2009

christmas was same as always. too much eating and too much sleeping and too much time watching rubbish on tv. my gym has been closed for the last few days but they were open yesterday and it was good to feel alive again after days of just being a slob. weather has been a bit milder but very grey and damp, which is about the norm for london town. haven't bothered going to any of the sales. i don't need anything and its going to be ridiculously busy. i also lost my wallet last week and my new cash machine card hasn't come through yet. going to have to make what cash i have last for a few more days.

2009 has almost gone and it the big '10 in a few days. will need to start looking for a new contract as soon as i get back. am always keen to start the new year with something fresh and its been that way the last couple of years. here is hoping i get lucky and end up somewhere good, and even if its not good it will be a change and that is always positive....well most of the time it is.

have a very happy new year.

today i have mostly been listening to the gaslight anthem - '59 sound, filmed in LA. i was at this show and it was the best night out i had all year. i was trying to spot myself in this video but can't. i was standing right at the bottom of the frame about 4 or 5 people from the front. i need a more distinctive head or hairstyle. a mohawk maybe.




take care.

games for days

my boss got a bit ratty with me today because i couldn't find the right path to some files on a SAN disk attached to a vmware ESX server. jeez sorry. its bad enough that i have to do it on a command line from esx and the forward slashes (/) are making the whole thing look a bit strange already, with out my boss tutting and getting impatient when i asked him to check it.

he came over and then just typed away quickly and when he ran the command it still didn't work. he then went away and i searched some forums and found the answer. i am not a complete idiot. i managed to do what i needed to get done, but just needed a little help. i have been here around 10 months and am familiar with everything, but i can recall when i worked somewhere for years and its then you get to know everything inside out, because you were the one who built it all. i think maybe my boss sometimes forgets that he has a few years start on the rest of us and was here when it all went in.

i suppose thats the thing that stops people from moving around in jobs a lot. you go somewhere new and you have to ask lots of questions about where they store stuff or how they do particular things. it can take months and months before you even start to get your head around some of it and there will be situations like today where you will be asked to work on systems that you have barely touched since you got there.

no two places are the same despite the fact that they use a lot of the same systems. in a way it comes down to whether your ego can take being the newbie and having to ask for things and having to deal with some occasionally difficult characters. i have found i can do it and its the fact that i know that i can move on to somewhere new in a few months, that makes tolerate working with some difficult people. not saying my boss is difficult, because he is not, but when you are contractor you need to be able to just be able to let a lot of things slide.

anyways, whilst working on how to solve my problem i began searching google and forums and this amused me.

someone asks a question about a problem and then someone else goes to the trouble of replying on a forum saying he doesn't know the answer. what a fucking idiot. don't reply if you don't know the answer. whats the point of that. if i ask a question i want to know the answer, i don't want to hear from people telling me that they don't know the answer. that doesn't help me.

anyway it did make me laugh out loud when i read it.

today i have mostly been listening to julien plenti - games for days. this is mr paul banks who is lead singer of interpol who are a wicked band and i really like this video.

westwood

its still freezing cold and the roads are icy but that didn't stop me from cycling to the gym on saturday and sunday. we had a couple of near misses where i felt my bike slip underneath me, but i managed to avoid kissing tarmac and made it ok. it was blisteringly cold though and almost to taunt myself, i was wearing a san diego padres woolly hat, which is an item of clothing san diegans would rarely have the need to wear themselves. they just like to rub our noses in it. buy this hat and wear it when its cold and miserable and it will remind you that its not cold and miserable in southern california, bitches!. er...thanks for that.

anyways rather strangely i saw the DJ Tim Westwood training yesterday when i was at the gym. for people who don't who tim westwood is, he has a radio show on the most popular radio station in the UK and he plays hip hop and rap. the rather strange thing is that he is in his late 40's, the son of a bishop, white and from a middle class family from a rural area of england, and yet he speaks as though he was born and raised in 'the ghettos' of south or east london. he is basically a fraud and a twat.

anyways, the only other celeb that i used to see at my gym was swimsuit model and FHM cover girl caprice. she used to come in occasionally and i would see her working out, but i haven't seen her in quite a while. i lose caprice and get tim westwood. hows that for bad luck.

anyways, that was my weekend. quiet and cold. am on earlies this week till thursday and then i am off for a week between christmas and new year. i can't wait to be out of here.

i heard that brittany murphy died yesterday. obviously sad when some one so young passes. lets give a medal to all the young stars in hollywood that aren't dead, or in rehab or in trouble with five-O. when you are young and moneyed, the temptations must be quite hard to resist.

respect is due to the likes of evan rachel wood and natalie portman and beyonce, who are rarely in the press pictured stumbling out a club on sunset at 3am with powder around their nostrils. i can't think of any young guys that are not up to no good, because i suspect there are almost none. i bet even the jonas brothers are snorting coke off hookers tits on a friday night in LA. promise rings, my arse.

