F1 fans who follow the many pundits on Twitter may have come across Lewis Hamilton’s ‘Spring Layers’ shoot for GQ, where the Formula 1 Championship driver poses in various (some may say ill-advised) outfits.
It was only a matter of time, but the photoshoppers have started: take a look here. My favourite is the knife-throwing one…
Via the medium of Twitter I discovered a letter from John Steinbeck to his son on the occasion of the latter ‘falling in love’. Quite lovely.
In fettling the blog and dusting it off I took another look at how people were finding it via Google.
Alongside the usual searches for Wakefield, Trinity Walk and coffee percolators there’s some really bizarre search terms in here, including:
…and a pile more really odd ones.
Christ knows what you lot are up to…
I was on Radio 4 last night, a little soundbite on Tom Robinson’s edition of “It’s My Story” entitled “Getting Bi”. I’d been interviewed at length for it by producer Ashley Byrne back in June and was more than a little nervous how much of the recording had been used, but I think I got my point across. I sounded a bit camp maybe, and I got to use the word ‘parameters’: score 1 for geek talk.
Anyway, you can catch it on iPlayer over here until 26th September, and I believe it’s Radio 4′s weekly highlights podcast too.
(The title refers to a close relative who hadn’t actually realised, despite it being bleedin’ obvious for years or me not exactly making a secret of it from vaguely 2003 onwards… contrast that to one of my oldest girlfriends who said ‘oh come on, I always knew’. Go figure.)
Update: As predicted it’s Radio 4′s Documentary Of The Week. Get the podcast from here or download it directly from the BBC using this link.
Nicked shamelessly from Subhi…
- A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.
- Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when.
- If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.
- Everyone asks for a strong project manager – when they get him they don’t want him.
- Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager’s imagination.
- Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.
- Good project managers know when not to manage a project.
- All project managers face problems on Monday mornings – good project managers are working on next Monday’s problems.
- For a project manager, overruns are as certain as death and taxes.
- If there were no problem people there’d be no need for people who solve problems.
- Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices.
- Good project managers admit mistakes: that’s why you so rarely meet a good project manager.
- Fast – cheap – good: you can have any two.
- There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale.
- The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it.
- The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%.
- The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale.
- To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project.
- Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea.
- The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable, about being uncomfortable.
- When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.
- If it happens once it’s ignorance, if it happens twice it’s neglect, if it happens three times it’s policy.
- You can build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
Some of this I agree with, and I have met many many project managers to which much of it applies. One day, I will probably be able to write a book about it. Enjoy your Saturday.
As seen on Facebook…
T’was the night before school started when all through the town,
The parents were cheering – a riotous sound.
By nine, kids were all washed & tucked into bed
Where memories of homework filled them with dread.
New pencils, new folders, new notebooks too!
New teachers, new friends – their anxiety grew!
The parents just giggled when they learned of this fright,
And shouted to all “GO TO BED! IT’S A SCHOOL NIGHT!”
Monday, I get the place to myself again and working-from-home means I get a few hours of uninterrupted thinking-time… yay!
An online pal of mine, Vicky, posted these to Facebook earlier…
MIDDLE AGE TEXTING CODES:
- ATD -at the doctor
- BFF -best friend fell
- BTW -bring the wheelchair
- BYOT -bring your own teeth
- FWIW -forgot where I was
- GGPBL -gotta go, pacemaker battery low
- GHA -got heartburn again
- IMHO -is my hearing aid on?
- LMDO -laughing my dentures out
- OMMR -on my massage recliner
- ROFLACGU -rolling on floor laughing and can’t get up
- TTYL -talk to you loud.
Good lord, these things have a habit of sneaking up on you don’t they – time for the new year and all the bollocks that goes with the resolutions. Last year I resolved to chart the band somewhere in the world – it didn’t happen, there’s lots of reasons it didn’t, but it doesn’t stop the aim from being laudable at the time. I’ve gone for something a little more realistic this year: stop taking so much negativity to heart. It occurred to me that I can be quite easily derailed if I let stuff get to me, so I’m just going to ignore it.
