I can live with that – there’s been progress, work and change, they just hasn’t taken me along the path/road I expected them to.

Cost Less, Make More

Posted: Wed 11 August, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Cynicism, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »

Another work(ish)-related post, but a subject close to my heart, and usually good for some thoughts and rants.

In this case, we’re currently considering buying one of the most-pirated pieces of software in Christendom, Adobe’s Creative Suite. The reason it’s massively pirated is simple – the fucking ridiculous cost of it.

If we look at getting one licenced copy of the full bells-and-whistles CS5 Master Suite, it costs no less than £2,700. For a piece of software that’ll be updated/outdated within a year. What small company (or even medium-sized company) is going to pay nearly three grand for CS5 ? Let alone what little one-man-band web design company. And yes, you can get a smaller/cheaper CS5 Web Premium for web design. That’s a mere £1,680.

Even more insane, that’s the prices if they send the software in a box. For download purposes, CS5 Master Suite is – um – £2,780. Yep – it costs you more to download the fucking thing than for them to box it up and stick it in the post. What?

Adobe are forever bitching that their software is the most pirated. There’s a reason for that – it’s priced itself out of the “reasonably affordable” market.

I’m pretty sure that if Adobe charged (for argument’s sake) £270 for the CS5 Master – 10% of the current price – the piracy figures for it would drop like a stone. £270 is reasonable for the software – perhaps even a bit more, but 10% was a nice example. Piracy wouldn’t stop completely – there will always be those for who even a pound is “too much” – but it would reduce epically. More people would buy the software – my own suspicion is that they’d actually sell more and make more by having the software at the cheaper price.

Sure, the price has been cut by 90%. But if you get 100 people buying it at £270 instead of one or two at £2,700, you’ve made a shitload more money on your bottom line than you have at £2,700 per copy. Even on the upgrades, people would be more likely to pay again for an upgrade, rather than pirating it.

And that’s the logic that seems to escape these companies. Reduce the price to a sensible/affordable level, more people will buy, less people will evade. Seems logical to me, anyway.

@Media 2010 – Thoughts

Posted: Sun 13 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Own Business, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Work-related | Tags: wdx. #wdx | Leave a comment »

So last Thursday and Friday I was in London for the Webdirections @Media Conference. It was the first time I’d been in a couple of years (I last attended the 2007, I think – holiday for the ’08 one, and tubularity stopped me from attending the ’09 one) so it was interesting to see what had changed – and of course what had stayed the same.

Of course the big difference was that @Media is now run/organised/owner by WebDirections, rather than through Vivabit as it has been in previous years. I’d not heard of WebDirections before, but apparently they’ve done a number of similar conferences in Australia etc.

To me, it seemed that the focus of the conference had changed quite a bit this year (or maybe over the last couple of years, I don’t know – can’t really comment on the ones I didn’t/couldn’t attend) to be more about design and programming, rather than the accessibility and user experience themes of previous @Medias I’ve attended. And that’s a disappointment.

The focus this year was very much on Javascript (which used to be a real no-no) and about telling designers to not worry so much about making designs work in all browsers and versions. There was virtually no mention at all of accessibility, except in one session through the two days. For a conference where accessibility and so on were paramount at the start, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

The other thing I really noticed this year was how corporate some of it seemed. In previous ones there’s been sponsorship from big companies and so on, but this time it was more going down the “stands in the public areas” type of promotion. Again that could be something that’s happened more in the last couple of years that I’ve missed, so it’s not such an eye-opener for other more regular attendees.

It was a good conference though, don’t get me wrong – I’ve got a lot of stuff to take out of it, bits that I’ve learned, bits that will make sites I work on better in anumber of ways. I’ve enjoyed it – it’s just been interesting to see what’s changed.

Conflict and Surrender

Posted: Fri 2 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Creativity, Depression, Domestic, Health, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 1 Comment »

It won’t give up, it wants me dead
Goddamn this noise inside my head

© Nine Inch Nails, “The Becoming”, Downward Spiral album

That’s not quite where I am at the moment – but somehow it still seems to be the best lyric for describing things at the moment.

I’ve written before about my regular issues and history with depression, and the way I normally fight my way through it. Recently though, that’s not been the case. If I’m honest, the last three or four years have involved fighting, but only getting to an impasse, a holding action to keep ground, rather than a victory.

I’ve made lots of plans, and had the intention to do things. It’s just that I never seem to find the time or the final motivation to get them done. I keep on trying, and I keep on failing – and at the moment there’s no good reason for Why. I just don’t get to it. That final bit, that final push, is missing, AWOL.

So I’m working on getting through it, but I’m also going to go a different route this time. I’ve a doctor’s appointment in a couple of weeks time, and I’m going to aim to get some anti-depressants. Not something I’m overly happy about, but I think it’s time for me to try them again.

I had a very negative experience with them many moons ago, so I have some really serious reservations about them. But if I can give them a go and they work, so be it. If not, it’s another avenue tried and I need to find other options. But at least I’ll be trying the avenues this time.

Getting Rid – More Stuff

Posted: Mon 11 January, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Photography | Leave a comment »

As well as getting rid of the poxy hire car (with luck), we’re also getting shot of some other stuff through eBay.

Admittedly, Herself is being the driving force on it – the majority of the stuff is hers, which makes it a good reason for her being so – but we’re working on it.

The really big lot is the floor tiles – we bought enough to do the floors in all the rooms in the house, plus the extensions we initially thought we’d do. However, we’re now pretty sure we won’t be doing the extensions in the foreseeable future, and the thirty-odd remaining boxes of tiles are taking up space in the garage. So they’ve been on eBay, and we’ve already sold a third of them, with people wanting the other twenty as well.

