Posted by sh1mmer on Feb 14, 2007 in
Personal This year I decided to do something sane. I bought tickets to Stomp for my wife, but not on valentines day. I love my wife every day, and I hope I show it every day too. With all the silliness around making the most of that one day a year, I think people forget that a relationship is about all the time. If you need a special day to remind you to be nice, then something is wrong.
That said, it’s still nice to have a day to expect pleasant surprises (birthdays, Christmas, etc) so this is what she gets. Tickets to Stomp, but not on the double the price 14th February performance. 
So show your partner that you love them, today, tomorrow and every other day between now and next valentines day.
I love you Rosemarie, I am yours.
Posted by sh1mmer on Feb 12, 2007 in
Personal Yesterday Rosemarie and a group of my work friends and their wives and partners went walking in Osterley Park. We had a lovely day, and it reminds me why I like living among the green of West London.
I have to say I thoroughly recommend becoming better friends with the people you work with by enjoying the company outside of work. It also turns out the people I work with share their lives with some awesome folks (obviously like-minded people attract I guess).
Here is a picture of Matt, Rosemarie and I with a Pony!
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pony, osterleypark
Posted by sh1mmer on Feb 1, 2007 in
Personal Work requires me to do an annual review. So I’ve been looking at some of the goals I made 8 months ago. What strikes me is that some of the goals I made I have fully accomplished. Yet, if you asked me then if I really wanted to commit to them, I would have said yes. If you asked me today if I really want to commit to those goals I would still say yes. So, why I haven’t I accomplished them?
It seems clear that intention is not enough. What I realised is that while I sincerely care about these goals they didn’t have enough focus. With all the things happening in my life it’s very easy to be torn in many directions. However a swath of half completed tasks has never made me happy. What I want to commit to this year is being aware. If I remain aware of my goals and put my current tasks in the context of those goals I will be able to achieve a lot more satisfaction.
I plan to pick up Getting Things Done again, and use that as one of my tools to focus. I would still recommend it to others. But mostly, know what you want to achieve, and ensure that what you are doing takes you closer to them.
Technorati Tags:
Productivity, personalgoals, gettingthingsdone, gtd
Posted by sh1mmer on Jan 30, 2007 in
Personal Recently I’ve had cause to be upset with a company that I get a service from. I’m not going to name names, but I am wondering what stance I should take. This company has managed to loose or not act on 4 letters. When they finally did process my request they managed to not only fail to use my new address but change it to a completely different and wrong address that I’ve never had or used. They did that 4 times too.
I have asked to make a complaint before, but was told the customer services line was busy, someone would call me back. Obviously they didn’t. It’s not that anyone has ever been anything but pleasant and helpful (sounding anyway) to me on the phone, it’s more that this has been going on for months.
I really wonder what I have to do to get myself heard. How and what must I do to finally get acceptable service?
Posted by sh1mmer on Jan 28, 2007 in
Personal Went to the Tate Modern today with the Mrs. We mostly wanted to experience Carston Höller’s slides. We also bumped into Matt and his friend Mel, and later Jimmy. The vote was still unanimous, the slides are hella arty fun.
There may be some photos on Flickr later, and possibly I video.
If you are in London, you really should go visit this free exhibit before it finishes mid-April.
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Fun, london
Posted by sh1mmer on Jan 25, 2007 in
Personal I was chatting with Steve today about the moments in our lives when we have really distinguished ourselves. The moments when we got breaks, you could say. Steve said “when he got lucky” until we looked a bit closer.
The thing that occurred to me, was that when we both talked about something great that had happened to us, it was mostly as a result of our own hard work. Steve has written 8 books, and is writing number 9. He said he got asked he first got asked to write a couple of chapters for a book because he was answering user questions on a Flash forum. His own efforts enamoured him to his publisher.
Myself, I was looking back at when I worked on Plone. Plone is a free open source content management system. By giving up my time to work on open source software, I ended up doing a web site for NASA as well as becoming an invited expert to the W3C.
More than just our own hard work, what I also see commonly in both Steve and my turning points was our desire to do something for others. Steve was helping other people with their problems, and I was providing services to the community, and improving the lives of people with disabilities on the web.
