Sorry, I’ve been quiet on here. It’s been busy at work, leaving me little brainspace for much else, and for the last three days I’ve had baby-led man flu. And so I finally understand what that’s about – it’s one of many parenting-led experiences that you have to have, you can’t just be told about, to fully comprehend.
I was in bed for a lot of the time, working from home for the rest, but I managed to finish Fiona McIntosh’s Valisar trilogy (meh) and watch some average films (and one good one – Attack the Block!).
Need to find something new to read now…
There’s been some wonderful comments on the blog, between the PageRank upgrade, my increased frequency of blogging, and the inlinks from the BBC. Thanks to everyone for getting involved; from Outcasts fans from Australia and the USA upset about the show cancellation, Apprentice fans in the UK and beyond offering interesting insights on entrepreneurship, to my friends and family getting stuck into the various other discussions that have kicked off. Many thanks.
Thanks to those who’ve got in touch offline too – via Facebook and email. Really interesting and entertaining to be able to flex my brain in different directions like this.
I’ve got a new blogging project in development, which will take some of the more technical content off this blog, which I think would be good for most regular readers.
More on this later…
Further to my post about switching off, I’ve had a manic few days and – as such – haven’t had the brainspace free for blogging. It’s a rare state of focal zen for me, to have such a persistent thread of thought running that I can’t find the leeway or willpower to force my brain into a different shaped hole.
Fortunately, I’m a bit clearer of that now and back to it. You can expect me to be my tediously prolific self once again… now.
I seem to be turning into a country person. My surprisingly enduring passion for running has been joined by a not-insignificant-interest in gardening (at least insofar as it results in food), instead of drinking I’m more often driving, BBQs have become a regular occurrence, and every room in the house is fast acquiring its own ‘project’ – whether its painting a wall, putting up shelves or insulating.
Is this a mark of middle age? Maybe. Am I embracing it? Hells yeah, this is massive fun. Maybe at some point a year or two after we moved in we’ll ‘finish’ but the received wisdom seems to be that these things are endlessly cyclical…
There are limits to this, though. I don’t own any tweed, will never own a gun, and don’t plan on taking up hunting or fishing. Golf, however, may happen again at some point…
Enjoying the return to work, but the commute hasn’t got less painful. The trains are persistently overcrowded, I’ve been standing whilst trying my new work-on-the-train routine (Macbook Air + 3G card – light, but not light enough for easy one-handed typing!), and the intermittentness of the 3G signal is frustrating. One day I’ll get to grips with this…
At least the MacBook is getting a good flexing, though. The super-quick resume from standby is fantastic, and my love-love relationship with Evernote continues – amazingly handy for catching thoughts, actions, draft blog-posts, to-do lists and more.
{Aside} – given how remarkably overcrowded the trains have been, I can’t believe they’re planning on massive residential developments in the area. I’ve a mind to
get involved in the protest.
Wow, that was a magnificent break. Two months out of the office is a significant gap, and let me witness Emily’s first roll, first self-fed food, her sitting up properly, her first slobbery kiss for Daddy, her grins at her godparents, grandparents, aunties, cousins and uncles all over the world.
Emily coped remarkably well with multiple flights, and marginally less well with being on a boat (she seems to enjoy boats a little less than her Dad – at least at night) – and loved all her family, strawberry and sunshine experiences.
We had a wonderful time with friends and family, in the garden, doing some necessary shopping and seeing (not nearly as much as we’d like) our friends. A few projects are ongoing, but progress is being made…
The first couple of days back at the office have seen me surprisingly refreshed – and I’m excited about the things to come. I’m hoping I can maintain the running routine (more on that to come) and can continue to give the attention to this blog that it deserves.
The novel writing dream didn’t materialise; I think I need a more active collaborator than me, myself or I to make that one come to be. Maybe some day…
We should have recovered from the migration issues I mentioned recently now, so thanks for bearing with me.
I introduced Amanda to Evernote today whilst kicking off the gargantuan list of things we want to achieve whilst I’m off on sabbatical. She’s generally a propoenent of pen and paper when it comes to this sort of thing but the write once / have anywhere nature of Evernote appealed.
I have a feature request, though: please can you integrate with Google Docs so I can share an individual ‘note’ with someone else, preferably without forcing them to sign up to Evernote themselves? Would be a nice feature.
I’m dealing with some jetlag after the flight back to the UK so an increased rate of bloggery will return soon. Have a couple of queries out about Outcasts given the massive interest I’ve had in my posts about it, however neither the BBC nor Kudos TV are currently responding to me, so it might be a while…
Emily and Amanda are off visiting friends and I have the bizarre prospect of the first few days at home alone since we moved here.
Spooky!
Managed to keep busy with a little blogging, life-sorting-outness, and a terrible Disney film (Amanda hates Nicolas Cage, but ever since he uttered the line “Why couldn’t you put the bunny back in the box ,†in Con Air I’ve had a soft spot for him). Despite the fact that seeing a nerd take on magic is clearly a good formula for geeks everywhere, the dramatic climax of the film sees the hero emit the horrible putrescence that was:
“I’m not alone. I brought a little science with me.â€
I know it was meant to be a little tongue in cheek but it’s nowhere near the comic mastery of XKCD and just made me shudder a little. Randall Munroe is legend, Jerry Brucheimer, not quite so much.
Still, there was something about seeing the scene from Fantasia take CGI-tastic form.
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
