Discovery

I am excited. Most very, in fact.

I've found a word that the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't have listed. *geek glee*

I'm not telling you what it is yet, in case you steal, I say steal my glory. Now I must look up the entry criteria and submissions malarkey and send off.

How Incredibly Cool would that be?

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Awwww. He was worried it was dead. Check the last few strips.

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I am about to take my first solo flight on the information desk. Not that there aren't three people about to check stuff with if I get stuck, but I am excited. New job responsiblity and all that. Yesterday, I updated a folder, all by myself.

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Thursday already, eh? Been an awfully quick week and here comes the weekend. Finally going to make it along to the Canaletto exhibition on Sunday, followed by hot chocolate at everyone's favourite choc palace, Plaisir du Chocolat. I wonder how attendant the attendants are at the exhibition. Must take camera phone. (The DSLR is less than subtle).

There's also a party on Saturday night, which is good, but it's because Hamish is off to Canada for December and a tiny bit of January, which is poo. Well, I keep telling him it's only a month...

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The guy with the ears is the Devil.

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Have a good one,

C

How Embarassing!

OK, so there's an upside, but still - a bit flushed.

Just chatting with NewBoss Ruth and we were chatting, unsurprisingly for careers type folk, about CVs. Mentioned the differences between American and UK style, I said that I used a bit of an amalgam. Americans tend towards a wee snippet paragraph at the top of theirs. You know the sort of thing:

"I am the best ever at everything. I can lead, work in a team and on my own all at the same time. I am an able communicator with highly developed IT skills..." and so on and so forth, ad nauseum.

Tempering that slightly, I go for bullet points, like this:

• Experienced project manager
• Highly IT literate
• Able communicator

No less than three, no more than five. Point being, I referenced my CV in the discussion with NewBoss, "...you might remember from my CV."

"Well, actually, no, you see you didn't actually include your CV in your application, even though we asked for one."

Ack! Pth! You are Fucking Kidding Me! WOT A MONKEY!

The flip-side, of course, is that I got invited for interview, even though I didn't follow the instructions on the form. Must have been a good application form, eh?

*smugly embarassed* (or *embarassedly smug* - one of the two)

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If only it were possible. Mind you, it is a bit bass-ackwards.

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Feeds. I must figure out how feeds work, but there are many words and instructions and things. You know (well, some of you do) the whole RSS thang - word of the day and such malarkeys. I wish to provide you all with a word of the day. For your edification. Am I not generous?

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I just had a realisation. You know how I lost my photos?

I also lost the Pibgorn strips I have been faithfully collecting since the first one. It's on comics.com so they only have a monthful at any one time. Ms BcEldowney (I assume female - chap woudn't have an E on the end of 'Brooke') has been doing a webcomic of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Very good.

And I have lost them all. Damn. Damn. Damn.

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I'm being a bit lame with emailing at the moment, so sorry if I owe you one and continuing the personal mentions for those I feel most guilty about not contacting:

*waves to Alice*

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Have a good one,

C

Just to confuse you...

...it's a daytime post. I tested the water a bit by obviously reading comics during my lunch hour. No-one seems bothered, so...

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This is how people should explain computer stuff.

And people get way too excited about new toys.

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Speaking of which...






Still oh-so-very happy with mine!

London Road Gardens














Calton Hill Observatory






Whoops - must get back to work!

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Have a good one,

C

Impetus

Whoops.

Seem to have lost it. My bad.

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I've started getting buses again. Not, I hasten to say, out of the lazy, but out of the busy. I'm still walking to work and back, which gets me two times half hour brisk walk a day, so I'm getting my exercise and all that. Thing of it is, the bus is that little bit quicker and I'm feeling so terribly rammed at the moment. And not actually achieving much.

Well, not strictly speaking true. I have started the new job, which continues well, but just because I'm kicking off well 9 to 5, that's no reason to get lazy on the evening projects.

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New camera's working out well, though. I now know how to use nine of the buttons.

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I'm actually writing this while hanging out round at Steve's (incidentally swanking about my new camera) so must trot.

Will do better!

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Have a good one,

C

Tiiiiiired

But not badly. Been a very pleasant first week, actually. Haven't had a computer login, so I haven't been able to cross-reference everything I'm reading, but on the other hand, I've had time to read.

Nice folk and what's really lovely about them is they're all very interested. Interesting is a natural follow-up of interested, I reckon. And I can use phrase like 'ardent bibliophile' and be quite sure they'll know what I mean. I don't use big words on purpose - they just come out. So, they're...relaxing colleagues, actually. All very nice. Bloody Full of women, though. Two other chaps, neither of them under forty or twelve stone.

