domdavis.com

So the postman finally turned up at about 11:30 which meant I could go shower and shop. In retrospect I should have shopped then showered as I would have missed the [thankfully light] rain and I was rather warm when I got back. Anyway, I decided to do a sausage casserole for lunch as I haven’t had one for ages and proceeded to make waaaay too much mash Not sure I’ll be having any dinner tonight.

I also applied for a job today. Should find out pretty soon if they want to interview me as it’s at my old place and they’re fast tracking my application. Was in two minds over applying as it’s a job I can do and looks interesting, but would mean no big payout

For some reason my brain keeps thinking I only need 5-6 hours sleep; my body strongly refutes this claim. Anyway, 6am saw me awake with a decidedly dippy tummy which really prevented any going back to sleep. As a result I’m up, dressed, breakfasted and now in the gym where I join you from a recumbent cycling machine 5 minutes into my last excercise. Let me tell you, blogging while peddling isn’t as easy as it sounds. Was hoping to get a swim in but i don’t think that’s a good idea given this mornings ailement.

Anyhoos, today see me luncheoning again (such a tough life), noodling round Oxford Street and Camdan, going to physio and playing pool. Should be a fun day.

Right: 7 more kilometres and I’m done.

Cute girl on train lives in Colchester within walking distance of the station. Will have to keep an eye out for here. And I can’t get my ring off. Going to try some soap and if that doesn’t work I’ll just sleep with the bugger on.

Right. 10 minutes out. Should be in bed by 6:45 whereapon I shall die. There will be a small, simple service followed by everyone observing 8 hours of silence so I can get some sleep. The second coming should happen sometime this afternoon where I shall rise from the dead and go drool over CBT. Possibly after having a shower

So my high capacity 24 glowstick combats (yes, I rate combats on carrying capacity. They’d actually be 32 glowstick combats if it wasn’t for the fact I carry other stuff too. Most of them are only 8 or 16 glowstick) broke midway through last night. I was zipping up when most of the metal pull bit on the zip just broke off. The fly already had a tendency to descend on it’s own and now I need to use a finger nail to zip up. I think I’ll have to retire them and find a new pair. Will pop into Camden on one of my many jaunts into London.

Yup, it’s the early morning I need to stop myself from falling asleep on the train after a night at sedition post resplendant with typos, spelling mistakes, a complete lack of grammar and no real point other than to stave off the sugar crash, caffine crash and near exhaustion which are my companions on the 05:30 to Ipswitch calling at everywhere.

On the plus side there is a remarkably attractive (in a girl next door type way, which I quite like) girl sitting in view and despite the fact she’s also obviously been out all night too and looks how I feel I’m rather enjoying looking in her general direction. Since she’s asleep and I can’t handle coherent thoughts I’m not going to talk to her. I’m also in desperate need of a shower which will give I’d +5 to repelling women and -3 to attractiveness. She also looks to be older than me which us a turn up for the books as I tend to go for early to mid 20’s.

So, yeah. Sedition. Well I thought it was bloody excellent with two good bands (might actually buy the first ones album if I can find it for sale), blinding DJ sets and me on the dancefloor solidly for over 4 hours. Downside: there were bugger all people there. Personally I’m not fussed if the dancefloor is empty since it means I get to monopolise the DJ and dance to my favourite tracks all night but one can’t help but think that it’s all going to go belly up if more people don’t turn up. That would be a Bad Thing™.

Given staying in London overnight is hideously expensive I need clubs that stay open till 4am at the earliest. 5 is better. That way I can pile out, jump on the first tube and grab a train home. Most clubs seem to shut too early and/or don’t play the music I want all night. I want to he able to hit the dancefloor, become one with the music and not worry about anything for hours. I’d also like the moon on a blue stick. Anyhoos, we’ll see what happens next month and I may have a chat with DJ Rex about bringing a box of glow bracelets and glow necklaces to give out just as another way to bribe people into coming out to play.

The other downside of too few people is they ended the night 40 minutes early You made me miss out on 40 minutes of destressing meaning I am only 83% destressed which means I’ll be 17% bitchier and whinier this month. You all brought it on yourselves so don’t come running to me Anyway, as incentive to come next month everyone who attends will be given immunity from the firing squads when I’m voted into power Lets just hope there is a next month. I’ll be miffed if there isn’t.

