So here I am, sat on my bed with my laptop, a glass of my favourite cheap-ass red wine and Arrested Development on DVD, and I realise it's been about six weeks since I last updated.
Things are actually going pretty well at the moment. Scary I know, but still here we are. First things first: work. Last week I started a secondment to our head office working on a web app I've been developing. It all started last summer after I finished uni. When I was applying for grad IT jobs, I figured I'd better do something to get my head back into that sort of thing, so I did some work on something I'd been thinking about for ages. Long story short, it got to a point where I actually thought my work could use the thing, showed it to my boss, he showed it to his boss, and they all fell in love with me. I'm now getting paid more to work on it (though perhaps not as much as I should be) with the promise of an as-yet-to-be-determined bonus once the system is complete. Plus I get to work from home. Crackin'. The irony of the fact that none of this is due to my ability to 'develop myself' within my job, and all down to me actually wanting to leave for a different job, is not lost on me. It does seem to be lost on my employers though. They're not too bright.
The Mrs (V) and her daughter (my God-daughter, G) are great. Don't see them as much as I'd like since we obviously have to work things round her being free, G being at her Dad's, me not being at work and so on, but when we do get time together it's going well. Almost 9 months this time round (although she hates me saying "this time"). Off to Download in a couple of weeks, which should be more fun that 2007, by virtue of the fact we won't have just broken up. Knock on wood.
A couple of weeks ago I made the conscious effort to go out and take some photographs. It had been almost two months since the last time I'd even used my camera, and I really do miss being able to roam town whenever I like just taking photos. Below are the results:
I have been having some crazy-ass dreams lately. In one of them I was training to be a GP. And I was being trained by G's Dad. Last night's featured....actually it's a little fuzzy. There was definitely a murder of some sort, there was lots of yelling, but then it ended with a bunch of people stood round a house by the coast that had just been renovated so my, a girl and her six kids could live in it free of the evil grasp of the murderer who had tried to kill said girl earlier in the dream, all with the soundtrack of The Water Is Wide by Karla Bonoff.
In less bizarre news, I am loving having my drums back. I have really, really missed the whole music thang. Yeah I have my guitar, but I never really grokked that the way I did drums. It was interesting starting up again, given that it was roughly six years since I'd last played kit. I'd done some orchestral stuff up till I was 21, but after that I'd done NOTHING. (On a side note, it occurred to me a few months back that I may not even be able to read music any more - I've not even seen a score for over 4 years, and that actually kinda scares me (even more than what my brain comes up with when I'm asleep). I'm planning to join the library and borrow a couple of scores, just to reassure myself I can still hit dat. If you see what I mean.) Seriously though, I am LOVING it, even when I'm attempting to play along with Dream Theater (Speaking of DT, I've been debating with myself whether I can justify purchasing this). Although Kamelot are currently my band of choice, especially Memento Mori.
If you ever get a chance to go see them live like me and V did at Rio's in Dirty Leeds in March, do not pass it up.
I am so totally jonesing for a hit of Canada right now. I've not been over there for almost four years, and I miss it like you would not believe. I even miss the 13 hour bus ride from Banff to Vancouver. Ridiculous. I miss Robson. Davie. Burrard. VMA. I miss mountains. Proper mountains, not the fucking Pennines. Anyone got a spare 600 quid?
Kind of related to the stuff at work, I've been getting in to the whole Mac/iPhone developer scene. I have some decent ideas for some apps I'd like to build, I'm just waiting to get my iMac back from the Apple Store at Meadowhall. And none of them has anything to do with farts.
I guess what you'd take away from my post thus far - photography, music, app development - is this: I like to make things. I've come to appreciate this fact more and more, while I try and figure out what I want to do as a career. Stop thinking like "oh my god what if I can't make any money as a photographer" and just be glad that I am in fact being paid to do something I enjoy for only the second time in my life.
Three final thoughts:
1. Do me a favour and check out my mate's band Darke Horse: they've been doing a bunch of gigs in Sheffield lately and they're playing The Cavern in Liverpool in a few weeks.
2. Anyone in the UK who saw the first episode of Dollhouse and thought it was, well, shit: stick with it. You need to see the first five eps for some of the background, but it gets SOOOOOO much better once 1-5 are out of the way. And Alan Tudyk has a hell of a range. I had no idea.
3. Finally, commiserations to Newcastle fans. Although on the plus side, my Dad was proven wrong and I get to go to St James's Park next season.
PS. Re: the whole Last.fm/TechCrunch/RIAA/CBS fiasco: Is Mike Arrington A Dick? or what?
