The Daughter took a year off before going to University. The original plan was to spend six weeks volunteering with the orangutans in Borneo. Unfortunately that ended up being too expensive.
So instead she's heading to the Antipodes - four weeks of volunteer work in New Zealand followed by some time in Australia with family.
She has paid for a lot of it herself - she found several jobs including waitressing, before/after school club assistant, and most recently cricket scorer for a local team. (Having a daughter who's a cricket scorer is slightly surreal since, as a family, we have little interest in team sports and only a slight interest in individual sports.)
Add to that the Boy is heading to France for a week and needs to know how to ride a bike. Which he doesn't. Belatedly (because he says he's got the hang of it and just needs practice) I looked up learning to ride a bike on the Inner-Tubes, um ... Inter-Tubes.
This site is good http://www.whycycle.co.uk/learning_to_ride_a_bike/
This one is okay http://www.sheldonbrown.com/teachride.html
I have not, and will not, be travelling much this year. Except to Birmingham from time to time, but I may be going to the big US of A next year.
The Boy has been choosing his GCSE options: Being a star pupil he didn't get all the choices he wanted, apart from sciences and maths, he's doing music - he's very excited about the composition part - he plays three instruments and in three bands. But, unsurprisingly in our family, he's chosen History. We do tend to shove it down both kids throats - those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it - but they don't seem to mind (the Daughter did Classical Civilisations which she loved). The Boy has a particular interest in WWII and that's what he'll be covering, so he's happy.
On the writing front...
The super secret project has been confirmed as dead (but at least it's confirmed), and I didn't get through the Big Finish new writers thingy. So those can be crossed off. It means I will definitely be using my detective script Tec for the Red Planet Prize, but that needs a page one rewrite.
I did enter the Blue Cat competition with Running and that gets announced some time in June.
I have been working through the page one rewrite of Winter definitely some good stuff there.
Meanwhile I'm also working on three website projects - and now have contributed to the Open Source software project called Drupal (means: water droplet) and my page is here it won't mean a lot to non-programmers but you can see my pseudonym there.
Gosh.
What's on the turntable? "Heartsong" by Gordon Giltrap from "Visionary" (This was used as the theme tune to the BBC's long-running "Holiday" TV programme. So is appropriate for this post.)
Showing posts with label drupal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drupal. Show all posts
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
All blogged out
After last week's ridiculous number of posts I've been rather quiet.
There are several reasons for this: My sleep patterns have been completely messed up and it wasn't until yesterday I was feeling properly awake for the first time in a couple of weeks (damn that hot weather).
I have been talking to a couple of people about a secret project, which is secret. It doesn't involve me getting paid any money so it doesn't come under the heading of achieving my goals for this year. Unfortunately. Though OMG#6 may well get me to that goal.
As you can see I changed my blog design I never really liked the other one.
I haven't been writing. The day job is getting in the way though not in the way you might expect. As a contractor I never really know where the next job is going to be. I have to sell my skills every time (or at least have agents who will do it for me). I am not working in my area of specialisation currently (Drupal) which is slightly risky as clients can be very stupid: by not doing one job in Drupal it obviously means I can't do it.
Likewise Drupal 6 has been out a while but I haven't done any commercial Drupal 6 sites - now this is completely irrelevant, the differences are not that great. But again clients can be very stupid obviously if I've never done a commercial D6 site obviously that means I can't do it.
My current contract is up in about 5 weeks so I must take steps to ensure my CV is convincing to stupid clients. Luckily there are two or three websites I can work on in D6, but it means I have to spend my evenings programming rather than writing. Luckily it won't take too long - because I do know what I'm doing.
In the meantime I've been thinking about trailers.
What's on the turntable? "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen from the "Essential" compilation. A masterful poet.
There are several reasons for this: My sleep patterns have been completely messed up and it wasn't until yesterday I was feeling properly awake for the first time in a couple of weeks (damn that hot weather).
I have been talking to a couple of people about a secret project, which is secret. It doesn't involve me getting paid any money so it doesn't come under the heading of achieving my goals for this year. Unfortunately. Though OMG#6 may well get me to that goal.
As you can see I changed my blog design I never really liked the other one.
I haven't been writing. The day job is getting in the way though not in the way you might expect. As a contractor I never really know where the next job is going to be. I have to sell my skills every time (or at least have agents who will do it for me). I am not working in my area of specialisation currently (Drupal) which is slightly risky as clients can be very stupid: by not doing one job in Drupal it obviously means I can't do it.
Likewise Drupal 6 has been out a while but I haven't done any commercial Drupal 6 sites - now this is completely irrelevant, the differences are not that great. But again clients can be very stupid obviously if I've never done a commercial D6 site obviously that means I can't do it.
My current contract is up in about 5 weeks so I must take steps to ensure my CV is convincing to stupid clients. Luckily there are two or three websites I can work on in D6, but it means I have to spend my evenings programming rather than writing. Luckily it won't take too long - because I do know what I'm doing.
In the meantime I've been thinking about trailers.
What's on the turntable? "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen from the "Essential" compilation. A masterful poet.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Twelve Point Plan...
Scriptwriter magazine transmuted today into a website, as a subscriber I got an e-mail about it with login things.
And, whaddya know, it's been created using Drupal. I know a lot about Drupal. I get paid a lot of money because I know about Drupal (and have 35 years programming experience, and have run businesses with employees). Drupal is free and can be used virtually out of the box though you might need a techie to get it into the box.
