Time flies

Is it really Christmas again?

Freeze

I got to work and found my car door frozen this morning

Bit of a shock - went to get out of the car and the door wouldn't open - it was fine when I got INTO the car at home! I eventually had to clamber out of the passenger side in a most undignified way.

Further investigation seems to indicate that it wasn't frozen at all, but probably broken. Looks like the car will pay YET another trip to the garage (it's only just come back from having a new expansion tanl)

Update: The door is officially broken. Garage man said it's probably one of the clips inside the door.

Festive

The festive party season is with us again

At least, it is for most people. Because of silly company rules about not taking partners, herself and myself find ourselves going to parties along, or not going at all - respectivley.

The closest I got to a company do was my team boss' leaving do. That was quite a good affair, only marred by the fact that we got to the curry house so late that I had to leave to catch my train before the curry arrived - not at all pleasing.

There was a get together for a select group of neighbours this weekend, which was quite good, and we do have a party some distance away at the weekend - which should also be pleasant, so I guess, for me, it's quality and not quantity that counts.

Top pie

Yes, it's time for the annual mince pie tasting again.

We had a number of new pies this year, from diverse providers including Raymond Blanc, a local cookery expert, the Co-op and Greggs as well as our favourites from last year, Sainsburys Organic and Waitrose All Butter.

The shock news is that the winner is the same as last year - Waitrose All Butter were judged to be the finest mince pies by an expert panel of judges including myself, herself and our next door neighbours. Our tipple of choice this year was mulled wine.

Yum!

Poison Chalice?

Things are changing at work and I'm not sure it's for the better.

Our team boss (my bosses boss) is leaving next week and my immediate boss has been transferred onto another project. This now leaves 2 of us on the team for my project and it looks like that may not be for much longer.

We work on a system which integrates a number of older customer management systems together and it has a rather difficult time in the organisation. It threatens some, whilst others think it isn't a good solution - which is true in many ways - but it fills a gap in the IT systems which would otherwise be very costly thing to do.

There is always a battle to keep funding for the project and that seems to be where we are now. The future is by no means certain, but it looks like whichever way it goes, it's going to be down to me to plan and organise it all. Given the bureaucracy and suspicion that seems to be rife in the organisation, I'm not sure I'm happy taking this on.

Time will tell

A New Hope

I've finally decided to start a project I've been thinking about for a while. Hopefully it'll be some fun and will keep me occupied on the long, cold nights

Blow by blow account can be found here

Technology ... at last

Our updated technology is finally here

Following yesterday's disappointment, the Engineer came today and we finally have our shiny new Sky+ system. It was rather galling since he was here for a total of about 20 minutes, including checking the alignment on the dish. After all that waiting, it was so quick and simple. We're now looking forward to all the whizzy things that it can do.

Boo ... new technology failure

After MONTHS of waiting, our new Sky+ box was not delivered today

I reserved the box back at the start of July. Due to the strange system that Sky use, you have to wait to actually be allowed to order it (I think it's a way of making it look like they're not totally rubbish that doesn't really work). Last month I was told I could order it, and today was the earliest they could install it. Not what I would call great customer service

We had the usual thing of an appointment any time between 8am and 1pm, so I dutifully waited in to make sure I didn't miss the engineer when he arrived. At 11:30, Sky rang to say that they wouldn't be coming because the engineer had rung in sick.

Whereas I do understand that you can't predict sickness and there isn't much you can do about it at short notice, what I don't understand is why it took them until 11:30 to call me. That was 3.5 hours after the Engineer should have been working. It just adds another instance of dreadful customer service that we seem to have to put up with because there is only one company that we can use to get anything like a decent TV service.

Watery Voles

Just back from our hols. More watery pursuits for us with lots of diving and swimming and general lazing around in nice hot places.

First week on a liveaboard is remembered here.

The second week we were at the Coraya Beach Resort just near Marsa Alarm airport in Egypt. This is a reasonably upmarket sort of hotel which we enjoyed a great deal. The staff were excellent, friendly and helpful without being over the top. The food was generally pretty good, although we noticed a little lack of variety by the end, but on the whole most enjoyable. We, luckily, didn’t take the advice of people on trip advisor to go fully inclusive. Basically, because we weren’t drinking loads due to the diving, the restrictions imposed by “fully” inclusive made it not worthwhile. We also found if you chatted to the staff for a bit, then tended to slip you free drinks anyway.

or diving we had to walk all the way around the bay (about 10 minutes) to the sister hotel on the other side which was far more family oriented. The dive shop was very well organised (by Germans) and there was a very creditable house reef which took care of our diving needs for the second week. Nitrox was free too, which was nice to see, although we didn’t make use of it because our itinerary was a very relaxed one.

The first week saw some problems on the boat which did detract from our enjoyment a little, but the second week was a blast and overall left us with great impressions of Egypt once again.

Brass Monkeys

In preparation for our forthcoming holiday (hooray) herself and myself ventured of to the NDAC dive centre in Chepstow to refresh our diving skills and try out our equipment.