Well. Bit of eye candy gets you through the day, dunnit?

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And what else is news? Been to visit Bessie.

Bessie's my gran. She is old, regardless of scale. Bless her. She's a bit tired, too.

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I have learned how to manually set the aperture and the shutter speed on my camera. And, on the way to that grand, achievement, I took...a photo. Wish to Hell I knew how I did it.

Show you? Um, no. Can't. Tried. Connection speed not smart enough at the moment. S'a good photo, too. Irritating.

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Small Jen? Word to ya, sister!

(It only makes sense if you're the small Jen - don't worry about it.)

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Nope - definitely not going to be able to upload any photies. Just not working. Can't complain, though - would be bad karma as I'm pretty much nicking the signal. Wonder if there's some cool geek phrase for that.

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Right. Bedtime, I think. Been promising myself an early night aaaaaall day.

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Have a good one,

C

Tiiiiiired

But not badly. Been a very pleasant first week, actually. Haven't had a computer login, so I haven't been able to cross-reference everything I'm reading, but on the other hand, I've had time to read.

Nice folk and what's really lovely about them is they're all very interested. Interesting is a natural follow-up of interested, I reckon. And I can use phrase like 'ardent bibliophile' and be quite sure they'll know what I mean. I don't use big words on purpose - they just come out. So, they're...relaxing colleagues, actually. All very nice. Bloody Full of women, though. Two other chaps, neither of them under forty or twelve stone.

Well. Bit of eye candy gets you through the day, dunnit?

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And what else is news? Been to visit Bessie.

Bessie's my gran. She is old, regardless of scale. Bless her. She's a bit tired, too.

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I have learned how to manually set the aperture and the shutter speed on my camera. And, on the way to that grand, achievement, I took...a photo. Wish to Hell I knew how I did it.

Show you? Um, no. Can't. Tried. Connection speed not smart enough at the moment. S'a good photo, too. Irritating.

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Small Jen? Word to ya, sister!

(It only makes sense if you're the small Jen - don't worry about it.)

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Nope - definitely not going to be able to upload any photies. Just not working. Can't complain, though - would be bad karma as I'm pretty much nicking the signal. Wonder if there's some cool geek phrase for that.

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Right. Bedtime, I think. Been promising myself an early night aaaaaall day.

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Have a good one,

C

Woe, woe and thrice woe

Nightmare.

Our intrepid hero was taking over the world, grand stylee, courtesy of Civilisation 4. Seriously, my culture rate was through the roof - I was taking over entire cities without having to send a single unit into battle. Trust me - in RPG terms?..this is, as we say, Way Cool. Unfortunately, the map was getting on the straining side of busy as far as my RAM was concerned. And I thought I had a decent amount of RAM, you know.

And the laptop hung. And hung. And hung.

So, I did what any red-blooded male would do. I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del.


Nothing happens. So I hit it again. And nothing happened. So I forced it to turn off and got black screen restart black screen restart black screen. Thought 'fuck' and had to use recovery disc.

Up shot it, I've lost a Lot of photos. The coos are, thankfully, on Flickr, but I lost all but three of my Florence photos.

Like I said - Nightmare.

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That said, I have now learned how to use no fewer than five of the twenty-one buttons on my camera (not including the jog dials or focus wheels), so - on the whole - I'm still fairly cheerful.

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Learn this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

It's the standard entry for wikipedia followed by whatever word or collection of words you want to look up. I just tried it for some stretching terms and it seems to be working. Let me know if you find any that don't, do. And, no, you don't need the http://

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Have a good one,

C

Hugs that Stay

Hugs that stay are nice. Everyone knows (or everyone should know) how hugs work. You clasp, squeeze for a bit and then relax a little - body language for 'we can be done now'. The ones that stay are the ones where the other person squeezes again - 'not finished yet'. Got a couple of them on Friday when I left the old work.

Trying for kisses can be tricky, though.

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New job's good. First day today. I'm a little daunted by the amount of subjects my name is against for updating and generally being the go-to guy for, but I get nearly three entire days to cover that part of work. To be frank, after the many demands on my time at old job, new one looks like a piece of piss. That won't be true, but I'm going to enjoy thinking it for a while.

Being generally inducted at the moment. Tours and talks. Today was grand. Enough to be engaging and to the point where I felt like I was doing something rather than going over the 'first days' treadmill, but not so much that I was harassed or felt like my brain was clogged.

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Living on stolen internet. There's an unsecured wireless network somewhere in range of my flat. Hurrah. Thank you 'linksys' whomever you may be. Long may it last.

