May 2005 Archives
Tonight's bike ride: 10.8 miles, 75 minutes, 2 miles by road, the rest over paths and tracks. Lovely evening, no breeze, sun shining, only swallowed a few midges. The best bit is, I wouldn't even say I'm out of breath, which considering I'm asthmatic is quite an achievement!
Oooooooooo I hope the weather stays like this, it was ab-so-lutely perfect out there this evening.
...after a week off, and fortunately I wasn't greeted by cries of "thank god you're back! Can you fix this? Can you fix that?" Of course there were some things that didn't go 100% smoothly in my absence, but they didn't take long to sort out, and nothing stopped the maufacturing side of things. So all in all a rather good situation to be in - I'm still most definately needed, but they can survive a few days without me.
We interviewed for a new IT Manager a couple of weeks back, they've chosen a guy and he's accepted the job. He starts three weeks today, so it will be interesting to see how he settles in, and it will also take some of the pressure off me to do absolutely everything IT-related around here!
The only downside of coming back to work is that it's an absolutely gorgeous day out there, perfect for a bike ride. I'll have to hope that it stays this nice until I get home, so that I can get a few miles in this evening.
I've gotten myself addicted to the Sudoku puzzles that have been appearing in the newspapers recently. I couldn't help it, it just happened. I tried to resist, but my willpower really isn't good enough. I'm sure you all know what Sudoku is by now, but if you don't, the object of the puzzle is to fill a 9x9 grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
I downloaded a free program which can generate puzzles and gives you hints and tips if you need them - and the hints certainly help when you're trying to get started.
So yesterday I spent more time exercising my brain than my body.
H'mmm..... not too bad.... posing a blog entry via Flickr doesn't add a category to the entry, so I have to go back and do that manually... clicking on the pic takes you to the Flickr set... let me know if I need to tidy anything up - this is the first time I've played with Flickr!
I just saw this on the uk.rec.humour newsgroup, and it was so good I thought I'd share it here.
Kids talk to God.
1. Dear God,
please put another holiday
between Christmas and Easter.
There is nothing good in there now.
Amanda
2. Dear God,
Thank you for the baby brother
but what I asked for was a puppy.
I never asked for anything before.
You can look it up.
Joyce
3. Dear Mr.
God, I wish you would not make it so easy
for people to come apart
I had to have 3 stitches and a shot.
Janet
4. God,
I read the bible.
What does beget mean?
Nobody will tell me.
Love Alison
5. Dear God,
how did you know you were God?
Who told you?
Charlene
6. Dear God,
is it true my father
won't get in Heaven
if he uses his golf words in the house?
Anita
7. Dear God,
I bet it's very hard for you
to love all of everybody in the whole world.
There are only 4 people in our family
and I can never do it.
Nancy
8. Dear God,
I like the story about Noah
the best of all of them.
You really made up some good ones.
I like walking on water, too.
Glenn
9. Dear God,
my Grandpa says you were around
when he was a little boy.
How far back do you go?
Love, Dennis
10. Dear God,
do you draw the lines around the countries?
If you don't, who does?
Nathan
11. Dear God,
did you mean for giraffes
to look like that or was it an accident?
Norma
12. Dear God,
in bible times,
did they really talk that fancy?
Jennifer
13. Dear God,
how come you did all those miracles
in the old days and don't do any now?
Billy
14. Dear God,
please send Dennis Clark
to a different summer camp this year.
Peter
15. Dear God,
maybe Cain and Abel
would not kill each other so much
if they each had their own rooms.
It works out OK with me and my brother.
Larry
16. Dear God,
I keep waiting for spring,
but it never did come yet.
What's up? Don't forget.
Mark
17. Dear God,
my brother told me about
how you are born
but it just doesn't sound right.
What do you say?
Marsha
18. Dear God,
if you watch in Church on Sunday
I will show you my new shoes.
Barbara
19. Dear God,
is Reverend Coe a friend of yours,
or do you just know him through the business?
Donny
20. Dear God,
I do not think anybody
could be a better God than you.
Well, I just want you to know that.
I am not just saying that because
you are already God.
Charles
21. Dear God,
it is great the way you always
get the stars in the right place.
Why can't you do that with the moon?
