Graveyard Shift
Today is Thursday 30th December, and I am at work on the “Graveyard Shift” - covering the phones between Christmas and New Year.
Posts from 2004
Slow Sundays
Today is Sunday, and I am working on CMS once more. I now have the document management system database designed and built, and am starting to look at doing s...
I Just Discovered Skype
I had heard a guy at work talking about an internet telephony package called “Skype”, but didn’t look at it until earlier on today - and am amazed to say tha...
Busy Weekend Ahead
The requirement to use the CMS project at work has finally started to appear, which means I now have to get the “missing” parts of the puzzle in place. It me...
Long Time No Blog
This blog has been sadly lacking new entries just recently, so this is the start of an attempt to put that right.
Seduced By The Dark Side
On Sunday morning I went shopping in town, and WHSmiths wasn’t open until 11am, so I had half an hour to kill…
So Ends Another Week
This week has been rather busy!
Stupid Fcking Americans
When I woke up this morning and switched the news on, I couldn’t quite believe that the American presidential election was so close…
November
Is it really the start of November already?
Difficulty Getting Up
For some reason I had real trouble getting out of bed this morning. Actually, I’ve had real trouble getting out of bed for the last few weeks (that doesn’t m...
Busy Doing Nothing I Want
It’s Monday morning, and I’ve gone the whole weekend without posting to my blog (yet again).
Busy Busy Busy
It’s the end of another week and I don’t appear to have written anything in my blog for several days… I guess that gives an indication to how hectic the last...
Crap Weekend
What a Crap Weekend.
Working On Cms Again
Greetings from a dark, rainy England.
Testing Systems
I’m kind of lost this evening… I keep starting things and then deciding to do something else instead. I wonder why?
Moving On
All things change, and I have decided (following Google throwing a load of resources at it) to move my blog writing over to Blogger.
Bored Bored Bored
I’m in one of those states of mind today where you cannot concentrate on anything too deep. Nothing has really “grabbed” me yet.
Working On Site
This morning finds me in the offices of a client in west London, working on some bespoke changes to their website.
Playing Chess Again
After an uneventful journey home on the trains (which, miraculously connected as designed), I am home once more and sat in front of a bloody computer yet aga...
Crappy End To The Day
Today has been a good day.
Saturday Again
It’s finally the weekend and I feel better than I have done in quite a while - although still not really well enough to get out running (I think if I did try...
Fixing The Car
A couple of nights ago, W got home from work and told me that the lights were playing up in her car - if she indicated right, the lights went on to full beam...
Another Day
So, it’s another new day, and another new version of Blog… it now has all the day names, month names and so on in the config file to make it really easy for ...
New Feature
The Blog script has progressed to version 1.6.2 this evening with a new feature;
Back To Work
I’m back in the office this morning after several days spent at home suffering and/or recuperating from a pretty nasty virus. It was kind of everything assoc...
Recuperating
It would appear that I am actually getting better today… thank god!
Watching Chess
While off work this afternoon I have been huddled up in the study, wrapped in my housecoat with a succession of cups of tea, both watching and listening to c...
Off Work
I’m at home today with a pretty horrible cold. It’s not a snotty nose cold; more an aches, pains, coughs and headache cold… not very nice.
The Hidden Cost Of Xp
I went to my in-law’s house yesterday and won the fight against the collection of trojans and viruses that had infested their computer.
Plans For The Future
I’m caught in two minds this evening. Having finished building the PluggedOut Penpals website, I am very tempted to do a full-on profile/networking/blogging/...
Blagging Signed Photos
While looking around on the net for anywhere I can get records of Sissel from (she’s this amazing singer - you will have heard her voice without realising it...
Sysadmin In The Evening
This evening I have been performing the necessary evil tasks that most people should probably do when they get a new computer…
Zooming Along
We went shopping yesterday for a new computer (at last). For the past couple of years we have been “surviving” at home with a rag-tag combination of bits of ...
Slogging Away
Some days it feels like you are slogging away and not really getting anywhere.
Is It Selfish
Is it selfish to wonder if you are ever going to get a whole weekend to yourself to do what you want to do? This weekend I only lost the one day (today), but...
Writing A New Website
Hi to anybody who reads this babble.
Linux Rules
I installed Mandrake Linux 10 on my little laptop at home last night - and it has to be said, I’m pretty pleased with it.
Wiped Out
Today was bank holiday monday in the UK and both myself and W are wiped out.