The next big set of lots is going to be Herself’s doll’s house and furniture. Nothing’s been done with it as long as I’ve known her, and again it’s all taking up room in the garage. We’ve looked at other options before, but now it’s going on eBay, and we’ll see how it goes (or even if it goes) from there.

And my part in the proceedings? Primarily, it’s been about taking photographs of the stuff that’s for sale, working in some small way to build up my photography portfolio a bit, see how things go on that score too.

Ideas for 2010

Posted: Thu 31 December, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2009/10, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, Resolutions, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Well it’s New Year’s Eve, so it’s time for me to have a few thoughts and ideas for 2010.

As always, there’s a number of ideas and plans coming together at the moment, but whether they’ll all come into fruition or not is something only time will tell. But for now this is the list of what’s in my head, and we’ll see what happens. I’m trying to keep it down to four or five categories, just to simplify things a bit.

Photography : I really want to make some progress on the photography side of things, work towards selling some bits if possible. I’ve got some contracted work to do for the charity I worked with a while back, and from there see what progresses.
Writing : Again, I want to get to the point of having some stuff actually done and finished. I planned to do this in ’09, but that hasn’t worked out. There’s a few bits that have been started, but I need to finish at least a couple of them and work that way.
Work : I’ve made the commitment to stay in the current job throughout 2010 – allbeit with the “unless everything turns to shit as a result” proviso – which will keep the bills being paid and me in general work. But I still want to get some of the outstanding projects and ideas into some version of reality.
Social Life : Over the last couple of years (really since moving to Norfolk) I’ve been utterly shit on the social side of things. So I plan to spend some time getting back in touch with friends around the place, and seeing them etc.
Money : For me, 2009 wasn’t a good year financially, and want to spend 2010 getting back into a place that I’m happy with. Currently I’m not happy with the situation for debt, and I want to get a significant dollop of all that paid off if at all possible.

And that’s it. There’ll be more detail over time, I’m sure – and there’s also stuff on the domestic side – but that’s the rough plan. It’ll do for now.

Dell vs. Apple – the desktop version

Posted: Wed 2 December, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | 3 Comments »

Following on from yesterday’s post regarding the difference in price between Dell and Apple, I also ended up doing one between desktop machines. You know, just for the sheer fucking hell of it.

Similar plan – same specs where possible, same plan. Not bog-standard, not top-of-the-line, but mid-end on both models…

	Dell	Apple
Model	Optiplex 360	iMac
Processor	3.06Ghz Core 2 Duo	3.06Ghz Core 2 Duo
Memory (RAM)	4Gb	4Gb
Hard Disk	1Tb	1Tb
Monitor Size	22″	21.5″
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon HD3450 (256Mb)	ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB
Keyboard	Logitech Wireless	Apple Wireless
Mouse	Logitech Nano MX Revolution	Apple Mighty Mouse


Price	£895.35 inc VAT	£1,199 inc VAT

Yep, think I know which one I’d go for…

Dell, Apple, and HP

Posted: Tue 1 December, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | 4 Comments »

Yet again today I’ve been involved in an argument about the costs of Dell vs. Apple laptops. It gets really old, really fast.

All the normal excuses get trollied out, “They’re not that more expensive really”, “Apple Macs are lovely, and built from a solid block of aluminium”, “Dells fucking suck” so forth, so fifth.

So for the sheer fuck of it, I decided to do a comparison. Dell vs. Apple Mac vs. HP (as one person recommended). HP isn’t really fair, as they don’t appear to offer much in the way of customisation.

The spec : An “office-ready” machine. (i.e. not Dell’s low-end inspiron, but corporate Latitude). 4Gb RAM. 500Gb hard disk (or highest size possible). Best possible monitor/screen resolution. And what we come up with is this :

	HP	Dell	Apple
Model	HP Compaq 6730b	Latitude 6500	Macbook Pro
Screen Size	15″	15″	15″
Processor	2.53Ghz Core Duo	2.53Ghz Core Duo	2.53Ghz Core Duo
RAM	4GB	4GB	4GB
Hard Disk	250Gb	250Gb	250Gb
Resolution	1280×800	1920×1200	1440×900
DVD Drive	Not Specced	8x DVD +/RW	Superdrive 8x (DVD +R DL/DVD)
Additional Info, as requested by Matt in the comments
Dimensions	WxH : 35.6×26.6cm Depth: 3.4cm	WxH : 35.8×25.7cm Depth : 3.3cm	WxH : 36.4×24.9cm Depth: 2.41cm
Weight	2.7Kg	2.3Kg	2.5Kg

Price	£767 inc VAT	£1105 VAT	£1299 incl VAT

Not the most convincing (once you’ve added in VAT – Dell and HP don’t show it ’til afterwards) but still the Apple is nearly £200 more than it’s nearest competitor.

Interesting though.

Committed

Posted: Tue 17 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, I’ve made a decision and a bit of a commitment, which came as quite a shock to me once I’d decided on it.

Up ’til now (a whole month!) I’ve been looking at the current job as a six-month contract that’s likely to extend, rather than as a permanent role. My aversion to permanent roles is well-documented (and recently re-witnessed by Herself when this job came up) for a range of reasons, so seeing it as a contract role was more of a sanity thing than anything else.

Anyway, I’ve made the decision – allbeit with the proviso “Assuming that it doesn’t go as horribly fucking wrong as the last one” – that I’m going to be here for the next twelve months, through to the start of 2011. After that, all bets are off – but I’m going to do my best to stick out this role for the whole of 2010.

As you can imagine, it’s all been a bit of a shock to the system , but I do have my reasons for making this decision/commitment.

