Technical Specialists Unused

In the office today, which is unusual for a Friday for me but seeing as I'm on holiday next week I thought I should put in an appearance. Myself and Adrian had a good go at SteveP about training and tech support stuff and a whole range of issues. It just came pouring out. I think most of it just breezed over Steves head. He probably just wanted us out of his office. I'm not expecting any follow-up.

Earlier Steve had questioned me about the SINAUT product and his plan for getting some info into the office, which ammounts to getting a product specialist to sit with the particular SAS engineer for a day. It seems that he's totally forgot that he has got three technical specialists in his department who are supposed to get up to expert level on these products and support the rest of the teams. I reminded him of this and he said, "Oh yeah". I despair.

A Jolly Holiday With Jon Reed

SteveY mailed me today with an eBay link Jon Reed has an auction running for a holiday with him to Antigua. Apparently he's been getting media interest. What a character that guy is.

Pacemaker

Mad dash from the office to pick up the kids and get them over to the dentists. Checked everything ok at Jims flat then visited him in hospital. He'd had a pacemaker fitted today and considering that, he seemed very well. His hearing seemed much sharper and communication much easier. Hopefully he'll be coming out soon but it was good to hear him say how much he was appreciating being in there. All in all a good visit, although the kids hated it in there.

Barking At Digital Puppies

The kids skipped swimming lessons on Saturday morning because of Harriets swimming party in the afternoon. Everyone met up in the baths car park. A beautiful sunny autumn afternoon. Jimi turned up! He'd been visiting his dad in hospital. We talked him into coming into the water with the loan of a pair of my shorts. Paul turned up to boost the adult numbers. He mostly hung out with Dylan while I looked out for the school friends. Everyone had a great time in the water. Jacq even had time to come in after setting up the party food. The family came back to ours for puddings, coffee and more present opening. Harriet had a lot of great gifts and enjoyed her day loads. I gave Jimi a lift to New Street station and the rest left about 8PM.

Sunday was a day for relaxing. Yesterday Steve had mentioned a Flickr outing on Sunday afternoon but I had to get some work done ready for Monday morning.

So today, Monday, is Harriets birthday. 10 years old! Two digits! Our daughter's growing so quick. I worked from home today which gave me the luxury of opening presents with Harriet and taking the kids to school. We got Harriet a DS and the Nintendogs game which she was thrilled with. Jacq bought herself a copy also and spent the day shouting commands at her virtual dog. Got my work emailed off about lunchtime which was a great relief. Mike popped by in the afternoon and dropped off a copy of V For Vendetta which I'm looking forward to reading. Then it was time to pick up the kids again. Time for much barking at digital puppies.

She's Back!

Yes, she's back! Our big girl Harriet is back with us! Had to wait at school after picking up Dylan. The coach was stuck in traffic. When they finally arrived it was so good to see her. She claims it was all horrible, the food was gross, the activities were hard and they had to do chores! But I reckon overall it was a great experience for her and given time she'll look back on it fondly. I spoke with her teacher to thank her for looking out for Harriet and she said that Harriet had done really well during the week. We're so proud of her.

Picked up some McFood on the way home then showed Harriet the new desk in her bedroom that we set up for her while she was away. It's so good to have her home.

John Peel Day

I was thinking of not going to the John Peel Day gig at the Jug Of Ale as Mike and Paul had both dropped out. Then Paul of the IC list mailed and we agreed that even if the bands were shite (which they were) it was worth attending in memory of the man.

Whilst propping the bar and discussing various music matters, I was approached by Brendan! Haven't seen him for about 10 years. He looked really well (the bugger) and it was very good to catch up a little with him. I hope that now we have bumped into each other that we can catch up a bit more some time.

All in all a good night. Not the greatest gig but still enjoyable to be back in the local gig scene. Must keep looking out for more interesting events. Check my upcoming page for the latest.

Harriets Trip

Our big girl is on her first school trip away to Wales for the week. We took her to school this morning and saw her off on the coach. Jacq was stressing over the packing arrangements but in reality organised it all superbly. Harriet was a bit nervous the night before but this morning it was more excitement that I saw.

