Huge tomatoes
Kate's not had as much luck as she'd have liked in the garden this year - the sweetcorn didn't really work, the spud crop was tiny, and the leeks have failed to fatten up. But the tomatoes, resplendent in the greenhouse, have flourished and the crop has been impressive. These two beefsteak monsters (variety Super Marmande, for those who are interested) were delicious after being stuffed and baked for a while in the oven. And there's loads more of them yet to be harvested.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
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I'll send you a deck
I read with interest an article (PowerPoint: Killer App?) discussing the problems of a presentation-fixated corporate culture.
Some years ago, I took on a copywriting project for a large multinational manufacturing and chemicals company. My task was to interview one of their senior staff, and distill into about 1500 words his views on a particular issue. It sounded straightforward enough.
But the chap I needed to speak to was a very busy man. He could barely spare the time to answer my emails, let alone talk to me on the phone.
"I'll send over a deck," he said, "and we can go through it on the phone while I'm on the way to the airport."
A deck? I wondered.
He sent me a deck - a PowerPoint file, each slide within it groaning with information, fonts squeezed tiny so it would all fit. How anyone could ever take anything from this while watching this guy make a presentation was beyond me.
We whizzed through the slides as his car whisked him to Heathrow. He treated the call much like a presentation; I could hear his voice adopting the same tones, the same pauses, the same "A-ha! And this is the clever bit!" revelations that you'd expect to hear as an audience.
Ultimately, my job became converting this chaotic, over-stuffed .ppt into something more like reasoned prose. It was very difficult, not least because when I asked for some additional help from one of the big guy's minions, I was told: "Sure, we can send you some useful information," and what they sent was more PowerPoint files.
I'm not totally against PowerPoint, or presentation software in general. I can see when it can be put to good use. But as the Washington Post article makes clear, there are many people who just don't understand what 'good use' means in this instance, and apparently treat PowerPoint as an all-purpose tool for sharing information - any kind of information, be it well-suited to slides or not - with other people.
On another occasion at about the same time in my career, I went with a colleague to give a presentation to a roomful of strangers. We had worked for days on our slides, but of course the laptop died at the crucial moment. We had nothing to present.
So I winged it. I remembered what I needed to say, and made much of it up as I went along. I used gestures and facial expressions to make my points; I used physical objects in the room to represent abstractions and analogues. And it worked. Afterwards, someone said to me it was the most interesting and enjoyable presentation they had ever been subjected to. I was quite proud of that.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
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Practical tips for freelancers
Organise everything in tax years.
The most time-consuming and annoying task you will have to do as a freelancer in the UK is submitting your annual tax return.
I find the tax return annoying because much of it refers to things I was doing more than a year ago, and I simply cannot remember the details. If I failed to make a record, I'm stuck.
So start your filing systems (electronic and paper-based) with the tax year, not the calendar year, as your basic unit of calculation.
If you're going freelance now, start a file/directory called '2005-2006', and add to it all the projects, income and expenses you complete, earn and incur until April 5th 2006, at which point start another file/directory called '2006-2007'.
The tax office won't want the detailed contents of your '2005-2006' file until January 2007. This is why the whole system challenges the memory.
Keep everything related to one tax year together
Just to drive home what I've just explained, if you keep all your expenses records for 2005-2006 together with the invoices and work done, it will make the task of doing your tax return much simpler. Add up all the numbers and put the totals in the correct boxes on your tax return form.
A good accountant is worth every penny
Even though they charge you money, a good accountant will save you tax payments. But you still have to keep good records, as described above; even the best accountant can't help you if you haven't got the figures to hand.
To start with, you don't need to spend a fortune on stationery
If you already have work coming in, or a bunch of clients you can rely on, don't spend money on business cards or headed notepaper, you'll just be wasting it.
Invoices don't have to be branded either. I've found a fairly simple .rtf file is the most effective cross-platform means of sending invoices electronically.
Be nice when chasing invoices
Chances are you will need to follow up some invoices that haven't been paid. It's worth remembering that in most medium to large companies, the people responsible for paying your invoice (the accounts department) will not be the same as those who commissioned you to do the work.
Don't call the accounts department and be cross and grumpy at them. Don't shout abuse or make silly threats. Be nice. These people are just doing their job, and it's very likely that the non-payment of your invoice has a perfectly reasonable explanation.
If you're owed money, just be polite and good-natured; you're just spending an afternoon catching up on some paperwork and noticed that this invoice hadn't been paid, and would they mind checking their records?
You will get a much more helpful response if you act nice, even if underneath, you're seething with rage that they haven't paid you.
