Saturday, October 06, 2007

A somewhat different weekend


A very special gift...
Originally uploaded by Corydora
Yup after last weekend's nipple tassle extravaganza this week is DIY stores, Jam tasting and a fascinating slide show at the house of someone Jude knows. Oh and there's a 55mile bike ride to a cider mill too. This may take some getting used to

Thursday, October 04, 2007

sucker

okay I know. I'm a sukcer. A real sucker. But I just love sexy electronics. And so with th expenses mounting - $4k to move house, $3k for blinds, $14k for a new car, weekly $250 flights and the like I somehow managed to find my way into an Apple store today looing at the new i-touch.

Okay so it's 8 gig vs the 160 gig of a standard video i-pod. And the price will come down soon.

But it's touch screen.
And it knows which way up it is.
And it has wi-fi that's free in Starbucks.
And it plays movies beautifully.
And it's really thin.

It uses fonts fantastically.
And it really is as sexy as hell.

And besides I've spent more tha $300 on a good dinner.
And we're kinda well off on paper (we just lack the requisite kind of paper to prove it)

And I was celebrating not having cancer.
A "have the paper to prove it" kind of not having cancer

And I did give extra blood today in an act of altruism.
Plus it was my birthday recently
And it's my anniversary soon.

And did I mention that I'd been a good boy?

Okay - I'm a sucker.
But a happy sucker.

BTW - Anyone want a previous generation Video i-pod in Black?
It was a gift and I'd rather someone took it than it went into a drawer.

Scans clear... now for the MRI

So scans were good this morning - except for what they think might be a heriation of a disk in my neck. Have an MRI scheduled just in case. Meanwhile it's all good. Hurrah. Another crap post I know. Monster busy here. (what?)

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

so- thai-ard


sleepy raver
Originally uploaded by lomokev
as they used to say in Singapore. I'm totally knackered. The head is aching. And I need to be in tip top form for the doctor tomorrow. Well actually I don't as the tests were done weeks ago and it's just a results day. But I still wanna look well. Weird huh? Anyway a real post first thing tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Lemonade


Lemon
Originally uploaded by ian_zone
well after yesterday's disappointments I've decided to suck it up, make lemonade and concentrate on what's actually important. Doctor on Thursday. New client the week after. Time to throw myself into fitness, health and work. Erm, that's it. It's late. The glass of wine was a little too full. More tomorrow.

Life on hold

was promised an answer today on one of those big life shaping things. Actually I was promised an affirmative answer.

Instead I got a 2 week delay.
And a side order of uncertainty.

Powerless to change the outcome I'm moping instead.
Can't remember ever having been this down.

Facing the prospect of being homeless (lease runs out in 3 weeks), penniless (the move costs a fortune), wifeless (she's in Ann Arbor my options around getting there are diminishing daily) and animal-less (they will move end of month) and all I can do is cross my fingers.

Worse is that a 'yes' would have carried me towards something that I really want to do - rather than away from something that I don't. A very good step.

Sometimes I can see how having a belief in something other than the ability of organizations to bugger things up could be a comfort.

Still 2 weeks to certainty. And knowing is all. That gives me the ability to plan. And planning is what I do best.

Okay - back to work.

Monday, October 01, 2007

a waiting game


IMG_4373.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
I'm really bad at waiting. Really bad. It's the lack of control that I hate. Other people setting the pace, the deadlines, the pace of your life. It's why I'm not a bus person - being able to see those gaps that "you could drive a bus through" whilst simultaneously not moving drives me bonkers. Gimme the subway anyday. With no front window to peer through and only blackness all around there's no way of viewing the cause of frustration.

So this week is a bad one. I'm waiting on movers. On doctor's results. On window treatment guys. And on a host of equally important - life in our hands - decisions from other people. And it's already driving me insane. By Friday I'll be a basket case. By next week worse.

I gues sit could be worse. I could be being hounded - a la Britney. Am I alone in finding Britney losing her kids a sad thing? It feels as though this has been the script that the press have been looking for all along. They've been pushing the Britney is a bad mom angle for so long (with the "Somebody help us" headlines plastered over pics of her kids) that the court decision today seemed inevitable. Sure she's hardly mom of the year but then she has staff to look after the kids - they're looked after by pros. And a lot of the toddler angst you see is caused by the media scrum around Brit and the kids whenever she leaves the house.

