Me, Myself & I

A close up of a flower in bloom. This bud is about the size of...

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:00:22 +0100

A close up of a flower in bloom. This bud is about the size of your thumb and to me looked like a great photograph due to the strong blue colour and the green stem/leaves. Cranking the aperture as low as I could get it to drop the background out of focus the picture works for me.

kateoplis: Tobey Smith | Light After Dark, winner of Fujifilm...

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:54:55 +0100

kateoplis:

Tobey Smith | Light After Dark, winner of Fujifilm Distinction Award

Cool photo.

The Frog In the Well Knows Not of the Great Ocean

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:30:00 +0000

I love this saying and I use it from time to time, it gets people to think a whole lot more than using one of the normal management cliches such as “thinking outside of the box”.

If you were to ask a well frog to describe the Ocean they are going to tell you about a well - simply because that is all they know about and they believe that is the extent of the world. Their knowledge, or lack of, limits their thinking and therefore their imagination.

So in business, you will often finding people speaking with authority about things but from a limited frame of reference. It dissapoints me to say that I find this far too often in the world of IT. Getting people to recognise their limitations is an important step in helping them to become more than they are as you can then build a development plan to close the gaps between what they are today and what they would wish to become in the future

On a related topic we also have: “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”, but let’s leave that for another day.

"Man Who Pee Into Wind Get His Own Back"

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:14:34 +0000

“Man Who Pee Into Wind Get His Own Back”

- Anonymous Chinese Proverb - probably from a Xmas Cracker!

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:07:59 +0000

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

- Albert Einstien

"If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:08:28 +0000

“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

- The Duck Test - Inductive Reasoning

"You wouldn’t recognize a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a..."

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:44:11 +0000

“You wouldn’t recognize a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing ‘Cunning plans are here again!’”

- BlackAdder

Might Have Overdone It This Week...

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:37:17 +0000

Been really tired today, really feeling cold and not quite with it. At around 4pm I was convinced I was going down with a cold.

Anyway, some vitamin C tablets (controversial I know), some Echinacea (also controversial), a bit of food and a few hours sleep and I am back!

So who knows if I have shaken off a cold that was starting or it was just the week catching up on me but I’m feeling a lot better now. Question is whether I will now be able to get off to sleep tonight.

"Never Knowingly Understood"

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:43:12 +0000

“Never Knowingly Understood”

- John Clarke

HHonors Incentive for Q1 2010 now running.

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:51:50 +0000

So the Q1 Incentive for Hilton HHonor members has arrived and I have already registered for it. The “Have a Night on Us” incentive begins with check-ins on Thursday, January 7 and check-outs through March 31. Earn a free night for every 4 stays or 10 nights at a Hilton brand hotel. Maximum of 3 free nights may be earned with this promotion after 12 stays or 30 nights.

So looks good for me as I will be having at least one and probably two stays a week so plenty of scope for getting to the maximum 3 free nights.

Annoyingly I have already made 4 reservations for January which won’t count towards a free reward as they were made before registration opened.

So, all that is left is to decide where to use the free nights. A year or so back it would have probably been in London but having experienced their fantastic hotel in Vilamoura, Portugal, then I think that may be the place to return in 2010. Or could it be Venice….

Gotta Get Get…. The Iphone 4 Loving the look of the...

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:53 +0000

Gotta Get Get…. The Iphone 4

Loving the look of the replacement iPhone. Luckily my contract renewal date with O2 is July 2010 so good timing I would say. Maybe I’ll need a Macbook Pro to go with it.

Software Engineering Explained. A classic that...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:16:00 +0000

Software Engineering Explained.

A classic that IT professionals will have seen before but probably resonates for many non IT people.

Zen Habits — Simple Productivity

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Zen Habits — Simple Productivity:

Enjoying this site, particularly the latest article which is 5 simple tips for making a fresh start. Love the one where you reinvent yourself every day.

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” ~ Buddha

http://zenhabits.net/

Snow is on it's way to the Sunny South Coast

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000

I am supposed to be driving to Birmingham tomorrow at about 6:30am (also known as stupid o’clock) and I just think it might not be happening.

Where I live, we are forecast 40cm (16 inches) of snowfall overnight and the picture doesn’t look much better along the entire 160 mile drive to our offices. The plan was then to drive to Tewkesbury, stay overnight, drive to Cardiff and then home. Sounds like a recipe for getting stranded somewhere a long way from home.

So, no decisions yet but I may just be working from home for the rest of the week.

When is a day off not a day off?

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:24:24 +0000

So everyone else has returned to work (largely the case) and here am I using up last years holiday. But of course the phone has rung a few times and the emails have been flooding in….

I know it is my fault, as I have conditioned everyone to the fact that if they contact me when on holiday I will respond, but it blurs the line as to when I am doing what I want to do or my colleagues might be taking advantage.

There are upsides to me of course: I still have to respond to said emails and calls when I return to work (Wednesday) so clearing them out as I go reduces the load of the 1st day back; I am introducing myself back to work gently rather than a big hard hit on Wednesday; I’m involved, and being a control freak this is important, and I get engaged and influence things that would otherwise progress without my input.

So, in what will soon be recognised as the blog of a workaholic I am prepping myself for day zero when I start work officially for 2010. The first day will be an early start, a packed suitcase and a 160 mile drive. Following that days work I’ll then drive a further 45 miles to a hotel which is en route to my location for the second day of work. And so it begins…..

3.25 mile Beach Front and Road Loop Run

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:59:00 +0000

3.25 mile Beach Front and Road Loop Run:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21672981

The running is not coming any easier at the moment. This is my third short outing so far in 2010 and now totals up to 11 miles so far.

The roads still had ice on them when I went out in the early afternoon and it really was a bit on the cold side, but frankly my times are just way off the mark and so far away from personal best times that I wonder if I will ever see them again.

Oh well, for me it is about keeping to my 60 miles each month target and I should be past trying to hit personal best targets but it is a hard habbit to shake off.

Still in love with the Garmin Forerunner 405 though and most importantly the data it collects and the analysis software on the website. What you see from the link above is a small sample of what is available to a registered user of the site.

Red Laser - One very cool iPhone app

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:38:00 +0000

I have lots of apps on my iPhone, including Tumblr. I am very selective and they don’t stay on there long if they don’t earn their keep. However, one that I really like is called Red Laser. I am sure I don’t use all of its features but it works for me as simply as this:

See something you like in a shop
Find the box
Open up RedLaser and press the camera icon
Line up the bar code on the box in the guidelines on the screen
It beeps
It then searches the Internet and gives you the best prices for that item on the Web.

Genius!

http://redlaser.com/

"Drink Coffee. Do Stupid Things Faster and With More Enthusiasm"

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:54:00 +0000

“Drink Coffee. Do Stupid Things Faster and With More Enthusiasm”

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for 4 Mile Road Loop

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:34:39 +0000

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for 4 Mile Road Loop:

Today I increased distance by 10% as I am starting to break in the new running shoes. Clearing 4 miles was an important event as this distance would have triggered my left foot numbness that I have been experiencing the past few months.

I’m not saying the condition has gone away but if these structured Triax allow me to go further then all the better. I was running 9 or 10 miles at a time before the condition arose so I’d like to get back to that distance by the end of February.

Gently does it.

Today's Run - 1st January

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Today's Run - 1st January:

First time out in the new running shoes. Felt really odd going from neutral and superior cushioning of Nike Vomero to structured support of Nike Triax. Kept it slow and sensible for the first outing and if the weather permits I can put some miles in over the next three or five days by gradually increasing the distance.

No numb foot this time out but that normally comes in around 4 miles on a Road surface so just short of trigger point this time out.

Click on the link above in the title if you are interested in the details and the GPS map of today’s outing.