It’s quite an impressive sight, with the car park overlooking the huge hole in the earth which was the quarry and is now the dive lake.

They were a great bunch at the centre and we soon had all our kit sorted out and jumped on the minibus for a lift down to the water’s edge (much appreciated, it would have been a long walk). After the usual faffing about we took the plunge – literally – and got rather a shock as to just how cold it was.

We descended down to the bottom of that part of the lake at about 14m and it was eerie and murky – typical British diving. To try to prevent ourselves getting lost, we headed to the quarry wall and followed that around – admiring the collection of gnomes they had thoughtfully installed – and Olga tried out some extreme ironing whilst I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to snap some photos.

We had a quick surface interval on the pontoon and then went in to the shallower end for our second dive, which was just as cold and murky but a good deal shorter. Olga broke her torch, which was not a good Omen, and after swimming through a couple of cargo containers we decided to call it a day.

The showers were a welcome relief, being nice and warm, and after a quick cup of coffee to further defrost ourselves, we headed off – mission accomplished.

Back to the Future

We had a reunion of everyone who I used to work with this weekend.

It was a lovely afternoon and we all relaxed in the beer garden and caught up on things trivial and meaningful. It was especially goo d for me - having finally secured a job – because there was a real sense of everybody moving on. It already seems like a long time since we all worked there together – I guess it was nearly 18 months, which is quite a while. Good to see everyone doing something new and also good to reminisce and air a few of the old grievances as well.

Shaken, not stirred

We had the pleasure of enjoying a champagne cocktail evening this weekend.

We seem to have got into the habit of doing these tasting events every couple of months were our neighbours get together under some pretext and then eat and drink to our hearts content.

On this occasion, champagne cocktails were the order of the day and we were presented with a dazzling array of different cocktails – from the simple to the bizarre. In order to maintain the semblance of a serious tasting session, we had to score each one before moving onto the next. This resulted in a great deal of serious thought and consideration being given to each one (no, not really).

A clear winner did emerge by the end of the evening but none of us can remember which it was – I guess we’ll just have to repeat the whole thing again to find out.
Being champagne, the morning hangover was thankfully minimal – a good tip, I think.

Movie: G.I. Joe

I think we knew what to expect when we decided to go and see this film. To be honest, we weren’t expecting much – and the film delivered that in spades.

There are a ridiculous number of CGI effects, some of which are reasonably good, but all too many are rather unconvincing. There are goodies and baddies and a kind of plot to play with and there is a most obvious 3 act format with a beginning, a middle and an end. It all adds together into exactly what you would expect, an effects filled spectacle with no lasting value, 2 dimensional characters (some of them struggle to get to TWO dimensions), a predictable plot line and some fantastically bad acting.

Having said all that, I quite enjoyed it. You can put your brain in neutral and coast through the experience – watch the pretty pictures and listen to the loud explosions. It doesn’t change the fact that, overall, it’s a pretty poor effort.

5 / 10

July: Still got a job!

Settling into the working life again

I now enjoy a much longer and more troublesome commute into work than before, combined with the interesting deployment processes of a large, cumbersome, company. This has combined to keep me very busy over the last month or so.

I have to say that it's good to be working, doing something constructive and learning about some different (if not exactly useful) technology. It's not so good to have to contend with the M25 every day - but we can't have everything.

With our newfound wealth, we went away for a weekend this month to an interesting, if not entirely successful, hotel. We had a (long planned) birthday celebration and we had several weekends of recovering from the rigours of the week. We're even contemplating a real holiday.

June: Got a job

I got a job!

That was the big deal this month.

After more months than I care to contemplate, someone has seen fit to finally gainfully employ me.

Hoorah for deregulated energy companies

Movie: Terminator Salvation

The fourth Terminator film needs to find something new to keep the franchise alive after a generally lacklustre third outing.

The trailers for the film have, I think, been rather good - showing a post-apocolyptic vision of a shattered World and certainly the imagary in the film is one of the strong points with effective use of CGI against some stunning, bleak backdrops. But, visuals alone do not make a film.

I want to like this film and, in some ways, I do. It's a massive departure from the previous Terminator films, perhaps not surprisingly given the setting, however this was a good choice since rehashing the old ideas again would just be a disappointment.

Where the film struggles is in stitching together the plot. The first act is generally incoherent - moody, interesting but hard to follow - the characters are only realised to a basic level and the focus is on action and visuals rather than dialogue but the basic seeds of the story are sown. The second act starts to bring some interesting twists and character pieces into play. Bale is mediocre - being given little to work with but it is Worthington who shines with a well considered, sometime subtle edge to his character. There are some more teriffic CGI sequences and some development of the story - it isn't a strong second act but brings more than the first.

Finally, in the third act, the film finds itself. This, alone, saves it from being a meaningless disaster and manages to present an enjoyable climax - with a few caveats. This deliberatly draws on previous Terminator films and gives the audience what they really want (I shall say no more).