Jeff
22. Dear God,
I am doing the best I can.
Really !!!!
Frank
And, saving the best for last .
23. Dear God,
I didn't think orange went with purple
until I saw the sunset
you made on Tuesday night.
That was really cool.
Thomas
Ok folks, I'm going to lay it on the line here. If I'm hopping from one blog to another, seeing what's on other people's blogrolls and wondering if I'm missing out on any little gems, after all if it's good enough for them maybe it's good enough for me as well (admit it, you all do it) and I see a blog which has lots of bright text on a black background.... I'M NOT GOING TO READ IT.
I'm going to hit the "back" button faster than you can say "Jack Rabbit Slim's". I might even send an email to the blogroll owner asking them to remove you from their blogroll on the grounds of incredibly bad site design. Surely, if you want people to read your blog - and there's no point writing it at all if you don't want anyone to read it - then you'll make sure that it's easy on the eye and pleasing to read. Don't you?
Or is making sure people want to stay longer than two seconds not a criteria for site design these days?
Honestly, reading reams and reams of small text on a black background just makes me dizzy. And when I leave the site the sudden and total colour change makes me even dizzier. So please people...... use some common sense when picking a colour scheme for your sites.
P.S. I'm going to let Tracy at Artsy Science off this one, because he posts lots of wonderful pictures and when he does post some text it's short and to the point. So his site doesn't make me dizzy. So he gets away with it. Just.
I decided that far too many entries were just going under the catchall category "just me wittering", so I've created two new categories, "diet and exercise" and "ranting and raving". So I've just spent the last hour going through all the old entries on the blog recategorising them all.
There are still some more to do, I think, but I've had enough for now. Things still to do:
Come up with a new favicon logo
Upgrade to MT 3.16
Design a proper 404 page
Format the template for search results so they look like the rest of the site.
Knowing my penchant for procrastination, I'll have probably redesigned the entire site again before I get round to doing that lot. Ah well. Slowly but surely, I'll get there.
I'd forgotten how good it is to have a few days off work! I'm getting the house organised, getting some exercise and also getting on with the ex (for a change!). Plus, the office only called me once yesterday, and that was only to ask me what the password for something was.
Fistly an update on the exercise. I went out on the bike again yesterday and followed the same route I cycled and walked last week. Except this time I wrapped my GPS around the handlebars and used it to measure the distance. Unfortunately it wasn't the ten miles I hoped it was, although it certainly seemed like it. It was in fact 7.8 miles, which is still not to be sniffed at. The course was a lot muddier than it had been recently, and cycling into a headwind for most of the trip certainly made it hard-going. I'll do it again later today. I was looking at my ordnanace survey map of the local area the other day and noticed another walk called the Rochdale Way, which I'll investigate later in the week.
Now for some news on me and the ex. She phoned me yesterday and asked if I'd come and pick them up from school (she doesn't drive and was working at the school as a volunteer). We went back to her parents house and I played football in the garden with him and watched him do a brand new jigsaw puzzle straight off while she cooked his dinner. I also listened to him do some reading. Which was fantastic from my point of view, some normal fatherhood-type stuff for a change. She called me again last night and asked if I'd pick them up from school today as well.
We went out together the weekend before last and he was good as gold for the most part, but he threw a tantrum in the market when we wouldn't buy him a toy. I think my ex handled it wrong, because she was offering him cheap toys and he wanted a more expensive one. Offering him a toy of any description goes against what she was telling me the other week about him having enough toys and that clothes were what he needed. She should have warned him in advance that we were going to be near a toy shop and he could have something small if he was good, but he could only have what we were prepared to offer him. Anyway, he had a tantrum and couldn't be calmed down. We had to manhandle him back to the car. All the tv programmes say that when a child has a tantrum you should ignore him until he calms down. But how can you ignore a child that is hitting and biting you?
He eventually calmed down a bit but was very gringy all the way home. Everyone got angry with everyone else, everyone said things they later regretted, and at one point I raised my voice to her while he was in the car with us. I regretted it and apologised for it, but it shocked my son into stopping his gringing. I kissed and made up with him when we got back to her parents house. While in the car my ex was increasing his punishment for his whining and at one point I said "don't keep punishing him more and more for the same thing. Have a fixed punishment and stick to it" to which she replied "Keep out of this. What do you know about parenting?" And boy, that hurt. It hit me right between the eyes, because she's right. He was 18 months old when we split, and he's now 5 and a half. And what I know about parenting is what I see on television. I didn't argue the point at the time because it would have done no good at all, but I will be bringing it up with her next time we sit down for a civil chat about parenting.
