Journal Friends Archive User Info... Memories...   Old blog lost in the big haggis musings of a six foot hobbit St Erroneous Niall Temps (lost in Stockton!) Paul Pixiekix   ascension vain bedlam		Entries: 10 most recent April 11th, 2007   21:43 - Buzzword Bingo Working for a large mega-corp has its advantages from time to time but last week was like being in motivational video nightmare. One of the projects I've been on had a bit of a reputaion for 'going off the rails' so a WorkOut(tm) was organised to deal with it. Cue 8 people from various parts of said mega-corp (4 from the development side, 4 from the projects - or my side) and two very bouncy organisers. It all started so innociously - put down what you feel is wrong on post-it notes and hand them in - and then the buzzwords started flying around. I heard: Many Synergies *wince* At least one Paradigm Numerous Proactives But the winner over the two days had to be Solutionize Is that even a word? I know the mega-corp loves its catchphrases - Productionize is another favourite - but Jesus. After two days of that my brain had turned to swiss-cheese and was in bed by 9:30! In the preceeding three months I have been Snowboarding in France (excellent), working late on another project that is teetering on the edge of disaster (not so excellent) and attempting to go to the gym (see work for reasons why not). Turns out (he says having logged onto LJ for the first time since my last post) Ascension is on this weekend so I'll be heading Studio24-ward this weekend. Be quite good to have a bit of a bop before Dark City. Oh - Cath and myself also have a shiny new Sony Bravia 32inch LCD TV. Very very very nice... Tags: still alive Current Music: World of Warcraft sounds in the background from the other PC Current Mood: Gym = Pain++ Comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment January 12th, 2007   11:40 - Five working days down... Ten till I'm back on holiday again :) Actually this week hasn't been to bad workwise and although stuff is coming down the pipe which will require some weekend working later on in the year, if I plan now then I should be able to avoid working seven day weeks for two months straight. Outside the office it's officially grim, and has been grim since Saturday. Yesterday I honestly felt I was going back to school as the galeforce winds, driving rain and walking in the pitch-black (ah the joys of Winter in Scotland) reminded me of being back in primary school. It is, however, making an attempt to brighten up (with the rain still pounding down). So - a fun filled weekend awaits. Off to see Colin, Carla, Stu & Suz with the ever lovely Cath tonight as it was Suz's birthday yesterday and we're off to a fine restuarant to celebrate. Tomorrow night it's more of the same although with a different party as Leena celebrated her birthday last week and we're off to the Guru Balti Indian. Yum. Sunday, I think, will be spent on the sofa. I'm also counting down the days to the World of Warcraft Expansion - although the patch that was released this week managed to universally kill everyone's addons :( Made the Wednesday raid into Zul'Gurub rather interesting but we did survive and take 5/7 bosses out before it was time for bed. location: At work Current Mood: accomplished Comments: Leave a comment January 6th, 2007   19:13 - Back to work on Monday... After two weeks of not even remotely thinking about work it's back to the grindstone on Monday. Fortunately I still remember my main password so I should at least be able to start wading through my inbox. Renewed my train pass today (and it had gone up but only by the princley sum of £1 for a month) which is quite organised for me as well. Thursday's trip to X-Scape was a definite success although John declined the offer to hit the slope as he didn't feel he met the 'recreational standard' the complex wants you to be before using the tows. Was very impressed though as it's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be and it wasn't overly busy. Lighting was a bit weird though giving the slope a bit of a 'flat light' look but it was smooth so no danger of catching a hidden bump and having your knees hit your chin (or taking off - either's possible :) ). The good news is that I'm now acquainted with my new board and boots and can confirm that the board is very good and the boots (Vans Encore Boa) are very very comfy - much better than my old Burtons. Roll on the 28th when I head to France :) Went over to the Parental Unit last night to see them after New Year and got a final piece of my Christmas from my sister - namely the new Autoclav1.1 album. Haven't mp3'd it yet to put it onto the ipod but will do that tomorrow so I can listen to it on the train on Monday. Happened to catch the tennis on Eurosport where Andy Murray was playing and he seems to have (thankfully) calmed down a bit. No more screaming like a madman (I remember the pictures the papers had of him looking like The Scream) and a bit more focused. Not that I can play tennis at all mind :) Right - I think it's time to do some more fishing on World of Warcraft before I head out to see friends. My skill's now 291/300 and I'm going to hit 300 before Burning Crusade comes out. location: At home Current Mood: happy Comments: Leave a comment January 2nd, 2007   22:26 - Erase / Rewind And it's out with the old and in with the new - thank god. If I had to rate 2006 out of 10 it would get a 3 - which is mighty generous. Cath managed to spend almost 12 months recovering from recovering from the mumps in January, I managed to spend almost half my life in the office and we never got anything else in the flat finished (the bathroom is still in the same state since this time last year). 