Jan
19

Made in the North East

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Thursday, 19th January, 2012


This would have been a twitter post but I realised there’s no way I could make it in 140 chars!

In the morning and in the car I generally listen to Original 106 on t’wireless. Recently they’ve been making a big deal of all their programming being made in the north east, using a voiceover where I always imagine the guy knocking on someone’s head as he says the words “in the north east”.

The main other local station, NorthSound, is one of the large syndication that covers Scotland, including Tay FM, Clyde1, West FM (noticing any similarities with those links yet?) etc. At night to save money they syndicate the same programs to all their stations. Original doesn’t belong to the syndication and runs it’s own programming strategy, late-night this essentially involves a program with no presenter. I actually like this show as it occasionally produces some gems from music (from my) past.

My problem, no that’s too strong a word, my question, is this. What’s so good about all the programs being made in the north east? Northsound’s only decent programs, in my opinion, are the syndicated ones. Gina and Romeo late at night are about all I listen to on the odd occasions I even bother to try NS1 again. It’s also hysterical hearing some of the neds who call in with their tales of woe, of course this is a personal taste thing. I think neds are funny, though cringeworthy. In any case those are NS’s best programs.

So it’s not about quality of programs.

How about carbon footprint then? Perhaps the carbon footprint of a locally produced show is less than one being broadcast and relayed from the central belt. I doubt this is true in any measurable or significant level, and in any case any increases in transmitter output is probably negated and then some by the fact that for every station that runs the syndication there’s a presenter who doesn’t need to get to work, meaning no emissions on travel.

So it’s not about environmental impact.

So how about money? Well no, here again the station loses out. Employing late-night DJs, though outstanding at their job, doesn’t save money. The guys on at night are brilliant, Claire regularly has me in stitches. They come at a cost though, financially speaking employees and specifically wages, are the biggest cost to most companies. This is why thru the night is just a ‘big CD’ with ads and pre-recorded news bulletins. Making it all in the north east costs more.

I understand the undertone of the point though. Northsound and the other networked stations don’t make it clear to the listener that it’s a syndicated program. The links have the presenter saying the name of the station on which the show is being broadcast, not a central name such as “You’re listening to late night Gina on the Scottish syndicated radio network” (or even just on Clyde1 – which I believe is the source, they use the Clyde1 phone number anyway). This is something that I feel, in the interest of transparency they should make clearer. There could well be listeners who don’t realise they’re listening to a syndication who can then decide if they wish to remain listeners or not. I don’t really understand the apparent “cover up”, what difference does it make?

I just don’t think saying “all made in the north east” is showing any particular benefit…

…I wasn’t made in the north east and I’m gallus.

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Jan
08

I’m not gay

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Sunday, 8th January, 2012


There I said it!

A lot of people don’t realise this. They assume for one reason or another that I *am* gay. It doesn’t matter to me what they think and I seldom correct them upon this assumption if they don’t come out (pardon the pun) and ask me. Recently I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend though. People are accusing me of being gay and then get annoyed when I don’t take it as an insult. I mean to say the accusers *mean* it as an insult. It’s no more insulting to me than being accused of waking in the morning or breathing.

Another disturbing trend I’ve noticed is people feeling it’s OK to pass comments about my son’s behaviour such as, “you’d better watch him, dressing like that” or even “what if he turned out gay?”

Well, what if? It’s none of my business and it’s certainly none of the accusers as I’m sure whatever his sexuality he’d have the good taste not to choose the questioner as a potential partner. There’s nothing wrong with being gay. There’s nothing wrong with being straight. There’s nothing wrong with sexuality in general. I’m certain that being gay is no more a life choice than being straight. I didn’t choose to be straight it just happened that way. I suppose that extends to all sexualities. You might be into s&m but don’t know it until you’ve tried it or been introduced to it somehow. That’s not to say you make the choice that it turns you on. The only choice you make is whether to participate in it. Well that’s true of us all isn’t it.

Here’s what I hope for my children. Safe happy lives. If their sexuality later in life leads them to that then they have my blessing. I love them for who they are, sexuality aside. It goes for most people, if you’re not hurting anyone and all involved are adults of sound mind then what’s the problem eh?

