Posted: Thu 1 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, Business, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Photography, Resolutions, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing |
As regular readers know, I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. It’s partly my knee-jerk response to the whole “Everyone else is doing it” ethos, which means I won’t. But also New Year is just an arbitrary day for making plans – and I tend to do it from birthday to birthday, for no better reason than that it’s an easy day to remember as a start/finish date.
Anyway, with that said I do have plans for 2015. Sometimes plans work better on a calendar year instead of birthday-to-birthday – although there’s also a couple of ideas and plans this time that would also work better to a fiscal year, April to March. But for the sake of argument I’ll stick (for now) to my usual resolution/plan structure, while also acknowledging the whole 2015 thing.
What I won’t do is go into reams of details – I know what I want to do, and I’ve got most of it written down in to-do lists and the like – but it can all be summed up in four key points, which can be summarised as:
- Create More – includes writing, photography, and web-based work/business plans
- Do More – includes activities, day trips, longer weekends, and perhaps even a holiday or two.
- Save More – working to rebuild finances, build up some backup savings, and restore the credit score.
- Weigh Less – the goal is to lose another two stone in 2015, which is what I also lost in 2014. So it’s feasible.
And that’s “it”. Obviously there’s details, sub-plans and sub-goals in there as well, but they’re the key points. They’ll do me for now.
I’m hoping that 2015 will continue in the positive direction that started in the last quarter of 2014. I’m quite sure there’ll be some hiccoughs and roadbumps along the way – that’s realism rather than cynicism, my life is never a truly smooth process – but with any luck at all it’ll be a positive year, and lots will get done.
And if not, if things go wrong, then I’ll just do what I can, and keep on in the same way as I had to with 2014.
But I do hope that 2015 is positive and constructive. That’s the intention, at least. But we’ll see.
Posted: Sun 14 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Creativity, D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Geeky, Introspective, People, Sociable |
Last week, I had a couple of indicators that things are definitely in a recovery pattern for me again. (And not just that contract offer a month before the current one expires) This year’s been pretty up-and-down, albeit with more ‘down’ than was feasible or expected, so it’s good that it appears to be closing off on a period of much-needed ‘up’.
The first real thing has been the ability/desire to get out a bit over the last month or so. As already blogged, I’ve been off to Felixstowe and Brighton, as well as two London concerts. That’s a massive improvement over a lot of the year already.
Next was the MK Geek Night last Thursday. I’ve been going to this now for a couple of years, but this year had a couple of wobbles – one where I didn’t want to go because of Too Many People, and one where I was simply too busy/overworked to go (although that one also had the potential for Too Many People as well as A Couple Of People I Really Didn’t Want To See) Me being me, I usually get myself a bit stressed about it due to the whole lots-of-people thing anyway, but those couple of times this year it felt pretty insurmountable.
However, this time it didn’t worry me at all – just turned up with some other friends, and all was good. That, I think, was the real ‘lightbulb moment’, that showed me I was doing better now than I have been in a while. Indeed, I even commented on it to one of the friends while we were there. Definitely A Good Thing.
And finally, I’ve started writing again. There’s a couple of ideas on the burners, and as yet I’m not sure if they’ll actually go through to completion – but they’re being written, which is another major sign of things being better.
So yes, it’s all a bit positive. Of course, the pessimist side of me is now just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something to mess up a bit, but that’s par for the course – and I’m not hiding away or sheltering and trying to avoid the shoe when/if it does drop, I’m getting on with things in the meantime.
Posted: Wed 10 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Weirdness, Work-related |
For the first time in a very long time, I seem to be pretty organised work-wise and well into 2015. It’s quite a scary concept.
My current contract runs through ’til Friday January 9th, which is all well and good. I’ve got a lot still to do, but it’ll keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable.
And now as of today, I’ve got a new contract that starts on Monday January 12th – still a month away! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever secured a contract this far in advance before – it’s all a bit weird.
Basically, I got contacted about this new one by an agency, and it sounded ideal. I let them know my timescales – normally, waiting five weeks for a contractor is a definite no-no. But in this case it looks like that worked out fine for them.
I had the phone interview on Monday, and all went well. Heard back today, and the paperwork is all coming through. Based up in Leicestershire, but (as with the current one) it’s going to involve primarily working from home, so that’s not too bad.
Of course, if the current contract wants to extend then it’s going to get awkward/interesting, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to sort things out in that eventuality.
