Oct

30

live from Shoreditch at the Podshow UK offices

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 5 Comments

I’m at the Podshow UK offices in Shoreditch, sneaking some wifi and generally trying to stay out of the way of the busy people meeting, setting things up, and doing media company thangs (whatever that is exactly).

I must say that I dig the office, even in this unfinished and sparsely furnished state. It’s an old building; a dual-purpose space with a positively lovely kitchen area— it has concrete countertops and a generous amount of cabinetry on exposed blonde brick walls. The floors are weathered planks from god-knows-when and the windows are massive and plentiful. Fantastic light! I have a tiny bit of ’space’ envy and I think part of that is just for the kitchen alone! I love to cook and I’m pretty certain I’ll be popping in with a bag full of groceries to cook for weary and hungry late-night media company folks at some point. I really look forward to being able to do that sometime.

The downstairs neighbours here are a funny bunch. They’ve apparently got a residential flat and can’t stand the noise of people walking around in shoes up here. More than one person on their way up to Podshow has been confronted in the hallway/stairwell area and told to remove their shoes! I have only so much sympathy for the neighbours— they live in a dual-purpose space (residential/commercial) in the latest trendy media area of London (think new Soho) and want media types, celebrities, and business people to take off their shoes… erm, yeah. That’s not going to last. I can just see the neighbours asking a bitchy celebrity to take off her expensive heels. This could be amusing.

It’s a funny thing listening to the sounds of the city. I’ve lived in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh (a rather noisy and grubby mini New York) and got used to the noise just fine, but living where I do now I only have the rumble of the A4 out my window to deal with. The flat has double-glazed windows and the drone of traffic is easy enough to tune out. Here in Shoreditch I have noticed jackhammers, pavement saws, lorries, buses, horns, and all sorts of other imaginable city noises. It’s a change and I’m not certain it would be easy to work with all that noise going on. I’m sure everyone will get used to it. I’d certainly be packing some nice noise-cancelling earbuds though…

I’d love to get back here tomorrow and if I do I may bring my good camera with me. The buildings around Shoreditch have so much character and if the weather permits it I’d love to grab some shots of the area. I do have some freelance to get done, so London may not happen tomorrow; my real workstation is unfortunately not mobile. I’m certain I’ll be seeing more of the area since Neil will be spending more time in the city. There is plenty of future time for me to snap pictures.

Anyway, I’m soon off to catch a train home. Of course I’m leaving just when I think I’m beginning to tune out the city noises…

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Oct

27

chilling out

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 1 Comment

The work is done. I’ve got a glass of cabernet sauvignon and a new book (thank you Chad!).

Tomorrow I’m going to relax, study some PhotoReading, and do a little writing. Sleeping in sounds like a good idea too. I admit my ability to cope with a heavy work week is less robust than it used to be. I’m kind of a wuss now. :)
And for my immediate plans— I’m getting away from my damn monitors for the rest of the night. I think I even have mouser’s wrist. Thank goodness it’s not the hand I use to raise my wine glass.

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Oct

26

sooooper busy

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This has been a crazy week with freelance. One night in particular I was wrapping up the work day at nearly 5 AM the next morning! It’s good stuff but tiring! The job is mostly web graphics — Photoshop creative mainly — but the quantity is pretty heavy and results are to be very public. Seriously exciting times! I’d love to get some more work from these people, so I’m trying to really give this initial assignment my best efforts.

This particular workload means very little time to blog until the weekend, at which point I’ll resume my fairly regular posting. I did slip out of the flat for a bit of the Mac Expo in London today (part of the reason I worked such long hours was to afford the time attend this) and now I’m knackered. I still need to get some work done tonight, but I think I may endeavour to hit the sheets by midnight. My head is so sleepy right now that there’s no way my best creativity will ooze out of my fingertips anyway. Some grunt work tonight, then the magic tomorrow.

You’ll hear from me at the weekend, but don’t worry— I’m still thinking about you. * smooch *

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Oct

24

Fun with Unix and sticky network trash

Filed Under me so g33ky, tout le fromage | Leave a Comment

Terminal is opened infrequently on this machine. I know enough Unix to be dangerous, but sometimes it’s the only way to deal with sticky file issues. Sometimes I use it to open an old Stuffit file that the latest version of Stuffit won’t touch, but today I needed to get rid of trashed files on external drives and restore my sanity.

If you get an error message like this:
Trasherror
and no amount of permissions fixes, reboots, or waving dead chickens about has helped, then you need to get freaky in the Terminal application.

After a bit of digging for how to delete the un-deleteable, I finally found the magic Google search word combination to yield a useful lead. Deleting stuff off your own volume is fairly straightforward; deleting stuff off of your external drives is trickier information to obtain. (Goodness knows why— it’s really pretty simple.)

