Ageing (dis)gracefully!
Archive for September, 2006
New Additions
Sep 29th
Today was payday funday friday! and on my lunch break I went for a wander into Taunton and had a look around Virgin. I picked myself up four new CD’s. David Gray – White Ladder, Dido – No Angel, Dido – Life For Rent & Muse – Hullabaloo.?
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Apart from Muse, they are all very mellow albums and not the sort of thing I listen to on a daily basis. I have been listening to the first three over the last few weeks though (downloaded MP3’s) and my philosophy has always been – if i listen to something regularly then I should buy the actual CD …so I did.
Management Course…
Sep 28th
I went on a Management Skills course today…… I came out of it feeling disappointed to be honest. The majority of the course was geared around role playing, which can have it’s place, I just hate doing the role playing! If I wanted to?do drama I would have become a bloody actor!
Nevertheless, I did learn quite a few new things, particularly about myself. I also learnt how important it is to have a different mix of people in your team as so many similar people can cause problems …I hadn’t even considered this before.
I am now praying that the ITIL course I am going on in 2 weeks doesn’t have role playing as one of its key elements!
Busy Busy!
Sep 22nd
The last few weeks seem to have passed by in a bit of a blur. I have been darting around doing this and that and have either been really busy or really tired, so haven’t had a huge amount of time to blog or add anything new to this site. The pace isn’t going to slow for a few weeks either!
I went to London on Tuesday for work (as mentioned below) and am also in London next Tuesday. I am going on a management course on Thursday next week, and then on Saturday am driving all of the way to Manchester to see Porcupine Tree, before driving back the same day! (I am being told I am a mentalist for doing that!)
Thankfully I then have a week of relative normality, but am then going on a 3 day ITIL course in Bristol. ITIL?stands for IT Infrastructure Library, and is essentially set of best practices used the world over in IT departments. I am doing the foundation course so I can get specced up in my service management side of things. There is an exam at the end of the three days, and I need to pass it, but it should be ok.
Should be time relax after all of that!
London Baby!
Sep 19th
Had to goto London for work today as I had several meetings to attend in our main head office there.
When I first went up a few years ago I was in awe with the place, I loved it and loved being there. However, as time has gone by I am?disliking it more and more. Its due to all the usual reasons for hating London, and I am sure you have heard it all before! (everyone in a huge rush, everyone rude!! etc).
Nevertheless, it was a really productive day and we got a lot done, and HMV on Oxford Street is always worth a visit anyway!!
A 13 hour day is never much fun though!
Last.fm – 1 Month On
Sep 13th
Well, I have been sufficiently impressed with last.fm during my first month of membership that I have decided to renew for three?months this time instead of just the one.
What is keeping me impressed? I think its the fact that I love statistics and am loving seeing my listening habits laid out in their statistical glory. I also love the fact that I can pull these statistics onto my own website, check out My Music page to see what I have been listening to recently or what I listen to the most.
The ‘Personal Radio’ function is great aswell. It logs everything I have listened to (which is approaching 1000 tracks in 4 weeks) and lets me stream my own radio station based on this with tracks playing at random. It’s a really cool feature. I can also tag specific tracks as ‘loved’ and tune into my ‘loved radio’ to listen to all of these tracks at random. There is also ‘neighbour’ radio, where I can listen to music?of people who have a similar musical taste to?myself, and also ‘recommendation radio’, which will play me music that it thinks i should listen to based on what?I have previously listened to!
Congratulations Leigh!
Sep 13th
Just wanted to post a quick congratulations to my (best) mate Leigh who today received news that he had got a job he had gone for. It’s an IT job, and I know Leigh has been desperate to get into IT for years …. congratulations mate! 
Schumacher To Retire!
Sep 10th
Possibly the best piece of news I have heard all year! Michael Schumacher is to retire at the end of the 2006 Formula 1 season.
Schumacher?has been in the sport since 1991, pretty much as long as I have been actively following Formula 1, so it will be great for me to experience the next generation of racing, where he will not be dominating or causing controversy with his ruthless tactics. I still havent forgiven him for Adelaide 1994 (where he deliberately collided with Damon Hill to win the championship).
He is a very talented driver, of that I have no doubt, but?he does rely heavily on his team mates at times. I can think of at least a dozen races where he has been handed victory in some shape or form by his team mate.
I am not a Schumacher fan?but strange as it sounds, I am going to miss hating him! However, I will not miss the feeling of boredom as he wins yet another Grand Prix.