First of all, I’d quite like to have a year that’s considerably calmer than the last two years have been. In this case, while I’m still going to be doing work for myself (and for the clients of my own company) I’d rather reduce the stress levels a bit by not having to keep on chasing new contracts. Making this choice will basically put contracting “on hold” for 13 months or so. With the way contrating and work has gone this year, I can certainly live with that.

Additionally, it means that (hopefully) Herself will be less stressed out about my work situation. She’s never been a great fan of how contracting works, and this year has done nothing to help her opinion of it. That’s completely fair – my own impression of it has taken a pretty big knock this year, and that’s as someone who prefers it. So it’s no surprise at all to know that Herself will be happier if I’m locked in to this for a year.

Another reason is that – as others have said this year – I need to give “proper jobs” a fair crack of the whip. My experience of them ’til now has been unremittingly negative, but I need to give it another go.

The final reason is kind of related to the first. I want to have the time/energy to get other plans done. I also don’t want the pressure of “my livelihood, paying for the house, paying the bills etc. etc. are all dependent on these plans working”, so it makes more sense to keep my head down for a year, do the things I want to outside of that 40ish hours a week, and know that everything’s paid for, that holiday time is paid for etc., and I don’t need to stress (as much) about it.

So yes, that’s the decision made. Unless all else goes wrong, I’m now in the same place ’til Jan 2011. I’m still torn about whether this is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. We’ll see.

Plans for the Next Year

Posted: Fri 6 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2009/10, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, The '09 Writing Project, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

OK, so following on from yesterday’s post about what’s been done over the last year, this is the list (in no particular order) of the things I’d like to get sorted in 2009/10 as Part Four of the Five Year Plan…

Mortgage renewal (carried over from last year – we did it, it fucked up, we couldn’t be arsed to keep on with it)
Build up own business
Design/Launch some of the sites I’ve got ideas for (I know, that’s an ongoing thing – but different sites/ideas this time, as always)
Write more – I want to get at least one solid piece done. I failed in 2009, but it’s still a plan for 2010 instead. And if it fails then come this time next year I’ll try to do it as a NaNoWriMo thing, as promised already.
Photograph more – again, I’ve got some ideas for big projects on this, I just need to get started on them.
Lose more weight – I want to lose at least another stone in the next year, and ideally more. But a stone will be the target for now.
Get to the gym more – something I’ve really slacked on this year
Do some business planning, and figure out (to some degree at least) what the fuck I want to do next with my life.
Get back in touch with (and visit) various friends I’ve been useless with for the last couple of years.

And that’s “it” for the year. There’s lots of sub-bits on pretty much all those main items, but that’s the plans so far as I can see.

I’ll probably write some more about them over the next couple of weeks, as I get clearer ideas. But for now, this’ll do.

Changing Plans – A response

Posted: Thu 1 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Depression, Introspective, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »

Now here’s something I don’t do often – respond in a proper piece to a comment on another piece.

In this case, in yesterday’s “Changing Plans” post, Andy commented…

I have to say, following your blog & Twitter, that your contracting seems like a monumental effort/nightmare/arsepain. There’s a lot to be said for a regular job, not least: a) a bit of security (so you’re not always worrying about what next week brings) and b) the luxury of a bit of time to think and plan your next big move (i.e. away from what you’re currently doing).

You don’t strike me as someone who’d be content/comfortable with a regular job, no matter how short term – but it seems to me like you’re in a cycle that you need/want to get out of as it’s causing you grief.

And I couldn’t agree more, to be honest. Maybe I do need to bite the bullet and look at a “proper job”. I don’t know. This year has been utter shit when it comes to contracts, and work in general. In fact I’d go so far as to say it’s been the worst work year I’ve had.

You’re right, there is a lot to be said for that “proper job”. I get that totally. It just doesn’t (for whatever reason) chime with me at all. I don’t know why – and I’ve looked into it a lot – but it just doesn’t. Maybe I’ve just never had a positive experience of that regular job, but maybe my mindset won’t let me have a positive experience of that regular job. Either way, I’ve never been happy in a regular job.

I’m not happy with what I’m currently doing. I’m good at it, but I’m no longer happy with it. However, I know I need to keep on doing it (whether as contracts or regular work) until I get things sorted for doing Something Else. That doesn’t help. Getting fucked over and treated like crap also doesn’t help. (Although in my experience that’s something that happens regardless of a job being proper or not)

This week, I also feel like crap anyway. I’ve picked up a cold from a friend (who will be receiving a snot-filled slap when I next see him) and honestly, I’d rather be at home.

The change of plans, when everything was ready and in place, has added to that, and knocked my confidence a bit too. That’s down to being a control-freak, and not liking it when I get stuffed over with nothing I can do about it.

I’ve got three or four ideas about what I want to do instead of this, which have been chatted about a few times with friends over the last couple of days. It’ll take time – unless I get incredibly lucky – to sort them out and decide what to do, as well as to implement the ideas, make the changes, and get those things off the ground.

It’ll take time – but the last week has illustrated pretty perfectly why I need to do it, and make the changes. And if nothing else, it should make for some more fun on D4D.

Laptoppage

Posted: Mon 14 September, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from the recent post where I wrote about the fact my current laptop is/was dying at a great rate of knots, I ended up ordering a new one and it arrived (without prior warning, which is always a bit of a worry) on Friday.

It’s nothing hugely special, just a Dell Inspiron thing, but it will more than fill my requirements for the forseeable future. There’s a twin-core beast of a processor, 4Gb of memory, and a 500Gb hard-drive, coupled to a monitor with a 1600×900 resolution. I got the extended battery, as it’ll still get used on a regular basis while travelling and so on.

And even better, at the time I ordered it it cost me exactly £500. If it lasts like the last one did, it’ll be 2012 by the time I think about getting another one. God only knows what the basic spec will be by then!

