diet and exercise: August 2005 Archives
I think I've got writer's block. I'm sitting here staring at a blank screen and I can't think of anything interesting to put on it. Actually, that's not quite true. I can think of lots of things to put on it but I can't work out how to make each of them into a blog post on its own. So here's a collection of snippets from my life as it stands on this Saturday morning.
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I still haven't found out who the mystery speed dater is. I sent a message to a girl with the same first name as mystery dater, and got a reply three days later which basically said "what are you talking about?". So I don't think it was her. I also think that the real mystery dater has either given up on me for not replying to her messages, or given up on the speed dating web site for not delivering them in the first place. Either which way, I haven't heard from her since.
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There's plenty of stuff happening at work. The new boss man started about six weeks ago and has spent his time writing a report for the board on where the company is now and where he thinks we should go in the future. He wants to upgrade the server by splitting the load across three servers instead of one. He wants to get the retail branches onto broadband and effectively make them part of the office network. He wants to get all the computer systems at head office in line so that they can talk to each other properly without me having to write little programs to convert the data from one format to another all the time. He wants to do all the things I've wanted to do for the last three years but not had the time or the confidence to go to the board and say "this is what you should be doing."
He presented his findings to the board last week and they agree with him about everything. We're going to be buying new hardware, we've kicked the new order entry system into touch because it was basically crap and we're going to be hiring a third person for the IT department to help us develop a new system in-house because basically we know exactly what we want it to do.
I've wanted to develop a new system in-house for years, and I've basically got the skill set to do so, but I've never had the time, what with everything else I've had to keep running at the same time. The new guy comes in and says "do it all my way" and they listen to him. They never listened to me when I was the manager, and they never consulted me when they chose to go with this new system they've just binned. Admittedly I was in the doghouse at the time, but I get the feeling the board don't realise how valuable my input is to a project like this. I've been with the company nearly seven years now, and I've come up with a lot of the glue that holds everything together. My new boss recognises the effort that I've put in to keep everything going, I just hope that I'm going to get the credit that's due to me.
In fact, stuff the credit, I want a pay rise.
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Regular readers may have noticed that I've not been updating you with the results of my weight loss program recently. That's because it's all gone pear-shaped, as indeed have I. I've got no-one else to blame for this but myself (and the weather, heheh) but I really really do need to do something about it. I know for a fact I'll put on more weight over the winter unless I get myself more active, and I'm currently 3lbs heavier than I was when I first started talking about all this. Grrrrrr. I went to have a look at a local gym last week, and despite being very impressed with the facilities, I just can't afford to join. I'm in a rut, I know I'm eating all the wrong foods and not getting the energy I need. I've got the incentive (i.e. I hate the way that I look and I don't want to have a heart attack in ten years time) but a three-month commitment to the gym is going to cost me at least £165, and I just can't afford that at the moment.
I definately need to have a word with someone at work on Monday. I want to make sure that they know how valuable I am to them, and I want them to pay me accordingly. That'll make me feel better from the start, and give me the kick I need to get everything else sorted out. My life is starting to just coast along again, I need to take back some control over it.
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Now, I don't think I actually had writer's block. I think it was more like writer's constipation, and as you've just seen for yourself, it seems to have cleared. That feels better......
