Monday, July 07, 2008
Frustration
A frustrating day. My old laptop just won't cut the mustard for the testing I need to do, I discovered around noon. So I went to PC World in Colchester to price up a new machine. Got that done by around 1330. Sent off emails asking for approval to buy it. Did some phoning, come 1420. People out of the office, on holiday, etc.. In the end, got the machine approved, bought it, installed it, etc.. Nice piece of kit. Pity that the license key I have for the software I need to install doesn't seem to work on 64bit systems. Aaaaaaaaaaargh. Trying to sort this now.The other frustration's of a very different kind, and revolves round really not knowing how the very important vote on women bishops is going in the General Synod. There are various blogs, but I'm having problems working out exactly what amendments are good or bad, and where they're going. The main question seems to be about whether there will be legal provision to help those who aren't in agreement: in other words, enshrining discriminatory practice in law. It seems that the bishops and clergy (who make up two sets of constituents) are more progressive, on the whole, than the laity (who make up the 3rd set). We'll see. And pray, of course.
Labels: computers, women, work
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Expenses
(backposting) Did some expenses today. And discovered that work can't find the receipts I sent for a set for over £175, so don't want to pay them. I'm working on this...The really bad news - on top of this - is that I've picked a very, very short straw. We need to harden a Windows 2003 system, and I'm in charge of writing the policies and procedures for hardening our Linux systems, surely I'm the person to do the Windows one, too? So the thinking goes. Oh well.
Ironed for a couple of hours tonight. Felt virtuous and achy.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Work, preparation
(backposting) More work today, and an interesting meeting over lunch. I'm on retreat from tomorrow afternoon, so have taken the entire day off tomorrow, as well as Friday and Monday, but I've managed to close off some important pieces of work, and don't intend to spend much time looking at work email for the next few days.Labels: work
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A veritable wee!
Miri managed her first wee in a potty before her bath today. Yay! We've been sitting her on it from time to time, but she's never performed, so we made a big thing of it today. She's young for potty training, but has been patting loos quite often (and patting, for her, means that she wants to sit somewhere), so we thought we'd give it a go.The other big news for the girls was Jo's first big-girl book. She's really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD, so we thought we'd try her on the book. It's the first non-picture-dominated book she's had, and she loved it. The chapters are a good length, so I read one to her before the bath, and Moo read her one as she went to bed. Go Jo!
I had lunch with Viv, and talked about my first month as a deacon - which really isn't far away now. Things are really getting close.
Despite the upcoming excitement, I've got lots of work done today, and I'm quite pleased with it.
Labels: books, Jo, miri, ordination, work
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
You know when...
... you have lots of work to do, and life conspires against you? One of those days.Labels: work
Friday, May 30, 2008
13 hours
That's how long the plane flight was. Watched Vantage Point (excellent), The Cleaner (good twists) and Die Fälscher (inspiring). Got 4 hours sleep at the beginning of the flight, which was pretty much was I was hoping for.Got off the flight, got stopped at customs (they let me go...), went to the currency exchange booth, and immediately got a call from my boss asking me if I was coming onto the conference call that I'd thought was due to start half an hour after I landed, rather than starting at the time I was due to land (we happened to be early). I joined about 3 minutes later. Long call, then several more to other colleagues.
I do feel that Certicom get their money out of me.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Vietnamese and Brazilian
No, not new waxings, but the two meals I had today. Vietnamese for lunch, and Brazilian for supper. Preferred the latter, to be honest.Work still not good.
Back home tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Singapore
Got around 5 hours of sleep, which isn't bad on a plane, going East. Read, watched TV shows on the media thingy. Landed around 0840 local - just under an hour late, as we'd been delayed leaving Heathrow. Picked up my bag, went to the hotel, showered, went to work. Woke up at 0400, and I'm still doing stuff at 1950 or so, but I'm about to get some food and a drink, and then go to bed, where I suspect I'll sleep pretty well.Mentioned on Facebook that I'm in Singapore, and a friend from school who I've not seen for the best part of 20 years got in touch, as she lives here! We're hoping to meet for supper tomorrow. Where would we be without computers, then? (Answer: significantly less peeved than I am this evening, having struggled with them for much of the day).
