Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wishing the brain had an 'off' switch
As I said the other day, I enjoy my work at the moment. It has a downside though. I come home from work and because I enjoy what I do, I'm thinking about problems I need to solve or things that need doing the next day. I go to bed and I'm still thinking about them, meaning I can't get to sleep. I wake up before my alarm goes off and I start thinking about them again.
I think I'm suffering from work enjoyment insomnia....
I think I'm suffering from work enjoyment insomnia....
Labels: Personal
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
RIP
Was a little surprised to see Jeremy Beadle has died. Don't think he was taken seriously by most people - often mocked - but reading that I have a new respect for the guy.
Labels: News
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Gadgets
Hell, that's some torch!! Only has a 15 minutes battery life but I feel that's more than enough to blind at least fifty people.
Labels: Gadgets
Computers
I can't believe I've not seen this before. If you are going to do computer game reviews then this is the way to do them. Top marks that man.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Tales from the workplace
As Bunni pointed out to me (if you've not been to visit her in a while, now is a good time. She's in the middle of an interesting - and quite explicit - tale of Paris), I don't mention much about what's going on in my life at the moment. Truth be told, there isn't that much worth telling.
That said, I mentioned my pay rise at work recently but didn't say much about the job. Thing is, I'm actually.... enjoying it. There, I said it - I'm enjoying work. I have enough to keep me busy without being over stressed and the work itself is quite interesting. My post has also evolved slightly into me becoming the 'resident expert' in some thing. Finally feels like my work is important and I'm getting a bit of credit for what I do.
That feels good.
She Who Tells Me What To Do has been off ill this week however (hope you are feeling better if you are reading) and after doing the important stuff I had left, followed by the less important stuff I'd been putting off for a while, then the really boring stuff and finally colouring in Excel spreadsheets my brain was melting by Friday. Is it wrong to hope for things to go wrong just so I have something to fix?
That said, I mentioned my pay rise at work recently but didn't say much about the job. Thing is, I'm actually.... enjoying it. There, I said it - I'm enjoying work. I have enough to keep me busy without being over stressed and the work itself is quite interesting. My post has also evolved slightly into me becoming the 'resident expert' in some thing. Finally feels like my work is important and I'm getting a bit of credit for what I do.
That feels good.
She Who Tells Me What To Do has been off ill this week however (hope you are feeling better if you are reading) and after doing the important stuff I had left, followed by the less important stuff I'd been putting off for a while, then the really boring stuff and finally colouring in Excel spreadsheets my brain was melting by Friday. Is it wrong to hope for things to go wrong just so I have something to fix?
Labels: Personal
Friday, January 25, 2008
Amusing
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Arty
Environmental
Huge number of African refugees causing decline in wild animals. The bit that made me look twice was this:
"The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force further claims that 100% of wildlife in game reserves has been killed, as well as around half of the wild populations of national parks. It believes by 2013 there will be no wild animals left."
Labels: Environmental
Interesting
Internet
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Timewaste
In the news
Whilst not a bad idea in itself do they really think that making students take cooking lessons will make them eat more healthily in future?
And why stop there? Why not lessons on things like sustainability?
And why stop there? Why not lessons on things like sustainability?
Labels: News
Video and Politics
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Cool
Dolphins playing with bubbles. Hard not to think of them as highly intelligent (and playful) after seeing something like this.
Labels: Cool
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Arty
Naked chicks on post-it notes is a site that features... well if you can't guess there is no helping you really.
Labels: Arty
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Games
In the news
Dog misses his cat chum so much he goes to get him - even tho he's dead and buried in the back garden.
Labels: News
Gadgets
At last
I say I'm back and then disappear for several days - typical eh. I've been out the last few nights and I can't blog at work anymore - even over lunch - as I've now moved to my new desk. Yes, after 10 years I've finally escaped the windowless back room full of 100+ servers and other bits of noisy equipment. I've escaped that to the joys of a desk hastily shoved into a bit of vacant space right next to the door to the main office. Everyone going in or out can see exactly what I'm doing all day long. I can feel myself becoming boring as I try to act sensible and I've only been there three days.
Still, today is a good day. After many (many many) months I have finally been given my new official job title and regrade. Plus (oh yes, there's more) I got a nice big chuck of back pay. More than I was expecting.
Super.
And to round it all off, I finally found the solution to a problem I've spent the best part of the last three days trying to fix. I don't know why it fixes it but frankly I don't care.
If I hadn't gone out and got wasted last night, I'd be out celebrating.