She came up with a plan that if he's good for a week he'll earn a pound, and when he's got enough for the toy that he wants, then he can buy it himself. However if he's naughty once during the week he loses the whole pound. I think the idea needs refining a little, so he can earn 25p per day that he is good, and nothing on the days that he is naughty. That way at least he is rewarded for the days when he is well-behaved.
That's it for now, what's in the past is in the past and I'm just glad things are going ok at the moment. Taking it one day at a time, and looking forward to seeing him again this afternoon.
I'm becoming increasingly sickened by the news stories I'm reading these days about the behaviour of young people in this country. To be more specific, gangs of youths within, say, a 20-mile radius of my house. These stories have made the national press, and the more I read the more I'm convinced drastic action is needed.
For example, there's the story that a 16-year-old girl was beaten unconscious and the attack recorded on mobile phone cameras. Her brother was shown a video of the attack at school.
A father of two lies critically ill in hostpital after being attacked by a gang of youths who threw a stone at his car. A senior police officer describes these gangs as "feral" .
Last weekend 60 headstones at a cemetery were vandalised. And within walking distance of my home a man who was sleeping in a bus shelter after missing the last bus home was covered in cardboard and set on fire.
I'm worried about the kind of world we live in, the kind of world my son is growing up in. There seems to be more criminal support then victim support in this country. You can't fight back, because you're then the criminal. Recently a teacher fired an air gun near a gang of youths after suffering two years of vandalism at her home. She was jailed, then released after the story became political, then she lost her job.
However if someone breaks into our home, we are allowed to use reasonable force to defend our property, although what "reasonable force" actually means is still a matter of hot debate.
Last month a shopping centre banned people wearing hoodies and baseball caps, and saw an increase in the number of shoppers visiting the centre as a result.
All we need to do to make this country a better place to live in is to teach children to respect authority. If they don't respect authority, a short sharp shock should be applied. Now, what sort of short sharp shock? Here's my own (maybe rather extreme) idea. I reckon we should set up our own government-sponsored "brat camps", located on remote islands off the north cost of Scotland, and all the troublemakers would be rounded up and carted off to there. They'd be made to fend for themselves without the aid of drugs and alcohol. A few weeks of having to build their own shelter and hunt for their own food should sort them out.
But what if they still cause trouble when they return to society? Well, I think we should take one of the worst estates in the country, remove all the honest and decent people from it and put them in decent housing away from vandals and thugs, and build a big wall around the estate. Then we should fill it with seized drugs, seized alcohol, siezed firearms and cars that are no longer road-legal. In go the worst trouble-makers and their families. Each day a helicopter would drop in supplies of food and medicine. My guess is that they will either overdose on drugs or shoot each other. Anyone who is still alive after three months can come back into society.
And if they cause any trouble after that, if they fail to get themselves back into education or get themselves a job, then they should face a firing squad. Enough is enough.
Monday was good. I exercised in the morning, was awake and alert all day at work, and got to bed before midnight.
Tuesday wasn't so good. I was awake at 7:00, which meant that I didn't have time to exercise but still got to work early (he said, finding the silver lining everywhere). Didn't quite manage to get to bed before midnight.
Today I was awake at 6:15, 6:30 and 7:45. Bugger. Still early for work, which is good enough for me. But not good enough for losing some weight. I was thinking in the car on the way to work about how I was going to write a post along the lines of how crap I am, how I say I'll change my life for the better, and then do something once and never do it again. So to prevent myself from writing that sort of post I forced myself to go out on the bike when I got home. Two minutes after I left home it started to drizzle. "Oh how wonderful," I thought to myself. But I pressed on. The rain didn't last, and I ended up cycling for an hour, following the same route I walked on Saturday morning.
It's only when you're cycling along a route you've previously walked that you realise just how far it actually is. I couldn't believe I'd walked all that way and still had feet at the end of my legs instead of bloody stumps. Yay me.
