Blog
Hallowe’en 2009
Aperture Science Laboratories ID Badge
HUZZRAHINGS?
Exactly six years ago today I started my first day my current place of work, should this fact be congratulated, commiserated or simply ignored?
I’m taking ten minutes out of my day (“So what” I say, I have never taken tea breaks, morning breaks, afternoon breaks or smoking breaks during my six years) to write on here. When I started on a whole £13k a year I figured that I should aim to work two years at this place and then move on furthering my career at some other firm. I don’t know what changed with this plan but I can’t ever remember marking two years off my calendar and then thinking “right, time’s up lets start applying for new jobs.” I suppose it’s laziness or the comfort of being in a job where you know exactly what you are doing, I guess the worst part is that I’m not sure I want a challenge, I enjoy my job here at times. My job role has evolved from being the office junior to a semi-respected company commodity to my current position (occupied for a year this month) of running the entire IT and Comms. The next step is my very Padawan learner, who starts full time on Monday.
I recognise that I can be pigeon-holed as boring, lazy and career unmotivated but I have very little reason to leave this organisation (The word organisation used in the flimsiest of ways.) With the challenges that have been internally thrown at me I suppose I’ve been kept entertained at work and no matter where I ply my trade I’ll always be dealing with Microsoft Window’s errors… So I suppose I’d rather deal with these problems at a work place that’s only ten minutes down the road from where I live than have to commute to London or Birmingham for a likewise scenario.
I think Money will play a large part in the direction of my career in these forthcoming months. I’m personally doing over twice as much work for my company due to staff cuts, saving them this year about £50,000 in what were the Systems Manager’s wages & perks and now I think want a cut of this!
- Werk – From above.
It’s just a shame that at the moment the company that I work for is claiming to be on it’s knees and trying to crawl through this recession. Most people are predicting the end of these difficult financial times that has had pretty much everyone on their toes so it’s going to be interesting where we go from here. If the profit ever starts rolling in – how much is going to get poured back into the lining of the company before the cash spills over to the likes of me? That said; we’re not out of it yet and will there be anything left before the end? It’ll be a shame to see a centuary-old business collapse around the people that have worked so hard to keep it uprighthrough these hard times.
Tyranasarous Rex and Cat Duck Are No More
Sorry – I forgot to say on the 27th September…
We put Tyranasarous Rex and Cat Duck out for their first whole day outside with the other six adult ducks (which were older by about a week) and we got home to find them deaded.
We figured that the three oldest ducklings had integrated with the six fully grown ducks so well that there would be absolutely no problem putting the last two ducklings outside with them when they reached the same age. So on a Sunday morning we took the ducks from the box they were living-in under the stairs and released them into the big hutch we built a fair few months ago now. They had food and water for the day so we left to go Alton Towers with Paula’s family. When we retuned later that day at 8pm on what was quite a warm day really, I went to check on the ducklings in the waning autumn light and I couldn’t find them anywhere. After not being able to find them I got a bit perplexed and went back to the house to inform Paula that I couldn’t find them and I thought that they had escaped. It took me a few moments of thinking but then I realised that even though they were young – they weren’t so small that they could squeeze out of one of the small holes around the cage or under the duck house. I went back to the cage to seek the little critters out, taking with me this time; a torch. The first thing I did this time after lifting the lid on the cage was look in the water tub with the torch and I noticed a glint of yellow beneath the water line. The two ducks had obviously got inside the tub and because the water level had got so low from the other ducks drinking it they had been unable to get out of it. We think they got cold being in the water, which was only about 2 or 3 inches deep after I had removed their cold and dead carcasses from it. Even though the water was only sooo shallow (the ducks could stand up quite easily in that) Paula informed me that she had read up that ducklings need to retain quite a high body temperature of about 30°C.
So our potential ducks out of 7 eggs is now down to 3 ducklings.
Good news is that we have had an egg out of the adult ducks everyday since our first one was laid the other week! We think it’s just the one duck laying at the moment and she lays it in the same place every morning for us to pick out and eat ^_^
Changing of the Seasons
How to tell when Winter has arrived:
Someone in the office has put the Air Conditioning on and you’re now cold.
