One Man and His Blog

So, once again, it’s been a crazy few days. Work has been… well, work really. But in fairness, it’s not been too bad this week; we’ve been reaching our deadlines to get things done, and then discovering that due to circumstances beyond our control (postal strikes, for instance) we’ve got another few days to do things, which has been quite nice.

On Thursday I went round to some friends’ for dinner and a long chat about the job hunting stuff. They were full of useful advice, but we mainly talked about what I’m unhappy with in my current job and started to look into why that affects me and how I can try to handle it, both in my present job and in whatever I go on to do next. It looks like we’re going to do this a few more times in the coming weeks, which will be great, as I found it really helpful and encouraging.

Then last night, I had a rare Friday night in. Much of the yoof work stuff I do at church is on Friday nights, and it usually accounts for at least three Fridays in a month. Well, it seems like a long time since I’ve been at a loose end on a Friday, but that’s where I was. As it turned out, my housemate Tom was also at a loose end, so we cooked some dinner and then decided to have a quick game at the bowling alley round the corner. Tom’s a busy guy, so having some quality time to hang out together is quite unusual; it was good to spend an evening chatting with him, even if he did beat me at the bowling (I started badly, then improved, then realised I’d left it too late to improve enough to win).

And today? Well, I’m sorry to say I’ve wasted much of the day doing nothing. Now, of course, some people would argue that that’s kind of the point of Saturdays – but not when you’ve got washing to do, jobs to search for and various other bits that you don’t get round to any other time. Still, I’m planning to do some stuff tonight, so maybe it’ll all turn out OK… Oh, and I’m going to spend a bit of time praying for my friends who are having their first baby; mother went into labour this morning, four days early, and the last update (about 3 and a 1/2 hours ago) was that an epidural was looking likely…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J2g1EXmdVfU

You House fans will never be able to watch it in the same way again…

So, life has been hectic and crazy and the like once again, and frankly it’s been quite tiring and a little emotionally draining at times. But hey – life goes that way sometimes, even if you try to stop it from doing so.

What’s been happening? Yoof stuff (great), church stuff (challenging but great), work stuff (less said the better), looking for a new job stuff (very necessary but also time- and energy-consuming) and hanging out with friends stuff (really cool, but I’d be able to appreciate it more if I hadn’t been so tired from everything else).

Oh, and then there’s the new challenge that I may be taking up shortly. Now, I know, I’ve said lots of vague things about stuff I may or may not get round to doing, so I don’t want to talk this up too much just yet, but an acquaintance of mine has asked me if I’d collaborate on a creative project with him. It’s quite exciting, but it’s also likely to be hard work and probably take a very long time to complete. When I know we’re definitely going ahead with it, I’ll tell you more. In the meantime, it’s just on with life, in all its fullness.

On the local news tonight, a business type talking about Cadbury’s job cuts came out with this:

"Cadbury’s have always been proud of their Quaker oats… er, I mean, of their Quaker background…"

So, it’s about time I filled you in on what’s been going on in the last couple of weeks, and I suppose for that matter the last couple of months. Reader, you will no doubt be aware that in the last six months I’ve been doing a lot of evaluating of where I am both geographically and mentally, trying to hear what God has for me and how I’m supposed to do it. I’ve made lots of vague comments, but I haven’t offered you much in the way of actual factuals. Well, I’ve decided to be open with you now, because it generally works a lot better that way. So I’ll start with the big thing: I’m looking for a new job. There, I’ve said it.

This probably isn’t the place to go into the specifics, but here’s a potted history: nearly a year ago, I started wondering if office/admin work was really what I wanted to be doing, or whether it was just a rut that I’d got myself stuck in. Then the pressure of my job got too much for me and I went off sick with stress for two months. Upon my return, my managers were very understanding and supportive, even in light of the fact that I’d mentioned that I wasn’t sure I was in the right job, and they suggested I give it three-to-six months to see how I felt then. Well, seven months have gone by now, and I really don’t think I can carry on like this. I know my job is particularly pressurised in comparison with many posts on the same grade in the same organisation, and that is definitely a factor. But the more I’ve thought it through, the more I’ve realised that I’m a people person, not a paper person; but I’ve ended up in a job where I’m shifting paper for the vast majority of the time and getting little face-to-face contact with anyone other than my colleagues. And I’m not happy.

Which brings me to the big question – so, if you’re not going to work in an office, what are you going to do instead? And that’s been the problem for me – I’ve had little idea what I want to do, just lots of ideas of what I didn’t want. However, the last few weeks have seen some very supportive friends give me lots of encouragement and suggestions (often quite unsolicited) about what they think I’d be good at. Now I just need to pull my finger out and get on with looking for something. Of course, that’s a time consuming process anyway, and when you’ve already got a job and have to make time around it to look for another one, it just seems like a hassle. But I know I can’t go on much longer with what I’m doing now, so I have to make the time.

And now I don’t know how to finish this, so… erm, well… er, yeah, so there we go. We’ll bring you more news as we get it.

It’s been a busy few days, and it’s going to be a busy few days yet. So apologies for not posting or reading much here of late, but hopefully normal service (or as normal as I get) will be resumed shortly.

Meanwhile, feel free to talk amongst yourselves…

No, I’m not defending it, I’m just wondering where to start with describing how bad it is. How about:

- It already looks dated. The graphics were kind of trendy in 1987, but the little moving promo films look like the titles from some show that was on when I was a kid. And a day-glo colour scheme? What, did they only have highlighter pens to work with?
- It’s apparently inducing epileptic fits. Shouldn’t this have been checked before it was launched?
- It’s supposed to appeal to young people, yet a cross section of teenagers I’ve encountered think it’s utter rubbish. I’m guessing it’s been designed by people in at least their thirties who think they’re "down with the kids" because they’ve bought an Arctic Monkeys CD.
- I still can’t really see the "it looks like someone (probably Lisa Simpson) doing something rude" thing, but equally I can’t really see that it says "2012". To me, it’s a hunchback singing ‘I’m A Little Teapot’.
- Coe and co are banging on with all this pretentious guff about what it’s supposed to symbolise – "an invitation to take part and be involved", "a message of welcome and diversity" etc – which conversely just accentuates how it appears to be a bunch of ugly shapes with no coherence. (I’m particularly bemused by Seb claiming the brand will be "hard-working" – is it going to be down the mines for 14 hours a day? What a pile of old cobblers.)
- Worst of all, the British public have been overwhelmingly against the design, yet we’re being told that while the logo will "evolve" the basic design will not be changed. So most of us think it’s rubbsih, we can’t get rid of it – and we’re having to pay £400,000 for the pleasure. Oh goody.

Of course, those in favour say that it will grow on us over the next five years; however, I think it’s more likely that we’ll just end up accepting we’re stuck with it and getting used to it. For now, however, it doesn’t seem to be getting many people excited about the Olympics, and if anything it’s causing even greater antipathy towards the Games being held in London. In its defence, Seb said it was "about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years; if we don’t do that,then frankly the whole project is unsustainable". I wouldn’t normally want to see something like this fall flat on its arse, but I can’t help thinking in this case it would serve them right if it did.

A mess, in every sense.

You know those adverts that come on late at night for dodgy chatlines? Well, I’ve just seen one of them, and something occurred to me. It was all down to the voiceover…

"Just call 087whatever, choose which girl you want to talk to, and you can talk to her about anything you want…"

I’d love to imagine that there’s someone out there ringing those undies-clad modelly type women from the advert to discuss sub-atomic nuclear particles or the prospects of lasting peace in the Middle East. What do you reckon the chances are?