News From The Eye Of The Storm
The last couple of weeks probably need to go down in history as the most stressful of my professional career - and probably give a reason for so few postings...
Getting A Day Back
Today myself and my colleague/manager CH were supposed to drive over to a large automotive company to show them their newly installed workflow system… except...
Finally Released Cms
I finally released the CMS “Content Managment System” code to the internet this evening - although it’s worth pointing out that it’s still only at version 0....
Tired Angry And Annoyed
I really didn’t want to get up for work today. I had thoughts about going running first thing this morning, but my alarm went off at 7am and I didn’t get out...
Busy Times
It would appear that there is something of a pattern to these journal entries. There have not been many posts recently, and while pondering on this a reason ...
The End Of Another Week
I know, I know - I haven’t been writing much in my blog recently.
Feeling Like Death
Isn’t it strange how you can feel like death after a particularly hard workout, then an hour later you are fine again…
Keep On Running
I went for my second training run of the week this morning - another 5K under my belt in preparation for the race I’m running on Thursday night.
Home With My Thoughts
We’ve finally arrived home after several days of mayhem.
Damn And Blast
I was halfway through writing an entry for this damned Blog when I stopped to go and have something to eat. I got back, finished writing, clicked on “submit”...
Tired But Making Progress
I was at work until 18:45 this evening, cycled home through howling wind and driving rain, and have been sat here ever since working on CMS once more. I supp...
Would You Let This Man Run Your Company
It struck me this morning how Steve Ballmer has the incredible skill of looking almost infinitely stupid regardless of the situation you put him in. Would yo...
Working On Cms Tonight
This evening I am holed up in the front room of the house with my laptop, working on changes to the CMS system to make it more suitable for commercial use.
Lunchtime Runs Out
I’ve been sat here for the last five minutes thinking that I should really write a “proper” entry for my blog (after putting up the admittedly funny picture ...
Making Decisions
While driving back from W’s parents last night I decided that my “further involvement” in the web might take the form of posting more often to my Blog… maybe...
Sunday Mornings Rule
Aren’t sunday mornings great… I finally got up at just gone 9 this morning, and have sat here with a cup of earl grey and the internet for the last hour… it’...
Tired And Lacking Motivation
Listless
Harry Potter
We went to the cinema last night to see “Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban”. In my opinion it’s the best HP movie yet, and most importantly actually h...
Back To Basics
I decided this evening to do a bit of a make-over on my blog script. Out go all the table parameters, and in come nice, simple CSS tags.
Long Time No Write
It seems like so long since I wrote an entry in my online diary - hence this short entry I guess.
Back From Holiday
I’m back at work this morning, and waiting for a process to complete on a remote server - hence writing an entry in this blog.
On The Road Again
I went for a run this morning - the start of my training for the 5K runnning race W has entered me into during July. I set off at about 7:30am, and did about...
Middle Of The Week
For some reason I find myself writing this in an old copy of Microsoft Works on my old steam powered laptop. Some people probably think that because I am a s...
First Entry For A While
I’m constantly amazed how many people read this blog, and sometimes guilty that my entries are somewhat patchy in frequency… perhaps it’s because there has b...
The Bb Experiment Continues
With little or no advertising on the internet (basically, a couple of newsgroup postings), people seem to be finding their way into the forum I built for Big...
Big Brother Is Back
Yes, that’s right - the mind-numbing phenomenon that is Big Brother is back on our TV screens in the UK, so I have decided to make a website for it
Yahoo Messenger Rocks
I have just installed the latest version of Yahoo Messenger on my computer at work, and have to say I’ve not been this impressed with a piece of software in ...
Blog Version 16 Breaks Cover
After a long coding session last night, I got the templating system up and running in Blog, and incremented the version number to 1.6.
Newsgroups Defragging And Ponds
For some reason I went all the way through yesterday without writing an entry in my blog. At one point I even had it on my screen, but didn’t get as far as t...
Green Fingers And Chess
Last night after getting in from work (following the episode - still ongoing - with the huge database hack), I helped W in the garden. W’s had a bad back so ...
Hacking The System
I have spent the greater part of today hacking the database behind a corporate document management system to revise the meta-data being held against document...
Learning About Rss
Yesterday afternoon my better half W called in where I work to give me my house keys - it turns out I had left them on the side when I left for work. She was...
Too Hot To Work
One of my colleagues is busy organising a popular uprising on our floor of the office. He is threatening to throw the health and safety handbook at the HR de...
Hell Of A Week
Late last week I had a milestone meeting for the gargantuan project I have been working on for the last few months (and bleeting about in my blog to try and ...