I've done today's exercise. I feel good, and can post here in confidence without fear of receiving comments saying "You're crap. Just do it, you lazy bastard."
By the way, this morning's weigh-in came in at 16 stone 1 pound / 225 pounds, which ain't bad going.
6:15am: Alarm goes off, wake up
6:30am: get out of bed
6:45am: out of the house, cycling :-))
7:30am: back home, hot and sweaty. Jump in the shower (but not too much of a jump, coz I'd probably break the bathtub)
8:05am: in the car on the way to work
8:45am: arrive at work
9:00am: work work work work ring ring hello can I help yes my computers not working sorry i'm too busy to fix it right now I'll get back to you later Dan when you have a second can you do this for me why isn't the data from the weekend being imported into the database my god I've got to get this working before lunchtime otherwise the shop staff won't get their bonuses on time and I'll get yelled at ring ring go away I'm busy Dan can you show me how this works thank god for that the data got imported stop for lunch talk to guy being interviewed for position as my boss Dan the staff bonuses are all wrong what do you mean they're all wrong they can't be wrong yes they are oh shit more work work work grab a drink of water before I fall over ring ring what's that oh it's the 5 o'clock bell time to go home
5:45pm: arrive home, slump in front of the television and don't move for three hours.
Pretty normal in fact. Just wanted to mention that I got a bike ride in before going to work.
I'd like to thank Old Horsetail Snake for bringing 63days to my attention. I wrote earlier in the year how much I was enjoying watching Brat Camp on television. I was impressed with the way the camp brought about changes in wayward teenagers by making them think about themselves as people and how their bad behaviour has affected their friends and families in the past.
Well, 63days is Allison's story of how she was kidnapped at the age of 15 in 1990 and placed into one of these camps. I've only read the first dozen or so posts, but already it's compelling, fascinating, and (if it were a published book) "unputdownable". What I've read so far certainly puts a new perspective on my impression of these camps, and I wonder how other kids were treated at similar camps in the past?
I can't describe this any further right now, so head on over there and make up your own mind. The site has also been nominated for the blogette award.
There's a saying which goes "the only surefire way to catch a train is to miss the previous one", and I'd like to add my own version, which goes: "The only surefire way of getting up early in the morning is to not go to bed the night before".
Consequently, I looked out of the window at 4:30 this morning and noticed it was getting light. Blimey, I thought, it only got dark 5 minutes ago. So at 5:20am I left the house and went for a walk. There were a few clouds in the sky, fluffy white with red tinges where the sun was trying to get through. A bit chilly, a bit breezy, but very very quiet (what do you expect at that time of the morning?)
I walked and walked, down the Irwell Sculpture Trail which follows the path of a disused canal and a disused railway line. I stopped after a few miles, sat on a bench and smoked a cigarette. I looked at my watch. Still only 6:30am. "This is marvellous", I thought to myself, "the day's hardly started yet and here I am enjoying every moment of it." The path, as expected, was quiet. On the walk out I saw two cyclists. I know it was very early on a Saturday morning, but I live in a city of several (well, a few) million people - you'd have thought more than three of us would have been up and about and getting away from it all.
I walked about 5 miles to the bridge over the motorway. I've no idea how far it was because I didn't take my GPS with me (flat batteries). I didn't take my camera either for the same reason (muct charge them up some time) so I missed the opportunity to take a photo of my long early-morning shadow, or the sun lighting up the tops of the trees and leaving the trunks in the shade. Of course, I can get similar pictures if I go back there when the sun is setting, but it's not the same.
After standing on the bridge over the 8-lane road (and thinking where all those people are going at 7am on a Saturday), and feeling the bridge wobble a bit in the breeze, I turned round and headed for home. On the way back the trail got decidedly busy. I saw a cyclist and a lady riding a horse at the same time. Any more of this and I'll have to fight my way through the crowds.
My legs started aching after 7 or 8 miles, and the last few miles back home were not quite torture, but a bit achy to say the least. I got back home at 8:45am, three and a half hours and probably somewhere in the region of nine or ten miles after leaving.
