The Boffin's MSN Space

Tuesday night on my way back from work, I decided to enjoy the sun and take
the scenic way back.

Going between Sarisbury and Botley (in Hampshire) along the botley lane
(which I know very well); I saw down by a narrow hump-back bridge a guy
cutting the grass verge on the right with all the grass blowing into the
road whilst I was thinking what a prat this guy was; and slowing to go over
the bridge, the car in front of me (about 10ft in front of me) which was a
big 4x4 decided to stop dead and look at the guy cutting the grass. As soon
as I saw the 4x4 stop I pulled on the front brake the bike locked up the
front wheel, and I guess the handle-bars must have twisted, as I was then
thrown on the ground with the bike.

My helmet hit the ground (not too hard, but hard enough to make a mess of
it), and I lay on the ground for about 30seconds collecting myself the guy
in the 4x4 and the guy cutting the grass (and two other witnesses who were
at the pub by the river) came over and helped me up and helped me pick the
bike up. I was in a lot of pain with my shoulder at this time they wheeled
my bike back to the pub car-park (after I’d explained to them how to get the
bike out of gear).

Whilst then talking with the guy in the 4x4 asking who was responsible for
this, he blamed the guy cutting the grass and said a stone had been thrown
up at his 4x4 which is why he stopped. As soon as I started to ask him for
details, his name, address and insurance "Nope I’m not responsible, you’ll
have to claim off the guy cutting the grass" and then he drove off!
Fortunately I took note of his number. Both the guy cutting the grass, and
the other witnesses gave me their details.

In severe pain, and with a busted bike, I managed to get the bike home &
took myself off to casualty spent a couple of hours there, just bruised
shoulder/neck muscles & lots of pain killers, and more bruising to swell up
over the next few days & had x-rays but nothing broken.

Then spent the wee-hours of the morning at the police station. Effectively
because this guy drove off without giving his details, its being classed as
a hit and run (even though I didn’t hit him - more down to my reactions than
anything).

In lots of pain, had to get her-in-doors to drive me into work this morning
- my bike is out of action, and even if I could ride it, I don’t think my
shoulder could cope with riding at the moment!!

Have to see what the Police can do now about this other driver.

Photo's now added to photo album!!

I don't follow many sports, but some sports that do interest me are motor racing and motorcycling,  specifically F1, MotoGP and World-Superbike.

So did any of you see the MotoGP race on sunday at Jerez ?  WOW the last couple of laps were extremely exciting.  Rossi & Gibernau battling it out with some physical contact!! hehe.

I know there are rumours of Sete not making the next race, but can you honestly say that he'd miss the chance?  What ever happens, i'm sure its gonna be another exciting race!!

I've had my fair share of interviews in the last 20yrs (perhaps not as many as others) ... and as some of you may know, i've been frantically looking for another job over the last 6 months.

I guess this is a 'semi-rant' ... not really a rant, but I guess something that gets my goat a little; but equally in a way I can perhaps understand why:

At the end of the interview more times than not its a "Well thank you for coming, we'll be in touch with your agent!" .... even if you ask "So, how do you think the interview went?" or questions of that nature *MOST* of the time you'll get a polite "We need to go away and talk about it, and then we'll be in touch"

FFS ... just tell me if I didn't get the job, don't keep me hanging on - i'm an adult now, I can take the bad news.

I understand their need to talk to your agent to discuss a possible offer, but really, if you're not upto scratch can they not just be open and say something like "Thankyou for attending the interview today, unfortunately we feel you do not posess all of the skill we are looking for on this occassion" - admittedly it would generate a question, well what areas do you feel I was lacking in, etc ... but this is constructive, this is what people want and more importantly its what people need.

I've been on both sides of the fence, i've been the interviewee and the interviewer, so I do know what its like.  I understand that the interviewers by not saying anything are avoiding any potential conflict or bartering or even begging.  That said though, should a candidate start getting 'mouthy' with them,  then that just reinforces their decision not to take the candidate on -- other than that, this person has spent an hour or so with you trying (in theory) to help your company by offering their skills ... least you can do is tell them why you prefer not to make use of the skills, and put them out of their misery sooner.