Labels: computers, friends., travel, work
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
London
(backposting) To London for Wireless 08, which would have been a complete wash-out if it hadn't been for the fact that I found a couple of leads. Got home early, though, and got a good amount of work done.Labels: work
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
More sleep
0720 from Jo. Wow.Went into Cambridge, bought some books for work, returned some to the UL, handed in my final essay, attended a security seminar in the Computer lab, and ran into (the lovely) Scarlet, who'd not seen for around 10 years. They've moved back to Cambridge, and we intend to meet up for a barbecue, and to let the kids get together.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Writing
Wrote a major report for work today, and another 2,200 words of essay: I'm within 600 words now, and have just a conclusion to put together, so that's about right. I think I'm very pleased with it, but I'm absolutely on my last legs and off to bed soon, so can't really tell.Had a good chat over lunch with Tim, the area CME (Continuing Ministerial Education) Officer, who will be overseeing a fair bit of my training over the next 3-4 years. Got on very well, and we've got lots in common in terms of background and academic interests, so I'm very pleased about that, too.
Got to stop now, as my typing accuracy is going to pot...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
ExCel
Today I was speaking on a panel of four plus chairman at the IET GSA International Semiconductor Forum at ExCel in London. Finally managed to catch up with the chairman 20 minutes beforehand, and when I got there, I discovered that there were only two of us plus him, so more work. But it went pretty well, I think. Some nice give-aways at the exhibition, and some interesting leads, so a good day, all-in-all.Labels: work
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Off home
Only one session this morning, then I hitched a lift with one of the guys from the office via SquareOne, a big mall, where I bought the girls some books and clothes, and myself a rather nice jacket. Infrastructure stuff at work, and some discussion of exactly what I should be looking at first with my new role that we're planning out. Rather pleased with how it's going, actually.Airport, checked in, picked up my headphones (I'd left them on the plane, but got in touch with Air Canada, who'd kept them for me), went through security (they checked my bag and laptop: I can't see why people get stressed about this!), had some supper, did some work in the Air Canada Lounge (gotta love that Elite status), then on the plane. Watched Jumper, which was fairly diverting.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Preparations
So, next Monday is a Bank Holiday. Clearly, I'm away on work. Flying to Toronto on Sunday, and being driven to Niagara by a colleague for a sales conference. At least I don't need to drive when I get there. I'll be leaving around 0800 UK time, and arriving at Niagara maybe 1945, so didn't really want to be having to drive for over an hour when I get there. Oh, and I can have a drink or two on the plane, too. Made sure that I had all of my ducks in a row for the travel, and had finished any obviously outstanding documents, etc.. I'm also giving part of a presentation, so had to agree that with a couple of colleagues. Good news from work in this Press Release. Honestly don't know much more about it, but we like this.Went for a lovely walk with Moo, Buster and the girls after their supper: we're trying to make a habit of this, as it's good exercise for everyone, and now that the evenings are drawing out, it's plausible.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen
(backposting) Up at 0500. Flight at 0710 from Stansted.Only we started taxiing, and turned back. Apparently all the lights were on except the last one. The one they needed to have on before they could take off. They found another plane. We left 3 hours and approximately 5 minutes late. I had an hour's meeting in the Copenhagen Hilton, over lunch. Useful meeting, but still.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
New phone
Yesterday I got a new phone: the Nokia N82. Liking it, I have to say. Also wrote up an internal report and tried to work through some other stuff.Took Buster for a (very wet) walk at lunchtime, which he enjoyed.
And upgraded my laptop to Hardy Heron.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Last seminar
Today was my last ERMC seminar. It was on ethics, including deontology (we follow do what's right, no matter what) vs consequentialism (the end always justifies the means). Obviously it's rarely as cut and dried as that, but many entrenched ethical arguments often boil down to these two approaches. Also the question of whether we can be told to love, and what laws and commandments are for, came up. Weird that it's the last seminar.Went to Infosec 2008 during the day in Olympia, one of th emost difficult places in London to get to for an exhibition in my experience. Some leads, but not very much.
