I’m back in Tooting. Back home. It’s not the same flat as last time, but it’s back in with the same friends (well, Jamie’s gone, but, y’know, I got his room, so it’s not all bad), and in fact, the flat’s even nicer. So here I am, back on the right side of the Thames, back on the tube, and yeah, I’ve got unpacking to do, and I’ve got money hassles to sort out, but I just don’t care about any of that right now. I’m back where I ought to be, and I can get on with 2003.
Long Week.
It’s only Wednesday, and I’m shattered. Last night was my best chance for a decent night’s sleep between now and Saturday, and I blew it utterly. Well done, that man. So now I’m tired before I ever get to the pub tonight – going for a drink with the folk at my former employers. I’ve been meaning to say something about the shiny redesign they did the other month – aside from the huge swathe of orange across the page if you’re not logged in, looks gorgeous. Clean, modern, elegant, and fits loads on the page without being confusing, although I have the nagging sense that the small blue header bars aren’t all the aligned quite right.
Anyway, must leave for beer.
Print On Demand
Via Hugh, I find that Cafepress are planning to seriously expand their product range. Of particular interest, are print on demand books, CDs and DVDs. If the prices on these are right, this is going to be very interesting indeed…
A good start to the day.
I found my P45, after all that. Result!
Tired, Cranky, and Tax problems.
It’s been a long few days. Fin and I were both tired and cranky this evening, so it didn’t help to get home to my mother giving me an earbashing for having lost my P45 (or at leat the part I have to give my new employer). I know I’m a complete tit already, thanks. I’m already annoyed enough at myself, and worried at the prospect of paying more tax than I need to for at least the next while. I don’t need any further opprobrium heaped on me, especially not in the mood I’m in tonight.
Anyone know if there’s anything I can do to avoid having to fill out a P46 and paying more tax than I have to, if I really have lost my P45?
I Hate You Telephone Thing.
I’m not fond of trying to do business by telephone. I hate talking on the damn things – I’m keenly aware that 80% of communication is non-verbal, and at least with the written word, I’ve got the time to really get the verbal part right, in a way you don’t on the phone. But still, I have spent a good chunk of my morning on the phone. Net gains – 800 quid and change. OK, it’s money that I was owed, but I feel good about having got it back by telephone.
Sometimes it really is the stupidest things that make us pleased, isn’t it?
I hate this.
I want to write. It’s nearly 2 am, I’ve got a headful of static, sitting here with the window open, enjoying the chill, and I’m trying to further in on the first of these monologues, and I just can’t hear it. It’s like it’s being mumbled on the edge of my hearing. A secret that she doesn’t want to give up. I’m on the verge of starting over, listening for the opening sentences again, and letting it go somewhere new…
This is the really annoying bit about writing, you know? Where you’ve got the ideas, and you know where you’re going, and the words just sit up there, dug in behind your eyes and refusing to budge.
New Year, New Look.
Black Ink is back, with a new, CSS-driven look. I confess, it’s a template I lifted and modified, but one step at a time, eh? I’m probably going to tinker further with it later in the year, as I get to grips with using CSS for layout (rather than just for text) a bit better. I’ve already got a few ideas for where I want to take it, but as I say, that’s for later. Got to finish 9A first…
The Return Of The King.
A thought occured to me the other day, about the ending of the LOTR film trilogy. If, as is rumoured, the scouring of the Shire has been cut (not at all unreasonable – it’s a nice coda, but it’s not going to work very well for a cinema audience) and the ending of Frodo and Sam’s part of the story is at Mount Doom (and any big happy reunion at the end if there is one, obviously), then I wonder if Jackson will leave Mount Doom unaltered? I wonder if he can? The end at Mount Doom isn’t heroic or redemptive for any of the protagonists – the only who comes out of it looking half decent is Sam, by virtue of well, not doing very much.
The obvious thing to do is make the ending more redemptive for Smeagol, but given the lovely bit of wrong-footing Jackson pulled off in the Two Towers in regard to Smeagol/Gollum I wonder if he’s aiming at that or not. I mean, thinking about it, the end of The Two Towers could be to make an eventual redeption all the more powerful, but I tend to think that’s it’s just staying true to the book, while working in the film’s alteration of Gollum/Smeagol into a split personality affair. We’ll see.
Shit. Rumbled.
Reading the new Sequential Tart, I discover that Kady Mae has stumbled onto the truth…