Archive for June, 2008
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
After finally arriving at the hotel room I’ve realised that my previous trip to New York was a lot nicer than this time round. Nothing major but a large build up of small things that makes this trip a bit tiddly. I was pretty much searched at every stop of my journey. No idea why they stopped me and I wasn’t too bothered to ask why. I went passed metal detectors fine from heathrow but had a search when I was boarding (which was weird).
The plane trip was pretty neat, I spoke to a cool couple who was returning to New York from their holiday to Ireland and England. At one point I took my earphones out (playing Final Fantasy Crisis Core) to find the lady saying “we’re moving, I’ve had enough of you”. Her tone was way too serious! So I just replied “ok”. Turns out it was just a joke and it was her exit to the bathroom. Man it’s hard to tell when people are joking in america (or on route to it). Granted it makes me wonder if we’re simply too sensitive about these things.
Once I landed, we had to wait in line for passport control, in which I got sent to a room strangely where all they did was stamp my green card a few times (the thing you should do in the normal passport control route). Then I was search once again after having the stamps. It was tiddly as hell and wasn’t needed when I was too tired from travelling and staying up late watching Lost the other night. The final straw was the hotel bookings, turns out we had to pay for them, and since my credit card didn’t work (probably the limit being too small) I had to turn to my manager in New York who happened to visit me. Anyway, all shall be sorted out tomorrow where my UK manager pays for the room and I’ll just let the searches pass. It would have been fine if everyone was searched too but most people got through without the search. Maybe it was the green scarf?
Anyway, in the hotel room now, had a shower and testing out the trouser press haha. I think I’ll buy some nice trousers at work when I go lunch. The room isn’t as cool as the previous one. The telly is oldskool (the other one was a 32 inch lcd telly) and the desk is lacking in space. But I suppose the good news is the bed looks epic! So yeah, that’s today in a post. I’ll start taking photos in a bit 
I packed my tripod 
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Turns out I’ll be going back to New York again. This time it’ll be a quick sneak trip from Tuesday to Friday. I don’t feel as excited as I should be, perhaps I will tomorrow. I suppose a checklist is in order? Not sure whether I’ll get to do much there, will probably get a cheeky visit to MoMA but that’s about it. Anyway, on to the list:
- Suitcase
- Some big bucks
- Travel documents: Passport, tickets
- Clothes for travelling (sunny)
- Sunglasses
- Toilet stuff
- Psp and usb cable
- iPod and usb cable
- Phone and usb cable
- Tripod!
- Usb to mains adaptor (otherwise we have no use for usb cables)
- Dslr camera (no need for charger)
- Notebook
- Company laptop
I think that’s about it. Keeping it nice and simple. Anymore and it will destroy me. It’s going to be nice and sunny so yay! Was going to get a giant mug that says “I <3 NY” but I’ll wait until someone makes an “I <3 My Tissues” mug haha.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Things are so much clearer when you actively write about something you intend to do, even if it’s embedded in your subconscious. Once it’s out and about, you feel clarity in what you’re doing and you “know” what you’re doing. What you’re committed to do.
For this case, I’ve been ensuring that everytime I’m asked whether I need a bag, I take a moment to reflect on whether I NEED and in most cases, I really don’t. So I reply with a no to them.
That’s the easy bit done, always reviewing on your bag situation when asked, but when people assume you want a bag and start packing it, it’s frustrating on both ends to stop them from doing it. Nonetheless, that’s not going to stop me from saying no to shopping bags, previously I was doing it passively, now I need to actively stop them from doing it, you get used to it, some people are confused on why you want them to take it back out and some are more than happy to save a plastic bag. Nonetheless the goal is to reduce the amount of bags used.
I’ve also began selectively buying dvds and games too. Reading an article about a guy who threw away all his boxes made me review my current dvd collection, it’s pretty big. So keeping things digital will hopefully help me reduce clutter on my bookshelf. Avoiding films I wouldn’t watch or games I wouldn’t play is the key. It does get tough when they are super cheap. I might look into doing rentals. I really need to escape this desire to hoard and collect things. Even innocently buying a dvd will ensure that the future I’ll be questioning why I’ve bought it and only watched it once.
Anyway, dvd will most likely be another 43things, but then again that’s not a clear goal since you can’t really measure it (like this one)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Well, i’ve finished reading Getting things done. Some parts I skimmed since the author tends to boilerplate quite a lot in the book. What I thought was lacking in the book was a reference section where everything is condensed into a few pages for a quick recap.
So what did I think of it? It’s not bad at all. It does base most of it’s stuff on manual tools such as the retro pen and paper and loads of folders for filing. I fortunately am in a position where work is digitally stored and categorised. The hard work is literally done, leaving me with my inbox to sort out. This (and remember the milk) are the areas I will working GTD on. Though you can see the difficulties of implementing stuff that’s mainly done via pen and paper hard on the PC.
The processes it teaches are quite similar to what I originally had. i worked at a zero inbox methodology where I treat each email as something to action, they are filled into appropriate sections once I’m finished with them so a zero inbox would literally mean I have done all my tasks and have nothing to do.