Friday, April 18, 2008
London
I went into London again today to try to make sure that a deal we're trying to make happens will happen. Wasn't sure whether I'd be able to meet who I needed to meet, but went in anyway. Luckily, the person was available, and we had a very useful discussion. Got some other work done in a café on Waterloo station, and finished it off after the girls had bone to bed. So, quite productive, to be honest.Labels: work
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Expenses
Isn't it nice when you find that you've got rather more expenses due to you than you expected? Several hundred pounds more, for instance? I think so.Labels: work
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
What a day!
A day when things took a long time to go well. When I tell you that I was ringing colleagues in Canada at 0400 their time, you might get an idea of how things went. But we got there in the end: all was working by the time I walked out of the door around 1745, and the customer was very happy.Finished reading Marriage after Modernity by Adrian Thatcher. Very interesting. He makes a case for marriage being special - or different, maybe - because it's child-centred. He's very positive about other models, but suggests that this is the over-riding difference. What I like is that he's ontological about it, rather than teleological: you don't _have_ to have reproduction as the aim of a marriage, but that's more than often what it ends up being about, and it's the relationship type where it's most central. Interesting.
Labels: children, family, theology, work
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Unexpected break
After a day filled with work calls, a children's party, a dog walk and a frankly disastrous attempt at potato waffles (not by me...), I was planning to attend a meeting in SecondLife, but it's cancelled (I guess), as the grid is down, and no logons are enabled.A chance to read Ecclesiastes again, which I promised my spiritual director I'd do before our next meeting (which is next week). A chance to put my feet up which is all the more welcome for being unexpected. And I _do_ like Ecclesiastes.
Labels: bible, relaxation, work
Friday, April 04, 2008
A hard day
A really, really hard work day. I'm not sure it's going to work out, but I really think I've done all I can. And I'm proud of what I've done: I've worked really hard.
Revelation Friday 5
Sally's turn to set the Revgals Friday 5 this week:With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently.
So with no further waffle I offer you this weeks Friday 5:
How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:
1. Book
Recently?
No Future: Queer Theory And The Death Drive - Lee Edelman. Just because I disagree with lots of it. There's some great theory, but it ignores the promise of Christ, and I'm looking forward to a writing a response.
2. Film
Check out Pangea day
3. Song
"I know that my Redeemer Liveth" - Handel's Messiah. A close call against "The trumpet shall sound", which, after all, has "and we shall be changed" in it. But the joy of the former is fantastic.
4. Another person
Miri. Just the pure, unadulaterated joy of the littlest things, even listening to "Yakety Sax" (the Benny Hill chase theme tune) on my mobile phone.
5. Creation
I went for a walk with Buster (our dog) the other day, and you could just hear spring being sprung. Nothing could keep itself still
Bonus answer: your choice- share something encouraging/ amazing/ humbling that has happened to you recently:
"And we shall be saved."
Labels: work
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Christ is my business
Someone said this to me recently, and it struck a cord. I'm involved in business, and I think that the work I do isn't anti-Christian, or unethical, and the colleagues with whom I work closely actually have a very strong ethical stance on many issues. In fact, I think that the work we do can do a great deal of good. But it's about generating profit, and wealth, and is that bad? This is a long, hard question, and a big question. Surely wealth creation allows society to pull itself up into a better (more technological?) position? The problem is that this is rather a second or third order derivative: where can we find a close action which is good, and clearly Christian?Well, I'm employed, and I can keep my family in relative luxury. We (our company - but we, our family, in fact) employ other people. We allow them to create wealth (and keep their families in relative luxury, too). And our products keep other people employed. And they keep yet more people's data and money safer, too.
Those are all good things, but how do they sit alongside Christ's commandments on money and wealth? It's been pointed out (by Richard Harries and John Atherton among others) that the Old Testament is a lot more positive about profit and wealth creation than the New Testament is often read as being. I just don't know. I find myself worrying, often, whether I'm making excuses for making money and being rich. I don't love money, I really think I don't. And, over the last few years, have less and less interest in goods for their own sake. And that's despite being a gadget freak.