3 more early mornings for me till the end of the year at work.

today i have mostly been listening to placebo - sleeping with ghosts.

tigers wife

its really getting cold now. there were flakes of snow falling this morning as i was walking to work and the cold was biting. i am playing football tomorrow night. i really wish i had said i wasn't going to play, but i have to go now as its too late to cancel. will have to wrap up when i play and make sure i do an extra long warm up before hand. i also have to cycle to the gym on the weekend and i really would rather not cycle in sleet and snow although the forecast is for quite a bit more snow on friday.

i applied for a couple of jobs yesterday an got call backs from the agencies. its a bit awkward taking calls when sitting in a big open plan office and so i have to scurry away to a quiet corrider when my phone rings. only 6 more days of work after today till the end of the year. i mentioned that my boss told me i would be on my own in the first week back in january. well it turns out i will also be on-call over christmas and new year as well because my boss and the other contractor have decided to take holiday at the same time....again!!!. thanks for that. come on dude, you run the department of 3 people and you would think it would be a rule for 2 people to not be off for 2 weeks at the same time, but clearly not. actually my boss has been a bit off on more than one occasion recently. time for me to pack my bags and move on soon.

i find myself currently in that odd state of trying to give a shit when i really am just looking for the next contract and want out of here, but as i haven't found anything, and its all a few weeks away at least, i have to put up the pretence of caring. in that way i am a bit like tiger woods wife.....although i haven't had my heart broken and have kids and am not married to a person with about as much charisma as a wet mop, but apart from that its similar. she can't just up and leave immediately. she has to get shit sorted out and things organised and needs time to make plans.

......and also its just golf. who gives a shit about golf?. when did golf get so big?. i have been to the states and kids in america don't want to be tiger. they want to be tom brady or lebron james or josh beckett. and can we also stop calling him an athlete. golf is about as athletic as snooker or darts. there is skill and technique but if you don't sweat or do any physical exhersion, you can't be called an athlete. thats my rule and that is that.

anyway, i went out last night in shoreditch to meet up with some friends. a very good night out. had the usual run for the last train home at the end of the night, but we got there in time. there have been times in the past when i have missed it and then you have the joy of getting the nightbus home. a 45 minute journey turns into a 2 hour trek through london. its not nice.

today i have mostly been listening to jack penate - pull my heart away. wicked tune.

i will give it a pass

it was cold this weekend but as there was no rain during the day i managed to cycle both days. my cold also subsided and i think i may have found the cure. on friday lunchtime i went to a turkish place that does lamb kebabs and rice and salad, and even on friday afternoon i could feel myself getting better. lemsip, nyQuil and all that other stuff is useless. lamb kebab with rice is the cure.

training like a monster these days. it might be cold and it might be perpetual darkness but i am in the zone at the gym and am killing it.

work is slow which is a good thing. its december and you can feel things winding down. 2 more weeks of work left for this year and then its a brave new world in 2010. we have our christmas party next monday. i think i will give it a pass. i think i will be the only person not to go to it. its a little awkward but i am seeing all my friends tomorrow night for a christmas drinks, from where i used to work and they are my real friends, and i just view my current work colleagues as just work colleagues. it professional and i don't really want to socialise with people i don't really know. it is a bit anti social but i just don't feel like going. if they think i am being a ass then thats NMFP (not my fucking problem).

anyways, from a time when i used to work in an office and i knew all the people and politics. here is an amusing clip from my favourite tv show the thick of it. i kind of miss those days as there were some good laughs, although saying that, when you were actually in the midst of the bullshit it could get quite shite.

and today i have mostly been listening to one day as a lion - wild international.

....i'm like a nail stuck in the wrist of their christmas.

i have also been listening a lot to the new 30 seconds from mars album, this is war. its very good. if you like angels and airwaves you will love it. in places its very similar. being similar to something good is no bad thing but it really does almost sound like the same band, were it not for the fact that jared leto is a slightly better singer than tom de longe. anyways it good. if you have spotify, bit torrent or even some money, i suggest you treat yourself.

empire state

am still feeling really rough today but thankfully my boss has a day off today and i have been able to take it easy today. am really not up to concentrating or doing anything today.

i went out last night and met some friends in a bar in clerkenwell and it was good to see everyone after quite a while.

am going to cycle to the gym tomorrow and see if i can sweat out this cold. either that or i will just pass out on my way there and be killed when a truck runs over my unconscious body laying in the middle of the road. we shall see how it goes but i hope i don't get killed in the next couple of days.

actually now that its cold and shit weather i only see the hardcore cyclists going round regents park. last week i saw some guy riding a beautiful time trial bike with a deep rim at the front and a solid Zipp disc on the back wheel. i couldn't quite see manufacturer but it looked wicked and something like a felt or cervelo or pinarello. if i win the lottery i am going to spend a fortune on a nice bike. not to ride it but just to look at it.

today i have mostly been listening to some guilty pleasures. music that i wouldn't normally tell people i know, that i listen to. my spotify playlist today has included r.kelly, lil wayne, DMX, Flo Rida, Baby, Clipse, Nas and eminem.

