Posted: Fri 20 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Weirdness, Work-related |
There’s one thing I find quite nerve-wracking about this entire “working in Cambridge” lark. And that’s the expenses of it.
Now yes sure, I know I get them paid back to me – train travel, hotel/B&B, meals blah blah blah – so poor little me, wah wah, I’m so hard done by.</brat> But that’s not really what I mean.
Up til now, while I can’t admit to being the most fiscally responsible person in the world (or probably even on the same continent, to be honest) I never really had any major debts either. And before Herself pipes up, yes, I did dip in and out of my overdraft all the time – basically, I saw it as money that was available, and thus useable/usable. (whichever – I never spell that one correctly) But at most that was £1000 which, when compared to most people’s debt levels, is really fuck-all.
This year, though, I’ve put my account in credit, and it’s stayed there. I haven’t used the overdraft at all in four or five months now, and don’t intend to. And I’ve been training myself to not see “Funds Available” on my bank statement as including that overdraft. I now mentally just deduct that £1000 from the total before I think about it. So I know I’m in credit, and how much is there.
But now, with this new job, I’m putting in a lot of expense before getting any of it back. Fortunately (as it turns out) I got myself a credit card earlier this year, and that has proved to be an essential bit of kit this last couple of months. But at the same time, because of these expenses that I’m incurring (yeah, yeah, before getting them paid back) it means my credit-card bill is far larger than my overdraft ever was. (Before I go any further, I should point out that there’s been a couple of large purchases – new PC and new Laptop, for instance – that’ve gone on there too, although they’ve pretty much been paid off as well)
So it struck me as weird last night that I paid off an amount on the credit-card account that’s equal to what my full overdraft would be (well, is. But I’m not into the overdraft, so it’s what the overdraft would be. I think.) And I’ll be paying off another bundle at the end of the month when I get paid.
What’s the point of this post? No idea, really. It’s just something that was on my mind…
Posted: Tue 17 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Photography, Resolutions, Thoughts |
I’ve been doing some more thinking about the site for my photography that I was writing about yesterday.
Basically, the question that came up was this : Do I make it into a photoblog like Chromasia, DDOI et al, or do I have it as a simple portfolio site, just to show off what I can do, along with contact details, etc.?
I can’t deny, I’ve always kind of liked the idea of a photoblog (I hate that word, but can’t come up with a better one at the moment. Hey Ho) although it does have the potential downside of not updating every day, or – to my mind even worse – the intention of adding a new shot every day, but never quite managing to do so. Combined with that is the part of me that worries about diluting “the brand”, or similarly of diluting the strength of some of the images by just having one every day, so some are great and others merely so-so.
As for having it as “just” a portfolio, that quite appeals too. It’d certainly be simpler, and (in theory at least) a lot less work than a constantly updated site with new photos all the time. This is of particular relevance at the moment, where I can’t deny that my motivation is pretty rock-bottom and merely ticking over, and also where I’m away from home for four nights a week. While this should give me the time to get a lot of stuff done, I can’t deny that at the moment it’s leaving me a bit numb, and slightly “CBA” about the entire thing.
So I think that for now it’s likely I’ll leave the site as “just” a portfolio site, where a selection of my better/favourite photos can be viewed, rather than doing stuff for it every day.
Although, of course, that doesn’t mean that at some point in the future I won’t add in a PhotoBlog section…
Posted: Mon 16 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2006 Resolutions, Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, Work-related |
Semi-linked to the post about buying a macro lens for the camera, and also to the infamous resolutions for the year, I’m also still working on putting together a “portfolio” of sorts.
When we went to the Autumn Fair at the NEC, one of my main things for the event was to find some of the publishers that were at the show, and find out both what kind of thing they were looking for, and also how one goes about submitting work to them. And to a man, they said “Well, we find it’s best now to have a website that shows off what you do – if we like it, we’ll be in touch”
So that’s one of the things I’m working on. I’ve managed to get a decent .com domain name, and it’s also one that combines with my normal “self-employed” company name stuff, which makes things a lot easier. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but it means I can keep some form of “branding” between the two entities, if I should decide to do so, and it also means that it’s an identifiable link. Which, in general, is fine with me.