So, I guess part of the question is whether we're willing to accept those second and third order derivative Christian outcomes. And how much are we willing to stand up for the first order effects damage that our work can cause? I really believe that the first order damage for my work is minimal. But then there are issues such as power consumption, environmental effects, etc.
It never stops: you can keep chasing the guilt. One of the things that Alan (who said "Christ is my business", and didn't mean it in this way) said was that we can't allow guilt to rule our lives. We have to live out the good, and make the most of that. Wise words from a wise man.
Burn them
On a lighter note, I took a quiz on Facebook today, to find out how Calvinist I am: "How Reformed are you?". It turns out that I'm "Truly Reformed". The outcome of this seems that I should be out burning Arminians, which mainly means my Methodist friends. Oh, well.Labels: christianity, humour, work
Monday, March 10, 2008
We shall be changed
I'm not sure what I'm blogging on today. It's been quite a long day: I'm not quite sure why. Took the dog out for a walk, got soaked and cold, despite wearing moleskins. We signed a major deal today, which is excellent. We're working on another one. I spent some time trying to find some clerical shirts (I don't intend to spend £55.00 per shirt, as one provider was asking). And booked a dentist's appointment. And done lots of reading for a tutorial on eschatology,But I just keep coming back to the phrase "And we shall changed."
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Sick
Not me. Jo. She started around 2230 last night, and carried on till around 0330 this morning, according to Moo. I helped until around 2330, when I thought things had calmed down, and Miri joined me around 0350, and took an hour or so to settle. So, all-in-all, not a great day.I took Moo out for lunch in Clare, and she accompanied Jo to pre-school for the first time, which Jo was so excited about. We'd been in two minds about letting her (Jo) go, as she'd been ill last night, but she was eating by the morning, and slept for an hour, so we risked it.
Got Moo's phone (a Nokia 6500) receiving and sending emails from her work today, with some help from them. I'm hopeful that this will reduce the time she needs to be spending doing stuff in the evenings, when she should really be relaxing.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Too early
We'd just started getting used to getting a little more sleep, and for a while you just feel worse. And then, this morning, Miri was up a 0440, and Jo at 0520. This didn't help.Finished drafts for the Korean articles.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Korean magazine
I'm currently writing an article - or series of 3 articles - for a Korean magazine. Luckily they're happy with it in English.Labels: work
Friday, February 29, 2008
Solving problems
Sometimes it's good when Jo takes a while to get to sleep (or Miri). Tonight, it was only 20 minutes, and then because she kept coughing, but I didn't even need all of those solve a cryptographic protocol problem that seems to be afflicting the airline industry. I'm playing this up a bit, obviously, but I did sort out a nasty little problem while Jo was dropping off. Now just need to validate it.Expenses. Quite a lot: still never enough.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Meeting a friend
After a morning which included an hour and a half of discussion (in which I didn't participate) on the most appropriate resolution at which to print barcodes on airline tickets, I met James, a good friend from Cambridge (with whom we also got together in Cornwall last year with his family), for lunch. We had a very good meal just off Lake Geneva, and it was excellent to see him. We'd love to get over for a while, but finding the time isn't that easy at the moment. We do owe them a visit, given that they came over with their girls for Miri's christening.Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Geneva meeting
At a meeting of IATA. Interesting in places, and should be more so tomorrow. Not much else to say, to be honest. Need to "network" this evening, apparently, so I'll be going out.Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Cool demo
(backposting) FedEx tried to deliver something on Monday, but I'd gone out for lunch (and not realised how quickly it was going to arrive from Canada), so today I drove to Chelmsford to their depot, to pick it up. It's a really cool demo to show off some of our technology. It's about barcodes, and digitally signing them. Nice stuff, and I'll be taking it out to Geneva next week.This evening, I popped round to fix Charles' computer. He's the son of some friends of ours, 13 or so, bright, and a nice guy. Having fixed his PC (partially unseated RAM), installed Firefox and AVG anti-virus, his mum wanted to know how he should repay me. I'd given him a cryptography 101, and so I decided that that next time he sees me, he needs to be able to explain the differences between symmetric and asymmetric encryption. I even gave him the requisite wikipedia page. This is a bit geeky, but he'd shown an interest, so... We've also agreed that we're going to buy a cr*ppy old PC, rebuild it, and put Linux on it. Yes, geekery.
