Meles
Posted: Tue 11 March, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, Dreaming, Sleep - or lack thereof 2 Comments »I’m not normally one for sharing what goes on in dreams (or indeed anywhere else in my head) but for once I have a question.
In the name of all that is rational, sane, and comprehensible, what is it meant to signify if you have a dream that involves being chased down empty streets, pursued by a rabid badger, of all things?
CGI
Posted: Mon 10 March, 2014 Filed under: Cinema, Films, Photography, Seeing Films, Technology, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over on Twitter this morning, I saw this image, a behind-the-scenes photo from Pirates of the Caribbean, showing the actors in their motion-capture suits, that allows CGI stuff to be added afterwards and move the same way the actor does.
Now what interested me the most was that the entire outfit – clothing etc. – was also all applied in CGI. And that had never actually occurred to me. I got that the various faces/tentacles/prosthetics were applied by CGI, but for some reason I’d never clicked that the clothing was all computer-generated as well.
Ain’t progress grand?
Away Again
Posted: Sun 9 March, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Green, Hypocrisy, Travel Leave a comment »And of course bear in mind, when I’m wanking on about reducing impact and so on, that I’m actually a hundred-and-odd miles away from home this weekend, and I’ve driven the whole way.
So yeah – trying to reduce the impact, and all that piss. And sometimes failing. But it’s worth it.
Reducing The Impact
Posted: Sat 8 March, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Green, Thoughts Leave a comment »While – as per yesterday’s minorly ranty post – I’m not epically green, eco, and wanky about ‘saving the planet’, I do believe in lessening one’s impact where possible.
- I’m not the kind of hand-wringing apologist wanker who’ll replace an existing working vehicle with an electric car, or a hybrid. I’d rather use my old one ’til it dies and needs to be scrapped/recycled.
- I recycle what I can, but not obsessively for every separated bit of packaging. Some things just go in the bin. Life’s too fucking short.
- I don’t chuck away loads of unused food, and all that.
- The only reason I use more than one bin-bag a week is because of the cat’s litter tray.
- I’m fucking shit at reducing my annual mileage – mainly due to commuting. Although those longer commutes do (allegedly) help maintain engine efficiency, so *shrug*
- I *try* to use public transport when it’s reasonable/feasible. It’s just that for a lot of things, it’s neither reasonable to do so, nor feasible.
- I don’t leave lights/TVs on etc when I’m not using them.
In short, I try to lessen my impact. I’m not perfect, but nor am I obsessively green.
All told, it seems to be a pretty sensible perspective, and generally pretty well balanced.
Saving The Planet
Posted: Fri 7 March, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Green, Hypocrisy, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »And yes, green eco-wankers who bleat on about how we’re “killing the planet” piss me off too.
The planet is [roughly] 4½ billion years old. It’s doing fine – and did so well before Homo Sapiens made its appearance, and will continue to do so well after we screw ourselves up and die out.
Whatever we do – even nuclear war – won’t destroy the planet. Sure, things might change (nuclear winter, global warming, whatever) but change is part of the planet’s life cycle. Ice ages, global tidal waves, mass extinction events. They’ve all happened before, and they’ll all happen again. The human race might be around to see them, it might not.
In typical human hubris, what we actually mean by “killing the planet” is “fucking up our chances for long-term survival”. Changing the environment won’t destroy the world, it’ll just kick off another evolutionary event, and knock our own race off the globe.
The planet itself will carry on regardless.
So fuck off telling me you’re saving the planet. You’re not – you’re actually taking part in an innately selfish human-centric piece of behaviour. That’s all.
Charging
Posted: Thu 6 March, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Green, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »On my walks round Milton Keynes, I regularly see electric cars plugged into the provided charging points. Just left there, charging.
Now, is it really childish that every time I see one, I want to either
- Unplug the car and/or
- Move/hide the charging cable/block completely ?
Actually, I know it’s really childish – it’s just I get annoyed by the palpable smugness of these ‘eco’ ballbags who think they’re ‘saving the planet’ by leaving their shitty electric cars plugged in for hours to an inefficient method of energy generation/accumulation…
Flickering
Posted: Tue 4 March, 2014 Filed under: Commuting, Cyclists, Driving, Health, People, Stupidity, Technology, Weirdness Leave a comment »As I’m now working in Cambridge, I’m seeing a lot more cyclists. And a question occurred to me…
If a cyclist has one of those flashing/strobing LED cycle-lamps at a high-flash-rate, and they ride towards a driver prone to epilepsy through strobing (which isn’t something one would normally/usually expect to encounter while driving) who is responsible for any damages etc. should that driver suffer a fit at the wheel?
I’ve seen four or five cyclists already with these super-bright LED lamps set to a *very* high strobe rate, and it just made me wonder…
Giving The Game Away
Posted: Mon 3 March, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cinema, Domestic, Films, People, Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday, for want of anything better to do, I went to see Ride Along at the cinema. I expected it to be bad – but screw it, it was free (although if it hadn’t been, I’d have been wanting my money back. Hell, I considered asking for a refund anyway)
It’s definitely an early contender (in my opinion) for the Worst Film of the Year (Mainstream / ‘Comedy’) category, but (as said) I pretty much expected that. Hated it. Although others in the audience at least laughed, so I guess that’s something.
What did surprise me though was how many of the key ‘jokes’ and scenes had been given away in the trailer – but also how many people still laughed at them.
It made me wonder if they’d actually seen the trailer before going to see the film, and if so, had forgotten them in the intervening time.
All very strange.
Wunch
Posted: Fri 28 February, 2014 Filed under: Charm School, Writing Leave a comment »I’ve been made aware today of the perfect/correct terminology for a collection of bank people.
It’s a Wunch.
Meaning you can describe a crowd of bank people as a Wunch of Bankers.
You’re welcome.
Hermetic
Posted: Fri 28 February, 2014 Filed under: Creativity, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Project 42, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing 2 Comments »
Over the years, I’ve often thought about finding a nice remote cottage, and ending up as a hermit, more or less. Shunning human contact for the most part, and being able to spend the time doing something creative.
Of course, as most of my nature and work is also pretty techie, the idea of a remote cottage in the middle of the moors somewhere is a bit of a stretch, there not being likely to be decent broadband anywhere nearby. If I were primarily doing writing, I could probably do it – but that particular aspect is still very much a pipe dream, albeit one that I’m still working on when I get the chance.
I still like the idea of it though – it’s still something that sticks with me, and even more so when I do travel up to the North-East and North-West, or Somerset/Devon. Maybe one day – depending on how everything else works out.
In the meantime though, it occurs to me that a lot of my current existence is quite hermit-like in many ways. I don’t interact with people around me all that much – I do with colleagues, to a degree, but in general prefer not to – and I’d rather be in my little house and spending time with my own company.
I have enough broadband (although I’d prefer more, but such is life at the moment) so really it’s the best of both worlds. Or at least it is for me – I suspect it would drive most people mental.
Things may change over time – there’s some things I’d like to change, and others I’m not bothered by – but in quite a number of ways, I’m actually really quite content at the moment. It’s a strange state of affairs.
Own Goals
Posted: Wed 26 February, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »In the news yesterday, there were a number of stories about the arrest of Moazzam Begg – an ex-detainee of Guantanamo Bay – on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences.
Of course, the apologists will say “See, he’s been charged again, that wouldn’t have happened if he’d stayed locked up”, but that is – perhaps – missing a rather relevant point.
Because let’s face it, who else is going to hate a country as much as someone who’s been wrongfully interred by that country?
Time Marches On
Posted: Tue 25 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Thoughts Leave a comment »A brief inkling of time’s march came to me over the weekend.
Looking back, I realised that the twin babies I shared a house with in Oxford (well, with their parents, technically – but that’s outside the scope of this) are now 21.
Twenty-bloody-one.
(And by further use of That There Maths, that also means I must’ve been Twenty-One at the time. Which had kind of passed me by. How time flies)
You Smell
Posted: Mon 24 February, 2014 Filed under: Driving, People Leave a comment »I saw this last night, and it made me laugh. I’m not usually all that fond of personalised number plates, but at least this one’s amusing…
You Had One Job…
Posted: Sun 23 February, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Agency Idiocy, Cynicism, Pedantry, Stupidity Leave a comment »While out and about this weekend, I spotted this sign, and simply had to stop and take a picture of it…
Romans Estate Agents, you had one job, and this is what you get…
(Amusingly, their website also claims “a thorough approach to every aspect of our business”)
Fitbit Flex – Sleepy Time
Posted: Thu 20 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Insomnia, Project 42, Reviews(ish), Sleep - or lack thereof, Technology Leave a comment »Carrying on from yesterday’s post, I’m writing a bit about how I’m doing with the Fitbit Flex, a wristband pedometer and sleep monitor. Today it’s more about the sleep monitoring that the Flex does.
As with the pedometer side, the sleep monitoring can be a useful tool, but it’s not something to rely on absolutely.
The sleep monitoring is activated manually (which is usually OK, but could be a pain in the ass on occasion) and also needs to be manually deactivated – which is more of a pig, because if you forget, it screws the figures. It would be nice to have some automatic deactivation in there, although I suspect that the variables for it are pretty wobbly.
Based – I assume – on movement during the night, the Flex can report on “Sleep”, “Disturbed Sleep” and “Awake”. “Sleep” is – again, I assume – when the sleeper is motionless, as REM sleep paralyses the body. (which is why most people don’t sleepwalk, or do anything else physical that they’re dreaming about) “Disturbed Sleep” is when the sleeper is moving about. I’ve no idea how it discerns “Awake” though – it pegs my awake-in-bed time as ‘disturbed sleep’- so I assume that “Awake” means “Registered as sleeping, but actually walking around”. As such, the categories are a bit rough, but at least provide an illustration of sleep quality – or lack thereof.
One thing I do find affects me though is actually looking at the results. (Which is a bit meta and ‘chaos theory’, but bear with me) It’s one thing to feel like you’ve had a bad night, but it’s another one entirely to know it with the readings from the Flex. And yes, I could ‘leave it’ til later, but damn it, I’m interested. However, it does make me feel more tired, more justified in being tired, with that knowledge of “Oh yeah, but I had a crap night”. Seeing the information makes me aware of that crap night, and does affect how I feel during the day. (Similar to how reading a horoscope first thing can sometimes subconsciously direct you towards doing the things ‘predicted’)
It is interesting though. It’s proven that I usually actually get by on 3.5-4 hours sleep per night most of the time, and that it’s really only when I’m on sub-three-hours that I feel shockingly bad. I have good nights (rare), bad nights (common) and very bad nights (thankfully not quite as common as I’d thought)
I’ll keep on using the Flex for this – as I’ve said, it’s a useful indicator, if nothing else. Whether I continue to be aware of the timings or not, bearing in mind how much that knowledge affects me, remains to be seen.
Fitbit Flex – Taking Steps
Posted: Wed 19 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Project 42, Reviews(ish), Technology, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »It’s now been a couple of months since I got the Fitbit Flex, and it’s been pretty interesting. I didn’t buy it to boost my fitness, or any of that other rot – I just wanted to see how much I do walk on any given day, keep track of it, and also to look at how I sleep. (which I’ve written about before)
The sleep monitoring is quite useful – although I do wonder about how it affects me subliminally. (of which more later in the week)
For the walking / pedometer, it shows I’m currently walking about 3 miles a day. Not brilliant – but equally, not at all bad. I started this year with the intention of getting out and walking more, and getting into a routine of doing so. (This actually started back in November-ish, but has been more fixed since January) I try to make sure I walk around the village (a decent mile loop) most days – although I still sometimes fail to do so when the weather is truly vile – as well as walking more when I go to the local cinema etc.
The Flex helps me keep track of that, and it’s been useful. There is a certain satisfaction when it buzzes away on my wrist, letting me know that the daily target (currently set at 5,000 steps a day, approx 2.5 miles) has been achieved. And weirdly it does get into your head – I find myself thinking “Oh, well if I park there, it’s a longer distance to get to the shop/cinema/whatever, I’ll be closer to that target” and similar.
If nothing else, it’s a useful tool for just keeping track of exercise through the days and weeks – but also as a minor kick-up-the-arse for actually getting out and walking more.
It’s a Pie
Posted: Tue 18 February, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Bad Ads, Cinema, Cynicism, Marketing, Media, Pedantry, Writing Leave a comment »Another in the occasional series of “adverts that annoy me” – this one is one of the ones from Santander (which I still think are creepy, as I have said before)
Why does it annoy me? Again, because of one line.
At the start, we can see that the guy is making a pie, and putting a pastry lattice over the top. Yet the woman says
“I really like what you’re doing with that cake”
It’s a fucking pie, you idiot.
Reasons to Kill
Posted: Mon 17 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Noise, People 4 Comments »In some ways, I’m pretty sure I’m actually getting less tolerant of things over the years. I know that’s a bit of a challenge in comparison to how I used to be when I was living in Manchester (and ranting about train journeys every damn weekend) but I’m noticing it more and more.
In particular, when I’m at home, there are a couple of things that mean it’s probably a good thing I don’t have access to a baseball bat.
The first one is done by a few people, but drives me bananas. People pull up in their cars outside my house (which is on a main road through the village, but has parking spaces right outside) and sit there with the engines running. I don’t quite know why it drives me as barmy as it does, although I do know it’s the noise of the engine that does it. Yesterday it was a British Gas van that sat outside for a good hour, engine running, and audibly trying to use his hands-free phone. (You know it’s too fucking loud when you can hear that from not just outside the car, but inside the house!) If I’d had a baseball bat, I’d have gone outside and tapped on his bloody windscreen with it. Dickhead.
The other one is more specialised, although still related. When I’m at home in the mornings (not an altogether common occurrence, but all the same) it gets busy with the school run – the local school isn’t far away, and the car-park opposite my house is the nearest place for all the parents. Every day, every damn day, one particular parent pulls up in their 4×4 that’s never been off-road in its life. They take their spawn out to go to school, turn on the alarm on the car, and fuck off.
And every damn day, the alarm goes off, and keeps going off. There’s obviously something wrong with it, and the owner doesn’t give a shit.
Again, at some point I’m going to walk over and give it something to actually fucking beep about.
Bad Writing
Posted: Sun 16 February, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Bad Ads, Cinema, Films, Pedantry, Writing Leave a comment »Recently my visits to the local cinema have included the trailer below, for a new film called “Winter’s Tale”
Within that trailer is the line
I’ve had no memory for as long as I can remember
which just drives me crackers. Seriously, people get paid for writing piss like that?
I mean, if you’ve no memory then of course it’s for as long as you can remember. Because you’ve got no fucking memory, you insufferable ballbag!
And breathe…
Valentine
Posted: Fri 14 February, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Marketing, People, Valentine's Day Leave a comment »As regular readers know, this is one of my least-favourite days of the year. I waver between which is most loathed between Valentine’s and Christmas – I think Valentine’s generally comes higher, because it really is far more of a marketing event. At least the Festering Season has a basis in something older (even if it is religious and thus still utterly fictional) whereas Valentine’s really is just about making single people feel bad.
I know, it’s originally the official day for St Valentine, and it’s always been related to love – but it does seem to have been appropriated by marketing, chocolate and flowers over the years.
As usual I’m avoiding as much of it as possible.
Pedantic Thoughts
Posted: Mon 3 February, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, Pedantry, Public Transport, Travel Leave a comment »As my train arrived this morning, the platform announcement said “This is a 12-carriage train for London Euston. Please use all doors to get on this train”
Being a pedantic twat, my first thought was “Really? All of them? Can’t I just use the one in front of me?”
I need to get out more.
Information Security
Posted: Mon 3 February, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, London, People, Security, Thoughts 1 Comment »While commuting in London the last few days, one thing that has really surprised me (although I know it shouldn’t) is how much information people give away unconsciously, and their general lack of consideration of their own security.
Standing on the tube, every day I see people using their phones without lock codes, as well as reading confidential emails etc. while on the train. I know, I know, some of it is just that I’m a nosy bastard – but all the same, it’s pretty surprising (to me) that people are so unaware of people around them who could be getting information etc.
It’s not just the emails and phones, of course. Standing in the local sandwich shop, I can see the PIN numbers people use on the Chip+PIN machines. (And of course the odds are that people use the same PIN number for their card transactions and for their phone unlock codes) Then they go and sit down, putting their bags beside them.
And I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen carrying laptops in laptop bags, with the strap just over one shoulder – easy to slip off in a crowd and get away with into the distance.
If I were criminally inclined, I would have been able to easily nick two or three iPhones a day – and know which ones were unlocked with no PIN lock at all, or what the PIN code is. I’d be able to take handbags or wallets and know what those PIN codes are in order to make cash withdrawals etc. And I could probably get away with a laptop bag or two as well.
It gobsmacks me how little people seem to think about their own security, and the security of their information. It’s not even an “It won’t happen to me” attitude – I think most people aren’t even conscious of those potential risks.
I don’t have any answers to it. People just don’t seem to take it seriously. It’s the same with passwords (we’re always seeing lists of weak passwords that are in use, but even so they don’t change) and many other things. How we change it, I truly don’t know…
Balconies
Posted: Wed 29 January, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, Housing, London, People, Thoughts, Weirdness 3 Comments »Where I’m working in London this week, I’m in an office opposite an apartment block. (Which used to be known as a ‘block of flats’, but that’s not cool or trendy enough for people now) Personally I’d hate it, but that’s OK, I don’t live there.
What I don’t get about the building though is that certain windows have bars outside – I assume to look like they’ve got balconies. But all they are is the bars, there’s no outside space to them, they’re just a ‘feature’. But why? I don’t get the reasoning behind it. OK, you’ve a door you can open (into the flat/apartment) so I suppose it’s for ‘safety’ in case someone walked out of that door and fell to the street. But why have the door? It’s not even a sliding one, just a normal hinged doorway to fuck-all.