The book teaches you to store things under sections such as “next action” for those tasks that need to be completed asap, “waiting for” for tasks that require following up by someone and “tickler/someday” for things that can be done… someday. I was particularly keen on the “someday” folder as it was something missing from my system, work out of the ordinary were collected into the system and stored somewhere where I knew I could access and start work on if I felt it was time. Everything begins to feel more logical when you start implementing it though. It’s hard to persuade someone to implement this since people tend to be resistant on their current methods and systems. Bringing a new system introduces the idea of “when it’s not broken, don’t fix it” so I’m quite stuck in telling people what they should do. But I suppose I can give my feedback on how the book has changed the way I work.
I’ve not implemented the task full yet (so I’m not counting that as complete) but soon I will.
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Usually I’m not a fan of reading books that “teach” you to do things in a certain system. I myself am already pretty organised at things with my holy sync grail and my always empty inbox at work. But after hearing enough entries posted on lifehacker and seeing this article about using GTD on remember the milk. The curiosity of looking into this methodology has increased by ten folds. It seems like every geek’s dream. A world where tasks are managed, organised and logically categorised and worked on in a stress free process. Something that seems quite a far fetched ideal.
Nonetheless I bit the bullet and ordered myself a copy of the book. I was pretty amazed after reading a few chapters of it. The fact that we use our brains to do constantly remind and remember “stuff” that needs doing makes you suddenly realise how inconsistent we are as humans. Things really make sense in the book so my goal is to be able to follow this book and implement it at my work area. I probably won’t need to do the manual stuff purely because I work pretty much online and on the computer meaning there isn’t any paperwork to file at my end. This will be interesting.
So yeah, if you’re interested I recommend you grab a copy of David Allen’s “Getting things done”. It’s the perfect read for those who constantly have things on their mind.
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Most people will know that this isn’t something I just came up with today, I’ve been dying to get myself a mac for a long time and I think it’s time for me to start putting these thoughts into actions if I ever wanted one. In the end, a mac is a pretty expensive purchase and cannot simply be bought on a whim (unless you are filthy rich).
Main reasons for wanting one is so I can use that as a way to get me back into music, I have protools but I don’t really use it due to the sluggishness that is my computer. I feel a macbook pro would be the right step in getting me back into making music, especially on the fly when I’m out and about.
Not only will it be useful for my music, it will also be nice to nice for photoshopping and other creative apps that pretty much run natively on the mac. Web industry itself are pretty keen on using mac, heck even Otacon from metal gear solid uses a mac pro. So we know it’s the stuff, so it’s time to make some actions and get this badboy some time.
The plan now is to slowly save up some money to purchase this. I don’t want to go overdraft or anything over the mac book pro so I need to make sure I actually have money to buy one. The problem right now is I don’t want to have the current mac book pro’s as my laptop, they are in dire need of a redesign ever since they’ve announced the next intel platform. Once the new platform is out and the case is redesigned to make use of the multitouch feature as well. I will pretty much splurge into the world of the mac book pro. But for now, it’s just not the right time. I will aim to have saved up half the money needed for it within 6 months (there’s a 6 month reminder on this bad boy) and when the new iteration of the mac book pro is out. I will buy one.
Oh and I’ve deleted the to do page. I’m mainly using my 43 things account for inspiring to do items and long term goals / plans.
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
There’s no rules in taking photographs, anything captured can be classed as a photograph and all the techniques you read about are merely guidelines / recommendations and aren’t definitive ways of taking amazing photos (well people do love breaking the rules). I try to use a few of the classics when shooting band photos, the main one being the rules of third and not using flash at gigs to capture the stage lights and effects. You still need some guidelines when shooting in the end.
After taking photos of Okkervil River, I’ve added a new rule to my list. Always position yourself to the left. Now why would you have an advantage when taking photos from the left? Is there a blaring good reason why? Can anyone think why without reading my explanation? It’s actually pretty obvious when you think about it and only a factor I’ve become aware of.
(more…)
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Category music, photography | Tags: Tags: gigs, tips,
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Lately I’ve been pondering, Muse have seriously become one of those bands where some fans just can’t get enough of the band and have to see them more than once during each tour. Of course, Muse are reknown for making stunning performances on stage and have won enough awards to pretty much be one of the best live acts in the Uk. But what makes a person take a nice plane to another new destination to see the band?
Now, to get some perspective on how dedicate some people are, I know people who’ve been to about 22 gigs for ONE TOUR. Not their entire gig list, just for one tour. I’ve seen the elderly females travel from the other side of the pond to catch an extra glimpse of the band and I’ve seen the ridiculous folks who came all the way from Japan to see them (wait a sec, that applies for all bands (and I’m still confused as to how the Japanese go on holiday so much, I hear that they seldomly use their holidays)). Feel free to beat those figures, I’m pretty sure there’s someone mad enough.
So yeah, this is more of an ask the readers on why they do it. Two of the staff on the Muse board crew are going to see Muse at Dublin so I wanted to see what your opinion is on gigging abroad, and whether it’s worth the effort of going.
I can understand people who’s hometown is hardly recognise which forces them to go other destinations but some people like me live in the city which makes it incredibly easy to catch the band a shed load of times. Anyway, get commenting.
Don’t forget to take note on the witty photo caption haha
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Category music | Tags: Tags: gigs, muse, travelling,
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