Year: 2013
-
Self-publish and be damned
Way back in 2009 I thought it would be fun to write a book. The result of this ill-thought-out endeavor was Oracle User Productivity Kit 3.5, a technical reference to an obscure piece of software that myself and apparently three other people used. Although it didn’t sell particularly well (around 1,000 copies), it was a fun little project that kept me busy for a couple of months, and gave me something new to put on my resume. Once I’d finished it I had absolutely no intention of writing another book (or certainly not another reference work – I’m still working… Read more
-
Buying music not the medium
For several years now, I’ve been complaining about the need to pay twice for music if you want it in multiple formats. For example, I’ve got a reasonable selection of vinyl, but when CDs came out, they told us that we needed to upgrade to CDs for ‘superior quality’. (And now, ironically, they are marketing vinyl as the ‘purists’ medium!). I didn’t go out and replace all of my vinyl immediately, because I recognized it for the scam it was. The record companies and the artists have already had my money once for the purchase of the album – why… Read more
-
A yearly cycle
I’m not really one for new year’s resolutions (on account of my life being so perfect already), but I’ve been meaning to start cycling into work again when I get the opportunity. Today that opportunity arose, so given that this is the first work day of the new year, I’m claiming this as my new year’s resolution. I used to cycle into the work back in the day (well, 3 or 4 years ago), and I’ve cycled longer distances in the meantime (it’s pretty much a flat 10 miles to the office), but somehow it seemed longer and harder this… Read more
-
It’s a weekness
This last year (2012), as part of my household’s austerity measures, I determined to limit myself to purchasing only one CD a week. I had a nasty habit of buying CDs in spurts, by the dozen, so this seemed like a reasonable way of both limiting my purchases and spreading said purchases over time. Although I did succeed in doing both of these things, it didn’t work out quite the way I had planned. I’d reasoned that there were only so many new releases I tended to buy, so I could use the ‘dry’ weeks to bolster my back-catalog collection.… Read more