Resurrection

I've decided to resurrect my Blogger account after months of terminal abuse.

I was on LiveJournal, and to be honest, missed the adulation of my reading public. I went back, wrote some interesting stuff and by golly, I love the recognition.

Still, Blogger is lovely. And sometimes, you wanna be as geeky as you want without worrying about your target audience.

At Blogger, I don't have a target audience. I can just write for myself and do what I like. I can even make fart noises.

***brrrrrr-squit-purp-prrrp!!***

Isn't that nice?

Props to da bitch Hi

A brief encounter

Well, looks like my time at Blogger has been rather short-lived. I'm going back to my LiveJournal blog.

I miss my friends over there and although Blogger is undeniably pretty, I find it vacant on a personal level. I mean, what's the point of writing one of these fuckers if no-one else sees it?

Happier New Year

Just got back from visiting family and friends in Southampton. All in all, it was a pretty good trip - I feel closer to my family than I have done for ages and in a bizarre turn of events, we ended up staying an extra day. We used to zoom back to Scouseland before time, such were the historical frictions.

Managed to catch up with quite a few friends - some way too briefly ( Stu - soz, make it up to you mate ) due to unfolding events. Didn't see too much of my extended family - again, not intentional - just the way things went down.

New Years Eve was pretty low-key. After the tragedy in Asia, no-one ever really felt like saying "yay! It's New Year!". We had a quiet evening in my mum's house. My only hope re: Asia is that some element 0f good emerges from the disaster. Unlikely, I know, but this is a wake-up call of the first order. The War on Terrorism looks positively trivial by comparison.

Arrived home today to find three shocks.

1. The back door was wide open.
2. Nothing had been nicked.
3. My PC had died.

Point 1 and 2 largely look after themselves - point 1 can be largely accounted to an early morning smoke on my part.

Point 3 though, was a real git. Turns out my PSU was on the blink ( a mere 250Watter unused to the demands I make upon it ). The usual PC maintenance ensued ( i.e. removing everything and adding it gradually ) but really, my little machine is on its last legs. Boo! I need a new PC - but on the bright side, might be able to play Sims 2 on it when I get it.

Party time

We had a real nice time at the works night out last night, marred only by shoddily constructed furniture ( a table collapsed under the feeble weight of my elbows ). The meal was in the Racquet Club, a rather snooty little pad in Chapel Street. Ended up sitting on a table with Wishart, Heidi and Andy ( and all of their respective partners ). Probably the exact right table to be on, even though I missed out sitting with my programming pals.

I know it sounds awfully arse-licky, but I'm really starting to love being at work. We're doing really well as a business, got a real team ethic and I'm not just talking about programming. Our boys are really cool. Joel ( the bossman ) is technically excellent with extensive knowledge of the Babylon 5 universe. John's lead singer in a local band, Dan's an electronics McGyver and really is one of the nicest blokes I've ever worked with. No-one can be told who Ken is - you have to meet him for yourself.

The team extends to the entire company. Everybody knows everybody and the traditional divisions between Creative, Technical, Support and Project Management just do not exist. I'm not saying that everything is perfect - disputes do occur, but its normally because of genuine differences in opinion ( say, over how something is implemented ), and not the result of ongoing internal feuds.

Better yet, we've just won a boatload of new business - which is a pretty rare thing for this time of the year. It's going to be hard work delivering it, but we're all really optimistic about the future.

Work Socials

Went to a Music Quiz last night with Binns and Rushell. It was organised by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and was a networking type event. Didn't really do too much networking, but we did manage some below-board quiz co-operation with the boys and girls from the Ambulance Service.

Despite being in the relegation spots after the 70s rounds, we managed to achieve mid-table respectability by the end of the night. Shouldn't have drunk those After Shocks though. I'm such a lightweight.

Anyway, I'm out again tonight for the company Christmas meal. Ginge is coming too, so it should be a pretty good laugh.

Productivity

Work elevated itself to "rather interesting" today. We had a big programmer's pow-wow to decide how we were going to do things for the next six months. Cue mucho research afterward testing. My head is spinning, which is always a good thing. I expect my brain to do its usual job of sorting all of the info at some point. Good old brain.

Secondly, we've won an exciting piece of business this week. Not really at liberty to say here, but I'm hoping to be part of that project.

Shroom For Improvement

Bill Hicks once described Magic Mushrooms as an evolutionary springboard. While I lack the comedic eloquence to describe them in such terms, I have found them to be very useful for getting some perspective on life, the universe and everything.

Did some Mexican 'shrooms last night. First time in four years, and the absolute first time I've gone Super Mario on my own. They're completely legal in the UK, meaning one can buy them in shops. I was a bit concerned about the solo effort, but my pre-drop anxiety was soon cancelled out by the end of the evening.

Don't think I've ever had the time to fully reflect on what mushrooms really do for you. The most positive thing about the experience is temporary detachment from your personality.
While this is the sort of thing that sets alarm bells ringing in those who have never dropped, it isn't as nasty as it sounds. The experience allows you to step outside your life, look at it objectively and make your conclusions from there. The lack of laughing co-trippers was pretty damn cool for introspection, let me tell you.

Of course, there are other effects. More interesting ceilings, for starters. And Grand Theft Auto : Vice City looks better than ever. Overall, a solid night. My perspective has been finely tuned, music sounded excellent ( my thanks for the Shiloh October 2004 Mix - available from hybridized.org ) and the house looked more interesting than ever.