Erm.. build it and they will come?

We’ve all heard about China building, growing and expanding like crazy, but what are they building?? And do they have anything to put in the things they build? Aparently not as this article states.

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080612/REVIEW/206990272/1042 <– I just looked at the photos btw

The worlds biggest shopping mall lies empty (albeit apart from a few residents) since 2005. I guess this is a real example of the field of dreams ‘build it and they will come’ theory failing - a memorial to modern consumerism me thinks.

Go China! (not)

Windows Live Writer

multiple blogger?
mobile?
online and offine?
windows user?

me too… Windows Live Writer is bloody good, if you haven’t, you need to - check it out

1: Latté Universe

Recycled oxygen from the air conditioned office atmosphere consumes the world I exist in. The even, consistent, chilled pressure, suspends all fixed objects perfectly, as if without it they would break free causing untold chaos whereby staplers crash into photocopiers and monitors fight to the death with fire extinguishers. The air is the container for my everything, yet not thin and transparent, but dry dusty and grey with weight, like a quicksand flood had sucked itself up through the carpet tiles, similar to drawing liquid up through a syringe, causing everything electrical to fizz and pop in its mass until reaching the false ceiling and fossilising the noise into silence.

Within this dry, grey air, my coffee mug sits steaming, barely, as if trying to breathe, just like I am.

Predicting idiosyncrasies

It may be a small thing, but its remarkably significant for me to rub away the dirty imprint from from the back of the train seats, left by the protective grommets on the flip up drinks tray

There must be a name for this type of behaviour. Perhaps to describe the first idiosyncrasy? A subtle act of insignificance which leads to a life long addiction.

Can idiosyncrasies be predictable? They are acts of comfort after all. Textures and surfaces around us are consistent. Our movements and choices are consistent too. How many acts in adulthood stem from childhood comforts? Or further back in time still - to our neanderthal days?

Personal Gravity

As a policeman walks through the high st. people are pleased to see them, they are law abiding. Drivers put on their seat belts. Theives stop stealing, people relax. For that moment, the officers presence generates a feeling of safety. This is like a personal gravity of influence, relating to effect of the persons social position of authority. Similarly at the other end of the scale, people that generate a negative effect on the community (a known criminal) will cause criminals to relax. Shoppers to grab their bags etc. So if these polar opposites are true. Then naturally a grey area must exist, and we all must fall somewhere within that.

We all have our own personal gravity of effect on others based on our social status. No matter how watered down that may be.

This intrigues me.. It makes me think .. And I like that

Mark

loathe thy neighbour

Tom the cheese maker has moved out. They call him the cheesemaker, because he makes cheese. He was my neighbour for a year or so and I never really said goodbye, because I never really said hello to him either. We just grunted on the stairs in passing, like civilised neanderthals. I only saw the contents of his flat, when items were scattered about the stairwells and balconies of No: 15 like shrapnel from a wounded removal van. From this, I deduced that Tom liked to collect walking sticks. Why, I do not know, as they didn’t even look like very good walking sticks. Maybe he was a beginner at it?

I now have a new neighbour. Barry.

My introduction to Barry was through the rear window of a Skoda Favia in council estate green, commonly known as Turquoise these days. It was filled to overload with bags and boxes, so much, that it appeared to be doing a wheelie whist stationary. This amused me. Its raised front gave the impression of it wearing shoulder pads, which is only one place short of my all time favourite car vision I have: A 1992 beige Austin Metro with the hydraulic brakes gone, sinking its head and rearing up its behind, like it was wearing stilettos. For that reason I have always seen Metros as the transvestite of the motoring industry.

I met Barry on the top of the stairs. Yet again I never said hello. I feel hello, is such a cop out, its weak, its a limp wristed safety belt of an introduction. If over familiarity breeds contempt, then I am guilty of inserting contemptuos thoughts in to the minds of many I meet. “moving in?” I asked, knowing full well what he was doing.

Barry shook my hand like 20 yr old black rapper from the ghetto, when Barry is actually a 50yr old white hippy from Glastonbury. My parents taught me to always make friends with people who can steal you a good car stereo, and I feel comfortable that whilst Barry wouldn’t be doing the thieving himself, he probably knows a man who could. I also feel comfortable that he could supply me with hard drugs should I need it.

I can’t wait to get a proper job, so when Barry staggers across the balcony and knocks on my door with a can of Tennants Super Brew, I won’t be there to answer it.

Barry dropped a massive hint, that he was doing all the moving in himself, pausing in conversation to leave me a chance to generously offer to give him a hand. It was a psychological trap that many lesser men would have fallen into, however I sidestepped and we both watched it fall 2 floors over the balcony. Barry now thinks I’m an Asshole, whilst my selective deafness is sure he called me an ‘A Soul’, which I choose to be a very complimentary statement from someone I’ve only just met.

5hrs passed, and I met Barry again on the stairwell. He was smartly dressed in a tweed jacket and a soft pair of shoes, like he’d just got out of prison, and was carrying a piece of paper which I’m sure contained a list of all the people he was planning on murdering that night.

I think I’ll invite him round for tea tomorrow, he seems like a very nice chap indeed.

options, possibilities, decisions and opportunities.

Sooo in my attempt to not work… it worked.

For 3wks, I hung about in coffee shops, did some more writing, read a lot, visited people, paid out more than I’d like in car bills, and haven’t skated enough. On the surface, as calm as, and underneath, wondering how the hell I was gunna pay the pre-bill bills before I run out of dough. Luckily the karma police had been out doing their thing and smiling down on me.

