Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

Archives for November 2006

Skills Upgrade

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Will you forgive me for feeling just a little bit proud of myself this afternoon? I think I’ve excelled myself today and am feeling just a little bit chuffed…

I’m fortunate in my job to be blessed with both an accommodating Captain and access to a great variety of technological assets that I can use both for work and personal applications. Such flexibility is probably partly because (while I’m well aware that I am by no means indispensable) I do a lot of work that few people with my skills would do for the amount of my salary and partly because the opportunity to increase my skills makes me more valuable to the company. It’s a win/win situation.

So here we are… Dino-boy is turning 3 next week and for me, gone are the days of home-made little woollen jumpers for birthday presents… Auntie Dee has gone high-tech. (By the way… I could do the woollen jumpers… some of the old skills still remain…). However, for this birthday, I made good use of my boss’s flexibility (actually he wasn’t in today…) and some fancy applications and made my nephews birthday present.

It’s a DVD.

I know… a home-made DVD… how cool is that? The videos on it are simple clips of me reading story books and as Sis has been pretty religious about sending me photos over the years I also had the means to make a video slide show of Dino-boy from birth to now… 3 whole years, complete with groovy jazz soundtrack (indoctrinating early…).

I’m pretty intent on the kids in our family growing up with some kind of relationship with me, even living across the ocean as I do. We had cousins in Australia that we barely know and I while I know that it still rankles sometimes that I live here and the kids are growing up without me I make a pretty good effort to take an interest in them and spend quality time with them while I’m in the country and when we’re on the phone. So, while I’ve been sending over the occasional video, Sis’ dial-up connection has been preventing me from getting too carried away.

Enter Adobe Encore and a day’s worth of tinkering.

I won’t go into the technological details of how it all worked but I think the biggest pleasure about the day was the fact that I had to learn a whole new programme to make this present do all the things I wanted to. That’s the buzz for me, learning the skills, solving the problems, exercising my intellect and reasoning to fix the issues. And while there are many who are in the know would be scandalised at how long it took me to get my DVD working I couldn’t be happier that I made the puppy work and that this birthday present is a one of a kind!

I’m pretty lucky.

Musical Notes

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After a bit of a musical couple of weeks I’ve been musing on the eclectic nature of my music collection…
I have to say I’ve been loving on iTunes a bit much lately. For all it’s faults it is an easy way of getting the music I like guilt free. I think its only problem is that it’s too easy… I end up spending too much money…
Anyway, here’s a bit of a look at what’s on the play list.
You’ve Got to Laugh – Nik Kershaw.
Now, stop laughing (if you remember him at all). He’s actually a bloody good songwriter. I loved him in the eighties, and my first boyfriend and I spent hours listening to Human Racing.
On vinyl.
I was reintroduced to his more recent recordings at college in a critiquing class. The song was ‘Fiction’ the album ’15 minutes’ and it remains one of my favourites. This new album is equally cleverly written and my fav song on that is the ‘dirty old man song’ (not its real name… actually it’s called ‘She Could be the One’.) I’ve had it on repeat for days…
So Long, So Wrong – Alison Krauss and Union Station.
So, we go from pop to bluegrass… now, I’m not a country fan… seriously… twang and syrupy sentimentality are outré in my book. However, my friend Curt introduced me to these guys in 97 when I was over in the UK on a visit and it is wonderful. It marries spirituality with a stunning voice, actually the appeal for me is Alison’s voice… that fiddles and banjos are in my collection at all is a bit of a surprise… Still, having an open mind to it has meant hours of pleasure listening to a lot of the stuff she’s done. You may remember ‘Down to the River to Pray’ from the Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack. Alison leads an a capella choir in the most stunning way… I’m planning on doing that track at a recital we’re planning this year…
Billy Joel – 12 Gardens. This one is easy to add, it’s the album that buddies with the concert I went to a few weeks, back. It’s fantastic. All my favourite BJ songs and some that are older than me but are now new favourites. Let’s face it, the guy might be a lech but he knows how to write a song. And he sure knows how to work a crowd. This last concert will go down as one of my favourites, the album helps cement that.
Songbird – Eva Cassidy.
Tragically one of the best female voices I’ve ever heard. Much is made of her early death but I’ve never been moved by a song so much as I was when I heard ‘Over the Rainbow’ and that was before I ever heard her story.
The Lion King Soundtrack – Various Artists.
I’ve seen the show twice. Love it still. I am a HUGE fan of African rhythms and harmonies and this album has both in spades. While I’m talking about African music I should add Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the list, and I’ve a wonderful compilation of music that a girlfriend made for me. (Not exactly guilt free that list… still a great collection of all kinds of african artists…)
Artists… If I keep going album by album we’d be here forever…
The Boys – Ok, I’ll put a few in here. John Mayer, Gavin deGraw., Josh Pyke. Great songwriters (are you sensing a theme?). Unique voices. Not over produced. Something a little other than mainstream…
The Girls… Well. I’ve mentioned Eva, but she really is in a class all her own… I’ll add Beverley Craven, I’ve been listening to her for years, and actually Curt introduced me to her too… I bought 2 of her albums when I was last in the UK because, again, till the advent of iTunes I couldn’t get her here… Norah Jones, more great songs… Then there’s Diana Krall… I’m a bit of a jazz fiend, love great female jazz vocalists… Ella, Sarah, Nina… all of them… Diana’s a bit more modern and supplements them nicely. I have to mention local girl Beth Anderson. Now, she may be young chick with an attitude but she writes excellent songs… you can find her here.
The bands…Coldplay, Keane, Crowded House. Love them all… again, they write great songs. Songs that say more than I love you… or worse still I want to f**** you… Brilliant.
Then there’s the Jazz… Jamie Cullum, Incognito, Harry Connick Jr. Miles Davis… this list is endless…
And I have to get back to my cleaning…

