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| Welcome to the new look Stuff. | Date: 27 Jan 2002 | Mood: Optimistic  |
Welcome to a new and improved area of the Internet that is just mine. I've completeley revamped this whole area, and made it much easier for me to manage. I've even built a bit of stuff around it to store all the things I want to write about.
Over the coming months, I hope to get other members of Lightfoot Towers to stick their two penneth worth in. Until then, you will have to listen to my ramblings.
I want to add a proper blog as well as including reviews of recent music, movies and events, both local and global. If you want to add any comments yourself, then please get in touch. If you don't then don't worry about it - its my bit of the Internet, and as such its up to me what I put in it!
Anyway, Enjoy or endure, I don't really care!
Darren |
| Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to work we go | Date: 13 Feb 2002 | Mood: OK |
Well, haven't we been a busy little bee recently?
I seem to have secured a half decent job at last!
Its further up North we go, which means that Lightfoot Towers will be moving in the coming months. In fact since the offer, there has been an amazing amount of activity at the home of this bit of the Internet.
My God, I've even been busy - fixing up the rotten run down ol' shack we call home to make it a half decent place for strangers to live in. (strangers in the castle - never!). We had contemplated the idea of letting out the ol' ruin for a bit, but it does just not add up - do people really pay large sums of money for what is really just space out of the drizzle that seems to be the standard weather we have these days? I'm not sure we could do that.
Still, the ruin goes up for sale soon - I might even put up pictures of the place as an advert for selling what has been our home for nearly six years.
Now I'm getting all maudlin. Can people really have feelings for a pile of bricks and mortar? It appears so. Still, the old place has been good to us. Its kept us warm when it was cold, and kept us cold when it was too warm (In England - can it ever be?) If I carry on like this I'll start regretting I mentioned it. So I won't.
For the last two days, Her who should be obeyed has gone to the Mother-in-Law's, leaving me alone in the place. The little cherubs have gone with her. Two days in a house on my own - bliss!!!!
Or is it? I've been painting over distinctly dodgy decoration to make the Towers more presentable. I've had quite a lot of time to myself, and a little time to catch my breath and do some serious thinking about my lifestyle.
Its definitely time to decide to do something with my lifestyle - it stinks. I smoke, drink, and do little or no exercise. I'm going to be dead soon if I don't do something, and that is something I'd rather put off if thats ok with you.
I reckon this new job will get me on the road to recovery. However, I reckon it has started already, simply with a mindset optimised by a statement I regularly saw on my school reports - ' Must do better'.
However, I am going out drinking tonight...
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| I wonder what all this is about? | Date: 07 Feb 2002 | Mood: Tempted  |
School ends today for a week. The Darlings are going to be at home for a whole WEEK! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Never mind, I might have accomplished something today. I finally got everything together, and put up the new version of the our own bit of space on the 'net, and it only took two hours. Between fixing links and making icons work, it has taken a massive effot to get it working.
I wonder what its like for real web developers? I only dabble in this, using VB, html and a couple of other bits and pieces to make the corner of the www that is ours work.
It makes me think about the skills needed to be a good builder of sites. I think ours is vaguely interesting, if only for the fact that we like it, and stuff everyone else! However, the mix of programming skills (and no you cannot get away from the fact that you need them), design skills (so you don't make the site an eysore), and the most important skill - the ability to add good content, do not come so easily to lots of people. I wouldn't mind knowing what you think of our site - so go on and give us a call! If you think our site is rubbish, then click here. If its the best thing since sliced bread click here. |
| Doon the Toon | Date: 05 Feb 2002 | Mood: Good! |
Went for a job interview today in Sunny Sunderland. A good time had by all I think, although the six hours of driving really made it for me (NOT!). I had to complete a psychometric test before I was interviewed. Apparently, most Human Resource departments swear by them. I find them at the very least an amusing pastime, and at most a little disturbing. They are used to discover if you are an axe murderer or not. (Darn, I've been discovered).
It makes you wonder about the whole automation thing. If the process of an interview is to check for suitability of a job, and that check includes some psycho-babble based technology, then what is next? A robot asking you a set number of questions in a limited time? It won't be long I tells ya! Soon, we won't be allowed to meet the 'staff', untill we've been processed by the HR Robot, and measured for suitability - If you are acceptable, then the green door opens. However, if the machine discovers you have some dark characteristic - perhaps you just pick your nose in public - then a red door opens and you are kicked out on to the street.
I sometimes wonder where our technology is taking us. |
| Reflections | Date: 01 Feb 2002 | Mood: I dunno yet |
One thing that surprises me is the effort required in getting a job. I never really thought about the constant nagging of agencies and prospective employers, and the game seems to go on for ever.
There is some emotion in all of this that leaves you feeling particularly tired. I've been jobhunting in earnest for a couple of weeks now, and the effort has been exhausting, mostly from an emotional perspective.
When you first find a job that looks ok, and start speaking to an agency rep, the opportunity seems fantastic, until you hear that 49 other CV's have been passed on to the employer, and that yours only has one or two points of interest that the employer is looking for, and so you find that you aren't really suitable for the job at all. The expectation and hope rises with the initial application, only to be dashed as you realise that the job isn't really for you. The backlash is exhausting. You feel rung out, tired and incredibly irratable, which is not conducive to a happy family life.
Sooner or later I'll find that perfect role. Wherever it is! |
| Hope Springs Eternal | Date: 01 Feb 2002 | Mood: Optimistic |
Well, after my moodset in the earlier part of the week, I seem to have become a little cheerier. Job prospects are beginning to materialise, and I no longer have that feeling of desperation I felt on Monday. A solid determination to get the role that I want has now replaced the distinctly scary mood I had.
Friday always brings its own rewards to me - I get the chance to sit down and watch TV with the kids, and generally have a lazy time of it. The best bit is looking forward to Saturday morning, which is when Sandy has her time off from being a Parent, and lasily sleeps in 'till late. I spend some real quality time with the monsters, and really enjoy it. However, I'm knackered by lunchtime, so I get a bit of space later in the day. |
| Another day in paradise | Date: 28 Jan 2002 | Mood: Dissatisfied |
When I awoke this morning, I rose with such a stinking mood, that I could not help myself. A new Monday morning that seemed to be much like every other Monday morning. I am still out of work, and shudder at the prospect of looking for that role which will not just pay our way through life, but will give me something to fill the void that now fills me.
At first I thought that the mood would stay with me all day, but since waking, it has turned in to a grim determination that will hopefully carry me throught todays tasks, which are to get my CV updated again, and to get it out to every single Agency I know. I also have to update all the different sites that my CV sits on - a monumental task that will take an age.
More later. |
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