Tomorrow is Jo's 3rd birthday, and we wrote the card and wrapped the presents. Oh, the excitement.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
More ministry thoughts
(backposting) Getting the "what I did today" section out of the way, I made it to the 0800 at St Mary's, Rempstone, then we went swimming with the girls, took them to the park, tired them out, ate supper, and drove back home! Straight to sleep from both of them!On the ministry side, Gary commented on the last post:
- Maybe we need to think through what it means being a priest in a workplace. I have opportunities to meet people in my work that I'd never meet in a stipendiary role - IT people, counter staff, loads of people of other faiths and from other nationalities - it's a different sphere of action, and the role is maybe harder to define and much more nuanced, but it's there.
I'm a little conflicted about how often I will wear a collar, to be honest. I think I'll try both ways on planes, and see how people react. Same for hotel bars, etc.. It's going to be interesting.
Over lunch, I had a supervision with Keith, and we talked a lot about where my ministry's going. How prophetic will it be? He says that he thinks of me as having an evangelical ministry - though he thinks what I'll refer to as "the E-word" is better applied to me as an adjective than a noun - and I'm beginning to see things this way, too.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Lots of calls
(backposting) Lots of calls today. Lots and lots of them. They went pretty well, I have to say. We also drove to Kate and Mac's for Kate's birthday, and a pre-birthday party for Jojo, as Jen, Jake, Mouse and (most importantly for Jojo) Turtle are coming to visit tomorrow. How is it that the busiest days are often the ones when you've slept for only 5 hours the night before? Heigh-ho, at least the calls went well.Thursday, February 14, 2008
Barcelona
(backposting) Yesterday and today I was at 3GSM in Barcelona. I had less time to spend on the floor of the exhibition, as I had a couple of meetings and then lots of other work for an important customer we're working with. In fact, I got to the airport at around 1520 for a 1600 call which was cancelled while I was on the way. My flight was at 2120, so that rather more time in the airport than I'd hoped, particularly as I couldn't get into any of the airport lounges. I'd thought that having a Star Alliance gold card would allow me into the lounges whenever, but it turns out that this is only the case if you're actually flying with a Star Alliance member airline. Not, for instance, EasyJet. Darn.Still, got lots of work done, and things are looking good. Got home around 1130, and headed off to the spare room, as Miri was already in with Jo.
Monday, February 04, 2008
More countries than intended
4, that is, in one day. I'd expected to visit three (hotel in Basel - Switzerland - meeting in Freiburg - Germany - and back home - the UK), but we got a bit lost coming back from the meeting, and ended up in France for a while, which was a bit of a shock. Johan, my colleague, was going to be stopping off at Copenhagen airport for a connecting flight back home to Sweden, so he got to visit 5 in a day.A long day - up at 0500 GMT (0600 CET), back home at 2120, and took a long time to get to sleep, but it was a good day, and I felt quite "sorted" by the end of it.
Moo's started a blog - I was bizarrely quite sulky about this - and I'm hoping to get her to move to another domain, which will make me somewhat less sulky, because she will at least have called on some of my geeky expertise.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Writing and writing
(backposting) So, I did lots and lots of work on an article that I'm writing for a trade mag. for work. In fact, it looks like it's going to be three articles, across three issues, which I'm very pleased about. They'd said that would be fine, but I didn't think there was going to be material enough for 2, let alone three. But the more work I did on it... So, the first draft looks good. This may sound dull, but I rather enjoyed it.Labels: work
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A private viewing
This afternoon, I had a very good meeting in London with a prospective customer, and followed it up with a private viewing of sculpture by our friend Grenville at 1 Canada Square, which I really enjoyed. It was lovely to spend an evening with Moo - it's the first time we've gone out and done anything without either of the girls for a long time.Monday, January 07, 2008
Patent disclosure
One of the great things about working in a tech company who take innovation seriously is that they encourage you to write up ideas. Today I wrote up a patent disclosure that I'd come up with at the ECC conference last year. I'm quite pleased with it, to be honest. Obviously can't say anything more than that.In the evening we went to a private viewing of some work by a friend of ours who really isn't very well. Prayers, please: can't really say more than that.