It’s got a couple of idiosyncracies – I think the weirdest thing is that for the first time ever, I’ve got a machine that doesn’t have any indicator lights on it for hard-drive, battery charging, etc. It’s *very* strange to not have them – or maybe this is a new trend that I’ve just not spotted ’til now.

As always, I’ve spent time over the weekend copying files over, archiving/deleting stuff, sorting out software installations and the like, but I think we’re pretty much there now. I’m still missing my CS3 install, but I’ll get the disc back for that sometime (and there’s no real hurry) and then it’ll all be done.

So it’s nothing hugely special – but it’ll do, and it cost me less than half what a commensurate MacBook would do. I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got, thanks.

[Update : Having looked at Apple’s on-line store, an equivalent MacBook Pro would’ve cost me from £1,500 – so I’ve got what I need for one third of the price of the Mac. Can’t think why I don’t want to go Apple, can you?

Speeding

Posted: Sat 22 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Driving, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week, Gordon wrote a small piece on driving too fast.

I too drive fast – when the situation and environment allow, anyway. One day I’ll get stopped for it I’m sure, although I’m normally also pretty aware of what’s going on around me – and what’s coming round the next bend, or over the next peak of the road.

Admittedly, at the end of July I thought I’d possibly been had twice in one journey. The first was a speed camera on a bridge over the M4. I’d driven down to Chippenham for an interview – a minimum four hours of driving each way – and was on the way back. I came round a corner and there it was on a bridge, although still a fair distance away.

The second was closer to home, the A11 on the final stretch back. Again, coming over a peak on the road (not that Norfolk has peaks as such, but there’s a number of dips in that stretch of A11) and there it was, still one dip/peak away.

I don’t know the range of these cameras, where they’re focussed in order to get the best details. I don’t know if they have a specific focus point, or if it’s flexible – I assume it’s somewhat flexible, to account for road conditions and topography, and all that jazz.

What I do know is that wherever they were focussed, those cameras weren’t focussed on the places where I first saw them. By the time I got into whatever their focus-zone was, I was legal.

On both occasions I was travelling between 85 and 90mph. The road was pretty clear, the weather was fine (bright sun), and everything was safe. But still, well, I was speeding, and at least 15mph over the limit. Oops.

If I had been tagged on either occasion, I wouldn’t have objected, it would have been entirely fair. In some ways, I got lucky by not being caught – although in some ways I’d also argue that it was because I was aware of things in the distance.

I’d like to say that those events made me rethink my driving speed. But if I did, I’d be lying.

Five Year Plan – Half Way!

Posted: Sun 5 April, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, Writing | 1 Comment »

Back in November, I made a more basic list of what the plans would be for 2008/9 on the Five Year Plan.

I’m now halfway through – both the 2008/9 year, and the Plan itself. Which also means that in 2½ years time from today, I’ll be 40. Shite.

Anyway, here’s the list from November, along with progress comments.

Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
Write and Launch the main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see how they do
- Daily Word Challenge : launched
- Creativity Merger Site : done
- Two Three other primary sites : under development
Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential – probably going to sack this one off
Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course – ongoing, 2/3s of the way through now
Redesign my photography site – considering a significant change of theme on this one
Promote the photography and site more – working on it
Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last – getting there
Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
Oh yeah, and…
Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc. Ahem, yes, well, absolutely bugger-all done on this one.

It’s time – Part One

Posted: Wed 25 March, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, House Purchase, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

While we’re taking a break, the redone mortgage will (hopefully) be wading it’s way through the paperwork mire. We did all the application guff a couple of weeks back, signing up for a 5-year fixed-rate deal which looks to have been pretty much the best option for us. No fee, no transaction charge, and an OK interest rate.

We’re also changing lenders – Nationwide weren’t able to provide us with anywhere even close to the best deal – plus their valuation calculator is so wildly wrong in our case that it’s just about unusable. So we’re moving on.

The interest rate we’ve got isn’t as low as the base rate- but we never expected it to be. However, it’s a rate we’re happy with, and it lets us know what we’ll be paying between now and 2014, regardless of what interest-rate idiocy goes on between now and then. And that works just fine so far as I’m concerned.

We could almost certainly save ourselves a bit of money by just making some payments at the SVR rate, but I feel much happier with having the fixed-rate deal sorted out, and making the payments based on that. After all, when the rates go up – and they will – there’ll be a ton of people currently paying on the SVR rate who suddenly try to apply for a fixed-rate deal, at which point I’d lay money on the lenders immediately upping the charges for those deals. So I’m happier being “stupid” (according to a couple of people I’ve talked with) and doing what we’ve done.

The other part of the deal is that we can overpay – and overpay by a significant amount each year – the mortgage. And that’s something I’d very much like to take advantage of. I’ve written before about how I find the mortgage debt is something I’m very aware of so I’d be a lot happier to be paying off over the odds, and reducing the interest paid by a significant amount at the same time.

I’ve some ideas for how I’m going to work on the overpayments – but that’s a post for tomorrow.

Mortgage Motivation

Posted: Mon 2 March, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Creativity, Cynicism, Depression, House Purchase, House Work, Introspective, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 4 Comments »

Over the years, many people have told me that it’s more sensible to have a mortgage than to keep on paying rent. Rent is, supposedly “dead money” – you’re not getting anything for it (except another month living in your property of choice) and you’re just helping to pay off the landlord’s bills.

Finally, two years ago, I jumped off the bridge, and got a mortgage with Herself on this place. Since then we’ve been doing a lot of work on the place (as any vaguely regular reader of D4D™ will know) and that side of things is all going OK. Of course, the fact is that on that score rental is easier – if something needs doing, you call the landlord or letting agency, and it gets done.

For me though, while I’ll continue on with the mortgage, I’m discovering that it has a far more negative effect on me than I’d be happy with on the real long-term.