And boy do I feel good. Mentally, that is. Physically, I'm a wreck. There's a massive blister on my right little toe, and my legs ache all over. But at least I can enjoy the rest of the day in the knowledge that my good deed to myself for the day is done. Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake until a reasonable time this evening and get a good night's sleep at the same time as everyone else (for a change).
You never know, I may feel like going out on the bike tomorrow!
Following on from yesterday's post about the inspiration that I'm going to draw from the Nina Simone song "Ain't Got No / I Got Life" (i.e. the fact that I have indeed got life and I seem to be spending most of it moaning and groaning instead of getting out there and doing something), I'm going to resolve to get to bed earlier in the evenings, get up earlier in the mornings, and get out and do some exercise before going to work. Whether it's a walk, a cycle ride, lifting some weights, whatever I decide to do, I'm sure that if I organise my life properly I can make better use of my time and feel better both physically and mentally for it.
And in the hope that it may inspire you as well, click here to download a 2.25Mb mp3 of the song in question.
After posting yesterday about how bone idle I can be when the mood takes me (and the mood does indeed take me quite often) I went downstairs and sat down to watch tv for an hour or so. An advertisement came on for some brand of healthy-bacteria-yogurty-type drink which, according to the advertisement, will make you dance on top of tall buildings, cavort in a hip-hop-breakdance-stylee and generally get fit, healthy and live longer. Therefore anyone who starts consuming this drink and promptly drops dead has a very good case for taking the advertising agency to court.
But I'm not here to talk about how wildly inaccurate advertising campaings can be. I want to talk about the song that goes with this particular advert. When I looked up the lyrics on the internet with the intention of posting them here I found out the song was Aint Got No/I Got Life, originally sung by Nina Simone. I'm not sure if the version used in the advert was the original though. But listening to the lyrics (they used the third and fifth verses in the advert) made me think how I've got life as well, and yet there I was moaning about how bored, miserable and lazy I was being.
So, a resolution. I'm going to get hold of a copy of this song, get myself an MP3 player and every time I feel like I don't appreciate what I've got, I'm going to play it to myself. It's going to be my new anthem.
Here are the lyrics (copyright someone I'm sure, but the page I copied them from didn't say)
Ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes
Ain't got no money, ain't got no class
Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schoolin'
Ain't got no wear, ain't got no job
Ain't got no man
Ain't got no father, ain't got no mother
Ain't got no children, ain't got no
Ain't got no earth, ain't got no water
Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token
Ain't got no love
I got my hair, I got my head
I got my brains, I got my ears
I got my eyes, I got my nose
I got my mouth, I got my smile
I got my tongue, I got my chin
I got my neck, I got my tits
I got my heart, I got my soul
I got my back, I got my sex
I got my arms, I got my hands
I got my fingers, Got my legs
I got my feet, I got my toes
I got my liver, Got my blood
Got life , I got my life
I forgot to post an update on my weight loss yesterday. That's because I stepped on the scales and was decidedly underwhelmed by the reading. I think in future I'm going to remove my glasses before weighing myself, because a) it will remove a couple of ounces from the reading and b) I won't be able to see the figures anyway.
It's a lovely evening tonight, perfect for a walk or a bike ride. But here I sit, too tired/lethargic/lazy (delete as applicable) to get off my arse and do anything. Maybe I'm still eating all the wrong things. Maybe I'm burned out and need a break from work to recharge my batteries. Maybe I am just intrinsically lazy.
I'm off work the week after next. It'll be the first break from work (Christmas and public holidays excepted) that I've had since last August ... or was it September? Far too long, at any rate. I've not got anything planned yet, I don't think I'll go away anywhere this time, but I'm definately going to use the time to relax, recharge, refresh, recouperate and reinvigorate myself. Really.
Oh by the way, my weight? In case you're wondering it's 3616 ounces
Found on Quizfarm via Ultrablog via Michele
 | You scored as Materialist. Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be understood by its smaller elements.
What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com |
My comments: if you can even understand some of the questions on this quiz you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
 | You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof).
Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe.
Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com |
My comment: Satanism????
There's not a lot that makes me want to stand up on my soapbox and do some ranting and raving. I've talked about a couple of things before, but those posts were an awful long time ago. Has nothing in the world annoyed me enough to write about it on here? Apparently not. However something happened on the way to work this morning that made me just a teeny bit annoyed, and for want of anything better to do I'll write about it here.