Comments welcome....

This happened a couple of days ago now.... I was sat in my office at home studying (as I seem to have been doing for an eternity now, but thats a different rant) ... when all of a sudden I hear this large bang against the glass of my front door.

On checking what the noise was there were a group of youths, 1 on my side of the road and 3 on the other side (2 male / 2 female), as I looked at the one on my side of the road he shouts over to the guy on the other side of the road "Hey, stop throwing stones at me, you've hit this man's house!", at which the group just laughed at each other and carried on walking away.   I attempted to beckon these kids over to me, so I could have a chat with them .. more from the point of view of finding out what hit my house, and where it hit it, so I could make sure that if there was any damage i'd spotted it ... well as I beckoned them, the lad who'd apparently thrown the stones puts his hand to his ear shouting "Can't here you!" ... then as he's walking off starts with the verbal abuse towards me.

Now anyone that knows me, knows i'm a fairly laid back sort of a guy; but I feel that over the last 20yrs or so i've worked quite hard (at times) to put the things around me that I have. At the moment i've been unemployed for 4months, so money is extremely tight .. but even with my laid-back attitude, I find it hard to accept a group of youth's freely throwing stones across the road, hitting peoples properties without a care in the world.

In the village of Purbrook where I live, we've recently had an 'exclusion zone' set up for groups of youths.  Under the anti-social behavour act.  Now I have to admit that I don't necessarily agree with this.  Local youths have no where to go, and they're just doing the same things that I did when  I was young, grouping up with their mates outside the local chip-shop, bus shelter or park benches.   Sure at first glance the groups can look and feel intimidating, indeed in the tail end of last year I walked past a group of about 20youths gathered at the bottom of my road, some on scooters, some drinking beer, all of them messing about ... but what else is there for them to do?

The problem with this sort of 'exclusion zone' is, it doesn't stop the problem ... it merely moves the problem further on.  Hence the stone throwing at my door - I strongly suspect, if the exclusion zone in the village wasn't in force, then these youths wouldn't have been upto no-good as they walked up the street.

Perhaps it would have been a better idea for the village as a whole, or the local council to invest in providing young people with places to go, and things to do.  We can't all afford to go off into Portsmouth to the cinema, 10-pin bowling or to the Ice Rink in Gosport ... so why should we think thats what the kids should be doing?

Comments on this would be welcomed.....

Well I guess it had to happen!  (errr... what?  I hear you ask) Microsoft jumping on the blog band-wagon,  or me jumping on the blog band-wagon?   Well both I guess!

I guess time will tell how accessible these blog entries become, and how soon before Microsoft starts to charge for the services.  

Rhetorical Question:  Do you think Microsoft employs a little-man to sit there reading everyones blog's incase someone mentions something bad about microsoft, or someone publishes a microsoft CD-key online??  hehe, I'll let you ponder over that!!

So what with me having a blog ... well I guess apart from the obvious jumping on the band-wagon, for me at the moment my life is at an odd point.  For the first time in my 20yr I.T. career I find myself out of work.  The reasons why I remain 'unemployed' are I guess less obvious to those outside of the IT industry,  but lets just say for the last 5.5yrs i've been dealing with legacy technology (old stuff).  Now, there is no work using this legacy technology any more, and for the past 8months or so i've been reskilling myself.  As you can see from my website (http://www.yellowthingy.co.uk) i'm heavily into C#.Net / ASP.NET now - but thats where the crunch comes with the agents ..... Provable, Commercial Experience .... thats the toughy, they all want 1-2yrs or more ... and that is currently why i'm still unemployed.  Believe me, its not because I want to be, i'm applying for upwards of 6jobs a day ...... oh well.

So anyways, what will this blog contain?  I guess ultimately it'll be an online diary,  and a chance for me to comment,  for me to rant, and for me to explain ....  you, well you can listen, ignore, or comment back.

Bri.