2032.

So it’s official. I hate my job.

As I sit here and do nothing because the tasks at hand are so menial that they border on demeaning, I’ve come to this firm conclusion.

How did I get here? I liked my last job, I did things in my last job, I felt vital, so I’m wondering how I am able to do the ‘same’ job here and feel this way about it. The answer is that most of the tasks that made me feel vital before have been eliminated due to this new businesses independence (I’m not going into the ins and outs of it all).

So I’ve decided to go back to collage and then on to Strathclyde University to gain a BA/BA Honours Degree in Journalism and Creative Writing.

All I have to do before I can start on my new path is make enough money for the fees, get married, and pay off the mortgage. Yep, by the time I’m around 55 years old, assuming I have no kids and that my salary advances at an acceptable rate over the years, I’ll be on my way!

Wish me luck!

If these are not the most true words written, I've yet to read them.

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

- Rudyard Kipling

Amendment

I need to make a slight amendment to the third step of my second resolution. Obviously I’m not going to walk to work in this kind of weather. I ain’t crazy fool!

Talkin’ about a Resolution.

This year I’ve thought about it, made up a list and picked out the most important a vowed to keep them. I’m talking about resolutions.

For most of us, and by most I pretty much mean all of us, a resolution is the thing we say we’ll do around about ten past midnight on January 1st and forget about a round about half past. We shouldn’t feel too bad about is though; Resolutions have been being made and broken for roughly 4000 years, since the Babylonians used to resolve to return the farming equipment they had borrowed from their neighbour. My dad’s still got next doors lawn mower and he borrowed it eleven years ago.

However, I feel confident that I can override 4000 years of human nature and I will keep these resolutions.

1. Save for the wedding.

We’ re getting married in September 2006. That’s twenty-one months away, I know, but twenty-one months are not as long as you’d think. I’m already saving £25 a week but it’s not enough! We, and by we I mostly mean I, have to stop buying crap. Also as a sub section of this resolution I want to put down the £400 pound deposit for the hall by March.

2. Lose weight.

It’s a classic I know, but if my belly grows any larger, well, we’re going to need a bigger boat! Now saying ‘lose weight’ is too simple because people need perimeters, so I’m taking the following steps: -

STEP ONE – Dust off those trunks I got in April and go swimming every Thursday after work.

STEP TWO – Do my weights. I used to lift my weights all the time (5 years ago) so I see no reason why I can’t be doing them again. Plus I miss my muscles.

STEP THREE – Steps. I usually do walk back home from work but I could just as easily walk too work (as long as I don’t sleep in).

STEP FOUR – No more late night eating.

3. Work on my scripts.

I always get a great sense of achievement when I finish a script and its really just laziness that I don’t write them.

4. Be more sociable.

I’m the most anti-social person anyone knows. In fact I’m Uncle Social. Chances are, unless you’ve known me for at least five years you’ve not seen me out or heard me speak when I am, so I’ll work on that.

So that’s it. None of the above should take fantastic feats of will power (maybe getting up for work) so if I don’t do them I want you all to slap me silly each time I break one. The journey to better living starts here. Watch this space…

Return of the King!

No I don’t mean Arragon, and I don’t mean Elvis (face it folks he’s dead), I mean me! I have four days left of Holiday and feel like the king of the world!
I was kind of in a funk yesterday, not a disco funk, more a grumpy irritable bastard kind of funk and I didn’t know why. In fact I still don’t know why or even if it’ll come back, but I do know that I’m in a good mood now

…As I typed ‘good mood now’ just there I remembered that Michelle was out spending money…

But still, good mood now!

So I’ve not done this for a while, over the whole Christmas period in fact, so you’d think I had a lot to report. Unless you really know me and know that I don’t do things. I have some news to report however, my sister is pregnant again with baby 2, so congratulations to her and her husband Graeme.

I have resolutions, they are many, amongst which is to do something with my scripts that I haven’t been doing for a while and actually write them! I’ve had two good ideas that help my other ideas slot into place in the last few days and have promised Stoo that I will send him the new drafts of the original four scripts by the time his internet connection is installed tomorrow.

Another of my resolutions goes back to my earlier point that ‘I don’t do things’. So that’s the resolution, to do things. I’ve already returned to the dancing after my self-imposed three-year exile but that’s not enough. I was invited to two parties for Hogmaney, one of which was with my closest friends and I didn’t go! Don’t get me wrong I liked my New Years Eve. I made Michelle a nice candle lit dinner, we went to her sisters until the bells and then down to my mum and dad’s. It was fine, it was nice, but the next day I kind of wished I’d been up all night in the company of friends with music and motion and laughter that makes you struggle for breath.
So don’t let me forget this resolution any of you. And try not to hate me because I’ve had seventeen days holiday…