Overall this is one of those films which is enjoyable enough, but not great. Bale's character needed to be more central, stronger and less conflicted to pull this off and it's only in the climax that we see this. Wothington is good and engaging throughout and Bonham Carter makes a good, effective, appearance. This isn't your traditional Terminator film but it has plenty of action, lots of great visuals, some good CGI and, if you can wade through the first two acts, a satisfying and enjoyable climax.

7/10

Return of the Jedi

Today, I have finally finished Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

I started back in January, after receiving it for Christmas, so it's been a good 5 months of work and 150 hours of play to get to the end with 100.0% complete.

I've enjoyed it, on the whole, it's quite good with a nice bit of humour. Not quite as polished as Mario Galaxy with a few more bugs and annoying bits, but - with the exception of 1 particular level, which I think is just dreadful - generally a good mix of gameplay and plenty to keep you busy.

Zelda Twwlight Princess is next on the list.

Final Frontier

I still get a thrill from images like this.

It's strange but true that, unlike a great many people, I still find the whole space programme rather inspirational and compelling. It's a rare sight these days to see a Space Shuttle being transported like this (they prefer to land them back in Florida), and it does look rather old and clunky in many ways (it was designed nearly 40 years ago), but I think it reminds us of a more optimistic and idealistic time.

The Space Shuttle was born at the peak of the Space race, conceived during the golden Apollo years when everything seemed possible - after all getting to the moon had only taken 7 years. The reality was somewhat different - with NASA being pulled in different directions, budget cuts and persistent problems it was 10 years after Apollo when the Shuttle finally took flight.

The history of the Shuttle has, perhaps, not been flawless, but when you remember that until the dawn of the reusable spacecraft a very, very small number of people had been into orbit. At the end of 18 years of service, there are now a whole army of those who have left the Earth. Although the craft never became what NASA envisaged - never the cheap, reliable, day-to-day space transport, but its achievments are nevertheless, remarkable.

The Shuttle will be retired next year and it will be the end of an era. Not just the era of the shuttle itself, but the era of optimistic, idealistic spaceflight. It is the legacy of the Kennedy space race, a bold, ambitious move to make space more accessible and a fitting tribute to all those who laboured to let mankind take its first, small steps away from the planet. Despite being an outmoded, expensive and none-too-safe system, I, for one, feel sadness at the end of such an era. It remains to be seen if the ambitions of NASAs current flagship manned space programme, Constallation, will have the same ability to inspire and compel attention - based firmly, as it is, in the budget mentality. Time will tell, but time will also remember the Space Shuttle.

Movie: Star Trek

As a franchise, Star Trek has been in troubled times.

The last film was not well received, for a number of very valid reasons. The last TV series was cancelled after run of just 4 seasons, again, for a number of good reasons. Rumours of a new film had been circulating for a long time and the publicity machine has been winding itself into a frenzy over the new film. It's not really a make-or-break movie for the franchise, but it will determine if Trek goes dormant for another few years or is re-energised (pun intended) with life.

So with all the hype and publicity, the generally good reviews and a few personal recommendations, I went to see the film at the weekend. I was dubious that they would capture the essence of what I believe Trek is all about (the last film missed it by a mile), and I was doubtful that a gaggle of young actors could successfully step into the shoes of such well know and well loved characters.

As the film starts, it is obviously Star Trek, but the way it's photographed is rather new, rougher, more organic. The opening sequence grabs your attention and sets the quality and pace for the entire film.

Establishing the main characters is a thankfully swift sequence. We then start to meet other characters and there are jokes, both obvious and subtle, woven in to both the dialogue and situations. Much as I'd like to, I won't include any spoilers here, but if you've a passing familiarity with the previous films, there are some great things to look out for.

The second act brings us to the Enterprise and some wonderful performances, both serious an light hearted - the crew briefing was so ludicrous I just can't help chuckling, even now. The pace is perfect and the story is engaging and compelling, with enough action and character development to produce a well rounded film.

The cameo sequence works much better than I expected and Simon Pegg obviously had a fantastic time as Scotty.

The final act proceeds mostly as expected, not to say that it isn't thoroughly enjoyable. There is a little over-sentimentality at the end, perhaps, but it's quite well executed.

Overall the actors did a great job. Quinto was especially pleasing as the young Spock, with Urban also doing a fine version of McCoy. Pine had a tough job, as the central protagonist, to emulate Shatner's Kirk whilst not compromising the character, but he had just enough of the classic to make it work.

The film is not without its flaws - for me, mostly technical issues. I can understand those who take exception to these flaws, but the film works well overall, brining an immediacy and energy back to the series which has perhaps been lacking in recent outings. The pace is perfect, with plenty of action but also time for reflection, the effects work very well and the cinematography, although not the Trek norm, works well in the action settings. Basically, it's just good fun - an entertaining film which works well on it's own but even better as part of the long franchise. It deserves to be a success.

9/10

Time and busyness

A month has passed since my last post, so decided to provide a quick update of what has been going on.

