I have finished my exams. I am currently eating too many bananas and drinking too much coffee.

I know that I am drinking too much coffee because of two things I did in my exam this morning.

The first was to say 'Economists who believe in the accuracy of models should give up now and teach high school physics or write Science Fiction. For one of the few examples of models working read Isaac Asimov's Foundation books."

The second was to explain strange attractors in complex market systems using a line drawing of two houses separated by a hill with a car on it.

Either it'll be marked by a man with a sense of humour. Or not.

Now 4 days off before London.

Mmm. Sleep. Better than Seabound or Malcolm Gladwell.

Anyone still reading this shit?

Oh, and having lost my N95 I am now debating between an iPhone and an E75. The N97 has been written off as too much. If only O2's tethering plan wasn't absolutely dreadful the decision would be easy. My current dumbphone has no numbers or email and it hurts.

If you'd like me to have your phone number or help with my address book please fill in ( below )

My name is Simon and I used to be a blogger.

I’m sure everyone has half-finished projects – and the internet does a great job of reminding me of this. There are long-neglected websites, blogs and journals that come close to haunting me and reminding me of my own inadequacies.

But all is not lost. There’s so much going on to be happy, or even excited about in my life right now. I’ve a lot of other people to thank for it and I can hope that with massive change coming up that they will all be there, continuing to be wonderful.

Nothing is as liberating as quitting your job. I wasn’t unhappy in Nottingham particularly – but the promise and picture I’d created in my head wasn’t delivering. It would have been so easy to concentrate on the positives – like the colleagues and the addictive national stage. Ultimately I had a choice to accept it and play the game better, or do something rash, impulsive, expensive and arguably risky. Not like me at all – but perhaps how I want to be?

Numbers are flashing before my eyes. I blink and I’ve missed another week. Not to mention the digits inexorably decreasing in my bank account. But heh – can’t be buried with it – and it’s not worth a lot sitting in the bank.

One thing I’ve not seen a lot of this year is snow. Normally at this time I’d be full of the joys of winter. Not this year. Whilst all around me are careering down mountains I’ve been working harder than I have in years. I don’t particularly expect or deserve sympathy on this. But believe me when I say I’ve done more work in a single term than I did in the entire three years of my undergraduate. Mind you, that wouldn’t have been difficult.

Essay writing has been interesting. Last night my head was afire with ideas after working all weekend. Of course the coffee may have helped! Maybe I should join the massed ranks of underpaid academics. At least one of my lecturers agrees if an unambiguous question on my interest in a PhD is to be believed. Of course she went quiet when I mentioned funding.

The main thing I am missing at the moment is my camera. They are both hidden away in bags – for fear that the unblinking eye will stare and guilt at me. I’ve not spent the time on it. I’ve not dealt with my backlog. I’ve not updated my website. I spent my last planned weekend away taking photos wrestling with EBSCO and JSTOR. Not quite the same level of photographic indulgence. I have plans of course, though my confidence in my ability to deliver has been slightly dented.

Odyssey looks more likely. Working on it is both a joy and a pain. It is fascinating to be in the company, however virtual, with such a range of people. Sometimes I feel the majority of the weight of the project is on my shoulders. And there’s probably a reason for that. It is a wonderful opportunity though – and I think of the prize.

Change is coming. Flush from the success of the last impulsive decision I risk being in freefall. Sod moving my cheese – it seems to have dropped out of a high-flying aircraft and has reached terminal velocity. It looks like I’ll be in London over the summer. Beyond that? I don’t know. I need a job. I’m hungry for opportunity and that might mean the big smoke. There are a number of seductive elements to the place but Birmingham isn’t without its charms.

Which brings me onto Love. Not a word I know how to use particularly well. But I’m learning. To say I’ve been reminded what it’s about is an understatement – both giving and receiving.

I think that’s enough for now. See you in another year.

Still alive. Enjoying Switzerland. Home in a couple of weeks. Too busy even to read LJ. Hope everyone is well.

Love me x

See, I'm getting back into the habit...

Friday was good fun but had tiny numbers of people turn up. In the end they closed around 12:30 by which point there were only 5 paying punters in the club.

Saturday had more people but crap music.

Can't win eh!

However, to celebrate being 'older-than-I-care-to-count' I will be at Cyberpolis on Friday 14th then will probably crash someone else's party on Saturday to end up at 'New-Eddies'.

Be lovely to see many people for some of it.

Woo! I have quit. No more commuting to Nottingham*

Instead I shall be exploring "How to spend £30k I don't have on my career". Wish me luck.

* After mid-September anyway.

Another day, another drive up the M42/A42/M1. I sometimes worry I am in a rut.

Tags: gig, music, photo, sheffield

Things happening. Been places. Less busy now. Here are some photos from Leipzig. Not a lot. But you'll like them.

Tags: gig, music, photo, wgt

Apparently it's 9 weeks since I posted. Ooops. If only I was having a real life that was keeping me from lurking...

Anyway, here are some pictures from last August. Shamefully I've not finished the WGT ones from last June - but my plan is to get there before I go there again this year (which might be with, might be without a camera!).

So, enjoy. There are quite a few here but you can all be impressed by the new navigation on my site if you do go through and look at the individual band pages.

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Tags: gig, infest, music, photo

This excites me. Not because I'm on GNER (which I don't do a lot) but because it has Free WiFi. And even better than that, it seems to be working.

To be honest I've had enough of trains already though. The first of the day was the 0610 to London; this is the 1100 from London and I'll get to Hartlepool about 1530 this afternoon after seeing parts of the country I only ever heard about as rumours. Then tomorrow I sped about 4 hours getting back to Nottingham.

This is, I fear, the highlight of my day.

Tags: london, train, work