One Man's Notes

After four hours in Ipswich hospital, we have learned that Mum does not have a problem with her retina. She merely has Posterior Vitreous Detachment, which means the jelly that makes up her eye is shrinking. The problems she’s been getting are the result of the shrinking jelly tugging on the retina and optic nerve. All should be well again in six to eight weeks. Back to London this afternoon, but for now it’s off to the pub for lunch!

After a two hour drive through the driving rain, I’m here in Suffolk. It’s odd to be here on a weekday evening again, but not unpleasant. Mum’s gone to bed, and I’m bashing out a feature for the magazine, as I won’t be in the office to do it tomorrow.

The iPod was a marvel on the way up. Hook it up to the cassette that comes with Dr Bot’s iPod Connection Kit, put that in the stereo and then put the iPod on random play, and the driving tunes are sorted. It made a difficult drive in the dark and pouring rain much, much easier.

My brother is proving that he is his mother’s son by getting increasingly panicky about tomorrow. He’s really scared about a repeat of last year, which seem out of proportion given what’s actually wrong with Mum. Still, the poor boy’s under a lot of stress right now (self-inflicted admittedly) and I think it’s getting to him. The financial stretch of doing up this house is making him insecure and the last thing he needs is another threat to his family. Just as well it’s only a retina problem.

Hmm. Better get some sleep. I need to drive to the hospital at 8am tomorrow.

Looks like I have an impromptu trip to Suffolk ahead of me tonight. Mum has a problem with a partially detached retina. She may need operating on, so it’s off to Suffolk I go. Let’s hope it all goes easily.

This is a bloody good idea, and what’s more, it came from Ireland.

Let’s recycle those bags!

This is a better site for people in the US.

Those of you who recall my rant about CDs which won’t play in PCs or Macs might want to check out this site, which has more information about what I’m talking about.

Damn you, Sony!

There’s a guy who can’t be older than 21 or 22, thin and geeky looking, snoring like a complete bastard. Concentration slipping….

Time to turn up the volume on the iPod, I think.

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.