What I really object to though is one of the reasons most often cited as being a sign of Brit's depravity is that she's often naked around her kids. At this point I have to say - so what? They're 3 and 1. I'm not sure they'd notice naked and even if they did I'm sure that's not unhealthy. Okay the drugs might be an issue, that I can see - thoughnobody ever tried to drag Bobbi Houston off to a home for children of drugged up nutter parents, did they?

Enough of a rant "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE" etc.

Oh this waiting

Steve

Sunday, September 30, 2007

One of those weekends


IMG_4272.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
A good weekende then. Sketchy's was a little low energgy, with lots of the jokes falling a bit flat - but then we were the stone cold sober table.
Still Jude did well at left handed drawing and I managed a couple of good pics.

Margaret Cho was funny during the stand-up and daring during the burlesque but I found myself admiring rather than enjoying the show... although her crotch in face rubbing, moustachio'd, permed, Cher lithe, gymnast flexible support was good value for money.

Kaiser and Nick's party was fun. Too many nibbles, too many drinks, enough interesting people and we stayed too late - just about perfect then.

Mythic Creatures at the museum not really worth the money... but you live and learn and it's always nice to see Mike.

Jude leaves tomorrow morning (on a 6am flight, ouch) and I head out there next weekend. Meanwhile I'm in limbo - waiting on news in almost every area of my life from health, to work. It'll be an interesting week.

Friday, September 28, 2007

A Sketchy weekend

Jude's home this weekend and I've packed the program.

We have gym sessions, followed by a trip to the museum of natural history to see the Mythical Creatures thing, then from 3-6 it's a live drawing class (with booze) over at Dr. Sketchy's. We leave that bevvy of beauties and head across town to Margaret Cho's Sensual Woman show - which has strippers, mimes, tranny comics and of course Korea's finest ex-sitcom 'star' doing stand-up. From there it's on to Kaiser and Nick for their 'It's a Threesome' party before staggering home, drunkenly taking the dog out and falling into bed.

Sunday will be gentler, but no less busy. We'll let you know how it goes.

balanced


balanced nude
Originally uploaded by Jerrie
no time for a post today... which breaks my rule about living a more balanced life and taking time out for me, but hey when they pay you the medium bucks!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

too much stuff?


Oz
Originally uploaded by lane collins
just had the first of the movers in to estimate a price on getting stuff from New York to Michigan and they came in at $4200. Which is more than it cost us to move from Australia to the US but roughly what I was expecting. Time to breathe long, deep and repetitively, suck it up, swallow hard and do whatever else it is that people are supposed to do in these situations. Another quote due this afternoon, we'll see.

At least Velcro liked both guys - last time she really barked at a guy who subsequently (maybe consequently) tried to rip us off with a quote more inflated than his gut.

Did I mention that while at the airport last week I was suddenly distracted by a dwarf in colored leggings, a women with an enormous ass in a bold print dress and a bunch of queens so mincing they'd have been bitch slapped by The Scissor Sisters. Turns out that they're with Margaret Cho - I have tickets for her this weekend. Looks like being a good show... I love a bit of sauce (said he coming over all Barbara Windsor)

Anyway with the clouds coming in, the storm gathering and me running behind on two final projects I guess it's time to take the dog down, run back up and get back to the grind on this one.

Take care all

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Wish I'd been there...


Dont Panic!
Originally uploaded by Slackwise
It seems that while I was away the office was gripped by mad panic.

Actually a couple of people were seized by panic and the rest of the office merely shrugged as they were called in for panicked pep talks and a round of 'go us' cheering.

This is the downside of working for a cult. I've done it before and what's most interesting about these places is that they really give evidence of just how fragile absolute conviction can be.

Both of the cults that I've worked for have operated under the belief that they're the ultimate place for people in their industry to work. The people under the roof are the chosen ones, saved from a world outside that's less competent, less creative, less respected and (in one case) less nice.

