December 2006

It seems that most of my ex-colleagues are either tossing it off at home or tossing it off at work today and blogging at the same time, so I thought I would join in the fun.

So, a belated Happy Christmas and a posthumus Happy New Year to you all!

Its been a funny year for me - on and offline.  I quit Blogger and landed here at Megatao.com, quit my job and started life as a lowly iT contractor.  One of my closest friends upped sticks and moved to Canada and now it appears that in two months another of my close friends is doing the same!  Babies, new gagdets came 1 2 3 4 and thankfully no-one went!

And what of 2007?  I never make new years resolutions, normally because I am too lazy to carry through with them - but this time I will be making a concerted effort in the following areas:

1. Get fit(ter) - I need to get off my office chair dwelling arse and back on my bike, or to the gym or something.  I have now got the stage where running upstairs hurts my knees and stretching just leaves me with muscle cramps.  I am only 35 but my Radio 4 conditioned body feels about 60!  I have already started drinking (much) less coffee and having salad sandwiches for lunch!
2. Get Rich(er) - This is a bit of a catch-all title really.  I have again got into the potential of earning a living online from such things as Adsense.  I just need that little spark to start something unique that will help me pay the mortgage.  I will also start doing the lottery in 2007.  A pound a week is pretty much the cost of an XBox360 game - and you never know!  In 2007 I will also become more career focused and not take a back seat any more.  I go with the flow too easily and settle into things too quickly.  I am good at what I do - very good!  And I need to be paid accordingly.
3. Do Shit! - I spend far too much of my time sitting in front of the TV doing feck all!  Especially as I am always telling people that there is only one program I ever watch with any certainty!  I have lots of projects buzzing round my head and this will be the year to crack open my skull and let them out!  I think I am a creative person at heart - but fixing servers all day is just dull, dull, DULL!  I will be planning to relaunch my Photao photoblog and get my camera back out again.  Having creative people around like Mr Swimpig is always great to spur me on.

There are other more personal things I have left off this mini list which are not for public consumption!  But wife… if you are reading this… I will be waiting for you upstairs!

Have a happy 2007.  Thanks, come again… i'll be here all year.

Then again… I could always move to Canada?

See.. even in Second Life, they know its Christmas!

I downloaded and installed this the other day after reading about a “virtual real-estate” business in the real world, selling houses and land in Second Life. The owner has become the first Second Life Millionaire - and thats real money people.. not cyber dollars!

Within a little while I was flying round a landscape dropping into different online businesses and witnessing things stranger than a black microdot induced night trip at Glastonbury! First I started speaking to a girl I bumped into to commend her on her nice set of wings and then she produced a little sheep-sized cow, sat on it and started dancing! She then brought out her motorbike and carved up the garden in which we were standing, much to the amusement of the chap dressed as a Transformer who was standing nearby.

It’s quite clever really! Unlike most online “games”, in Second Life you can create your own stuff from polygons that other people can see too. Whilst standing in the garden (again) I created a giant sphere that encased me and started rolling around like something from The Prisoner. I then made it transparent and decided to fly round a bit like some super hero type of person. In the end I suspended it in mid air and sat on it!

Well cool!

My next polygon creation will be… a giant walking iPod!!
Watch this space!

"Ring a ring of roses"
"a pocket full of poses"
"a tissue a tissue"
"INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

Whilst my daily intake of numerous free-vend Mocha manages to fend off most illness, my family and I have been struck down with a very bad cold indeed!

Although I have managed to escape the worst (so far) the two days I have spent hopping from foot to foot in an air conditioned comms room trying to find out why a Dell server decided to blue-screen did me no favours.  Combine that with a sleepless night through children and kin calling out with coughs, headaches and chills and you can imagine how I am feeling.

Luckily I have spent the last day at work sat in front of an NT machine and Windows 2000 machine an an XP machine testing the latest revision of a software update.   Nice to just chill and mong whilst putting CDs in.

Well, at least we got it before the christmas break.  A head cold a Jack Daniels at 9am on Christmas morning does not blend well together! 

Luckily I am still hangover free after an afternoon of boozing on Honeydew Organic Ale in The Old Joint Stock in Birmingham town center with the hapless gang of rogues I used to call colleagues.

I am pleased that those who have left “the old firm” are all doing very well for themselves. In fact I am the one who appears to be earning the least money per hour! (mental note to self: be more career agressive) Weird considering I am sooooooo much better than they are!! lol.

The past week has been full of non-eventful stuff. I had to visit Shoreham on sea to fix a server which had died. After putting the blame on the local iT company for changing their network for 3 weeks, we then found it was an issue with the image on the server and quickly hot footed down to fix it.

It’s nice though. When you are a contractor you can blame everyone else and walk free with only a guilty concience.

“My manager told me to do it!!!” or “The guy that trained me and then left told me to use that password!!!”

We had a nice time yesterday at the local switching on of the Christmas lights.

They block off the Stony Stratford high street and have stalls, funfair rides and acts performing.  They also do a lantern procession too where lots of local people get together before the day to make paper lanterns of all different things and then parade down the street.

I have just found a local persons Flickr photoset of the occasion here.

Its good to see all of the local “faces” out in force for the occasion - and the kids love it too.

Plus, as a Sunday treat, here’s a YouTube video I was sent by email.  Done/funded by Robbie Williams no less!