Posts by: Andy
Seems like the world is getting ready to go off on holiday right now. Except for the few poor fools who work in IT jobs for advertising agencies, who are desperately trying to get work done for the new year (like me), most other people are already in holiday mode. I’m always interested to hear what people are doing as it gives an insight into the human condition.
Plans either fall into one of a few broad categories. In your 20′s your likely to have 24/7 drugs and partying planned, up to and including Xmas eve, and recovery Xmas morning, just in time for the family do in the afternoon. Most 30 somethings are a spectrum of this falling strongly into this group at the young end, fading out into more family based stuff at the other. The 40 somethings are definitely in the family category as most have kids, while the 50 somethings are too old to give a shit about travelling and are waiting for people to arrive.
Me, I’m firmly trying to hang in there on the 20 something plan, but age is telling me I should grow up. Maybe so, but I’ve always been stubborn.
Andy.
The twitter crew have for years been trying to tell us that theirs was a micro blogging service; one of the first and stunningly trend setting. However once you get past the surface of the term MICRO BLOGGING, you find that it’s all pretty open to interpretation.
With the global thundering rise in popularity of smart phone devices and apps like wordpress-for-android, micro blogging takes on a whole new level of meaning. If you don’t think so, try writing a blog post with just your thumbs on a touch screen 4 inches wide and 2 inches high. Then you’ll see that I’m right and Twitter have deceived us all.
Maybe I should tweet that.
Andy.
It’s a white trip on the way to work on tram 2 which heads into Leidseplein, the tourist center of Amsterdam. The snow is a reminder that we’re at the end of another year. Living in Europe means the seasons mark the passage of time in a much more prominent way than when I was living in Bris-vegas. There it’s just the constant passing of warm days and changing sweaty shirts.
The snow on the ground seems to trigger some dormant state of self review, and I can’t help but think of what the year really was with it drawing to a close. Much like this tram as it comes to the end of the line.
Andy.
The days roll into nights which roll into days, and the only real constant to mark the passing of this is the degree to which my sunburn fades into an actual tan. It’s difficult to think that there is a life beyond the borders of the Cape Verde beach line; the entireity of my existence has quietly spun down to choosing where to eat, and what beach to lie on.
It’s during this time that I’ve had a chance to reflect and understand what it is I am actually doing. In a very real way, I am now out of the forest and can see many many trees in front of me. Thoughts crystalise clearly now about what was meaningful about the past, what I want my present to be, and what is motivational for my future. If for no other reason, this time away from the world has been worth it for gaining a perspective of it that I had lost.
We’ve only a couple of days left now before returning home. I feel ready – perhaps even eager – to return to my real world and begin again with those things that I am part of. I feel relaxed and focused, and figure that’s a good thing, both for me and the people that are around me.
One final thing, I’ve been reading my way through The Lord of the Rings book. It’s my favourite book to read on holidays because I immerse myself into that world and live it in parallel to my holiday world. It’s always nice to return home after saving the world.
Andy.
Tonight I’ll be crossing the great divide of birthdays by going from 41 to 42. It seems significant somehow in a way that I cannot describe. 42 is after all the answer to the life, the universe, and everything. I feel it should have come with some sort of bomb of maturity exploding in my head, however all it really feels is a little older and perhaps a little wiser. Not quite sure, I will have to check again in 24 hours.
I am however going to celebrate in a far away exotic location surrounded by only a few close friends and a beach. It feels very dignified to do something low key, unlike the brazenly hedonistic party that was my 40th. The faraway isolation seems like a good place to mark what is a real turning point.
I wonder what happens next?
Andy
My face has gone that light pink colour that says to anyone looking that I’ve had my first day out in the sun in a really long time. On an island like Cape Verde sunburn marks you as much of a foreigner as carrying a sign board would. Everyone is black or deep olive in complexion, I don’t think I even saw any light skinned Europeans apart from our little trio. People like me stand out in the same way that a transvestite in tight stockings and high heels stands out in the main McDonalds in Leidseplein. Everyone is polite though, and take you in at a glance and don’t make a point of staring. So I got the feeling that they have a sense of a larger world more than other places I’ve visited, such as very rural areas of India.
