This is Nathan, dressed up ready for action at a party he went to. It seemed that his cowboy outfit was appropriate, as he decided to snaffle a mini-Jaffa Cake the same weekend and ended up with big grin –and chocolate – all over his face.

I'm going through one of those phases at the moment where I'm getting slightly obsessive about organising things. It's something that has happened over the last few years, mainly as I get busier and have ended up spinning more plates. A number of different things have caught my eye - a combination of articles, software and solutions. I really enjoyed one of the articles on 43folders on managing a paperless office, which resonated with me because I'd previously (about 10 years ago) tried something similar with the then new and trendy Visioneer Paperport scanner. That failed, mainly as the scanner was pretty limited in what and how it handled, and the OCR capabilities around at the time were pretty bad. However, I'm wondering if it may be the time to revisit this, as the filing cabinet is getting far to full.


If your desktop looks like this, then have a look at the article on Kinkless.com linked below.

I also really liked the article on Kinkless.com on ways to avoid a massively cluttered desktop. I just wish that there was a way that I could establish this easily on the work PC (but I guess that I should just be grateful that it's finally working normally again), but the tools beyond the basics are all for OS X. However, i went some way towards this over the weekend with a general clean up of the iMac HDD.

One of my friends refers to this kind of stuff as 'productivity pr0n', as you need to be very careful that you don't just get obsessed with fiddling with new systems. I agree with this up to a point, but I do think you need to try out the various options to see what works for you. I'll probably post some more links and software notes over the next few weeks.

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The lad I'm missing.

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About a week ago I mused on the UK government's inability to green light civil nuclear power while they remained happy to build a new generation of nuclear weapons. Seems like they finally got around to moving this forward in the Queen's speech this week.

The BBC reported:

Energy, planning and climate change bills in the Queen's Speech pave the way for new UK nuclear power stations.

Looks like the ball is firmly in EdF and Eon's hands now to see what they can do.


Currently feeling: Chilled.
Currently listening to: The wind outside the house.
Currently reading: Mob Justice (RPG).

Nathan on a walk into Wetherby.

Needless to say, I've added more pictures onto the Flickr account, mainly of Nathan. You can go via the direct link or through the last few thumbnails here. It's a funny time of year, with the mix of young kids getting excited about 'trick-or-treat' and fireworks, and the slightly older kids getting nutty with fireworks. The cat is cowering under the bed (unless we are around, when he snuggles up to us) during the nightly bombardment of fireworks, and Nathan has been woken once or twice.

Never-the-less, I love this time of year, especially as we actually have an autumn (even if it has temporarily gone on hold for a week of abnormally high temperatures). I don't know what it is about autumn, the falling leaves, the damp and crisp mornings and the mists, but it is one of my favourite times of year. I guess I should really try and get some pictures before everything has fallen.

We've just had a great weekend, especially as both Jill and I are pretty tired. Jill's tired because I've not been giving her the support she normally gets as work has been pretty frantic and she's not been well. I've been doing my first proper academic qualification for quite some time, and have spent two weeks in lectures for the NEBOSH General Certificate (a UK Safety Qualification) and then a day in exams. They've been long days, with a fair bit of commitment (the day itself tops out around 12 hours when the bus ride into Leeds is included, and then there's revision and homework after Nathan has gone to bed). On top of this, I've had another two nights out with work (an offsite meeting, and a leaving do) and have also been dealing with my first crisis in my new expanded role. So Jill has been feeling somewhat neglected.

So, we've had a quiet weekend, a shopping trip to Harrogate, Sunday Lunch at the Scott Arms in Sickinghall, and reasonably quiet times and early beds. I'm hoping that the next week at work will be reasonably sane and that things can get back to normal. Fingers crossed, eh?



Currently feeling: Relaxed.
Currently listening to: Nathan snoring (but the last CD was the new Eagles album).
Currently reading: Granbreton (Hawkmoon RPG). Making my mind up what novel to read next.

Just musing here, but how come the UK has a government happy to commit to building new nuclear bombs for the next 30 years, but not new nuclear power stations, but at the same time claims that climate change is one of the big things they are concerned about! Surely a nuclear / renewable future makes sense if that's your big concern...?

Confused.

Exit to Nowhere is a great place to get your Geek-Chic T-Shirts from. They specialise in one off prints of logos and pictures to tie in with famous cult and horror movies. Personally, it's the sci-fi ones that float my boat, but if you fancy a T Shirt promoting Amity Island (Jaws), Summerisle (The Wicker Man), Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner) or even the ED-209 Law Enforcement Droid (Robocop) then click on through. I went for the Weyland-Yutani Corp from the Alien films, which was kind of fun. Got stopped when I was out in town wearing it and asked where I got it from as well!