Next time we'll buy a laptop

Written on my week in Abingdon:

--23 03 2004
Every time I go to Didcot I feel as though I'm in The Simpsons, because whenever I look up I see the cooling towers at Didcot Power Station. Everywhere you go in the area, they are there, because there's nothing else quite so big.
It's not a nuclear power station, so that's where the similarities end, but the association is already there. Coming from The Sticks, cooling towers were opening-credits-of-The Simpsons first, and power stations (of whatever kind) second. I'd seen the cartoon, long before I'd ever seen one in the flesh.
It's why, if you're unfortunate to find yourself sitting next to me on the bus home, you'll hear me whistling the theme tune.
Excellent.

--23 03 2004
Evenings are fairly quiet so I've printed up a few of the Talecrafters stories to review. Having only a portable TV in my room is a godsend. It means I only have the regular six channels, and as there's never anything on that I want to watch, I don't watch. I have it on in the background, but I'm working quite well.

--23 03 2004
The main source of dissatisfaction since I started my career has been the difference between what I imagined a career as an engineer would be like, and the reality. I joined this profession to solve problems, to think, to design, to act (as D-2 puts it, 'to sustain and improve the quality of people's lives'). I didn't become an engineer to worry about money --(read cost)-- and comprimise. If I had wanted to be a manager, I would have done an MBA at university.
This morning my boss and I undertook a little brainstorming to solve a problem he's been working
on. Just throwing ideas around and trying to come up with a solution. I enjoyed it. It's restored my faith work somewhat. I know that soon enough I'll be back to writing reports and making money the chief factor in all of our decisions, but that's a rant for another time. For now it's thinking time, and it's looking a little less grey.

-- 23 03 2004
I forget what I've written here, most of the time. My friends occassionally come up to me and make reference to a joke I might have made, or talk to me about something that I know I haven't told them about, and it confuses the hell out of me. I have no doubt that in a couple of weeks someone will mention The Simpsons or lightning strikes and I'll just stare at them blankly.

-- 25 03 2004
'Well, thanks for sharing your little secret! But don't worry, it won't go any further . . . I'm not sure why you were so worried about it, I'm not the sort of person that would have a problem with that, but glad you told me.'
So I tell my ex that I fancy her mate, and she takes the news well. Damn her. It makes me feel like a bastard,
because I know that if our roles were reversed I'd go mental.

-- 26 03 2004
There's a picture of Anna Kournikova pinned to the notice board. Some days it's the only thing that gets me through to 6.