The thing about being here is that you get the feeling your witnessing a country struggling its way forward into the modern world. Next to the old fish market that looks like it’s been there for hundreds of years there is a high tech ultra sophisticated glass and high grade marble shopping center completely at adds with the people that walk past it. There were a few people inside who looked like they had been imported in from some fashion house somewhere in the first world, all dressed like any self respecting fashionista. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a sense of longing or loathing in the people of the city that it served. Was it there for them, or was it there for the growing hoards of tourists that I’ve been told are growing in number every month? I probably will never know as I’m not going to be here long enough to find out, but it was clear that it marked a change for this city and for the people that call it home.
San Vicente is at once very familiar to me and surprising unique. This is not the first time that I’ve been travelling to a second world country. The feel of the place and the people are something that I’ve come across before, but this time I’m seeing such a place as the guest and good friend of a local who is back here for the first time in six years. Everywhere we go we’re met and treated like outside family members ourselves. It’s something that can take you a little off guard the first time that you experience it. People here put great stock in family connections and friendships. For someone who comes from a little family where you can get to know all the relatives in about five minutes, the sheer amount of names can be daunting.
Tomorrow we’re venturing up to the wilds of the mountains for a hiking trip. It may not be quite Edmund Hillary taking on Everest, but it’s going to be a test of manhood, nonetheless.
Here’s hoping the trees provide me some shade.
Andy.
For the first time in years, I’m actually going away on holiday, like a real holiday, not just a weekend down south of the country where the people speak a funny accent and the beer is all Belgian and strong as shit. No, I’m actually leaving on a jet plane, but I will be coming back again in just under 2 weeks. So in about 30 hours I’ll be on a small group of islands of the coast of West Africa doing absolutely fuck all; swimming, getting some sun, eating whenever I feel like it. Yeah, just like the holidays I remember I used to take before I became a grown up and got all businessy.
I never used to believe that taking time off was really necessary but recently I’ve started to feel myself run down and hit a wall the last few weeks, like a marathon runner that’s been training too hard. I’ve gotten to a point where I just can’t pick myself up and go that extra mile anymore, and it’s hard to find the motivation to put my shoes on and get out in the world. Signs that it’s time to give the real world up for a while and recharge the batteries. Sun has a very therapeutic effect that way. Sun and booze, and sun and booze, and fishing and booze. Not that booze is really necessary, but it does help lubricate yourself to higher levels of enjoyment.
What I found really funny about this whole holiday thing was that today – the day before I left – I all of a sudden found this new level of enthusiasm for activities that I gave up months ago. I wrote to people I haven’t spoken to in ages, and made some new friends at the office. Kinda weird that I’m jumping the gun on the whole feels great attitude, because that’s meant to happen on the return leg. Well, I never was all that traditional anyway.
I figure if I can return with a bleached blonde beard and hair, and a brown tan, I’ll be happy. The anemic pasty white look is worn out, and we’re only just at the start of winter. I just want want one skin colour change before the Eur0pean deep freeze hits.
Bring on the suncream!
Andy.
The expression, you never know how good you had it until it’s gone, is one of those cliche sayings that proves itself time and time again in the cycle of my life. It’s funny how many of us – especially in my case – go through periods of life where first we wish things were different, and then when they are, we wish they were like it was when we wished things were different. As people we’re constantly gazing over the fence looking at stars over grassy fields, thinking that our present circumstances make us hard done by. Many of us seem to live in this eternal state of always looking ahead, but never really appreciating where we are right now.
I recently had a pretty shift in circumstances in my life, and everything is different from what it was two months ago. And now I really appreciate where I was back then, and how good things were. If I could, I’d wave a magic wand and I’d go back there. But of course, I can’t so I don’t bother thinking like this for more than a fleeting moment. What I do find though is that this allows me to reflect quite deeply on what I really want, and what’s important to me.
