Category: Life
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Dress Code: Indifference
When I left Europe last year, as part of my move-induced personal property purge, I threw out seven or eight suits that had seen better days. A couple of these had worn out years previously, I just couldn’t bear to part with them (hey, these were all Paul Smith, and I was very attached to them). But the others all seemed to wear out around the same time (regardless of how long I’d had them for), and all in the same place (the arse). It took me a while to figure this out, but I think it was caused by… Read more
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iTunes: What a crappy bit of software!
Fans of Apple tend to be pretty, well, fanatical, hailing everything Apple Inc. do (at least with Steve Jobs at the helm) as the greatest thing since sliced white bread. The Mac is better than the PC; the iPod is better than the Zune; apples are better than oranges; and so on, and so on, ad nauseam. In some respects they’re right: certainly Apple’s designers have flair and their hardware products sure look good, but I’m not entirely convinced of their supremacy on the software side of things. Specifically, iTunes (the software that ships with iPods) is just horrible. I… Read more
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All-American Dad
To give my eldest son the opportunity to make a few more friends, my wife signed him up with the local scout pack. Little did I know that it would involve more work for me than him. So far we’ve had to build a bird house and a toolbox (both of which my father-in-law thankfully helped him out with, not I), and there seems to be a constant list of ‘belt loops’ (the new version of ‘achievement patches’) that he’s going for, requiring me to teach him how to repair a puncture on his bike, or whittle a model out… Read more
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Workplace efficiency plumbs new depths
I wouldn’t exactly say I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but I do like routine. I like to get to work at roughly the same time (give or take a couple of minutes) every day, and leave at the same time. I listen to the same radio station in the car, write with the same pen at work, and I like to have my breakfast, dinner, and tea at the same time, every day. One of the side-effects of this is that my – ahem – scatological requirements are also pretty regular. That’s pretty regular. Not dead-on-the-same-time regular. Which is why… Read more
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Anyone can play guitar
So that was Christmas. The officially-sanctioned extended eating/drinking session is over for another year. I didn’t take a whole deal of time off work (absolutely nothing to do with the in-laws visiting) – only the actual public hoildays themselves, plus Boxing Day (which over here is officially called ‘The Day After Christmas’ – the Americans apparently didn’t know why it was called ‘Boxing Day’ either so just decided to drop the name entirely). Still, it was nice to have a few days off to play with the kids’ new toys. The best present by far was Guitar Hero III –… Read more