Are You Sure You Want to Mess with PMS?

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I know… sorry boys, you’re never sure what you’re going to get when you show up here… if it’s not boob stories it’s [ahem] eMOtional blog posts…
Happily, PMS is actually over… but my word… Thursday? I could have cried at the drop of a proverbial hat… Every Billy Joel song I listened to would make me mist up… Good Grief. I’d expect to mist over at Eva Cassidy… but Billy Joel? I need help.
Anyway… a client of mine walked right into the PMS minefield. HA. Bet he’s sorry now…
This is how it went…
[cue birds singing cheerily outside, a clock ticks gracefully on the mantle…]
Computer: “You’ve got Mail!” and then I read; “Hi Dee, here’s a few more bits and bobs to do on so and so’s site. We’ve a couple more things to send through, will do that early next week yada yada. etc. etc.”
[to which I replied]. Thanks, just checking, this is at my usual [rather lovely] hourly rate?
Computer: Ah, actually, I think that the client can ask for whatever little bits and bobs he needs to have done to finish the site, we’re not charging him any more… do you really think you should?”
At this point I’d like to point out that I’m talking here to a middle man, between the client who paid them for the site and me, who actually did the work at a ridiculous rate. In fact, I’ve done somewhat above the 8 hours work originally paid for. The initial job was to develop a pre-prepared design to a working site. No added extras… Actually, as they have a staff member well versed in Contribute and static site maintenance I was unprepared for them to ask me to do the content… A lesson to oneself in getting a written agreement on what gets done for the quoted price… And to date there have been rather a lot of added extras, and this last email which listed 22 final touch ups is the second email of ‘final touch-ups’. (Just in case you thought I was being unreasonable…).
I sent him a bit of a stinger email. Not something I’ve been used to doing, partly fuelled by a long history of this kind of heel digging on his part and a hearty dose of PMS…
I think the best part about it is that I’m no longer a slave to the need to keep the peace. I know my worth in this area, I don’t have an emotional investment in this relationship that I have to balance so I can speak my mind and stand my ground without fear. And if I’m perfectly honest? Sometimes it feels a little bit good to stand up and say ‘Up Yours!’
PMS or no PMS.

I’ve Been a Bit Crap Lately…

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At blogging, I mean.

It isn’t as though I’ve been vastly busy really, though I’ve a new client who may be in the way of putting a bunch of work my way which is welcome busyness…

And then there’s the business of looking for a new abode which is sneaking up. I’ve not found an alternate, the smurf house was a total dive… the ‘kitchen at the end of the bed’ kind of unsuitable… not really me… so it means I may need to find more money to move to a one bed. But I’m sure the right place will… well, manifest eventually…

I have rediscovered novels, at least since I handed in my last assignment. Hurrah… so I’ve been buried in those, even at the expense of TV which is rather marvellous. I loved this one. Tannenbaum’s grasp of language and meticulous attention to character make for gripping stories. I have to say I’ve been enjoying turning the box off until there’s something on I particularly want to watch and filling the gaps with reading… I started this one last night and it’s proving compelling as well, and Australian which is always good!

Anyway, I was rather delightfully reminded this week that I haven’t posted a Mupdate, which is very remiss as we’ve had very good news.

You’ll remember Mum had a bilateral (both sides) mastectomy. Blech. It was largely a choice she made so as to avoid having to live with the fear that in spite of close care and early detection protocols and radiotherapy that in who knows how many months or years she’d be back in the hospital having to go through it all again. So, attached as she had been to her girls for 60yrs minus pre-pubescence, she had the chop.

Well, you may wonder what good news could come of it… But it transpired at her follow up cancer clinic appointment there was much rejoicing amongst the staff. Apparently, there were more cancerous nodes that had been undetected by the mammo or the ultrasound and that would have remained, perhaps unharmed after radiotherapy (had she taken the less radical course of treatment) and because she made the bold move, and because all tests indicate that there is no lymph involvement, she has been given the all clear.

Yep.

All Clear.

There’ll be ongoing meds for 5 years or so to deal with any microscopic tissue, it’s a hormone fed cancer so the meds gradually reduce whatever that hormone is. But other than that.

All

Clear.

I’m a bit grateful. I wasn’t ready to walk the terrifying road.

Not just yet.

I know you won’t get to read this Mum, being a technophobe and all… But for the record.

You’re a champion.