2006 was definitely a non-event. So - to 2007. Off snowboarding in three weeks for a week in France (Tignes for those who really want to know) and I'm going to head to the X-Scape centre in Glasgow on Thursday to try my new boots and newish board out. I've never been to the centre before so I'm quite interested to see what it's like (people in my team have been and all I got back was 'It's good but expensive'). Still - it has to be better than the plastic matting at Hillend. I've never been one to make (and therefore have never had the problem of breaking) New Year's Resolutions but I think I will this year. So - in no certain order: Cath, Family, Friends, Work - in that order. Be more structured in going t'gym (and if that means torturing myself with Personal Training Sessions - so be it). Climb a 6C - I've been doing 6B+s for a year now and I'm getting bored. Make fuller use of our joint CAMRA membership (beer festivals here we come!) Post to LJ on a frequent basis. And aim to have fun. location: At home Current Mood: relaxed Comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment October 19th, 2006   21:17 - Normality - that's what I want And that's what I'm going to get! After working weird hours since June it's all come to an end and, as of tomorrow morning, I'll be back doing normal hours. I was meant to be working 8pm to 8am shifts this week but got thankfully stood down last night or I'd have been sending this from the office. I'm looking forward to the weekend - both niallsdiary and Maria are up for the weekend so it'll be good to see them again and it'll be nice just to kick back and relax. Even Cath is doing better so she hopefully should be able to join in on the Saturday night pub extravaganza (although I doubt she'll be dancing on the tables ;) ) My determination to act my shoe size and not my actual age continues apace though with my latest purchase (Heeleys) and I've managed to practise to the point I'm able to remove the front wheel and use them like Proper Heeleys™. I'm now eyeing up the Gyle Shopping Centre and its lovely smooth floors... Also splashed out on a pair of double-decker New Rock Springy Platforms and the scary thing is that my dayglo trousers still stop 1/2 an inch from the floor! I think that's as high as I want to go though - any higher and I'll be in severe danger of clocking my skull off the door jams. And that's it really - most of the two months have been spent working, planning on working or doing on-call. Now that I'm liberated Edinburgh better look out as I have a lot of partying to make up... Current Mood: bouncy Comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment September 11th, 2006   19:30 - He's finally going... So Schumacher has finally decided to call it a day. He's certainly shattered every record ever set in F1 and I expect most will never now be beaten but I cannot help but feel that he'll never really belong alongside the true greats such as Senna, Prost etc because: 1. He's never had an 'equal' in the other team's car. 2. He's always demanded No1 status to the extent where the No2 has had to throw race wins for him 3. Some of his racing decisions would have got him censured in karting, let alone F1. I really hope Alonso manages to keep his slender lead intact and win the drivers championship for a second time or we're going to suffer years of "but would he have beaten Schumacher..." location: At work! Current Mood: Wanting to go home... Comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment August 30th, 2006   22:00 - Back in the land of not-Infest I am so glad I had yesterday off as I was a broken shell of a man. Being almost 32 and staying up till 4am all three nights at Infest, followed by a very long drive back up to Edinburgh, pretty much did me in. However, that's not to say that the weekend itself wasn't enjoyable as I had a fantastic time down in Bradford. ( The Infest weekend... ) Tags: infest 2006 location: A very wet Edinburgh Current Mood: giddy Comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment August 17th, 2006   13:41 - Cath is coming home... Cath is finally coming home, which is a good thing (an excellent thing in fact.) SMS'd the upstairs landlady and it turned out that the tenants had already moved out (which does kinda explain why upstairs had been so quiet for the past couple of weeks.) Also, whilst not wishing to tempt the gods, Cath is starting to slowly improve so being down in Wigan was the right thing to do, even though it meant we were apart for 5 weeks. Apart from being apart from Cath, since my last post I have: Worked all hours godsends (a weeks worth of overtime last month!) Seemed to have spent a lot of time in the pub - most of which were free due to end of project pissups Went to London for a weekend of clubbing with niallsdiary, Othon & Laura. Maria was celebrating the end of the school year and managed to get a two day hangover :( Been very very very very very tired (which is probably due to a combination of the above. Roll on Infest! Current Mood: happy Comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment May 30th, 2006   18:04 - Dark City 2006 madness Well - that's Dark City over for another year and I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. James, Julia and Jonathan managed to pull off another top three nights and they didn't even look that stressed by the end of it (either that or they were hiding it well. :) ) Going back to work today was a bit of a bind tho - I had completely forgotten what I was doing last week and I had only been off on Friday and yesterday! Oops. ( Of music and glowsticks... ) Current Music: Panzer AG - Aenimal Current Mood: happy Comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment April 5th, 2006   21:19 - Just push Fast Forward... Well, it's been a while, a very long while. On the one hand I cannot believe it's April as this year appears to be whizzing past at a rate even I can't comprehend. On the other hand, the year's been so crammed full of stuff (a lot of which has been work related) I'm amazed I managed to get it all done. So, since the last post (which was January!), I have: 1. Delivered yet another internet facing project in the bank. The world did not end although it was interesting trying to take part in a recovery meeting whilst killing Ogres in Tanaris in World of Warcraft. Volume controls are a wonderful thing. 2. Delivered yet another internet facing project in the bank. This one is still ongoing tho as there are a couple of cleanup tasks to do. 3. Plodding my way through WoW - lvl 52 and counting. Only 8 more till I hit 60 and then.. well.. that's it. Until they raise the level cap and then I start again. 4. Tending to Cath as she's still not back at work :( 5. Been attempting to go to the Gym and keep up the climbing (points 1 and 2 have done their damnest to interfere with that.) And that's been it really. Current Music: Marillion - No One Can Current Mood: tired Comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment