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2006-08-25, late at night
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As I mentioned in my previous post on this subject, my employment with Torchbox is no more and this has had a rather profound effect on what I’m going to be doing for the next few months. I was originally intending to put up a post here detailing my plans: indeed I foolishly committed to doing so. That hasn’t happened.
I have also been planning to write a post detailing how pointless it can be to make nebulous long-term plans, especially when in such a volatile situation. This has been through several drafts, but ultimately sounded a little too grandiose for its own good and so hasn’t happened either.
So, assuming these were bad ideas for things to write, what’s a good idea? Well, there’s what I’ve been doing this past month. Which, from a certain way of thinking about it, is almost what I was originally planning on writing about, just from the perspective of having done it instead of the perspective of being about to do it.
- I have been doing some freelance work (web-related and otherwise): it has, by and large, been most enjoyable, and has helped to bolster my bank balance in the period between jobs.
- I have bought a number of music CDs: they have, by and large, been most enjoyable, and have helped to undo the bank balance bolstering achieved by the freelance work. On a related note (pun not intended), I have also been listening to the album With Love and Squalor from We Are Scientists. They offer the entirety of their album as a streamed download from their site; as a fairly direct result of this, every time I go into town I get immensely tempted to buy it. Music industry, please take note (pun still not intended).
- I have installed and used TextMate: I first had a really good look into TextMate (and other editors) during my final couple of weeks at Torchbox, for the purposes of a Python project, and I’ve been pretty much hooked ever since (hooked on TextMate, that is, although I’m working up a bit of a crush on Python as well). In point of fact, this entry was written largely in TextMate: I haven’t yet dared experiment with its blogging bundle, but the Markdown syntax highlighting combined with Saft’s ability to edit the contents of text areas in an external application provide a more than acceptable substitute.
Aside from that, I do have a few things planned over the next couple of months, but – with the exception of a few geek meet-ups and web conferences, most of which are likely to be listed on my Upcoming profile – you’ll know about them when I’ve done them.
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2006-07-27, late at night
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We stand outside in the early Friday evening. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” I offer; “yeah, so am I” is his response. We shake hands, wish each other the best of luck, and I cycle off into the sunset.
Well, almost: the rear tyre of my bike is utterly wrecked and the sun isn’t due to set for another three hours and twenty minutes, but “I walk my sorry-looking bike off into the slightly faded daylight, sweating gently” hasn’t got the same ring to it. It also thoroughly ruins the poetic nature of the story if I mention that the story concludes later that night with a bike repair, a cycling pub crawl and my first game of bar billiards.
However you look at it, bar billiards just ain’t that poetic.
Sunsets and associated poncery aside, the date of this story is August 21st, the time is 17:45, and the event is leaving my first “real” job. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working for Torchbox in the Cotswolds for the past three months. As of last Friday, that is no longer the case. I shan’t go into details in such a public forum: suffice it to say that it wasn’t the job I thought it would be and, for various reasons, wasn’t the job I wanted.
This does, of course, leave my life plans in something of a state of flux: more of this in part 2. (See? Episodic content all the way. Next thing you know I’ll be releasing my blog on Steam.)
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2006-05-05, late at night
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As you can probably see, I haven’t updated this blog in far, far too long: just in excess of six weeks, in fact. There is a reason for this. As most of my close friends and fellow Listers – that probably accounts for most of the people who read this blog – may know, I’ve started my new job, working for a company called Torchbox, toddling off to Oxford in mid-April to friendly cries of “Judas!” from my Cambridge-based friends.
As I have spent most of my time between then and now either working, pursuing accommodation or getting to know my new colleagues (with the aid of the odd beer festival here and there), this hasn’t left very much time for blogging, especially as my new house doesn’t have wireless internet access… yet.
Rest assured though, dear reader, that this blog is, while perhaps not particularly well, still very much alive and likely to remain so. I may write up a slightly fuller account of my experiences with the new job in due course, or I may just talk about the first really geeky thing which catches my eye. This may well be Django, as and when I get the opportunity to have a play with it; it may be something entirely different. Wait and see.
Oh, and I have a Mac mini at work: it’s highly gorgeous.
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