Through the digital cable the picture quality is outstanding. I’m, very happy with it. So happy in fact that I just wanted to play videos all day while in my office (a temptation I avoided, obviously). I love the irony of displaying the Linux shell on it. The letters are so big you can probably read them on the pictures here. They sure are sharp letters though!

I think I pretty much have everything sorted now. Maybe some would say over-sorted since I have more kit than I would ever be given in a permanent office job. Bear in mind that this is what I do for a living before passing judgement! As a friend once said to me (when I was fighting my conscience over buying the MacBook), you wouldn’t expect a professional photographer to only have one camera. Having said that they probably don’t feel the need to upgrade every year (though I imagine digital cameras have started to bring that about).

I’m sure everyone who works in (and enjoys) software development gets that comment about ‘playing with computers’ from friends, relatives and probably even partners from time to time. My advice would be to just ask them why they think that – you might be able to put them right (in a nice way, obviously). If you get too defensive (like me) it just sounds like you have something to hide!

It’s not like I don’t have a lot of things to do. Since starting down the road towards Getting Things Done I have realised just how many things are on my list. That doesn’t worry me, which is how it should be, but when I waste an evening  without even realising it I end up frustrated and annoyed with myself. Both of these feelings are counter-productive.

So what should I do? Here are a couple of ideas I’ve had:

• Don’t turn the television on – Simple, yet effective. Also, it’s surprisingly difficult to do if you’re like me and seem to need that background noise.
• Check the schedule first – If there’s nothing on that you like it helps justify your decision not to turn the television on in the first place. Unless you’re a fan of reality tv and other low-quality productions you’re likely to find that there really is nothing on.
• Don’t work in a room with a television – Aside from the fact that you’re likely to flick the tv on when looking up from your laptop, the sofa is not the best place to work unless you want crippling back pain after a week or so.
• Work when your partner works – My wife tends to spend a lot of time on her laptop performing various tasks or out in the garden performing maintenance once the kids have gone to bed. This is the only time either of us have for getting things done that aren’t directly related to the working day. Both working around the kitchen table also gives us the chance to communicate more than we would if we were watching tv. It’s much more enjoyable and we both get things done with far less distraction. She can do it, so why can’t I?
• Have a reward (non-television related!) at a set time in the evening – Something you enjoy doing. This could also be something productive like reading a book before bed. If I get my work done I feel relaxed and can spend time reading before falling asleep. If I don’t get anything done I feel annoyed and just go to bed late! I have so many books I want to read and not doing that causes even more frustration.

I’m not saying I do these things, in fact I know that I don’t. But I also know that they do work from the odd time I have done it either by accident or will power (more often the former!). If you have any other ideas then please let me know.

…and yes, I know throwing the television away would be one of them. I don’t think I’m quite ready to take that step yet

There’s a reason I never got around to it, I know that now. If you’d asked me then I would have talked about it not being the right time, it needed more thought or other complications in my life meant it was difficult for me to do something like that right now. The classic excuse was that I was just too busy. It’s not just me, I have heard this sort of excuse from colleagues time and time again. I think we all know it’s an excuse but we’re all playing the game to make ourselves feel better.

‘Yes, I’d like to do it but there are other things outside of my control that prevent me.’

The simple fact of the matter is that I was scared of doing it, just like I’m scared of making any potentially life changing decision. A colleague once referred to it as the ‘velvet rut’, a reference to the fact that the current state might not be taking us anywhere but it’s comfortable. He realised that, but he still did nothing about it.

And that’s what the book talks about; this feeling of ambivalence we get with any change to our lives. The interesting thing is, it made me look at that feeling in a different way. Instead of seeing it as a warning to not go ahead and do it I started to accept that there will always be a part of me that feels insecure and worried about change. The trick is to listen to the other part of you that is excited and optimistic about the change. I don’t know about you, but I’m not psychic so that voice of concern was probably not a vision of the future even though I treated it like it was.

Now I’m not saying all ideas will be good ideas because they won’t. I have friends who don’t appear to have this feeling of ambivalence when they have an idea and to be honest they could do with some! There was a time when I wished I had this apparent ability to not care about the negative repercussions of my actions. Now I realise that I’m better off being a little more cautious (and I believe my family certainly are). As with everything else balance seems to be the best option; realistic rather than pessimistic and positive rather than expectant.

Ambivalence was a word I don’t think I really understood before now. It always held very negative connotations for me, whereas now it’s just something I look out for and recognise without promoting it to the level of premonition. Also I’ve never thought much of self-help books; not that I actually read self-help books before making that assumption. I always treated any issue I had with myself as if it really wasn’t an issue or it had an external cause not under my control. I guess that’s another protective measure that many of us put in place.

