One Man's Notes

I’m on the road today, paying a visit to York to interview the chief executive of a software and web firm specialising in the property industry. It’s nice to be traveling again. It used to be a major part of my job, but my time out of the office has declined sharply in the last 18 months. Spending four hours or so on a train is a surprisingly relaxing experience.

I made a little mistake on the way up, though. It was foolish, but easily done. After all, how was I to know that the carriage I chose was a Quiet Zone, which bans the use of electronic equipment? To me, it was just the quiet carriage with plenty of seats free. It was only once I was sat down and comfortable that I noticed the discreet sticker informing me of the restrictions. So, for two hours I was deprived of the use of my iBook, iPod, Visor and mobile phone. I rather enjoyed it. I read the paper, stared out the window for a while and just let life pass me by.

Of course, it couldn’t last. Here I am on the way back, iBook open and iPod playing. And yes, I’m writing a journal entry in the rather nifty offline application YaxJournal, which rocks for this sort of thing one of the major advantages LiveJournal has over Blogger at the moment.

These journeys out of London go a long way to reminding me just how pleasant a country the UK can be at times. London is so different to the rest of the nation that you forget how easily you can reach the countryside, how much slower the pace of life is and how beautiful everything is once you escape the terrible pull of the capital. I’m maybe an hour away from hitting London again as I write this (Grantham station on the edge of Lincolnshire if you’re interested) and I’m not much looking forward to being back there, especially as I have a tube journey ahead in just pre-rush hour traffic. Bah and indeed, Humbug.

Another university friend has just become a proud and slightly deviant father. Truly, middle age approaches.

A few of you may have noticed that I’ve been rather quiet on here of late. One or two of you might have even cared. There’s a reason for this, which is mainly down to my experimentation with Blogging. Within the next couple of weeks I expect to have my Blog up and going.

That doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning LiveJournal, though. I intend to use Blogger for the more in-depth political thoughts and ramblings I have (much as James does here) and save LiveJournal for this kind of day-to-day nonsense. More news as I have it.

Oh, and suggestions for the name of my Blog will be gratefully received.

I’ve been silent a little while, but that’s to be expected when a long weekend with my girlfriend and my garden has kept me from my computers. Tomorrow should provide a little more time fo journaling, so I’ll catch you all then.

Normally, I like Fridays. This Friday in particular should be a good one, because Lorna is returning from a week away in Majorca with her family.

However, instead I have woken up to two pretty depressing pieces of news. The first is that the British National Party, the right wing extremists, have secured a couple of council seats up north. Looks like France no longer has a monopoly on that lurch to the right that Le Penrepresents.

Oh, and just down the road from where I live, a bunch of fans of Millwall Football Club went on a rampage last night, injuring dozens of police officers. I thought we’d got that sort of behavior out of our systems five years ago.

Oh, for those of you wondering what my experiences of the May Day protests were like, I hope to have that up in an entry later in the day.

We’ve had trouble in Australia and Germany already. I’m heading into the West End now. Wish me luck.

Of late, I’ve been doing something with increasing frequency. No, it’s nothing immoral or furtively sexual. In a way, it’s more not doing something. Let me explain. I’ve been walking into music shops such as HMV with the express intention of walking out with a particular CD. Four or five times, I’ve walked out without the CD. It’s not for lack of stock in the store, or lack of cash in my hand. No, the lack of purchase has come down to a few little words: WILL NOT PLAY ON PC/MAC.

Now, let’s be clear here. I’m a writer. I make my living by creating easily copied material. Thus, I am deeply opposed to piracy and did not use Napster and its ilk. However, because I’m a writer, I do the majority of my music listening when sat at a computer. Indeed, my purchase of an iPod has meant that I buy more music. With more opportunities to listen to music (the train, the gym, the car, the garden…) my desire for it increases. Thus, MP3 is good for sales, at least in my case.

I know I’m not alone in this. many students, for example, don’t buy both a computer and stereo, they just use speakers with their PC and listen to music that way.

This is a dumb, dumb move on the record industry’s part. It’s not going to stop file sharing. Pirates will always look upon copy protection and they’ll beat it within hours of release. All it will do is piss off non-techie users like myself, who wants to pay good money for music they like, but is being prevented from doing so.

Last lost sale: Episode II soundtrack in the supermarket, one hours ago.

For the first time in my life I feel strongly enough about certain political issues that I intend to write to my MP. The reasons? Well, there are certain issues about the NHS that I have discovered through a friend that appall me. I can’t really discuss them without betraying confidences, but a lot of public money is being spent that should be going into private pockets the way it is. The other concerns state benefits. In the last two years I’ve come face to face with the reality of dole scroungers, and I really feel that this issue needs to be addressed and addressed soon.

To my delight, I’ve discovered that my MP has a website, which will make tracking down her contact details much simpler..

Well, the cold is easing. Looks like staying in out of the rain and writing all weekend was the right call. I might be healthy in time to go back to work.

Disturbing thought of the day. I was looking at the Attack of the Clone freebies that fell out of every paper this weekend, and was wondering why I didn’t really fancy Natalie Portman, even though she is very, very cute. Then it struck me - she’s nearly10 years younger than me. She just feels too young. (I know that will be a strange concept for you zamiel, but it does happen to the rest of us.

Wow. I never thought I’d reach an age where girls in their early 20s seemed too young. That will, of course, change when I hit 50. All I’ll be interested in then is girls in their late teens and early 20s…

Well, after experiments with cold drugs and anti-hestimines, I’m fairly sure I’m suffering from a mix of hayfever and a cold. So much for everything I was gonna get done this weekend.

Bah. Humbug.

If only Lorna was here to bust the self-pity out of me. She’s good at that.

Hurrah!

Finally got all the Instant Messaging protocols up and running in Fire. All the accounts in my user info page should be up and running.

I’m feeling odd this morning. Have I got a really bad attack of hayfever, or am I suffering from a cold? It’s so hard to tell sometimes. No matter, though, I’m still going to be a complete wuss about it. I have decided to spend the day feeling very sorry for myself and whining at anyone who comes within earshot. Yes, that should sort it out nicely.

What the hell should I be doing with this journal? That question has been bouncing around my head for a couple of weeks now. There were some good reasons for starting it initially. In particular, I thought it would be a good way of keeping Mum up to date with my life while I was away. Communication with her became all the more important after Dad dies. However, I haven’t been away as much in the last three month as I was at the tail end of last year, so that reason has declined in importance.

Keeping people informed about my life is another reason. Frankly, most of the people who read my journal have some contact with my on a daily basis online. Now, if I could hook a few more of my offline friends into the LJ habit, than maybe that reason would have more force. Until then, it too matters little.

So, are my little rambles about inconsequential events really of interest to anyone? Would I be better writing small essays on my thoughts about current events? Should I share my thoughts on philosophy, writing, gardening and modern technology? Would those entries just turn into long essays which would get lost behind LJ Cuts?

What do you think?

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