Headers Already Sent

This weekend I popped home to Kent to see the family. Not much to mention but as the weather was so nice on Saturday Laura and I took a trip to Kearsney Abbey and had a walk around. Although it was a bit chilly, the Sun was out and the gardens looked beautiful. I took a few photos on my phone to try and capture the moment, which I ultimately failed at doing, but I’ll stick them here anyway.

I need a new camera.

Bring on 2008… I have a good feeling about this one!

A few pics of our family get together on boxing day. Thanks Chris for taking them, they came out well!

…and one of the chef…

I’ve been thinking about mortality and the impermanence of things a lot lately. I think as you see the change of seasons and the birth/death cycle in nature you turn inward and start contemplating your own existence (that and it’s winter so there’s naff all to do outside of work). By pure chance I found a website that deals with this called ‘Dealing With Mortality: A Skeptics Guide‘. It was nice to know I’m not the only one who agonises over little matters like dying. This site did a very good job of summing up some of the feelings many people do face when approaching these issues. It has a great quotes page too I urge everyone to check out.

Most people just seem to turn off when faced with the thought of their own end, or trust in a God to somehow continue their consciousness. Self proclaimed atheists just usually say ‘Oh, there’s nothing when you die…it probably all goes black’ and then go about their day. I don’t know how anyone can actually say that with little or no worry and think they have found the definitive answer. Anyone who has thought about it for more than about 20 seconds realises there are many many more questions which need answering, and don’t normally shrug it off so easily. A few make is their life’s work to find the answers. However, I’m betting the great irony here probably is that atheists are absolutely right.

I can’t shrug it off so easily, there’s something inside of me that won’t allow it (what ‘I’ am is another can of worms that I won’t go into here). I think I’m going to have to come to terms with the fact that I’m nothing, and more importantly, understand what that means to have any sort of peace on the matter. It’s all crazy though, life is certainly very strange.

Anyway, in between bursts of shallow philosophical thought and random craziness, large amounts of beer are still consumed. Infact, beer helps with the thinking. I’ll let the picture below do all the talking. You can direct your thanks to Matt for arranging them in this smart pattern.

(Phone to PC with Ubuntu - HAL Just works!)

“We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.” - Kalu Rinpoche

Cool.

My VPS has just been relocated from Dallas to Chicago. With that not only do I get lower latency but also a 128 MB RAM upgrade and a nice shiny new block of IP addresses.

For those interested my VPS provider is futurehosting.biz and I really recommend them. Also, with the dollar so weak at the moment going with an American company is really worthwhile - a $50/month VPS is only around £25.

Winter has really set in this past week. Despite not having to leave the house until 9.15 every day I’ve still had to scrape ice off my car, which has consistently made me late for work. You would have thought I’d of adjusted my time accordingly, but apparently not.

On Monday morning my Grandad passed away which means next Monday I have a funeral to go to. There’s only so long you can hold out against multiple cancers, and luckily that wasn’t very long in his case. It’s terrible to see someone suffer (and to suffer yourself) so thankfully it was all over quite fast. A quick escape from this life is something that one should be thankful for. RIP Grandad, you will be missed.

Making light of a bad situation, I get a few days off work next week! I think I might go and see some uni buddies in Canterbury while I’m home. I planned to come back and see everyone more than I have (in 3 months I’ve only visited once), but between Laura, projects, family and various other things It’s hard to find the time. In Brighton this weekend, hopefully the weather will out hold. Cold sunny days I can deal with, cold wet dismal days I cannot.

So there it is. Got a busy few days ahead of me, lets just hope they’re not too depressing…

…were absolutely amazing! My lovely girlfriend surprised me with tickets Friday afternoon so yesterday we traveled up to London, checked into a hotel, grabbed a Maccy Dees and walked over to the Arena.

I’d never really listened to much Symphony X despite being a big DT fan, but I was very impressed. They put on one hell of a show and really got the crowd pumped.

Dream Theater were awesome, but what else would you expect? I must confess to not having bought the new album which I think they played a bit of, so I couldn’t sing / air drum along to everything. They played some classics though, namely Strange Deja Vu and As I am, plus the medley towards the end was brilliant.

Overall, great fun. The atmosphere at Wembley was charged and when they come back I’m definitely up for seeing them again.

(I might add some pictures to this if I ever get them off Lauras camera.)

A few weeks have passed since the last update, mainly because I’m in one of those “plodding” stages of the year. The weeks pass, the days gradually grow shorter/wetter/colder and I get locked into a routine which fortunately makes the time zip by (a routine which normally involves copious amounts of beer) but leaves me with nothing exciting to report on (apart from drunken beer antics, but lets not go there).

Last weekend I was down in Brighton seeing Laura. Weather wise it was a nice weekend, shame we didn’t get out the house and experience it. We had planned to go to the beach and soak it up, but lazyness really got the better of us. When it’s past noon the day’s really already over, right? Might as well stay in bed and sleep some more. The week before that I headed down to Canterbury to catch the second weekend of the new term. As enjoyable as it was it made me realise that I don’t miss being away from uni as much as I thought I did. It’s probably reassuring knowing I enjoy the world of work seeing as I have another 45 years or so of it left.

On the projects side, things are moving a lot slower than I would like, but they are certainly exciting. Aiming for an end of the month Yardsnap release which is going to be difficult and will eat up a few weekends, but it should be worth it in the end. Really really need to get my personal site up and running - “Coming soon”, as sexy as it is, doesn’t really inspire…

Other things are still moving. All is good.

/m

I’ve no idea what’s going on with the weather this year - it’s mid September and still hot. I’m not complaining mind you as this weekend Laura and I made the most of it and headed down to Fleet Pond.

I never knew I had a beautiful nature reserve right on my doorstep. If you live in the Fleet / Hampshire area then check it out because it’s worth seeing.

(Watch out for the man eating trees though ;))