They don't ever consider the fact that people may leave of their own volition (why would they - there's nowhere better?) and this blinds them to a few facts about the workplace. Sure they draw great people, but they then let that talent pool get stagnant. If nobody is leaving there's no room to move up - and career paths are more important to some people than money; especially at a certain level.

They also become quite insular. They start to systemize, to try to protect the systems or the culture. They start writing things on walls. Then etching them on walls. They start to get stuck in a time - while new rivals are still at the bendy boned 'go ahead and drop me' baby stage these great companies, these cults are so caught up in being right that they stop being interesting.

And then people start to leave.

Beliefs are shaken to the core.

People are gathered into rooms.

Navels are inspected.

And sometimes, just sometimes, the cult leader sets out in a new direction.

More often however new people are brought in, indoctrinated, strip mined and allowed to flow out of the other side - better for the experience but keen on having a job that demands less commitment to the cause and more to the clients.

If I had a company (and I will) it would have no culture. Shallow. How's that for a name? Shallow. I like. Anyone wanna join me?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Long time no post


Moon Over Marriott
Originally uploaded by ironpath27
It's been a couple of dayts since I've last posted - which will no doubt reek havoc with my traffic (which has been building for a while)

The reason for the delay was a trip to Chicago to do some customer interviews and a blackberry that is resolutely crap. Anyway the hotel was brown and expensive - the conference room an absolute bloody rip off and the entertainment limited to the view through the near opaque net curtains of the serial masturbators on the ground floor.

A delay on the way back meant that I couldn't pick up my scan results and now have to wait for Oct 4th for a follow up. Not overtly worried (with oncology I've learned the phone not ringing is a very good thing indeed)

Anyway I'm finally back and about to throw myself into two final presentations that I really want to be proud of. Not much time for either but I think that they could actually cement the ideas that we had within their respective organizations - and I want the people responsible for these ideas to wear them like lead shoes (or something that was a terrible metaphor)

Anyway onwards, upwards and towards the TiVo

Proper stuff later in the day

Sunday, September 23, 2007

nothing but blue skies

So here we are at the end of September and as I look out of my window all I see are blue skies. The weather reprters are running out of ways to play off of the 'smiley sun in a pair of shades' graphic and in the parks the tanning has taken on a much less determind attitude - people being happy to lounge in the sun, assured that it's going to last rather than baking in the heat, glistening with quick tan products as they try to catch the last rays.

We'd have loved to have bought an apartment on the park - but it wasn't to be. Cancer makes a mockery of mortgage applications. Builders work slowly and New York seems to be unable to finish a building at any point (or start one in the case of the world trade center site)

Mind if we had bought in the park I'd probably have been arrested. The combination of people making micro-fashion fauz pas beneath my window and a really good zoom on my camera could well have turned me from casual observer of 'she went out in that?' to documenter of 'floozy-wear' in weeks. And without express permission that might be dangerous.

On that note I shall head back to bed (the cats got me up stupidly early this morning - do they not understand the needs of a man who was drinking Shiso Mojitos the night before?

Friday, September 21, 2007

Miserable?

This weekend ought to be miserable.

Jude is in Ann Arbor.

I'm flying to chicago on Sunday - where I'll spend two days in an airport hotel talking to people who really don't want to be there about something that they know almost nothing about.

And payday is a week away.

Yup - this weekend should suck harder than a crack whore with rent due (to paraphrase myself)

Instead I shall impose myself on friends. eat, drink and take up some of the many marvels that the city has to offer.

I'll go and pick up my free tickets to Words and Music over at BAM (think the kind of theatre / cinema where earnest older ladies with short hair scoff brownies and at the Bush administration)

Then I'm gonna go and check out the new sandwich place down in what used to be the heavily hispanic Southside of Williamsburg. This one is called Papa Lima Sandwich and is actually modeled on Zingerman's (the owner studied at UM and is a cue card man on Saturday night live as well as a sports bar owner!)

From there it's me - the dog - the park - the greenmarket and a bit of a run before hitting Pilates for the first time in a week (that's gonna hurt)

After that it's the guilty pleasure of a movie alone (I'm thinking The Brave One in which Jodie Foster gets all Charles Bronson on our asses) before heading off for drinks with Jono at Sweet Ups (described by Time Out NY as making you feel "as though you've walked into a detective novel") and dinner at Fanny (I know)

Finish it off with wild salsa a Bembe - a hot, sticky, rum fuelled latin dance spot and I've managed to fill Saturday and have a recipe for a Sunday lie in.