Tonight we got a call from the teacher saying that Harriet was a bit upset and wanted to speak to us. Jacq took the call but could barely squeak a word out in an attempt to not get upset herself. I spoke to Harriet and she was fine, just a little homesick. Her friend Lizzie had started them off and the pair of them got upset together. I think they were tired at the end of the first day and their emotions got the better of them. I'm sure things will be fine in the morning. I was very pleased that their teacher spotted the situation and took steps to smooth it out.

Editors

Great night last night at Editors at the Irish Centre. Mike and I went into town together. I enjoyed walking through the city centre. The evenings now dark but the store lights still on, reminded me of Christmas. It's so rare that I walk around town that every visit brings new discoveries. I'm constantly looking around in wonder.

Met up with Paul at The Kitchen within the Custard Factory. Nice bar. Nice art on the wall by Beat13. Had a couple of drinks before heading off to the Irish Centre. The place was heaving. Sold out. It had been ages since I'd been to a 'proper' gig like this. Queuing to the bar and crushed in the mosh pit. The support was ok, We Are Scientists from NY. When Editors came on the place went wild and it was fun allowing myself to get swept up in it all. Joined in with the mosh pit and had a great time leaping about. So hot in there, the occasional flung pint came as quite a refreshment. I was hoarse from shouting in ears to chat and singing along with the songs. The band played well and the crowd loved it. All in all a top gig.

When we piled out of there I had that lovely post-gig deafness as we walked around the streets of Digbeth looking for a last drink. Eventually we gave up on that idea and made our way back through town to the bus. It was quite a serene journey home which I suppose is odd for a Friday night. The parts of town we walked through, the bus, the Bearwood high street, all quiet.

Upcoming

So I get myself setup on Upcoming and drop a badge on my blog site then what happens next? Well Upcoming only go and get themselves bought by Yahoo! don't they? Is there a pattern here? Will all the sentences in this blog post end in a question mark? No.

This is cool news. Stuff coming together. I like it. And tonight I'm attending my first Upcoming-posted gig, Editors at the Irish Centre. I'm reet looking forward to this. Meeting up with Mike and Paul over at the Custard Factory first. Should be sweet.

Matlock Day Out

A beautiful day out to Matlock in the Peak District. First stop was a walk around Matlock Bath. As always, the book sale shop caught our eye. Among other things, I picked up a 'making of' book for the recent Hitchhikers movie. At the till, the guy told me that his daughter was actually in the movie. A student at the Wimbledon College Of Art, they got involved in the creature props and she actually played one of the Vogons.

We drove up to Rowsley and got on the Peak Rail steam train back down to Matlock. Had a bit of a look around and then went back. On the platform waiting for the train, we started to worry. No sign of the train. Finally my nerve went and I called the helpline. As I listened to the phone ringing, the engine came around the bend. Phew. Back to the car, and home.

The Art Of WFH

Yet another day working from home (or WFH, as it shall be referred to from now on) which takes the total days for this week to three. A new record for me. Must confess to still not being as effective as I would like to be. I have to improve this if I want to continue with the WFH routine. Having to work on the family dining table is not ideal and there are many, many distractions throughout the domestic day to contend with.

Yesterday I popped into the office for some traditional desk action. The highlight being confirmation of the tech specialist conference in Karlsruhe. Hotels and flights now booked, this trip is on! Looking forward to a bit of travelling, something I haven't done for a long time.

Giving Githead A Miss

A second day working at home. My neck was stiff this morning (and still is now) so I gave the commute a miss. I was planning on going to see Githead tonight at The Garage in London. But laziness got the better of me. I don't expect that the set has changed much since the QEH gig so I'm probably not missing much. Would have been good to catch up with the IC massive but it's a long way to drive on a wet evening just for that.

Now THAT'S What I Call A Salad Sandwich!

Sometimes 'Working From Home' has it's advantages you know. Had quite a productive session this morning and stopped to make this beast of a sarnie. Probably my favourite ever meal, the salad sandwich. Oh well, blog post done, break over, back to the Functional Spec.