Discipline yourself to work
This is one of the hardest things to do, and varies enormously for different people. Personally, I find a looming deadline provides all the discipline I need, and work more efficiently when one has been imposed.
Work in a manner that suits you. If you work better in silence, switch of the radio. If you get easily distracted by the internet, resist the urge to visit your fave IRC channel or browse the unread posts in your RSS reader.
Think to yourself: "I'm a professional. I have to deliver professional quality work." What working conditions bring out your best stuff?
Price yourself well
Find the average for your market and refuse any work that pays less. Remember, when quoting your daily rate to a customer, that next month you might not get any work at all. Anyone in business who has worked with freelancers before knows that good ones cost good money. They are paying you for your professionalism, experience, expertise, and flexibility. Charge them accordingly.
Get used to variable income
There will be times when your income seems to dwindle to almost nothing. Don't worry, because there will be other times when the phone just doesn't stop ringing, and everyone wants you in the same week.
There's a good side to this. During the quiet times, when there's not much work to be done, you can be getting on with other things. Gardening, reading books, professional research, higher education, playing with your kids, DIY jobs. Accept that being freelance means there will be times like this, and plan in advance to make the best use of them.
Get used to cashflow weirdness
One magazine I worked for commissioned me in February. The article was for the July edition, which comes out in June, and the copy deadline was the end of April. Company policy was to pay within three months of publication. I got my cheque in October.
Not every job will be as crazy as that (hopefully very few of them will be), but you should be prepared for money to arrive some time after you've done the work.
Sometimes, clients are just plain stupid
They might drive you crazy with ridiculous requests or outrageous changes to the work part-way through a project.
If you think it's wrong, don't start shouting. Talk to the client on the phone and calmly voice your concerns; ask if there's some way you can assist them with reaching some clarification. If they still want to press ahead with Project Insane, you have a choice: do what they want, no matter how stupid, and take the money. Or politely tell them you have other commitments and need to withdraw. Obviously doing the latter might ruin any chance of further commissions, but in some cases that might be a good choice in the long run.
Your clients' office politics affect you
The guy who commissioned you to do Project X might be a very reasonable and smart person, but his boss might be from Planet Foon. Sometimes, your clients' bosses might make things very difficult for you, and in situations like that you need to know that the person who commissioned you is not to blame.
Be honest
If you're swamped and there's no way you can take on anything else, say so. Don't take on work you cannot complete on time or to a high enough standard; having a muddy reputation will not help you in the long run.
Labels: work
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
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The Longacre Tavern
This is The Longacre Tavern in Bath, to be found on the London Road, heading west out of the city centre. It's an odd-looking place and I'm genuinely curious about its history. Was it built to be a pub? Was it built as something else, then converted into a pub?
I'm curious because you just don't see many pubs built in this late 50s/ early 1960s style of modernist architecture. It jars because it doesn't look very inviting, something that generally isn't a good idea for a pub. Not that I'm pre-judging; for all I know it might be a very welcoming place inside, with a great atmosphere and friendly regulars. It's just that the stern style of the exterior architecture is off-putting. It looks more like something that was built to be an estate agency or a dental surgery.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
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Names that Barney made up for some imaginary trains
- Dilla dilla
- Tanat Nana
- Wogglon
- Wigladigalent
- Sisselgens
- Willagilladada
Labels: family
Monday, August 29, 2005
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"Can I see? Can I see?"
trains.avi -- 14.7MB video file
In which Barney and I participate in spontaneous filmaking in the living room, having just constructed the longest Brio-compatible train track we've ever built. Barney, as always, is more interested in seeing the end result on the camera's little screen than he is in the serious process of video production.
(Sorry the file is so huge, and such an .avi. I couldn't find a means of converting or compressing it into something smaller or more usable.)
Thursday, August 25, 2005
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The Abbey House Gardens, Malmesbury
In Malmesbury, about 45 minutes drive from here, are the privately-owned Abbey House Gardens where a wealthy couple indulge their interest in horticulture and naturism. The display of plants and the design of the gardens really are impressive, even for a non-gardener like me. There was much to be photographed. It's not so great for young children, though - I felt as though I had to keep a very close eye on B in case he started trampling on anything rare or endangered.
The naturism bit is not a joke. The owners make a great play of their habit of gardening with nothing on, and even open the garden to fellow naturists on some days (the most recent was last week). I wonder if they get more visitors on those days?
More photos in the gallery (but no nudity, you'll be disappointed to hear).
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
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Recyclable sandwich boxes
When High Street stores began selling ready-made sandwiches back in the 1980s, an multi-million pound industry was born. So was a serious waste problem.Not the sandwiches, which despite being disgusting sometimes, are usually edible. Not the sandwiches, but the triangular plastic boxes they come in. Thousands of these are binned every day, destined for landfill. It's a disgrace.