You might as well have done away with the ‘balcony’ and door completely, and just replaced it with a decent window. Same amount of ventilation, low-to-no risk of falling out (depending on the window style/opening) and no faffing about with the door protruding into the living space, and not having to look through a semi-barred window.
City-living is bloody strange on occasion.
Whipsnade
Posted: Thu 23 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »Yesterday I went off to Whipsnade Zoo – somewhere I haven’t visited in decades. I remember doing it as a school trip, and also with family, but that’s a long time ago, so I thought while I’ve got some time, I’d see what it’s like these days.
I’m not a massive fan of zoos in general. I think the work they do for conservation, and allowing people to see these glorious animals, is amazing. The breeding programmes and so on are remarkable, and there’s a lot of value to them. But – ah, there’s always a but – I really don’t like seeing them in cages, and particularly when they exhibit ‘trapped’ behaviours. I went to London Zoo about 30 years ago, and never went back – seeing (particularly) the polar bears just trapped on their plastic rocks with a tiny pool was a truly hateful experience.
It was a fairly crappy day when I arrived- grey, cloudy and with dollops of rain – but that was fine with me. I was hoping for less people anyway, just wanted to walk round the place and see what it was like. It’s bloody expensive – even in winter, it’s £18.50, and that’s with half the place closed up. That, in my humble opinion, is taking the piss.
Anyway.
The actual place is OK – although that doesn’t mean I actually want to re-visit it any time soon. A number of the animal environs are still too small, in my opinion – they’ve improved, certainly, but still several of them seem to be small, even for the number of animals within them.
The one that got to me the most was the tigers, where one of the two was just padding along the edge of the pen, back and forth. Maybe I caught it on an off day, but it brought back all the memories of that polar bear in London Zoo.
All told it was a good day, including walking somewhere around five miles. But I can think of other places I can do that without paying nearly £20 for the privilege, and where I don’t finish up slightly wishing I hadn’t gone in the first place…
All MOTd And Done
Posted: Tue 21 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised Leave a comment »Today was the day for getting the Slab’s MOT done (for non-UK readers – MOT test is an annual test/certificate of basic vehicle roadworthiness for cars over three years old)
I already knew it needed a new front wheel bearing which needed replacing before it would pass the MOT, so I got that done as well. And that was all it needed – passed with flying colours, and all good.
The difference in driving noise now the wheel-bearing’s sorted is amazing – it’s now running almost silently. I hadn’t appreciated the change it would make, but now it’s done it’s really surprising.
This is A Very Good Thing, and has made me happy.
The Writing On The Wall
Posted: Tue 21 January, 2014 Filed under: Charm School, People, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »Every so often I have to use a public toilet – and every time, my mind boggles at people.
Primarily, I really can’t understand the entire thing of writing numbers on the walls of the cubicles. I know the history of it, and the reasons, but times have changed – so does anyone ever actually call those numbers or make contact that way? I find it pretty unbelievable, to be honest. And even less so when it comes to those ones that say “Meet me here at 7pm on a Tuesday” – really? I just don’t believe it.
The other thing that boggles me is the state some people leave the bogs themselves in. I don’t know if they leave every shitter in the same way, or just leave public ones like it because there’s someone else who’ll clean it all up. But either way, it’s vile when you walk in to be greeted by piss on the walls/floor/seat, and even worse when the bowl is covered in a haze of shitty lumps. And of course there’s also the fuckers who leave a turd in the bowl unflushed , as if to say “Look on my mighty works, mortals, and despair!”
Finally, there’s the ones who cover the cubicle in bog-roll, although that is somewhat less offensive. (At least assuming it’s not used bog-roll, of course) Mind you, even then you can also end up with the dickweeds having also blocked the entire thing with bog-roll too, which just leads to overflowage and sharing the vileness.
It’s not everyone, of course. But there do seem to be a percentage of people who feel that all of this stuff is acceptable, because every time I go to a public toilet, there’s some remnant from some other dirty bugger.
I despair of people, I really do.
Only a Month
Posted: Tue 14 January, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Valentine's Day Leave a comment »
Say it with flowers
Just think, in a month’s time it’ll already be Valentine’s Day – or VD as it’s known to its friends.
I think this image will now be the one to identify all posts relating to VD…
Time flies, and all that piss.
Benefits Street
Posted: Mon 13 January, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Daily Mail, Stupidity, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »At the moment, Channel 4 has a documentary series called “Benefits Street”, based around one road in Birmingham where the majority of its inhabitants are – yes! – on benefits.
It’s pretty standard C4 documentary fare, and follows on from others in similar vein, including “Skint” (families in Scunthorpe who are – yes! – on benefits) and so on. And as with the other similar ones, it got Twitter, Facebook, and the media in general up in arms. The fact that all this makes for great free advertising for the programme (because people want to watch it and see what everyone else is talking about) is of course purely coincidental.
No, of course Channel4 aren’t trolling media and social media in order to boost their own viewing figures. Of course not. *cough*
I didn’t bother with it – I know pretty much what it’ll show, they’ll focus on “human interest” stories within the street, edit it to within an inch of its life, show all the stereotypes, the ‘boss’ of the street, people shoplifting, drug-growing/dealing ‘to make ends meet’ and all the rest of it.
The thing that annoyed me the most about the entire hysteria though was that people started a petition to stop Channel 4 from showing the rest of the series. Which is inherently pointless. The programme’s been made, it’s all over and done with. Hiding it away is effectively no different to hiding away the issues of people who are on benefits. More importantly, it’ll make it into more of a talking point, and boost viewing figures.
If you don’t like this kind of programme, there’s a simple answer. Don’t watch it. Don’t promote it. Don’t talk about it, don’t link to it. Don’t bitch about it. But most importantly – don’t watch it. There’s plenty of other channels and programmes. Channel4 is funded by its advertisers – by the people who want to promote their goods/products within the programme and the ad breaks. The more a programme is viewed, the more Channel4 can charge those advertisers.
If you don’t watch the programme, it doesn’t get viewers. And Channel4 won’t bother making more of a set of programmes that lose money, that don’t have viewers, and they’ll do something else instead.
It really is that simple.
Organising and Recycling
Posted: Mon 13 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I got a couple of things done that’ve been on the to-do list for way too long, but I’d simply not got round to doing.
One of them, getting the batteries on two watches replaced, hadn’t happened because I hadn’t spotted a place in Milton Keynes where I could get it done. It turns out, I’d just not explored all of the shopping centre, because at the end I rarely go to I discovered last weekend there are two places that do it, virtually next door to each other. (Last weekend I had a proper wander, and found lots of bits I didn’t know about in central Milton Keynes, but that’s probably just my idiocy)
So – that got that done, and now for the first time in a couple of years I’m wearing a watch again. I should note they’ve not needed batteries for that long, but I got out of the habit of wearing watches, shoved them in a drawer, and re-discovered them recently – at which point I also found they needed batteries.
The other big task was also drawer-related (and yes, the two were connected) in that I wanted to do a clear-out of stuff I no longer wear, or don’t like. That one took a bit longer – there was a fair amount, particularly in the ‘don’t actually like‘ category. Again, it’s been put off mainly through having other stuff to do, and/or knowing it’s all part of a process, that once it was sorted, there’s no point leaving it hanging around.
So Sunday involved doing the whole thing: going through everything, deciding if I wanted/liked it (with one key point being ‘have I worn it since I moved here?’), sorting everything out, filling a couple of bags with stuff I didn’t want/need (or that was knackered) and then hoying it all to the local recycling centre (they used to be called tips, or dumps – now it’s ‘recycling centre’, go figure)
As always, the local tip recycling centre is a pig to get to, and invariably populated by ballbags in 4x4s with no idea how to drive, pack, or any idea of the width of their vehicle. It meant I got to have a laugh with the council guy directing everyone, generally abusing bad drivers, but it does amaze me how twunty so many people are.
All told though, it meant I got rid of a load of stuff, and recycled about 95% of it. I couldn’t recycle my old pillows – which is kind of understandable – but that was it.
It means I’ve got two watches that work again, some more hanging space for shirts, trousers etc., and about three drawers of empty space that I can store stuff in properly again. Pretty successful all round.
Convergence
Posted: Sun 12 January, 2014 Filed under: Change, Design, Geeky, Health, Technology, Thoughts 1 Comment »Since getting the FitBit Flex, I’ve been thinking a lot about technology, innovation, and devices.
Why?
Because actually, despite being useful, the Flex feels something like a backwards step. Despite it still doing a number of things, it’s nowhere near as advanced as it could (and should) be.
Yes, this one device – worn on a strap on the wrist – can detect/monitor motion, whether that be steps, or motion during sleep. It can communicate via Bluetooth with my phone. But really that’s about it. It’s not got GPS to show where I’ve been, it’s not got a display for showing time, heart-rate, or anything else. In essence, it’s a pretty dumb device.
How has this happened? I remember back in the late 80s and early 90s when Casio were bringing out watches galore, and they could do so much more than the Flex. Casio’s corporate history is amazing for the number of innovations and firsts. Their first databank watch was made in January 1984, their first watch with GPS was released in June 1999. Within that time they certainly made watches with thermometers, weather predictions, heartrates, and many others.
So why are we now in some ways less advanced than these watches of 20-odd years ago? Why can’t my Flex also display the time, or be able to monitor my heartrate? Casio did it 20 years ago – it just seems bizarre that we can’t get one device to do all that now.
Vile Humour
Posted: Fri 10 January, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Norfolk 1 Comment »Sometimes I really worry about my own dodgy sense of humour.
Today’s one related to the helicopter crash in Norfolk earlier this week, so if you’re easily offended, look away now and don’t click on the more link…
12 Years A Slave
Posted: Fri 10 January, 2014 Filed under: Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films Leave a comment »On Tuesday, I went to see the new film “12 Years A Slave” at the cinema. It’s been reviewed as being harsh and unforgiving in its view of American Slavery, but also reported that some members of the audience have walked out, shocked and horrified, and even felt ill and faint.
The film is the story of – well, more accurately it’s based on the story of – Solomon Northup, a free-born ‘African American’ from New York, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. In many ways it’s a remarkable story, and a remarkable film.
No-one walked out of the showing I was in – well, none in shock/horror, more just bloody-awful bladder control – but it’s an uncompromising view of slavery and the attitudes towards slaves. It’s another of those films that’s worth seeing, but it’s not one you’ll enjoy, if that makes any sense at all? A couple of the scenes in it are very unpleasant, leading you to wonder how it got away with a 15 certificate – but for me the real horror is in the perception and treatment of slaves.
I know I’m not the most charitable soul – file under “Sherlock, Shit, No” – but I find it truly horrific to see that belief that a slave isn’t human, is just a possession that the owner can do with as they will. All they’re ‘worth’ is the price paid. Nothing more, nothing less – and even seeing them exchanged as commodities, a way of passing on that debt. I know it happened (and probably still does in places) but it’s a vile attitude to have about anyone, regardless of skin colour, ethnic origin, gender, belief, or anything else.
It’s a grim film, and hard to watch in places, but it should be seen – and seen by lots of people – almost as an essay in how people shouldn’t be treated.
Monitoring Sleep
Posted: Thu 9 January, 2014 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Dreaming, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Insomnia, Project 42, Sleep - or lack thereof, Technology Leave a comment »Over the years, I’ve kind of got used to sleeping really badly – although I’d still like to know the causes, and whether it really is as bad as I think/feel it is.
The reason I’m not sure is because – as I think I’ve said before – according to partners, sometimes I’ll have slept through the night, but woken up and been convinced I’ve had a bad night. Yes, I apparently manage to dream that I’m waking up and having a bad night. And yes, that is really really fucked-up, however you look at it.
Anyway, as part of the whole ‘weighing less’ part of this year, I was also wanting to monitor (or at least better monitor) my activity, steps-per-day and the like. So I’ve ended up ordering a FitBit Flex which should let me keep an eye on all of that at once. It’ll also integrate with a couple of other apps on the phone etc., which will make for some interesting reading over time. The only downside is that I’d have liked one that also allows me to check/monitor heart-rate (and really, why can’t you get a wearable wristband device that’ll do that? It can’t be that difficult, surely?) but there just isn’t anything like that around at the moment. The closest would be the Pulse from Withings – but that doesn’t do the integration stuff, and doesn’t keep track of heartbeat in the way that I wanted.
I’m not relying on it, or assuming it’ll be the thing that changes everything for me – but it should at least answer some questions, particularly about how I sleep. And that at least will be interesting, and make it worth what I’ve paid. Anything else is a bonus, really.
Micro-sleeps
Posted: Thu 9 January, 2014 Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, People, Sleep - or lack thereof Leave a comment »If you ever wanted to be really scared by a statistic, try this one from this story from the BBC about ‘micro-sleeps’…
Of 1,000 drivers it interviewed, 45% of men admitted to micro-sleeping while driving, as did 22% of women.
A micro-sleep is an episode of light sleep lasting five to 10 seconds. The brain goes to sleep involuntarily and it is more likely to happen in a monotonous situation. People wake suddenly, often with a sharp jerk of the head.
I know I’ve driven behind people before that I’m sure were doing this – but maybe it’s more prevalent than I thought. Jesus.
Bladder Control
Posted: Thu 9 January, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, Cinema, People, Seeing Films, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »Last night I was at the cinema – of which more tomorrow – but I was reminded of something else that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. And that’s this – why are so many people incapable of controlling themselves and sitting still for a couple of hours?
OK, in this case it was a viewing specifically for Unlimited Card holders at the local Cineworld. This meant that the viewing was free, and so perhaps there’s not that same “perception of value”. I don’t know. Mind you, this is something that’s been bugging me for a while, and not just at Cineworlds, so I assume that it also happens even when everyone’s paid to see the damn film.
I wasn’t actually counting, but in that two-and-a-quarter hour film, there must’ve been a good thirty people who went out and then came back in. I assume a fair number of those were toilet breaks – potentially a couple got calls, or had messages they needed to reply to, I suppose. (I’m in a semi-charitable mood today) And I’m also open to believe that a couple might’ve had medical conditions that meant they had less control over their bladders.
But really – how has this become a thing? If you can’t sit and watch a film without taking a break, or needing a piss, then surely there’s something wrong? Even if you’ve consumed that whole bucket of Coke you purchased, surely you can still contain yourself for a couple of hours?
Remember The Name
Posted: Tue 7 January, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Geeky, Marketing, Media, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the Christmas Break, I watched more ‘live TV’ (i.e. not stuff recorded on my PVR, and not ‘delayed’ so I could skip adverts) than I usually do, and thus saw more adverts than normal. Advertising is something that interests me for a lot of reasons, mostly having worked for/with a number of agencies over the years, and also being interested in the psychology and manipulation behind them.
As always, “Brand Recognition” is one of my bug-bears, because for a lot of the time it seems that advertisers don’t care about much else, so long as you remember the brand-name. However, in my experience a lot of the time I remember the brands just so I can be sure to never, ever give them any money. This happens particularly when an advert (or set thereof) are
- insanely annoying (Insurance Comparison sites, EE, and the like) or
- paying money to people I can’t abide, and/or hypocrites (an example covering both those is when Knorr were using Marco Pierre White to advertise their stock-cubes – a product he wouldn’t touch in a month of Sundays)
I’ve written before about how adverts for certain industries are changing – usually for the better – but it’s interested me to see how GoCompare in particular have continued that change.
When they started, GoCompare had one of the most insanely irritating advertising “characters” (that bloody opera singer) known to man. I won’t link to anything, because it’ll just cause brain-damage and broken monitors. (Apparently it was also voted “most irritating advert” for 2009 and 2010 – quite the achievement) GoCompare then had ads of various celebrities killing the character in a variety of ways, and over the last year or so it’s been about the same character trying to get back into the adverts, and various ‘wacky’ schemes to advertise the company.
Now, though, they’ve changed again, and the same character appears to have become a driver or guide on coach tours. (Although I did like the reference to Blakey from ‘On the Buses‘, but that’s probably just a sign that I’m old) I have no idea where they plan to go with this set of adverts – although at least now they’re just weird and self-referential, rather than being actively violence-inducing.
I still wouldn’t ever hand over money to GoCompare – that memory of the dire branding will last a long time – but it’s been interesting to see how their stuff has altered over the last couple of years, in some sort of recognition that people hated the original concept.
[Updated and reposted on 7/1/14] – The Drum posted up this article about the ads, saying…
“We know that people will be keen to see what happens to Gio next. The new campaign will firmly position him as the legend that we all know him to be, but will also see the introduction of new characters enabling us to convey aspects of the Gocompare.com service that differentiate the brand still further.”
Although my favourite line (and I’m sure it means something other than what I’m choosing to read it as meaning) comes at the end of the article…
A series of executions are set to appear throughout the year.
All Over
Posted: Mon 6 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »
So here we are, January 6th. Twelfth Night has been and gone, and all the Christmas decorations should have done the same.
This is A Very Good Thing.
The shops seem to stock Christmas tat earlier and earlier each year, but at least we should be free of it from now til September or so.
Normality resumes.
Captive Audience – Anti-Piracy Ads (Updated)
Posted: Sat 4 January, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cinema, Customer Services, Cynicism, Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »Back in October 2012 – fucking hell, is it really over a year since I wrote it? – I wrote about cinema adverts for anti-piracy, which really annoyed me. Basically, the ads are aimed at stopping film/video piracy, but were only being seen by people who’d already paid for a ticket, and were thus – um – unlikely to be pirates in the first place.
The even greater irony being that, of course, pirated films don’t have the anti-piracy adverts on them. (Which I can only see as a plus point for pirated films, to be fair)
Anyway, it occurred to me this week that actually, I haven’t seen one of those adverts in a few months – which is no bad thing.
