Could it be true?

For the first time ever I am about to go on holiday from work without piles and piles of stuff left undone. I have one more week to go and I have finished all the major jobs that needed doing. I have one pile of commissioning to do next week and that is it, however even s quarter of that is already done.

The rest of my time can be spent being creative with a couple of other projects I am working on, getting them up to speed and coming up with formats and content ideas - which is the part of the job I really like.

I would like to take credit for such organisation but I must admit that it is all down to Mr David Allen and his Getting things done book. His concepts and ideas have really helped and turned this procrastinating, unorganised creative type into a... well let's just say more organised. To go along nicely with GTD I have also been aided by the ideas and templates from the people at D-I-Y planner, although I still use lots of digital devices and online Web 2.0 applications (that's another story soon to be told) I have moved to pen and paper for my main planning... I may even be moving toward a simple notepad in the near future, I'll let you know.

So if you have a little trouble organising yourself then the above two links come highly recommended.

Heartfelt apologies

Are sent to whoever it was the RSPCA were trying to wake up as they attempted to forward the call from my wife concerning the bat in our bedroom at 2:25 am. When the bat flew out she simply put the phone down while she was on hold.

Bat, man Awakes!

I was woken in the middle of the night, 2:25 to be precise by a commotion. As I became self-aware – nothing so advanced as the Skynet system in the Terminator, simply the move from dream state to consciousness – I noticed something moving around. My first thought was that there was a moth zooming round the bedroom. The weather has been very hot and humid the last few days and therefore the windows have been kept open. I could here a definite fluttering of wings and it sounded like whatever was fluttering, was going round in circles, this is typical moth behaviour. I then heard my wife say that there was a bird in the room. At this point any remains of sleep vanished and I was fully awake. So I jumped out of bed and went over to the light switch, at this point the whole family was awake and wondering what was going on.

I turned on the light and immediately saw this small, dark object flying around the room. It was either a very large moth, although I was beginning to have my doubts, or a very small bird, of which there aren’t many where we live. Another reason I was beginning to think it wasn’t a bird was that it wasn’t making a noise, no sound at all.

I rushed over to the curtains and opened them in the hope that whatever it was would fly out. It then occurred to me that this might not be either moth or bird but perhaps a bat… how Goth is that? My thoughts were confirmed as it landed on the curtain and took a breather before starting again on its continual circumnavigation of the bedroom.

Now, being a natural history expert; having watched most of Sir David Attenborough’s back catalogue, it struck me that perhaps bats were similar to moths and they could be confused by the light in the bedroom, and that was why it was flying round and round. So I turned off the light and listened intently. The bat didn’t change its course. Then I remembered that bats weren’t like moths as they had a very advanced sonar navigational system – again leant from David and his documentaries. However, at this point I was beginning to wonder whether Sir David actually knew anything about bats and other animals. You see the window was wide open and any navigational system worth its salt should have detected that and informed the bat that here was an exit. Instead the bat several times approached the opening only to turn back upon reaching it.

Bats are protected species in the UK and so I couldn’t, ethically, attack it with a tennis racquet. I did hear my wife telephoning someone for help, but I’m not sure who it was, I will however find out and relay it to you at some point. At this point the bat landed on the curtain, so I rushed over and turned the curtain around so the bat was facing the open window. With its advanced sonar working it then flew off between the two panes of our sash windows. We like the old look and feel of wooden sash windows but at times like this I can see the appeal of UPVC single pane boring windows. However, the bat then had an amazing show of intelligence, well amazing considering how stupid it had so far been. It climbed down between the panes and out the bottom, and flew away.

Tiredness caught up with me and I immediately turned off the light and got back into bed, making the mental note to check who my wife had called on the telephone. Who had been awake at 2:30 on a Monday morning and who would have had some connection with bats?

Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd

Friendly fixture on Man Utd's pre-season tour

Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Friendly Match
Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd, 19:15

I predict a riot.

How cool is that?

Not content wit being a pop star and a pilot, Gary Numan now enters the world of podcasting. But not just any podcast. This is a great podcast with Noel Fileding of The Mighty boosh, hence the title of this post. So if you want a podcast with a little fun thown in then chack it out.

Direct download here

Intital page here

Have fun :-)

Meanwhile I have to try and finish everything that I should have done at work before the weekend starts.

Trainspotting

Ok, now I don't want to be inundated with comments by rail enthusiasts correcting everything I say in this short post. I speak about what I think I saw, I do not claim any rail knowledge beyond the basics, so please forgive me when I call the 'engine' a diesel if it isn't.

Went down to London yesterday via Silverlink trains and the London Underground. On the way down to Euston you pass a train depot (Yes, this probably isn't the correct technical term either) and I often take a look at the trains pulled into the sidings. Anyway one particular engine took my interest. It was a diesel locomotive I believe. Now these locomotives are given names and the one that stood out for me was one named 'Oscar Wilde' - this just seemed stupid to me so I'm passing it on to you.

Whatever happened to Colourbox?

Yes it is that time of year again... the soccer world cup is almost upon us. I sit here contemplating many things... but what exactly am I contemplating? Am I wondering whether Rooney will recover from his broken toe? Am I concerned that Peter (Mr Bean) Crouch [thank you Andrew] is our secret weapon? Do I worry whethwer we should employ a 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 system?

NO

My concern is whatever happened to Colourbox!!!!

Hold on Darren, why and who and what are Colourbox and why the World Cup link? Well dear chums. Colourbox are, or were, an 80s band on the 4AD record label. You can find out all about them here. Their biggest claim to fame is that they were part of the team that brought the world Pump up the Volumn and therefore introduced house music to the masses... but don't hold that against them, they were quite good as well.

So the world cup link? Well if you read their biog you'll find that they wrote a track called 'The official Colourbox world cup theme' and it is fantastic. Although written to copincide with the 1986 world cup in Mexico it wasn't taken up by any major TV companies, however, I f I am right the BBC did use it as internal music for one of the following tournaments, possibly the euro championship two years later. Anyway, whenever it is world cup time I sit back, put on this track and contemplate whatever happened to Colourbox. All they ever did was make a few tracks, one great album (containing an amzing guitar solo by the then unknown genius William Orbit) and then they disappeared... or does anyone out there know better?

mini-heatwave

Well the last three or four days in the UK, well in the bit where I live anyway, we have been enjoying a sort of mini-heatwave. However, I have had to work and also endure an almost six hour round-trip up, down and around the M1 and M25, during this time.

But it is the weekend tomorrow and so I thought, 'ah sun and relaxation', Having just looked at the weather forcast though it looks like I'll be sorely disappointed... still at least I'll be able to have a cup of tea.

Getting Things Done

The above book by Dave Allen does work - well the ideas inside do - well for me anyway. Work is now organised, I am on top of things and I know where and when everything should be.

However...

I haven't been able to get it into practice outside of the office and I have far too much there that needs organising.

Oh well, will give it a good try this weekend, prepare for the mind-sweep of all mind-sweeps :-)

A couple of bands

Ok, I am a little slow on getting to grips with these but...

check out the Editors here and have a watch of the Munich video

also

have a look at white rose movement here they have an official site but the tracks weren't playing there so the myspace site is best to have a listen to the track Love is a number.

and where did I find these two bands? Yep, you guessed it PartyBen. Download his Coechella dance mix (30mb) and have 30 mins of any party's music sorted out.

and

if you want a great mash-up of Gnarls Barkley, Supertramp, the Who and a little Rockwell then download this. And also check out Arty Fufkin's site, the guy behind the mix.

that's about it for what i'm listening to at the moment, great tracks a nice warm cup of tea.