Other stuff I really want to sort in 2011:
I probably also should add ‘stop pissing around on Facebook and Twitter so much’ but that’s easier said than done.
Christmas this year was pretty darn good with no arguments, no scrapping, no stress; it’s the first year both Nicky and I haven’t been working for the duration which really showed in our moods and general demeanour. I slept quite a bit, generally pottered around, helped Ellinor acquaint herself with Flickr so she could share photos taken using her new Canon point-and-shoot camera (yes we have hundreds of photos of Bunny now) and I did sod all else. In the bit between Christmas and New Year (which I fondly refer to as the ‘perineum’ of the year) I finally did something with some lyrics our lovely friend Jayne had provided some time back and wrote a stomping 90s disco club anthem type thing called “You’re Killing Me”. Of course it’s not ready yet (and given previous form you’ll only hear it at gigs for the next year or so) but it’s really ace; I’m looking forward to whacking guitars and bass on it properly!
I also met up with an old school-friend I’d not seen in 20 years and did a vague guest appearance at The Hop’s Open Mic Night for a couple of songs – where I was joined by Si Rowe on vocals. Huzzah!
Last night brought our usual New Year’s Eve party for folks with nothing better to do – I had a corker of a hangover this morning (damn you chilli vodka, filling my brain with malfunctioning rotary farm equipment at a high decibel level) so it must have been good. Photos here.
Anyhoo, in a few days I’ve got a couple of weeks of handover up at Damart followed by a statistical analysis app for the NHS and some fun telecomms stuff directed by one of the Internet’s ‘old guard’. I reckon this leaves me in good solid work until at least the end of March and will finance holidays and a Nord Wave.
While 2010 was OK I’ve got high hopes for 2011, if only I can shift this damn headache…
It’s just occurred to me that I’ve not blogged for over a month – lots of things have happened (although none of them involving a holiday, for reasons I’ll expand on in a tic – which makes the title of this post a little meaningless). So, hum, er, 20th July onwards, let me try and remember what’s happened since then…
First on the list was taking the kids to see Pet Shop Boys at Newcastle Arena. Both Ben and Ellie have loved the live DVD and the showmanship, so didn’t really see a problem with taking them to their first stadium gig. With my first ever stadium gig in mind (Bob Dylan at Birmingham NEC supported by Tom Petty, can’t remember the year but they were rubbish seats) I booked seats where we were unlikely to have a problem with the view – stage left, about 18ft from the front. Brilliant, the kids could see everything and once Ellie had got used to the harshness of the support act (Sophie Ellis-Bextor, badly mixed) they had a fantastic time. Proper family outing!
During July we got involved with Wakefield Music Collective, the body which organises the annual Clarence Park Music Festival in Wakefield among other events. It sorta started with being asked to do a poster design, then both myself and Nicky volunteered to do stewarding duties and had a whale of a time walking around in hi-viz jackets. I’d also not anticipated the steepness of that hill in front of Clarence bandstand, although I sneakily managed to avoid walking up and down it too much clearing litter (thank you for taking your litter home!). A lot of good acts on but the highlights for me were Ruby Macintosh Retrospective and Jiezuberband who bill themselves as ‘Scottish prog-rock’ (they brought their own Hammond and a proper hardware Leslie unit, woo!). Ben particularly enjoyed rockers The Jokers, getting a CD with his pocket money and even managing to blag a signed poster of the band which once we decorate his bedroom will occupy pride of place on the wall! Photos from Clarence here and here.