This whole gardening leave is tiring. Up till the wee hours of the morning having a small stress about money (since resolved as I know how much I’m getting and I’m not going to starve just yet) and doing my CV. Up quite early, shower, read through the paperwork I got yesterday, finish CV. Head to Canary Wharf for lunch (yes, I’m a Gentleman What Lunches now, it’s great ), head back to Colchester and collect my camera, after all I’m about to become a ‘professional photographer’ since it sounds so much better than ‘I’m unemployed’. OK, so I’ll be paying myself out of my redundancy until such point as I get a job, wont actually have a photography company and wont actually be selling anything, but that’s not the point. Got home, moved my mobile tariff to a cheaper one and sorted a few other things out saving myself a few pennies each month. Now it’s shower, head off to Tai Chi. Tomorrow I’ve got a workshop on CV writing and interview technique. I’m Doing Lunch again, pick up my Sedition t-shirt, home, rest, change, London, hit the town. My life is just so tough at the moment. Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Tired, but my brain won’t shut down, which I guess is kind of understandable really. There are a lot of unknowns and trying to sort them out in my head tonight isn’t going to work because… well, there are too many unknowns. So, in no particular order here are the things keeping me awake:

Will my payout (because, lets face it, I’m unlikely to find a new role in the next 2 weeks) be as obscenely large as I hope/need it to be?

How am I going to get all my stuff from my desk home. There’s a load of it and someone is going to have to pack it all up for me if I can’t get into the office. What items do I want? What do I not care about? Even ditching all but the things I really care about (expensive keyboard which I bought, mouse, nice pen, books, more books, even more books) there’s still a load of crap, and since it’s mainly books it’s going to be heavy.

I need to set up a proper home office type thing so I stay in the habit of ‘working’, even if it is just noodling about with my blogs and sorting out photographs. This means getting a new desk, which involves money, which leads me to the payout question.

When is my tshirt for Sedition going to arrive? Will it be tomorrow so I can just pick it up when I go into London for lunch with a friend. What am I going to wear if it doesn’t turn up?

What am I going to put on my CV… actually… do I even have a copy of it… Hmmm, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that’s on my work computer. Arse. Pretty sure someone must have a copy of it somewhere. Actually, lets go check the RAID arrays shall we? … Hurrah for comprehensive backups So, yes, what am I going to put on my CV, I’ve always sucked at that.

How will I cope with interviews? I’ve given lots in my time, but being on the receiving end really sucks. My business knowledge is quite weak and I really don’t rate myself as being ‘all that’ when it comes to programming (although, to be honest, I rate most people as being absolutely shite given some of the stuff I’ve seen out there so I guess I’m still ahead of the crowd there ).

Will I even get interviews? The industry I work in is suffering rather a downturn at the moment which may last for a while.

… and so on and so forth.

Like I say, unknowns. Once I’ve got the cold hard figure of how much cash I’m getting I can then work out what kind of timescales I can live for before I need to start really pulling the horns in, before I need to start just accepting work anywhere instead of looking for highly overpaid work in the financial sector, before I return home having lost the house and everything I own… that sort of thing . I’m hoping it’s 4 months, 7 months, never - but it might be less.

Then there is the: do I pay off my loan and have less outgoings per month, or will I last longer just paying it off as I have been. Again, need to know the figures. On the plus side it will be nice to be shot of that

Anyway, all this rambling isn’t helping, worth a try though. Guess I’ll go sort out my CV until such point as my brain lets me sleep.

Right, time to set the record firmly straight. My place of work is currently hemorrhaging money loosing money making a slight loss in a negative profit situation and therefore is having to cut back on more frivolous items like business trips, expense account and staff. Falling, as I do, into the latter category I was delighted to lean that my position is ‘at risk’. Basically this means that, unless I find another role within the organisation in 2 weeks they’re going to serve notice and I will, one month later, become one of the great unwashed placing a strain on our great nation and, therefore, by my own rules, first in line for shooting. Given the number of people who are facing involuntary separation from payroll it’s unlikely I’ll find anything in the two weeks, but I have my best people working on it (oh, and Jas ). If there is a job out there to be had I’ll find out about it.

