Firework Display

Those that know me will know that my friend Andy and I do a firework display for family and friends every year.

This year, we’re taking it to the next level. We’ve got permission to use a field in Hampshire and have a 25 minute display planned including 58 rockets, numerous mines and barrages and a huge finale piece.

The whole of his street are attending along with some of my family for what promises to be a proper street party :)

Here’s a plan of the firing layout lovingly created by Andy if you’re interested.

If we manage to get any photos, I'll put them on my Flickr page.

This made me laugh

I was saying to someone yesterday how the worst bit of living by myself is the constant washing of clothes, to which she replied “welcome to the woman’s world!”

Someone sent me one of those e-mails full of light hearted pictures today and one of them particularly made me chuckle

Tame Squirrels

My wife and I took our youngest daughter to a local park the other day to look for autumn things. We happened upon a squirrel and we were surprised how tame it was. It came right up to us and ate an acorn from my wife’s hand. We were looking for conkers but didn’t find any as the squirrels had beaten us to them.

Moving on

After a few weeks of looking about, I've found somewhere new to live and I'm moving in at the end of the month. My wife is staying in our house and I'm moving into a three bedroom house. We're having joint custody of the children so they can pretty much come and go as they please in either house.

On one hand, I'm glad to be moving on. On the other, i'm shitting myself as i've only ever lived with my parents or my wife. Add to that the pain in the arse that is finding new furniture.

Oh well, I suppose it has to be done.

I'll post some photos as soon as i've taken them

Restoring my faith in humanity

About 6 months ago, I happened across Throwboy. They had come up with the idea of making a set of pillows that look like the dock icons on OS X. At this point they were just trying to find out who'd be interested in buying them. A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail saying that they'd begun making them and was I still interested.

Much as I was, the cost was prohibitive being that I have to find a new place to live and so on. I e-mailed a simple reply saying that I couldn't afford them right now as I was in the process of separating from my wife.

The reply that I received near bought a tear to my eye:

Adam,

I'm very sorry to hear about your current domestic situation. That really sucks... for lack of a better phrase. Let's just say I can relate what you're going through and if it's alright with you, if you give me your mailing address I would like to send you a free Finder icon pillow. You will not be billed in anyway, and I hope it's a pick-me-up in a dark time.

As we say in the states, "bro's before ho's."

Thanks, Adam. Hope to hear from you soon.

Kindness like this was just what I needed and I feel I should make some effort to pay it forward/back/sideways.

If you read this and feel so inclined, visit Throwboy and buy a pillow from them. They make fantastic looking pillows and to top it all off are lovely people.

Tears are actually welling while i'm writing and I feel like a proper big girls blouse now so i think i'll leave it there.

UPDATE:

The pillow arrived and it's fantastic!

So long and thanks for all the fish

I'm not normally one for spilling out emotional stuff in blogs but I figure that's kind of what they're for so here goes.

After 13 years together (10 of them married) my wife and I are separating. She told me a few months ago that she still loved me but was no longer in love with me. It was a shock and I didn't take it well. We tried to work it out but (for reasons I don't particularly want to air here) it didn't work out and we agreed to call it a day.

We're aiming to stay friends for the sake of our three children but I guess only time will tell on that front. Telling the kids about the separation was also very hard.

The thing that freaks me out most is the idea of moving out as I've only ever lived with my parents or my wife :S

My Qype Ninja Arrived!

I reached Ninja status (1000 points) on Qype.co.uk a few weeks ago and my Ninja goodie box just arrived. As well as this ninja it contains a bottle of bubbly, an iPod, a mug, a USB flash drive, a t-shirt, a frisbee, a badge and a packet of sweets.

Very cool :-)

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by email from mindspace's posterous

The news you didn't read

This looks interesting

http://www.badscience.net/2008/08/the-news-you-didnt-read/

It's bang on in as much as it's not newsworthy, even though its fairly major

Posted by email from mindspace's posterous

Photo posting

This was taken at the London Aquarium last week on my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by email from mindspace's posterous

Test using posterous

In order to help me start blogging more often, I'm experimenting with things to help me.

At the moment, I'm trying posterous. Suggestions of alternatives are most welcome

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by email from mindspace's posterous

I'm still here

As i'm not at uni again for a good few months, I should probably make more of an effort to blog here.

I'm not really doing much at the moment so don't really have much stuff to blog about publicly.

I did recently apply for a student type job at Nokia, pounding the mean streets of Brighton offering to help people 'unlock the magic' of their mobile phones. The interview involved reciting a poem I made up about my phone (here if you're interested) and then carrying out a prop-based role play. They phoned yesterday to say that i'd got the job on the condition I could go on training over the weekend. As it's one of my children's birthday and arrangements had already been made, I had to decline. Shame, as it included a free mobile and a car too.

If you want to keep up with me, follow me on twitter or Facebook.

As soon as I have anything to share, I will. Honest!

All done

OK so I've now officially finished my first year of university. Now what to do for the next 4 months...

I've found a new website that's very addictive called Qype where you can write reviews of places you've been to, shop at, eat in and so on.

So much so that i've gained insider status in 4 days - surely a record?

Almost there...

So

I have an exam on quantitive research methods on Friday. I'm finding revising for this incredibly tedious but I guess it has to be done. I also have a multiple choice test to do online by Saturday night and then my first year at university is complete.

I can't believe how quickly it's gone. It only seems like yesterday that I was severely depressed and agonising over having to work in IT for the rest of my life. Time flies and all that... :)

Now that i'll have lots of time on my hands, I hope to start blogging more frequently.

Apple Musings

So...

I've had my iPhone for a good few weeks now and i've realised one thing:

My original iPaq that I bought in 2001 did everything that the iPhone does

So why the big deal now? Well, as a friend succintly put it the other day, it ain't what you do it's the way that you do it.

The iPhone experience is packaged in such a way that it's just simple and intuitive.

Not long to go now

In about a month, I will have finished my first year at university which I have to say feels pretty amazing.

I'm not on the home stretch yet though - 2 MCQ tests, one 1000 word research paper evaluation, one piece of group research with a 1500 word write up, one assessed presentation, one takeaway exam and one unseen exam.

A Big Day

I'm giving a lecture tomorrow as secretary of The University of Brighton Psychology Society. It's based on a session I used to deliver internally at Microsoft and helps people get a grip of presenting. I was surprised when I started university how much requirement there would be to deliver presentations, some of which are assessed yet there is little instruction on how to deliver them effectively

Hello

I've been blogging for near on 5 years now in various places.

When I quit IT last year, I stopped writing in my tech blog and started a new one here.

The problem is, I don't have enough content by myself to fill the new one and I miss writing technical stuff. I still do technical stuff just not for a living anymore.

My plan going forward is to get some additional bloggers for men-talhealth.org.uk and do my personal blogging here.