Anyway, it’s all a bit weird, and a bit organised. I’m taking that (for the moment) as a positive indicator for the coming year…
Posted: Mon 17 November, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Bankruptcy, Business, Domestic, Finances |
Over the weekend, I was talking to a couple of people, one of whom had had a couple of serious illnesses/medical issues in a short period of time.
It made me think about my own situation, and I realised (OK, I kind-of knew, but hadn’t thought about it properly) how screwed I would be if I were to be hit by long-term illness, or anything serious that required me to not be working for a while.
So I’m adding a goal to the list for the coming 12 months – have a backup plan and finances.
Ideally, I’m going to aim at having the financial backup that would cover me for at least three months of not working. I was pretty much there earlier this year, but then events conspired, and it’s back to zero. But that’s the plan. I know how much I would need, and what I need to do.
Interestingly, once I’m past 2015 it should be easier. At the moment, and for the next year, a significant portion of salary goes to payments from the bankruptcy. They come to a close at the end of 2015, and my current plan is that I’ll continue to take that money from salary, but instead of going to the Receiver, it’ll go to an ISA or secondary bank-account. I know I can do without that money, so it shouldn’t be an issue to keep on not having it.
Anyway, that’s the goal. Three months of funds, just in case the shit hits the fan.
Posted: Fri 20 June, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Charm School, Cynicism, Domestic, People, Work-related |
This current role was a very bad decision – not just the workplace, but some of the people. Indeed, one of those who interviewed me has since spoken to one of my friends at a techie social event – after I’d left – about my progress and how I’m doing, and whether I’ll leave. In front of other colleagues from the same workplace.
He hasn’t spoken to me about these concerns at all.
I get that he was probably somewhat the worse for wear. There’s usually an excuse somewhere along the line. It doesn’t stop it from having been a totally cuntish thing to do, and it doesn’t stop me from wanting to punch him in the throat.
It’s a good sign that this particular workplace is about as toxic a place as it’s possible to be. They bleat on about being passionate about what you do, and about behaving with integrity, but they don’t do it themselves.
So it’s time to move on. Again.
I’m annoyed with myself, that my quality control has been so flawed. I had my reservations, and this current workplace has lived down to them. That wasn’t a foregone conclusion though – I tried to come in with an open mind, that the interview and paperwork process might’ve been an exception rather than the accepted route. Being stabbed in the back by a colleague is a pretty new experience for me, and not one I intend to repeat any time soon.
Thankfully it’s only been three weeks. This workplace will never show up on my CV, it’ll never be called for a reference. And that’s good, because I don’t want to be associated with this bunch of cunts in any way at all.
Onwards and upwards, my friends. Onwards and upwards.
Posted: Thu 12 June, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Creativity, Customer Services, Cynicism, Design, Geeky, Thoughts, Web Development, Work-related |
One of the buzzwords in the current (but please God, not much longer) workplace is “Minimum Viable Product“. It basically means “The customer gets what they’ve asked for, and nothing more”. In other words, “Yeah, fuck it, that’ll do”.
It’s a good concept when a business is starting, when you’re writing the first versions, where it’s a product idea and you don’t know if it’ll work, and/or what’s going to be the popular or desired features. So you write the minimum to launch it, make things work without bells and whistles, and find out what people want. It stops you from diving down the wrong path (and yes, mixed metaphors, live with it) and wasting time that’s valuable, that could be better spent on creating the things people do want.
It’s great for a startup, for a new product.
It’s NOT great in any other eventuality, and particularly not for an established product with customers paying shedloads. It leads to inconsistencies, weird functionality, and general oddities. Buttons disappear, sections are different, and it’s all a bit amateur. And that’s exactly what we’ve got.
But can you persuade them? Nope. It’s the buzzword, it’s How Things Must Be.
Which just isn’t healthy.
Posted: Mon 24 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Geeky, Twitter |
Apparently, over the weekend Twitter had its eighth birthday. (On March 21st, to be exact)
It also turns out that I joined Twitter seven years ago yesterday. (And another friend joined a year after that, as we discussed over the weekend)
I hadn’t appreciated that Twitter gained over 2 million users in its first year (It must’ve done, because my user ID is just under 2,000,500)
However, in that next year, it gained another 26 million users – my friend’s user ID is just under 28,100,000.
And now the new user IDs are coming close to 2 and a half billion – a recent one I created (for another project) was just under 2,400,000,000!
That really is quite huge.