Still, today is a good day. After many (many many) months I have finally been given my new official job title and regrade. Plus (oh yes, there's more) I got a nice big chuck of back pay. More than I was expecting.
Super.
And to round it all off, I finally found the solution to a problem I've spent the best part of the last three days trying to fix. I don't know why it fixes it but frankly I don't care.
If I hadn't gone out and got wasted last night, I'd be out celebrating.
Labels: Personal
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Are you sitting comfortably?
So you're probably curious as to what's been going on? Well even though things should now be settled, you'll forgive me if I still a little cautious with the details. However there is a tale to be told....
A long time back, a firm of solicitors was doing a little job for my family but they took a long time doing it. Too long in my opinion. I tried to speed things up but didn't get very far. So I did what a lot of you out there might have done - I came on here and I named and shamed. It felt nice to be able to do something.
Months passed and I noticed one or two visitors to my web site looking for this particular firm. As time went on I saw that one IP address in particular became a regular. In the meantime I reached number two on a Google search for the firm.
More time passed and I didn't give it much more thought; that was until a letter arrived from them last Thursday. I'm not sure what surprised me more, that they had finally done something about my post or that they'd tracked me down in person.
The letter itself was very polite - simply asking if I had a complaint to make - and made no mention of me removing the post. Combined with the fact that the information contained in the letter unwittingly confirmed them as my regular visitor for so many months it seemed obvious that they knew they couldn't do much about what I'd written or they would have done so long before. A quick search revealed that they couldn't do anything by law anyway - more than a year had passed since I'd written the post.
I emailed back telling them I knew their real problem was me featuring so highly in the search results but that I saw no reason to remove the post. But they wanted to involve my family and I had no interest in making a big mess out of something from so long ago. So I removed the post. I told them I'd done it and that I wanted that to be the end of things. I also shut down my archives - for my own reasons - whilst things cleared themselves up.
It was quite amusing watching a flurry of visits from them next day trying to confirm what I'd said. Of course they didn't know I could see. Finally, they contacted me to agree that it was over. For me it wasn't quite and I waited until Google finally reindexed and removed me from their search results. Then it was over.
But the whole thing left me thinking. I'd been naive. I knew how high I featured on the search results and yet I'd just assumed they'd not bother doing anything about it ow wouldn't find me. Regardless of whether they could do anything, I'd not have the energy for the hassle that would come with it and I should not have put myself in that position in the first place. And I'd been naive in what I'd written. I could so easily have said something that could have landed me in court. Unlikely, but still possible.
On the other hand it felt nice that a small website such as mine had the power it did. The internet gives even a small voice so much scope to be heard - if you have the balls to back it up.
I would recommend anyone out there prone to rants might want to read about libel law from one of these sites. It may come in handy.
The whole episode also left me thinking about what I'd written here over the years and would anything else come back to haunt me. Maybe a post means nothing when you write it but who knows if it might cause trouble four years down the line when your circumstances have changed. I contemplated deleting the archives but they represent so much of my time over the last four and a half years. I thought about hiding them in a small corner of my webspace with no direct links from the homepage, or moving them to another - anonymous - site altogether and starting afresh.....
Finally I decided to go through them and remove anything problematic. The posts that are likely to get me in trouble are personal and not a huge loss if they are gone. Whilst people might want to hear me bitch about work at the time, that same rant loses most of it's importance a year later.
Took bloody ages (and some were left simply as they were so cryptic even I couldn't remember what they were about) but they are gone and now I'm back!
A long time back, a firm of solicitors was doing a little job for my family but they took a long time doing it. Too long in my opinion. I tried to speed things up but didn't get very far. So I did what a lot of you out there might have done - I came on here and I named and shamed. It felt nice to be able to do something.
Months passed and I noticed one or two visitors to my web site looking for this particular firm. As time went on I saw that one IP address in particular became a regular. In the meantime I reached number two on a Google search for the firm.
More time passed and I didn't give it much more thought; that was until a letter arrived from them last Thursday. I'm not sure what surprised me more, that they had finally done something about my post or that they'd tracked me down in person.
The letter itself was very polite - simply asking if I had a complaint to make - and made no mention of me removing the post. Combined with the fact that the information contained in the letter unwittingly confirmed them as my regular visitor for so many months it seemed obvious that they knew they couldn't do much about what I'd written or they would have done so long before. A quick search revealed that they couldn't do anything by law anyway - more than a year had passed since I'd written the post.
