Not here

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 ~ Comments Off

I don’t think I’ve done this before and to be honest it’s more an experiment than anything that has particularly good reasoning behind it, yet here I am, tapping away on my iPhone.

It’s because I can, pure and simple, yet there is a part of me screaming “SWITCH IT OFF!!” and begging me to step away, switch off, detox from all of this modern technology.

And I should, I have the books, the moleskine contains few scrawls and aches for more, yet I’m drawn to this tiny screen.

How sad.

So I will, turn it off I mean, and go lose myself in a book, or wander across the empty pages, trailing inky thoughts behind me. This is a holiday. So I will turn it off.

For today.

Why blogging is good

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 ~ Comments Off

The blogs I read are written by a reasonably diverse group of people. Naturally I steer clear of people who have hateful views, or from which I’m not going to learn anything except that they like the sound of their own voice, but on the whole I read interesting posts written by intelligent people.

When people ask me why I blog, what I get from it, why I bother, I tell them this. I tell them that, whilst there is a level of chaff which you need to sort through (that ‘Next’ button in Google Reader is a lifesaver at times), there are times when you get a series of blog posts on a particular topic that really make you sit back and think.

I quite like being challenged, being made to think, so I consider this a good thing.

And so it was recently when Clay Shirky wrote a piece titled A Rant About Women, which tempted Tom Coates out of hiatus to write a post titled Should we encourage self-promotion and lies?, which was followed yesterday by a piece from danah boyd titled whose voice do you hear? gender issues and success.

Such things are an example of why blogging is a good thing. Someone states their opinion in a fairly even handed way and people respond like adults (the downside of the internet can be found in a lot of the comments, Twitter posts and other ranting nonsense that erupted after Clay posted his article).

As for the issue being discussed in these posts I have to agree with Tom, particularly when he talks about how arrogance and confidence have a place in your “personality toolbox”, but the person who only has those tools is all the poorer for it. Unfortunately society, and certainly the workplace, still seem to favour people with confidence when what we should be doing is cutting through the noise to see what substance lies underneath.

Interestingly I did have in mind a post about how men objectify women (which I’ll still write up for another time) but got sidetracked by danah’s article. Well worth reading all three of them.

Finding Balance

Sunday, January 17, 2010 ~ 3 comments so far

My balance is quite good, says the Wii Fit Plus, but then it also says I have a “Fit Age” of 31 so what does it know. So whilst my physical balance isn’t too bad, I’m finding myself looking for balance in the other parts of my life.

I feel like some caricature when I say this but I’m increasingly realising that I should really be doing more of the things I enjoy, and prioritising everything else.

That’s why, already, I can say that I have read at least one book this year. I couldn’t say the same for the whole of last year which isn’t something I’m happy with.

Nobody to blame but myself of course, and I did achieve a lot last year although it was mostly work focussed (which I enjoy so that’s not a bad thing). However as I roll into this year I’m a bit swamped and finding myself procrastinating somewhat in the form of writing blog posts that don’t really need written.

Enough of this though, it’s not like my lot is a bad one and it would serve us all well to remember that.

And, on that note I’d invite you all to take a look around, see how your life is and then consider others. Naturally I’m talking about the recent earthquake in Haiti.

You can donate online and I’m sure most of you can spare something. So rather than that bottle of wine, or ordering a takeaway, perhaps we can all find some balance by pausing and thinking.

Bayerische Motoren Werke

Thursday, January 14, 2010 ~ 3 comments so far

I’d love to say it isn’t.

It’s really really not a personal thing, and I do know a few of them so I KNOW they aren’t ALL bad. It’s just that 8 times out of 10, when I finally see the badge, it’s one of them.

I’m willing to concede that it might be one of those things, you know, when you are more attuned to something inevitably you see more of it than you had before.

Yet there does seem to a mindset and, let’s be honest, it’s not just me saying this, the type of people who buy them seem to be of similar personality.

Brash, aggressive, impatient and inconsiderate. I could go on, but their driving style speaks volumes. Every single time I have some twat driving 2 feet from my bumper, when they finally swoosh past (just as we approach a corner, or small hill usually) it’s the blue and white badge that glares back.

This driving style is all the more baffling given the current weather conditions, and it’s just scary having a big 5 Series bearing down on your bumper with ice and snow bordering the roads.

Not only that, but of all the cars I’ve seen that haven’t been de-iced, or de-snowed, in the past couple of weeks, it does seem to be either BMWs or Jags.

Now I’m pretty careful when I de-ice my car, mainly because I like to have clear windows. Visibility whilst driving is a big thing for me, yet apparently somepeople, quite literally, jump in their car, run it for 5 mins and drive off.

You can recognise this particular brand of idiot because bar a small section of the windscreen, all of their windows are frosted up or still covered with snow.

It baffles me how anyone can think this is ok, and that’s from a common sense point of view, let alone it being a legal requirement.

So, taking all this into account, imagine my glee at spotting a nice big BMW sitting on the hard shoulder last night, it’s rear window completely frozen, and the policeman standing pointing at it whilst the driver looked on, the twat.

It’s moments like this that convince me there is such a thing as karma.

Words and books

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 ~ 5 comments so far

I’m blaming Stephen Fry.