First, make sure the stubborn files are in the Trash. Try to delete them by File>Empty Trash. Nothing? OK, proceed to launch Terminal and follow my lead. (Disclaimer: This is a tip I’ve used but I’m not responsible if you delete the wrong files or get lost in Terminal… you’re a big kid now, you’re responsible for your own mess.)

Open the Trash in Finder. Spin open any folders or whatever so you can see the sticky file. You’ll need to be able to drag and drop it to terminal after entering the following code.

Type in:
sudo rm -R
(Take care that there is a space after the -R)

Drag the target file icon from the Trash window to after the space character in Terminal. Terminal will fill in all the freaky path jargon. Press Return. It should pause and then bring up a new prompt as shown in the next picture here: *
Terminal Trash

Glance back at the Trash window and marvel at the lack of sticky network file in your Trash.
Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Hope this helps. This tip has certainly given me back a bit sanity this morning! :D
smooches~
jEN

*You may be prompted to enter a password after hitting Return. This is your Admin password. Enter it and hit Return to continue with the command.

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Oct

22

short hair again

Filed Under photos, tout le fromage | 7 Comments

reDSC00017.jpg
You can see this shot larger on my flickr page. (Click it to get there.)
I’ve also uploaded three other shots of random things. Enjoy!

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Oct

22

I meant to blog today - honest

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

But I didn’t really. I did start three blog posts— they’re all in draft stage. I just had no focus to be in front of the computer today…

What I did do was order a positively delicious pizza and watch a movie. The Island with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. I must say, it was highly entertaining. Interesting story (sci-fi/thriller/action thing), loads of explosions, and likeable characters. I’d see it again.

Outside of that, I started my PhotoReading training. See Neil’s blog for a good post about the method. I’ll get something down here about PhotoReading, but probably not until late next week. I want to form a fuller opinion on my experience with the system before I blog it.

Went to another fun Geek Dinner in London on Friday night. I went there knowing one person in the room (Ian), found another pal (Neil Ford) in the back of the venue, and left having met three more people doing 20×2, Molly, and exchanged details with a whole new gaggle of wonderful geeks. I woke up with a nasty social hangover — that is to say, not a hangover from drink (of which I had very little) — but rather from talking, laughing, and processing the painful decibel level of the gathering. I went to bed with ears ringing like I’d been to a concert and nearly no voice left! Regardless, a good time. I found out through Molly that another female author I admire lives in my town and that I should look her up. I just might.

As a footnote on the festivities, I should say that I experienced London buses for the first time last night. I went to the Geek Dinner alone (my Neil was busy), which was fine since I’ve been to London plenty of times on my own, but the Central Line (Tube) was such a mess that they wouldn’t even let passengers board. We were told to use buses and I have nothing but praise for the incredibly helpful bus drivers I met last night. I got to Paddington Station with no trouble at all. Yay! Thanks fellas!

Oh — last update before I get myself to bed — I got my hair cut short again. It’s a cute cut and is so easy to style. I miss my piggies (the pig tails I often wear) but it’s kind of liberating to have short hair again. Most of the photographs of me are with short hair (check the .Mac photos link) so it’s something many of you have seen before.

That’s about it for the weekend so far, or at least all my sleepy brain can think of right now. Time for bed.

smooches~
jEN

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Oct

19

20×2

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

I’ve been asked to take part in a really amazing event:
20×2
The strap line is “Twenty speakers. One question. Two minutes each.”
See more about it at their site.

It’s an odd feeling to be asked as I’m not entirely clear why I have been. I know my web presence isn’t necessarily small (I do far more than regularjen) but did all that add up to a nomination somewhere? Have I met someone somewhere who thought I might fit with this? I have no idea. I am thrilled and honoured to be asked though, and I hope I give everyone a great two minutes. :)
The generic request for additional personal information was in my inbox this morning and has solidified it in my head that I actually said ‘yes’ to the invitation to speak! I’ve done more than my fair share of public speaking in the past, minor stage time with bands and theatre, and have officiated weddings, so getting up on stage isn’t really the most daunting part of the event— I think it might be the writing of the bio.

Of course, that said, I haven’t begun to seriously think about what I might do with my two minutes. It can be multi-media, musical, talk, fire-eating… whatever answers the question in my unique voice.

The question, you ask? “Where am I?”
So far, it seems I’m at the beginning.

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Oct

18

I love a deadline

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

Earlier, around 10 PM perhaps, I thought I knew how my evening was going to play out—
Goof off on the computer for a while (new t-shirt art and stuff), then retire with a glass of wine and a book. Little did I know that I’d be doing market-specific copywriting for an urgent last minute deadline! Yowsa!

It’s beyond midnight now and though a fat glass of wine is coursing its way through my veins, I am only a little bit tired. My task is done but my brain is still hot-wired for more activity. I’m going to ignore it and try to relax anyway, but I absolutely love the buzz of a surprise task that throws me into gear. Whether it’s writing words or writing code, it’s pretty much the same response from my brain. An adrenaline junkie for deadline critical cerebral challenges.

Rawr!

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