Facepalm
Kim Jong-Il
This is actually a warmonkey find, he sent it to me on MSN, but KJ-Il is such an amazing character I had to post it for more people to see.
http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Craziest_Kim_Jong-Il_Moments
Kim Jong-Il in Team America
And about f****** time too!!
The ducks have laid their first egg today!
First duck egg
lightsaber
Sometimes I think “What I’d give to have a real life lightsaber in my hands right now.” Although I do have a pair of force FX lightsabers which, if I were to feel a geeky need to, I suppose I could wield. I’m actually talking about how cool it would be to own a real lightsabre: Oh no, I can’t be arsed to walk around the long way, I’ll just cut myself a new door in this wall. What’s your pointless and retarded problem you are having with your computer Mr Work Colleague – opps – I seem to have beheaded you. Bollocks, that door is locked – pwhoosh, Vvvurv, phwwwish - ’access granted’.
One Love
It’s amazing how frisbee can bring people together, my example is an American chap who contacted the club last week because he’s in the area on business.
Usually when one is on business in a city far away from home the only entertainment you have is either using the hotel’s gym or the selection of movies you can choose from the pay-per-view on your hotel’s TV network. Instead of settling down for the evening watching pay-per-view crap what this chap did was to search for ultimate in the area on google and come play ultimate.
What this means is that for one night of his week where he would have been bored out of his skull stuck in a backward city (to be fair – there is very little to do in our city for tourists or visitors to do apart from eat Indian food) he got to be among friends. Even though he had never met any of us before it’s easy to fit right in. I think this is because of the bond shared amongst the tight knit of Ultimate players, a sport not even known to most people and those that have heard of it choose to dismiss it as a valid sport. So the few people who are in the know about the sport have a mutual respect for anyone else who is involved with the game.
Ultimate Come Back Part XVII
Not sure how many times I have stated this: Tonight I’m making my Ultimate Frisbee come back after a few weeks out and a few years of general slacking.
I’m fed up of getting stitch because I’ve had to walk up the stairs, feeling slightly lightheaded because I’ve had to stand up after watching TV, getting cramp in my legs from sitting down too long in the office and out of breath after having sex. Nope, this is it, fitness time, when I get up in the mornings I’m going to consider doing push-ups/sit-ups – that kind of crazy shit, eat more fruit etc.
It’s a little bit of a shame that playing Ultimate isn’t a complete work-out as it is mostly leg work and slight upper body. At least playing ultimate is competitive, social, interesting and enjoyable unlike going to the gym. …although now I mention the words social and Ultimate in the same sentence, Red organised a social of pizza/bowling/drinking in town for partners and team members. This was mostly a shambles because out of the 20 people that claimed to be meeting at Pizza Hut at three o’clock, only one person turned up (20 minutes late) and another chap (from one of the student teams) turned up a hour and a half late. It wouldn’t have been so bad but we were patiently waiting until four o’clock incase people were still planning to meet at four o’clock as stated in the unrevised email that was initially distributed. So if any of the team read this – you’re all a bloody let down!
Ok, so here’s to getting half decent at playing Ultimate Frisbee whilst getting fit at the same time.
Tyranasarous Rex and Cat Duck
Tyrannosaurus Rex and Cat Duck were the last two to hatch, I have no doubts they will be the favourites from this batch of ducks because everyone likes the smallest baby pets the most. They have been kept company by a Pilchard (Bob the Builder) soft toy who lives in their cage with them, hopefully they won’t think that this is their mummy, I can’t imagine Paula would be happy with the ducklings likening a natural predator to their mother.
FYI, Tyranasarous Rex hatched first and about two days later Cat Duck was born, Paula suggested naming her duck after Little Miss because she’s so far resisited eating any of them but a day later I suggested naming it Tyler after the cat that got ran over. …Because of this confusion I’m going to call it Cat Duck to save arguments.
Anyway, see below for the latest batch of photos.
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He works full time in IT and spends his evenings feeding the farm that is his home has become. Mark loves playing Ultimate every now and again, toying with his camera and has just started scuba diving.
