Hungary bound

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 ~ 2 Comments

Camera, check. iPod, check. Books, check.

Ohhh! Clothes.. check (kinda).

Ummm… toiletries, check.

Ehh… passport, check. Cash, check.

Right.

We’re off to Hungary. Back on Sunday.

Ohh don’t worry, there’ll be a couple of posts along soon to keep you occupied.

Viszontlátásra!

We Haz Teh Kitchen!

Monday, April 28, 2008 ~ 18 Comments

Laminate flooring is a bugger (or maybe it’s the instructions?). But, finally, it’s done!!

Well, technically speaking there are a couple of small jobs to do but that’s the big stuff out of the way. You should’ve seen us when we laid that last bit of flooring, high-fiving like a couple of NBA All-Stars we were.

Anyway, nothing else to say about it, just wanted to mark the occasion.

Distracted

Saturday, April 26, 2008 ~ 2 Comments

Looks like a day of constant drizzle ahead so I’m stuck indoors. Louise is away out to do some shopping and catchup with a friend over lunch and freshly brewed coffee is currently gurgling away in the kitchen.

Tasks for the weekend are to finish the flooring in the kitchen. We failed last weekend as the starting point, cutting back the flooring in the hall, took much longer than we thought (lifting a few boards of laminate, against the lay pattern, is bloody hard!).

I’m also toying with installing Ubuntu on my old PC, and if I still have time I WILL make a start on organising my books.

But, of course, that doesn’t account for any distractions. The internet being an obvious one with the ubiquitous “I’ll only be 5 minutes, I’m just checking my email” swiftly becoming an hour spent surfing completely random websites (all of which are fascinating, of course). My current problem is, as I mentioned the other day, that as I’m trying to figure out how to best to get an online community up and running, I’m spending a fair amount of time researching ideas, trying technologies and so on.

It’s worse when I’m at work. Just when I’m getting my head around something another distraction appears. Of course, most workplaces are full of distractions, especially with the way we do things at my current place which relies heavily on conversation as a way to share information.

Although I do have to confess that I quite like being distracted. Naturally some distractions are more welcome than others and, if I’m very honest, I do occasionally seek out distractions. Sometimes it’s to avoid that task that I don’t want to do, but sometimes it’s a a means to an end, a way to refocus.

As an avid “lifehacker’” (Lifehacker.com, 43 folders etc), there are some techniques which I follow, but none to which I avidly subscribe. I have an almost zero inbox, I do break large tasks down into smaller ones and so on and so forth. Removing distractions is a common method to be more productive, allowing you to get into the ‘zone’ (allegedly), but I find those self same distractions can kick start the creative juices and… well you get the idea.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I welcome and seek out distractions knowing full well that I’ll reap the benefits later.

Now, where’s the remote?

Got TED?

Thursday, April 24, 2008 ~ 1 Comment

Have you heard of the TED conference? (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design)

No? It’s been going a while now, and got started back in 1984

…out of the observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. The first TED included demos of the newly released Macintosh computer and Sony compact disc, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals and AI guru Marvin Minsky outlined his powerful new model of the mind.

As well as the conference they share some of the sessions on the internet (freely under Creative Commons license). The quality of these sessions remains high with some of the brightest minds of current times talking about some mind-blowing things and I remain constantly fascinated by the crossover of ideas from one distinct stream of thought to another.

Personally the TED sessions have prompted me to buy several books and dig deeper into some of the topics, I’ve learned a lot.

So, when Adrian McEwen said he’d pulled together a downloadable taster pack of some of the best bits, and was looking for a little help with some bandwidth, I figured it would be good to give something back. Included in the torrent file he’s put together (which will nicely fit on a DVD once you’ve downloaded it), are:

1. Dan Gilbert asks “Why are we happy?”
2. Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce
3. Sir Ken Robinson say schools kill creativity
4. Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen
5. Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice
6. Gever Tulley on five dangerous things for kids

So, don’t just sit there, fire up your Torrent application of choice (I prefer uTorrent) and GRAB IT WHILE YOU CAN.

Merge

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 ~ 4 Comments

I really shouldn’t use that as a title for a post, all I now have in my head is Chandler (from Friends) talking about how funny it would be to have a Merge road-sign above the bed (”MERRGE”).