Oh, and a friend of mine, David, has been appointed Rector of St Anne's, Soho. I believe it's OK to say so, now. Well done him! It's a great position, from what I can tell, and I think it'll suit him well.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Back to work
Not that anyone else in the UK seemed to be bothering. Got a couple of emails. Did quite a lot of reading about netfilter and iptables.Oh, and I finished the 2nd of the two essays that are due on Monday, which is a big relief.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Haircut
Yup, haircut today for all of us bar Miri. And I got a major new document out to work, which I was very pleased about.Oh, and don't forget present-wrapping (which Moo did most of, to be honest).
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Hard work time
I've been working away at a document for the folks at HQ for a while, getting the background - it requires quite a lot of new knowledge - and suddenly I hear that they want it rather quickly. So I spent quite a lot of time on it today getting lots of stuff sorted on it.Also had my last tutorial on the Hermeneutics module today, looking at a short book by Thomas Merton called Praying the Psalms. Too patriarchal for my tastes: both at the Papal level but also at the family level. A good supervision, though, and one of the things I've learnt from this module is that we can look past the stuff we don't like (though it's important to exercise hermeneutics of suspicion) to a "new naiveté", and realise that the Holy Spirit works through people in their own contexts and times.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Router fixing
Left home at 0830 this morning up to Kate and Macs. Only took me 5-10 minutes to fix the router: the problem was what I'd expected, and I had notes on what I'd needed to do last time. This time I've saved the config, and written notes on how to put it all back together. So, we had a chance to see them, and Nana Stick, who Moo hadn't spent much time with at the Christening. Back home around 1910 - girls both took a long time to get back to sleep.I've had a paper accepted at a conference in February, it seems, which is good: but I've had to send a photo of myself, which I hate.
Oh, and Liverpool lost: what _was_ Benitez thinking with that formation?
Labels: computers, family, football, work
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Panel session and walk-about
Still in Grenoble, and slept in till 0815 or so, which was lovely. Got up and went to the conference, where I was one of the members of a panel on security. Went well, and I had lots to say (no, really), and was approached by no fewer than 5 journalists afterwards. Something good should come from at least one. The rest of the day wasn't desperately interesting - I even had a short sleep in the afternoon. Also wrote the synopsis for a paper for a conference next month, which seems to have been accepted. After the conference had wrapped up, I headed off into the old town of Grenoble, which was rather pretty with Christmas lights up. Called Kate (my mother-in-law), and had her very confused by talking in French to her. I also found a rather nice Christmas market and bought Moo a Christmas present. Well, that's _one_ down...Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Learning lots
Well, I'm at a conference on IP in hardware and chip design, learning about lots of things I didn't know. Had a couple of good meetings, I'm running a panel session in half an hour, and participating in one tomorrow morning. The weather's gorgeous here - bright sun, clear, clear blue skies - though I understand it's pretty nasty back home.Labels: work
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Good meeting
Met a potential customer in Cambridge today. The meeting went well, I think, and they seemed interested not only in the main product we were talking about but also in a possible future one, too.Ordered a new laptop today. Should arrive Monday. Oh, yes.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Back to work
Moo took the day off and went with her parents on the traditional Christmas shopping trip to Cambridge. Miri ended up in our bed, and I actually managed to get to sleep while she was actually screaming, which is quite impressive.I had a supervision in the evening with Alan, on modern hermeneutics and the Psalms. Interesting differences in our use of them in a liturgical setting. Got home, slept on the other side of the house, to give Moo more room in our bed with poor, coughy, teething Miri.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Going home
In an hour and a half's time, or so, I'll be getting on a plane to go home. I've accrued enough air miles that I'm able to upgrade to "Executive First", so I'll get a good seat and a chance to sleep, which is good. I'm ready for home, I really am.I've bought lots of presents for the girls (including Moo): just one of those trips (and the Canadian dollar's very weak at the moment, which helps).