Maybe all the complaints I made to Cineworld about them have paid off. And if that’s the case, maybe it’s time I start complaining about the bloody awful ones for EE, starring Kevin Bacon. After all, all they do is add EE to the list of people I will never, ever give my money to.
Pillows
Posted: Fri 3 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Insomnia 1 Comment »I snore – always have, likely always will. I hate it, but it’s one of those things. Maybe it’ll change as and when I lose some weight, but honestly, I’m not convinced.
Anyway, over the years I’ve always had firm pillows on the bed, and tend to sleep with my neck crunched as high as possible. Some of it’s to do with reducing snoring (i.e. rather than sleeping laying on my back etc.) but also it’s just how I’m now comfortable. Basically, the higher and more solid the pillows, the better.
When I moved into the new house, I got some new pillows, and went for the hefty memory-foam ones. I thought they’d be great. Oh wow, was I wrong. While it was OK when going to bed, the memory foam would mould itself into the strangest shapes, and be generally really unpleasant by halfway through the night, which would mean I woke up and had to move the pillows, change them round, or just generally do something to them. I assume my head gets hot in the night, meaning the foam moves and loses support, or something. Anyway, vile.
I’ve stuck with them for a fair while – probably for too long, if I’m honest – but they haven’t improved, and I never got used to them. But Lord knows, I’ve tried.
After Christmas, I finally gave in and bought some new ones – at long last. Overfilled, firm, but not memory foam. Wow, what a difference. I mean, I still wake up during the night and so on – insomnia is business as usual – but at least I’m not fighting weird and solidly squelchy pillows. This makes me happy.
(And yes, I know, this is likely to be of no interest to anyone else. I don’t care)
Unnoticed
Posted: Thu 2 January, 2014 Filed under: 1BEM, News, People 1 Comment »As always, stories like this bring me out in shivers.
Basically, a priest who had been reported as ‘missing’ has been found, dead. Dead in a supermarket carpark, slumped over the driving wheel of his car. The police now believe he might have been there for three damn days – and no-one noticed.
That’s what does me – that no-one’s noticed, no-one’s realised. For three damn days.
How? If I were to see someone slumped over their driving wheel, I’d at least check – whether it’s by tapping on the window or something else. If there’s no response, the very fucking least I’d do is make sure that the store were aware, and depending on how things go, probably call the police/ambulance as a bare minimum.
How did no-one at the store itself notice? One care, parked in one place for three damn days – with someone in it? You’d think that right then they’d check it out. But no.
People piss me off sometimes.
All Done
Posted: Thu 2 January, 2014 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Marketing, Media Leave a comment »You can tell that we’re now completely done with Christmas 2013. How? Well…
- The TV Adverts are all for
- Diet plans
- Holidays
- Sales – primarily for Furniture, Kitchens, and other ‘big ticket’ items
- Stopping smoking
- Internet Dating (Because don’t forget, it’s only six weeks ’til Valentine’s Day)
- Selling off unwanted christmas presents
- Cold cures
- Checking your credit score
- Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs are in the shops for Easter (and it won’t be long ’til proper Easter Eggs are on sale – I’ve already seen Hot Cross Buns!)
- The news is full of ridiculous twaddle, because there’s sod-all of import going on
Still, at least we won’t see another bloody perfume advert until the run-up to Mother’s Day.
My Films of 2013
Posted: Wed 1 January, 2014 Filed under: Cinema, Films, Geeky, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts, Words, Writing Leave a comment »Yesterday, Karen made a comment on a previous post, and asked for my top five films from 2013. And I thought “Well, why not?”. Although be warned, my taste in films is rotten.
5. Gravity – Probably the smartest sci-fi film (albeit with some bugs still, mainly around orbital mechanics – and the fact Sandra Bullock doesn’t bloody die) of the year, Gravity is short and powerful. Worth seeing in 3D (which is saying something – I’m no 3D fan at all) although I can well imagine it could kick off a dollop of illness in those prone to motion sickness. But that disorientation is almost key to the film, it manages to convey some of how it must feel to be weightless and with no idea what your orientation is.
It also gets a lot of the tech stuff right (although a fair amount wrong, as well) as well as keeping the story tight. I was in two minds about seeing it, if I’m honest (not being a massive fan of Sandra Bullock at the best of times) but I’d say it’s probably the best thing she’s done – in my opinion, anyway.
4. Elysium – Another smart sci-fi, with a dark ‘them and us’ premise that seems to be becoming all the more feasible. Hell, even Jodie Foster was good in it – which is a real revelation, as usual I can’t abide her in films.
The basic premise – that as the majority of the world’s population get poorer, the rich opt to take off to a space environment/station, where they carry on their lives, with the best of technology, medical care etc., effectively leaving the poor to their own devices – is pretty dark, but also (I found) very believable, even though you know the required leaps in technology would be huge. I’m a fan of the director’s previous stuff (particularly District 9, another near-ish-future scifi) and also looking forward to his next film.
3. Iron Man 3 – Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, written and directed by Shane Black? I’m *so* there. IM3 lived up to its premise, far more than 2 did. Indeed it pretty much ignores 2 for the heap of crap it was. Smart snappy dialogue, some great action scenes, a glorious twist (that again seems ever more feasible in reality) and Robert Downey Jr just being himself. You can usually tell when people had fun making the film, and that comes across in this one.
And yes, I’ve even ended up watching it again on TV over the Festering Season. And it’s still fun, even when you know all of how it works out. Besides, just how damn good an actor is Guy Pearce?
2. Pacific Rim – I never expected anything more from Pacific Rim than what was in the trailers – big robots fight big monsters. If you expected more than that, you were – at best – frighteningly optimistic. But going in with no expectations more than that, I loved this film. Yes, it has some epic bugs and plot holes – the biggest being “if they’re clones, how can one be pregnant, FFS” – which rankle more on repeated viewing. (And yes, I’ve seen it rather more than once!) But still, epic effects, an absolutely cracking soundtrack – which I also bought – and it’s just ridiculous, fun, and probably the most entertaining film (for me) of the year. So why isn’t it at number one?
1. Mud – And the answer to that is ‘because Mud is’. I don’t know why this appealed to me as much as it did, but it’s probably the film that stuck with me the most through 2013. Matthew McConaughey has really grown on me as an actor since he’s stopped doing all the rom-com shit, and he’s really pretty versatile. This one’s more ‘American Mythology’ than anything else, I suppose – matched up with a doomed love story, coming-of-age stuff, and a whole lot more. For whatever reason, I just really liked this one.
And just for fun (and I won’t even credit them with links!), my five worst films have been…
5. White House Down – I was aiming for brainless entertainment. I got brainless.
4. I Give It A Year – I have no idea why I even went to see this. Romcom tat that was about as funny as infected piles.
3. The Counselor – Great expectations from a great trailer, but the film just wasn’t what had been expected. Beautifully shot, and some great set-pieces, but all told a real disappointment of a film.
2. Ender’s Game – One of the few this year that left a really bad taste in the mouth – the whole child-soldier thing, with some very dark morality (and no, I hadn’t read the book, so didn’t know what to expect) and again that feeling that somehow it’s not a concept that America would have any great issues with in the future. All-told, really quite unpleasant.
1. Only God Forgives – In a similar vein to Counselor, a film that didn’t live up to it’s trailer, and turned out in truth to be a very different film from that portrayed. Very arty, beautiful, but utterly up itself. Probably a good film when you’re in the mood for an art-house essay about violence, vengeance and [whatever else] but I wasn’t, so I really didn’t like it.
But bear in mind, there’s a lot of others just outside that list – including Last Stand, Man of Steel, Pain and Gain, and The Paperboy…
Year Start
Posted: Wed 1 January, 2014 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Project 42, Resolutions Leave a comment »And lo, here we are in 2014. It seems like only yesterday that it was merely 2013. Oh yeah – it was only yesterday. How time flies.
Anyway, the year comes with some plans. Not resolutions, oh no no no, we don’t do those here chez Lyle. There’s the ongoing plan for 2013/14, which is pretty simple, but this is more of a “Things I’d Like To Do In 2014”.
Of course, the original 2013/14 goals are still in place as primary things, which are…
- Weigh Less
- Write More
But there’s also a few other bits that I’d like to do this year, including…
- Carry on the progress from 2013
- Develop the software / websites for the main company stuff I’m doing
- Keep working on finances and rebuilding
- Take a proper holiday somewhere – even ‘just’ in the UK, but some time out
- See friends more regularly, and generally be a bit more sociable
- Take the IAM driving test – purely for my own ego, but I’d still like to do it
And that’s about it for the ‘plan’ side of things. The “Random shit” side is likely to be a lot more busy, in fairness.
New Year’s Eve
Posted: Tue 31 December, 2013 Filed under: Change, Charm School, Cynicism, Festering Season, New Year, People, Resolutions, Thoughts Leave a comment »Unsurprisingly, I don’t really do New Year’s Eve. Partly it’s that whole “Everyone else does it, so I don’t” thing I’ve written about before on here, but primarily I just don’t quite get the whole concept. OK, we go from [old year] to [new year]. Big whoop. I get it – or at least more so – with birthdays, the anniversal thing of being another year older. (Or, more pessimistically, the celebration of having got through another shit year) But celebrating a new year leaves me cold – let alone the whole ‘resolutions’ thing.
I suppose it makes sense in a “The new one will be better than the old one” spirit of hope and optimism over [x] years of experience, although one assumes that leaves most people really quite disappointed.
I’ve never been a fan of it though – I did too many New Year’s Eves working in pubs, dealing with pissed idiots singing “Auld Lang Syne” and being all ‘love thy fellow man’ at midnight, and kicking the shit out of each other by quarter-past. New Year’s loses its happy glow when you’re sat (for the third year running) waiting for an ambulance by half-past.
I know, I’m a grouchy old sod. I accept that about myself, and try to stop it from affecting others, and their decisions.
All the same, I’ll be quite contented tonight to be at home, just doing my own thing.
Have a good one, wherever you are, and whatever you choose to do.
Cinematics Followup
Posted: Tue 31 December, 2013 Filed under: Business, Cinema, Customer Services, Domestic, Marketing, Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »Following on from yesterday’s post about this year’s Cinema viewings, a couple of things were explained to me outside of D4D™ about how Cineworld make their money on Unlimited Tickets.
The main profit-engine – and one I’d never even thought about – is based on attendance. As I understand it, Cineworld pay [whichever movie distributor] based on a percentage of gross ticket sales per week. However, Unlimited card-holders mean there are bums-on-seats that never show up as ticket sales. That £16 per month is pure gravy for Cineworld, and significantly reduces the amount they have to pay to movie distributors.
Apparently, a Cineworld cinema only needs to have 1,000 Unlimited card-holders to break even for the year. It’s that cost-effective.
Then there’s the secondary profit-engines…
- They get customer data – linked to specific customers – of viewing preferences, linked sales, attendance etc. That’s useful for many many reasons
- The extras (as I’d always suspected) – even with the discount from the ticket, you’re still paying much more than you would anywhere else for drinks etc.
There’s probably others as well, but they’re the main ones. It gives an interesting perspective on business etc.
Cinematics 2013
Posted: Mon 30 December, 2013 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Finances, Seeing Films, Thoughts 2 Comments »This time last year, I wrote about the number of films I’d seen in 2012, thanks to that Cineworld Unlimited ticket.
Last year, in six months I saw 26 films.
This year, I ended up seeing 65 films – and all for the princely sum (over the year) of £192. Cineworld raised the price of the card to £16 per month – from £15 – but that still means that seeing more than one film a month means the card pays for itself. And that doesn’t include the extra discounts (now 25%) on any food/drink I happen to buy at the cinema. (not that I bother in general, but still, it’s the spirit of the thing) That’s a pretty sweet deal for someone as geeky as me.
When you work it out per film, that means I paid £2.95 per film. That’s ridiculous. Hell, I don’t even pay for parking at the Milton Keynes Xscape one – if you go during the day and pay for parking, you tear off one part of the ticket, and they refund that too.
I really don’t understand how Cineworld makes money off these tickets – except, I suppose, that it’s guaranteed income for the year. One assumes that they hope that the majority of card holders come and also pay for food/drink/popcorn (sorry, but popcorn just isn’t food) which boosts it up. It’s either that, or they hope it’s like gym membership, and people sign up for the year, then don’t come as often as they expect/plan to.
Preparation
Posted: Sun 29 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised Leave a comment »This weekend has been my equivalent of spring-cleaning – a dollop of preparation for the new year, going in with as clean a slate as possible.
There’s not been masses done, it’s been about domestic stuff, including
- Giving the house a damn good clean/ tidy
- Sorting out Laundry, Ironing, and all that normal tat
- Stocking up on some stuff that bugs me, just generally being prepared
- Organising business stuff – invoices, outstanding work etc.
- Doing some other organisational stuff, meaning I won’t lose things (as much) in the new year
It’s all just scut-work really, but some of it was things I don’t get round to often enough, so I’m quite chuffed to have got it all done and sorted in time for Wednesday.
Errant
Posted: Sat 28 December, 2013 Filed under: Business, Central Bedfordshire Council, Own Business, Pedantry, Work-related Leave a comment »Over Christmas, my local council provided a wonderful example of why you should always double-check things – preferably with someone literate.
Yep – errant apostrophes all over the Festering Season.
As always, it’s the result of letting their website be managed by individuals rather than a team who are actually capable of things like proof-reading, literacy and the like. But it’s not a good thing at all.
Equal Opportunities
Posted: Thu 26 December, 2013 Filed under: Advertising Leave a comment »I’d forgotten to write about this previously, but I think that this advert by Guinsess is one of the best ones this year.
I love the portrayal of integration and acceptance it shows – just think it’s a brilliant ad.
Christmas Day
Posted: Wed 25 December, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season 1 Comment »And lo, Christmas Day is upon us once more – and hopefully some semblance of retail sanity will return soon after. (I’m not entirely convinced it’ll happen, but we can still hope/dream)
Have a good one, whatever you do, whoever you are, and whatever you believe in.
Stormy
Posted: Tue 24 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Weather Leave a comment »Thankfully, last night’s storms didn’t affect us too badly round here. The wind and rain were heavy, and apparently some places were without power for a while, but there’s been no flooding, and no visible wind damage nearby.
It’s been quite a stormy old month really – although I’d rather have weather like that than snow and ice, in honesty.
Anyway, at least all’s good still, and in comparison to some other areas of the country, that makes me feel pretty lucky right now.
Serviced
Posted: Mon 23 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »As well as keeping myself busy with other stuff, today the Slab’s getting its 100,000 mile service.
It had a service and fluid change back in August, so all should be fine this time (fingers crossed) but as it’s just gone over that major mileage trigger point, I figure it’s better to have it checked over properly. It’ll also mean I should be pre-warned of any significant issues in time for the MOT check in January.
I’ll update later, once I’m back and know what the end results are.
[Updated now I’m home]
All good, and all sorted. No issues, and according to the garage, I’ve “got a good one there”. Indeed, they’d pay me significantly more on part-ex now for it than I paid for the damn thing in the first place. All told, that makes me really quite happy!
Shortest
Posted: Sat 21 December, 2013 Filed under: Depression, Domestic, SAD, Time, Weather 2 Comments »Today, December 21st, is this year’s Winter Equinox – the shortest day of the year. And about damn time too.
Today, the sun will be around for 7h 44m 14s , even if it doesn’t feel like it’s that long. Tomorrow’s only one second longer, but by the end of the year the sun will be setting after 4pm, and the day will already be five minutes longer, at 7h 49m 32s. It’s not much, but it’s an improvement.
In six months time, the day will be 16h 44m 24s, a full nine hours longer. I know that’s nothing in comparison to Tromsø (for example) where December is truly dark and June is completely lit.
All the same, knowing that today is the shortest day is a reason for celebration, and keck-all to do with the oncoming Festering Season.
Avoiding The Shops
Posted: Fri 20 December, 2013 Filed under: General Leave a comment »While I do have stuff to do this weekend, my primary goal is simple. Avoiding any need to visit shops and shopping centres. It’s obvious really – this is the final weekend pre-Festering-Season, and they’re going to be rammed. So for me they’re best avoided.
I’m pretty sure I’m all sorted – the worst I’m going to need to do is pop up the road to get the weekend paper, and collect a couple of things from the local Post Office.
- Cards etc. have been sorted, written and posted – ✔
- The presents for family etc. are all sorted – ✔
- I’ve got the stuff for wrapping presents, and plan to do that this weekend – ✔
- I’ve done the food shop for whatever stuff I needed in the next few days – ✔
- I’m all sorted for reading material, stuff on TV and the like, so not even a library visit required – ✔
- There’s nothing outstanding that I can think of – ✔
So yes, I think I’m all done, and won’t need to go anywhere near a store at all. This is definitely A Good Thing.
Yare
Posted: Thu 19 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Stupidity, Thoughts Leave a comment »I know this is something that most people will just tut and raise their eyebrows over. I also know it’s really dim of me to have not realised it before now. But anyway.
Until today, and reading this story, it’d never clicked with me that Great Yarmouth is the end of the river Yare.
It should’ve done – it’s a logical progression with *most* seaside places called “[x]mouth”, including
- Plymouth at the end of the river Plym (but we’ll ignore Portsmouth, I don’t think that counts)
- Tynemouth on the end of the Tyne
- Grangemouth being the end of the Grange Burn (and started as Grangeburnmouth, but that is – pardon the pun – quite a mouthful)
Still, for whatever reason, it hadn’t occurred.
And yes, I feel like a twat for not realising it, but such is life.
Crunchiversary
Posted: Wed 18 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »Four years ago today I had my one and only serious (i.e. ‘claimed on insurance’) accident.
How time flies when you’re having fun, eh?