Miserable not. There are advantages to the city - especially in September weather of brilliant sunshine and 29c.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Your Room Awaits


Your Room
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
A few things that you should know about Ann Arbor before you come and visit....

Ann Arbor ain't that big - there are about 115,000 people; a populatin that falls to 78,000 when the students go home.

It's one of the few left wing bastions in Michigan - famous as the place thta Kennedy announced The Peace Corps, Johnson asked or a 'great society' and anti-Vietnam demonstrations first blew up.

It's not always cold - though around 130 days a year sees tempertaures below freezing

It's home to Zingermann's - a rather good deli that feels more Californian than anything.

It's twinned with Tubingen, Belize City, Hikone, Peterborough (Canada), Juigalpa, Dakar and Remedios

The words "Go Blues" go a long, long way

Locals call it The People's Republic of Ann Arbor or 25 square miles surrounded by reality

We have space for you. You'll get a bedroom, a rooftop terrace, a skylight and a train that comes through twice a night making more noise than you thought legal or even possible

See you there

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Waiting


wideawake
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
It's 7pm on Monday and I'm in an office sparsely populated. Third eye blind are playing on the company i-pod. A co-worker is typing with more speed and precision than me (no swearing, no tongue poking out, no pecking at the keyboard) and there's a guy pacing and talking on a landline in a closed room that's not as soundproofed as I think he believes it to be.

I've just eaten the most awful veggie burger and am now trying to slosh it down with the remnants of a filthy Albanian white - the kind of wine that hopes a vaguely risque name might erase the bitterness and bite below its screw top. Not that I'm a screw top snob. Some of my best friends have screw tops.

Oh and if you're reading this, you're on facebook and you haven't added me shame on you. I need to get through three figures on friends and you could be the person that tips the balance.

Similarily if you're from Farnborough (or surrounds) and you've been reading this please let me know who you are... I lived there as a kid and the name on my sitemeter thing is arousing my inner cat killer.

Again a post about nothing. Had to postpone scan results as it clashed with me being in Chicago.... but no news is generally good news

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Been quiet recently


IMG_4133.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
Sorry that the blog has been duller than an airline steak knife of late. Just that I'm drowning in a sea of stress created by other people solely it seems to see whether I can survive a cortisol tsunami.

There's work with its immovable deadlines and multi headed opinion beasts. It's like trying to tame Medusa's mane at times. Then there's Jude's move and wee things going wrong there from time to time (no sound on the cable box - so no TV... not a major issue but a niggle and an example)

There's me trying to stay social and not become a (slightly) thinner Aretha - tied to the house by some strange force over which I've no control.

There are minor house screw ups in London. Insurances, gardens, painting to be done... all of that stuff. All hard from a distance.

There's a credit card that cancels itself upon use and allows you access to re-activate only via a UK freefone number that doesn't work outside of the US.

And then there's being alone. Missing your wife. Wanting a new life. And generally feeling sorrier for yourself than you should.

None of which excuse the inactivity - all of which contribute to it.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Jude has an apartment

So Jude signed on the apartment today, moved in her stuff and is currently in glorious repose on a blow up mattress.

20ft windows, no blinds and top floor make this a risky pose... but she's all guts and glam.

Move went well - the power is on, the place is clean, the furniture is in place and to date a dodgy plug (in the bathroom sink), a row of dead sockets (there will be an on switch somewhere) and a fire that will smoke the place out the first time that it's allowed to burn are the only things that we've founf wrong.

Every car in the car park is German (Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes) in a state where the vast majority of cars seem to be Fords with the phrase "I work at Ford. I drive a Ford." placed on the license plate.

Anyway enough third party information. More soon. Sorry for the quick entry... having all kinds of connection issues here

Sunday, September 16, 2007

If I was Bart Simpson


IMG_4117.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
Then I'd probably look like this.

As would most ad planner.

Which is kinda scary.

When you think about it.

Which I do.

Which is also scary.

Man I need to be busier.