Posted: Thu 25 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Own Business, Sweary |
On occasion, I really hate SQL. (This is a geeky post. Don’t bother reading on if you’ve no interest in databases or PHP/SQL)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Thu 25 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business |
Over the last week or so, I’ve started working harder at doing a bit of self-promotion. This hasn’t been the easiest of things – for one thing I’m not a great self-publicist – but I’m getting there.
Not least among The Things Wot I Done was registering my business name/site with both the UKWDA (UK Web Designers Association) and GAWDS (Guild of Accessible Web Designers), which has been interesting, and brought about some interesting conversations (well, interesting in a geeky way, anyway) about markup and how websites ‘should’ be written.
In addition I’ve been getting myself more organised with regard to billing, and I sent out a couple more invoices this week – it’s one of those things that I know I should do, but I still sometimes forget. I really do need to get better on that one.
And at the same time I’ve also been working on gaining permission to get access to a couple of locations where I really want to take photos. I’m still waiting for the responses on those requests though. Still, see how it all goes.
But yes, it’s all coming together, and so far it’s all looking pretty promising…
Posted: Tue 23 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Sweary, Work-related |
No idea why, but I’m having a bit of a demotivated “can’t be arsed” week when it comes to ‘proper’ work.
Partly I suspect it’s because the work I’m doing is earth-shatteringly, brain-numbingly dull, and is only necessary in the first place because other people are utter fuckwits who don’t think things through in the first place.
But also it’s because the company we’ve been talking to (since February) about a Content Management System have finally fucked up enough for us to walk away from them. Personally I’d have done it three months ago, when they fucked up the first time, and made everyone involved (including themselves) look like cunts. They’ve managed the same thing on another couple of occasions since, and there’s been the debate about walking away, which has always resulted in “but the product they have is really good”.
Today they were supposed to come up here for a final meeting, discussing contract terms and the like. Only they’re not going to come, because (and I don’t quite get this one) the time taken wouldn’t be billable. So they’re going to lose £100,000+ of business because they can’t charge us for the time to come up to Cambridge and get the business.
Yes, they really are that fucking stupid. It’s really quite worrying. And I’m sure I’ll write more about it over the next couple of days, when I’ve got my thoughts about it into some semblance of order…
Posted: Sat 20 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Work-related |
Over the weekend (well, probably over the next week or so) I’m going to be continuing the entire ‘Getting Organised’ concept by re-writing my CV. Which is always a fun option, and it’s something that’s certainly in need of doing.
At the same time, I may just re-organise my ‘corporate’ site, as that hasn’t been done in a while, needs some newer stuff added to it, and generally could do with a bit of a spit and polish.
The CV is the one that’ll be fun though. I’ve got some ideas on how to sort it out and make it more accessible to bloody idiots (AKA ‘Recruitment Consultants’) so that they can see what I’ve done, and why, and where. Which is a good start.
Posted: Fri 19 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Travel, Work-related |
Obviously having had to hire a car to get me home last night, I had to drive it back to Cambridge this morning. Fine by me.
No tailwinds, similar speeds. Oops.
But also the ability to go belting driving to work with The The’s 45RPM album playing very loud all the way. Fantastic. Particularly for “Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)”, which is one of those tracks that just gets more awesome the louder it is.
Definitely a pretty good start to a Friday…
Posted: Wed 10 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Work-related |
Things may be a bit quiet here today – my brain is definitely refusing to start up, having done a butt-load of work over the last week which involved moving and re-organising nearly 20,000 PDF files.
In addition, I’ve now got to read a document containing epic levels of project-management bullshit, and form an educated opinion on whether the company involved
- can locate and identify both arse and elbow, without getting the two confused
- can do what they say they can
- have any real technical understanding of what my place is trying to do (having had the relevant documents for nearly a year)
and
- are capable of finding their own arses with both hands and (if necessary) a flashlight.
On the evidence of the last three months, I’d have to say that the answers, in order, are “No”, “Maybe”, “Probably Not” and “I doubt it”.
Now I just need to find proper ways of expressing these concepts, having read the piece of shit they’ve thrown our way.
Joy.
Posted: Tue 9 January, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Weirdness, Work-related |
Sometimes, my job causes both depression and amusement at the same time. Today has had one of those moments.
I’ve just been dealing with a set of webpages dealing with teaching Adult Literacy.
The folder they were in was titled “Adult Litracy”
*sigh*