Anyway, the week is rolling past at a fair old lick, and the countdown to our trip to Hungary has begun. Louise has nabbed the book on Budapest my Dad gave us, and each morning I’m regaled with a new set of facts about either Buda, Pest, Budapest, the Danube or the surrounding area. We are slowly gathering a list of places to visit but, at some point, we’ll need to stop as we are only there for 5 days (really 4 when you discount travelling).

I’m taking my good camera to Budapest and have a nice big 4GB card to fill (and 2GB spare as well), so expect a LOT of photos. I’ll be competing with our host though, and she has a big fancy DSLR so it’ll be interesting to see some comparison shots. I’m getting quite excited about our trip to be honest, really need to start thinking about what to pack.

As for the title of this post … well it seems like this little hobby of mine and my work are finally converging with “web 2.0″, blogging and community websites becoming the main focus of my attention as I’ve just started to plan the creation of a “community website” for my current employers. It’s nice when hobbies (passions?) and work collide and I’m having to force myself to STOP thinking about it 24/7… well almost 24/7, the usual diversions still kick in (Wii, Champions League, Ollie, kitchen DIY, por… errr… some other stuff).

It’s also sparked some ideas that I can use to get Scottish Blogs back up and running. Admittedly that’ll be a little way down the road as I’ve got a couple of website clients to deal with first, but exciting (busy) times ahead.

Don’t panic

Monday, April 21, 2008 ~ 17 Comments

Watching the news, watching the cars queue at the garages, sucking them dry.

Which is all fine aside from the fact that OUR tank is close to empty. The car computer reports we have 94 miles left, so let’s presume we can squeeze that to around 120 miles (at the very very most). Given that we put about 55-60 miles on the car each day for our daily commute (kill the planet!!) and… yeah, I’m a little concerned. I will be going out later to fill our tank.

And next time we buy a car, we’ll be getting a hybrid of some sort. Performance be damned (mark my words please, I’m quite serious about this and have been watching the developments Honda are making with keen interest). To be honest, if it was more affordable I’d consider converting our existing car.

We are completely reliant on having a car. It IS possible to get to my work on public transport but it would (presuming everything ran on time) take just short of two and a half hours. One way. I’d really rather not spend five hours of my day commuting, which is, of course, hugely selfish of me.

Perhaps we should move.

But we like it here. We like our little house and, besides, we can’t actually afford to move. Have you SEEN the house prices? I know what our house is (allegedly) worth and it is, quite frankly, mental. I certainly wouldn’t have paid over £100k for it. Mental.

But things seem to be changing, and I’d really rather be a little ahead of the game, and remove some of our reliance on oil sooner rather than later.

Floored (plus other items of note)

Sunday, April 20, 2008 ~ 5 Comments

I’m lying on the bed, laptop perched on a tray, watching TV. It’s a little tricky to type because I’ve got a cut on the middle finger of my left hand, and my arms and hands are sore. Why? Laminate flooring.

Previously the laminate flooring ran from the hallway through to the kitchen, it’s a galley style kitchen so was the easiest way to get some cheap flooring down when we moved in. The new kitchen meant new flooring to compliment it which meant lifting and cutting the few boards that span the doorway. Not a simple job, as it turned out, particularly when you have a bad knee which is something I hadn’t really factored into the work. Meh.

However that’s the hall all done, and the kitchen floor shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll maybe tackle a little of it tonight, see how my knee is I guess.

I’ll happily admit that I don’t really understand why a man would want to dress himself as a woman, but frankly I don’t really care, each to their own and all that. I’ve been reading Becky’s blog for a couple of years, and it’s been interesting to hear about her life, how she came about and how Simon lives his life.

So I was thrilled to read a well researched and thought out piece on Becky and Simon, which featured in the Norwich Evening News (another joy of the internet, who’d have thought I’d EVER link to a newspaper from Norwich). You can read Simon’s thoughts here.

It’s well worth a read.

I occasionally link to Wikipedia. If there is an obscure topic that I think you might need some more info about then it’s a fairly reliable source (with the usual caveats of course). So, it’s interesting that Encyclopedia Britannica has opened access to bloggers, which I guess is a move to try and re-establish not only the Britannica brand, but it’s place as THE source of reliable information. However I think they might be too late…

Contemplating upgrading our Sky system to HD. We’ve started watching movies again, started with some old favouries (Matrix, Face/Off and so on) and if the trend continues it’ll be worthwhile. Mind you, I might need to start saving up to get an iPhone if the much-rumoured new version is announced in June.

Time will tell.