So I was very pleased to discover Foo Go while on a day out in Bristol yesterday. Their sarnies are to be found in branches of Superdrug, and are a little cheaper than Boots, certainly than posher brands like Pret or M&S. And best of all, Foo Go sandwiches are packed in a cardboard triangle with a corn-starch window on the front. The whole thing is biodegradable; you can take it home and chuck it in the compost bin, it will disappear in 14 weeks. Smart.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
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Jeeves, our part-time cat
Jeeves officially lives two doors away, but he's a friendly and approachable sort of cat, and spends a lot of time in our garden with us. Most days we'll see him ambling around the lawn, and Barney gets a lot of fun from stroking him and teasing him with sticks and toys. We have all the fun of the cat, with none of the responsibility; the perfect pet, some might say.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
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Bandwidth anxiety
My wireless router died. I tried resetting it. I checked to see if there'd been a power cut (apparently not). I tried everything I could think of, but the router was dead.
Networkless, I felt detached. Anxious as to how I'd get my work done (I'm one of those people who checks facts as he goes along; I need to be online most of the time to look things up, ask questions by email, IRC and IM, send questions to people).
But also just generally anxious. If I stopped to think about it, being offline for a while wasn't going to be too serious. With my sensible hat on I was able to see that nothing terribly urgent had to be done, I'd be able to get by until the router was replaced.
My sensible hat returned to the shelf where it belongs, I worried. What if someone's mailed me about something important? What if there's a big story breaking that I should know about? How are my chums getting on with Extendaword? When will I be able to play again?
Being without internets for a few days demonstrated to me how dependent I am on them. I habitually check my mail every time I pass the computer on a non-work day (it sits on the side in the kitchen). I frequently refresh my browser or RSS reader to see what the latest Mac/weather/chump/foo headlines are.
Without these dependable distractions in my day, I felt slightly listless. Even Kate noticed it. She likes to check the weather forecast every night, and was frustrated not to have that facility available.
It's not like I was distraught or incapacitated without my connection; I just got on with offline life, did some jobs and played some games in the garden, read a bit more book than I might usually.
But the feeling of unease and frustration was impossible to ignore. After three days I was impatient, urging the phone to ring while I sat and waited for a return call from Belkin. It never came.
Eventually I gave up and spent 45 minutes playing telephone runaround with their customer service line; I ended up chatting to a bloke who meant well, but really couldn't help. Feeling tense and aggravated and worried that I might be facing a week or more without bandwidth, I drove to Bath and bought a new router.
Now I can relax.
Labels: tech
Monday, August 22, 2005
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Responding to Chris Hollander
Chris Hollander took me to task about my live in one huge text file approach to my work. I've got some rejoinder comments to make, but I haven't got a .Net Passport so I can't post them on his site; nor can I find Chris' email address, otherwise I'd contact him directly. So, I'll post them here.
Chris says:
Sorry folks, but I can't imagine how this could be productive. In doing this, your essentially eschewing every productivity gain thats been made in the last ten to twenty years. your also confining all of the work you do to a single modality; a single way of thinking, a single means of organizing, a single perspective on your information.
Thing is, this is the modality that suits me best. Because of the job I do, and the particular list of clients I have, and the manner in which I work, my needs are very simple: for me, the most important aspect of getting my work done boils down to maintaining a list of things to write, and writing them. It really isn't more complicated than that.
I like having this single perspective on my information. It's the simplest way of storing it all, and viewing it all, and searching it all. It's quick.
Chris goes on:
The author explains that he also tried the notion of many text files instead of one big file; however, he found himself back at the big-ass-file approach once he had multiple machines, and was unable to synch his collection of files.
Well, what I actually said was: "I played about with a variety of sync methods and couldn't find anything that I felt really comfortable with." I was able to synch, just not in a manner that suited me or the way I work.
note to author: this is exactly why the "one big text file" approach fails! invariably, you are going to have multiple machines; even if somehow you find a way to survive with (gasp!) only one computer, you are going to have multiple applications on that one computer. even if you somehow get by with only one application (a text editor, in your case), there are many people/entities/companies/proccesses contributing to "your" information!
Well, that might be the case for many people but not for me. There's usually only one contributor of information, and that's me.
synchronizing your information with information provided by family/co-workers/customers/vendors
I simply don't need to do that. I'm lucky to have such a simplified existance, it seems.
synchronizing information across all of your devices: phone, home computer, portable computer, media devices, living room, car, network services.