I emailed back telling them I knew their real problem was me featuring so highly in the search results but that I saw no reason to remove the post. But they wanted to involve my family and I had no interest in making a big mess out of something from so long ago. So I removed the post. I told them I'd done it and that I wanted that to be the end of things. I also shut down my archives - for my own reasons - whilst things cleared themselves up.
It was quite amusing watching a flurry of visits from them next day trying to confirm what I'd said. Of course they didn't know I could see. Finally, they contacted me to agree that it was over. For me it wasn't quite and I waited until Google finally reindexed and removed me from their search results. Then it was over.
But the whole thing left me thinking. I'd been naive. I knew how high I featured on the search results and yet I'd just assumed they'd not bother doing anything about it ow wouldn't find me. Regardless of whether they could do anything, I'd not have the energy for the hassle that would come with it and I should not have put myself in that position in the first place. And I'd been naive in what I'd written. I could so easily have said something that could have landed me in court. Unlikely, but still possible.
On the other hand it felt nice that a small website such as mine had the power it did. The internet gives even a small voice so much scope to be heard - if you have the balls to back it up.
I would recommend anyone out there prone to rants might want to read about libel law from one of these sites. It may come in handy.
The whole episode also left me thinking about what I'd written here over the years and would anything else come back to haunt me. Maybe a post means nothing when you write it but who knows if it might cause trouble four years down the line when your circumstances have changed. I contemplated deleting the archives but they represent so much of my time over the last four and a half years. I thought about hiding them in a small corner of my webspace with no direct links from the homepage, or moving them to another - anonymous - site altogether and starting afresh.....
Finally I decided to go through them and remove anything problematic. The posts that are likely to get me in trouble are personal and not a huge loss if they are gone. Whilst people might want to hear me bitch about work at the time, that same rant loses most of it's importance a year later.
Took bloody ages (and some were left simply as they were so cryptic even I couldn't remember what they were about) but they are gone and now I'm back!
Labels: Personal
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The power of the internet
It seems something I posted here a fair while back has not gone down very well with a certain group of solicitors. Not a huge problem but I'll be taking a few days break and the archives will be down whilst I let things settle down.
I'm hoping not to have to invoke the power of the
Streisand effect.
Catch you soon folks. :)
I'm hoping not to have to invoke the power of the
Streisand effect.
Catch you soon folks. :)
Labels: Personal
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Video
An Indian condom song.
I hope the guy in this video is packing some as obviously these little gadgets get you laid, CONSTANTLY! Of course he probably also spends half his time with his car wrapped around a tree after trying to program his wheels whilst driving...
I hope the guy in this video is packing some as obviously these little gadgets get you laid, CONSTANTLY! Of course he probably also spends half his time with his car wrapped around a tree after trying to program his wheels whilst driving...
Monday, January 07, 2008
Environmental
Green fatigue. Think it's a fairly good explanation as to why awareness is growing but action is not...
Also, with the UK expected to run out of landfill space in less than 10 years is this what we might come to?
Also, with the UK expected to run out of landfill space in less than 10 years is this what we might come to?
Labels: Environmental
Amusing
Friday, January 04, 2008
Politics
Long time readers will know I'm not much of a fan of anything political but like a lot of people I'm keeping one eye on the upcoming American elections and the candidates. When I saw this election video I had to wonder if it was really genuine.
I mean how are people suppose to vote for the guy if they are all cowering under their beds in fear? His supporters seem pretty convinced he's the right guy (check 1:00 into the video for some proper old fashion racism).
I did find this parody amusing tho.
I mean how are people suppose to vote for the guy if they are all cowering under their beds in fear? His supporters seem pretty convinced he's the right guy (check 1:00 into the video for some proper old fashion racism).
I did find this parody amusing tho.
Labels: Politics
Arty
A rather nifty picture of exploding nano wires. Cooler than it sounds - honest.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Movies
Double standards from the MPAA when it comes to what is acceptable on a movie poster?
Labels: Movies
Music
Thesixyone - seems like an interesting idea and I might have to have a proper look later (when I have sound - stupid work computer). Could be a good way for new artists to get recognised and make some money. Unlike signing for a major record label.
Labels: Music
Environmental
Why just recycle your christmas cards when you can recycle them and plant trees.
Labels: Environmental
Happy New Year
Three days into the New Year and I've not even posted yet - shocking I know. Didn't have much to say really as the new year passed by quite quietly for me (very quietly in fact as I'd fallen asleep by midnight).
However a belated Happy New Year to all you out there. May it be filled with all the things that make you smile.
However a belated Happy New Year to all you out there. May it be filled with all the things that make you smile.
Labels: Personal