I need to trust my self and life more. I worry a lot about getting work when I don’t have it, the trouble is, the more worried I am, the calmer I become. Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t. Think of it like this way. When you hit rock bottom, you’ve nothing to worry about, as you can’t go any lower. This is my approach to life. I consider my life is as low as it can get, so I am grateful of everything that arrives. This simple thought process, whilst effectively supressing my own esteme, also conveniently ensures a stress free day (everyday).  Sure its some kind of fucked up psychology going on there… but whatever, I’m cool with it.

So now it appears I have a job offer on the table. It has pluses and minuses like all good jobs. First the pluses:

• Its a big company. I do big companies very well. Up until 16 mths ago, it was all I ever did.
• The job isn’t taxing… if the job spec and interview test is anything to go by. (compared to ‘lancing anyway)
• With the economy on the brink of going tits up, all small companies ‘may’ be on the verge of struggling. This company is exempt from ’struggling’.
• Its in bristol, and close to parkway train station. I’m in bristol alot and I like being near a station.
• the monies ok. not great, but ok.
• I’ll be closer to Emily
• Flexible working hours (hopefully)

The minuses:

• Its in Bristol, the wrong side of bristol. Meaning lots of driving and sitting in traffic
• According to the job spec, its not going to be a creative role like I’m used to. I may end up de-skilling myself by working there.
• No msn and probably software, machine access and browsing restrictions will be in place too. not good
• The monies ok, not great, but ok.
• Remote working not available

Now it may appear that all is well, because theres more pluses than minuses, however the minuses are pretty hefty to me. The biggest pain in the ass is the travelling time and distance, lack of creativity and msn. All the other pluses can’t outweigh these one dot. Money is persuasive, however money isn’t persuasive enough in this instance.

There is another job on the horizon. And its local. The pluses:

• Its local. 15mins from my home… and almost zero traffic (one junction to tackle every day)
• Its creative. Macs a plenty, adobe creative suite kitted throughout, print and web, design and builds. Lovely.
• Low pressure. Its a laid back location with understanding clients. Quality takes preference over quick turn arounds.

The minuses:

• Its all a bit Royston Vasey. The environment serious needs a shot of ‘change’. They say yes, but are they ready for it?
• No msn. Just like the other job, this is a big minus to me. Reaching people outside the company 4 walls is vital in order to stay sane and share skills and fix problems when things arise. Without it, I feel like I’m suffocating.
• I’ll be the most technically knowledgeable person in the company. This has pluses, but largely minuses, if I’m expected to do stuff all on my own (re; msn above)

Now on the whole, the second job offer seems better, as the pluses and minuses are pretty evenly balanced, however this position isn’t mine yet, and the money hasn’t been clarified. Assuming it is, the better option still isn’t obvious. Both jobs are pretty much equal. I could literally flip a coin to choose between them. The only thing about both positions I would like is to remain doing my mediasnackers work. That stuff is vital to my sanity, and if one of the jobs couldn’t accomodate it, then the other would probably win out. Yes, it could literally come down to just that one defining factor.

we shall see, more news when I have it.

mark

10 unimportant things

This week I have been mostly:

1. Avoiding phone calls from people trying to get me to work for them.
   because I’m not skint yet and want a little holiday from work.
2. Enjoying the first episode of Titlepage.tv
   because I like hearing what authors have to say about their working processes. Because of this, How I write will probably be bought by me at sometime.
3. Discovering what the new IE8 has to offer me
   because when its finally released, I don’t want any nasty surprises with my site design/builds.
4. Enjoying a Stephen King book on writing from the library.
   because he doesn’t mince his words about the way he and other people should write.
5. Eating lots of soup and sandwiches in pubs and coffee in cafés, whilst writing / editing my words
   because I want the second draft done by the summer.
6. Securing domains and unifying the hosting of existing ones on my own hosting.
   because I can’t believe after 10yrs of webwork I still don’t understand basic mysql setups and connections.
7. playing squash with my bro ben
   because we don’t use any rules.
8. Going to the gym to flip about in
   because skateboarding hurts, and I like being upside down.
9. Eating bigger breakfasts
   because I need to cut down eating big feeds in the evening.
10. watching as many dvd’s as I can’t before my lovefilm trial ends
    because I don’t intend on paying for the service

stuff update

nothings going on… but sooo much is happening.

Just wanted to pop a little note in to say the de.licio.us links down on the right here, have been changing pretty frequently. I’ve been wandering a huuuge number of good sites recently and documenting them all. Have a click if you’re bored and discover something.

I’ve also been hooking up my social networks more…. namely twitter and jaiku accounts, getting them to work with my phone and having a nice little AIR app called Twhirl on my computer to enable me to post to both accounts. I’ve been getting into Tumblr too, figuring out how to customise it and integrate it into a site design.

I’m currently out of work atm… and quite happy with that. I’ve got a few quid in the bank to keep me going for a bit and its nice to have the time off. I haven’t really had any resemblance of a holiday for 18mths so I’m really not racing to jump back into anything. I do plan on tarting up my website soon tho, it really needs to reflect my skillset I’ve decided, currently its far from doing that.

I’ve been whacking a squash ball about a court a bit too. A couple games with bro’s and friends. I suck at it, but its a refreshing change. The last time I did anything close to this sport is playing badminton at school, and I used to love that. I guess I’m looking for more sports to do during the winter months when I’m not skating as much, and squash (minus the rules) is a refreshing change.

ok I’m done - out

roughing it.

I plan to be unemployed again shortly. Being self (un)employed, I don’t qualify for the dole… so to compensate and to get my share of ‘benefits’ from the society that I’ve been paying for so long, I’ve decided to join the Library.

This means instead of sitting in Starbucks and qwerting… I will soon be sitting in the library using their free net and working.

i’m looking forward to hanging out with the poor people in the slums once again.