Firstly, no advance on the job front - still have a number of things looking hopeful, but nothing at all concrete for now. It's starting to hack me off again. I've been for one more interview (maintaining my one-a-month rate) but it frankly wasn't a very good interview and they, once again, decided to change the job spec a couple of weeks later which made me unsuitable.

Secondly, I _am_ still doing my Prince 2 course, but it's ended up being far more work than I anticipated plus, I've been finding it difficult to make the time to actually do it (see below). I'm hoping to start spending some serious time on it again soon.

It has been a busy old time. It started with a telephone interview near the end of April, this resulted in me undertaking a programming project over the next week (which ended up taking 50 hours of work). It was fun and it was good to be doing something with a purpose again (albeit, unpaid). Regretably, half way through, I had a phone call to say they'd been put on recruitment freeze and so the job I was working toward didn't exist any more. I decided to finish the project anyway and send it in.

It's quite unusual to be given a full project to program, rather than just a programming test, but I rather liked it - although I'm glad not everyone does it because it takes a great deal of time to produce anything that gives a clue as to what you're capable of.

The following week was a bank holiday, so not only did I have to catch up with searches and applications which had been neglected the previous week, but I only had 4 days to do it.

This week's been mad with job applications, as well as my wedding anniversary and my wife's birthday. Between all these things there's been little time to do anything at all that I actually wanted to!

In the meantime weve been on a progressive supper around our village (great fun), had a village festival (damp but good), had visitors and family staying for a while.

I now have to complete a very long application form for a job, get some birthday presents and plan some birthday events for the weekend ... so I'd better get on with it.

Go West!

This Easter weekend, we 'av mostly been visiting Zomerzet.

There was a big old family reunion in Somerset this weekend, so we toddled down on Friday evening to join the festivities.

Saturday was spent careering around the South West in search of fine walks, ice cream and fish and chips on a beach. All were totally successful, and for once the weather at the bank holiday was wonderful.

We spent a couple of lazy hours wandering around Golden Cap and sitting on the cliffs enjoying the sun followed by a drive into Weymouth and dinner on the beach.

It's good to get together and do stuff like this.

Sunday was more zooming around - this time between different courses of our lunch. It was all good fun too, and kept us amused for most of the day. Far too many Easter eggs were exchanged and quite a few eaten by the end of the day too!

Monday consisted of some wandering around Yeovil, again enjoying the sunshine, and after a quick lunch, the trip home - which wasn't as bad as we expected. We even had time to sit out in the garden when we got home.

Another highly successful and most enjoyable weekend.

Munchkins and Mushroom Stroganoff

Another very enjoyable weekend was had. This time with Munchkins and Mushroom Strogonoff.

The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment - with looking for jobs plus studying for my dreaded Prince 2 exam (another time). The weekends also fly by but luckily because we're doing nice things.

Friends over for dinner on Saturday followed by entertaining them plus 2 small ones on Sunday. Enjoyable but exhausting.

We also saw the first ducklings of the year on Sunday - it must be Spring!

Pub

The Frog came to visit this weekend.

This entailed hurtling in Herman (q.v), drinking and and eating sausages (although no sausages for me ... being a poncey veggie I had frittata).

We had a fine time, visited a pub I'd not been to, visited a couple of pubs I had been to, was treated like a long lost friend in one of them (having not been in for ages due to my continuing work situation) and generally had a jolly spiffing time.

The next day was spent in quiet contemplation of the cosmos and muted conversation of many things (if you know what I mean). We also went on a walk and went past a pub, but not into it.

Soup was then consumed and we all went home for tea.

The futility cycle

Another week has dawned and I am still without gainful employment.

I have noticed a pattern in my job hunting over the past few weeks, it goes: Excitement, Impatience, Sinking and Resignation.

Each time I find an advert for a job which looks tailor-made for me it's all very exciting as I tweak my CV and send off my application.
The impatience kicks in when the agent inevitably doesn't get back to me, or there's a delay for some reason, or things are put on hold. This can last from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.
The sinking feeling comes when the overwhelming evidence finally hits me and I realise that I am either not going to be called for first interview, or subsequent interview or not given the job.
I usually managed to keep in the sinking phase for a couple of days by telling myself it's not over til it's over, but the inevitable phone call usually kicks me onto the final phase.
Resignation that yet another job has slipped through my clutches is the last phase. This is especially bad when there are few other prospects around. The phase is usually characterised by stomping, muttering and use of excessive pressure on the keyboard. This phase continues until another tailor-made job is advertised at which point the cycle starts all over again.

To be honest, the situation is made worse by an increasing number of agents who choose to be very aloof and only ever communicate with you on their terms and by companies who place adverts either for non-existent jobs, or for jobs that are later withdrawn with little or no warning. Having looked for work many times in my career, I have to say that the process is far more painful at the moment than it's ever been.

So, in order to break out of this cycle, I've taken the hard decision to invest some of my dwindling funds in some training so I can plaster some shiny new qualifications on my CV. Employing the MacDonald's gold star approach, I'm going for the least effort, maximum shinyness route of PRINCE2 and ITIL certification, possibly followed by some nasty Microsoft ones. This is based on what I've seen employers asking for, what is cheap enough and what won't take me too long to do.