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My new camera is up and running, thanks to Hamish. I reckoned that the 'you must charge battery for umpteen hours before use' meant it was provided dead, but no, no it does not. Poor man, though - I blinded him about three times with the super crazy flash after he provided this gem of information. Now I need to figure out what all the many buttons do. Woop!

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Update schedule for the bliggity-blog is evenings now, for those of you who want to know. No can update in the lunch hour any more. Not got a log in for work yet as my contract's been delayed and Edinburgh Uni is all very coherently processed these days. Not one thing without the other, so I don't know what the Uni blocks are on the internet and blogger tends to be one of them. And I'm quite intent on actually taking my lunch hour at the new job. The Meadows is right there, so healthy constitutionals, I feel.

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Have a good one,

C

Last Daaaaaay!

Who's got Ker-Plunk? *laughter*

I very nearly came in to work in my jeans, but thought better of it. Still do have a bit of work to do before buggering off. The count-down is getting ever closer, though. Only six hours to go before I am 'fishelly finished.

It's a wee bit sad, really. First time I'll be leaving a job that I'm not very happy to see the back of and everyone is saying very nice things about missing me and the good work I've done. I was plotting the next issue of our Associates E-Bulletin with my lovely colleague Julia and I got a bit miffed that I won't be around to develop it. Ah, well.

Still very excited about the new job and all, but a certain amount of ambivalence towards leaving this one is fair, eh?

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Bloody camera. Well, no, not bloody camera. Bloody adapter cable, in fact. No-one, but no-one in the UK has it in stock. Not even Samsung UK. So I must wait for two feckin' weeks until I get it and can play with my new toy. Grrrrrrrrr.

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Right - last time I'll say this, as I'll be updating in the evening from now on, but I must get on. Manuals to polish, projects to close out, that sort of thing.

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Have a good one,

C

Typical

Well, I got my camera, took it home, tidied a surface, laid out all the elements and the instructions. Of course, they don't include the AC adapter. You have to get that separately. Aren't you all amazed at how calm I am?

Have ordered the adapter - and taken note to self that all gift horses should have a full dental check before formal acceptance.

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Work = Crazier.

Catch y'all when my head stop spinning.

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Have a good one,

C

Three days to go!

Hello hello

Well, I've only got three days to go in the current job, here comes the new job!

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Bloody Citylink. Bloody Ebay. Bloody trip to the bloody Gyle in the middle of the day. OK, I did save several hundred pounds buying my new camera off of EBay, but they could have said they weren't using Royal Mail. Their depot is two mins from my house. CityLink, their chosen courier, has their depot a half hour bus ride out of town. Would have had it delivered to work address, wouldn't it?

*bitch, mutter, moan, complain*

Don't worry - I'll be back on tomorrow enraptured by my new toy, it's just that The Busy is still here (I'm still actually being given work to do) and I could really do with not dropping an hour and a half of my day to go fetch. Especially as I was supposed to be having coffee with small Jen at lunchtime, so that she may catch me up on the delights of Prague.

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Lookit! I made this!

It's not perfect - the...*thinks really hard*...bits of paper that the cover gets stuck to (I'll remember once I've published the post) aren't perfectly glued, but still. I made a book! Yay me! It's going to be my photo book - for writing when and where I took particular pictures.

Thanks, Hamish!

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Sinfest continues genius.

As does Get Fuzzy.

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Have a good one,

C

Displacement Activity

'morning

I'm training my boss, my coordinator and my replacement in about three quarters of an hour. I'm not quite ready, but my head's doing its famous 'headless chicken' impression. (That's where the headless chickens run roundandroundandroundandround inside my cranium. No-one else notices, but I know they're there.

Hence, displacement activity.

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I may have to uninstall Civ4. Already. It sucked away my entire evening last night. Got home, made tea, sat down, thought, "I could play a few turns." Played an entire cycle of the game, realised it was midnight. Went to bed.

This is Not Good. Laptop is for Productivity. Writing. Setting up zippy website to promote same. Photography. NOT, I repeat NOT taking over the world from that bitch Cleopatra who kept nicking all my technology advancements!

Cow.

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Have a good one,

C

Software and things

Hiya

First of all

*gets up*
*dances with glee*

I've got a new laaaaaaaaaptop! Woop! With numbers and letters and everything. You know - 128MB, VGA, that sort of thing. And, yes, I know what they mean. I only pretend to be stupid so people will pander to me.

It's a Toshiba.