anyways yesterday at the bar i was at they played jay z - empire state of mind, and it is wicked. this isn't a guilty pleasure. its genuinely good and not just because it has the fantastically good looking alicia keys in it.

i hate winter

you can not even imagine how much i hate winters in london. cold, dark, damp and just shit. you would think having lived my whole life here i would be used to them, but no, everytime winter comes round i hate it even more than the last one. and now to top it all off i have got a cold, my nose is blocked, my head hurts and my whole face feels swollen. i fucking hate winter.

anyways, tonight i am going to a leaving do for a friend of mine. i would have given it a miss given how i feel but i will go along because i don't think i will get to see some of those people for a while.

i tried to go to the gym last night and do some training but i was feeling a little weak. i still did ok considering i have been struck down by disease. i will go to the gym on the weekend and even if i can't train i will just sit in the steam room for a while and it will clear my head. i fucking hate winter. i need this weekend to come round quick because work it tough when you feel like shit. only 1 more day to get through.

today i have mostly been listening to sigur ros - hoppipolla. enjoy

Kings and Queens

back to work this week. uneventful weekend. training like a beast however and am i must be close to being in the best condition i have ever been. just need to push on over the next few weeks.

i applied to another job but i am not sure why. i don't think i want to leave before the end of the year and i really should wait to see what comes up in january.

today i have mostly been listening to 30 seconds to mars - kings and queens. LA and cycling. 2 of my favourite things and a great song as well.

heads will roll

its been a long week but we got through it someway, somehow. i applied to a couple of jobs i saw yesterday. if nothing else it will get my cv out there in the hands of recruiters so that when the new year does roll round, i might get a call from them if anything tasty comes up.

i had football last night for the first time in about 3 weeks. i had no car so had to take the train and it was also really cold but it was a good game. i can't play next week because i have a leaving drinks to go to, but hopefully will get one more game in before the end of the year. it also looks like the weather will be ok tomorrow so i get to cycle to the gym. i need to keep active because this is precisely the time of year when its easy to come up with excuses and not get any exercise, and before you know it you have started to put on weight.

i still haven't decided what exam to do next. i was going to do sql 2005 but sql 2010 is just about to come out and i don't want to get certified in something so old, despite the fact its the version we use most at my work. will do some more digging around and try and come up with something.

have a lovely weekend.

today i have mostly been listening to yeah yeah yeahs - heads will roll. some of their stuff is fantastically good and some a little less so. this is in the fantastically good category. also one more thing to note is that whilst some popstars like lady gaga or madonna resort to cheap publicity stunts and outrageous costumes to try and appear cool, some people like the lead singer of this band, just have a natural effortlessly cool quality to them that you can't fake or manufacture. its almost like she isn't even trying. probably because she isn't and because she doesn't need to because she is actually genuinely cool.

LA mix tape 2010 track 1

that music video i posted in my last post doesn't seem to work very well. it plays fine when you watch it on vimeo, but just not when its embedded. anyways i got something good for today at the end of this post, and it works just fine.

weather is still cold this week but i figure we are just 3 weeks from the shortest day of the year and then we start the slow climb back to daylight and warmth....though its hardly noticeable and actually the weather is usually worse in january and february, but i like to kid myself into thinking i have broken the back of this winter. don't under estimate the power of self delusion.

i had lunch yesterday with the agent that got me my current contract. i don't know why he bothered to make the trip to see me as i don't know him at all and have met him once, very briefly in the last year, and i was not going to be able to give him any good leads about any new hires my current company might want to make. i did let him know that i was not that pleased that my rate didn't get increased and that i might see what happens in the new year. that should scare him a little. i like scaring agents.

i went out for dinner last night in farringdon at smiths of smithfields with a friend of mine. we meet up like clockwork once every 6 months, and barely communicate in the time inbetween. its slightly odd but we have been doing it for the last few years and smiths is our venue of choice and its a good night out because we always have 6 months of catching up to do and there is always lots to talk about.

i doubt i will go to the gym tonight even though i really should go at least once on a weeknight. i just find that when i am on the early shift i feel a bit tired and lethargic and i know i won't give it 100% if i go. i also have football tomorrow night so can justify getting my exercise fix tomorrow. normal service will be resumed on saturday and sunday at the gym and i am just about getting my conditioning back to a point where i was at in the summer at my peak. i promise i won't miss any sessions for the next few weeks and as i am off work for a week over christmas i might even do an extra session or two then.

today i have mostly been listening to fightstar - city on fire. it reminds me a bit of one of my favourite bands, bush. i just found out that the lead singer of fightstar used to be in a band called busted, who were absolute horse shit. lets just dismiss it as a youthful indescretion. you have to give him dues for turning his life around rehabilitating himself and starting a better band with some decent tunes. i think i will start a new mix for a possible trip to LA next year and i will stick this on it. i am going to need some tunes to listen to in my mustang....or camaro....maybe.

have a lovely day.