Moments of beauty

Monday, March 31, 2008 ~ 3 comments so far

A few days I ago I mentioned finding the beauty in things and I had a perfect example this morning as I drove to work. A glorious view unfurled beneath me as I drove down the hill. As usual my camera was tucked away in my bag. Mind you I was on the motorway so couldn’t really stop..

The sun was up, white-yellow through clouds, wafting salmon pink mist across the city like a blanket. Sprawling chimneys and gangling tower blocks dangled through the cloud. Layers of light broke away towards the hills on the horizon, shading each rise and fall, buildings picked out in silhouette, windows flashing sunlight.

15 seconds later the road dipped and it was gone. A small moment but it took my breath away.

Fate?

Sunday, March 30, 2008 ~ 3 comments so far

What is it about these things, these events in life that all seem to collide. Days go by with only the merest ripple distorting the norm then … BLAMMO! …

For example, take tomorrow. I need to be in the office to deliver a presentation as part of our induction and the kitchen fitters are due to, finally, start work. I’ve also got an appointment with the nurse to get my blood pressure taken.

I’d figured out the timings, I’d wait until the kitchen fitters arrived and then head to work. The presentation is right after lunch, so I’d give that then head off to the local health centre, then home to see how the fitters are doing.

Except they won’t be here until midday apparently, which fucks up everything. I can’t NOT be in work tomorrow but can’t wait here until midday… so Louise is taking the day off.

It’s never simple, is it?

Mind you, fate sometimes helps. I’ve managed to bork the search page on my other blog, so when I heard WordPress 2.5 was out I figured I may as well grab it and get upgraded. So I have. Both blogs are now on 2.5 and the upgrade was super smooth and whilst I’ve not had much time to play with it, the new admin screens aren’t too bad.

Fate, sometimes it gives you a helping hand, sometimes it’s like a steel-toecapped boot to your knackers. Such is life.

In other news, isn’t the new R.E.M. album good! They’ve rediscovered loud rockin’ guitars, wheeeee.

Why having a cat is good…

Friday, March 28, 2008 ~ 5 comments so far

Too busy to blog?

Just show a picture of your “far too cute for his own good” cat.

Simple.

(he’s sitting in the unfinished kitchen, BEFORE we ripped out the final set of units behind him)

Explorer showing multiple desktops?

Friday, March 28, 2008 ~ 5 comments so far

Windows XP has a bug in it, one that has bugged me for ages but is under the “can be tolerated” category. I’ve looked for a fix before but couldn’t find anything, mainly because it’s hard to describe within search terms (note to Google: how about searches based on uploaded screenshots??).

The problem occurs when you open Windows Explorer and start browsing folders. The tree on the left starts to show additional items named “Desktop” but, when you click on them they are actually items that are on your Desktop.. it’s a little weird and after a while you can end up with multiple “Desktops items at the top (and middle) of the tree on the left.
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A few random things…

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 ~ 7 comments so far

Twitter continues to absorb, offering an instant outlet for tiny thoughts and today was Muxtape day. As ever, Meg was near the front of the list, but I soon followed along. Completely illegal I’m sure so I don’t expect it to last…

Asaph has caught my eye as I continue to find a way to gather together my online life, although I’ll happily admit that these days I’m not as bothered, or driven, to find a ‘solution’ as I’m not really seeing it as a problem.

I have two blogs, a Twitter account, a Flickr account and follow copious amounts of sources via RSS. I’ve stopped watching feeds that aren’t full (with very rare and limited exceptions) and I’m quite happy with my ‘online life’. I’ve made my peace with not reading EVERYTHING that crosses my path, letting my own internal filters deal with it as best they see fit. Hey, I also delete emails… shocking I know.

I’m enjoyable busy at work, and currently looking at things like Drupal and Joomla, and possibly Ning as part of a slight shift in my role.

I’ve still not sorted through my books, but we have some time this weekend so I might take a stab at it at some point. We are off into uncharted territory on Saturday, visiting Peggy, and Sunday will be the last day without a kitchen. My letter of complaint is primed and ready (still to send it to the people who generously offered to comment on it, must remember to do that).