I was travelling up the motorway, running a little bit later than usual (only by about 5 or 10 minutes) and not wanting to be too late for work was in the mood to put my foot down and make up for lost time. However I was prevented from doing this by a van in the outside lane 5 or 6 cars in front of me. This van was trying to overtake another van in the inside lane and failing dismally. Both vehicles were travelling at about 50 to 55 miles per hour.
Now for those of you non-Brits I should explain some things. British readers can skip along to the next paragraph if you wish. The speed limit on motorways (freeways) here is 70 miles per hour, which is a perfectly reasonable speed to do on a long straight road. Travelling at 55-60 is acceptable, and anything slower than that is as much of a hazard as traffic moving at 100. You are also not allowed to overtake on the inside, you have to pull out to overtake, then pull in again afterwards. Most motorways here have three lanes, some of the busier ones have four, but the one I was travelling on only has two.
So there I am, in a queue of (admittedly moving) traffic, watching this van up ahead try to get past the van on the inside lane. The van on the inside wasn't slowing down to let him move in ahead, and the van overtaking wasn't slowing down to pull in behind. And the rest of us are stuck behind the pair of them just waiting for a bit of flat or downhill road so that one of them could get some speed up. Three miles this went on for. Three interminable miles during which I was thinking, white-rabbit-style, "I'm going to be late, I'm going to be late".
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind traffic going a bit slower on the motorways if it has to. I don't mind traffic travelling slowly if there's too much of it on the road. What I object to is someone travelling too slowly in the outside lane, preventing the people behind from getting on with their journey, when all he has to do is swallow a bit of pride and move back in behind the vehicle he's trying to overtake in the first place.
I've not mentioned white-van-man so far, and the only reason I haven't mentioned him is because the van holding everyone up was blue. I wish it had been white, and I could have used artistic licence to make it white, but I decided to stick to the truth of the situation today.
I wonder, do these vans have a little needle in the seat that injects the driver with testosterone as soon as he sits down? Something that turns him into an aggressor who always has to win, without giving any regard to anyone else caught in the battle?
I'm still here, haven't forgotten about the blog (or my readers!) but boy, does the time go fast when you're busy. There are lots of things going on and I've been meaning to write something about them all, but there hasn't been the time. So this post is going to be an update about everything. No single topic, it's another mish-mash of words and ideas. Sorry. I'll try to be more organised next week.
Work
It's been another manic week at work, I don't seem to have a minute to think at the moment. I think I'm "in the zone" though, getting everything done, not forgetting about anything and most importantly, not making any mistakes! We've hired the a recruitment agency to find a replacement IT Manager, the chap came in last week with a shortlist of resumes for the bosses to look at. They want to interview three out of the four on the shortlist on the 16th and 17th May, only problem being that I'd booked that week off! Not really wanting to miss out on the chance to meet the guy I'll hopefully be working with, I've moved my week off to the following week. Fortunately the Monday after that is a public holiday, so I get 10 straight days off work. Can't wait!
Family
I had a meeting with my ex today to discuss our son's behaviour, methods of punishment and money. The meeting was very civil, everyone got on great even though we didn't come to any solid conclusions about anything really. But at least we're talking. My ex and son are currently living with her parents (have been for months - long story) but she's in the process of buying a flat of her own so maybe his behaviour will calm down a bit once they're in a more settled environment. Her flat is within walking distance of her boyfriend's flat and our son's school, so it'll be very convenient for her. I still want to know what she spends all the child support money on, though, I think when she's moved in and got settled I'll ask her to keep a food diary of what my son eats. Not only will this give me and my family valuable information about what he likes to eat, we can also work out what it costs to feed him each week. I saw him today and he was his usual self, happily watching dvd's while his mum and I chatted, and then playing on the computer with me in the afternoon. By the way, the new Bob the Builder game on the cbeebies site is a Pac-man rip-off!