Anyway, need to investigate an ISP (see!), which may take a wee bit of time, as I'm probably looking for a domain and all that along with it, but in the very meantime, the Regent does free Wifi access so, at long last, I shall be online in the evening again. Sporadically - for a bit.

Can't find the sodding software for my mobile's DisctoPhone thing, which means I can't charge the thing, or upload music or download photos onto said zippy new laptop. I could have sworn it was in LongStrapBlackBag or BrownSatchel, but no. Neither of these places. If any one happens to have a Sony Ericsson W800i and has said software, I'd appreciate a copy. Otherwise, I might have to call T-Mobile or something equally dire.

Oh - and I may have bought a couple of video games for it. I mean, of course the whole buying of laptop thing was to progress the writing and photography, but a fella's allowed a little bit of pixelated mayhem. I mean, it's Black and White, man. They worship me as their God.

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I finished my book - the one I made at Hamish's yesterday, but forgot to take a photo of it in all its prettiness so that I could properly show off how clever I am. Well, a bit clever. It's not entirely perfect, but I made a book. This is of the highest order of coolness, in my little world.

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Work continues harassing, but it is my last WEEK! I can start doing the whole 'last time I'll do this', 'last time I'll do that' thang. And, really, wouldn't you rather complain than actually do something about it?

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Yes, I know I'm still blethering nonsense at nineteen to the dozen. Things will settle soon, I swear.

Have a good one,

Chris

New Toy

It's still not here. And I've been waiting two entire days now! Yes, I know that lacks anything which could reasonably be called patience but I want it, I want it, I want it! Now!

What am I talking about, you ask? Well, you all know I've been taking lots of pics with my camera phone and I'm starting to get a bit frustrated by it. It doesn't do everything I want it to do. So, I have purchased a zip-doopity Digital SLR-LKE. (Steve and I are undecided on whether the LKE stands for 'like' or what - answers on a postcard).

Bid on it on Ebay. And it didn't arrive three seconds after I paid for it. Which was a stretch in and of itself. I'd never used PayPal before - or bought anything from Ebay for that matter. Took me a day or so to figure out which buttons to push to pay by Maestro. I can totally understand how people could get hooked on the whole bidding thing. The auction closed at 1opm, so I went up to Steve's and sat with his laptop, pushing 'refresh' every five seconds. I got SUCH a bargain, as well. Woop!

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The ideal length of walk for me to come up with an idea has been reaffirmed. And one more person thinks I'm a mental. I was walking home from Steve's again, idly turning some ideas for story starts in my head when one resolved - just as I was walking past Mary's Bathhouse. Which I found funny. And, really, wouldn't you gesture towards the building in question, make a vague attempt at verbiage and chortle to yourself?

No?

See, this is why people think I'm a mental.

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For those of you who like webcomics, I have a recommendation: College Roomies from Hell by the stunningly talented Maritza Campos. This is the first comic, and this is the most recent. See how much she's developed? And the woman's storylines are just so goddamn funny.

Misery journeys, nonsense contests, accidental porno filming, the Snow White effect. Really. Go to the first one and start reading. You will not regret it. Your schedule may, as it'll swallow about four of your earth days, but hey ho. Sacrifices must be made.

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Damn - was going to put some pics of my Gran up, but I forgot me bloody data cable, didn't I? Too many bags, you see. One swaps from day to day and forgets to transfer significant items.

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Have a good one,

C

No matter what your drug of choice...

...everybody needs their fix.

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And their had to be something funny going on here.

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Well, salaam and good morning to you, worthy friends. Howzitgaun an' that? The sun is shining here in Edinburgh, although it continues chilly. Went to see "The Prestige" last night with Hamish, Liz, Anita and newperson Jo. Could be Joe. Not sure.

The film was pretty good, if a little bit lacking in pace. Of course, lingering lovingly over Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, not exactly a bad thing.

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Also last night was my first lesson in book binding *geek glee*. Unfortunately, didn't have time to do an entire book but I can use this as proof that I am a grown up. Where once I would have been absolutely gutted at leaving my work to dry (there's gluing involved), I am now quite sanguine about having to wait until next week to finish it, when next I am free.

NEXT WEEK! That's INSANE!

Ahem. Yes. Well. Grown-up. That's me. Totally.

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The interviews for my job are going on today - who will be replacing our hero at the Development and Careers desk? Don't ask me - what with confidentiality and all, I haven't even glimpsed a CV. I have special plans for many cups of tea, just when candidates are arriving or leaving. Mwu-ha-ha-HAaaaa!

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Have a good one,

C

Less than...