I shall now see if training also has a futility cycle, because right now I'm at the excited bit and already planning how to emblazon my new qualifications across my CV.

FOOTNOTE: The two jobs that looked promising both fell through last week. Reasons were not exactly convincing.

Feature presentation

Just heard from the Apple announcement about the big iPhone software upgrade.

The big news for me is that it's getting MMS - something which drives me insane at the moment as I have several people who send me MMS all the time and it's not only laborious to pick up the messages from the dubious O2 site, but also embarassing to send emails in response.

There are a number of other neat things they announced, including copy and paste - which will be useful - and a push system that actually works (apparently) but the real test will be what the developers do with the new stuff they've been given as part of the upgrade. Certainly Sat-Nav functions look on the cards now, so that'll be handy - albeit annoying if you get a call in the middle of the tricky bit.

I shall be following developments until the upgrade is available in June - and perhaps I can bore you silly with them, just like I did with the iPhone 3G.

Weekend wanderings

The weekend saw us venture away from home for the first time in a while.

On Saturday, we were to be found in (Royal) Tunbridge Wells. Never been there before and other than a dreadful road system with no signs, it was rather pleasant - quite historic and surrounded by some lovely countryside. (I would tell you why it's called Royal, but you can look that up just as well as I can).

We went for a long walk on Saturday, punctuated by an inevitable trip to a fine pub, and it was most agreeable - especially as it was the first time this year we've been able to sit outside and enjoy a pint - Iron Horse in this case.

Sunday saw us visiting Sidcup. A somewhat different prospect and not quite so leafy and rural, but even there we managed to have a wander around quite a secluded wood at Scadbury Park.

All in all, very nice - got to see a few friends and also some new countryside. Shame about the trip home on the M25 which was a total 'mare, as usual on a Sunday evening.

The rollercoaster week

Another week has flown by and things haven't changed a great deal.

The job market is still sluggish, employers still seem very loathed to interview or make decisions and I still don't have a job.

I did, however, land an interview at another company - making a grand total of 2 this year - and have a second interview for the first company.

I think my interview yesterday went well, I said most of what I wanted to, they all peered at some documents I'd prepared in advance and generally I feel I answered the majority of questions well. I am waiting, with baited breath, to see if they are going to call me back. Yes, there is a thrid interview! Never come across this process before, but there we have it.

There are a few things about the job that concern me. Not least of them is the location - it's in a very out-of-the-way place and although it's not too difficult to get to, it involves travelling along some narrow, windy and poorly maintained roads. Not what you want when you've had a busy day and just want to be home.

The next job I'm going for is the opposite - straight down the motorway - very easy. But I have to wait and see what sort of a place it is and whether the people are OK. I generally get a feel for a place and its people quite quickly - years of honing this talent as a contractor.

So, I'm on quite a high at the moment. After starting to get very annoyed that we were now in March and I still didn't have a job, a couple of interviews make me feel closer to that than ever before. We're also managing our money very effectively and still haven't had to raid the savings, and my benefits pay for a few things as well.

I've spent the last week frantically reading about project management and development techniques and feel I've picked up a lot of valuable info, so I'm planning to keep up my research reading and read around a number of technologies and techniques that I've been putting off - it can't hurt. Of course, my progress in Lego Star Wars is going to suffer, but these are the crosses we have to bear.

Mini-film reviews

My sister came over for the weekend.

She brought some films with her, plus I watched another after she had gone, so it was a bit of a film-fest weekend, after a long absence of any films. Brief thoughts on the films follow.

The Illusionist
A film about magic in 19th Century Vienna sounded interesting rather than compelling. I feel the story starts in a rather clumsy way, but soon settles down. The magical interludes are charming, reasonable accurate, even if some are CGI, and very watchable.

It very quicky becomes apparent that this is a love story, set against the backdrop of the Austrian Empire, the class system and magic. The story is interesting enough, but nothing spectactuar, but it is nicely photographed, well scripted and engaging enough. However, this film has a sting in the tail in that things are not what they seem. All becomes clear right at the end with a magnificent twist. Depending on how quick you are, you probably worked it our at some point, but the full implications are more that you imagine. A very well crafted, well considered and enjoyable work.

7/10

The Prestige
Another magic film, but very different. This is a much darker, more psychological and sinister film. Rather than love, this is about rivalry, ego and pride. Some more magic sequences, but this time more grotesque, more base and more sensational.
The three act film is mirrored by the microcosm of a magic trick, also in three acts. This is explained very carefully at the start of the film but belies the film's highly complex and interwoven plot.

I would challenge anyone to fully appreciate this film at a single viewing, there is too much to take in and too much misdirection for you to follow the whole story. The more you consider it, the more possible realities spring up. The parallels between the main protagonists, their motivations, their troubles and their obsession is well realised. Tricks and misdirection rule and unfold as the story progresses to its, unexpected, conclusion. There are clues along the way to help unpick the truth, but this is a tough challenge as the pace is relentless.

