Missing Days
Posted: Sun 30 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »One thing that brings out my OCD is seeing empty days on the calendar of posts on the right-hand side. I don’t see them often, and it’s only this month that I’ve gone over 190 missed days all told. Considering I’ve now been writing D4D™ for nearly eight years (Eight years on 9th August, to be exact), that makes it a 6% fail rate so far. Could be worse.
But I still don’t like seeing those empty days. I know I shouldn’t care all that much – and in other ways it doesn’t annoy me at all – but all the same, I have to seriously resist the temptation to post-date some posts in order to keep my month filled.
And the reason I’ve missed those days? To be honest I’ve no idea. All the normal stuff is still going on, but the work/life balance is way out of whack at the moment, with work taking up way more time than it should do. Admittedly, I’m somewhat letting it happen, but it’s still out of whack. That’s something else to work on. Joys.
In the meantime, I’m going to try and not have too many blank days. But I’m also going to try and not get stressed about those blank days as and when they do happen.
Tosspot
Posted: Sat 29 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Own Business, People, Stupidity, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »You may recall that back in March 2009, the accountant I had for my company went bust. The basic summing-up of why he went bankrupt/insolvent (not sure if they’re the same or not, and don’t much care) can be listed as :
- Franchising isn’t a great idea – the fees he was paying to Tax Assist were huge
- If you’re in trouble like this, don’t take out other loans to shore up the business. It all comes back to bite you on the arse.
Yesterday I got the final official documents from The Insolvency Service, explaining that (as expected) they’d got absolutely sod-all from the cunt’s assets, so no-one who’d paid him fees in the run-up to tax-return time would get anything at all.
Even better, they’d managed to attach the asset-release summing up for a completely different person with the same surname, from two years previously. Oh whoops.
I’ve made them aware of it, but had no response currently. I’ll get nothing from my useless fuckstick bastard of an ex-accountant.
All told, not a great day.
Travelodging It Again
Posted: Tue 25 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Remember that Travelodge in London last year when I did the contract? The one I said I’d be happy to never see again?
Yeah, that one.
I’m there again in a couple of weeks.
Turns out it’s actually pretty convenient for this year’s @Media conference, so I’m going to make use of it again.
Management Material?
Posted: Wed 19 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Introspective, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »As time goes on at work, I’m ending up being more and more of a manager. It’s not a role (or at least a title) I want, and in fact it’s one I’ve actively resisted so far. But with a reorganisation of some of the higher levels – among other things my team now reports to a different director to previously – I’m being pushed more into the management side of things.
I can do the job – I’ve been doing it since Day One in a number of ways – but I still have the occasional wobble about this career progression thing.
Even thinking in terms of career is weird for me. I still prefer the definition of career as “to swerve wildly from side to side” (as in ‘careering downhill’) but there’s a progression in place for me at the moment, and it’s heading down that route.
As it is, my job title is “Lead Developer”, which I’m happy with. If I were to go looking for a new job, anyone seeing that on a CV would know it’s involved some serious team management and project management etc. I don’t want to be a “Manager” though – that’s still a step too far for the moment. I like having my hands in the code, doing the work rather than directing others. I’m OK at directing the others and knowing where we’re going and what’s coming up, but still it’s all a bit of a leap.
I’m not going to reject the role or the position, it does make sense for where I’m heading. I think I’ll have a “bloody hell” session every so often too though. Them’s the breaks.
Back to Normal
Posted: Mon 17 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Work-related | Leave a comment »After ten days away, it was back to work today.
Lots to do, but thankfully nothing hyper-urgent, nothing that’d been left for me by colleagues.
Just in itself, that’s really quite a novel experience – I’m still used to coming back to a world full of shit, and essential things that’ve been left for a week already. So a positive experience of returning from holiday for pretty much the first time ever.
This is A Good Thing.
Long Weekend
Posted: Fri 30 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Work-related | Leave a comment »With the May Bank Holiday we get another long weekend – and a much needed one, all things considered.
Even better, I’ve got a three-day working week next week, as we’ll be off down to Malvern for a weeks holiday on Friday.
I don’t know what we’ll get up to in Malvern – well, except for visiting Malvern Show, which we’ve already booked the tickets for – but it’ll be good to have the time off.
And in the meantime I’m going to aim at catching up on some sleep, and getting some writing-type bits done for the week while we’re away. Because I’m sad like that.
Completing A Project
Posted: Sat 24 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Work-related | Leave a comment »Yesterday I finally managed to finish the Big Project at work – it’s gone live, and while it needed some bugs to be fixed, it’s all happened.
It’s been the longest project I’ve done with the new job, and probably my longest Big Project since we moved here. It’s been challenging in lots of ways – not least the fact that the documentation we’ve been dealing with on the product that’s being integrated bears no resemblance whatsoever to the reality of the product. It all looks OK, but when you get to use it or rely on it then you’re doomed from the start.
It’s been a mammoth undertaking, and involved a lot more work than had been initially expected, but it’s in, done and live. There’s still a second phase, which starts on Monday – but I’m hoping (OK, Praying) that it will be a much easier (and faster) project.
I could look at some of the documentation for that phase this weekend. But I’m not going to. I’m going to take the weekend as a proper weekend, and not think about work stuff or what’s coming up. That’s the plan, and I intend to stick to it.