Category: Commentary

I’m sick to my stomach. I can’t believe that we went to war.

“Obviously common people don’t want war: not in Russia, not in England, not in Germany. This is understandable. But, after all, it’s the rulers of the country who resolve on politics, and it is always easy to sway people, either in a democracy, in a fascist regime in a parliament or in a communist regime.
Whether they have a say or not, people can always be bent to the will of their chief. It is easy. All you need to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and blame pacifists for lack of patriotism since they are pushing the country to a danger. It works the same way in every country”.

Those were the words of Hermann Goering, a war criminal.

I think there’s real danger of the US becoming increasingly introspective and only leaving their shores to strike out at enemies, real or imagined. As for the UK, I’m ashamed of my government. I’m ashamed of the Unionist politicians who voted for the war.

On the other hand, good news at work. I’ve got my support contracts sorted, we’re working on a new venture, I’m on page 7 of my training course (only about 113 more to write)…first training course in late April. Plenty of time 🙂

I haven’t gamed in over 18 months. Something that used to be so much of my life is now alien to me. I used to live for gaming. These days I hide behind the computer in my spare time. The computer, after all, pays the bills.

It’s all Meggan’s fault really. Something in me realised that the gaming, one third of my soul, had to go and be replaced with my daughter. Of course, now that she’s older and her timetable is more organised then I’m thinking of starting up again. She sleeps well, she eats well and frankly she’s growing well. She’s starting to say words (bird, tree, daddy) and the other night she took two steps.

So I’d like to start gaming at some point as a prelude to me starting writing again.
Of course I barely remember how.

Well….the new job has been good for the past fortnight. Tomorrow I have configure a voice switch that I’ve never seen before – important to note that I’ve never connected up a voice switch in my life before. Also, the data lines arrive in so we’ll have a router to configure – I can give any model of router a run for its money.

On other news – I got a new Powerbook – top of the range model with a kick ass screen, great graphics card and ..whoosh.. a DVD Burner. Very pleased with it.

Xmas is coming soon. Here’s to friends who I’ve not spoken to for a while. You are missed.

It’s not the spectre of layoffs, it’s more the stress. Lez is off work at the moment and I’m feeling a bit under pressure especially now the new term has started and I have classes to write and soon, assignments to grade. I’m really feeling the weight of my commitments and my sleep is suffering. On top of that…my powerbook is dying. It’s endured two and a half years of abuse and now things are starting to break down. It still performs but the battery is almost a dud due to three faulty power supplies (all replaced under warranty) and I get about 45 minutes out of it at “high performance”. I can still squeeze almost 3 hours out of it at “longest battery life” settings but that’s no way to live. I could buy a new battery but that costs £125 plus VAT and shipping and part of me sees that as around £150 that I can’t spend on a new machine. To top it all, part of the casing has cracked. It’s ironic. Right when I certainly cannot buy a new ‘book, is when it seems that I need one most. Just gonna surf over and torture myself. http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

Everyone’s a bit sober these days. Something to do with imminent layoffs. No-one knows who’s affected, just vague numbers at the moment but it’s certainly got people down. Anyway, forget that. There’s obviously going to be something interesting out there on the web. Um..let’s see…. I’ll start out with one of the websites that I go to several times a week now: http://www.jobserve.com/ Ahem

On Friday afternoon Meggan went to stay with her grandparents in Bangor. It was her first night away from her mum and both seemed a little shaken by it. Lesley and I went to see Signs in the cinema and both thought it was excellent (though Lesley described it as “excellent but harrowing”. We went home and for the first night in a very long time, slept an entire night. Meggan was returned to us the next morning and seemed to have learned new tricks. Where she had been saying “Goo Goo” before, she now says “Da Da Da”. She also learned to clap her hands and does it often when she’s happy. Over lunch we gave her a rusk and she spent most of the mealtime with the rusk in her hand, shoved into her mouth and sucking madly. I think it’s helping with her sore gums. Anyway…today…I have to do my tax return and write tomorrows classes. Boring work but it has to be done. I also need to go out and see about getting fireworks for our annual Hallowe’en party at the end of October.

First night of the teaching for this year. I’m doing two classes, Communications Technology and Networking. Not too tough a crowd, spotted the class clowns. Looking forward to next week.

It’s been a good year. Despite the ever encroaching spectre of layoffs, we’ve had a lot of holidays, made a lot of new friends and were blessed by the arrival of Meggan. Right now I’m taking a break from cleaning the kitchen up a little. We have a new cooker (actually a Range) and it’s being installed first thing in the morning. As September comes to a close I think of what I’ve got to look forward to and the things I have to remember to do – getting my P60 from the Tech is one. Finding out how to be licensed to use Fireworks is another if we want our annual Hallowe’en party to go with a band and not a damp squib. Going to try to end with an interesting link or tidbit of information. http://www.solartoilet.com/

Okay… Last Friday night I was phoned at home because of a routing problem at work. Problem was that a lorry (truck for you americanos) had broken down in our lane and there was no moving it. Had to diagnose the fault over a mobile phone in the rain (as I was helping to fit the fan belt for the power steering on the lorry) So that was Friday. The weekend was pretty slow but Monday night had the NiMUG meeting and a big demo of Jaguar. We had about 15 people there which was plenty and feedback seemed to be pretty positive. Tuesday night had a Wireless WAN meeting in Roast on the Lisburn Road. We talked about that for ages and then geeked til about midnight – I honestly don’t remember what about. Last night….things were slow. I was in recovery mode I think. Meggan is thriving, growing like a weed. She’s now able to sit up unaided and will contentedly play with her toys and not demand attention. It’s like she’s growing up or something. And my employer has announced 7000 more job cuts. That’s 1 in 6 people. I have a bad feeling about this one – I’ve managed to keep my job despite over 40 000 job cuts but sometimes I feel like the reaper is catching up with me.