In other family news, my 89-year-old grandmother had a fall in her flat last week and has had to go into hospital since her recovery at home was a lot slower than expected. She's in a lot of pain and wants to lie in bed all day as that doesn't hurt. But she needs to move around a bit and put some weight on her legs otherwise she won't get any better. Apparently today she was sitting up and had something to eat so that's a step in the right direction (if you pardon the pun)
Home
I've been lifting some weights, got the dumbells out of the cupboard and have been working out with them a few times. The day after I first worked out with them I couldn't straighten my arms at all but after the second workout they weren't as bad. So that's something else I need to keep in the habit of doing! It's been cold and wet here all week so I've not been out walking or cycling at all. Slap my wrists - naughty boy!
On to more technological issues, I recently downloaded a program called DUMeter. It monitors your internet connection and tells you how much bandwidth you're using. If I were to increase my connection speed there would be a monthly bandwidth limit on my connection, so I need to know if I'd exceed it or not. Apparently I won't. Anyway I showed this program to my cousin and she liked it so much she bought it a few days later. However her meter was showing 0.5 to 1.5K of data being downloaded all the time. If that carried on she'd exceed her monthly limit within a week, so we had to find out what it was. Well, to cut a very long story short, it turns out to be Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests which happen in the background of all networks (well, all ethernet networks anyway). I wasn't seeing them because my hardware firewall was blocking them out. When I unplugged my firewall and started using the Windows XP firewall instead, there were all the ARP requests. Now, I don't think the ISP will incliude these in their bandwidth metering, but it does mean that the figures returned by DUMeter are going to be inaccurate, so we're not going to be able to use it to warn us if we're getting close to the limit or not. Frustrating.
I've also been playing around with the new version of EditStudio. On the support forums they've made a request for people to post a small movie using the supplied sample footage which shows off the capabilities of the product. The samples posted so far are hugely impressive and would probably put my little efforts to shame, but I have an idea in mind so I'll submit it anyway when it's finished. Watch this space :-)
I think that's it for now. I'm off to Michele's to see what everyone else has been up to!
I need new scales. The ones I've got are crap - the numbers they show aren't going down at all, in fact they're going up!
Putting aside the fact that I was pretty bloody miserable on Saturday and comforted myself with a huge kebab, and Monday I was treated to a chinese take-away for trying to sort out a problem on my cousin's laptop, and I spent most of the weekend watching the snooker on television instead of getting any exercise, I blame the scales completely. It's all their fault, nothing to do with me at all, no sir.
Today's been the best day of the long weekend for me. Went to the park with my son, neice and mother. Fortunately we went in the morning when the sun was shining - this afternoon the heavens opened and the rain was bouncing off the pavement. And now, the sun is shining again. You just never can tell whether you need a coat or an umbrella over here.
Once again, my son was very well behaved, and it's an absolute pleasure to spend time with him. His reading skills are coming on in leaps and bounds, too.
I dusted off the camcorder today for the first time since last winter. This was partly prompted by the prospect of a day in the park with the kids in the sunshine, and also prompted by the fact that a new version of EditStudio has been released. So I want to have some footage to play around with. I may even compile a quick 30-second summary of the day and post it here - watch this space.
But tonight I'm going to be glued to the television screen watching the final of the World Snooker Championships. This year the final is between Matthew Stevens, the world no 6, and Shaun Murphy, the world no 42. Nurphy's had to qualify to get into this year's championships, and he's currently 12-11 behind. First to 18 takes the trophy.
We're facing the prospect for the first time since 1979 of the new World Champion not being one of the top 16 players. I don't know how well snooker is received elsewhere in the world, but here it's a pretty big sport. The winner gets a quarter of a mil, not bad for 17 days work! First to 18 wins! It's a close match so far and hopefully both players will keep their cool into this evening's session. I'd hate for one of the guys to lose it completely and get hammered right at the end.
Come on Murphy!
Despite everything I wrote in yesterday's post, I can see where my ex is coming from. Although she's no longer technically a single parent (she's got a new fiance) she is still on a limited income and our son does need school dinners and clothes and everything else.
To cap it all, I'm not bringing home as much as I was when we were married, due in no small part to the fact that I was demoted at work a couple of years ago. Let me tell the story of how that happened.
At the time, I was the IT Manager, and tried to keep everyone happy. I thought my career was on the up, I had a company car and health benefits, and had earned a couple of decent pay rises in the previous couple of years.