...fully motivated today. Being bitched at for things that I am in the very middle of and if I could just be Left Alone, I'd complete. And everyone could stop bitching.

So, my logic leads me to skive off and blog for a bit.

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Somewhat out of the habit of blogging, as you may have noticed, and it does make a bit of a difference to how I think about things. For a while there everything could be tweaked into a blog entry. New toy feelings, obviously, but it was definitely doing me some good. Nice to have some structure to hang your thinking up on - especially when you have such a busy little brain as mine. It tends towards tangents, though, so the focus on here is helpful.

Which is my rambling way of assuring any one interested in my blethering on that I do intend to pick it up properly soon. I have a new laptop and everything. Well, new to me, anyway.

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Check this out - I have a new coo, hand-painted by the lovely Alice. How COOL is THAT?

Obviously, it's an exact level of cool with the other coo that I got from Gregor and Caroline, but still, all three of these people are now soaring ahead in the cool and groovy points, not that I wasn't spoiled rotten by all and sundry. Who on Earth could ever think 30 is a bad birthday, I do not know. They clearly do not have such lovely friends and family as me.

She even made up her own pun - Legen-Dairy Cow. There are some centaurs on the back, but I didn't get a photo of them.

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Autumn time for definite. Actually, I think we're edging into winter. It's awfy chilly, but the trees are looking pretty...

Cool lamp as well, innit? Very art deco looking malarkey in Princes Street Gardens. And I'm pretty sure that's Sir James Young Simpson up in the top corner. I'll have to check that one, though, as I could be wrong.

What? It's been known to happen. I'm not entirely perfect. Close, but not entirely.

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Have a good one,

C

BEYOND Busy

OK, so the old job's manuals and stuff remain unwritten. I have over 200 emails that need answering or actioning. Happy news: I'm buying a laptop. So, please forgive me you loyal 14 readers (I have a counter). I will be back in a few days...

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Have a good one,

C

Karma...

...because dragons are just way cooler.

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Good morning / afternoon /evening, my little chickens. How are we all today? The sun is shining here in Edinburgh - although it'd freeze yer nadgers off it's so parky. Thankfully, I had the foresigh to buy a few cashmere scarfs whilst I was in Florence. And I'm fairly attached to a good cafe latte in the morning now, too, so warmth not a big issue. *smug*. (They were dead cheap, too!)

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Off to Manchester today, this trip is all about the convenience. I'm sure Manchester's a lovely city to visit - nightlife and shopping and such - but when your visit is almost entirely taken up with answering questions on the order of, "If I'm an overseas doctor, and the new visa rules mean I can't get a training post, how do I get a training post?" then you really start to get a handle on that cocoon-creation thing you hear about in the Accidental Tourist. (The film's dull as shit, by the way. My Dad loved it - wanted to watch it again and again. Nightmare.)

Anyway, yes, the one highlight of the next couple days is dinner with Belinda - one of the very few women in the world for whom I spend time getting ready to meet (which may have contributed to this trip's over-packing) - the rest of the time is spent on the train or bus, or in the exhibition hall, answering questions such as that detailed above. Happily, the exhibition is on at the Gmex, which is five minutes walk from my hotel, which, in turn, is five minutes walk from the nearest train station. Shiny.

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More Firrenze photos, by popular (well, somebody did ask) demand:










There were many cool knockers.
























Each gallery room had an attendant to stop people taking photos of the artwork. As you can see, these attendants were not very effective.













Aaaaand, you were going to get Michelangelo's tomb, but Blogger is being pissy about photographs, as per bloody usual.

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Have a good one,

C

Birthday well and truly over

Well, I must face the fact that birthday celebrations are now well and truly over. *grins*. Still, I think just about two weeks of continual gift getting, time with friends, trips abroad, shopping for lovely things, etc and so on, will just about do it. I suppose. So, on with the mundanities.

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Which aren't so very terribly mundane, really. We're definitely on the countdown to new job - two weeks on Friday I finish here. Hence the shortened blethers for today - still got a lot to do. Off down to Manchester on Thursday night. Can't really be assed with doing a careers fair, especially since my lovely compatriots from Royal College of Surgeons won't be there, but I do get to have dinner with Belinda, which I'm very much looking forward to.

Actually, the careers fair'll be grand, I generally enjoy them and there's local staff coming along so chance of some banter. It's the train journey back on Sat night that's going to suck beyond the telling of it. Three changes between 6 and 10.30pm on a Sat night. The last time I travelled back from Manchester I spent two and a half hours standing up outside the toilet. Fucking Virgin trains. If ever a Virgin wanted shafting, it's that one...

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Have a good one,

C