In the midst of preparing for Clarence I took a little bit of time to help the Fotopic.net chaps close the Wakefield office down. It’s been a long time coming and with the move to a virtual headquarters there was really no need for the overheads involved. Still a bit of a sad day but we got it all cleared out, and the furniture went to a local children’s charity. I ended up with a pile of Agfa d.Lab-2 paper cassettes which I listed on eBay… if anyone wants an 8″ or 12″ paper cassette then drop me a line and make me an offer! In clearing the place out I found plenty of memories of times past, but I’m not looking at it as a closure – more of a ‘new stuff around the corner, watch this space’…
After Clarence, the next thing that happened was Ben being a mascot at Sheffield Wednesday in the first game of the season versus Dagenham & Redbridge. My brother Tim took him (after all, he’s a bigger Wednesday fan than all of us lot put together) and they met all the players, Ben got changed in the official changing rooms, then came out and played football followed by high-fiving all the players and generally being ace. There’s an official pic of him on the SWFC website over here, but for the proper experience you need to watch the video. He really was a superstar, Tim took quite a few pics which are here, and after all that Owls won 2-0. Hurrah!
Then came Pride Wakefield, and a few days of total carnage involving Jaegerbombs and stuff. A small affair, the local Pride march was ridiculously short and I’m not sure organising it on Sunday evening was such a good idea – those who could walk the circuit from the Rainbow round past The New Union and the Harewood Arms were few and far between. I took some photos of course but certainly nothing on the scale of the London event. It got a bit debauched and apparently (!) I was dancing with Hx in Zeus Bar to Kylie and Scissor Sisters remixes… probably should mumble something regarding XX chromosomes here.
In the middle of all of this I had to do some work – I’d finished at Pace Networks at the end of July which left me without a contract for August (this also contributed to our holiday cancellation – I can’t really be on-hand for contract interviews and pitches if I’m miles away) and through a bizarre series of circumstances ended up doing bits and bobs for Ripe Design in Leeds again. The place has changed quite substantially but there’s no shortage of work and I’m hoping it’ll be quite a long and flexible contract this time. I’m still doing stuff for the Met which is gearing up for launch, plus there’s a few other private projects I’m working on including something called Pikfu… but more about that in the future.
Then there’s the back bathroom. Folks who follow what I do on Facebook and Twitter will have noticed that there’s been a near-constant stream of DIY-related whinges, photographs and invective over the past week or so, but the story is this: on 22nd August I had a rush of blood to the head and decided to rip out the back bathroom. We’ve been in this house for 8 years now and that back bathroom has been used once, instead being used as a dumping ground for anything and everything from spare lightbulbs to wine (visitors to the house will know it as ‘the wine storeroom’). So anyway, I was sick of it stinking of piss and generally being icky so pulled out the bath which took down half the plaster on the wall. Then I realised the skirting wasn’t done behind the bath, the tiles had torn away more plaster, and there was a big hole in the floorboards where the bath water-trap had been installed. Great. To compound the felony I decided to move the washbasin. End result is that I’ve spent last week plastering, doing the skirting, replacing the light, filling the floorboard holes, plumbing, removing waste pipes, tiling, carpeting, and finally putting up the new mirror. Nicky for her part has wallpapered and painted, and it looks completely different now (see photos here, plus a pic of what it looked like when we first moved in). Just need a dresser in there for more storage and jobsagoodun.
I think that’s it. True to form I’ll probably post this and find a zillion more things I’ve forgotten to mention…
(You might have noticed I haven’t mentioned Obvious Pseudonym – well, that’s undergoing a bit of a change and we have to wait for a band meeting before we can make any announcements. Keep an eye on the website, it’ll all be public soon enough.)
GAAAAAAAH! I hate not getting any feedback! I’m increasingly finding myself in situations where I’m working my arse off day in day out, sometimes struggling valiantly to meet deadlines imposed on me, and then the meeting doesn’t happen or there’s a deafening silence.
This is irritating for a number of reasons:
…And of course if I’m not doing work, I can hardly do a billing run so my own income suffers.
I realise clients pay the bills and call the shots, but if you employ contractors to carry out work at least spare them the time they need to do their job and give you value-for-money. If you don’t, you’ll lose cash, your contractor will go elsewhere come renewal time, and your project will die on its arse.
(Note: This is not aimed at any individual or organisation in particular, it’s industry-wide. Of course this is a hazard of the job, but it seems to be getting worse. Gah.)