We weren't that bothered about software licencing or copying the occasional cd for other people at work. This proved to be my downfall. The place where I work is split into an office section and a factory section. One day, someone from the factory came through to tell me that a friend of theirs was starting a computer course and asked me what they'd need. This information was very vague, but I offered to do him a copy of Windows 98 anyway. This I did (at the end of the day when it was quiet) and off he went. He came back in a couple of days later to tell me that Windows 98 wasn't what he was after in the first place, and it was while we were discussing the matter that one of the directors came through with the morning post. We have very hands-on company directors. The director wanted to know why this guy wasn't at his station, and it all kicked off from there.
I was suspended pending an investigation (this wasn't the first time I'd clashed with the directors over my managerial style, and I already had warnings and disciplinings [is that a word?] on my file). The chairman's first reaction was "Fire him! Get rid of him!" but then they realised that I was the only person in the building who knew how the IT department worked. I went back in a week later for my hearing.
I pointed out that copying software wasn't exactly frowned upon, and that I had in fact installed unlicenced software on the directors own pc's (work pc for one director, personal laptop for another one) at their request. As a result of this, they could only discipline me for unauthorised use of company equipment, i.e. using the cd-writer to copy the disc. I was brought back on a four-month contract which would run up to December, in order to document the systems and give me time to look for another job. I was allowed to keep the company car, but lost health benefits (and had to take a hefty pay cut).
At this time my assistant was a man in his late 50's who had a lot of IT experience. There has never been more than two people in the IT department here. He'd been working for us for about a year, and took the role of IT assistant as he was looking for something less stressful as he wound down his career until retirement. He was immedaitely promoted to IT Manager, a position he never wanted in the first place. The company hired a new guy in his late teens (not quite a school leaver, he already had 12 months experience working elsewhere) to be the new IT assistant. Part of my duties was to train him up in the day-to-day operations of the department.
All this happened after my marriage had falling apart, but before the divorce had come through. During the last few months of 2002 I was in the situation where my wife had asked for a divorce, I was about to move into a house of my own and I didn't know if I'd have a job after Christmas. This is a whole other story, but I'd put in an offer on this house in November 2001. I couldn't move in until I'd saved enough for the deposit and the current owners had found somewhere else to move to. This took until August 2002, during which time I was back living with my parents. At the age of 30-whatever-it-was.
Anyway, back at work, the directors employed somone else in a role not related to the IT department, and he needed a car. He was given mine. Since my contract specified a car, they got me a replacement. I went from driving a 10-month-old 1.8 litre family car to a 10-year-old 1-litre shopping trolley rustbucket. Still, it was transport, of sorts.
At the start of December they told me they were actually quite happy with my work and offered me a further six months. Since I didn't have anything else to go to, I accepted.
At the end of January, the new assistant was given the boot. He turned out to be quite difficult to work with, and they let him go at the end of his three-month probationary period. I was told that I could have a full-time job with them again once my six months was up. Also at the end of January my car was stolen by joy-riders and trashed. They got me another replacement, which was another 10-year-old rustbucket.
Towards the end of the six month contract (this would be June 2003) I was told the terms and conditions of my new full-time employment. My job title would be IT Administrator, but there would be no company car. Bugger. But there was a ray of sunshine. They were going to give me the 10-year-old rustbucket! Free, gratis, and for nothing. I was mightily impressed, I can tell you. Not. They would also give me an extra £750 a year to cover running expenses for the car. £750 does not cover tax and maintenance on any car, no matter how old or new it is.
I kept the car until the end of the year. I had to get rid of it before it's MOT was due at the end of the year (for the benefit of overseas readers, the MOT is an annual test of a vehicle's roadworthiness). I remortgaged my house (it had doubled in value over the previous 24 months, finally something was going my way) so I was able to get myself something decent to drive. I still have this car and I'm extremely happy with it.
I put the rustbucket into an auction. After the auctioneer had taken his fee, I got £27 for it. I spend more than that on a tank of fuel each week.
With the marriage falling apart, getting demoted, moving out of my 3-bed semi-detached suburban home into my parents house and then into my current four-roomed house, and everything else that's happened to me in the last three years or so, I think I'm holding up pretty well. Still need a big kick up my arse to get a new job, though.