Those Tyres
Posted: Tue 17 December, 2013 Filed under: Commuting, Customer Services, Driving, eTyres, Getting Organised 2 Comments »As you probably already know, over the weekend, I got my car fitted with two new front tyres by eTyres. (This is relevant later)
What I didn’t know – and what Blue Witch pointed out in her comment on that post – is that actually, this isn’t the best plan when the car is a front-wheel-drive car. Basically, it means that the tyres with the best grip are on the driving wheels, and you’ve no way of knowing if the rear tyres are losing their grip, particularly in snow, ice, or heavy rain. So on a front-wheel-drive car, the tyres with the best grip should go on the rear tyres – meaning eTyres should’ve swapped things round, replaced the rear tyres with the new ones, and put the used rear tyres on the front wheels. (The eTyres fitter even confirmed that the rear ones will be OK for a good while yet)
Indeed, as BW then pointed out by email, eTyres even carry this advice on their own website.
Yesterday morning I emailed eTyres about this…
I recently ordered two new tyres from eTyres, order ref [xxx] to replace the two front tyres on my front-wheel drive car.
I have since been referred to various manufacturer information that says that on front-wheel drive cars, it is safest/best to have the new tyres on the rear wheels, and in a situation like mine, to move the used-but-safe rear tyres to the front, replacing the rear tyres with new tyres.
Can you explain to me why eTyres
- Do not inform their customers of this
- Why their tyre-fitters do not recommend/do this ?
This isn’t a one-off – earlier this year I did the same thing with eTyres on a different vehicle (also front-wheel drive) and had no advice on how this work should be done.
This is also the recommendation of Kleber Tyres and Michelin – see point 6
I’m interested to know why eTyres apparently ignore such advice, and potentially endanger their customers as a result.
As yet, I’ve had absolutely no response from the useless fuckwhistles. If I haven’t heard by the end of today, I’m going to call up and make a pain in the arse of myself that way…
Milton Keynes
Posted: Mon 16 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season, Getting Organised, People, Shopping Leave a comment »On Friday, I realised I needed to do some stuff in Milton Keynes that couldn’t be done/sorted anywhere else. On the penultimate weekend before Christmas. Oh tits.
As it worked out, everything went really well. I was in, parked, and ready to do everything I needed to by 8am. One thing was a look round the M&S to see if there was anything that appealed – and a bit of web-checking had shown that they were open from 7am. (God knows why they felt the need to be open for 13 hours when the rest of the shops weren’t open ’til 9, but I digress)
So – a quick belt round an almost-deserted M&S proved there was nothing I actually wanted – excellent. Back to the car to wait for 9am when everything else opened.
From 9am, I got everything done within 30 minutes, and was completely out of Milton Keynes by 10am. By that time there were already queues of cars to come in to the car parking, but my deeds were done.
Surprisingly organised, and surprisingly easy.
Even better, I think I’m now done and dusted for the entire Festering Season stuff. Next weekend should be spent avoiding retail environments completely, all being well with the world…
New Tyres
Posted: Sat 14 December, 2013 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised 4 Comments »Today, the Slab has had two new front tyres, from eTyres. As I’ve written previously, I’ve done a goodly number of miles on them since getting the Slab, and I’ve no idea how long they’d been on the car before I got it.
While I’ve not noticed anything particularly wrong with the previous ones, I also don’t/didn’t trust them as much as I should. There’ve been little niggling ‘well, that doesn’t feel right‘ moments that’ve felt like momentary loss of grip – particularly at very slow speeds – and my previous history of tyre loss isn’t positive, so I decided it was time to get replacements.
For those who don’t remember, so far my tyre losses have both been fairly explosive blowouts, and both times in the outside lane of a multi-carriageway road. (It turns out I didn’t write about the second one, which was in August 2012 – I must’ve had my mind on other things!) In both cases, I can certainly tell you that adrenaline is somewhat brown.
So yes, with that kind of history when it comes to tyres failing at the most inopportune moments, I figured it was best to be pre-emptive and get them changed sooner rather than later.
The Slab is a front-wheel-drive car, so for now I’ve left the back tyres alone. (Yeah, I know, they’ll be the ones to blow now) I’ll probably change them early in the new year though – and I did get the nice man from eTyres to check them, just in case they were more chuffed than I suspected.
I’ve no idea yet whether the change will make/ have made any difference, but I certainly feel happier for having had them changed.
Marketing/Branding Bollocks
Posted: Fri 13 December, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, Creativity, Cynicism, Design, Marketing, Sweary, Thoughts, Work-related Leave a comment »According to this article, Pantone (they’re ‘the colour people, don’t’cha know?) have decreed that this purple is “the colour of 2014”. (And fuck off, Americans, it’s ‘colour’, not bloody ‘color’)
Now, I like purple as much as the next person – I’d go so far as to say it’s probably my favourite colour. But
- This is not proper purple. It’s a kind of wanky lilac, at best. Hell, they’ve not even called it Purple – it’s “Radiant Orchid”, which might as well be a name made up by Dulux.
- You know, there are people who get paid for coming up with this kind of shit
- And there are people whose job it is to come up with names for paints. I truly hope they feel fulfilled and happy in their work. I’d want to be killing people.
- How the blue, blazing, fiddly fuck do you have a “colour of the year”, for shit’s sake?
All told it’s just marketing bollocks of the highest order.
Reduced Interest
Posted: Fri 13 December, 2013 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, People, Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »I don’t quite know why it is, but this last couple of weeks have had a severe reduction in the number of films I can be bothered to see.
Indeed, I haven’t even been to the cinema in three weeks – which is noteworthy this year. That Cineworld Unlimited card has certainly been worth the money – I reckon it’s saved me at least three hundred quid this year. (I’ll do the final figures at year-end, but that’s a conservative estimate)
And yet this last two or three weeks, there’s just been nothing that I’ve thought “Oh yeah, I fancy seeing that” – and bear in mind that on this one, my quality-control can be remarkably low.
I’m taking my dad to see the new Hobbit one this coming weekend, which’ll be good. But even then, that’s the only one coming out this week that I’ve wanted to see.
Hopefully things will improve again – although I’m guessing that’s not likely to be before the Festering Season at this rate. As in Summer, the next couple of weeks appear to be primarily loaded with child-friendly fodder for while they’re off-school, and the usual inane set of ballbag romcoms and guff. Always a joy.
High Milage
Posted: Mon 9 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), M1, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the last month I’ve done a fair number of miles, including two trips to the North-East, one to the North-West, and one to the South-West, as well as a couple to closer parts of the country.
Indeed, by my rough reckoning I’ve done about 1,700 miles this month on those journeys, as well as my usual 600 of commuting – and as regular readers know, that’s one of my lowest-mileage monthly commutes in recent years. Indeed – having just checked – it’s the shortest commute since I worked in Oldham while living in Manchester. (And that took longer to do by far, as it was reliant on public transport)
The next few weeks will be quieter though – I’m done for long-mileage trips for the next month or so at least, which is no bad thing.
The Slab has done well on it all though. When I got home last night, the odometer read 99,500 exactly. The 100,000 mile service is booked in for just before Christmas, so the timing on that should be pretty spot-on, all things considered. Even if I go slightly over by then, it’ll still be within the next 1,000 – all told, no bad thing.
The only thing I really miss on Slab from Mondeo, it turns out, is cruise-control. I never used to use it much, but it does come in handy on long motorway drives where your leg doesn’t move much from one position on the accelerator. It meant I could engage the cruise-control for a couple of minutes, stretch and move my leg, and stop my knee from totally locking up. Instead, getting home last night I must’ve looked like a pirate getting out the car, for the first couple of minutes it really wouldn’t move well at all.
Missing Moosen
Posted: Fri 6 December, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Festering Season, Mooooose!, Thoughts 1 Comment »Long-term readers will know that for a long time back at the start of D4D I had a fair collection of moose and reindeer soft-toys. This collection also received substantial additions from Herself in the first Christmas we were together. It wasn’t a serious collection – probably more of a conglomeration than anything else – but it amused me, and I liked most of the moosen therein.
Post-Herself, and over four moves, a lot got despatched to other homes. Charity shops, toy stalls, friends with kids, all that kind of thing. And the remaining ones got abused to various degrees by the cats, and particularly the bloody Bengal.
So now I have no moosen.
And it’s stupid, but at this time of year in particular, I kind of miss having a couple of stupid soft-toy moose/reindeer around the place. I know they’d fall foul of the felines again, but I may just end up buying a couple if I see any I particularly like.
And yes, I’m 42, and should know better. But you know what? I really don’t care.
Christmas TV Clash
Posted: Thu 5 December, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, News, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »I don’t know why, but somehow it’s ‘news’ that major TV programmes will clash in their scheduling over Christmas this year. (And every year in the last 30 or so, I’m sure)
Now really, are these clashes something that will even affect most people any more? Since the advent of the video-recorder, we’ve been able to watch one programme and record another to view later. With DVRs/PVRs (Sky+, Freeview Boxes, TiVo etc.) it’s even easier, with two (or even three) recordings able to happen at once.
So – why is this a problem? I know not everyone has such a set-up, but I’d guess that the great majority have something that can record a programme. Plus there’s also all the VOD stuff (BBC iPlayer, ITVoD, 4OD et al.) allowing us to catch up later on anything that we do happen to have missed.
The only thing I can think of is that it screws the viewing figures for people watching [Programme X] right now, and viewing figures like that still seem to be the main reference point for how succesful a programme was. (And surely that has to change or be updated, with all the developments above?)
But still – does that make this newsworthy? Or should it really read “Newsflash : TV Schedulers Screw Up Again“?
Recovering Time
Posted: Tue 3 December, 2013 Filed under: Business, Catering, Domestic, Television, Time, Writing 4 Comments »Over the last few weeks (I really don’t want to figure out how many weeks) I’ve been unreasonably addicted to Masterchef Australia, which – thankfully – finished last week. It’s been on five days a week, which really has made it quite a timesink, but it’s been fun. I’ve liked the programme in previous seasons – it’s very Australian, which is a very good thing in my book – so it’s been worth the time invested. Up to a point.
As with all TV stuff, I don’t just sit and watch, I’m usually doing other stuff at the same time – including cooking and eating meals that were a lot less technical and inspiring than the stuff on the programme, which I always find somewhat ironic. But all the same, it’s been a lot of time sunk into a TV programme, and while I’ve enjoyed the great majority of it, I’m also somewhat relieved that it’s finished.
Neighbourly
Posted: Sun 1 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Nearly a year and a half ago I wrote about the weirdness of the bins for my row of houses, which no-one else seems to ever put out.
I’ve ended up being the unofficial bin putter-outer , which in general I don’t mind. It only annoys on days like today, when I’ve come back from a weekend away, and no other bugger has bothered doing anything about it. That’s when it rankles a bit.
To be fair, someone else brings them back into the bin area – I’ve ensured I’m not doing that but as well!
Type A/B
Posted: Sat 30 November, 2013 Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Introspective, People, Personality, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing (again) a lot of driving, and the next week or so isn’t looking any different. (For example, next Friday is looking to be 350-400 miles on its own, with another 250-300 on the Sunday, minimum)
As always, when I drive I tend to be a Type-A personality, wanting to stop the sodding about and just get there. That’s par for the course with me, just get the job done and get on with it. And yes, that’s kind-of related to that laziness I mentioned in yesterday’s post.
However, when/if I get stuck in traffic jams or behind vehicles I can’t get past (road conditions, traffic, whatever) then I’m far more of a Type-B personality, and don’t get stressed or annoyed about it. It’s a situation I can do nothing about, I can’t go anywhere or change anything, so I just have to accept it until I can change it.
It is (I understand) a bit of an odd state of affairs to be quite so middle-of-the-road on these personality types, where I can change from one to the other without apparent effect. I don’t mind though – it means I’m less stressed-out than pure Type-As, and more effective/productive (usually) than the pure Type-Bs.
Besides, it’s not like me to be the stereotypical anything, so it fits in quite well with that aspect as well…
Lazy
Posted: Thu 28 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Health, Introspective, People, Personality, Public Transport, Shopping, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Over the years, one thing I’ve said many times is that in some ways I’m lazy. (And it’s true – plus I’m almost certainly lazy in many, many ways) However, in some circumstances my laziness actually results in extra effort/work.
Technically and pedantically I know it’s not laziness per se, it’s more a “can’t be arsed to wait” aspect which probably also matches up to something else I’ll be writing this week.
Anyway, as an example of this, I say I’m lazy when I can’t be bothered to wait for a bus or a tram/train (particularly when I lived in Manchester) on short journeys, so I’d rather walk. I simply don’t get why people would wait for a tram from Piccadilly station down to Piccadilly Gardens (or indeed really any tram stop in Manchester) when you can walk it in the time it takes for the bus/tram to arrive.
When I go shopping, I can’t be arsed to wait for a parking space right next to the shops. I’ll park further away in the car park, walk in, get what I need, and leave. If it’s been a quick shop, I’m sometimes in and out while the same damn car waits for a space right next to the store.
Indeed in general I can’t be arsed with hunting for parking spaces right next to where I’m going. I’m just as happy parking further away where there’s plenty of spaces and just, you know, walking a bit further.
But then, I’m lazy like that.
Maladjusted
Posted: Tue 26 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »As the nights have drawn in, obviously I’m driving home in the dark.
It amazes me how many people drive with either one headlight out (and in some cases both, which utterly baffles me) or really badly adjusted lights.
There also seems to be a newer trend for people driving on dual-carriageways and motorways with their full-beam headlights on, and refusing to dip them.
To me, lights at this time are just one of those essential things, and I try to make sure that they’re as safe and sorted as possible. I just don’t really get why so many other drivers don’t seem to think that such things are important.
Only A Month
Posted: Mon 25 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »One month today, the shops will be shut, and the Festering Season will be over.
Rejoice and be happy. There’s just a month to go.
Pay and Display
Posted: Sun 24 November, 2013 Filed under: Customer Services, Driving, Parking, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »One aspect of living near Milton Keynes is that – in comparison to many other places – Milton Keynes is pretty damn great for parking. There’s lots of spaces, although the massive majority of them are Pay and Display. (for overseas readers, this involves buying a ticket for a period of time, and then showing it in the windscreen of one’s car) The rates are pretty decent – again, in comparison to many other places – and it’s easy.
Apparently there are 20,000 spaces – including 12,000 that charge 40p per hour, and another 4,350 ‘premium rate’ ones (which are right next to the shopping centre on all sides) at £1.40 per hour.
As well as the normal machines, there’s also now the ability to pay via mobilephone/smartphone using services like RingGo. (or alternatively pay by phonecall with a credit/debit card) It’s easy to do, and – I assume – most people would expect to pay to park, particularly if they live anywhere near-ish.
So why is it that whenever I go to Milton Keynes and park, there are always people who seem to be categorically incapable of using the parking ticket machines, amazed that such machines exist, disgusted that Milton Keynes charges for parking, haven’t got change, or can’t manage to pay by phone? None of it’s really a challenge, but it seems to be for many, many people.
Nailed It
Posted: Sat 23 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Music 2 Comments »Regular readers will know that I’ve been a fan of Nine Inch Nails for a very long time now – indeed, since way before D4D came into existence.
However, I’ve had a pretty checkered history when it comes to seeing them live. The history goes…
- I managed to see them on the NIN/JA tour in 2009,
- Failed in 2007, due to Ticketmaster sending the tickets to an old address
- Failed in 2005, due to Brixton Academy not letting me in with a digital camera
- Failed in 2005 at the Astoria, due to the tickets selling out
I’ve seen them twice prior to that though (although pre-D4D, so no record/links to when)
So this week, knowing that the ticket sales were coming up, I was determined to get to see the new tour.
When the pre-sales ones came out, I couldn’t get ones for the gig at the O2 on the Friday, so got one for Manchester on the Sunday instead – I’ll worry about travel closer to the time.
And then when the normal sales came out yesterday, I got them for the O2 on the Friday as well.
Of course, I still need to make sure I actually go to the gigs, but at least I’m prepared and ready this time…
Festerous
Posted: Thu 21 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, D4D™, Festering Season, Marketing, People, Shopping, Thoughts Leave a comment »This year I’m trying hard to not get ranty about the Festering Season – which is no mean feat, I can assure you. (I’ve also just discovered that I’ve not used that Scrooge image for nearly three years in a Festering Season post, so welcome back owd fella)
After all, my local Tesco Tosspots had Christmas Cards on sale at the end of September, for fuck’s sake. They’ve had mince pies since August, but I didn’t even bother getting any photos of those.
Since then, it’s just been going on and on. Their tree went up (fully decorated) before Hallowe’en was done. The foodstuffs have been in since November 1st.
I know shops need to have the time to sell all their festive shit. I suspect that they’re also stretching out the season ‘because of the financial climate’, allowing their customers to spread the cost of the Festering Season over greater time, rather than being crippled in December. I get that, and I don’t mind. (Too much)
It still narks me that everything is so obsessed with materialism, gifts, and the social-status inferred therein. I can’t help it. I don’t like seeing it in the shops for three damn months, or hearing poxy bastard carols on shop sound systems for two months. But it’s pretty much unavoidable – I try to limit my exposure to it all, but there still has to be some, sadly.
But I’m trying hard to not be too ranty about it. For now. That may change over the next few weeks – after all, there’s still a month to go…
Nearly 6,500
Posted: Wed 20 November, 2013 Filed under: 500, 6, D4D™ 1 Comment »At some point soon (and which I’ll probably forget about closer to the time) I’m going to write my 6,500th post on D4D – for reference, this one is number 6,491.
6,500 is nothing special, just an arbitrary “oooh look, that ends with a 500 or 000” post, but all the same, it’s not a bad thing to become suddenly aware of. In an ideal world, #6,500 would’ve been “Why I Blog“, but that’s already been done, so I’ll just have to think of something else to fill that particular space.