Did some coding today. It's been a while. Nice to have the chance: I'm working on a PoC (Proof of Concept) for an idea I had this week.
Enough. Home soon.
Labels: geekery, home, sleep, travel, work
Monday, November 12, 2007
Toronto
I'm here for a conference we give each year on ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography), and will actually be doing a speaking slot for my ex-boss, which is a bit freaky. Got here safely, straight into a meeting about OS hardening, internal security consultancy, etc.. Brain a little fried. Then taxi to the hotel and I'm about to get some food. Then definitely bed.Sunday, November 11, 2007
Remembrance Sunday
A terrible night's sleep - Jo was coughing so badly that I was beginning to get worried. She ended up in the spare room with me, and actually slept quite well. We went to the Remembrance Sunday service at Great Yeldham, and I played the organ. The church was as full as I'd ever seen, and Jo, Miri and Moo came along, too. Although we don't have it as a hymn, I've finished the service for the past few years with "I vow to thee my country" on the organ, as it's a fantastic and stirring tune.I made it clear on my Facebook profile yesterday that I wasn't in a good way, and I've really appreciated the love and prayers that people have sent my way. I've had a bit of a knock sideways, and prayers, in particular, are much appreciated.
Oh - I'm off to Canada tomorrow.
Friday, November 09, 2007
At home, preparing for next week
I'm off to Canada next week, and spent most of the day at home, finishing up some old stuff, and preparing for next week. Looking forward to the trip, though not the jetlag or leaving Moo and the girls. Speaking of which, Jo's got words: she can start to spell them out and work out what they say. It's so exciting!Thursday, November 08, 2007
Speaking
(backposting) At first, this looked like it was going to be a problem this morning. I woke up with a sore throat and little voice. A little unfortunate, given that the whole point of my trip was to give a presentation for someone else. Luckily, by 1600, when I was on, things were OK, and it all went rather well. I really enjoy speaking in company - even when the audience, a bunch of intellectual property lawyers - aren't the obvious constituency. However, I was invited, provisionally, to give another talk on the same topic in the future, so it must have gone fairly well.Plane got in around 2330, home before 0100.
Finished the Cobb book, read a good deal of Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy: The Therapeutic Relationship by David Sedgwick. Fascinating.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Seville via Ryanair
(backposting) The Westin Alfonso XIII is one of the nicest hotels in which it has ever been by good fortune to stay. Stunning architecture, accommodation, staff service, food, the lot. Took a while to get here, but that's fine, I guess. There aren't that many direct flights, and though I'm not always a fan of Ryanair, they did OK and we got in on time. The airport's pretty close to the city, and although I was feeling pretty rough (a nasty cold started to attack me yesterday and I was streaming and coughing and sneezing by the time I arrived), I managed a lovely meal before turning in.On the way over, I had one of those marvellous, though rare, experiences. I was about to go through the security scan, following a couple. The bloke had already gone through, the the woman was held up. A security guard saw us both getting ready, and said "are you together?" The woman stopped a moment, looked me up and down, and said, "I wish."
You can't even hope for that sort of experience, you really can't. Great for the ego...
Reading The Dying Soul, by Mark Cobb, on spiritual care in the hospice and palliative setting. Very interesting.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Trip booked
(backposting) Well, I am indeed off to Seville tomorrow. At first thought I was supposed to be going to Staines, but it turned out that the line was bad, and it was "Spain". Near enough, I guess.Labels: work
Monday, November 05, 2007
Little sleep
Says it all. And then I've heard that one of the senior folks at work wants me to fly to Seville to give a presentation for him on Thursday. I'm looking at flights.Wednesday, October 31, 2007
First Aid/Emergency First Responder
I was at a restaurant (The Plough in Coton, as it happens) for lunch today, for work, when somebody went outside. They were choking, and the staff were looking a little flustered. I offered my services for First Aid. After asking the woman concerned, who was in some distress, I performed the Heimlich Manoeuvre. She made an odd noise, and was immediately fine. Amazing: it works. She was very thankful, and went straight back to her lunch. Nice to help out.Labels: work
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Assembly
Did an assembly at Long Melford primary school today, on caring. Started the kids singing anything they wanted, all at the same time ("I don't care what you sing"). That fell apart, as expected. Then got them all to sing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" all together, at whatever speed and volume they wanted. Ditto. Then asked them to listen to each other, and work together. That did it, although I was ready to conduct them and lead it if needs be. They did very well, and it was a clear and obvious message, and went down well. Ian, my supervisor, seemed happy.More following up of stuff for work, which seems to be going well.
