Posted: Wed 9 August, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, General, Getting Organised |
So yes, as you’ll see up in the title bar, D4D™ is four today.
1,461 days ago I started writing this thing. Nearly half a million words later, in just over 3,710 posts, it’s still going strong.
I don’t know if I ever really expected to see four years in this. It started off as a braindump, and a plan to see whether I actually could keep up my interest in a project – something I’m renowned for, getting bored with a project once it’s done, and moving on to something else. Of course, with something written like D4D™ you have to ask yourself whether it’s ever truly finished.
- Four years ago I was just starting out with D4D™ and blogging in general. It was a phase, an “I wonder if…” moment, and I didn’t really have any clue what I was going to do with it, no “theme”, no nowt.
- Three years ago I was sorting out moving house, and I’d just started working for a council, in their web department (with Stinky®)
- Two years ago I was in Norfolk, with Herself and her family, and still working for that council, with Stinky®, but starting to think about moving to live with Herself.
- One year ago I was working for the company I’m still with now, the Arsehole Boss was on his way to being kicked out by the Board (an auspicious, if ultimately ill-fated move) so all was well on that score, cursing the Mambo CMS, and contemplating security announcements. Oh, and just coming up to passing my driving test.
- And now I’m still with Herself, planning on moving house to Norfolk, sorting out life, working for an Arsehole, and waiting for the paperwork and confirmation that I’m starting work with a council, in their web department. Hopefully this time without Stinky®
I wonder what I’ll be writing here in a years time?
One things pretty much for sure , though. I’ll still be here.
Posted: Sun 30 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, General, Sweary, Weirdness |
With the new PC, I’ve also installed iTunes to deal with a lot of the music. This has turned out to be a bit of a double-edged sword.
For a lot of things, iTunes is great – burning CDs, building playlists, buying music downloads – all great. No problem with that at all.
However, it has fallen down big-style on one particular area. It just won’t read in all the files I’ve got. Well, I say that – it reads the files, but in a good 50% of the cases, it doesn’t get the relevant information. Now, Real Player has no problem with the files, and has always been able to keep track of who’s done them, which album, so forth, so fifth. But oh no, not iTunes. It won’t take into account the file structure ( i.e. they’re all kept in a file structure that goes /music/[Artist]/[Album]/[Tracks] )
So in order to make use of iTunes in general, I’m supposed to go through and re-identify about 6,000 files, enter in all the tag information – all of which is in the file structure, and it even shows in iTunes with the file structure identified. It’s just the information that’s fucked. Yet Real Player has got it all with no problem.
Have I missed something? Or am I just going to have to spend time going through the entire fucking file structure, editing all the ID3 tags for all the music that iTunes insists hasn’t got the right information?
Posted: Fri 28 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, General, Getting Organised, Work-related |
OK, it’s going to end up as a bit of a brain dump. I was hoping to write out a far more reasoned/comprehensive post, but well, I failed. Sue me.
So instead, what you’re going to get is a brain dump of things that are currently annoying me more than they should…
- People who have no consideration for others. : I get really annoyed by this – it’s not difficult, that if you (for example) use up the last of the toilet roll, you replace it with a fresh one, rather than leaving just the carboard tube. Or if you use the last of the milk, you go out and buy some more. It’s not difficult – but so many people seem to have no thoughts on that score, so long as they’re not the ones that are affected
- Waiting : OK, I just want to know about the job I interviewed for last week. I know, they said I might not hear ’til today. But just get on with it, I want to know. (Yes, it’s a selfish perspective, but sod it)
- Incompetence : (It’s just taken me four attempts to spell that rightly) What with the office move/non-move/move/partial-move/non-move, and the efforts of other tossers this week, I’ve really had enough
- Timescales : Time just seems to be racing past at the moment, and I’d like it to slow down a little bit, please. Deadlines and events are coming up at a disturbing pace, and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get it all done
Edited in the name of pedantry above and beyond the call of duty There’re There’s probably others too, but they’ll do for now…
Posted: Fri 28 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, General |
You know how sometimes something really trivial happens that just brightens your day?
Yesterday it was the arrival from Amazon of “Soul Kitchen“, the new book by Poppy Z Brite. Fantastic!
Posted: Wed 19 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: General, Travel, Work-related |
Well, it all seemed to go pretty well, thank God.
I’ll know more in the next ten days or so – and hopefully sooner, rather than later – but the feedback on the day was positive, and it’d suit me nicely. In fact, yes, I actually want the job. *gasp*
The presentation went fine – considering I did it as a simple talk, rather than fucking about with PowerPoint® and so on. The specs of the interview had said “let us know if you need a projector etc.”, and I hadn’t done because I didn’t need one, but all the same, there was a projector, laptop, PowerPoint etc. already installed, set up, and running, but I didn’t use it. They seemed quite surprised and/or impressed that I didn’t – but as well as not being great with it anyway, I usually feel that PowerPoint presentations actually just show you can use PP, rather than necessarily understanding the subject, and what you’re on about. Which, in an interview like this one, is not an ideal situation.
So I did it on the fly, with some notes for reference to make sure that I didn’t forget anything, and that was all I needed.
But I still hate doing them.
Posted: Tue 18 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: General, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
So tonight I’m travelling up to Norfolk for that interview tomorrow.
In many ways I’m really cool with it – I know that I can do the job with my eyes closed, and they’ve liked what they’ve seen of me so far. I also know there’s only two people going to interview, and that the odds are pretty good in my favour, unless I make a right arse of it.
The problem is that the first quarter of the interview is a presentation. I hate presentations, and have been known to make a right arse of them.
So there’s still plenty of room for me to be nervous…
Posted: Mon 17 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: General, Thoughts, Work-related |
Blimey, now there’s a turn-up. Apparently, I’m in the top ten results in google for “what can I write in a leaving card“.
Well, my advice would be this :
If you like the person, write something nice.
If you don’t, write “It’s been nice working with you, but it’ll be even better now you’re gone.” Or just “Go on, fuck off”. Either works.