Tarot Cards
I have a tarot card that came with a Microsoft magazine on my desk today - it’s got a drawing of a geek on it, and is called “the developer”. You can imagine...
Playing With Webcams
I tried installing my old webcam on my laptop last night. To be honest, I forgot I had a webcam until I was rooting around behind the units in the junk room,...
Bored Beyond Belief
If you are online and want to have a very stupid conversation with a very bored person (who has his webcam switched on), give me a shout.
Chuffed To Little Mint Balls
Where on earth does the phrase “chuffed to little mint balls” come from? All I know is I am extremely pleased because the programming I have been working on ...
Is It Really May Already
Just a quick message to say thanks to all those who have sent me messages on Yahoo, MSN, and so on to let me know they are there and reading this Blog I hav...
Hell Of A Week
Message Me
Missing An Old Friend
I have just lost two games of chess in a row on FICS (the free internet chess server). I played like a complete idiot. My skills are definitely not “impressi...
Back From Ireland
Following a 15 hour journey home, we are back from our holiday in Ireland, and I’m back at work slogging away on the project I’ve been working on for the las...
Fed Up With Blogging
I’m really fed up with posting boring entries to this blog, and not really knowing if anybody reads it.
Back To Work
It’s the Tuesday after easter and I am back at work (sat here with a cup of coffee as I write this - probably my last coffee for a while, because I think it ...
Money Falls From The Sky
Those that read this blog regularly will know that once upon a time I used to run a writing website called ThoughtCafe, and that it closed down at the end of...
A Chess History
I just put an introductory message on the Orkut (www.orkut.com) Chess community - I thought it might be interesting for those that read this blog too, so her...
Proper Job
This weekend I are reportin’ from deepest darkest Cornwall (the south westerly tip of England for those who only really know England as that little island th...
End Of An Era
I have just switched off the ThoughtCafe website.
Tired And A Bit Drunk
Well, I’m not really drunk, but I’m not really sober either. Since getting in from work this evening all I’ve really done is mess around on the internet, pla...
Another Bout Of Apathy
I’m sat here at work staring at Textpad (the program I’m writing this in), and the reams of SQL in the window behind it, and listening to some classical musi...
Re Writing Blog
Okay - before I start, I should perhaps re-iterate that this diary is based on code that I wrote, and I give away as “open source” to whoever wants a copy.
Looking Forward To The Weekend
I have had what many would call “one hell of a week”.
Mammoth Coding Stretch
I have just completed a mammoth coding stretch on a project that’s having a milestone meeting tomorrow. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, wh...
Appearing On Gmtv
This morning my wife and I were up at 5am, and were picked up at just gone 6am for the trip to the GMTV studios.
We Are Now Wireless
After a bit of a spending spree today in PC World, our house now has wireless networkingis the speed of the thing. Event printing full page graphics, it stil...
Working On A Saturday
It’s 9:37 on a Saturday morning as I start writing this, and I am in the office at work. In return for having the day to go filming at GMTV, I am working thr...
Filming For Gmtv
I am absolutely shattered this morning.
Chugging Along
I thought it was about time that I wrote a blog entry for March… I could end up changing the way Blog works to show the last N entries rather than “this mont...
No Va Va Voom
Over the last couple of days I have been suffering from what I can only describe as a terminal lack of “vavavoom”… I guess the real word for it would be “apa...
Working Night And Day
At the moment it really does feel like I’m working night and day… in the daytime I am working on a logistics system for a corporate client, and in the evenin...
Herculean Efforts
I was up until 1am programming again last night - the CMS code is now up to version 0.3 in the development area. Although you can’t see any difference at all...
Announcing The Cms Project
Hi all,
Feeling Pretty Good
For the first time in a few weeks I’m actually feeling okay. Still not 100%, but getting there
Walking Around Town
I’ve just got back from a training walk with W - she’s doing a marathon distance walk later in the year to support a cancer charity. Normally the evening wal...
Swimming Backwards
I feel like I’m swimming backwards at the moment. There are so many things I want to be getting on with (such as the CMS content management system project th...
Tuesday Again
What is it about Tuesdays? I seem to write in my blog at some point on a Tuesday these days.
Keep On Running
It’s mid morning on Tuesday, and I am working on an extension to some software I wrote a llllooonnnggg time ago. It’s going fairly well, but it somewhat bori...
First Blog Of 2004
Can you really believe that I have not put an entry in my blog this year so far?