So think of me however you like but if we’re not having sex together, you have no business in my sexuality. Maybe I protest too much…

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Jan
08

Stuff in my head

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Sunday, 8th January, 2012


Happy new year (are we still saying that?) I hope it’s great for you.

Every day I have ideas about things. This is part of being a human being I suppose. I often think I should write them down and used to just blog them. I was going to write down a list of these here but decided to redact a *lot* of words (about 1500). As it stands I’ve decided to limit this post to just the following two things in my head at the moment…

New years resolutions:- I kept mine last year for the whole of 2011, it was simply to “get up earlier”. However awful it feels of a morning, however late the night before I got up and got on with it. Within ten minutes of rising you feel better anyway, just about the same time the first gulp of caffeinated beverage of your choice hits the back of your throat. I managed to keep it because it was simple and didn’t aim too high too fast. This year I’m going to try something else, instead of a resolution per sé. This year I’m going to make a bucket list of things I want to achieve before the year is out. I’ll probably make that the next post, or perhaps give it a page of it’s own.

Projects:- I always have “projects” in mind. Yesterday I thought I’d try to recruit a bunch of tweeters/bloggers/writers to make a “Morning Express” site. Essentially it’d be any story from the EE or P&J but without the bias. I dismissed it as too high maintenance as I have enough on my plate at the time. It would be easy to set up with even a simple WP install, styled to resemble but not copy, the EE or P&J depending on the article. Each article would also link back to the biased original in a similar style as uncyclopediauncyclopedia - wikipedia linkage Another thing I need to get back up and running is the realaberdeen site. When it was good it was ace, the move to twitter killed it off really so I’d like to bring it back in it’s “original” blog style. The aberdeen cars site is good but it’s focused too much on sarcasm and car dependency, something realaberdeen is not against at all but just wishes people would use the cars on which they are dependant properly. Parking, leaving room for cyclists, realising the speed limit is just that, a limit not a target etc. realaberdeen loves cars and good drivers. Aberdeen cars is more interested in cyclists and mockery of car users, which is often richly deserved, on this the two sites agree!

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Oct
27

Halloween scene

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Thursday, 27th October, 2011


W00t w00t! Another halloween another prize.

Granted not the costume I thought had a chance, which went to a shop bought one! I mean, come on!

Anyhow, here’s Ashley in her win-free costume…

Toy Story Pizza Planet Alien costume

She’s a pizza planet alien from Toy Story, if you’re wondering…

Toy Story alien

…and here are the two older ones, Danielle’s Super Mario and Jordan’s Papa Smurf…

Papa Smurf and Super Mario

The alien is a cardboard head covered in green fabric, the same fabric is used for the 3-fingered gloves(yeah, you can’t just buy those!) The body is a bit of blue fabric turned into a kind of dress, blue felt details and the Pizza Planet badge is on paper, glued to the dress with pritt stick. Painted eyeballs and black lines/pupils/mouth by Sharpie.

Super Mario is pretty much just blue felt turned into a new type of dungarees and yellow paper for the buttons and a red jumper. Her hat’s painted red with the M badge glued on and teh moustache is drawn on cardboard, painted and held on by string.

The smurf is red felt troosers sewn onto a blue “tube” for the body, red flaps for the feet and all held together at the top via the magic of the safety-pin. The hat’s the same red felt slightly stuffed with cotton wool balls, as left over from the beard where they’re glued onto a bit of cardboard.

The winner is… Papa Smurf! Nice one Jordy, that’s 4 for 4 for him. The parents in his class must be just too lazy if that won! ;oP

[edit]
There have been a couple of comments about it supposed to be Mario and Luigi… it was, just not in time for these pics, Luigi (my eldest, Billie-Jo) wasn’t needed for a couple of nights so hadn’t been made at time of original posting. Here they are together…
mario and luigi costumes
[/edit]

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Sep
18

Back in the world of work

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Sunday, 18th September, 2011


My youngest, finally has flown the nest of a day, heading off to P1. This leaves me with a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been out of the working world for about 4 years now, during which time I’ve given up plumbing entirely and started doing a degree at the OU.