Drink At Heights

My new desktop background, showing off a composite I assembled this morning from our visit to the Heights Of Abraham last weekend.

Took Dylan and Sofia to Dions party today and left Harriet playing with Aksa. Everyone had a great time. Jacq and I planned to get lunch at the California Pizza Factory in Harborne, but on arrival we were disappointed to find that it's closed down. Some new thing in it's place. End of an era for us.

Dylan has discovered the telephone. Spent ages on the phone this afternoon to his mates Sumeet and Arron. It was so funny listening to him chatting away.

A Nice Saturday

A nice Saturday today with swimming lessons this morning then the afternoon spent at the Belbroughton Scarecrow Weekend. Lizzie, Steve and Theresa were there too. Weather was nice. All in all it was very nice just wandering around the place.

Worked from home again yesterday. Quite a productive few hours. Getting back into the discipline of it all.

Quite a good week just gone. As Phil mentions in his blog, there's a Technical Consultants Conference in Karlsruhe at the end of November and we've been approved to attend. If that comes off it should be excellent.

Tags

Tags are great! It is such a cool way to organise information now that I've finally got the hang of using it. My first experience was with Flickr, and like most things I mused too much over what words to use. But lately I've loosened up a bit through tagging my bookmarks in My Web and I've found that the more tags you use, the better resource of info you have at the end. Obvious really, but it takes me time.

Tags are being used more and more by different sites, there's even a name for it, Folksonomy. Not very catchy. There was an article in The Guardian about it recently.

Would you like to see my tag cloud? You may have to sign in to see this, not sure.

Revolution Controller

Nintendo do it again! Always prepared to think that bit wider. The new controller design is a classic example. Like many, I first saw it and thought Nintendo had lost the plot. But now I'm convinced that it's going to be awesome. The thought of using it as a sword / lightsaber will be so much fun. Check out an article about it here.

Cold In The Shade

Working at home today at the end of an ok sort of week. I'm plodding through my current tasks as best I can. Jacq not feeling too good so I left her in bed and took the kids down to school this morning. A cloudless blue sky. Bright sunshine, but cold in the shade. It's starting to feel a bit like autumn. Soon the back garden will be full of leaves.

Chugged away at my documents all morning while the home PC was busy hoovering up on Soulseek. Quite a haul. More than I've had for a long time. Listened to a few tracks from the forthcoming Boards Of Canada CD. That's one I need to buy for real.

Puters Gone Crazy!

Have had a whole heap of problems trying to keep my puters online recently which has had me suspecting router problems. Tracked the problem down to a DNS failure which could be bypassed by manually setting the addresses in the TCP properties. Finally tonight I found out thanks to a forum post that it's iTunes 5 that has caused the mayhem! Apparently some bundled service called Bonjour is causing DNS conflicts. I'm glad that there is an explanation for the craziness and hope Apple sorts it soon.

In other news, there isn't much news. Yesterday was an in-the-house sort of day and today was a quite good office day. Picked up The Guardian and I love the new size, but still getting used to the logo. Got a 19" TFT monitor for my desk today which works lovely in dual desktop mode with my laptop. I was enjoying just dragging windows from one side to the other. Easily pleased me. Not that the wife would agree.

One More Go

Worked from home yesterday for the first time in ages. Good to be not driving to Coventry. Even better to see the kids in their new uniforms going into school.

Inbetween doing work stuff, Jacq and I shopped for clothes for Harriets trip next month. It was much easier picking up the clothes without dragging the kids around the shops. Thankfully it all fitted at treat when tried on at home.

This morning the kids had swimming then we went over to Lizzies for the afternoon. She did a curry which was very nice. Steve and I discussed the imminent design changes to The Guardian which I was completely unaware of. The merits of the new masthead typeface were discussed and we both agreed that we didn't like it much but that it has probably been considered long and hard by others way more qualified than us.

We took Super Monkey Ball Deluxe over to play which I picked up yesterday for a good price (20) at Game. A top game it is, with great little mini-games inside. The footie game is a fave of mine. The main game itself is the kind of things that provokes screams of pain upon failure, but always results in the urge for 'one more go'.