Rob Ashton

Sunday, September 28, 2008 1:22:40 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Started the new job about a month ago now, and I'm quite enjoying the actual job itself, the people who work there (and the money they pay).

One thing however, has taken a huge hit. I was often asked by a friend of mine how I managed to get so much stuff done when juggling personal projects with a full time job. The answer has become clear since doing this "real person" thing of commuting and spending standard hours at work. My productivity has absolutely plummeted, I come home too tired to do anything computer related at all. I have ended up either collapsed onto my bed listening to music, or spending time with my newly acquired girlfriend Jo (bad timing, but not complaining). This is not because I do more work at work, but because I'm actually having to travel into work and get up early to prepare, I'm suddenly devoting thirteen hours of my day towards the job instead of the normal seven or eight hours.

I shall resolve to do something about that soon, I can't afford to not be working on my personal projects, Scrobbles or otherwise if I am not putting things out there on the internet, if I am not creating time to learn new technologies then there is little point in being a programmer at all.

Today however, I am working on Scrobbles, my work ethic has not gone anywhere and I have resolved to cross a few things off the list, as pointless at it is in light of the above.

Url re-writing is now done finally, and I'm going to push forwards with getting the rest of the things ticked off as much as possible. And I'll keep you all informed with my coping strategy for developing personal code when faced with the Real World. I think I know what my solution is, but I don't want to talk about it until I know if it is going to work.

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Tan Hill

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 10:06:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Still knackered after this weekend, so I'll keep this one brief (which means I'll probably end up rambling and it will end up long, but we'll see).

Friday

On Friday, Jo and Ed turned up at my house with Alan (a guy I know from the British Sea Power crowd) who had kindly offered to give us all a lift up to Tan Hill for British Sea Power's idea of what a festival ought to be.

Friday was absolutely sublime in every way. We got to Tan Hill early evening, set up our tent, and went to watch The Witch and the Robot. Their set came complete with the expected shaving foam madness, but with the addition of a lovely video of snakes and a background video of wonderful TWATr style rambling on about witches and nothing in particular. Our favourite paper maché headed man came around with a vacuum cleaner while balloons with lovely phrases were handed out to the crowd along with badges and free albums. A bunch of guys with white suits came out and we took turns to draw on them with marker pens. The music was fairly damned good too (as expected of them by now!!!).

These were followed by Silvery who created fine fine circus inspired music, followed by possibly the best British Sea Power set I have ever witnessed. B-sides and rarely played tracks all over. Incredibly chilled out stuff. Grabbed a set list to take home too. It was especially pleasurable to hear North Hanging Rock played at last, just epic.

We didn't stay up too late past this and hit bed early. A fine fine evening though.

Saturday

Saturday was a day of potato rolling, tug of war, falconry (I GOT TO HAVE A FALCON LAND ON MY WRIST!!!), and I totally won the Welly Wanging competition (at the cost of a pulled muscle in my back). Beer was drank with a spoon, and crackers were scoffed mercilessly by our adopted team mate Andy the Gonzo Journalist. (Class act). Ed made a fine attempt at eating doughnuts without his hands, but sadly this was not to be.

I missed a bit of the music because I was just too tired for it, I did however watch a bit of I Like Trains and caught Matt Eaton and the Modern Ovens before going for a walk with Jo across the hills in the setting sun. It was a fairly amazing afternoon once we had gotten away from the hustle and bustle of the bar :)

The ensuing British Sea Power gig was just sublime, although I think the tracks could have been ordered better. It was delightful to hear some of the Decline Of tracks and OMG WOOOO WOOOOO, they played Hearing Aid!!! Well, it made me happy anyway, they made it sound just as it should too, and they ended it brilliantly.

After this epic set, we went outside to watch some fireworks which people had brought with them (I had donated towards a big pack organised by the members of the BSP forum) and sat next to a bonfire with Jo and had a chat with Scott and his wife Dawn. It was quite beautiful really. This was followed by more music from BSP and anybody else wanting to join in. According to the press the Arctic Monkeys and the Klaxons were involved, but to be honest I think they were too drunk back in the bar (yes, they were there too).

A late night on Saturday night, but a happy one nonetheless.

Sunday

Sunday we spent the entire morning chilling in the tent, only surfacing at around 1-30pm for some lunch before the afternoon activities. We ate lunch and played granny racing with somebody whose name I cannot remember and then went for a walk across the hills and sang songs. We returned cold and wet to watch the film Man of Aran, with a backing sound track played live by British Sea Power. That was sublime, so beautiful and settled a discussion Jo and I had been having about the meaning of the word "Bleak".

Being freezing cold, I headed back to the tent to warm up and was soon joined by Jo, who turned up just as the sun was setting, so I took some photos of that. I then read her an excerpt from my new book "Beautiful Code". I don't think she found it all that entertaining however so she was probably relieved when Ed turned up and turned our attention to chips. At about 11pm, Jo and I left the tent (and Ed, as he had fallen asleep) and went to get some mix cds from the lucky dip cd exchange, and a hot chocolate from the bar. It was probably the warmest part of the weekend sat there and I felt quite content at how everything had gone down.

Monday

An early night for us all and then a drive back the next day. 'Nuff said.

Thanks for everybody who was there for making the weekend what it was. Thanks for Ed persuading Jo that it was good idea to come on the weekend. Thanks to Jo for agreeing with Ed and giving up GenCon for a weekend of the raw northern outdoors (a big change from the poncy south). A MASSIVE thanks for Alan giving us a lift there and back. Thanks to British Sea Power for hosting such an event. It went down very well and I'd definitely go to another one of these if it ever happened!

An apology to the BSP regulars, who I managed to pretty much avoid all weekend despite saying I'd make an effort for a change. I don't know what happened there!!