In the mean time work have kindly allowed me to stay at home during the two week consultation period so I may concentrate on securing a new role within the organisation. This has nothing to do with the fact they’re worried that we, the soon to be unemployed, will do something stupid and try to damage their systems and everything to do with them caring about us as individuals. Should I not find a role during the consultation period I will not be required to come into the office during my notice period, again, no doubt worded in a way that has nothing to do with them worrying about me going postal

So, what does this mean for me. Well, either I get a few days off that I wasn’t banking on, lounge around in the sun, go to a few interviews and generally have a relaxing time of things before starting a new job in a new department…

or…

I get 6 weeks paid holiday, handed a chunk of money (hopefully a rather large chunk, there will be bitching, bitterness, bile, resentment, ranting and so on and so forth if it isn’t) and then spend a quantity of time finding a new job while generally relaxing and having a bit of a sabbatical. It is, after all, the beginning of summer. I have a number of projects I’d like to work on at home, I could get fit, chase CBT (who does, unfortunately work when I used to be free - now I’ll be free when she is ) and look for a job at my leisure. In three months time (less if I get bored) I’ll start looking for a new job in earnest. I need to get, and look at the figures, but I think I’ll be fine for 9 months. After that it gets a bit grim. I honestly expect to be back in work in 3-6 months, possibly less.

Now, to answer the concerns:

Yes, it’s a slap in the face and was a bit crappy, but if it’s got to happen now is a good a time as any.

No, I’m not overly worried (at the moment). This is one of the few times in my life when I can take a sizable chunk of time off without having to worry about saving for it. I’m really looking forward to a nice long relaxing time and if I do find a job quickly then I’ll have stack loads of money in the savings account for next time

Yes, the market is shite at the moment but it’ll sort itself out, I don’t have to find something right this instant and I do have rather a lot of experience. This kind of thing is very much in the nature of the industry I am in and to have lasted 9 years is not too bad. The norm is more usually 2 years (either due to being pushed or going somewhere else)

Yes, I do accept charitable donations. Even if you can only give a few grand a week it’ll all help.

Yes, I’m fine

Oh, and I’m still going out on Friday, but more on that in a bit.

So, erm… yes. Living in interesting times

Last night I dropped my iPhone. It’s been dropped before, but this was onto a tiled floor. Initial inspection showed nothing was wrong so I thought nothing of it… until today.

Today I noticed I wasn’t getting any bleeps or clicks from my phone when the headphones weren’t in, plus it was also do some weirdness of starting to play songs when I plugged the headphones in. Closer inspections showed that the iPhone thought the headphones were plugged in even when they weren’t. Normally this is a simple fix. Plug the headphones in again, then remove them. This didn’t work. So I tried a reboot. This didn’t work. Perhaps a full restore, but I was at work so that would have to wait. To check the speaker I tried ringing the phone (the ringer rings through the speaker and the headphones). It goes to voice mail. Check phone, has signal. Try again. Voice mail. Start to wonder if this has something to do with the phone being dropped. I start thinking of a life before the iPhone. I can’t recall much, just some memory of a dark time. Decided there was no life before iPhone and rumors that there was are being spread by naysayers and non believers. Try phoning office phone from iPhone. That works. Call number back. Phone rings. So, just no sounds when headphones not plugged in. I can live with that.

Get home, offer up a prayer to Google. I am told:

• Plug in and unplug headphones. Done that.
• Restart phone. Done that.
• Try resetting all settings. Oooh, don’t want to do that, would rather do a full restore.
• Do full restore. Right, looks like the way forward.
• Clean out headphone socket. Now there’s something I’ve not tried.

The instructions say ‘cut the fat bit off a q-tip and use that to clean inside the headphone jack’. It also says that the Apple stores use compressed air to clean them. I’ve got Johnson’s cotton bud thingies so I try cutting the fat bit off… and the end falls off (newfangled plastic ones). I cut the other end off carefully. Won’t fit. trim a bit more. Falls off. So I’m left with a small plastic tube… I know, lets try blowing through the tube into the headphone socket. You know what, it only worked

So the iPhone appears to be alive again, I can sleep easy and all is good with the world. Actually, all it not good with the world, but that’s another issue.