More simplicity: I don't have any such devices. Just two computers. That's it.
Saying that your information is "organized" because its all in one big text file is like saying that my junk is organized because its all in the garage.
Ah, but I always know where to look when I need to get hold of some junk.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
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Very cheap compost bins
A typical 330 litre compost bin costs 30 to 40 UK pounds at a DIY store; I know this, because I went out to look at them and was disgusted at how expensive a piece of moulded plastic could be. But if you're of a green mind and would like to compost more of your waste, there is hope. Some local councils have signed up to a scheme whereby the cost of a compost bin is subsidised. This morning, I ordered a 330 litre bin for *five* pounds - including delivery! This service (maximum three bins per household) is available to all Wiltshire residents. More details on this page. I'm pretty sure other local authorities have signed up to this, although the conditions and the reduced prices may vary depending on the level of subsidy. Composting is good. You can compost most garden and food waste, cardboard, envelopes, shredded personal information, and loads more.Monday, August 15, 2005
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Happy Birthday Barney!
We celebrated Barney's third birthday with a houseload of toddlers and older children. It being August, the rain was constant and our plan for entertaining them all in the garden was abandoned. Things were a little hot and squashy in our living room, but everyone had a good time. The jelly and ice cream, and the Island of Sodor cake (as designed by Kate, and decorated by her and Barney on the morning of the party), went down really well.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
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Remembered gigs
When I was a student I started writing gig reviews for the college newspaper; as a result I wangled free tickets to dozens of gigs at The Junction and the Cambridge Corn Exchange. This was the days of Madchester, shoegazing and triphop. I can remember the atmosphere at some of those gigs to this day.
EMF, The Junction
A mad evening. EMF were very briefly huge, thanks to their hit single "Unbelieveable", which now sounds dated and frankly rubbish. But at the time it was very popular in the SU bar on a Friday night. A whole gang of us went to see them, and I've been to few sweatier and more frantic gigs. Everyone went mental when they played the hit. I can remember the whole room being a sea of bopping arms and heads.
Throwing Muses, The Junction
We stood near the front, and were mesmerised by Kristin Hersh. As she sang, her head moved from side to side but her eyes remained perfectly still, staring straight ahead over the heads of the crowd. The band were very professional and I left wondering if I would ever witness anything so amazing ever again.
Ride, Cambridge Corn Exchange
I was a huge Ride fan. I bought the album on the day of release so I could get the free T-shirt. I wore my T-shirt to the gig. I couldn't believe how loud a guitar band could be.
James, Cambridge Corn Exchange
It was my birthday, and a few of us went to town to see James. I'd been a fan since before "Gold Mother" and considered myself superior to all the teenies who'd picked up on them after the success of "Come home". But it was a super gig, we danced all night and I sang myself hoarse because I knew nearly all the words (and, if I'm honest, hero-worshipped Tim Booth somewhat). When they started playing "Sit Down", we all sat down and sang along. I bought a black "ja-m-es" T-shirt which I wore with pride for the rest of the term.
Cud, The Junction
My friend and regular gig companion Charlotte convinced me to go and see Cud. I'd heard "When in Rome, Kill Me" round at her house and hadn't really liked it much. But then "Leggy Mambo" came out and I was converted - it was a fantastic album (I still listen to it regularly). The gig was busier than I expected and dancier than I expected. We danced non-stop, the band were on top form and segued lots of songs into eachother like pro DJs. I loved it.
Happy Mondays, Cambridge Corn Exchange
Mayhem from the outset, but when the intro to "Step on" started, it was like someone had flicked the "go insane" switch. The floor bounced.
New Order, Reading Festival
I was so excited about seeing them play, I got cross with my friends for talking over the music. Then Bernard started singing and I was crestfallen; his voice was painfully, dreadfully out of tune and I couldn't bear to listen. I wandered off, disappointed.
Pop Will Eat Itself
We danced the dance of the mad bastards; we had a wonderful time.
The Fall
A shambolic mess. Mark E Smith looked bored beyond words. A terrible gig, but "The Frenz Experiment" remained one of my favourite albums for some time afterwards, regardless.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
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Creative pressure
I was talking to my friend Lawrence about creativity.
We both felt that our shared interest in the internet, and the fact that it is of crucial importance to our professional lives, had turned us into simple consumers of creativity.
We track the memes, read the blogs, monitor the feeds; we take it all in. We're both creative people - we both earn a living from it, we're paid to be creative - but our dependence on taking everything in has stopped us from being creative in our own time, on our own terms.