This is not a thoroughly enjoyable as The Illusionist because it raises too many questions, but the scope of the film is fantastic and the amazing journey it takes you on is worth hanging on for, through all the twists and turns. It's also a film which, I believe would not only benefit from a second viewing, but demands it.

8/10

Hellboy II
A very slight change of pace from the other films.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first Hellboy film. I didn't expect much, but what I got was quite a good, straightforward film with a well paced plot, good characters and a sprinkling of humor.

Hellboy II fell into the typical sequal trap. We have all the same components as the original film but bigger and better with more effects, a broader plot, more characters and bigger threats. But right from the begining this was a film without a soul, something which was made to a checklist rather than being an artwork in its own right. Because of this, it ticks a lot of boxes, but it falls short of being engaging.

The all-too-familiar trap is to constantly think of the sequal in terms of the original film (i.e. bigger this and more that) rather than creating a film that stands on its own merits. Although enjoyable enough, it doesn't carve a niche for itself in your memory, doesn't have much to say about anything and doesn't really develop any of its characters. A missed opportunity to do something intelligent and clever with a seemingly crass and shallow franchise.

5/10

Downward trend

With all the doom and gloom in the media at the moment, I thought it only right and proper that I jumped on the bandwagon too.

After what looked like a good start, this week has been rather dreadful, jobwise. Things started to look up last week, with not only more jobs showing up on the searchs, but more that I could actually apply for. It started to look like I would be batting them away with my weighty CV.

A week later and I feel that this week has been at a total standstill, so I decided to tally up some statistics to see if it was really true (the offshoots of having too much time on my hands). It turns out that this week is pretty much bang on average in terms of job availability, but last week, which had the most jobs around, I applied for just one (which was unceremoniously withdrawn this week). So, it seems, that I'm suffering from last week's standstill.

Of course, the real issue is the lack of interviews. I still have a number of applications "being processed" including one that's been out for over 3 weeks. All kinds of excuses are offered, but the truth at the end of the day is that no one is in a hurry to hire at the moment. The problem with that is the longer the job is out there, the more likely it is that the budget will be pulled (it happens a lot at the moment) and then you're back to square one.

So I'm still in the unfortunate position of all my eggs being in one basket, which is good in that it looks really interesting, but not so good in terms of negotiating a salary, or if they decide to hire someone else. But - there's not much I can do right now other than grow a phD or three.

Suspiciously quiet

No more news on interviews

Following on from my previous post, there is still no word as to whether they want to interview me or not.

Back from a weekend away in Gloucestershire and into the old job hunting lark again, it's picked up a little today after last week being very poor. Still, the only agents that call are the ones that don't need to - either confirming that I'm _still_ OK to attend an interview, or telling me that they have no more news.

Since I spent half of last year trying to recruit decent software developers, I know what it's like from the other side. One has to draw the conclusion that there are jobs available and people well qualified to do them, but agents are totally hopeless at putting the two together. Maybe there's a new buisness opportunity here .... ho hum.

Academic Fanaticism

I've just endured one of those conversations that really annoys me (Caution, Rant)

An agent rang me and wanted to quiz me about my academic qualifications. "Do you have any?" she asked. "Yes", I replied, "I have an HND". Now, of course, this was rather confusing as I didn't say "Degree", "Masters", "PhD" or "Overlord of the known Universe". "So you don't have a degree?" she retorted. "No", I curtly replied, "Why not?" she asked.

At this point I attempted to explain what a totally pointless question this was. I have 20 years of experience, 20 years since I left a Midlands-based Polytechnic after only 2 years instead of 3, 20 years of actually learning something useful rather than the strange fixation my course had with Cobol (if you don't know what that is, be glad), 20 years of solving real-world problems, learning things the hard way, finding out for myself rather than being spoon fed, sorting out other people's mistakes and chasing impossible deadlines. But this means nothing, because it's an agent and agents don't understand these things, agents always say "I don't really understand that, I'm not very technical", they say "But you don't have experience with version 2.716, only version 2.715" ... it's a wonder anyone ever gets a job!

As you can tell, that touched a nerve. In fact it touched nerves on a number of levels and made me quite cross.

So, after my short outburst (somewhat shorter than recorded here, as you can imagine), she refused to take that as an answer and I had to admit, rather lamely, "I didn't get a grant", which was true - in my second year the local authority did not pay me a single penny in grant money (in those far off days when they generally used to do things like that), and if I'd decided to go on to a post-diploma course, I would have received a similar amount.

I didn't, however, mention that the reason I took a 2 year course in the first place was my dramatically bad A level results, or that these could probably be attributed to the amount of time I spent in the Red Lion or any number of other fine public houses in the area, or the fact that on a Friday afternoon I really didn't give two hoots about Physics and would much rather be playing some nerdy role playing game.

How is this at all relevant now?

We shall see, I'm still waiting to hear if they are going to interview me for the job.