I really honestly genuinely believe the altruism was a key part of our success. In working for others we did more than we would do for ourselves. We shone brighter than we felt we could shine brighter because we had the need.
So my challenge to you, dear reader, find something that you can do. Find something that will take your heart and soul and let you shine for others, but therein also for yourself.
Technorati Tags:
Productivity, selfimprovement, succeeding
Posted by sh1mmer on Jan 24, 2007 in
Personal Seems like London went mad for 3 inches of snow today. Even I went a little mad, my flickr stream had a frenzy of activity as people posted the snow near them. Mostly it was pretty similar to the snow near me (thin on the ground and quickly going slushy).
So while I may sound like an old grouch, I am actually quite pleased that so many people found a little bit of childlike wonder in what may be the weather event of the season.
One of my snow snapsshots. The view over Osterly Park from my balcony.
The rest of my snow pics are on Flickr.
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london, snow
Posted by sh1mmer on Jan 10, 2007 in
Personal I went to a networking event this evening. It was interesting and I met some really interesting people, but I was glad to get home to my wife. While some of the people I met continue to have some drinks and some cigars, I got to come home and listen to the excitements of the day. Today it was Pizza and Postcards. Really, I couldn’t be happier with the situation.
Find someone you love, revel in them, and your lives.
Posted by sh1mmer on Dec 3, 2005 in
Personal Gosh! After one of your best (if not closest in terms of actual physical distance) friends tells you they didn’t know you had gone hippy it’s time to shout a bit louder. I am a Vegan, and I have been since March 2005.
What does that mean?? Well lets see…
veg·an
Pronunciation: ‘vE-g&n; ‘vej-&n, -”an
Function: noun
: a strict vegetarian : one that consumes no animal food or dairy products —veg·an·ism
/’vE-g&-”niz-&m, ‘vej-&-/ noun
In other words I don’t eat or use (knowingly) anything derived from animals. Of course that’s not necessarly true in practice but that can come later. Let me explain whyfore first. Cruelty is bad, mkay! I don’t care if it’s Bob the annoying guy at work, some Islamic person intent on blowing up a U.S embassy or livestock. You shouldn’t maim and or torture stuff, it just ain’t karmic.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I actually object to the use of animal produce, or even the killing of animals. At this point most people think I am loopy, but I can explain. Really. For me veganism is the path of least resistance to achieving non-partisipation in cruelty. I still wear leather shoes, because I bought them before I was vegan and don’t see the point in doing a deservice to the cow that gave up it’s hide. (Also I don’t think anyone will spontainiously decide to go vegan after seeing me not wearing leather good in the street, my conviction is my missionaryism not my dress sense)
“But, what about that killing animals stuff? Isn’t that a little strong for a Vegetarian let alone a Vegan?!” I hear you asking. Well actually no. I don’t like the torture of animals, but death doesn’t have to involve torture. The modern factory farm does, but that’s all the way through, not just at the end. If you eliminate torture I’m an omnivore just like everyone else. Not that Veganism hasn’t be awesome for my health.
To explain a little more, animals can’t see the future. The can’t imagine it, they just don’t know it’s there. They live in the now, with a little instinctual planning thrown in. Yes they can react to if I do x I will get y reward after a period of time, like Pavlov’s dog. That doesn’t imply they understand anything beyond the now. If you kill a person you take away their hopes and asperations, they imagined they could have been something, they could have enjoyed something, and that can no longer be. You kill an animal and you end it’s constantly changing now. As long as you don’t make it’s now bad in the process of killing it I don’t see a problem. Of course, this is just my humble deduction from stuff I’ve read.
If you are reading this and think I’m a total bastard feel free to prove me wrong. It’s been known (and more than once).
Posted by sh1mmer on Dec 20, 2004 in
General,
Personal Well it’s 1.07am here.
I am suposed to be writing a paper for ESWC rather than writing this, but what the heck.
Tonight I went to Magali’s house for a little dinner party. She is a great girl, and we all had a lot of fun. Leigh said he really liked her ‘ham cake’ as he insisted on calling it. I guess it is a traditional French dish. She is meeting myslef and Yergen (he’s from Napal boys and girls) and we are going to see a Bollywood film tommorow (well today).
My postcard world map is also online now too.
Who know’s I meet even post again tmw. Now back to writing this paper!
Ciao, Tom.