I do realise that you should be careful not to just give your life over to the techniques presented by others. Not everything works for everyone and there are a lot of bad self-help books out there just wanting to cash in on peoples insecurities. But that’s not to say that you can’t pick up some really useful advice or get a new insight into an issue you might have.

See what I did there? Realistic and positive…

So bearing this in mind I went off to meet up with an associate yesterday and took my Mac along with me. He’d requested that we meet in Caffe Nero which immediately gave me the opportunity to turn up early and try a bit of cafe working. Hey, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days…

…or that’s what the adverts would have me believe. To be honest I was actually quite excited about it. I could just see myself sitting outside a cafe sipping espresso and cutting some mean code. Very Parisian.

Anyhow, I get there, get a coffee, sit down in a comfy chair, switch on the Mac (obviously having fully charged it before leaving) and launch Firefox…and that’s about as far as I got before it started asking for my credit card details. I should have seen it coming I suppose. I’m not a particularly naive person but I thought they started offering this sort of roaming access to tempt people in rather than to directly make money from it. Access from £10? Seems a lot for 20 minutes on the internet. So, I tried the network of the coffee house over the road; no luck. By this time I was desperate to get something going so I even tried a couple of office networks in the vicinity

I looked about to see if anyone else was perhaps on-line and it confirmed my suspicion that it isn’t proving very popular. Maybe the take up is higher in the Big Smoke, but in Harrogate it doesn’t seem to be taking off. I checked out Starbucks when I got home and that looks like a similar affair. They appear to have teamed up with T-Mobile. For a simple person like myself who already has a home phone contract, a mobile phone contract and a broadband contract it’s just too much for another similar service I would rarely use. I don’t know about you but my monthly bank statement is already a collection of subscriptions for a variety of things I believe I can’t do without. One day I must sort that out…

Before this I had dreams of blogging from a series of cafes, all the while working my way through the ever expanding selection of coffees on offer. Oh well. Practically speaking I don’t think the cafe is a viable option when it comes to working outside the office anyway. For a start I don’t think I’d survive the caffeine overload, but more seriously it’s just too much hassle for me to get that much done. Altogether it doesn’t help much in my aim to be a better father and husband since I’d spend more time out of the house for no benefit to anyone other than myself (it would purely be a personal indulgence).

Ode to Jason

Yet another rhyme for a similar reason,
Jason is going, it must be the season,
Or Indulge have put something strange in our lunches, Which makes people leave, that’s one of my hunches, Or could it be that Jason has taken offence, By the team’s constant ribbing, but that doesn’t make sense, Coz this team is renowned for its sensitive ways, Care and concern for each other fills our days…, So maybe it’s the fault of the vending machine, There are never any Doritos, that is so mean, Jason loves his Doritos, the additives keep him going, So Indulge or Doritos? There’s no way of knowing, What I do know is that Jason will be missed by the crew, And his unique style of management? Yes, that too, When asked what’s next on the plan, Jason replies “whatever you like”, Oh the no-pressure team leadership of easy going Mr Dyke!

Mr Startup you’ve certainly got a job on your hands, When taking control of the CCM plans, And the bolshiness of Alister, Sabry and Steve, And getting answers from Neil? Impossible I believe (ahem), Norma will keep the team on the straight and the narrow, And we’ll occasionally hear from long-gone Mr Yarrow, I guess Aaron will pop in to see us now and again, Oh the geographic restlessness of these American men, And what about Amanda, the worst of the team, Her behaviour and language are totally obscene, It would be good to remember not to refuse, When she asks you to dish out those documentation reviews, And Linda, although working for some other team, Is one of the gang and just as keen, To go out for a curry and a couple of beers, Here’s to team bonding of the CCM kind, cheers!

Well Jason is leaving behind a lively gang, And braving the world on his own, good man!
His days of PMRs and project plans are done, Instead he’ll be working from home, what fun!
To be your own boss, to work when you choose, To start off the day with lie-ins and booze, We’ll miss his daily updates about how he sees life, About the things that bug him and cause him such strife, Before we know it he’ll be a black belt at karate, Giving demos of high kicks at all his kid’s parties, So it’s now time for us to say bye and good luck, Go out into the world and make your big bucks, We’ll try and cope without you, Keep CCM going strong, And we’ll try and replace you…
(Which to be honest won’t take long)!

Cheers!
From the CCM Team 2nd February 2007