boreders

Monday morning, I noticed that the motorway sign somewhere between the Altrincham turn-off and the M6 on the westbound M56 had the message “Don’t hog the middle lane”. On the way home, I found the sign on the opposite side of the road at the same point echoed this message. I wish, oh I wish, that people would take notice of this. I certainly noticed one car, upon nearing this sign, shift from the middle to the inside.

Unrelated to middle land madness, I had a great experience of over-competitiveness this morning from a driver with a stupid hat in a silver Fiat something-or-other. On the road from Runcorn Bridge to Speke, the speed limit goes from 50 to 70. The Fiat overtook a car in front of me after passing the national speed limit sign and I promptly had to slow down, as I was already pushing past 60 and he overtook still doing around 50. After a moments hesitation, he pulled in and I went past him. Or tried. Quite suddenly, he decided he was going to do 70 after all. I decided not to push the matter and matched speeds… but he lost out on the chicken run as something lay in the lane ahead of him and he didn’t really have an option but to slow down a bit.

Of course, he couldn’t leave it at that. After I overtook a dozen cars ahead and then finally pulled in, he zipped by once more… almost like claiming the last words in a heated argument. I’m sure it must be some primal instinct stored somewhere in the DNA of all human beings - male and female alike - the drive to get the upper hand if you’re on the wrong side of a bad mood. Judging by the frown on this guy’s face, he definitely qualified as being in a bad mood.

Maybe he was fed up with people pointing out how stupid his hat looked?

Relevant reading:

Breaks Near the Motorways

Hugh Cantlie. Cheviot Books 2008, Paperback, 314 pages, $16.40

Concentration slipping. Can’t listen long. Can’t read more than a sentence. Good article. Not seen before. Intranet rots your… Um… What was I saying?

I love my pets as much as the next pet-lover (our family includes three cats, four gerbils, three hamsters, a fish, and a sea anenome), but… I can’t help feeling two Fire Engines coming out to rescue a lost hamster represents a massive waste of manpower and tax-payers money.

Relevant reading:

Hamsterlopaedia

Chris Logsdail. Interpet Publishing 2004, Paperback, 174 pages, $8.90

I can’t believe we’ve come around to that time of year again when the days grow short and the driving grows dark. I hate driving headlit, ploughing through the gloom and darkness. Hard enough keeping track of all the idiots on the road when you can see them clearly.

In the UK, you should drive with headlights an hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise. Yet again, people fail miserably to remember anything they learnt while they had a test to pass. So, I found myself driving home at the beginning of the week gazing in disbelief at the three drivers I saw who persisted in keeping their lights off well into the late gloom period. I mean, I even flashed one of these idiots and nothing seemed to register. The motorway was filled with cars, all lit up - and yet it didn’t seem to phase these guys. It’d be like turning up at a fancy dress party dressed in shirt and jeans to find everyone else dressed in Halloween costumes… and then spending the entire evening utterly oblivious to the funny looks you’re getting.

I realise I should be concentrating on my own driving, but sometimes as I overtake on the motorway I glance across into the car next to me and I might as well be seeing something from a Romero movie. Drivers with vacant eyes, gripping the steering wheel with stiff fingers, focus unmoving. You might as well remove the mirrors and indicators from these cars, cause once they settle into the middle lane, that’s it until they get home.

Anyway… on the upside, I just went to the garage to get something from the fridge - and I found myself with a shadow. A moon shadow. I looked up to find the dark sky lit by a brilliant crescent moon, a scattering of bright stars dotted around the heavens between wisps of thin cloud. You can get a sky like that any time, but somehow I like them best in the autumn. Autumn and I get on just fine, because I’m not allergic to anything at this time of year and it isn’t so cold your extremities fall off after 5 minutes outside. Perfect.

Until I have to get behind the wheel of the car again…

How do people make significant career changes? I don’t seem to have enough of an idea how to do it and I think it might well be holding me back.

To my mind, change from one career to a completely different one must mean taking a hit on pay or working conditions. Taking one role in some remote location or a swinging pay-cut might explain why people would take a chance on you despite a lack of the full breadth of skills necessary for a role.

Or, does it come down to personality and a ‘just do it’ attitude? Maybe a gift for bluffing long enough to get your legs under the table? I don’t know. Maybe I should read a book or something?!

It seems like at school you make a choice, and then at university or in apprenticeship you make another, and with each passing year and each moment of experience in a specific role, you build walls and burn bridges. Perhaps certain roles have enough generic skills to mean that you can make a leap without suffering too many negative consequences. I suppose I could well have the skills to make a change, but simply lack the balls or wherewithall to do anything about it.

Currently reading:

The Biggest Secret

David Icke. David Icke Books 1999, Paperback, 517 pages, $18.30

I appreciate the concept of time management; but, I have difficulty keeping to any plans I make for myself. When I sat down at my desk this last Monday, I wrote out a ‘To Do’ list with about twenty different activities on it. I think I managed to do about half a dozen by the end of the week, because I either found myself engaged in other activities or trapped in meetings. I have no big issue with meetings, but they can have a sponge-like effect on free time. Before you know it, a whole day has evaporated and you feel like you have got nothing done at all.

