Time is an illusion…

“…lunch time doubly so.” So ends the quote from the first chapter of the first book (of five) in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy trilogy. The point being that nobody ever seems to have enough time to do what they want or need to do.

But I have managed to take things a step further. You see when I have time on my hands to get things done, as has been the case over the last 10 days of my Christmas break, I find myself too tired to make a good job of things, or in some cases even to start.

So why am I tired? Well, it seems to be because I have so much to do and therefore don’t get enough sleep. Or at least my brain has so much to do and keeps working long into the night.

Catch 22?

It’s time for a makeover

Please bear with me whilst the blog undergoes something of a radical redesign.  The basic layout has changed already but the colour scheme and details are not yet in place.  It will be easier to make these tweaks with the new look in place than trying to do it behind the scenes.  The picture in the header is just something I had handy to liven it up a bit.  It is a picture of the new Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.  In time, my own photos will again grace the top of the blog as before.

I also plan to retire the rest of the sittingduck.co.nz site (but not the recently introduced podcast.sittingduck.co.nz) but this, too, will take time.  In the meantime, everything is where it always has been.

Directions…

Between the reinvented podcast (see left) and Twitter, I am wondering what purpose this blog holds.

Part of me says I should use the blog more like Twitter in that I should post little and often, though perhaps not so little as 160 characters.

It may come down to how people follow me I guess. Perhaps I could ask them both.

Must…post…more…

Looking back merely at the front page of this blog shows I have been very infrequent in my posts.  That’s not to say I have not been busy though.

For instance, did you know that there’s a second blog now on this domain?  Yep!  You can check out the new site for The SittingDuck Podcast which coincides with a new direction for that show.

I’ve also, as usual, been hard at work in my day job and quite frankly it has been tiring me out lately.  Well, when combined with my constant late nights surfing the web and researching podcasts and who knows what else!

Be careful what you ask for

Some time ago I recall reading about a perceived flaw in iPod behaviour with regard to listening to podcasts. The purported issue was that when you had multiple episodes present you had to manually start the playback of each episode. That is to say it always behaved as if in a ‘single track’ mode.

I generally didn’t have a problem with this behaviour as many of the podcasts I listen to are long form and I generally don’t listen to one right after another. For the one short form podcast I frequent I used the oft-touted workaround of creating a smart playlist.

Now, as of iPhone software 2.1, those people have got their wish and it is annoying the hell out of me!!

The trouble is not just confined to the fact that when one episode finishes another begins. No, the worst part is that the play order is in reverse date order! That’s just wrong!

Please Apple, make this configurable. Preferably at the podcast level in iTunes, but a simple OFF will do.

Politically inconsequential?

The election hoardings decorating our suburbs of late are, for the most part, a collossal waste of time and money.  Granted it (probably) isn’t my money that’s paying for them, but I’d love to know what those who are paying think.

“Party Vote Labour” doesn’t really say a lot, or grab one’s attention. Precisely what is the intent of the signs, I wonder?  To remind us that Labour still exists and would dearly love us to vote for them?  The National Party is no better.

No, it’s like a nagging reminder that this small number of people are begging for our attention at this one time in the three year cycle, knowing full well if they get enough attention now, they can ignore us for the next three years.

I believe (nay hope) the signs are now clear that Helen has done her dash.  Too much has slid off her that should have stuck and she is showing no sign of abandoning the arrogance that has marked her leadership from the beginning.  So now we can look forward to cursing and getting sick of a National government for the next three to nine years.  Sigh.

WOW! Overused?

OK, enough already! I am tired of the deciphering.
Whether it be World Of Warcraft, World Of Wearableart (a fake), Warbirds Over Wanaka or Wings Over Wairarapa, the use of the abbreviation WOW is officially old and should no longer be used. Thankyou.