I’ve not been totally removed from society and I’m well aware that the employment market is very different now to how it was just a few years ago. It’s tough to get a job by all accounts these days, especially when you’re new to an industry having just re-trained or, as in my case, not even qualified yet. The software development industry has loads of newly qualified people as well as the recently redundant (and experienced) developers all vying for the same jobs.

So how can someone like me, with no commercial experience, no qualifications and no track record even make a dent in the jobs market when faced with such competition?

Well this is how I’m doing it…

I have a good quality friends list on Twitter. I follow a lot of people in the industry I’m into. This wasn’t a conscious decision on my part but came about organically. I’m passionate about it, this makes me want to talk about it and this attracts others interested in the same thing. Twitter also lends itself to this industry by having the API for fellow coders and just being online. Devs are online!

So my daily chit-chat is about the industry. Code snippets, problem resolution, opinion on best practices and industry developments bolstered by general piss-taking and friendly banter. More importantly it’s to other people in the industry already. This means my name is out there, my work is being discussed and I’m able to give input into other folks projects. All good networking (gawd, did I just use office jargon?!)

This leads me on to my next point. When Ash started school I immediately had a huge reserve of contacts to approach for work. I knew them, albeit electronically, and was comfortable in talking to them. I’m not stupid though, nobody’s going to employ me because of the aforementioned points. So I need to address those. I put out a tweet…

I’ve stuck things like this out as feelers in the past, looking for any overspill work from those snowed under or whatever. This time I got a bite. A lead developer at a design company in Aberdeen sent me a DM asking me to give him an email with what I’m “about”. I did that and we arranged an informal meeting to talk over what they could do for me (and I for them). They seemed happy that I was saying the right things so offered me a non-paid placement there on a “we’ll see how you go” arrangement.

This was by far the best decision I could have made. I’m now doing bug-finding and fixing work for them, gaining valuable, recordable experience along the way. They’re displaying a belief in my abilities and pretty much letting me run with things. I get on well with the workmates, some of whom I already ‘knew’ through Twitter etc. and, I feel, I’m fitting in nicely. Perhaps most importantly on a personal level is that this work experience has validated my own belief that I belong in this industry as I’m encountering bits and pieces that are just poorly done that I can do better. People, less skilled than I, are making a living in this industry.

Another funny thing is that I’m starting to get side-projects by ‘word of mouth’ already. This must happen in every industry, you always got more homers in plumbing when you were working for a plumbing company(you’d be doing some job for the company and a client would say, “h’much for fitting a washing machine for my sister?” etc.). I got an enquiry the other day about a little project and, as the seed was planted, I just did it. I was interested so I did it. People are seeing me as “the coding guy” which can only be a good thing right?

So that’s the experience bit done, now I just need to see out the degree, though with rising Uni fees this might be the difficult bit. Who knows what the future holds. Not me, but I’m going to do my best to ensure it has as many good things in it as possible. This ‘break’ was the first step…

…it’s now up to me to shine.

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Aug
24

How best to spend £84 a year without buying the Evening Express

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Wednesday, 24th August, 2011


Aberdeen’s most biased newspaper has a digital edition to which you can subscribe for 84 of your hard earned pounds sterling a year.

This got me thinking, there’s no way I’m going to spend £84 on that thing. I never follow links to the EE articles and actively boycott it wherever possible, including free copies in the Chinese take-away!

So how could we better spend £84 a year?


That’s just the tip of the iceberg, there are literally (heh, not often we get to use that word properly) thousands of better ways to spend up to £84 than subscribing to the EE digital edition. Let’s hear your ideas in the comments…

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Aug
15

Bra shopping

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Monday, 15th August, 2011


Kids go back to school tomorrow in the grey toon. This means today is filled with “last minute” shopping and haircuts for most parents. I accepted my challenge in the form of a list of items needing attention;

  1. Haircut for the boy
  2. Argos to get reservation
  3. DVLA to assign plate on new motor
  4. New bra for kidthekid1
  5. Kidthekid4 to play date
  6. New aerial for bedroom TV
  7. Collect kidthekid4′s uniform from school
  8. …
  9. etc.