Things are actually going pretty well at the moment. Scary I know, but still here we are. First things first: work. Last week I started a secondment to our head office working on a web app I've been developing. It all started last summer after I finished uni. When I was applying for grad IT jobs, I figured I'd better do something to get my head back into that sort of thing, so I did some work on something I'd been thinking about for ages. Long story short, it got to a point where I actually thought my work could use the thing, showed it to my boss, he showed it to his boss, and they all fell in love with me. I'm now getting paid more to work on it (though perhaps not as much as I should be) with the promise of an as-yet-to-be-determined bonus once the system is complete. Plus I get to work from home. Crackin'. The irony of the fact that none of this is due to my ability to 'develop myself' within my job, and all down to me actually wanting to leave for a different job, is not lost on me. It does seem to be lost on my employers though. They're not too bright.
The Mrs (V) and her daughter (my God-daughter, G) are great. Don't see them as much as I'd like since we obviously have to work things round her being free, G being at her Dad's, me not being at work and so on, but when we do get time together it's going well. Almost 9 months this time round (although she hates me saying "this time"). Off to Download in a couple of weeks, which should be more fun that 2007, by virtue of the fact we won't have just broken up. Knock on wood.
A couple of weeks ago I made the conscious effort to go out and take some photographs. It had been almost two months since the last time I'd even used my camera, and I really do miss being able to roam town whenever I like just taking photos. Below are the results:
I have been having some crazy-ass dreams lately. In one of them I was training to be a GP. And I was being trained by G's Dad. Last night's featured....actually it's a little fuzzy. There was definitely a murder of some sort, there was lots of yelling, but then it ended with a bunch of people stood round a house by the coast that had just been renovated so my, a girl and her six kids could live in it free of the evil grasp of the murderer who had tried to kill said girl earlier in the dream, all with the soundtrack of The Water Is Wide by Karla Bonoff.
In less bizarre news, I am loving having my drums back. I have really, really missed the whole music thang. Yeah I have my guitar, but I never really grokked that the way I did drums. It was interesting starting up again, given that it was roughly six years since I'd last played kit. I'd done some orchestral stuff up till I was 21, but after that I'd done NOTHING. (On a side note, it occurred to me a few months back that I may not even be able to read music any more - I've not even seen a score for over 4 years, and that actually kinda scares me (even more than what my brain comes up with when I'm asleep). I'm planning to join the library and borrow a couple of scores, just to reassure myself I can still hit dat. If you see what I mean.) Seriously though, I am LOVING it, even when I'm attempting to play along with Dream Theater (Speaking of DT, I've been debating with myself whether I can justify purchasing this). Although Kamelot are currently my band of choice, especially Memento Mori.
If you ever get a chance to go see them live like me and V did at Rio's in Dirty Leeds in March, do not pass it up.
I am so totally jonesing for a hit of Canada right now. I've not been over there for almost four years, and I miss it like you would not believe. I even miss the 13 hour bus ride from Banff to Vancouver. Ridiculous. I miss Robson. Davie. Burrard. VMA. I miss mountains. Proper mountains, not the fucking Pennines. Anyone got a spare 600 quid?
Kind of related to the stuff at work, I've been getting in to the whole Mac/iPhone developer scene. I have some decent ideas for some apps I'd like to build, I'm just waiting to get my iMac back from the Apple Store at Meadowhall. And none of them has anything to do with farts.
I guess what you'd take away from my post thus far - photography, music, app development - is this: I like to make things. I've come to appreciate this fact more and more, while I try and figure out what I want to do as a career. Stop thinking like "oh my god what if I can't make any money as a photographer" and just be glad that I am in fact being paid to do something I enjoy for only the second time in my life.
Three final thoughts:
1. Do me a favour and check out my mate's band Darke Horse: they've been doing a bunch of gigs in Sheffield lately and they're playing The Cavern in Liverpool in a few weeks.
2. Anyone in the UK who saw the first episode of Dollhouse and thought it was, well, shit: stick with it. You need to see the first five eps for some of the background, but it gets SOOOOOO much better once 1-5 are out of the way. And Alan Tudyk has a hell of a range. I had no idea.
3. Finally, commiserations to Newcastle fans. Although on the plus side, my Dad was proven wrong and I get to go to St James's Park next season.
PS. Re: the whole Last.fm/TechCrunch/RIAA/CBS fiasco: Is Mike Arrington A Dick? or what?
spamtwo:
It's all to do with the experience even if you're not getting paid the going rate. Just having the application on your CV for an actual company will open many doors.
branden:
Me too. Twitter is the bomb. I kept that. OBVIOUSLY. 