Now, time management isn’t just concerned with work life, either. At home I also find myself with a dozen different small projects, and they get disrupted by the need to engage in ordinary household activities like washing up, ironing, preparing meals, doing food shopping, and sleeping. Amongst my list of things to do at home, I have two writing projects, some research for a third writing project, two websites for charities I support, a Tyranid army I need to start painting for my eldest, a pile of reference books I need to check out to determine their value in completing my writing projects, and a bunch of other stuff I’m likely to forget unless I create a ‘To Do’ list for home, too.

So, does anyone have any advice on ways to better organise work and home time? I know I could do with some help…

Currently reading:

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown. Pocket 2006, Mass Market Paperback, 736 pages, $3.95

Seriously. I could not believe the results today. A-Levels better than last year, for the 325th year in a row (or something like that). I mean, what rot. Anyway, thinking this is ridiculous, the guy on the radio explains that while the A-Levels may not have become easier and the students may not have become cleverer, one reason why they do so well is that there is currently no limit on how many times you can retake your A-Level. Up to 2000 (maybe 2001), you could only retake once; but, now you can retake them again and again. One student said it was quite possible to go from a fail to an A Grade through retakes.

I mean, that’s like when I took my driving test. I passed, as many other people have done. However, it took me three attempts to make it. Now, I may not be better or worse than the next man, but I did have a certain advantage in getting to try, try, try again. If it had to be first time or nothing, I would now be relying on public transport. If I had tried ten times, I might well have avoided several early accidents and dinks suffered.

Repeat attempts just don’t seem fair in some circumstances. I got a B, D, and an E Grade at A-level. Now, I might well have got A, C and a D with retakes… heck, I might have managed to swing three A Grade A-levels and got that place in Durham I was so keen on.

So, having grumbled about the nonsense of grades in the last fews years, I now can’t be bothered with it. I took a completely different A-level to the exam they run today - and when it comes down to it, I’m not going to use my exams to prove anything if I apply for another job.

Currently reading:

Tools of War

Jeremy Black. Quercus 2007, Hardcover, 207 pages, $4.00

OK… fanboy excitement keeps me roaming around for tidbits about the ‘Watchmen’ movie, so when I spotted a few new promo pics on the front of IMDB.com, I had to go check. So, there I find several fine images of the characters… and a bewildered picture masquerading as Dave Gibbons.

This page features an image of Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

This is Dave Gibbons. I know… I have met him on several occasions (and have a fine picture of both Dr Manhattan and Rorschach in my copy of the graphic novel):

And here he is with slightly less hair (if you had a copy of the ‘Watchmen’ from 20 years ago, you’d see a Dave Gibbons with a LOT of hair):

Relevant reading:

Watchmen

Dave Gibbons (Illustrator). DC Comics 2008, Hardcover Comic, 436 pages, $24.94

I have spent the last few months progressing with the paintwork on a Necron army (for Warhammer 40K). The army is my sons; but, I have been painting miniatures for a looooong time, so I wanted to take the opportunity to pass on some knowledge. So, I had set him to filing and gluing duties on the plastic Necron Warriors, for example; and he assisted with the black undercoating, the Boltgun armour base, and various bits of drybrushing, too. I did a lot of the detail work, guiding him through what I was doing as I did it.

We have painted Necron Warriors, Necron Drones, Necron Wraith, and a Necron Lord with resurrection orb. And now, we have Flayed Ones to contend with.

I want to make this part of the learning experience, but it looks like they might prove a learning experience for me as much as anything. Flayed Ones are Necron who have draped themselves in the skins of their enemies. Wearing the skins, they infiltrate the enemy lines before the disguise shreds, revealing them for the menace they really are. They have gigantic claws that make them overwhelming melee units.

As metal miniatures, gluing the claws in place took a bit of effort and a dollop or three of Super Glue. My son helped with the base painting, but now I’m faced with a fiendish paint job that may prove really difficult to work through as a mentoring case. I want to pass the skills on, but I also want these Necrons to look great… so, I need to disengage my perfectionism somehow and allow one (or more) of the models to become training models. I’m not convinced I have the strength to give them up that easily… Over-competitive Dad mentality or something, I think.

I witnessed another fine example of middle lane madness today, something I see every single day in all honesty. It erks me most when drivers do it so blatantly, sitting in the overtaking lanes for junction after junction with hardly an obstruction to overtake in sight.

This morning a young woman with dark, shoulder-length hair in a black Volkswagen Polo (a very recent registration, ending with ZXM) hurtled westwards along the M56 in the middle lane in an apparently catatonic state. I could see her in my rear view mirror clocking up mile upon mile, at first in the middle lane and then the outside lane, at times with no car within several hundred yards. At one point, there was a driver in the inside lane and she sat in the outside lane - nothing to stop her pulling back across - with a great 4 by 4 tailgating her.

What possesses these people? When she finally passed me - in the outside lane - she wasn’t on the phone or singing… nothing that would explain the oblivious attitude. It seriously worries me - because that indifference to the road will inevitably lead to accidents or road rage… and then who will she blame.