Lawrence revealed that he'd taken on part-time rental of an art studio space, away from home. The plan was to force himself to focus on the act of being creative, to ensure there was the opportunity, as well as the motivation, to create new works. He's an artist but has spent years focusing his energy on work and enjoying life; but the artistic urge remains. It's wrong to ignore it.
I'm very lucky to be in the position I'm in, to be paid money to write, in some cases, whatever I like. Writers earn money by allowing their brains to leak out on to a computer keyboard, and even if we are writing factual content, there's still a strong element of creation and originality that's essential to producing good work.
But in recent years I don't feel I've been terribly creative. Lawrence and I agreed that the web was partially to blame; like TV, it has been sucking away our time as we browsed, and read, and browsed, and clicked, and blogged, and browsed, and linked, and read. Of course I can't ignore the web because it is an essential part of my professional life; I need to know what's happening online in order to earn a living.
The line between professional monitoring and personal entertainment got blurred some time ago, and that was the cause of the problem. I'd browse things of personal interest during work time, and end up browsing work-related stuff during personal entertainment time. It all merges, one thing into the other, but the merging is something I bring about myself. I could be, I ought to be, more self-disciplined about it all.
So I wrote "BE CREATIVE" at the top of my todo.txt, a file I spend much of my time in, and challenged myself to stick to it.
Some years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would no longer allow TV to determine my actions; now I'm trying to apply the same rule to the net.
Labels: writing
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
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"Is that an Apple?"
This has never happened to me before. There I was, sat in my local library doing some work away from the distractions of home, when a smartly-dressed woman approached me and said in an apologetic tone: "Excuse me, I don't wish to intrude, but is that an Apple?"
"Certainly is," I said, surprised but rather pleased that someone was sufficiently interested in my laptop to come and talk to me about it.
"Do you mind if I ask you something? Does it work on Word?"
I smiled.
"Sure, you can use Word on it. It looks a little different to the versions you'll have seen on Windows computers but it does the same job.
"Here," I added, "I can show you."
The woman moved round so she could see the screen. She pointed at my todo.txt, which I happened to be editing at the time.
"Is that it?"
"No, that's, um, something different. I don't use Word much, but I'm relatively geeky so don't worry about the stuff I'm using. Here, this is what Word looks like."
I used Quicksilver to launch Word and showed her a blank document. "It's all pretty straightforward."
My companion seemed to have made up her mind already; she just needed encouragement.
"Yes it looks great. I saw one in Selfridges in Birmingham and it was only £600, I didn't think they were that cheap. The chap said there was a new model coming out."
"There is, a new iBook, they've just announced them. But if writing Word documents is your main requirement, one of the old ones will be more than enough."
"I've always liked the look of them," she went on. "They appeal to me, I can't say why. When I decided that I needed a computer it just seemed like the right think to buy."
"Well this is three years old," I said, pointing to the iBook. "It still works fine. You might need to pay more for things like Applecare, which is an insurance scheme, and for Word itself; but the cost of the machine itself is probably going to be very good value in the long term. These machines last well and they are much easier to use."
I had to stop myself going off on an Mac evangelist rant; besides, the woman seemed to want to get away from this raving geek. And anyway, she knew what she wanted.
"Save up your pennies and get yourself one," I concluded.
She smiled.
"Thank you; you've convinced me. I shall."
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
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What is Flickr?
What is Flickr?, the latest in a series of 'What is..?' articles at MacDevcenter. This one looks at photo sharing site Flickr, why it has attracted the buzz that it has, and how Mac users can make the most of it. In the course of writing it I got the chance to interview Fraser Speirs who is a thoroughly nice bloke. My thanks to him for giving up his time to answer my stupid questions.Wednesday, August 03, 2005
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Notes on "Five letters from an Eastern empire" by Alasdair Gray
This tiny book (just 50 pages, readable in an hour or so) is one of the most enjoyable and thrilling stories I have ever read.
It details the adventures of Bohu the poet as he travels to an opulent capital city, part of an obsolete society where bizarre rules of etiquette govern how thick the soles of your shoes are, and therefore how important you are.
Surrounded by his entourage of helpers, Bohu (raised from childhood to write a poem for the emporor) ponders his new surroundings and waits with excitement for the order to write a poem. When it comes, though, it destroys him.
I love the details in this story, the fabulous rich cultural setting that conjours up wonderful scenes in the imagination. It is a tale that both inspires imaginative thinking, and envy of anyone who could imagine such a story in the first place.
Of course the final section twists the story on its head, and the very last page delivers another unexpected turn of events. It made me smile with pleasure, even on the second and third reading.
If you can track down a copy of this book, it comes very highly recommended.
Labels: books
Monday, August 01, 2005
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Archives
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