Festerous
Posted: Fri 13 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Festering Season, Work-related | Leave a comment »
In a bit of deja vu from roughly this time last year, my new workplace is organising a big Christmas Party, and I’m doing my best to avoid it.
Thankfully I’ve got a couple of decent non-Scrooge reasons for not going (no partners, an hour’s drive afterwards, not actually wanting to be sober amidst a bunch of pissed bastards) as well as the fact that I simply don’t want to go, and have no interest whatsoever in going.
This year I’m not quite in the position of “I don’t like you when I work with you, why the fuck would I want to socialise with you outside work hours” (yet) which is somewhat of a novelty in itself. But just because I don’t (yet) want to maim them horribly doesn’t mean I want to socialise with them on a Festering Season do either.
So I’m making my excuses and not bothering to go. Suits me fine.
Travelling Month
Posted: Thu 12 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | 3 Comments »This month is looking like it’s going to be a heavy one for mileage.
With the new job, I’m travelling roughly 70 miles a day, which works out as 350 miles a week before we’ve even started. So that’s 1,400 miles this month already.
In addition to that, November holds two trips to the NEC – one last weekend, one at the end of the month. That’s 140 miles each way, so another 560 added to the total.
Combine that with the normal weekend stuff, and it’s up over the 2,000 mile mark for the month.
I’m sure there’s other stuff I’ve forgotten too, so that’ll get added on when I remember it.
I don’t mind, to be honest – in many ways it’s just kind of a fact of life that I do a lot of driving. Hell, that’s why I ended up buying a sodding Ford Mondeo – the fact it’ll shrug off doing that kind of mileage without a hitch.
Role Reversals
Posted: Tue 10 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Thoughts, Web Development, Work-related | Leave a comment »Yesterday was a very strange experience at work.
Having been a contractor for the best part of ten years, it’s the first time that I’ve been in the position of calling a couple of the agencies I’ve worked for, looking for a contractor, rather than for a new contract. It’s certainly been a learning experience, being on the other side of the coin.
The fact is, there’s more work at the new place than I can do on my own. We’ve already got one other person on board who works part-time, but we’ve got a couple of big projects that need completing ASAP. Given some time I could do them – but not both of them simultaneously. (Well, I could – but it’d involve some serious working hours to get both in place at the same time) I suspect I’ll still end up doing a lot of the work on both, but well, the company has agreed to looking for a contractor, so it’s worth a go. (And we’ll gloss over my current nagging suspicion that it’ll still be me ending up doing the work because they won’t want to pay the contract rates. We’ll see though.
But anyway, it’s still been interesting. We’ll see how it all develops, but it’s let me see the agencies in a bit of a different light too, which is never a bad thing.
Away Day
Posted: Sun 8 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »There’s not likely to be many updates today – we’re off to the NEC for Herself to visit a show there. Of course, it’ll have some interest for me as well (companies without websites, and all that malarkey) but the odds are that I’ll spend some time writing bits on the laptop, and/or reading a book. Yes, I’m taking both, just so I’m prepared.
No idea what to expect, to be honest – it might be interesting, it might not. Either way, it’s a three-hour run each way. 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.
Five Year Plan – 60%…
Posted: Thu 5 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »Back in November ’08, I made a more basic list of what the plans would be for 2008/9 on the Five Year Plan.
I’m now more than halfway through that plan, which also means that 2 years from today, I’ll be 40. Shite.
Anyway, here’s the list from November ’08, along with how I’ve done with them..
- Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April) – we did this, but then didn’t actually go through with the deal, so it’ll carry through to next year
- Write and Launch the main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see how they do
- Daily Word Challenge : launched, but not doing anything
- Creativity Merger Site : done – but having second thoughts about it
- Two Three other primary sites : under development
- Daily Word Challenge : launched, but not doing anything
- Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential – not done, but changed plans with it anyway
- Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course – done
- Redesign my photography site – considering a significant change of theme on this one
- Promote the photography and site more – still working on it
- Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last – started some ideas, but not completed any of them
- 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. Working on it, as detailed in previous posts about weight-loss. I’m still not doing a load of gym-stuff, but the weight is going down, and I’ve lost more than a stone already.
Hyper-Busy
Posted: Tue 3 November, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »Today has been filed under “One of those days”. It can be summed up thus :
Main Work :
- Moving the office about, diving under desks to rewire shit the network guy couldn’t be arsed to do, and shifting some 20 old PCs out of the office and into the storage unit on the other side of town
- have some new functionality due out by the end of the week that I don’t yet fully understand
- Updating two new sites, plus writing stuff and plans for a third
- All the normal “Oh shit!” moments that come when dealing with weird and complex financial bits, combined with some really really stupid people
Own Work :
- Adding in “just a couple of small bits” for a client to one new site due for launch tomorrow
- Adding in “Oh, we forget we’d need that” bits for a client on a redone site I launched last week
- Delayed (OK, OK, “Really fucking late”) on the development of another site
- Setting up Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools on the site for tomorrow
Which might go some way to explaining why I haven’t had any other updates today. (I’m even writing this while waiting for the email about last-minute changes)