Oh, and Moo's started knitting. We're both sitting in front of the TV watching Spooks.
Labels: ERMC, television, work
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tomorrow already
According to my laptop, it's already tomorrow. Which means, I suppose, that I'll be home today. My laptop's on UK time, my watch is on East Coast time, and, to be honest, I'm not quite sure which one I'm one - leaning towards the latter, I think. It's never much fun coming back eastwards - the jetlag hits your harder - but hopefully it won't be too bad this time.I've had a productive trip, all in all, and though one of the tasks I'd hoped to achieve was less successful than I'd hoped, the other went very well, and I've got lots of other things done as well, which is always pleasing. I've got lots of writing up and new work to do when I get home, so that'll keep me pretty busy.
I've spent some time this evening responding to a document discussing some of the legal issues around services in SecondLife, which is quite exciting. I was also very touched to be invited to the ordination of a good friend. Unluckily it's in New Zealand next month, so I don't think I'm going to get the chance to attend, which is a pity.
On a geeky note, I've just managed to install compiz on my laptop, which rocks. Lots of lovely 3D desktop effects, etc. which I'm looking forward to applying to my desktop machine at home as well. There are some performance problems which I need to address, but that's all part of the fun: tuning is definitely part of the deal.
Well, on a plane soon, then home.
Labels: geekery, secondlife, travel, work
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Productivity
(backposting) I wasn't sure how much work I was going to get done today, as things ended up being less prepared than I'd thought, but in the end, it went rather well. There are a whole set of skills and a lot of expertise from previous jobs that I've not had a chance to use much in my current job, and that changed today, which was very pleasing. I was basically acting as a security consultant to a variety of people within the organisation who wanted to have a broader picture of how what they are working on fits into the wider world and security context, and it was lots of fun trying to work with them on that. Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on auditing, which I see as connected, and 34 people have already signed up, which is a good number.Went out of dinner with a couple of colleagues, and had a very enjoyable Chinese.
Oh - slept for 9 hours last night, somewhat to Moo's chagrin.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Toronto
(backposting) Off to Toronto today. A later flight than usual, so no need to pack last night, but things got a little frantic in the end. Someone was coming to pick me up at 1000, and I ended up packing rather later than I'd intended. And I could _not_ find the book that I needed to take. I was aware that I'd not seen it for a while, but was pretty sure that I'd left it in my suitcase, but when I opened it up, it was nowhere to be found. Moo (and even Jo...) helped look for it, but I had to leave around 1010 without it, rather more stressed than I'd intended.Easy drive to Heathrow, where I checked in, with an upgrade voucher meaning that I'd get to go in Business Class. Flight fine - watched Surf's Up, most of Sunshine (until it got a little too scary) and Ocean's Thirteen. Landed, through customs, went to pick up my hire car, opened one of the secondary zipped up compartments of my suitcase, and there was the book that I'd been stressing over. Oh, well.
Usual hotel, all well, food, evensong, bed.
Oh, I'm re-reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, as I've not read it for a while.
Labels: books, films, travel, work
Friday, October 05, 2007
Where's all the theology
I do try to do a little theology once in a while - usually once a week - but it's been more than that, really, and I'm afraid that there's none here today, either. I'm having a little break from thinking theologically, inasmuch as one can...But I have booked a trip to Canada (Toronto, as usual). And planned another one. As one does.
Labels: theology, travel, work
Friday, September 28, 2007
Work, work, work
Well, all I said about work yesterday is more so today. Lots of major stuff coming up, having to be dealt with. I rather like it, to be honest.Now at Kate and Macs: expect alcohol soon...`