Of course at the same time it also means I’ve been writing this rubbish for one hell of a long time, and with wildly varying levels of quality. But there we go, that’s the way this show shambles on into the future.
Search Terms
Posted: Tue 19 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Media, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday it was announced that Google and Microsoft (by which they mean Bing) were editing/updating 100,000 search terms linked to images of child abuse. That’s all well and good, except that
- I’m sure there’s a lot more than 100,000 terms that could be used/created/combined in order to find those results
- I’m also pretty damn certain that the main perpetrators, creators and viewers of such images don’t hunt for them using run-of-the-mill search engines like Google and Bing.
- And yes, OK, probably there are people stupid enough to search using mainstream search, but those are the ones that are easy (well, easier) to track down and locate anyway.
So really (as far as I can see) this is more of a sop to the media and government than it is likely to be of any real use or relevance.
Durham Lumiere
Posted: Tue 19 November, 2013 Filed under: Art, Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »
As per a previous post, over the weekend I went with some friends to the Lumiere Festival in Durham. It wasn’t one I’d heard about before, but was well worth the visit. Even in its third incaranation at Durham, there were a fair number of organisational bits that really could’ve been done better, but overall the entire thing was bloody good.
As it turned out, the grim weather preceding the weekend had meant that some things couldn’t be done/erected/finalised – including one I’d wanted to see, but didn’t get to for other reasons. I’d have been mightily pissed off if I’d slogged the extra mile-ish out of town to see it, only to find out it wasn’t working!
Anyway, organisational issues (and they were legion) aside, the actual festival itself was great, and I absolutely loved some of the exhibits. (Less so with others, but such is life and personal perception) All were based around light and projection in various guises, and some with additional sound and spectacle.
In no particular order, my own favourites were…
Elephantastic – a projection of a full-size elephant (with synchronised soundtrack of footsteps) on the archway over one of the bridges in Durham. From the city side, you got the see the elephant’s arse, and coming into the city, the face-on view. Because of the height, you actually walked under the elephant to get onto the bridge. It was a very simple idea/projection, but really effective – and lots of people appear to want to make it a permanent fixture (which would be weird, but excellent)
Consumerist Christmas Tree – a conical christmas tree made of illuminations within discarded carrier bags. As it turned out, it wasn’t just the tree, but the entire street had ‘chinese lanterns’ strung above it with the same illuminated bags. It somehow made a very effective comment about the disposability of christmas tat, as well as the consumerism etc., while also managing to be really pretty, making people look up and think.
Crown of Light – projected onto the outside of Durham Cathedral, the story of the cathedral and the Lindisfarne gospels. We ended up seeing this four times – from different ranges and viewpoints – and each time there was something different that we noticed, even though it was the same thing on repeat. I think that seeing it that many times without getting bored – indeed, still actually watching it – says a lot about how interesting the entire thing was. All told, probably my second favourite piece of the many we saw.
Dresses – set within the cloisters of Durham Cathedral, three mesh-work dresses made of (or lit by, I’m not sure) fibreoptics that changed colour through the process. They were really ghostly, quite magical, and you almost expected to see them moving across the lawns. The effect was only ruined by pissknuckle cretins trying to take photos of them with the flash still on (or not being able to turn the bloody thing off), not realising that the flash would just render the scene as a meshwork dress, and you wouldn’t see the colours, the setting etc. (Dickweed morons with phones, cameras and flashes were another annoyance throughout the evening)
Volume Unit – although we couldn’t hear the music being played in sync, we walked past this and it was really impressive, projected against (apparently) one of Durham’s least-loved buildings (very sixties/seventies concrete brutalist block).
Overall though, my absolute favourite – that I could’ve sat and watched for hours – was [M]ondes, which was truly magical. There’s no way of adding an image for Mondes, it was so ephemeral (and again, with flash photography the secret was revealed, with none of the magic), with fleeting bits of illumination in any one shot. Earthshatteringly simple, and the mark of a warped genius – clouds of wire were suspended in the ceiling of the cathedral, with rays and circles of white light reflecting off the wire. But because the light-beam was so tight, and moving all the time (with different shapes and colours on the overall projection) the entire effect was the same as a crowd of fireflies, or dust motes flickering through a torch beam. It was absolutely enchanting, and so, so clever (yet simple). I’d love to see that type of effect done in other similar venues, it really is something special.
We did see others that I personally wasn’t as keen on, but the entire thing made for a really interesting use of Durham’s streets, buildings, spaces and architecture. I’m hoping there’ll be at least one more to go to!
North-Easterly
Posted: Mon 18 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I went up to see friends in Middlesbrough, and had a really good time.
The drive up was a pig, with a normally-three-hour drive taking five due to ‘accidents’ (the only visible one of which involved a truck with a blown tyre, and police etc. closing off one lane of the dual-carriageway for no fucking good reason at all) but still, such is life. Thankfully I’d organised myself and left work early, so it still wasn’t antisocially late when I got up there.
Saturday involved doing some sociable stuff which was fun, and then seeing the Lumiere festival in Durham – which was excellent, if hugely busy. (More photos of Lumiere are available on this BBC piece). I’d never been to Durham before, and loved it – particularly the cathedral, which is amazing (even without the light artworks inside it, and projected on it) so it’s definitely one I’ll be returning to in time to come. We walked for miles around Durham – including up to the cathedral twice, having discovered there was stuff inside that we weren’t aware of the first time round – but it was all totally worthwhile.
[I’m going to write more in a separate thing about Lumiere, hence less detail here]
Sunday was lazier, with a fantastic lunch at the Lion in Blakey, on the North Yorkshire moors. And then an evening drive home, which was the expected three hours, and all good.
Lethal Injection
Posted: Sun 17 November, 2013 Filed under: Creativity, Cynicism, Legal, News, Politics, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »Apparently, a lot of American states are having serious problems with their methods when it comes to the death penalty. Lethal Injection in particular (used by the majority of the states that have a sentence of death) is facing problems, because the manufacturers of the drugs that are used are trying to block their use.
As a result, several of those states are using what are known as “compounding pharmacies” – effectively, places that can make small quantities of required drugs on-demand, a sort of grey-market DIY area instead of buying the necessary drugs/items from the manufacturers. This process is being done in secret, so no-one really knows what’s being used.
It amused me (I’m in that kind of mood) to see this quote though :
“There is no way to verify that what comes from a compounding pharmacy is what it purports to be, and that it is safe and effective.”
Sorry, but these drugs are being used to kill people. While I get that ‘effective’ is important, I’m less certain that ‘safe’ should be a concern.
Mind you, what I don’t understand is why they don’t just use significant quantities of seized illegal drugs. After all, a massive overdose of heroin (for example) or crystal meth is going to be just as effective when it comes to killing people…
Following the Crowd – Again
Posted: Sat 16 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Charity, Charm School, Cynicism, Domestic, Introspective, People, Thoughts 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post about charity, Children in Need, and doing what everyone else does, another current grouse is around Movember. It’s a great cause – raising awareness of male cancers, and raising funds for fighting them – but it’s another group thing.
In my office, every other male member of staff is doing it. And when you ask their motivations? Yep, it’s either “Well, everyone else is doing it, so I thought I would”, or “it’s for charity”. Yet when I asked them what charity it was for, at least half had no bloody clue, and aren’t even doing it to raise money.
Movember started off as a fun idea – but this year it’s got huge sponsors (including Gilette – which is kind of obvious, in fairness – and Three) but I just kind of get twitchy when it comes to charitable stuff with large corporate sponsors.
So yeah, if you’re going to do something that’s based around charity – at least support that charity, or know what the frick you’re talking about, rather than just following the damn crowd.
Death of a Bankrupt
Posted: Fri 15 November, 2013 Filed under: 42-43, Bankruptcy, Depression, Domestic, Finances, News, Project 42, Thoughts Leave a comment »Since declaring myself bankrupt in August 2013, I’ve noticed it a lot more in the news. That’s not to say it’s in the news more (or even less) often, merely that I notice it, having been through that process.
So I found the story yesterday about the suicide of Paul Bhattacharjee to be very sad. From the evidence, it looks like he had been declared bankrupt, and killed himself as a result.
Of course, that wasn’t the entire cause – his widow said he was a “proud” man who had a “darkness inside him that was irreparable”.
‘The bankruptcy was the final straw after a life of major highs and lows’
From a personal side, I can absolutely understand the perceived ‘shame’ of bankruptcy – and probably more so when someone else has declared you bankrupt rather than it being a decision made by yourself. It’s had a stigma for a very long time – and again, it’s an understandable stigma. It’s about saying ‘I can’t afford to pay my debts’, and should never be treated lightly.
However, from my own experience, I don’t think it is The End. In many ways it’s a new start, as I’ve said before. There is a shame, a pain to go with the process – and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without knowing their entire situation, or as anything except a last resort. It is emphatically not a quick fix, or a “get out of jail free” card.
But shameful? In these days of debt, loans, finance and borrowing? I don’t know that it’s as bad as it was even fifty years ago. It’s more commonplace certainly – although at the moment it appears that personal insolvencies and bankruptcies are falling (and have been since 2009)
(That graph comes from the Insolvency service, and is copyrighted to them)
I completely understand why someone would feel the stigma and shame of being declared bankrupt and feel the need to kill themselves as a result – and probably even more so when that person also already has a history and core of depression – but in many cases it is not The End. It is the end of the stress, the pain of being chased from pillar to post by creditors, the hassles of interest, mounting charges, and juggling finances, knowing that it’ll only take one tiny change or event to push you off the edge of the cliff.
It’s not an easy process – I know I’ve no intention of ever going through it again, and (as I’ve said already) I wouldn’t recommend it to people except as a final option. It is the death of many things, of the life you know, and sometimes of the things you have. It’s a loss, and as such perhaps is a thing to grieve, to regret, to learn from.
But what it also is, though, is a relief. A new start. An ability to rebuild your life from a stable foundation, to build everything back in a better, more stable – and a debt-free – manner. It’s a struggle, but it’s also a new life, if you allow it to be.
Twats
Posted: Fri 15 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, News, People, Stupidity Leave a comment »Sometimes it seems to me that people are just too self-absorbed to carry on breathing.
This story from the BBC, of holidaymakers walking along a jammed M11 to get to Stansted Airport is one of those times.
Why I Blog
Posted: Wed 13 November, 2013 Filed under: Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Words, Writing Leave a comment »[Inspired by this post with the same title over at Gordon’s place]
I started writing D4D™ back on August 9th 2002. Eleven years ago – damn, that time’s flown past.
I’ve said this before (almost certainly more than once) but I started blogging primarily because I wanted a project to keep on working on. I’ve always been a lover of the written word, since I learned to read, and I wanted to see if I could write. I’d done other projects along the way, short stories, novella-length and a couple of novel-length as well.
But the main reason was that I know how bad I am at not going through with projects. I start them, and then I move on to something else. I know that about myself, and the basic reason behind D4D was to keep a project going – as well as to get into the habit of writing, and to see whether it spawned anything else.
D4D’s been part of my life ever since. It’s been there through the ups and the downs, and a lot has changed in that eleven years. I had a year or more where the writing fell off a cliff, but this year I’ve worked quite hard to get back into it, and I think that’s been quite successful. There’s still a way to go, but I’m getting back into the habit and the routine of it.
And has it spawned anything else? Well, yes and no. I got into the writing of D4D, but in some ways that supercedes the writing on anything else, and I need to rediscover – or perhaps find at all – the balance between writing here, and writing elsewhere. I’ve got more writing ideas, stories and screenplays, but I need to find the time to write them.
D4D will keep on going for the foreseeable – I’ve still got a long way to go, and I want the ability to look back on things afterwards. I’ve changed a lot in this eleven years, and so has my writing – none of which is surprising, considering that time span – and it’ll be interesting to see how things develop from here on.
And that’s why I blog. Writing, routine, a diary, a repository of ideas and thoughts. D4D is all of that, and more.
End Credits
Posted: Fri 8 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, People, Seeing Films, Weirdness Leave a comment »Last night I went to see Thor2 with a friend.
It’s crap, but watchable crap – I’ve never been a massive Thor fan (well, not the comic-book version anyway) but it’s OK.
However.
It’s a Marvel film, and (to my recall) all Marvel films are known to have at least one ‘during-the-credits’ extra scene, which is usually worth hanging around for. Thor2 actually has two – one mid-credits, and one right at the end. Which is fine – it’s (I thought) a known thing, or at least should be to regular cinema-goers, and fans of Marvel films. I know a lot of people on Twitter have mentioned them, so I figured they were well-known.
But it amazed me how many people started leaving as soon as the credits started. I reckon a good 60% of the audience had gone by the time the first ‘during-the-credits’ scene appeared, and probably 95% had gone by the time of the final one. OK, the scenes aren’t essential to the main film or anything like that, but they’re fun additions – I’m just surprised by how many people apparently still don’t know that these things happen.
Collect Plus
Posted: Thu 7 November, 2013 Filed under: Amazon, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Kindle, Reading Leave a comment »
For returning the broken Kindle, this time Amazon made me use a new (to me) service called CollectPlus. (or Collect+, depending on whether you believe the URL or the logo)
Collect Plus have created a network of locations – usually corner-shops, garages/filling stations, newsagents and the like – where you can drop off a parcel for delivery. It is – I assume – a kind of private mail/courier company, the sort of thing that’s risen from the ashes of Royal Mail’s service (or lack thereof)
So far, from my side, it’s been a pretty positive experience. I went over to the local(ish) collection/drop-off point on Sunday – yes! getting a parcel sent on a Sunday! – and went through the necessary bits. I’d printed off the label from Amazon, stuck it to the box, and all was prepared. Then I simply gave it over to the person on the till, got my receipt, and job done.
I got the email today from Amazon to say that the parcel has been delivered to them – not the world’s fastest process, but it’s cost me nothing to do, and it’s all run pretty smoothly so far. It’s also been a lot quicker, easier, more effective and less painful than anything Royal Mail ever managed…
Fire Works
Posted: Thu 7 November, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Getting Old(er) Leave a comment »This year, the cats have been OK (in general) with fireworks again. There seem to have been more of them in the village than last year – although it’s still nothing like the warzone that Bracknell became throughout October to January. Still, at least I don’t have a moronic and hyper Hound to deal with.
Personally, I don’t mind fireworks. I like seeing them – not really surprised, with a birthday of November 5th. I know that animals aren’t overly keen, but my lot have been OK. They stay inside more – which is fine with me, considering how vile the weather’s been – and can crowd me a bit for security (and yes, I do think that might be why the Bengal is sleeping on my bed at night) but it’s all good.
Driving home from work on Tuesday I even got to see some of the fireworks from local displays, which is always pleasant.
Life really is a much more peaceful experience without Hound, it has to be said.
A Warm Resting Place
Posted: Wed 6 November, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Sleep - or lack thereof Leave a comment »Over the last couple of weeks, the Bengal cat has been very strange – even by her standards. For the first time in three years, she’s been sleeping on my bed – without attacking my feet.
I don’t mind (too much) in general – it’s probably a good sign that the autistic little twatbag is feeling quite settled and trusting. Or alternatively that she’s not feeling settled, but trusts me enough to use me for comfort.
Mind you, last night she spent most of it sleeping on me as if I were a tree-branch. Very cat, very Bengal, and not at all comfortable for the two-legs. But of course that’s not important in cat-world, it’s about finding a warm resting place that doesn’t move too much.
She’s also been sitting on me more during the evening, and if not fully asleep then enough that she’s comfortable and relaxed. (By “not fully asleep” I mean that if I move too much, she’ll either open her eyes and glare at me, or get off in a huff)
Regardless, it’s quite weird and noteworthy. I’ve always been aware that Bengals can be quite a handful to live with – and she’s shown that on *many* occasions – but also that once they’ve decided that the two-legs is “OK”, things relax a bit. I’m not counting my chickens just yet – we’ve had too many ups and downs over the years for me to do that – but right now I’m pretty sure she’s feeling settled though – and it’s only taken 18 months in the new house to get to this point.
Anniversal
Posted: Tue 5 November, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, 41 - 42, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er) Leave a comment »Bloody Hell, I’m forty-sodding-two.
It’s going to be an interesting year, I’m sure. And come April, I’ll be halfway through the rebooted Five Year Plan, from Age 40 to 45. I think there’ll be more about that over the coming few days/weeks/months. I bet you can’t wait…
Bunged Up
Posted: Sat 2 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Health Leave a comment »This week has been less fun than usual, due to being heavily bunged up and feeling generally rotten due to a cold. No, not ‘flu, man-‘flu, or any other version. Just a cold.
And on a total tangent, what is the proper punctuation for flu? Technically it’s short for influenza, so should be written ‘flu’, or ‘flu., but I think ‘flu or flu is generally acceptable…
Anyway, yeah, just generally been feeling a bit crap, under the weather and snotty. As a result, this weekend is likely to involve less activity, and just spend some time recuperating. That’s the plan, anyway.
Changing Qualifications
Posted: Fri 1 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Change, Cynicism, Education, News, Thoughts 3 Comments »It’s been announced today that OfQual has announced the finalised changes to GCSEs from 2015, with first exams in 2017. The changes will initially be for English language, English literature, and Maths – others will be announced later.
The key changes are :
- Grading by numbers 9-1 rather than by the current letters A*-G
- No more modular courses, instead full exams taken at the end of two years
- Controlled assessments (coursework done under exam conditions) will be scrapped for most subjects
I think most of these are good, but the one that makes my brain bleed is about the changes to grading. I don’t care about it being numbers or letters, but why change the order of them? Until now, for decades, A has been the highest mark. Why would it now change to 9? That’s just counter-intuitive. When you think of ‘the best’, it’s usually “Number One” to be the best, not “Number Nine”.
Employers are used to that grading system, with A being the best. Changing that round is – I suspect – likely to cause more confusion than any other part of this revamped assessment.