It annoys me most because about 90% of what I learned on my course has been totally useless, I've never used Cobol, or SSADM, or used structure diagrams, or programmed a 6809, and I only spent 6 months writing commercial Pascal. The most useful thing my course taught me was the C programming language, and that was just 6 months out of the 2 years - I learnt far more in the folloing 6 months in a real job. But the academic standard makes it easy for people to put you in a box. It's easy to rank people based on 1st, 2:1 2:2, how "good" the University was, and so on. It's more difficult to look at experience and decide how relevant it is, and that is all, I believe, there is to it.

Breakthrough

Seems I have a second interview for the job.

Unfortunately it's not for a while, due to holidays and the like, so I'll have plenty of time to second-guess how to approach it. There are, alledgedly, a number of candidates involved, so obviously not everybody ran screaming from the building.

Knowing the situation they have themselves in, I think I've got a few pointers on what to research, so a couple of new software project books are winging their way from Amazon as we speak. I genrally find its good to get your mindset aligned beforehand, so I'm hoping they will do the trick.

Sign on day tomorrow too. I have to print out my 4 page job hunting log to prove I've not just been sitting on my backside whilst the government shells out everyone elses hard earned money. Fun.

Land of make-believe

I've returned from a job interview today.

It's the first interview I've had in a little while, and it was somewhat different from the norm. Usually you get asked a load of leading questions, answer them by selecting a situation, viewing it from the most favourable point of view and adding 6. It is then traditional to spout mumbo-jumbo about technology or processes or synergistic flangehandly doohickies and finally retire for coffee and contracts.

This interview started by being told in no uncertain terms that they were up a certain place without a certain implement, that the customers were banging fists on tables, the developers were delivering dodgey code and everyone was running, at increasing speed, around an ever-collpasing singularity of terror.

My first thought: RUN AWAY!

My second thought: Well you could hardly make things any worse, and it would be nice to have a job ... or more particularly, the money that comes with a job.

Don't get me wrong, I've been there before, with project falling around your ankles, code that just won't work and impossible deadlines for impatient customers. It's just that most people try and keep it a little bit quiet. To be faced with this in an interview was interesting, and, I must say, has piqued my curiosity about the company. It's probably some kind of self-harm urge brought on by unemployment, but I actually thought - yes, I could go and sort that lot out.

I am now waiting to hear if they want me for a second interview, so I may never get the chance to find out any more, but we shall see. At least no one will be able to pretend they didn't know what they were letting themselves in for when they joined.

Vista and the art of going to the lavatory

Hoorah!

After my dispondancy of yesterday, today is all fresh and new and technology is my friend again. Having downloaded numerous updates from Parallels and spent about an hour refactoring the virtual machine, Parallels now runs the 4OD player in Vista, hosted under OS-X.

I am quietly hopeful that this means I can get the video onto the telly, since it was very easy to get OS-X onto it yesterday (perhaps I'm being stupidly optimistic). Still not sure what the problem really was, but a good old driver update has done the buisness.

Shame it wasn't the same for the NVidia drivers for Vista, which are the latest ones, but still fail to drive the S-video output.

Technology

As is often the case with these things - it should be so simple.

I meant to record a programme on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago, but for various reasons forgot. Never mind, I thought, I can use the 4OD catch up service - the on-demand video streaming service that has now entered the realms of reality and is free.

But, I thought, watching it on the PC screen is a bit rubbish, lets watch it on the proper telly. So I toddled off an purchased a lovely adapter from my local Apple reseller (for my equally lovely MacBook Pro) and set about plugging it all in to the telly to watch in glorious, old-fashioned, CRT-vision. But NO, Windows on my Mac refuses to accept that I have anything plugged in to the DVI port and gets into a bit of a tizz when you ask it to use the external display port. Whereas, OS-X works wonderfully without a whimper, but, of course, Channel 4 OD is not available for the Mac (for reasons which seem steeped in ineptitude and stupidity).
Ah-ha, I thought, time for Parallels, but alas no. Whereas iPlayer works fine under Vista in Parallels, for some reason the 4OD player does not.

So, I'm left at the end of a very frustrating afternoon with little chance of actually making it work. I shall spend some time in the next few days searching the forums and hope that there is some magic cure for this, but I generally feel that the PC (i.e. Windows, and more specifically NVidia) has let me down again. The platform itself and the people who develop for it always make too many assumptions, which is why it end up in things just not working properly. With a bit more care and thought, things like this just wouldn't happen and, other than putting armies of support people out of business, the world would be a much happier and better place.

Times pass

I stayed up especially to watch Morrissey on Johnathan Ross' show last night.

I'm not sure why, I guess I was just interested to see what he'd be like - I'd not realy been aware of him for years and, for me, he was still caught in a timewarp from the late 80's/90's.

I don't mind admitting that I was quite keen on quite a number of his works, especially The Smiths. He got quite a rough ride at times, became ridiculously pretentious and smug, but beyond it all wrote and sung some wonderful songs in his own, unqiue angst-ridden way. You always knew when it was a Morrissey song.

