Posted: Sun 18 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Work-related |
Bollocks. I’ve got a seriously flat tyre on the car, so the plans for tomorrow have gone tits-up.
I’m going to try eTyres – they’ve been recommended by the out-laws before now – and see what happens. They say they’ll let me know first thing about when the tyre will be fitted. If I get fucked about, I’ll try the tyre place in town, but hopefully eTyre will live up to their promises.
All the same, I could’ve done without it this month. Better than having it go pop on the drive to work though. Been there, done that too.
Posted: Sun 11 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Politics, Work-related | Tags: #debill, east falkirk, election, Labour, linlithgow, morons, Politics |
via Twitter/TwitPic, another fine example of why politicians should never ever be allowed to control the internet, or access to it…
How not to do it.
So a few pointers…
- You really expect your voters to type in www.linlithgowandeastfalkirklabour.org.uk ? Get real.
- And separate sites for each constituency? Really? I guess joined-up communications and corporate message just kind of got by-passed.
- A hotmail email account? For politicians? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. (Mind you, the actual site doesn’t even appear to list proper email addresses, and just uses a contact form)
- It really helps to have the proper names in your Twitter and Facebook contact details. Not “site.com/yourname”. FFS.
And these clueless fuckers are indicative of the type of politicians who brought in the Digital Economy bill? Jesus H. Christ on a shiny metal bicycle.
Posted: Tue 6 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Work-related |
This Easter break has been (and still is) very confusing for me.
For the first time in far too long, I booked time off wrapped around the Easter break, so I’ve actually also had off the Thursday before Good Friday and today.
As a result, my brain has absolutely no idea what sodding day it is. The return to work tomorrow is going to be epically painful, as I’ve no concept of whether it’s Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m sure I’ll settle back into it, but it’s going to be very strange.
Additionally, I’ve actually caught up on one hell of a lot of sleep over this time off, and getting up again at half six tomorrow is also going to be pretty painful. Again, I’ll be fine with it – but after nearly a week of later starts, it’s going to be a very strange day all round, I think…
Posted: Fri 2 April, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Creativity, Depression, Domestic, Health, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing |
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.
Posted: Wed 31 March, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, News, Work-related |
Blimey, the end of March already.
It’s been an utterly mad day – longer because we do one hell of a lot of our work at month-end, so I started at 8am and finished at 6.30pm. Less hours than some people in the company worked, but more than most.
What hasn’t helped is that I’ve had two consecutive grotty nights too, so I’m looking like a stunned primate right now.
To add to the fun of the day, a flood and fire in a BT Exchange in Paddington, London affected the business throughout the afternoon by blocking a lot of our ePayment systems access to banks in London – nothing we could do about it, but it certainly made life a bit more fraught.
Finally, it was the planned deadline for the big project I’ve been working on for the last six weeks. It hasn’t worked out that way, but I still wanted to get the majority of it done by today – and that’s been successful. I’ve got some bugs in it, and some work needs doing still, but the basics are now in place, and we could go live with what we’ve currently got.
All told, a good day, if a manically busy and stressed day.
I’m seriously glad that I’ve got a long weekend booked – I’m off now ’til Wednesday, and I’m looking forward to that time off. It’s been one hell of a long first quarter of the year.
Posted: Sat 27 March, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Own Business, WebSourceEast, Work-related | Tags: eventbrite, WebSourceEast |
Yesterday I was at the Web Source East conference at the King’s Centre in Norwich. And all told it was alright. Not brilliant, but alright. I’m going to write more about it over on my company site, but thought I’d put a brief review here as well, just for the hell of it.
I think I’d probably have been more impressed if it had been a bit more organised. For a conference based on web stuff, it’s a bit of a worry to go in and be checked off with bits of paper, no tech in sight at all. It’s even more of a worry when it takes them the whole morning to sort out internet access over the wireless network.
Those niggle aside though, it was a pretty good day.
For me there wasn’t a mass of new stuff to take away from the conference, but there was enough to keep it interesting, so that’s all OK then. Some interesting ideas and bits, and it’s always good to see what other people are saying about the same subjects.
Posted: Fri 26 March, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Thoughts, Travel, WebSourceEast, Work-related |
Today I’m out of the office, and instead attending WebSourceEast. No idea whether it’ll be any good or not, so a review will follow at some point.
It’s being held in Norwich, and I figured I couldn’t really miss it, so I booked my ticket when I got the mailing, and then told work about it afterwards.
Because of my contracting background, I really wasn’t expecting anything back from the company about it, but they’ve actually offered to pay for it, and to let me take the day as “out of office” rather than holiday – which was what I’d originally planned to do.
It’s quite weird, this thing of working for reasonable people…