Location, Location
Posted: Wed 30 October, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Travel Leave a comment »Even though I know I’m going to be in the current place for at least another year (tenancy agreement all signed and sorted etc.) I still find myself thinking about moving on. I don’t plan to do so in the next year, but I’m thinking about it all the same.
Primarily it’s more about “Where would/do I want to be next?“, and then looking at current prices and places, just so I’ve an idea of what might work, along with what and where might be practical.
I’m not sure yet what’ll happen, and whether I’ll move on or not. Looking at the changes over the last year or two, it’s pretty much impossible to plan where I’ll be in a year’s time. For the moment I’m just doing my research, and hoping to keep my options open.
Kindle Replacement
Posted: Tue 29 October, 2013 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Literacy 2 Comments »I’ve waffed on before about having bought a Kindle e-book – nearly two and a half years ago – and also about when the one-before-this-one broke, which is when I had to buy a replacement.
Much as I like using the Kindle in general, the display in particular seems to be pretty fragile. I suspect it’s because it’s a glorified LCD display, and they’ve always been a bit flaky on that score. I don’t know why they’re so breakable, but they are. I’m not at all heavy-handed with mine, but I’m on my fourth. (with, as below, a fifth soon to arrive) And that’s with having a decent protective case as well. I suspect there must be some kind of twist/flex that just does for them.
Anyway, over the weekend, the latest one – bought in June – broke. I don’t know what had happened to it, I took it out of my bag/backpack, opened the case, and the screen crystal was cracked. (i.e. the screen itself isn’t cracked, but the [whatever] film inside it is, so when I turn it on, half works, and half doesn’t)
Fortunately, Amazon’s customer services are excellent when it comes to the Kindle. (I can’t comment on any other eventualities, I’ve only ever used Amazon customer service when it comes to the bloody Kindle) I filled in the ‘Contact us’ form on the site, clicked “Call me now”, and they did. Straight through, spoke to someone, explained the problem. No quibbles, no hassles, they’re sending out a new one (due to arrive today) and I can then use the packaging from that to return my existing device – postage paid!
Of course, re-downloading all the content is still likely to be a pain in the tits (if the last time is anything to go by) but I can at least get on with doing that when I’ve some spare time.
In the meantime, I’m back to the printed word instead of the displayed. I’ve got to be honest, it feels a little bit odd.
Automated Projection
Posted: Mon 28 October, 2013 Filed under: Cinema, Customer Services, Domestic, Media, Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »Until recently, it had never occurred to me that most multiplex cinemas have now automated their film projection rooms. I still envisioned it as either being one-projectionist-per-screen, or (at worst) one-projectionist-per-[x]-screens. The only reassuring fact from this is that I’m obviously not the only one to have not realised. (As opposed to being (apparently) the only one to never click that James the Red Engine was ‘reddy for anything’)
But no, it turns out you’re very lucky if there’s a projectionist at all. It’s all programmed, automated, and generally human-free. They have been for (at least) five or six years now, apparently.
I don’t know why it hadn’t clicked for me, because looking back it makes total sense. If you’ve got a 16-screen cinema that is (apparently) only staffed by four spotty teenagers and a manager or two, why on earth would you expect it to then have 16 projectionists? (Or even 2, one per eight screens)
What this does mean though, is that if there’s a fault in the showing, no-one knows about it unless you go out and tell someone. There’s no-one in the room at the back, checking the quality. It’s all done automagically.
I’ve been in a couple now where the projection/showing has gone a bit tits-up – one with no sound, one where everything had a weird pink overlay to it. Both times the rest of the audience has sat there bitching, but still done nothing else, assuming (I assume) that the projectionist would “just fix it”. I just go out and let a member of staff know it’s kippered, which gets things fixed.
I wonder if the cinemas should actually do more to let people know about those changes though?
Premature Celebration
Posted: Sat 26 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, People, Weirdness 2 Comments »I don’t know why, but as a nation we seem to be making a real habit of celebrating things earlier than their assigned dates – and not just the Festering Season.
Tonight – October 26th – I’ve had about four sets of people knocking on the door for Hallowe’en / “Trick or Treat” shenanigans, and I know lots of places are doing Hallowe’en parties. Don’t forget, Hallowe’en isn’t even until Thursday – so we’re not even on the nearest weekend to the poxy thing.
And then we’ve also had the village fireworks display – and that’s still two weeks away!
Self Doubt
Posted: Fri 25 October, 2013 Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Introspective, Self-Doubt, Thoughts 2 Comments »Over the last two years or so, one thing I’ve noticed more and more is that I doubt myself far more than I ever used to.
Ten years ago, back when I was living in Manchester, I’d make a decision and stick with it – and sometimes those decisions wouldn’t work out, or they’d be based on flawed assumptions (god knows I made a fair few of those over the years) But most of the time they worked out, things grew from there, and I didn’t regret any of it. Again, sometimes mistakes were made – but they were based on what felt to be the best thing at the time. I did some truly idiot shit along the way – the ill-fated six month period of daily commuting round-trips by train between either Manchester and London, or Bath and London would probably be the lowest point in that particular theme. But I still did it – I’d made the decision to do so, and continue to do so, I reaped what I’d sowed and decided upon, and that was fine. (I pretty much had a breakdown at the end of it, but well, them’s the breaks)
Over the last decade though, that self-confidence (or at least confidence in one’s decisions) has been rocked a few times, and in some cases to the point of pretty much capsizing the entire damn thing. (I know, I’m kind of mixing metaphors. Live with it) And it’s had a lasting effect, which I’m not entirely pleased about. I’m still working on it, aiming to build back up on that, along with everything else.
I’m still OK on a lot of things – if I’ve said I’ll meet someone anywhere, I’ll do it. If it involves others, those decisions are solid, and it doesn’t matter what happens, I’ll do my damnedest to be where I said, when I said.
The real crux though is when it’s something involving just me. It doesn’t have to be travel, or an event, it can be anything really. (The Peter Gabriel gig this week being a case in point) Because it’s only me doing it, my brain can descend into a spiral of second-guessing itself, a whole range of “Do I want to go?” internal questions, a bundle of “What If”s, “Yeah But”s, and “Well…”s. I hate it, it annoys me so much. I’ve decided to do something, I want to just go on and do it. It’s the run-up, the cue time, the delays that bring about the doubts. [NOTE : When I talk about internal conversations, I’m not meaning ‘voices in my head’ as such, or any other inclement sign of madness]
I don’t know what’ll fix it – or even if anything will. I’m working on rebuilding it, on knowing that when I’ve decided to do something, it’s the right thing to do – even if it turns out, with hindsight, to have been fucking stupid. But sometimes at the moment it’s easier to give in to the self-doubt, to let it win, to take the easier and quieter route – which is, for me, most definitely the road less travelled.
Sometimes I think I’ve fought for so long, battled everything about myself and my life for so long, maybe I’m just tired of fighting for a while.
[NOTE – having read that last bit back, and realised alternative interpretations, this does not mean I’m giving in/up, or aiming to do anything stupid.]
Widow
Posted: Thu 24 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Daily Mail, Health, Media, News, People, Stupidity, Weirdness Leave a comment »This year’s symptom of the media Silly Season appears to be the “False Widow” spider, which is the UK’s most venomous spider, but is also nowhere near as poisonous/bad/evil as it’s been portrayed, along with the resultant hysteria.
For whatever reason though, it’s been all over the news, with hysterical coverage about people who’ve been bitten “and nearly died“. Of course, it’s hard to gauge how near-to-death anyone was when they actually survived – I could say I “nearly died” anytime I cough, sneeze, or have a particularly strenuous dump.
The latest ridiculously hysterical reaction was the closure of a school in the Forest of Dean because of ‘an infestation’ of false widows (for fuck’s sake)
Now yes, I’m quite sure the bite hurts – and that there are a tiny minority of people who react badly to said bites, in the same way that there’s a small selection of people who react badly to wasp stings, peanuts etc. But it’s a tiny minority who get bitten at all (most just introduce spider to literature anyway) and an even tinier minority therein who react in such a way. But if you read the media, they’re everywhere, and everyone’s being bitten.
I know, I know, it’s always been thus with the media – compare any hysterical theme story with people you actually know, and you’ll find that most of them are stories that only happen to a tiny minority. Supposedly it’s that fact that makes the stories “news”, but that hype then blows it all out of proportion/sanity, leaving idiots people with the impression it’s happening everywhere.
Sometimes I wish the media would just shut the fuck up about stupid hype-ridden hyperbolic stories, and (in an ideal world) allow people to get on with their lives without this hysterical bullshit constantly going on.
Wavering – Updated
Posted: Wed 23 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Gigs, Health, Insomnia, Music 3 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post about my – well, my subconscious’s – wavering about going to the Peter Gabriel gig at the O2.
I didn’t go. I wanted to, I intended to.
I got home, had some lunch, had tons of time, felt like crap and had a quick nap. Not common, but not unusual.
I woke up five hours later, just as the concert was due to start. I’m about 75-90 minutes drive from the O2.
Piss.
Wavering
Posted: Tue 22 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Gigs, Introspective, London, Music, Self-Doubt, Stupidity, Travel Leave a comment »This afternoon/evening, I’m supposed to be going to see Peter Gabriel at the O2. I’ve booked the afternoon off work, I’ve paid for the parking at the O2. As an aside, I always feel that parking cost is an iniquitous extra, but such is life – while it might be feasible for me to get there by public transport, it’s completely unfeasible for the return journey.
I will go
But right now, my brain’s wavering and havering, thinking “Yeah, but…” on a number of reasons, a range of logical excuses to not go. Tired, distance, time, return time, work – it’s all in there, all making me doubt.
I will go. I want to go.
I just wish my brain would be more certain, and shut up a bit.
Legalised
Posted: Tue 22 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Corbett, Cynicism, D4D™, Geeky, Legal, Marketing, Stupidity, Time Leave a comment »It’s now two years since my little spat with Ian Corbett (of Toyota Ireland) and his legal advisors was completed. I said at the time that the way they’d requested things to work out wouldn’t actually get rid of the search engine results that annoyed him so much. But he’s a marketing manager, so one assumes he knows these things, and that I would be wrong.
On a random whim, I searched the other day on Google for said person – and lo, I was right. Even when searching for just name + company (with no mention of D4D™ at all) up comes D4D™ with a nice healthy 4th place in the search results. And now there’s also Google Images, I can also see what the glaikit bawbag looks like, too.
All told, I can’t deny, I do find this very amusing. And there’s nothing at all I can do about it, it’s all in the hands of That There Google.
To The Ombudsman!
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 2 Comments »As nPower have today announced that the average joint-fuel bill will be going up by over 10% from December 1st, I’ve decided that I’m now definitely going to take my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman, and cost the fuckers some money.
Jesus christ, a 10% increase. Do they think people are made of money? Fucking hell.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there were any decent alternatives to change over to. Sadly though, they’re all as shitty as each other.
Non-scents
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness 12 Comments »Over the last few months, I’ve noticed a growing dislike (and reaction to) a variety of the current range of room-scenting thingies.I don’t know why there seems to have been such a resurgence of them over the last year or two – or maybe I’m just noticing them more – but it’s really bloody annoying.
In some ways I’ve always been sensitive to these aerosolised scents – lemon scent as an aerosol always used to make my nose bleed, although that’s eased off somewhat. I assume they’ve changed the chemical composition, or something.
But now there’s these automated squirts of aerosol scents from machines by Airwick and Glade, and they always seem to spray directly at me. Why they’re aimed like that, I don’t know – but it always seems to happen. And when it does, cue a nose-bleed, more often than not. Again, I don’t know why it happens, but it does.
The last couple of workplaces have had them in place, particularly in the bathrooms, so there’s no way I can even safely turn the poxy things off.
Even better, in a fit of dire irony, I don’t actually have a great sense of smell. It’s a hereditary thing – my paternal grandmother has no sense of smell (or professed not to, I’ve no idea of the truth of it) and my dad’s sense of smell is pretty dire, so it runs on that side of the family. So it’s pretty ironic that aerosol scents affect me so badly when most of the time I can’t even smell the bastards. (Although on the occasions when I can smell them, I’m more prone to thinking it’s a benefit to not be able to most of the time) As such, it must be some reaction to the chemicals in the scents, rather than the scents themselves.
Either way, it’s a pain in the arse. (Well, a pain in the nose, to be accurate)
Midweek
Posted: Fri 18 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Gigs, Insomnia, London, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts Leave a comment »This week and next, I’m out at fairly large events held mid-week. In London. I must be mad.
This week was, of course, the Neil Gaiman event at CHW in London, which resulted in me getting home at about half-midnight(ish) having opted for getting the train back to Milton Keynes and then driving the final bit, rather than driving and parking in Central London.
Next week will be seeing Peter Gabriel at the O2, which I’m really looking forward to. I suspect I’ll be getting home at about the same time, although this time I’ll be driving it instead of relying on public transport.
On the downside, I find that nights like that take it out of me now for the following night as well. I’m not sure if it’s a sign of getting older, or just that I’m out of practice – either way, my sleep/insomnia on the Wednesday night after the Gaiman event was even worse than usual, despite being more knackered.
Although with this kind of thing, it’s also making me even more pleased that I’m not doing that commute into Cambridge any more!
Neil Gaiman, “Fortunately, The Milk”
Posted: Wed 16 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, Literacy, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Words, Writing Leave a comment »
Last night I was in London to see Neil Gaiman‘s one-off reading of his new children’s book, “Fortunately, The Milk” at the Methodist Central Hall in London, (also known as Central Hall Westminster) which was also fortuitously a friend‘s birthday (I won’t say which one) As it turned out, we also bumped into Clair
It was excellent. I’d been lucky enough to get tickets when they went on sale, but I know it sold out pretty quickly. The tickets also included a special signed copy of the book as well, so definitely value for money.
It’d been billed as “with special guests”, but with no real clues as to who might turn up – and it turned out that (among others) Neil’s wife, Amanda Palmer came along as a surprise – even to Neil – and Lenny Henry was also there, along with Mitch Benn, and live drawings from the book by Chris Riddell. (who is just ridiculously talented) There were several others who I didn’t immediately recognise, although some research has helped on that score.
The book itself is brilliant – if you’ve got spawn, add it to the Christmas list – and the performance of it was great, with lots of humour, and a brilliant atmosphere all the way through.
As for the venue, well, I want to visit that again and look at it properly – it’s quite amazing in and of itself, and even more so when you look at the history of the place. It’s spectacular inside, and totally not what I’d have expected from the name. It’s about as restrained and subtle as Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
A brilliant evening, even with a jam-packed train ride home. (Apparently there was some sporting event on at Wembley as well, which meant lots of happy football fans)
Big Screen
Posted: Tue 15 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, People, Technology, Television 3 Comments »An email went round work yesterday, that Costco have a 65″ TV on a special deal for £2,000. (I don’t know why we get these emails, but hey ho)
I’m just gobsmacked by that. A 65-inch screen – that’s nearly five-and-a-half feet of diagonal screen-size!
I honestly don’t get the desire/need for these super-large screens. Admittedly some of that is due to the fact I live in a tiny house where something that size would take up about two-thirds of the available wall space, but I still don’t get the appeal, the way that TVs now seem to dominate living space.
I used to have a big-ass wide-screen TV, although that was pre-flatscreens, and was a huge lump of Sony Trinitron that took two people to lift it. Even that though was only about a 36 or 38″ screen – this advertised one would be nearly twice that in size.
Fair play, other people seem to want TVs this size – it’s just not something I aspire to own, and I can certainly think of many better things to spend £2,000 on.
Crashtastic
Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Weirdness Leave a comment »I don’t know why, but today already seems to be populated by car accidents
- In the village, a van has gone straight over/through one of the traffic-calming pieces of road furniture, ripping it apart and also tearing off the front axle. (I’d love to see the insurance claim on that one!)
- On the way to work, two roundabouts had vehicles pulled over into inside lanes, with people exchanging details
- A slide of my own on another roundabout while being followed by a police car – fortunately small and controllable, but enough to think “Oh shit!”. (I know I was going slightly too fast, but trying to get out the way of aforementioned police car while I had nowhere to go due to fuck-knuckle bastards not moving in the other lane)
- I did manage to destroy a low-flying slow-moving pigeon with my windscreen. Hell of a thump, no damage, and no way to avoid it, due to a Mercedes very close behind me.
So far I’m fine, and it’s just been stuff around me, but it’s still weird.
[Updated : with regard to #3 above, another colleague comes the same way and also saw someone slide slightly at the same place, so I’m now thinking more that there was something on the road at that point than that I was being a dick]
A few years back this little set would’ve convinced me that the world was out to kill me today. I’m a bit less paranoid about that kind of thing now, and more believe in “shit happens”, but all the same, I think I’m going to be driving quite carefully on the way home…
Utilities 7 – Water Meters
Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Utilities 2 Comments »[For the rest of the story, you can click here]
On Saturday, I was due to get my two water meters replaced with “Smart” meters by Anglian Water. Supposedly these transmit data, and mean they can be ‘read’ from the street, rather than needing access to the house in order to read them. It also replaces/removes the ‘outreader’ displays, which were supposed to do the same thing (or at least would if they hadn’t been installed by a moron) and which in my case were utterly screwed from the start.
Thankfully, the actual installation went OK – or at least seems to have done. The engineer turned up when he’d said he would, the work got done, he left, and there’ve been no water leaks since.
Of course, that doesn’t cover whether Anglian Water will actually manage to correctly swap the meters on my account, close the previous meters with the correct readings, or be able to read the meters correctly in future.
