Been trying all sorts of ways to tie my hair up with my hair. So far, this is my favourite.

Some inauspicious church on my way back from PHP Conference London 2010

Cat, pretending to be either Lego or CDs.

Next door’s house at night.

Next door’s house in the morning, whilst Charlotte’s in the shower.

What a fucking riveting life I lead.

Drunken portraits!

Although this is a personal blog, I try to keep it as interesting as I possibly can, so that people might actually want to read it. I don’t like to talk about my feelings (mostly because I don’t really understand them) because indulging oneself can often become a vicious cycle. I don’t write a personal journal for the same reason. It’s really easy to wallow.

With that fresh in our minds, I had the funniest day today (if I didn’t know or care for me; maybe if I was watching my day completely impartially). I’d like to say that this is a metaphor, but it isn’t: my day got so bad, I physically filled a glass half full, and the bottom fell off the glass! You know those days, where you’re drained of all your energy, like the thing that’s keeping you alive, not just awake, is dissipating.

So, I go to sleep really hoping that tomorrow’s going to be different, but there’s a realist in my ear telling me that it’s just going to be the same again.

I guess this is the updated version of personal enrichment brought about by lack of TV; my mind has been being stimulated over the last couple of weeks. I’ve basically had an internet embargo going on, due to being busy with family stuff and a general unwillingness to go near my computer during my time off. It’s been refreshing.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however, it’s caused me to look at the way I use and abuse social networks and the repercussions that has on my relationships with people. Taking the most frequently accessed, Twitter and Facebook; there are times when I basically have nothing to say to people in real life because they already know everything that’s going on in my life. They know that I tried and didn’t like Starbucks, they know what song I like at the moment and they know what I’m doing this weekend. With some people, this starts a bit of dialogue that would, otherwise, not be there for lack of social networks, but it’s really the same few people. That’s not to say that I don’t value the digital interactions I have with people, because I really do, but I feel sometimes like it cheapens physical encounters because there’s nothing to talk about any more.

From this, I could go two ways, I suppose. Either stop using social networks in an attempt to try and personalise communication with people (as opposed to spitting in a crowd and seeing who gets wet), or stop seeing people in real life. There’s obviously a happy medium somewhere in there, but I’ve never been good at finding that so I feel like I’ve reached a bit of a fork-in-the-road. What’s more, is I feel like I’ve already made my decision. I’ve not posted to Facebook or Twitter for the last few days and I already feel like I’m having better interactions with people. I don’t have to preface everything I say with “I don’t know if you saw on Twitter, but…”, which is rewarding in itself. And now, here I am having a characteristic, verbose brain dump with lots of words and no real structure.

If I was going to commit Web 2.0 Suicide, I wouldn’t want to do it permanently. I’ve only used these networks to get back in touch with people I haven’t seen for ages, or to continue talking to new people I meet – it would be counter productive. I think I’d try to be more graceful about it; leave a final message on each network with contact details and a desire to talk and hopefully stir up at least one proper conversation. Maybe I’m being non-commital and self-destructive (oxymoron?), but I keep feeling like the less effort you make to keep a relationship going, the less that relationship is worth. Social networks make relationships zero effort and, by extension, zero worth and I’m not satisfied with that.

Subject to major edits/rewrites/hypocrisy/reorders.

I both love and hate this. It’s a great way to get closure after an event, the outcome of which has already gone or is beyond your control. Being the incredibly witty fellow I am, I often miss out on l’espirit d’escalier, but if you’re the sort of person who gets abuse shouted at you from cars, I imagine it’s quite a frequent occurrence!

Returning from a jaunt, a delightful chap in a Chrysler Voyager wound his window down, especially to shout “pull your trousers up, you scruff” at me as he drove past (he didn’t do it as I walked past whilst his car was stationary, by the way. I’m pretty dangerous-looking).

It wasn’t until I was nearly home, having replayed the moment a thousand times already, each with me emerging the intellectual victor (and one time, doing a huge jump onto the roof of his car, punching through, pulling him out and throwing him under a bus. I should write a screenplay), it occurred to me: this contextually appropriate, piquant comeback, better than a million flip-kicks; “wouldn’t that make it harder for you to kiss my ass?!”.

When I tell people about this, you and I will know the true sequence of events, but everyone else will think I’m a quick-witted genius.

I consider myself to be quite realistic which, naturally, is often perceived as cynicism. However, staying in the mindset that everything that can go wrong will go wrong doesn’t leave you as far to fall – it’s pretty difficult to sneak up on those who are expecting it! I have unfortunately found that my tendencies to over-analyse, often manifest as paranoia. It’s important to stay within the realms of reason when being realistic. Either that, or make friends with people who don’t mind when you explain some crazy, played-out scenario they’re a part of, just to confirm that you’re wrong. If you can; become good friends with your boss.

All of the above does not apply to buying a house. You can /never/ be too paranoid during the house-buying process. Stuff that you could never imagine relevant will end up screwing things up. This is why, with around 24 hours until the keys are ours, I am still not getting complacent; I’m wondering what’s waiting to fuck me.

Awesome legal wall. Some really cool stuff on there, but taking photos of other people’s art is lame. These shapes, however, are not.

I need to remember not to get so close to the sea. These worked OK, except the white balance was totally shot and took quite a lot of level tweaking to get right (another great reason to shoot RAW, not that I need convincing) and there was loads of spray from the waves as it was pretty rough today. Ah well, you live and learn.

If I lived in Brighton and was doing another 365, I don’t think I’d ever need to resort to drawing numbers in pebbles on the beach, but it drew some interest.

Just got back from seeing Up. Greatest animated movie I’ve ever seen. Bar none. I have no idea how Pixar always excel themselves, but they do. They’re just the most amazing, cute, imaginative, heart-warming movies I think you could want. Screw Dreamworks and their lame-ass tripe. Pixar til I die (hardcore’s overrated).

Oddly, though – these glasses fit my double-wide head perfectly. These kids don’t stand a chance.

You can get vegetarian sushi, which is pretty awesome. I never had sushi before; the idea of raw fish didn’t appeal. The idea of raw vegetables and sticky rice definitely does, though.

Lovely, quiet sit in the (now-funded!) St. James’ Park before walking to work with Charlotte.

I’ve not checked this for ages. If you’re one of these people, thanks much for subscribing – it fills me with an unjustified amount of self-worth. I hope I occasionally do stuff that makes it worth keeping me in your reader.