I tried, I really did try and read his autobiography but it just didn’t flow for me. As wonderful a wordsmith as he is, it just didn’t read well, the flow and cadence was wrong and I found myself slowing down to read things in his voice. Whilst I like Stephen Fry, taking him to bed every night got a bit taxing.

So I gave up. I stopped. I admitted defeat and stopped reading which isn’t something I’ve done before.

Actually that’s a lie, I’ve given up a several books after faltering in the first few pages but that’s different. That’s like taking the first bite of a meal before realising it’s not what you wanted, or isn’t sitting kindly on the palate, and so you call over the chef (cook, wife, whatever), send the meal back and ask for something else.

No, this was different and it took me a while to realise that, although I’d read over half of the damn thing, I just wasn’t enjoying it.

That got me thinking about things I do enjoy, things I don’t enjoy, and which things I would have to change in my life to get more of the former and less of the latter.

And before my mother pitches up, yes I know life includes things you don’t enjoy but need to do but gosh darnit I’m all grown up now and if I can’t sway things more in the favour of enjoyableness then… well… that’s just not fair! Or some other slightly more reasoned argument that I can’t quite think of at this time of the morning.

With that in mind, one of my New Year resolutions (and I’m very aware of such things, setting yourself up for failure and all that) is to read more. Like my resolutions of last year, I’ve written it (and two others) on a piece of paper and wedged it in the frame of the mirror I use everyday, so I have a constant reminder of such things.

I am now reading, and enjoying, Empress Orchid. A tale of the last Empress of China, a story with characters, intrigue, passion and no small amount of gorgeous imagery. It’s nice to find myself enjoying the act of reading again, and perhaps I’ve dwelt too long on “professional” books in the past couple of years. I need to make more time for the novel.

Which means my rather quiet Goodreads account should start seeing a few more regular updates. It also tells me I have 34 books in my ‘to-read’ pile but don’t let that stop you recommending me more.

This is not Friends

Sunday, January 10, 2010 ~ 1 comment so far

If it was, this would be the “one where nothing that interesting happens because, you know, life is mostly like that”.

Or perhaps it would be the “one where all anyone seems to be talking about is the snow and ice”.

Or, most realistically, it would be the “one where he spends all day doing nothing much despite the fact he has two websites to design yet can find no inspiration whatsoever, so instead he’s been reading Empress Orchid which he is quite enjoying”.

Which basically means that one of my quieter, unspoken, New Year resolutions has kicked in (read books), where as the ones I spoke out loud have faltered already (exercise and lose weight). Not that I take these things seriously, they are more a passing curiosity to be honest.

And it’s not like I don’t have other things on my mind.

Like the fact our boiler packed up on Friday. Well, it didn’t pack up, per se, more just stopped working and, it seems, I won’t be the only person suffering as it’s a ‘known trait’ of the modern condensing boiler for the very mechanism it uses to fail in cold weather.

I’d be less miffed about this if we’d been allowed to choose the type of boiler we got fitted a couple of years ago but we didn’t, the government chose it for us. So we have a condensing boiler, which includes a condenser trap which, in very cold weather, freezes. It’s a common complaint, apparently. Which helps us not a jot.

Although it’s fair to say the government did help me find out that we have cavity wall insulation in the house, something I didn’t know already but which the nice man who came round to talk about the government grant figured out after drilling a hole in the wall.

Ohh and I’ve had a haircut.

Yup, life doesn’t get much more interesting than this people!

Morning Music

Thursday, January 7, 2010 ~ 6 comments so far

Radio and I have never really gotten along. It’s mostly my fault. I don’t listen.

badum tish!

Actually, that’s not all that far from the truth. I don’t listen to the radio all that much, it’s just never been a part of any routine. Radio wasn’t a big part of my childhood as it never occurred to me that there might be stations other than those my parents listened to, so for the most part I grew up listening to albums.

The one time I do listen to the radio is in the car on my commute which brings me to my quandary.

What, or more exactly who, should I listen to?

Music wise my tastes lie somewhere between Radio 1 and Radio 2, with Radio Clyde (West of Scotland only) being the closest match (where closest equals “if I have to suffer a mix of chart music”). I’m not a fan of talk shows on the radio, so Radio 4 is out, and Radio Scotland has a jack of all trades approach which just annoys me.

Of course we are only talking about when I’m driving to and from work so I need to find a breakfast show and a drivetime show that I can tolerate.

With Chris Evans moving to the breakfast slot on Radio 2, it seems like there will finally be something decent to listen to of a morning in the car. His evening show was pretty interesting and musically a reasonable fit to my tastes. He’s much less grating on the radio than on TV and as the alternatives are Chris Moyles (Radio 1) or George Bowie (on Radio Clyde), well it’s a no-brainer.

But what of drivetime? Simon Mayo on Radio 2? Puhleeze, there is more personality in a toe-nail clipping. Scott Mills on Radio 1, inane chatter, that whole “off of” bollocks and his playlists always seem to favour the current, most annoying, manufactured tripe. Radio Clyde seems to be where this is heading, which at least gives me local traffic reports but means I have to endure the latest greatest Scottish slang… ohh yeah, and adverts.

And yes, I could just chuck in a CD, but my other half and I don’t share musical tastes, so perhaps the ultimate option is just to switch it off.

What do you do?