I find that the knowledge of the amount of the mortgage keeps coming back to me, that it’s kind of a mill-stone. I don’t want to lose it, I don’t want to change it – but I’m constantly aware of it.

Maybe it’s that I’m a late-starter on the entire house-buying front, that if I’d been doing this since I was twenty-seven then I’d be used to the knowledge of the debt by now. (and I’d be nearly halfway through paying it off, which would help too!) Maybe over time the awareness of the debt faades a bit. I don’t know – I’ve only been doing this for two years, after all.

I don’t want to have the mortgage for the full term of it – the plan has always been to overpay whereever possible, and by as much as possible within the terms of the mortgage, although over the first two years we haven’t been able to do that at all (mainly due to me being a slack-ass, and not doing the necessary extra work through the aforementioned lack of motivation) but the intention is still there for the next mortgage period.

And that’s the balance I need to find, too – between the awareness of this (to me) sodding huge millstone of debt and the desire to reduce it as much as possible.

After all, there’s no money more “dead” than the interest I’m/we’re paying to the fucking bank. Paying back 2½ times the amount borrowed? That’s “dead money” indeed.

Goals

Posted: Tue 17 February, 2009 | Author: Lyle | 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…

Femtocells

Posted: Thu 12 February, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Getting Organised, House Work, Own Business, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Is it really geeky to be interested in getting one of these as and when they’re released in the UK?

Basically, it’s an extension of the cellular (mobile) network, connected through broadband, and allowing improved mobile access in phone blackspots. Like – well – our entire house/street.

Yes, geeky as all hell, but still I can see plenty of use for it just where we live…

Next Up Against The Wall

Posted: Tue 23 December, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Own Business, Thoughts | 4 Comments »

It’s interesting to see today that supposedly Whittards of Chelsea is apparently also close to going into administration. Following on as it does from yesterday’s news where Woolworths announced the full schedule for the closing of all their shops (come Jan 8th, they’ll all be closed) it’s interesting to see which other chains are apparently due up against the wall.

Personally, I’m not really surprised by Woolworth’s demise – I’m more surprised that they’ve hung on as long as they have, to be honest. They’ve tried for a long time the “stock a bit of everything” approach, and in face of competition from other stores (and particularly online stores for CDs, DVDs and games) well, it just really wasn’t a surprise.

For myself, I wouldn’t be surprised to see WHSmiths go the same route as Woolworths during 2009 – again, they’ve got a huge amount of competition from the online stores for the great majority of their business. In fact, the only thing that you can get in WHSmiths that you can’t get online (for the most part) is magazines – and maybe greetings cards. Even most of the newspapers now carry an online version, which takes away yet more “core business”, although I guess there’ll be people who want to read papers “properly” for a while yet.

I wonder which other retailers will go to the wall in the current economic climate?

Ambition…

Posted: Sun 16 November, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Writing | Leave a comment »

Yesterday I saw a news release that just made me go “Ooooh. Me Wanty.”

Red have released information about a whole new digital movie/still camera system that they’ve created and frankly, Wow.

Maybe one day.

Things for the coming 12 months

Posted: Thu 6 November, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Redesign, Resolutions, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 3 Comments »

So following on from yesterday’s list of plans vs. achievements and so on, this is likely the list for 2008/9. It’s not quite as intense as last year’s one, for a number of reasons. Also, I’m sure that by the end of the 12 months, there’ll be other stuff that needs to be added to it, so it’s more flexible as well.

But here goes. (And in no particular order)

Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
Write and Launch the two main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see if they can make any money
Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential
Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course
Redesign my photography site
Promote the photography and site more
Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last
Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
Oh yeah, and…
Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc.

Five Year Plan : 40% Done

Posted: Wed 5 November, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Writing | Leave a comment »

Photography
- ~~Take more photos~~
- ~~Put the good ones in the portfolio site~~
- Work on a couple of projects/themes
  Started the work on a couple of projects, and seeing how they go
- Possibly do a redesign of the portfolio site to fit in more with ‘brand ‘image’
  Couldn’t be chuffed with this one in the end, although I’m still thinking about it
- Submit portfolio site and photos to various interested parties
- Possibly make more use of Flickr, although that one’s a bit of a “don’t know”
  And really haven’t done this either, as I’ve been using the portfolio site instead
- Pull more attention to the portfolio site
  Again, working on it
Business
- ~~Redesign/redevelop business website with a CMS etc.~~
- ~~Look at sorting out a proper business bank account~~
- ~~Keep generating new work~~
  As always, an ongoing process – but working fairly well so far, allbeit not having generated as much as I should have done
- ~~Continue with current work and clients~~
  Again, an ongoing process
- ~~Get new contract – the one with the current place will definitely expire in ’08, due to tax/IR35 reasons~~
  I haven’t had any long-term contracts, but plenty of shorter-term ones, and now the new permanent role…
- ~~Work on developing new sites and business ideas~~
- Minimise outgoings, increase incoming money
  Nice idea, but not all that successful due to rising costs (particularly of petrol)
Writing
- ~~Realistically? Get one solid idea written and done, if only for the head-space~~
  Admittedly, ‘only’ a short screenplay for a film of about 10-15 minutes, but still, completed and done, except for small ongoing edits
- Optimistically? Get two solid ideas written and done.
  Working on the second one (and a third, to be honest), but not completed
House stuff
- House alterations
  - ~~Bathroom~~
  - Kitchen extension/upgrade
    Postponed for foreseeable future
  - Extra Item : ~~Cavity Wall Insulation~~
  - Extra Item : Loft Insulation
    Postponed ’til ’09, due to a nightmare of work involved
- Garden alterations/work
  - ~~Veg patch~~
  - Front garden/driveway
    Semi-complete
  - Main lawn etc.
    Semi-complete
  - Borders, beds, blah blah

Stuart Rose

Posted: Fri 24 October, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Own Business, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

I know I’ve written about Stuart Rose before, but he’s one of my business heroes, so sod it, I’ll write again.