So what would he be doing now and what would he look like. Quite alarmingly, he was singing very similar sorts of songs in a very similar way. To me it sounded less edgy, more like going through the motions than really feeling every word and sentiment, and the voice had lost some of its raw power, but it was obviously him.

But when I looked at him performing, 20 years on from the big-time, it just struck me that he looked like a cross between an aging Country-and-Western singer and one of your mates Dad's from when you were a kid. It just didn't seem right that he was still singing these songs. I don't know if that's wrong of me or wrong of him - I know I still have many of the emotions I did 20 years ago, but I guess I can't pretend they are the same ones or that they still keep me awake at night. I think most of us find some way of finding some peace with ourselves later in life, which is a place we just haven't got to when we're in our 20's.

So, I felt a little sad. Sad that, as much as you might want it to, time never stands still. We all get older, we all change, and I think, if we're wise, we accept that this happens. There's nothing wrong with this, it's inevitable. But then, maybe it's not him, maybe it's me. When I heard his old songs for the first time, I was in a very different place than I am now. I like to think that I am happy with this and accept it, but perhaps from time to time I still like to think that I could change the World, just like we all thought at one stage in our lives.

To quote the man himself, has the World changed or have I changed?

Housebound

Looks like January's in the bag for this year and not much progress for me.

Job market has been decidedly sluggish until about the last week when several things all came along at once. Of course the big achievement was applying for Jobseekers Allowance (which I've heard I'm going to get).

It seems strange, but I feel I have less time to spare than when I'm working. Despite the fact I hardly emerge from the house on many days, I seem to fill the time up with a combination of (often futile) calls to agents, hunting through job sites and fiddling around on various epics of my own devising. Of course, I haven't mentioned Lego Star Wars, which is also consuming a degree of time, and proving rather compelling.

Motivation seems to go in peaks and troughs, but generally is not as hard to come by as I was expecting. I was starting to wonder how long it would be before I actually landed an interview, but I now have one lined up, albeit in a week's time, which seems like an eternity away. It's not that there are no jobs out there - I see them advertised every day - it's just that people seem to be very, very slow at progressing at the moment, probably hoping that all the doom and gloom of the economy will somehow nurture some small ray of sunshine that can be clung to like flotsam in a shipwreck.

Looks like my annual skiing holiday is off, much to my annoyance.

For some light relief, however, I've actually been and performed a demo for my old company. They are still trying to sell the edifice to someone who'll take it on and do great things. It's a strange situation, but somehow seems about as surreal as the rest of my existence at the moment.

Dole scum

I took the plunge and decided to claim Jobseekers allowance.

After my first attempt to use their online system which just got lost in digital oblivion, I had a lovely half-an-hour on the phone answering lots of questions about all my personal finances. I then had to attend an interview at my local Jobcentre which I did yesterday.

It was a strange experience. The actual people were actually reasonably pleasant, but the whole process did seem very protracted, with photocopies of things being taken and tons of paperwork to fill in.

I then had to formulate my Jobseekers agreement, which is basically the beginners guide to looking for a job. If I don't do 3 things to find work each week, my money is cut off ... seems like very little to ask. He also did a search for jobs for me which yielded absolutely nothing - which was funny because I had 2 emails about jobs whilst I was sitting there.

I think it was a good idea to reinforce that the unemployed should be looking for work, and hence be called Jobseekers, but I also think that the blurring between the benefits side and the looking for work side is counterproductive. The stated goal of the centre is to help you back into work, but in fact half of what they do is make sure you're actually looking yourself. The one-size-fits all approach which sees me having to ring the Jobcentre for jobs just as if I were an unskilled school leaver seems like a waste of everyone's time - when the specialist agencies have far more to offer.

Possibly the most amuzing thing is that I can specify the sort of job I want and the salary, but this only holds for 13 weeks, after that, I have to take any job - which is just foolish. If the pay won't cover the mortgage, there's just no point.

All in all though, I felt it was a more positive experience than I was expecting and, given the range of people they probably get, I felt it was quite constructive. I am, however, looking forward to officially being Dole scum when my application is finally processed (about 3 weeks, apparently).

Looking back

As a year, I feel 2008 wasn't the greatest.

There were some great bits in there for me personally, especially our first liveaboard diving holiday. There were some landmarks - most notably turning 40 and my wonderful weekend "away". There were some firsts - landing an airliner at Heathrow, albeit in a simulator. There were some gadgets - iPhone 3G being top amongst them.

There were also some bad bits, foremost being made redundant, followed closely by the rest of my team being made redundant earlier in the year.

I think that the overriding feeling for me throughtout '08 was, to coin a meterological term, unsettled. Working from home most of the time for a company which was obviously about to fail is something that is difficult to deal with at the best of times. Added to that, the fact that all you strived to do over the past 2-3 years is about to be binned dosen't help. And that the whole thing can't just quietly be put to rest because the powers that be keep on coming up with ways of reviving it.

On the whole, I think I've been quite philosophical about it and have faired reasonably well, but the feeling of going nowhere will, for me, always be associated with '08.