As I’ve recently had my half-year bill, that means this could still go on, as my next bill isn’t due ’til Feb/March 2014…
(And yes, BW, I have taken timestamped photos of the meters on installation, and also have a note in my little book about time/date/reading, just in case)
Utilities 6 – nPower Communications
Posted: Sun 13 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 3 Comments »[For the rest of this one, click here]
Yesterday, I got a letter from nPower – addressed to the correct name, at the correct address. (This is actually noteworthy, as it hasn’t happened in the preceding eighteen months) It relates to the complaint I made about – um – the fact that they couldn’t (well, hadn’t) corrected my name and address on my account, despite repeated requests to do so.
Apparently, because they haven’t been in touch in so long since I raised the complaint, I can now speak to the Energy Ombudsman about it. (Which I threatened to do last month, when it all actually got sorted)
So. Should I do so?
After all, the complaint has actually been fixed, but it now looks as if their entire system is so broken that even though it’s been sorted – and the correctly addressed envelope proves it’s been sorted – it hasn’t been flagged on the system as sorted. Which really is pretty fucked, however you look at it.
I’m tempted to do so, and cost them some more money (apparently even registering an issue with the Ombudsman lands them with a fine) and see where it takes me…
Utilities Part 5 – More Metering
Posted: Sat 12 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Anglian Water, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Utilities Leave a comment »[You can read previous bits of this here, if you care]
This morning, Anglian Water are supposed to be (finally) fitting my two ‘smart’ meters. They’re due sometime between 8am and 1pm.
Whether they’ll turn up – and indeed whether they’ll get it right this time – as yet remains to be seen…
Legally Dead
Posted: Fri 11 October, 2013 Filed under: Geeky, Ideas, Legal, News, People, Thoughts, Writing 1 Comment »The BBC today has a fantastic story about Donald Miller, an American man who had disappeared for 8 years, was declared legally dead in 1994, then reappeared in 2005, having been drifting and moving from place to place since 1986.
Because he’d been declared legally dead, his ‘widow’ was given his Social Security death benefits, so when he reappeared – and I’m reading between the lines a little – it looks like they’ve tried to claim that back.
However, because he’s been ‘dead’ so long, that decision can’t be resolved or overturned. Apparently it can be within three years (which is pretty mind-boggling in itself) but not after 19 years – unsurprisingly.
What this means is that Donald Miller remains legally dead.
Of course, my mind went off on a tangent at that point, and thought about how cool this actually is. (in some ways) I wonder what would happen if (for example) he robbed a bank. Could a legally-dead person be charged with a crime? Could it go to court? I suspect not. Even fingerprint checks would – as I understand it – come back as being those of a dead person. And what happens when he does actually die?
It’s all a very odd story, based around odd tenets of law. And I suspect we haven’t heard the last of it.
CEOP and NCA
Posted: Thu 10 October, 2013 Filed under: Cynicism, People, Security, Thoughts 1 Comment »I see that with the introduction of the new National Crime Agency (whose name sounds more like a criminal organisation, similar to Murder, Inc., than a law-enforcement one – you’d have thought National Crime Prevention Agency would’ve been a better choice) they’ve also wrapped up CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) into it as well.
I’ve always had my doubts about the use of CEOP as anything except propaganda. (and I’ve said so before) I don’t doubt that there is such a thing as child pornography, nor that abuse happens, that it’s more prevalent (or at least more reported on) now, and that t’internet has made things easier for paedophiles and abusers to both find victims and distribute those images. (And on a related subject, I also just read this story from the Guardian, and Bloody Hell)
But – ah, but – I do doubt that the methods for distribution of those images include things like Facebook and Twitter. I do doubt that ‘abuse’ on social media is as prevalent as CEOP makes out. The stats they release every quarter always make me think that they’re more about justifying their own existence, as do most of their stories, press releases and news soundbites. Yes, there should be an area of Policing and/or Law Enforcement that deals with these issues – but in my opinion it should be a part of standard policing, similar to New York’s Special Victims Unit (yes, it’s real, not just part of a TV Series mythology)
I’d rather see specialists per force – with the ability to communicate and operate between forces – than an agency that works so hard to justify its own existence.
Or of course, I could be being wholly cynical and uninformed about the entire thing. Who knows?
Tenancies and Tenants
Posted: Wed 9 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Housing, People, Thoughts 1 Comment »I wrote on Monday about the fact I’ve been able to renew my tenancy with the current place for another year, and how easy all of that process has been.
At the same time, another semi-friend, an ex-colleague, has been having a nightmare of a time with her new tenancy – having paid for references etc., the landlord has then announced that he’s putting the house on the market to sell it. She hasn’t paid the deposit etc., so she hasn’t got a leg to stand on, and all told it’s a pretty shitty situation.
But. Ah, but.
In the two-ish years I’ve known her, this is her third or fourth move. As regular readers know, I’d never snark on someone for moving a lot – my own current record of eight moves in ten years goes some way to illustrating why – but in her case, and in each case, she’s moved because there’s been something major wrong with the place she’s living. White goods haven’t been working properly, maintenance hasn’t been great, bad neighbours, bad landlords – indeed, she’s taking her current landlord through the Housing Ombudsman, which I didn’t even know existed. She’s also taken neighbours at the current place to court for some reason or other.
To my mind – and in my experience – when someone always has problems with something, you sometimes have to sit back and look at the common factors. In this case, we’re talking about four or five different landlords, and different properties, all of which are supposedly bad. But what’re the odds?
I’ve been renting places for *cough* twenty-plus years, and I’ve never had a landlord or property that bad. Ever. My brother’s in a similar position, having rented places for a fair old number of years as well. We’ve certainly both had smaller issues with places, or with landlords, (The one that always stands out for me was the one in Manchester that got broken into twice – the landlord for that one was a commercial entity, and totally useless) but I’ve never felt the need to make a big thing of it, let alone take anyone to court or ombudsmen, and I’m sure my brother’s the same.
All told it makes me just think that the person is a nightmare rather than the houses/landlords.
Because of the situation she’s currently in, I did think about acting as a referee for her – not a guarantor by any stretch, but just a referee – and then thought about the rest of it, the fact that whatever I did would come back and almost certainly bite me on the arse, that wherever she goes next will also be “a nightmare”, and you know what? I just don’t need that much hassle in my life.
More cynically, I figure that a lot of it is about reaping what she’s sown, but that’s not my problem, and it’s not my place to help those who won’t help themselves.
Another Year
Posted: Mon 7 October, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »In a fit of being organised, I’ve already sorted out another year’s tenancy on the current house. The agreement was signed yesterday, and went in the post, so it’s all sorted.
It didn’t need to be done for another month – it actually starts on Nov 4th – but I’m far happier with knowing it’s all done and sorted.
My landlord would actually be happy with just doing the entire thing on a rolling monthly agreement, but for the time being I’m happier knowing that I’m tied in (and so is the landlord) for the year. Monthly-rolling is just a bit too easy for my liking, too easy for a landlord to say at the start of the month “Ok, here’s your notice” (and I do mean any landlord, for I don’t think mine would actually do this) and then it’s an organisational (and financial) nightmare for that month.
I used to do 12-month tenancy agreements back when I was in Manchester, and I was fine with them then, too. I had some hassle when it came to moving out mid-term (when I moved to be with Herself) but that was fair enough, and kind-of expected. Even then though, they got another tenant, so I only paid I think two month’s rent once I’d moved out. Could’ve been a lot worse. (And the rent now is significantly less than I was paying for the place in Manch, too. Mind you, the house is also about a third of the size of the Manch place)
At worst it’s something I don’t need to think about for the next twelve months. At best, it’s off my mind, so I can fill that space with other ideas and plans. I’ll be in the same place ’til at least my birthday 2014, and that’s fine with me.
Upcoming
Posted: Sat 5 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er) Leave a comment »Somehow, it’s only a month ’til I hit 42.
Time flies, and all that.
Too Hot for Football
Posted: Fri 4 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Sport 2 Comments »I must admit, I really don’t understand the whole ‘it’ll be too hot’ kerfuffle going on about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
After all, you would imagine that FIFA were aware when they awarded the World Cup to Qatar that playing it in the Summer is likely to be – well – bloody hot.
But no, it seems to have come as a surprise to them that any countries would be a tad upset at this, and also at the ‘back-up plan’ of playing it in Winter rather than Summer. Because well, playing it in Winter means that the football seasons for many of the countries in question will be spectacularly disrupted for a couple of months.
I don’t get the thinking behind it – assuming there was any – although I have to also point out that I don’t much care one way or the other anyway. It just seems pretty stupid to organise a sporting World Cup in the middle of summer in the Middle East. It’d be like awarding the Olympic Games to the region. But then, what would I know?
Not Quite An Apology
Posted: Thu 3 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Literacy, People, Sweary, Thoughts, Words 2 Comments »One of the phrases that keeps on annoying me at the moment is the current ‘approved’ terminology for an apology
We’d like to apologise for [x]
Why does it annoy me? Because if you look at it, it’s not actually an apology. It’s a mealy-mouthed excuse. “We’d like to apologise for [x]” isn’t the same as “We are really sorry about [x]”
I know it’s probably only me that even notices this kind of thing, but regardless, it’s an annoyance.
If you’re sorry for something, say you’re sorry. Apologise. Don’t tell me that you’d like to apologise – because that’s not actually apologising. It might as well say “We’d like to apologise, but won’t, because well, fuck you”
Just say “Sorry”. Don’t wank around the bushes with it. Say you screwed up, apologise, move on.
Nationality
Posted: Thu 3 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Over the last few days, the BBC website has had some really interesting pieces on Nationality, and people giving up one Nationality for another. What I’ve found really interesting has been the motivations for doing so – and how so many of them seem to be financial, of the country they’re no longer resident in making financial demands on ex-pats. America is particularly hot on this, apparently (<sarcasm>I know, hard to imagine America being fiscally tight.</sarcasm>)
Anyway, it’s made for interesting reading…
- Goodbye, US Passport was the article that started the series
- Twenty ex-Americans explain why – pretty self-explanatory
- Twenty readers who switched nationalities – and then twenty other people, explaining their reasons for switching Nationality from other countries
I’ve often thought about going to another country – I still don’t know if I will in the end or not, there’s a lot of rebuilding to be done yet, regardless – but it’s been interesting to see these knock-on effects that you don’t really think about all that much, and particularly about the ongoing demands of the country you’ve left.
GP Hours
Posted: Wed 2 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Health, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »In the news yesterday, there was a lot of talk about the Prime Minister’s speech suggesting that GP hours should be expanded to 8am-8pm and operating seven days a week.
Personally, I think this is a good idea – or at least some semblance of it. I don’t necessarily think they need to be open seven days a week – although, thinking about it, how long can it be ’til Tesco et al start having GP surgeries within their supermarkets? But simply being open for longer/better hours, and (ideally) on a Saturday would make a massive difference to most people, I suspect.
Currently, my own GP is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. That’s only useful if
- You’re unemployed, or based at home (whether home-working or raising a family)
- You work in the same location
For me – and for most working inhabitants of the village – using that GP means taking time off work for a simple GP visit. That’s unacceptable. If I were on medication (like when I was on anti-depressants a few years back) then I’d have to take time off every so often for a re-checkup. Fortunately, I was with a different GP at the time – the one in Norfolk ended up doing longer days (7am to 8pm I think) which made things a lot easier. (Of course, having made a pain in the arse of myself with the practice manager also helped, and meant that things got sorted a lot quicker anyway)
Basically, it doesn’t (in my opinion) need to go from one extreme to the other – but simply recognising the needs of the community that deal with each GP would make life one hell of a lot easier all round. Simply opening six days a week instead of five, and/or longer hours would be enough.
Of course, the other major difference/improvement would be to hire good receptionists who make appointments, rather than trying to find out what you’ve got for no good reason. It’d also be beneficial to have decent systems/methods in place that don’t mean the only free appointments are taken by 9.05 on any given day, and appointments for non-urgent enquiries can be made more than a week in advance…
But hey, what would I know?
Identity
Posted: Sun 29 September, 2013 Filed under: Introspective, Thoughts, Weirdness, Writing 1 Comment »At the moment I’m thinking a lot about identity – it’s primarily related to an idea I’ve got for a writing project, but it’s just a process that keeps bouncing round my head. Are we really who we think we are? And if not, which is the true identity? The one we live, the one we think we live, or the one we dream of being?
As an example, I’m pretty sure of who I am, but other people see a different person to the one I see. They see personality traits – good and bad – in me that I don’t see in myself. So which is true? Or are both true?
There’s probably more to be written on this, I’m just bouncing things round in my head, seeing what shakes out in the long run.
Missing the M1
Posted: Thu 26 September, 2013 Filed under: Charm School, Commuting, Driving, M1, Work-related Leave a comment »I have to say, because of this I’m very glad I’m not commuting via the M1.
It wouldn’t have affected me directly, but from the traffic reports, the closures and rubberneckers were screwing things up for everyone else, so I’m pretty pleased that I was commuting in the opposite direction, away from the M1 entirely…
Oops
Permanence in Change
Posted: Wed 25 September, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Introspective, Thoughts 1 Comment »As regular readers know, I’m not good about being stuck in one place, or in one job, for too long. In the eleven years since I started D4D, I’ve moved house no less than eight times – and had more jobs than that, by quite a margin. (Not too surprising, being an IT contractor, but all the same)
At the moment I’m quite happy with the little house I’m renting. People are forever telling me that renting is Bad, that it’s dead money, all I’m doing is paying my landlord’s mortgage, I’ve got nothing to show for it, etc. etc. ad nauseam. But for me, renting works. I’m happy with it, and that’s really all that matters.
I like change. I like new workplaces, new living locations, etc. – but even more than that, I like having the ability to change. I don’t have to do it (although if everything is stable for too long it starts to scratch in the back of my brain, and I know something needs to be different) but I like being able to do so. Being locked into something – or even the feeling of being locked in – makes me feel kind of claustrophobic, pressured, weighed down.
With renting, I know that if I want, I can move anywhere else, and just find somewhere to live. I don’t have to worry about selling the house, going through all the legal processes, waiting for chains of people to sell and move. I can give my notice, find somewhere near, and move on. If I got the offer of a dream job that’s not manageable from where I am now, I could easily move. Equally, if something goes wrong, I can call the landlord, and it’s their problem for fixing it. I don’t need to source workmen, get estimates, take time off work, etc. I’m happy with that situation.
In my head, ‘dead money’ is the interest on a mortgage. I look at the loan illustrations, the “If you borrow £200,000, the total amount repaid will be just over £370,000” (and yes, BW,I did check – £200,000 90% mortgage over 25 years, monthly payment of £1,238.94 =£371,682 ). I see that extra £170,000 of interest as dead money, cash that’s gone to a bank instead of wherever I want to have spent it. Yes, a house could be “an investment”, if I come out after [x] years having made it more valuable and so on. But there’s no guarantees of that, and for whatever reason, my brain just doesn’t work on those timescales.
In the current workplace, everyone else has worked for the same company for at least five years. That just brings me out in shudders, I can’t deny it. The idea of being in one place, one company, listening to the same people for five years? Jesus.
It’s coming up to time to renew my tenancy on the current house – and the odds are that I’m going to take another 12-month tenancy on it. If I get through that without needing to move, I think it’ll be one of the longest-term places I’ve stayed. I’ve already been there 18 months (well, 18 months at the start of November) so another extension will put it at two-and-a-half years.
Of course, in that time I’ve changed jobs/contracts a few times, which is probably how come I’ll be happy in one house for longer than usual. So long as there’s change within life, I can live with it being in one bit or t’other (or even both). It’s just stability and stagnation that freaks me out for whatever reason.
I don’t know why my brain works in this way, I don’t know why I prefer change to stability. All I know is that it’s how I work.
Utilities Part Four – Smart Meters Again
Posted: Mon 23 September, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Customer Services, Domestic, Utilities 3 Comments »So yes, Saturday’s “installation of smart meters” with Anglian Water turned out to be an utter, total cock-up. About the best bit of the process was that they turned up here first thing, rather than leaving me ’til last thing in the day. Other than that, it was a total clusterfuck.
Despite no less than four calls between myself and Anglian, all of which saying “We’ll be installing the smart meters”, what they apparently actually meant was “We’ll be doing a visit to check that everything’s ready for when we install the meters”. In other words, all it involved was checking that what I’d said was right about the meters not reading the same as the outreaders (nice that they’re so trusting) and that the stop-cocks all work. And that was it.
Fair to say, I was pretty pissed-off. Not at the guy who came round – it wasn’t his fault that his colleagues are incompetent tossbags – but definitely at . It’s been listed now as a formal complaint, and I’m waiting to see what they’ve got so say about it all. Regardless, I see some more compensation in my near future…
Approaching Year-End (Part 2)
Posted: Mon 23 September, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Festering Season, People, Shopping 1 Comment »At the end of August, I wrote about the signs that we were coming to the end of the year, and the Festering Season. Obviously X-Factor and Strictly being back on TV are the two primary harbingers mentioned in that one.
Now though, I’m seeing more signs – and they seem to be earlier than ever.
- On TV, we’re starting to see the adverts for perfumes/fragrances (for both men and women) and also the music compilation CDs that only ever seem to be on the shelves for the Festering Season. It’s always the “Oh god, I don’t know – get something” gift of last resort.
- In the supermarkets, hard though it is to believe, there’s already Christmas confectionary and mince pies on the shelves.
- And then there was this, spotted yesterday…
Yep, Christmas Cards are already on the shelves. I despair.
I’m surprised at how early all this tat is hitting the shops- I assume it’s retail’s way of handling people having less money than usual, so making the items available ever earlier. Personally I think that’s bollocks, and they’re just hoping for as many sales as possible – but as you can see from the picture above, people are actually buying the damn cards already…
Up For Sale
Posted: Sun 22 September, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase, Norfolk, People, Weirdness Leave a comment »Having just done a random search, I’ve found out that the house in Norfolk I had with Herself is back up for sale.