Don’t know who he is? He’s the Chief Executive (and Chairman) of Marks and Spencer, and has been since about 2004. Any time I’ve seen him interviewed on TV, he’s always come across really well, and most definitely not your standard Chief Exec. He’s someone who believes in the company he works for, and to me that’s fantastic.

This time, he’s in a feature by the Guardian about their clothes, taking the Guardian’s columnist round the shop and showing her clothes, following her comments that M&S didn’t have clothes for women in their 20s.

Now first of all, when did you ever hear about a shop’s Chief Exec acting as a sales assistant to take someone round the store? And particularly one who actually knows his own stock lines and themes? Let alone actually wears clothes from the store?

He insists that he doesn’t expect even loyal customers to dress entirely in M&S, but to select key pieces to team with other clothes and accessories. The suit he is wearing is from M&S – he opens his jacket to prove it – but his shoes are not.

© Guardian newspapers 2008

To me, that’s what a Chief Exec should do. I just think it’s a pity that it’s something Stuart Rose stands out for doing, rather than it being the standard.

Basic Rules

Posted: Mon 11 August, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

This morning, Motley Fool emailed me about a new story on their site, “How to stop falling into arrears [on your mortgage]”.

It’s not a bad article, but to me point one on anything about “How to not fall behind on your mortgage payments” should be just

1. Make your mortgage payment on time. Pretty much all the others can wait a bit, or a payment plan can be organised if you’re in schtuck. But for Christ’s sake, keep the roof over your head.
(Note : Rule 1a would be just “Make sure you pay everyone on time”)

In business, the rule should be

1. Always, always, always make sure you pay HMCE (both tax and VAT now come under this title). Everyone else comes second to HMCE.

To me, if you keep those rules in place then the rest is (in comparison) easy going.

Where’s Good RIP

Posted: Sun 29 June, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over this weekend, I’ve finally pulled the plug on Where’s Good, the site I launched a while back with the idea of user-generated content for reviewing restaurants, pubs and places to go. It had been around since May 2006 and while the initial take-up and first-year business was OK, it had faded to nothing by the start of 2008.

If I’m honest, the idea stagnated a bit – there was still stuff I wanted to do on it, but I just never got round to doing the second phase, so it all just kind of stayed there, doing nothing much. It may come back when I’ve done a version two, but I don’t know.

When all’s said and done, it didn’t get the interest – again, some of that is down to the fact I didn’t do a lot to promote it. I still think the idea’s good, but there are other sites around that do a similar thing, so I need some kind of USP (Unique Selling Point) and really that’s something else it just didn’t have. Interestingly, at about the same time I bought the Where’s Good domain name, another one called Where Shall We Eat came up, and that one’s never taken off either – the holding page it now has is the same one it’s had since 2005.

Over the last three or four months the registration was also getting hit hard by spammers. Interestingly, the account set-up process I’d written meant that those spammers names/profiles never actually saw the light of day – the system blocked them, or forced the extra verification that they couldn’t supply – so that’s something I’ll probably take on and use elsewhere. (In truth I already have used it elsewhere, but it’s nice to see that it works when getting attacked upwards of 200 times a week)

I’ve a couple of other ideas that may use the same domain name, or I may let that curl up and die as well. I don’t know yet. In the meantime, I haven’t invested that much time in the work on the site (and yes, perhaps if I had invested more time it would’ve been more successful. I know.) so it’s not a massive loss, but it is a bit of a disappointment to pull the plug on something that could (and perhaps should) have been so much better.

Time will tell whether anything comes from that particular revenant’s remains, though.

Coming Home

Posted: Sun 8 June, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Own Business, Travel | 1 Comment »

So after a week away we’ve come back to:

1,000+ emails (for me)
100+ emails (for Herself)
Shitloads of post
Still no fucking mains water thanks to Anglian Water being utter, utter cunts
Happy chickens
Unhappy cat (he’s displeased that we’ve brought the dog back with us)
A total jungle on the veg patch, except for the bits we’d cleared before
1. The heavens opened for two solid weeks before we went away
2. We went on holiday
A complete jungle of a front lawn, where I’d forgotten to mow the fucker before we went away

Was the holiday worth it? Yes.
Does it make it any easier to deal with the deluge of crap from while we were away? Kind of.
Is it good to be home? Mostly, yes.

And now back to normality. Work tomorrow, back in Yarmouth for the day. Lucky me.

Business Banking

Posted: Mon 21 April, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business | Leave a comment »

So this morning I’m sorting out a bank account for the business. It’s taken some time to organise (and the worry is that the bank haven’t actually sent me the meeting confirmation, I’ve just realised) so I just hope that it all works out well in the end.

Following on from this, and getting everything set up at this point, I then need to sort out business insurance as well, but that’s the joys of business.

And at least I’ve also got my tax return done now for the 2007/8 Tax Year. So things are all shaping up as we go along. I’ll probably write more once the bank meeting is over and done with.

This Time Next Year, Rodney

Posted: Sat 19 April, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 2 Comments »

A couple of weeks back, I was having a conversation with a friend about what we’d do if we were to ever become lucky, and win the National Lottery. (Or any other ‘big money’ concept – so long as it resulted in having a large amount of money) At the time, I said I would probably just keep on working (after a small holiday) and that’s still true – I’d want to be doing my own stuff, and have the ability to not worry if no money came in for a few months, so I could spend time getting things to work out properly.

But then I thought about it a bit, and something else occurred to me. If I had that much money, I’d be able to do the other thing I’ve always wanted to. I’d still want to do my own thing – the writing, the photography, and almost certainly the websites – but I’d also do something completely different.

