Saturday was also Pig Pickin’ day in the office; a reward/bribe to those of us giving up our weekend to continue working.  An eventful day ended in the Berkeley Cafe as we were invited to watch Jerry Cuomo’s band; Mind the Gap.

The “war room” is actually a fun place to work in, much better than being sat in a cubicle all day long; has a real energy to it, but perhaps it just seems that way because it’s something different after spending basically the last decade working in the same beige-walled, soul destroying cubicles of Hursley.

Monday night’s are going to be movie night for me while I’m here; Tonight Hannah & Mickael joined me, however after by the time we’d finished desert at the Cheesecake Factory we’d just missed the 9pm start for Captain America.

I say “we”, but I didn’t have any desert, my “fish & chips” turned out to be “fishes & chips” and I was stuffed before I’d even eaten half the meal!  I have to admit I was really disappointed that the Cheesecake Factory wasn’t exactly the same as the restaurant from Big Bang Theory.

Having missed Capt’ America we plumped for a 21:45 showing of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I wasn’t expecting much from it, despite MovieBob’s positive review, yet I came away thoroughly entertained & looking forward to next years’ inevitable sequel!

I’ve been looking for a way to get data out of Lotus Notes into a slightly less horrific tool for some time now. Although I still haven’t found anything to allow me to dump Notes as my e-mail client at work, I can now say goodbye to it as my work calendar: syncnotes2google

Depressingly, people in “marketing and publishing” reported that they earned £12,500 more, on average, than those in development jobs — I’m definitely in the wrong profession.

Good marketing doesn’t make a good product, but that’s the world we live in — style over substance. Why invest in making something of such high quality that people will want it when it’s easier to convince people they want it through marketing. Just take a look at all the biggest selling products these days – Wii, iPod, X-Factor winners — perfect examples of style over substance!

One or two interesting roles were mentioned, whether anything comes of them is another matter. As I explained the the few agents that seemed to have at least read my Monster profile I wasn’t looking for any job as I already have a very good job; I’m looking for something special.

“I like the idea in “Archives of Pain” I took from Michael Foucault, when he advocates a return to nineteen-century values of execution and capital punishment. You know. It appeals to me, but you shouldn’t only bring back capital punishment. It should be compulsory that your body be kept, have oil poured over it and be torn apart with horses and chains. It should be on TV, and four- or five-year-olds should be made to watch it. It’s the only way. If you tell a child: “That’s wrong”, he doesn’t really learn. But if you show a body being ripped to shreds, after Blue Peter, he’s gonna know.”

- Richey Edwards

Oh how I was looking forward to a day off, but it was not be, having already taken a morning and an afternoon off to receive the Brice’s Laptop it was another day at the office for me. What made it even worse was that Gran Turismo: A Spec was released today, so I bought it (& Half-Life: Blue Shift) in the morning and had to wait until 4 to actually play them; knowing that on Saturday morning they, along with everything else I had in the house, would be gone.

Bought a book, Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau. This, and the rest of Everything… will be my entertainment next week.

People tell me I should get out more, but the TV is my best friend / Cynicism is the only thing that keeps me sane

- Mr. Carbohydrate (Manic Street Preachers)

Two new guys in the office, makes a change from looking at Andrew’s ugly mug anyway;)

Still reading Everything (a book about Manic Street Preachers), still not past the half-way mark, but I hope to finish it this week (fat chance). Call me Mr. Carbohydrate.