It’s kind of weird, seeing the changes that have been put in by the new owners – some make sense, and are things we’d talked about doing. However, others are – somewhat mental.
As a prime example of the latter, the new owners have brutally trimmed the cherry tree in the front garden, and completely removed the huge weeping willow that was in the back garden. (and was one of the factors that made me like the place) I can see why they would have got rid of it – it was a pain in the tits to mow around, and dropped crap on the grass all year round – but it was such a fantastic tree, I’m actually kind of sad to know that it’s gone.
Interestingly, despite the work the new owners have obviously done, the price isn’t actually any different than we paid for it six years ago.
Progress, eh?
Utilities Part Three – Smart Meters
Posted: Sat 21 September, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, Utilities Leave a comment »Today, as per the post from yesterday, Anglian Water are supposed to be here fitting new ‘smart’ water meters.
I’ve no idea when they’re coming – the timescale I’ve been given is “Saturday” – nor what will need to be done when they arrive. Nor even how long the work is likely to take. I will be clearing the areas around both meters, to make sure they’ve got easy access, but other than that, *shrug*, no idea what the plan will be.
As such, my Saturday is looking to be somewhat random. They could be here at 8, done by 9, and I’ll have the day to myself. Alternatively, they could get here at 4, be here til 6, and my day’s kippered.
Fortunately, I’m pretty laid back about it all, and not going to get stressed one way or the other. But it does strike me as a pretty shit way of doing business…
Utilities Part Two – Anglian Water
Posted: Fri 20 September, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Charm School, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post about nPower’s abysmal customer service, I’ve also been dealing with Anglian Water for far too long since moving in to the new place.
It’s not been anything quite as drastic as the farce with nPower – at least Anglian got my name right from day one. It’s just they’ve never managed to get my bills right.
Part of the problem is the metering setup. For some godforsaken reason, my house (and the others in my section) all have two meters: one for the main property, one for the separate outbuilding. This seems to cause them no end of confusion – my first meter reading, they managed to put the same reading in for both meters which overcharged me on one by some sixty units! Since then, despite no end of times telling them the outbuilding one only has a washing machine in it (and is thus epically low on usage) every damn bill or reading needs to be done twice, because they don’t believe the first one. (Personally I’m not keen on what this also says about their attitude to their own meter-reading people, but we’ll leave that for now)
Compounding this has been an ongoing issue with their ‘outreaders’ – little grey boxes that (supposedly) connect to the main meter, and mean the meters can be read without the person needing to access my property. Except that
- Some twat decided that they should both be situated within the courtyard bit between house and outbuilding. Yes, the bit with no access from the outside, without going through the damn house. #slow_handclap right there.
- At no point have the outboxes read the same as the actual meters.
I’ve had Anglian out twice to have the outreaders recalibrated to the meters now, so one would hope they were working. But no…
Back in July I had a meter-reading done. It was one of the days I wasn’t working, so that was fortuitous. And then I expected a bill – it normally comes in August. Nothing. So I called them this week to find out what was happening – the last thing I want on my record right now is a “late payment” flag, particularly for a utility company.
Only they hadn’t sent a bill. As usual, the outhouse’s meter reading had tripped all their flags, so they needed to check the reading. (Done by a person, don’t forget) I said I’d do a reading that evening, and then they could sort it out. I also said I’d do both the outreader and the meter itself.
Lo and behold, the outreaders are under-reading by about ten percent. The meter on the house says 98, the outreader says 88. The one on the outbuilding says 22, the meter says 25. Yep, they’re still buggered then. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind their readings under-reporting by 10% – except I also don’t want hassle at some future date when someone reads the meter instead of the outreader, and suddenly I’m getting hit (again) for 50 units more than I expected.
They’re now coming out on Saturday to fit two ‘smart meters’, replacing the existing meter and outreaders. Supposedly these ones upload straight to a website, so I can monitor the usage and see if there’s a problem. Considering the issues so far with them, you can be damn sure I’ll be keeping an eye on those reading for the rest of the year!
Utilities Part One – nPower
Posted: Thu 19 September, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, nPower, Utilities 2 Comments »Since moving in to the new place, one of the banes of my life have been the utility companies for the property.
nPower in particular have been stunningly shit. It’s taken them eighteen months to get the name right on the account – the letting agency notified them of the change, and they did nothing. I’ve gone through the process no less than six times, sending ID and proof of tenancy, and it all disappeared into the black hole of “Fuck-All Happening” that seems to define nPower. Even their complaints team were so bad that they didn’t even call me within the expected timescale, despite repeated requests. The best one was emailing the proof documents the fifth time, putting on ‘read receipts’ etc., and getting one back saying “The message was deleted without being read“. That was when I started getting really pissed off.
Additionally, because of ‘moving to a new system’, they managed to not send me any bills – and not be able to send bills, because gawd knows, I asked! – for a year. I then got four bills in a day – all printed on the same day, all sent out, all for different amounts. And all with one week in which to pay.
It appears to have now been sorted. I totally lost the plot, and requested that they just send me a “we can’t be arsed to fix the problem” deadlock letter so that I could take it up with the Energy Ombudsman and get them properly screwed over. Suddenly I finally got through to nPower’s one efficient person, and everything was done within twenty minutes, with her not even being able to understand why it had taken so long. I think her phrase “Well I can see that someone put the documents in the system. They just didn’t bother to do anything else with them” pretty much sums up the entire painful process with nPower.
I’m going to wait for the next bill so I can see whether they’ve finally got things right or not. I’m remaining pessimistic for the moment, but who knows, maybe miracles do happen on occasion…
Furnishing
Posted: Wed 18 September, 2013 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Shopping Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I finally got round to buying myself a new bedframe. It’s been a long time without one – basically, the one I had from previous house was too big to get up the staircase in the new place. (And by new I mean ‘the one I moved into in May 2012’)
It’s been an absolute ball-ache to find a decent bed that’s short/low enough to get up the staircase, which is one of the most awkward I’ve ever lived with – narrow, enclosed, jutty-out bits in the ceiling, steep, and with a 180° bend that needs to be negotiated with larger items. In short, it’s a bastard. And shifting a mattress up there is an exercise in swearing and sheer physical labour.
Coupled to that, crappy finances meant that investing in a new bedframe was – well – not a priority. But with new job, and all that, I thought I’d get round to doing something about it at last.
Anyway, having done some research, Ikea now do a low bed, so on Friday I went to the nearest one, and ordered it for delivery. (A downside of now having Saab instead of Mondeo – a bedframe and/or mattress won’t easily fit into a saloon car!)
Come Sunday, it finally got delivered at about 5pm. No timescales or delivery warning, just blew a Sunday waiting for it to arrive. Bastards. But it’s all assembled (one bit being a pig, due to the necessary methods not being listed in the actual instructions – cheers for that, Ikea) so onwards and upwards in this great game of life.
Saloon vs Estate
Posted: Tue 17 September, 2013 Filed under: Change, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts 2 Comments »Over the last couple of weeks, for one reason and another I’ve been lugging a lot of stuff around in the car. Shopping, tip runs, that kind of thing. It’s still be OK, but it’s made me conscious of how different it is to do this kind of stuff without an estate car.
With Mondeo, I simply dropped the back seats, and could chuck any amount of stuff in there – the loadspace was amazingly capacious. It gobsmacked people on a few occasions, the sheer amount (or size) of stuff it could handle with no problem whatsoever.
With Saab, it’s a different prospect. I can still get stuff in, but it’s far more of a hassle, and there’s a few things that simply become impossible – or at best a nightmare. What would have been a simple ‘chuck it in the back‘ becomes more about ‘how the hell am I going to do that?‘.
I’m not unhappy with Saab at all – it’s doing me very nicely in general – and this is by no means a deal-breaker. What it will do, though, is make me think more about what I want as and when Saab goes to that great garage in the sky.
And you know what? I think the next one may well be an estate again. I don’t need that loadspace often – but when I do, I really like being able to just have it there, ready for use.
2013 Phase 3 : One week in
Posted: Mon 16 September, 2013 Filed under: 2012/13, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Old(er), Health, Weigh Less 6 Comments »So, as I wrote a week ago, I made some minor(ish) changes to lifestyle last Monday. Obviously it’s only a week in, but I thought I’d write a wee bit about what’s happened in that week. I’m trying to get back into routines and patterns on these things, so I know that a week is kind of short, but if I’ve done it for one, I can do it for more.
The changes were
- Cutting out bread completely
- Eating better while at work (i.e. no sandwiches, in particular)
- Walking/cycling more
And so far things have been OK, I’m pleased to say.
I’ve had no bread at all – although I’ve not cut out pasta or other wheaty products as such – and honestly I’ve felt no change, and seen no changes or results. I’m going to keep on with it for a while more though.
I’ve certainly eaten better at work, mainly through getting back to eating stuff I’ve made at home and taking that in, rather than paying for it on a daily basis. I do need to find a balance here still, because as a contractor, it’s better for tax purposes (don’t ask) to buy something each day.
Exercise has been the big one. I’ve been out on the bike five times, and covered fifteen miles, there being a rather nice little three-mile circuit from home that works well for me. My times have dropped noticeably already – I’m using the Strava app on the phone to track things – and we’ll see how it goes. My leg muscles in particular hurt like buggery on a couple of occasions, which isn’t surprising considering that the last time I was cycling properly was in 2005 when I worked at CrapCo. But I’ll get better, get fitter, get faster. That’s the plan, anyway.
More importantly though, I’m quite enjoying it at the moment. I’m hoping to get into the routine before the nights draw in and the weather gets worse, so that then I’ll have even fewer excuses for not going. I have missed a couple of days this week- one through vile weather, another through being busy doing other stuff – but I can live with a five-out-of-seven plan for the moment.
All told, it’s all looking fairly positive.
Changing Homes
Posted: Fri 13 September, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »No, it’s not me that’s changing homes, for once – I’m staying firmly put for a while longer, I think.
In this case, one of the houses along the road from me went up for sale nearly a year ago, sold in February of this year, and last weekend they were finally able to move out. (I don’t know the people, I’ve just seen how long they’ve stayed there after the ‘sold’ sign went up!) The front garden of the house was filled with plants, including a spectacular lilac, and was really quite decent. Not my thing, but decent all the same.
Anyway, within a week of moving in, the new owners have completely ripped out everything in the front garden. I don’t know what they’ve done with it all (one assumes the tip’s been busy) but I came home the other day and noticed the change straight away.
I understand the whole thing of buying something/somewhere to do your own thing to it, and all that Sarah Beeny crap. I get making it your own, making it more attractive, more sellable, blah blah. I just don’t necessarily get the reasoning of buying something, only to rip out one of its more appealing features. I just think it’s a bit of a shame really. (And yes, I know it’s nothing to do with me.)
Getting Back To It
Posted: Tue 10 September, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Writing 2 Comments »As regular readers may have noticed, I’m making an effort with D4D™ to write a bit more again, and get back into the routine of writing here.
Things have trailed off here a fair bit in the last two or three years – and how the hell has it ended up being that long?!? – but I do want to keep on writing it, so we’ll see how it goes.
As things stand, I want to get back to writing more anyway. Having a routine with D4D™ is no bad thing for that – sure, it slightly affects the time I have available for the other writing projects, but it’s always better than avoiding doing any writing at all.
With luck I’ll get back into having at least one thing a day for the most part. Time will tell.
2013 Phase Three
Posted: Mon 9 September, 2013 Filed under: 2012/13, Domestic, Health, Weigh Less Leave a comment »This time last week I wrote about starting the final third of 2013, and what I wanted to be working on with that. Part of that project/phase is to be healthier, and ideally weigh less too.
Because of the change in working location, I’ve had to stop my membership of the gym in Luton, where I was working before. There’s no point in my having a gym that’s 30 minutes away in the wrong direction, and that thus I now wouldn’t be using at all.
I may sign up for a gym in Milton Keynes, as I’m there a lot more often, but I don’t know yet, and I don’t need to decide right now.
What I am doing right now is
- Cutting out bread for a while, to see what happens. I’ve never really done this before, so it’ll be interesting regardless.
- Related to one, changing some of the stuff I have while at work, lunches and the like.
- Getting out and walking/cycling more. I went out for a short cycle ride yesterday for the first time in *cough* years, 3 miles in 20 minutes, and I’m hoping that’ll improve pretty quickly.
All told, it can be summed up as “Eat less/better/differently, exercise more.” Whether things will change or not remains to be seen – after all, things only really started yesterday, so there’s some time to be taken yet.
The plan is just to get into a routine on this stuff for the moment, see how it all goes. I’ve got the plan in my head, but we’ll see how things work out when the real world gets its ass involved.
Scoring
Posted: Sat 7 September, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised Leave a comment »As part of both the Five Year Plan and rebuilding post-bankruptcy, one thing that’s really useful to know is one’s credit score, as well as what records are being held, and what they say.
So I’ve signed up (briefly) to Credit Expert, the happy smiley public face of the credit-reporting/scoring agency Experian.
It’s been an interesting process so far. When I registered to look at the record, I got told I’d got an existing account. Surprising – I did use them about eight years ago while with Herself, but nothing since. So I’ve had to go through a bundle of hoops in order to resurrect the old account, on a defunct email address/domain, because ‘we can’t have two records/accounts for the same person’ (according to their customer services clowns) despite that second account having a new email, address, phone number, and details. (Indeed, it’s kind of spooky that they can make the connection at all, based on the sheer level of change that’s gone on)
Annoyingly, this ‘use your old account’ process means I can’t take advantage of their ’30-day free trial’ offer, but I can live with that, to be honest.
Still, it’s letting me check all the relevant information, and I’m quite surprised to see that things are more positive than I’d expected. I was fully braced for seeing a score down near zero, and rebuilding from there. Instead, because of the ongoing accounts I’ve held over the last year (and more) it’s sat in the “fair” bracket. Which is quite amusing, when you think about it.
There are some bits I want to check out, particularly a couple of accounts that still say there’s large amounts outstanding – despite them being part of the bankruptcy process. I’ll find out what needs doing with those, as (I think) they should be sat along with the other accounts that read “closed”, rather than “In Default”. But I’ll find all that out, and figure out what needs doing.
There’s a long way to go yet, and I have no intentions of ending up back in the same situation I was in last year. But I do want to rebuild, to know I can make use of these things should I ever have to, want to, or need to. It’s not a quick process, but these first steps have shown me that perhaps – perhaps – the process won’t be quite as slow and drawn-out as I was expecting initially.
Common Sense (Or Lack Thereof)
Posted: Fri 6 September, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Cynicism, Driving, Fog, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Following on from yesterday’s horrid (yet spectacular) crash in Kent on the Sheppey Crossing, the BBC’s now carrying a story saying that various people are wanting warning signs, lighing etc. on the bridge to prevent such an accident again.
The thing is, I don’t see how that’s going to improve things. (other than in the context of Being Seen To Be Doing Something)
The accident(s) happened in thick fog. As such, I would suspect that the actual primary causes of the accident(s) were
- Fog
- Drivers going too fast
- Drivers not using their lights/foglights
- Drivers being dickheads
I get the idea of warning signs on the crossing – again, in that context of Being Seen to be Doing Something – but I can’t see how they’ll improve safety. After all…
- If they’re warning of thick fog, will people be able to see them in – um – the thick fog?
- If they’re giving warnings, won’t they also be distracting the attention of dickhead drivers who don’t seem able to multitask?
If the warning signs just read “Don’t be a fucking moron”, it might help. But even then, it would be helping far less than drivers simply not being fucking morons.
Driving Thoughts
Posted: Thu 5 September, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Charm School, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Fog, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »A small selection of questions and thoughts from the drive in to work this morning…
1) Look, if you’re driving so slowly in a car that trucks are pulling out to overtake you, maybe you should speed the fuck up, or get off the bloody road.
2) It’s foggy. So why are so many people driving
- without any lights at all or
- without their foglights on?
Usually it only takes a tiny piece of mist and they’re all in use, but this, with visibility of fuck-all-squared, there’s loads of people without lights. What the hell?
(And on a side note, bloody hell, I’m glad I’m not involved in this lot in Kent!)
3) Relatedly, why is it that once the fog clears up, you fuck-knuckle bastards leave your sodding foglights on ? They’re there for a reason, remember to turn the cocking things off when they’re no longer necessary
4) Why is it that so-called “professional drivers” (articulated trucks, delivery stuff, coaches etc.) usually end up being the most dangerous ones on the road?
5) If that’s how you drive, Mr Driving Instructor, then I truly fear for the skills of your pupils.
6) If you can’t steer/handle a shopping trolley, it really scares me to know that you’ve arrived here by car, and will be driving home. Jesus.
Diet and Health
Posted: Tue 3 September, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Food, Health, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the last six weeks, the quality of my food intake dropped quite significantly. It wasn’t a descent into Junk Food Hell or anything like, but I did eat more junk-type stuff than usual, for one reason or another.
The primary reason was related to doing idiot hours on the short-term contract. It wasn’t unknown to leave the house at 6am and not get back ’til 10pm or later. And honestly once it got to that point in time, I couldn’t then be chuffed to cook something vaguely decent. Hell, half the time I had to persuade myself to eat anything at all, which is never a good state to be in.
As a result, I did have more takeaways and so on than usual. not to excess, but definitely more than I usually do.
It hasn’t affected me particularly – I haven’t gained weight etc. – but it’s another of those slopes I don’t really want to get on. I’m aware of it, and I think that’s a good thing – it means it’s not yet the norm, and I don’t want it to be. It’s incredibly easy to be lazy, and it’s harder work to not be, so I don’t want to start heading down the easy route too much. With the new job being (so far) a lot saner, I think I’ll be OK on cutting it all back, and that’s certainly the plan now, getting back into cooking properly and not just taking the easy option.
Mind you, there is a small matter of going to Meatopia this weekend – but I don’t think that really qualifies as junk food anyway!