I’d take the time out from working (other than the bits I want to do, of course) and go do a university course in zoology. And then I’d go to do unpaid (or bare-minimum paid) work at either a zoo or down at Monkey World in Dorset, which has been my long-term dream for at least the last fifteen years. Which is a scary amount of time for one ideal role.

It’s something that I could only really consider if I had the money behind me to manage the course – which involves not really working (in paid employment) for at least two to three years. And that’s only going to happen by me either working my ass off and building up the finances to that level, or by winning a significant amount somewhere along the line.

In the end I know that a Lottery win isn’t going to happen – it’s something that’s so open to chance, the probabilities are too high for anything to base plans on – but the working plans are still coming through, and who knows, something might work there. At the end of the day, it only needs one idea to go big, and I’m sorted.

So – what would be your dream? And how would you go about getting there?

Five Things

Posted: Tue 15 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Domestic, Green, Introspective, Own Business, Work-related | 5 Comments »

Gordon’s dumped this meme-thing on me, so I might as well get it done.

The idea of the meme is to list five things in your life now that you would have never thought would be in your life when you were 25.

1. Herself
Yeah, I know, I know, it’s sappy. Live with it. But ten years ago, Herself was going to marry (if not already married to) the now-ex, and while we were friends I would never have thought at that time that we’d be together.

2. A House
Well, not “a” house, I suppose, but “Owning a house”, definitely not. Ten years ago I was a year out of being in the pub/hotel trade, and living in a rented flat down in Weymouth. Thoughts of house-purchase had never really been entertained, and really weren’t until late ’05, I think. Until then I was quite happy with renting, and in some ways I could still go back to it – although that’s not a statement of intent, I should point out.

3. A car
Again, I’d never really thought about sorting out driving, and passing the test. Yes, there’d been a couple of things where driving would have made things a lot easier, but there was always someone who could help out, or give me a lift on those occasions. Other than that, I didn’t really need one. Now, life would be much harder if I couldn’t drive – it probably would’ve precluded the house completely, just on the grounds that there’s absolutely sod-all public transport in the area that I could use to feasibly get to the nearest train station, supermarket, library, town, city, anything.

4. A business
Actually, I’ve had one of these before, and I’m just going through the guff of setting up a new one. But back when I was 25, having my own company was a pipe-dream, never really expecting it to happen the way it has. The additional part of that would be that I didn’t really expect to still be in IT and websites ten years on- not that I had any idea what I would be doing, either- so that’s another surprise really.

5. The lifestyle I’ve now got.At 25, I couldn’t have imagined at all that I’d be living in Norfolk, doing a passable impression of “The Good Life”, with my own chickens, garden, plans for the veg patch, and a fairly solid interest in all things Green – wind and solar power, self-sufficiency, water butts galore, (which reminds me, we really must start making some use of the big one that’s hidden away behind the shed. It’s full, and has been since October, but it’s rained so much, we haven’t had cause to drain it) butterfly and insect habitats, bird feeders, and all those trappings of hippydom. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.

So, who else to tag with it? Oh, I think probably Blue Witch, Dragon, SkyTower, Quixotic Evil and Matt.

2007 Review

Posted: Mon 31 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, House Purchase, House Work, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

In a lot of ways, 2007 has been a very long year – yet in others it seems to have raced past.

It’s been a year of many changes too – just before 2007, we moved to Norfolk, and now we’ve bought a place there too. So two moves in thirteen months, as well as doing the initial preparation on the new place (and continuing to do other work on it since moving in) and the work on the garden, and getting a mortgage for the first time, along with a whole bundle of bits that make me look a whole lot more grown-up than I did this time last year. Oh yeah, and three chickens.

Along the way, I’ve managed to stay in the same workplace all year, but also done a whole bundle of work for smaller clients, which has (in general) gone really well, with the exception of payment hassles from one client. But all told, a busy and fairly successful year, which will be the foundation for a lot of work in 2008. I’m going to be changing main workplaces in 2008 as well, but that’s something for another post.

During the year I’ve also bought my first car, and already added 15,000 miles to it – and there’s already a lot more driving planned for 2008, including a trip to Ireland in June, which reminds me, I must check my car insurance policy at some point and double-check the mileage on it, as well as the cover for non-UK driving. Still, that’s something for Jan 2nd, or sometime soon after.

It’s been a busy year, and I think 2008 will be busier – but hopefully a bit calmer at the same time. Lots of things to do, but the plan is definitely to have more leisure time (or at least time to get out and do other stuff) too, so let’s see how that goes. I’m vaguely optimistic…

Work Generation

Posted: Tue 27 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related | 3 Comments »

In 2008, I’m seriously thinking about doing a lot more freelance and self-generated work, rather than contracting all the time. It’s one of those “big leap” things, but as more stuff keeps coming in, it’s looking like it may just be pretty feasible. And I’m also getting into the entire “self-promotional” thing too.

For example, during the weekend just gone Herself was running a stall at one of the local craft/gift fairs – it wasn’t a brilliant fair in the end, but she’s made some money out of it, so it could be worse. I went over on the Saturday, and did some chatting to other stall holders, distributing my business cards as and where necessary/relevant, and it seemed to go OK. Of course, I won’t know for sure ’til they get in touch, or I chase them up, but still, it’s a start.

To be honest, I really don’t like this part of being self-employed, of doing the publicity bit, making the contacts and so on. You wouldn’t believe it if you saw me, because I’m actually not bad at it. I just don’t like doing it – but I see it as one of those “got to be done” tasks, and as such I get on and do it – the sooner it’s over the better so long as I’ve still done a good job of it.