Building work has started opposite our office, and the piledriver started today, leaving a nice shockwave rippling across to our office and shaking my monitors ever-so-slightly. You know, just enough to make me feel nauseous. Every 5 minutes or so… bleuch.

Also need to get car tax sorted, order some Florints, organise the tiler, figure out how I’m going to do the flooring in the kitchen, do a little tidying up in the garden and… so on and so forth.

As usual, a lot of little things going on. Most of which I won’t ever mention again!

I see no… photos

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 ~ 10 comments so far

Flicking through Flickr … ahhhh I get it now …

Anyway.

I was … ummm … browsing Flickr last night and it struck me that I’m just not generally of a mind to take photos. I’m still very much a “go and take photos” type of photographer, rather than a “quick, take a snapshot” type of photographer. Now I’ll admit that, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t really that big a deal but, as we all know, it’s the minor things that tend to piss us off and this, currently, is one of mine.

Before I continue I’ll point out that, as I type, my camera sits in the bag at my feet. It’s been there for the past couple of weeks (in the bag, not at my feet).

The lack of photos is not for the want of subjects either, for a start the building I work in has an art deco frontage and a modern glass, copper and metal extension, and even then I do seem to have a fairly good eye for composition (ohhh modesty, wherefore art thou?) even if my technical know-how still needs to be improved. No, I’m definitely not short of subjects.

So, I have the camera, I have the subjects. What on earth could possibly be stopping me taking more photos? Ahhh yes, of course. The idiot holding the camera of course!

Despite the fact I see many things, on a daily basis, that I think would make interesting snapshots (a shaft of light burning through the air, a discarded bike by the side of the road, the blossoming smoke rising from an industrial chimney) my camera remains unsheathed. I really, really need to get over this. But how?

I guess I just need to get over myself, get over the sense of… what? awkwardness? Not sure but I need to get my mindset sorted. Right. OK. Yes!!

In fact I’m going to take the first step right now.

There.

My camera is now on my desk.

Hey, baby steps and all that..

Laughing is good

Sunday, March 23, 2008 ~ 6 comments so far

It’s fair to say that we are both fairly stressed with the ongoing ‘lack of kitchen’ saga, so it’s been good to have a hearty chuckle over the past couple of days.

The cat flap we fitted for Ollie is working fine. It uses a magnetic lock to stop just any old feline wandering in, and means that Ollie now has a small magnet dangling from his collar. I’m sure there are other cats in the area with the same cat flap fitted in their homes but it will stop the strays getting in.

Unfortunately for Ollie, having a magnet attached to collar makes life… interesting… particularly when your food and water bowls are made of metal … *CLUNK* … or you have to walk past the washing machine as it’s currently sitting in the living room … *KLANK* … or you walk past the clean dishes, lying at the top of the stairs as they are currently being washed in the bathroom, and a spoon attaches itself to your collar … *CLINK*. Cue one bemused cat staring down at this spoon as it follows him along the hall… “But I’m not carrying it! Get it off me!!”.

We shouldn’t laugh at him of course, but we do…

And then, off to see Jimmy Carr last night. We started with some teppenyaki, and then we (my sister and her boyfriend were with us), headed over to the Clyde Auditorium.

Suffice to say (without wanting to spoil the show for others) that he was hilarious. I’d say he was edgy but that wouldn’t really sum up his brand of humour. What he does is very smart of course, taking the audience to a place where it’s ok to laugh at a particularly distasteful joke and then taking you one step further to shock you.

Peppered with one-liners, and a nicely handled ‘open session’ with lead to some arsehole just shouting abuse (which Jimmy handled excellently “You know, whenever I get someone like you in the audience I get a nice warm glow. After all, somewhere a carer is getting the night off…”) the highlight was probably the consistent way in which he related the jokes to two 14 year olds that were sitting in the front row….

A great show and a very smart, very funny man. If you get a chance to see him live, and you aren’t easily shocked (there are recurring themes of paedophilia for example) then go and see him.

Just be careful if you decide to heckle him. He is quietly and lethally brutal.