I'm not going to critique it as an implementation, that would be unfair.
Just thought I'd mention it.
I'm just about to get everything ready for my day at the Screenwriters Festival. Exciting.
What's on the turntable? Nothing I'm a sad bastard blogging at stupid o'clock.
And, whaddya know, it's been created using Drupal. I know a lot about Drupal. I get paid a lot of money because I know about Drupal (and have 35 years programming experience, and have run businesses with employees). Drupal is free and can be used virtually out of the box though you might need a techie to get it into the box.
I'm not going to critique it as an implementation, that would be unfair.
Just thought I'd mention it.
I'm just about to get everything ready for my day at the Screenwriters Festival. Exciting.
What's on the turntable? Nothing I'm a sad bastard blogging at stupid o'clock.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Arrived!
Carrying my computer backpack and reading my Drupal book, I travelled from Manchester to Reading, it wasn't a direct journey: Car. Then trains Manchester-Birmingham, Birmingham-Cheltenham, Cheltenham-Reading. Taxi.
Nothing strenuous, considering how bad my trip to Dundee was on occasions. On one particular occasion a distance which should have taken 10 minutes took 3 hours, on top of the standard 6 hours for the journey.
This was a doddle. Another weird thing, in Dundee (Scotland for anyone who doesn't know) I always felt like a foreigner, wrong accent. But Reading is south, and I came from this sort of place originally. I fit right in. (30 years in Manchester and I never lost my accent.)
So here I am in my little flat, getting to grips with everything, trying to get things into their proper places. I forget to bring the extension lead which means I can't move the fridge and freezer to where I want them.
My lack of a kettle didn't stop me from making some tea -- green tea. This is probably the place to say that I'm planning on losing weight. If I don't buy bread, I can't snack on it, and so on. We shall have to see how this plan goes.
And in case you hadn't noticed, I have temporary Internet, and I'm not stealing it. Turns out I'm on the edge of a BT OpenZone hotspot, so I've bought enough time to last me the week while I sort out a little plug-in thingy.
So. No TV. I can't re-tune the terrestrial channels because the remote control needs batteries, and there's no aerial (as mentioned). And I've got one (count it: One) CD with me.
There's clearly only one option. I shall have to do some writing. But on what?
What's on the turntable? "Drink Down the Moon" by Steeleye Span
Nothing strenuous, considering how bad my trip to Dundee was on occasions. On one particular occasion a distance which should have taken 10 minutes took 3 hours, on top of the standard 6 hours for the journey.
This was a doddle. Another weird thing, in Dundee (Scotland for anyone who doesn't know) I always felt like a foreigner, wrong accent. But Reading is south, and I came from this sort of place originally. I fit right in. (30 years in Manchester and I never lost my accent.)
So here I am in my little flat, getting to grips with everything, trying to get things into their proper places. I forget to bring the extension lead which means I can't move the fridge and freezer to where I want them.
My lack of a kettle didn't stop me from making some tea -- green tea. This is probably the place to say that I'm planning on losing weight. If I don't buy bread, I can't snack on it, and so on. We shall have to see how this plan goes.
And in case you hadn't noticed, I have temporary Internet, and I'm not stealing it. Turns out I'm on the edge of a BT OpenZone hotspot, so I've bought enough time to last me the week while I sort out a little plug-in thingy.
So. No TV. I can't re-tune the terrestrial channels because the remote control needs batteries, and there's no aerial (as mentioned). And I've got one (count it: One) CD with me.
There's clearly only one option. I shall have to do some writing. But on what?
What's on the turntable? "Drink Down the Moon" by Steeleye Span
Friday, April 04, 2008
Oh dear, I've got a job
Here's a pretty kettle of fish.
This time last year I became familiar with a thing called Drupal ... it's for building websites, it's very clever and it's free.
As a result I've had two contract programming jobs so far, one in Leeds and one in Dundee, and I've been making rather more money that I had been previously. (Editing books and writing web content for websites.)
This is good.
I've just been offered a 6 month contract in Reading (about 20 miles west of London) in a very large organisation, running a major project which will influence the lives of millions. (Actually true.) And I'm prevaricating. (That's why I'm writing this blog instead of doing what I should be doing.)
I've already accepted it but it means that, for at least 6 months, I'm going to be living away from home (home at weekends) and not doing all the thing I should be doing for my kids and wife.
The Dundee job was similar (Dundee being well into Scotland) but was only for a month.
But, frankly, we need the money. And it's a seriously good job.
And I'll be able to write in the evenings.
No choice.
This time last year I became familiar with a thing called Drupal ... it's for building websites, it's very clever and it's free.
As a result I've had two contract programming jobs so far, one in Leeds and one in Dundee, and I've been making rather more money that I had been previously. (Editing books and writing web content for websites.)
This is good.
I've just been offered a 6 month contract in Reading (about 20 miles west of London) in a very large organisation, running a major project which will influence the lives of millions. (Actually true.) And I'm prevaricating. (That's why I'm writing this blog instead of doing what I should be doing.)
I've already accepted it but it means that, for at least 6 months, I'm going to be living away from home (home at weekends) and not doing all the thing I should be doing for my kids and wife.
The Dundee job was similar (Dundee being well into Scotland) but was only for a month.
But, frankly, we need the money. And it's a seriously good job.
And I'll be able to write in the evenings.
No choice.
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