There’s likely to be a lot more of it over the next year too, what with one thing and another. I’ll be pimping myself round the small(ish) local events, I’m going to carry on using things like LinkedIn, forums and the like to establish myself, and also making more use of both new and existing clients for word-of-mouth purposes. In addition, I’ll be doing those letters in the next couple of weeks, sending them out on spec and seeing how we do.

I’ve still got something of a time-cushion at the moment, in that I don’t really have to start finding more stuff again now ’til the new year – but then, that’s only five weeks away, so I know that I do need to start getting my finger out. It’s just that at the same time, while I know I’ve got to, I haven’t yet got round to having to.

I know, I know, I’m burbling on with no real point to the post. I was hoping that writing it down would go some way towards making me decide to pull my finger out. Maybe it still will – at least it’s got my head working in that direction.

Where’s Good?

Posted: Sat 24 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Back in May 2006, I launched the first version of Where’s Good, which I planned/hoped would be a restaurant review site where people could become reviewers, recommend their favourite places to other people, and possible organise events and meetups based around those places.

To date, it really hasn’t worked out all that well. It’s a nice idea (or at least I think so, and so did some of the people I spoke to at the time) but it just hasn’t taken off. There are a couple of other ‘restaurant review’ sites around now, such as Hardens (which seems to be getting most of the business) but at the same time there were a couple of others that were due to launch around the same time as Where’s Good, but have never got past the holding-page stage. (For example, the Where Shall We Eat site, which just never seems to have done anything.)

Now, I’m not laying the blame at any/everyone else’s door for the lack of success – in fairness I’m the primary culprit. Where’s Good is a good concept (I think) but the design is frankly bad, and while it all works and works nicely (and fast) I suspect it just hasn’t got the right feel or interface.

In short, I need to do some work on it. (Wow, that’s becoming some kind of mantra for me at the moment) I need to have a think about how to make it work better and how to make it more appealing.

I think that I’m probably going to relaunch it in the first quarter of 2008, (i.e. between January and March) although I could wait ’til May, and do it on the anniversary of the initial launch and see what happens. In the meantime I need to figure out a lot of things about the site, including how to pimp the bloody thing out to the world. Well OK, probably initially to the UK, with potential for expansion.

In the process, I’ll be aiming (of course) to keep the sixty-odd reviews that *are* in the system – no point starting from absolute scratch again, after all, but most probably with a bundle of new ideas, a new design and the same old concept.

We’ll see.

Five Year Plan: 20% done
Part Two – What’s next?

Posted: Mon 5 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, House Work, Own Business, Resolutions, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

So, as listed yesterday, the first year of that five year plan is completed. There’s still some work to be done on finishing off the foundations of it all, but everything is so far pretty much on track, which is a fairly impressive achievement in itself. (well, for me, anyway)

The problem with the next year of the plan (such as it is) is that a lot of it is either

Hard to explain
Related to business plans, which I (for obvious reasons) don’t want to bang on about here before I’ve got them started
Dependent upon other occurrences, or on (to some degree) a bit of luck/chance
All of the above

This means that the list is almost certainly going to be rather less exhaustive than last year’s one- and God knows, that one was no masterpiece of detail. So this is more an ‘overview’ than a list, and to some degree I also find that rather harder to keep track of and fulfil, due to the nature of the beast. I’ve got more detailed lists of plans and ideas carried around in an ‘off-line’ format- OK, OK, it’s all in my Filofax, which should probably be renamed “my Book of Lists and Notes”. (MBOLAN, or ‘T-rex’ for short))

So anyway, the basic ‘shell’ list is going to be something like this:

Photography
- Take more photos
- Put the good ones in the portfolio site
- Work on a couple of projects/themes
- Possibly do a redesign of the portfolio site to fit in more with ‘brand ‘image’
- Submit portfolio site and photos to various interested parties
- Possibly make more use of Flickr, although that one’s a bit of a “don’t know”
- Pull more attention to the portfolio site
Business
- ~~Redesign/~~redevelop business website with a CMS etc.
- Look at sorting out a proper business bank account
- Keep generating new work
- Continue with current work and clients
- Get new contract – the one with the current place will definitely expire in ’08, due to tax/IR35 reasons
- Work on developing new sites and business ideas
- Minimise outgoings, increase incoming money
Writing
- Realistically? Get one solid idea written and done, if only for the head-space
- Optimistically? Get two solid ideas written and done.
House stuff
- House alterations
  - Bathroom
  - Kitchen extension/upgrade
- Garden alterations/work
  - Veg patch
  - Front garden/driveway
  - Main lawn etc.
  - Borders, beds, blah blah

And that’ll do for now. Like I said, it’s fairly “open”, but that’s still a fair old list from the look of it. I’m going to be a busy boy…

Business Redesign – Ongoing

Posted: Fri 26 October, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

The redesign of the business site is still continuing, amazingly. The “About Me” profile/bio section has been just about completed now, and I’m actually fairly pleased with the way it worked out. There’s still plenty of room for tweaking, but it’s getting there.

I’m now just starting on entirely reworking the ‘clients’ section, which is another big old job. I could leave it ’til I’ve put in a database back-end, and I still might, but at least now I’ve got the site structure that I want.

Other than that, the letterhead stuff that I ordered a couple of weeks ago from Vistaprint arrived last night (as well as a letterhead for the photography side of things, which also matches the business cards) and looks damn good. So over the course of the next week, I’ll most likely be starting to use it to send out some letters.

It’s all actually quite a fun process, and it’s making me think a lot about the business, where it’s been, where it’s going, and a whole bundle of other things too – which is all good, and none of it is negative at all. Happy day.

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A drop of blood in a sea of piss

Getting Rid – More Stuff

Five Year Plan – Half Way!

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Five Year Plan : 40% Done

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