Owen's Blog

So it turns out it’s been a while (yet again) since I last did an update.

Guess my life might have got a bit boring. Suppose that’s just the way it gets. I’ve been having some [more] weird moments recently, usually in that place between being awake and being asleep I think my imagination has been kicking in a little.
Unfortunately I then come to the other side (wake up properly) and end up completely forgetting what it was I was thinking. Damn.

Think I’ve come up with about two film plots for short films in these spaces, epiphanies of thought realising every shot in vivid Technicolor (actually I think one of them was to be shot in sepia) but now all I can remember is the opening shot of one of them where a girl or woman lies on a bed, she seems calm, all we see is her eye’s against the pillow, and all is orange. (Don’t know why but this film is styled that way I think)

Oh wait I think it’s coming to me. This is a voyage of discovery, the main plot being about a girl, neurotic I believe, decided to pack it all away (her life in a suburban sprawl) for some reason this sprawl seems to look a lot like Paris in oh so many of those French films, maybe it’s the sepia tones doing it to me! Then she literally goes away to find herself. Bah that’s a slightly boring plot now I’ve put it down on paper and not very original. Because evidently you’d have to get the human interest story in there so there would have to be a love scene and then it’s just missing the point. She should be unfathomably lonely and unable to cope, slowly building her strength from her growing analysis of herself and her neurosis. Hmmm maybe not.

Ah well I’ve no idea what this post turned into.

Back to work

Must say that the last comment is a lot of my brothers words spoken through me.

He said em, i put them nicely formatted into my web log.

Although… I do agree with it all.

Disclaimer: Under no circumstances must the following be read as me saying that the UK is all powerful and all good.. in fact it should be noted that my belief is some what that the opposite is true. I am contained of very little national spirit or pride and think that the most damaging thing for someone to believe is that their country is always right and always good, and they have a moralistic right over anyone else… We are a human county and our nation is the globe.

So without further ado here’s my diatribe:

Today is the penultimate day of my holiday in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Finally after getting over some serious jet lag that has affected all of us for the first 8 days of the holiday I managed today to persuade Robert to come out for a drink after our dinner (a rather rare beef joint cooked by me).

A note about food: It shouldn’t be surprising I suppose that food and drink are a major part of, for most people I know, the enjoyment of a holiday. So for starters I would say that America sucks for food. There is nothing here that fulfils an appetite for actual “real” food. Most of it around here being regurgitated Mexican food that tastes like someone else ate it before you. There whole ethos with cooking and serving of food seems to be that value comes from having as much on a plate as possible, despite if all of it tastes like warm shit. I’m pretty sure that no American could possibly bring themselves to eat this shit at home and as such believe it is all a show to destroy foreigners spirit upon the first day of a visit. As such we have been cooking for ourselves for the whole of the holiday, venturing to what I must say was a really nice restaurant (if overly expensive) for one night, which seems to be the only place that actually serves food as opposed to ”food”

Anyway that was the first gripe about America. The second is this. The absolute irony of the place… “the land of the free” where nothing is free from corporate sponsorship and where no one is free to make up their own mind. Because they aren’t empowered with any of the facts. This week at Copper has been a competition, which in the way of America, is inflated with it’s own self importance. The “Gravity Games” is a collection of competitions for freestyle skiing and snow boarding, a great demonstration of a great spectator sport (if only because most of it is spent thinking “glad it’s them and not me”) however this games were organised really badly. To me the extreme sports always used to be part of the idea of not conforming and being against corporations and general consumerism, only no one told these guys. Especially not the guy on the microphone who would, every two minutes, regurgitate endorsements for the many sponsors of the games, from Cars, to clothing. Is that where the money for my lift ticket went? To be told that I really should go an check out the store and buy more STUFF?

These people have no content to their lives, absolutely nothing about their constant bombardment with adverts and there absolutely fake expressions of enthusiasm displays any sense of value to their lives.

One day the empire of America will fall (not thought force but just because that’s what happens to empires) and a lot of citizens of this country will start to realise a bigger world out there.

One day they will wake up and smell the coffee and realise they can’t brew a good one for shit.

I’m still on holiday in Copper Mountain, Colorado. but i’ve put a couple of pics up here

Meant to post this a while back

A Whistle-Stop Tour of the South East or My Day Trip to London

So today has possibly been the biggest waste of my time ever!!! No that may be putting it a little harsh, I did after all manage to pick up my new company laptop on which I have decided to do such un work related stuff as write this web log entry on my 2.5 hr journey home.

You see today has been the biggest waste of time because none of the goals I set for today have managed to get done.

Yesterday I seemed to be in a position of limbo, or as my employers like to term it, a day “on the bench” I had finished my preparatory work for the developer job I mentioned in earlier posts, and I was waiting to be reassigned to another job, as I hadn’t been called down to London I was sat at home, investigating some .net work and the source code of the application I will be working on when I move to the new developer role I have been offered (yep it was as confirmed as it could be without any money being available to pay me as of yet!!)

So in other words I was sat at home, doing pretty much nothing work related, apart from sending off emails asking what I should be doing! So I finally get rung at 5:30. Turns out there is likely to be a job coming up in Cheltenham starting tomorrow, which should be confirmed ASAP. So the conversation goes.

Guy in office: Hey Owen, can you come down to London tomorrow, early as you can but don’t bust a gut.
Me: Yeah sure, no problem
GiO: oh and bring clothes for the rest of the week as you may go to the client straight from here.

So fine I think, I’ll be in a hotel for the rest of the week just make sure I pack some shirts and ties (man it’s been a while since I had to wear THOSE).

So I think I’ll get the train as early as I can, you know without being too eager. So the 8am train seems about right, as then I can get a lift!

Now we’re to the wasted day.

7:30 I’m leaving the house with everything.
7:45 at station, buy a ticket (WHAT £98….. What do I get for that? A free ‘service’)
9:30 at London ready to rock
10:00 at the head office. Hmm no sign of the Guy in office!
12:30 the guy in the office arrives (I kid you not it would have cost me half the price to get there for 12:30!!)

Now I wait and wait and wait and wait.

18:00 sorry not going to be today or tomorrow, go home we’ll ring you!!

JESUS!!!!!
To be fair I did get some good things done, I met all the team I will be working with in the developer role I’m working on.

But that’s it that’s my day. It’s now 8pm and I’m still on a train going home.

Ah well I signed up for this consultancy lark!!