a brother, a coffee drinker, a committee member, a computer user, a cynic, a day-dreamer, an eaves-dropper, an employee, a European, an ex, a father, a friend, a Guardian reader, a heterosexual, a husband, an introvert, a line-manager, a mammal, a meditator, an office worker, a reader, a son, a staller, an uncle, a viewer

Thursday, 08th March 2012

Hello again?
Turns out, not only is this blog still available, but I've managed to remember my username and password for it. Let the trips down memory lane commence!

10:57 am · Terry · comments (0)
 

Tuesday, 01st June 2004

Movin' on up, movin' on out


I've moved.

11:10 am · Terry · comments (2)
 

Friday, 28th May 2004

"A religion for everyone?" Even the Scots
This, from the Scotsman.com news site, about the upcoming visit of the Dalai Lama.

So why in this secular age is a spiritual movement that seeks to eradicate the "self" gaining ground? In a time when avarice and greed is epidemic, why is a belief system that targets desire and possessions as the cause of unhappiness drawing hundreds of new followers each year? And, more curiously, how did the Scotland of the Kirk become an international centre for the Karma?

Today, according to the General Register Office for Scotland, there are 6,580 Buddhists in Scotland, a figure that puts the faith on a par with Judaism and Sikhism and ahead of Hinduism, the root from which it first sprang.

4:10 pm · Terry · comments (0)
 

Wednesday, 26th May 2004

Go (away) Team!
I line-manage and am responsible for two cow-orkers. DK, for whom English is her fourth language, after Danish, Swedish and German, and SP, who struggles with one.

His incoherence is legendary. A feckless mumbler; still desperately ineffective and "failing to show initiative"; management above me are still keen to get rid of him; and I'm still wanting to avoid confrontation and would much rather the whole issue go away. I'm hoping he'll jump, and soon, rather than me have to push him, but this isn't looking too likely, as he keeps applying for jobs that are so unsuited to him it's a joke. Teaching, for instance. His communication- and people-skills are just non-existent -- they'd eat him alive. He only got this job because we mistook his incoherencies and vagueness for nerves. Idiots.

This has all been brought back up to the surface as a recent project in the department has high-lighted gaps in his work, which need filling. He and I went through a disciplinary procedure almost exactly a year ago now, his 'last chance'; following that his work improved, but now looks to be slipping again. Time for another 'last chance'?

I have the word "manager" in my job title. I was keen to get it there, thinking it would big up my status. Times like these though, I find that word a pain. I'd much rather get on with the work myself, than deal with the people who should be doing the work in the first place.

3:50 pm · Terry · comments (0)
 

Thursday, 13th May 2004

'Keep the interweb tidy' campaign
Back to more trivial matters.

There's nothing I like more than wasting valuable work hours playing around with html formatting; something as far removed from what I should be doing as it's possible to be.

Everyone's noted that Blogger has had a make-over, and perhaps the backlash has already started. And the zen/quaker in me really likes the pared-down emptiness of Google's blog (even though the spirit of that exersice is questionable) (and has been recognised to be).

The design for this journal is starting to feel fussy and contrived. So, time for a change I think.

(But not just yet, as I really must get on with some work.)

5:24 pm · Terry · comments (0)
 

Wednesday, 12th May 2004

Filmed
This is shocking, nightmarish. The morbid voyeur in me attempted to find the Muntada al-Ansar website that has the video, but in the end I stopped looking -- in case I found it.

Many people have been killed, but when television gets involved like this it seems to hit us with more immediacy.

It reminded me of an incident in Northern Ireland. I can't remember the details now, but there was a news report, complete with footage, of a funeral for a some well-known paramilitary. A large, angry crowd had gathered, as had two plain clothes policemen from the opposing side in a car nearby. The were recognised by the large, angry crowd. At this point, the 'crowd' becomes a 'mob'. The men were pulled from the car, killed and (I think) mutilated.

I must have been quite young at the time, and remember feeling grateful that the news programme stopped the footage early. We were left with the image of the men's faces, panic starting to set in. We knew what was to happen next; maybe they were beginning to get an idea.

People from Side A kill people from Side B; they retaliate; and so on. Having it filmed and shown, in part, on television brings it into our living rooms with force, but people are killing people everywhere.

4:13 pm · Terry · comments (5)
 

Tuesday, 11th May 2004

Lame similes
Thanks to Another Sarah for these extracts from genuine GCSE essays:

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

1:31 pm · Terry · comments (1)
 

Monday, 10th May 2004

Garment-modding
That last quick entry, about modifying a desktop PC to look like a Mac, was titled 'Cross-dressing' without much thought, but I wonder if there really are any similarities.

Why do we want to make one thing look like another? Not just any other, but its opposite?

What motivated me to change the appearance of this PC was: boredom; wanting to know if I could do it well enough to fool someone; feelings of unsatisfactoriness with what I have presently; wanting to express a different view of myself; or a view of how I want to see myself; wanting to demonstrate that I have control over my environment, albeit one only 12 inches by 10, or whatever 1400 x 1050 pixels equates to. Is this how it is for the "750,000 men in Britain who have not told anyone that they're secret cross-dressers"?

There is some part of me that can relate, just, to most sexualities, whether it be a curiosity about being with another body that's the same as mine, or wanting to exercise power over someone by being the one who can say 'Stop' whenever I want, but I don't get cross-dressing.

I can see how cool ot would be to change your appearance so much that you don't recognise yourself in the mirror, but I'm thinking more about that guy from The Fly II and Mask than Jim and John from tomorrow's BBC1 documentary, staring up at me from page 90 of this week's Radio Times.

10:00 am · Terry · comments (0)
 

Sunday, 09th May 2004

Cross-dressing
These wallpapers, this dock, this icon changer and this gui-theme-changer thing have all helped make my PC look like the mac I once had. I feel strangely fulfilled.

3:56 pm · Terry · comments (0)
 

Thursday, 06th May 2004

Right! You're banned!


I can eat lots of chocolate and still remain roughly two stone underweight. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

I eat lots of it; it cheers me up and gets me through these crappy days at work. But enough is enough -- the Twirl is banned!

This is the second time in a row I've opened a Twirl and have it disintegrate over my computer's keyboard. It's all in between the keys and round the trackpad thing and everywhere. Arrgh!

(I'll have to wait till the office empties before I try to lick it off my screen.)

1:36 pm · Terry · comments (4)