I know, item 4 right…

So most of this list got tackled satisfactorily, no prizes for guessing which one was the stumbling block. Yeah, it’s not that easy to find bras for little girls, contrary to what the media would have you believe with their Primark pre-teen padded efforts and kid-pole-dancing kits. It’s actually a difficult task. Perhaps moreso as I’m not in the bra-buying business, neither am I what you would call of mature character. Oh, I had kidthekid3, who’s a 9 year old boy, with me. This was also detrimental to the whole episode.

So, kidthekid1 decided she wanted a sports bra. This is not an easy find either in a small size. I think they’re made to stop active, more generously bosomed women from giving themselves black-eyes while out jogging (or taking jazzercise classes) not for girls who, well, don’t really need a bra, in the humble opinion of their fathers.

Just so you know, places that don’t sell kids’ sports bras in Aberdeen(female readers may name this list, “places I’d never look in the first place for sports bras in Aberdeen”) include, M&S, John Lewis, SportsDirect.com(Union St or Kittybrewster), JJB(Union St or Berryden), TopShop, Next(Berryden or Bon Accord) and god knows how many more.

I’ve spent my fair share of time in the lingerie aisles in my time, mostly killing time until a promised McDonalds accompanied by a purchasing female of said garments. Today however I had to peruse the aisles with intent. I had to check sizes and styles. I had to suggest alternates, which invited scornful glowering by onlookers and daughter alike. I’m admitting I was out of my depth. SportsDirect came close I thought but when I suggested she go try on the ones she actually quite liked I got, “No, I’m not trying on a bra Dad.” “So how will you know if it fits before we buy it?” “It won’t fit, it’s too big I can tell just by looking at it.”

*facepalm*

We never did get one. Perhaps Mum can go out next time on this task.

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Jul
25

The air of elsewhere…

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Monday, 25th July, 2011


Amy Winehouse died recently, you might have heard about it. Don’t worry I’m not going to go on about her here, there are many bloggers better equipped than I to jump on that particular bandwagon. I do however want to post a personal thought about addiction…

Reading this piece by Russel Brand where he talks about addiction I was struck by the paragraph…

All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they’re not quite present when you talk to them. They communicate to you through a barely discernible but unignorable veil. Whether a homeless smack head troubling you for 50p for a cup of tea or a coked-up, pinstriped exec foaming off about his speedboat, there is a toxic aura that prevents connection. They have about them the air of elsewhere, that they’re looking through you to somewhere else they’d rather be. And of course they are. The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief.

Being an addict myself, though not to any chemical, other than those cooked up by my brainbox as I get my fix, instead to my computer, or indeed whatever “the project“(Go and read this link now! Seriously, I’ll wait for you to come back…) is at the time, I wanted to say the following…

We know we do this. It’s embarrassing for us too.

I am constantly being harassed by those who care about me. My family, my friends, visitors. Now let me get this out of the way right now. I love these people dearly. I don’t want to give this ‘air of elsewhere’ and I really try to get with it. I really try to give you my attention. I really try to understand that story you just told me. I really try not to think about that line of code that needs doing or that API that needs to be implemented.

This manifests itself at it’s worst when the object of addiction is within reach. I really try to get that drink for my 4 year old *before* she becomes so frustrated with me saying “just a second” that she just gets her big sister to help her. I can’t stress enough how ashamed that particular case study makes me feel.

My previous project, as long time followers of this blog will know already, was dancing. I was a line-dance instructor, out most nights. This eventually led to a breakdown in my home life. I can see this project going the same way. The one advantage of the dancing was that it was a social thing. I could talk about the project with my class attendees as it was relevant(which makes it more powerful and, in my mind, vindicates my obsession). The current project does not have this aspect. This compounds the air of elsewhere because, I think, I’m actually losing social skills by not practising them with real people.

I’m not looking for help, I’m not looking for sympathy, indeed this post was not supposed to hold a negative tone(perhaps I shouldn’t have opened with the death line…) All I wanted to do here is say that obsessives/addicts know we’re not really there. Druggies and alcoholics are probably further away than me, I’m sober but I’m still not there. I don’t mean it and I’m sorry.

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