I have a few rules about politics:
Rule 1. Do not talk about Politics.
1. You do not talk about Politics.
2. You do not talk about Politics.
3. When someone wants to talk or tries to talk about politics, the talk is over.
4. No two guys to a talk.
5. Zero talks at a time.
6. No left, no right.
7. Talks do not go on for any period of time.
8. If this is your first talk about politics, you have to shut the hell up!
I have many reasons for this none of which I will go into because of rule 1. Unfortunately I am sorely tempted to speak out about current events going on around the world and invariably topics close to my heart get close to politics but if I keep rule 1 in mind I will be much happier and release more good karma into the world 😉
Linking to external sites
I often find links on sites that open a new window rather than opening in the window that the link was found in. I can only assume that the web designer made the assumption that they know what the user wants better than the user. What they have effectively done is create a reverse “pop-behind” advert to themselves which is a bit mad when you think about it. Given the choice I will always use normal links on my sites.
If I want a site to open in a new window then
I will make that decision myself. Who are you to tell me what I should be doing.
No time anymore.
I remember when I was a kid that I always seemed to bored out of my scull. I could never find anything that I wanted to do, I had no hobbies that did not involve something I shouldn’t be doing and there was not really an awful lot to do in Cullybackey.
Things did not change when I joined the Navy. This is one organisation that makes watching a kettle boil positively exhilarating. I decided to leave the Navy after 8 years of mental abuse from which I think I have made a full recovery. I am only thankfull I was not in when we went to the gulf to take part in what I think may become one of the biggest fiascos of this century.
Since leaving the Navy 3 years ago I have not got enough hours in the day and it seems to be getting worse. We where taught time management in the Navy ie. if you don’t manage it you are in the shit but I seem to be struggling to do everything I want to do and the list just keeps getting longer.
Looking back I wouldn’t change anything but I sometimes crave for an hour of boredom.
Uklug Coming on
I have now got,
A login facility.
Agency Ratings.
Job Postings.
I have also added a few other bits and bobs. I am hoping to start adding some agencies to the database so that we will at least have some content that users can browse.
I will write all this myself initially but I really should investigate some of the Forums and other tools that are out there at the moment. No doubt they will have done a better job at this stuff than me.
Started Recruitment Agency Ratings Website
Managed to get started on uklug for the first time today. I have been meaning to get stuck into getting something up for a long time and this has been my chance. I need to be doing something to hone my programming skills and I think building a dynamic site in Perl although corny is as good as place as any to make a start.
This project was originally on Sourceforge as Jobix but due to lack of interest it kind of faded into the back ground. It is still a one man show which means that features and developement will be fairly slow
Left Job
Officially left Colt-telecom today. If anyone is ever offered a job there, take it. It is a nice place to work and they have a go-getter attitude in everything they do. There was quite a bit of restructuring that was taking place when I left but I imagine once that is over it will be an even nicer place to work.
Gardening Leave
I was given “Gardening Leave” today. What this means is that I am on paid holiday. Colt did not have to do it but it is nice to get some time to decide what I want to do with my life. I really want to become a developer so I am going to concentrate on that. I also need to decide if I am going to look for a job straight away or not.
I have decided to do Maths next year and I have not done any since Collingwood 94. This means that I am tempted to take the year off work to refresh my Maths and to concentrate on some personal goals. The thought of doing Maths and building websites in my spare time while trying to hold down a job I do not want to be in is not very appealing to me.
Accident
Was in a horrendous crash at the weekend 8 Aug 2002. A 40 ton truck decided to move from the fast lane into the slow lane immediately on coming out of a roundabout. Needless to say both Jenny and I where in the slow lane. We where pinned in front of the truck for about 100 metres before we where flipped into the central reservation. We where close enough to the grill of the Lorry to feel the heat from it.
Family Tree
I was rummagin around in google a while back looking to see if I could find anything relating to my family and I managed to turn up the following link.
http://home.alltel.net/fjingle/jackson.htm
The guy who runs the site is a relation of mine who now lives in America. It took me by suprise to realise that this information has probably been on there for years without me knowing. I also had no idea that I had these relatives living in America.
Its a small world.
A few days in Israel
13-18 April 1997
We found ourselves in Haifa, Israel. The strangest thing for me and this is coming from someone who has lived in Northern Ireland, Nearly everyone carry’s guns. We were in a bar and behind it we could see several automatic weapons. The waitress’s who happened to be all teenagers were doing national service and in their spare time they would wait tables etc. it was them who owned the guns.
I might add that in Israel or at least Haifa these young fly by night waitress’s did not get paid by the bar, they only got the tips punters provided which we were blissfully unaware of until one of them who got a bit disgruntled with our lack of generosity was kind enough to tell us. Needless to say that we got a bit more generous after realizing that a disgruntled spotty teenager with a semi-automatic weapon at her disposal was probably not going to do anyone any favours.