I’ve got some ideas for the site, but I think I may also need to plunder some people for design ideas as well, as design is most definitely my weak-spot when it comes to websites and, well, anything else, too.
Posted: Sun 15 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Letters, Work-related |
OK, I wouldn’t go so far as to imply that I’m actually getting better with money – I suppose I’m heading in the correct general direction to be getting better with money, but all the same, I’m nowhere even vaguely close to good, let alone fiscally responsible.
I should explain that a bit – I know how much I’ve got, I know what’s going out when, I know how much I owe (remarkably little, thankfully) and I know where the next lot’s coming from, and when. So on that score I’m fairly well organised. It’s just that I’m utterly bollocks when it comes to things like saving, or planning for the future. I can’t deny it, I’m shit. I’ve got money at the end of the month, I can always figure out what to spend it on. Save? Maybe next year.
So it’s been a bit of a shock to the system that this weekend I’ve
- Completed all the paperwork for a savings account, including the little bit that says “Direct Debit for £xxx per month to go in to the savings account“
- Also completed all the paperwork to sort out starting up a pension plan. Nothing earth-shattering or special, just a simple stakeholder pension that I can take with me from job to job without paying the earth to transfer it.But it also means that I’ve
- filled in another “take £xxx from my salary and shove it straight into the pension” form
and
- filled in some extra crap for the new pension company to find out what the fuck happened to the one I started when I opted out of SERPS when I was 16, on some very dodgy advice
- Bought a book about financial management and fiscal ‘personality’ (Alvin Hall’s “You and Your Money“, which looks like it’ll be an interesting read)
- And finally, sent a cheque to the thieving cunts at Holmes Place who won’t let me cancel the membership, despite being sixty-fucking-five miles from their nearest premises, but insist that I have to pay off the year’s contract. £260, the tossers. But there was a vaguely civil letter that also got sent with the cheque to the arse-wipe tollsters, and then there’s going to be an utterly impolite one that goes off to their customer services director, when I can find the name of the elusive little fucker
So I’ve been pretty organised, and there’s been a bundle of other stuff that’s been completed this weekend too, which makes it into a worthwhile weekend.
Although it’s still bloody scary, getting this organised – particularly when it comes to money and savings etc. Now I just need to actually do the paying-in bit…
Posted: Sat 14 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related |
So, that’s the third week at the new job completed.
All’s still going well, and I’ve settled in pretty well. It was quiet yesterday in the office asmost of the floor is away at some team-day or other – I opted to stay in the office, as it would’ve been an utter pain in the arse to go off on that while also carrying the Big Yellow Bastard (my holdall with a week’s worth of clothes etc.) and then making my way home from the Arsehole of the Universe. (Say no more) particularly as I’d also booked my ticket to come back from Cambridge, rather than from Arsehole of the Universe.
It’s still odd, not going home every night to Herself, Hound, and Psycho Cat, but it’s tolerable. As Herself’s new job has still not given her a start date (they’re still waiting for the CRB check to come back, then we’ll be able to get official dates sorted) I reckon I’m still going to be doing this ’til at least the start of December, so another six weeks or so.
By then, I reckon I’ll be pretty chuffed off with the entire thing, but for now it’s still OK and tolerable.
Posted: Fri 13 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Work-related |
I confess, sometimes I can be exceptionally childish.
In this particular event, it’s to do with the lifts at work. They’re nothing special, and only go up three floors. But – and this is the thing – they’re bouncy. You can stand in them, and as the lift comes to the floor you want, you can bounce the entire lift car. I don’t know why, but it just puts a smile on my face.
Like I said, exceptionally childish, and very silly. But still a lot of fun.
Posted: Thu 12 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
The hotel I’ve been using this week has a wireless network, which is nice. However, it’s run by The Cloud, which on current evidence isn’t quite so nice. In fact, on current evidence, I’d have to say it’s pretty shit.
I find that it’s very difficult to log on – and even worse when you’re using one of their so-called “Partners” BT Openzone – and when you do finally connect, the service is sporadic at best. Having used it for a couple of hours overall I find that the entire thing locks up, has serious problems with connecting to email and so on, and is just generally dog-slow, user-hostile, and really really unpleasant to use.
Thankfully next week I should just be on a normal wireless network, as opposed to a commercial piece-of-shit that should work a lot better than it actually does.