This process of self reflection is quite valuable in that it allows me to see what it is I really want out of life. And for that, I’m thankful, because then I can structure my life to follow this goal. So perhaps it’s not the worst thing in the world to have your circumstances change and you end up in a worse place than before. The worst thing about being in a worse place is that you don’t see a way out of it.
To some extent I think that we as people all have to experience good and bad, to understand the difference between the two. That’s the philosophy behind many eastern religions that talk about enlightenment. You live; you experience good stuff; you experience bad stuff; you learn; you grow. Without believing in any of this though, by the time most of us become adults we have experienced some form of emotional heartache and heartbreak to know that we only really grow as people during these periods. It’s the suffering that defines us because we’re forced to dig deep inside to evolve and change our circumstances for the better.
So tomorrow I’ll wake up and I’ll reluctantly go to the place I’m supposed to be, but at the same time I’ll remember that because of this circumstance, the next change will be going somewhere better because I know what it is I want.
Andy.
Life was on the up and up in Amsterdam for me, and I could see things falling into place without the aid of a master plan, but rather just plain blind luck, and a girlfriend that worked for a social housing corporation. I’d started applying around for jobs the week before by getting my CV out into the local job market, and without much effort on my side an IT contracting agency called me and asked If I was interested in long term freelance job at a rate of £50 (GBP) per hour.
“Would that rate be suitable to you”? The nice man on the other end of the phone asked. Continue reading »
So I’m writing this entry on a 5 year old computer which is freshly installed with the shiny new Ubuntu 10.4 Linux operating system, using the even shinier, and still somewhat new Google Chrome browser. Which is all techno-babble for, “the latest and greatest in stuff that doesn’t come from Microsoft”.
And it’s all very VERY impressive. This new operating system is so slick it is the first one of its kind to equal what windows can do in terms of putting something in the hands of ordinary users that can be used, and in some respects do better than anything they have done. Ubuntu is really something my mother could use, and be happy with.
Why does this matter? Well there are lots of technical reasons why this is a milestone, but in my mind the biggest one is the fact that a lot of very vocal people over the last decade said, it couldn’t be done (this being a Linux desktop that anyone could use as easy as Windows). For me though, the even bigger reason is the cultural change this milestone is going to bring about to the worlds masses that use a computer for either work, or for personal use; which is to say, everyone.
To this day, the great technical unwashed masses use Microsoft for everything they do in their online lives, with the big exception of mobile stuff. Thanks to Apple, the iPhone has shown everyone there is another world out there that is exciting and fresh and hip. Apple’s marketing team has been hard at work though getting this message out for quite a number of years though through their series of television advertisements which have become culturally iconic. Justin Long, who plays Mac, and John Hodgman who plays PC, have become popular and parodied and sustaining in their comedic roles as the two friendly rivals on opposite sides of the computer technology fence. It was really a stroke of brilliance on Apple’s part to take the technology out of the tech, and put in it’s place personas that we identify with, and remember. This has been why the last 5 years have seen the rise of the Mac against the backdrop of the Windows behemoth.
So with Ubuntu now adding a new range of hammer and chisels to the mainstream with which to start chipping away at Microsoft’s monopoly, I see real change on the personal computer horizon. We’re still a long way from the days when there isn’t one all mighty powerful company running the global PC show, but a number companies that compete on the grounds of innovation and features for a user base that pays a very modest fee for their personal computing choices. However, like the Berlin Wall, it had to be chipped away one piece at a time over a long period of time before it wasn’t there any more. I liken the fall of Windows to the fall of the Berlin Wall because they both start with an ideology change in the minds of the masses, which takes root and grows, and eventually leads to action, which results in a downfall.
I’m not in any way saying that Microsoft is an evil regime, though many do and probably for good reason. My personal stance is, Microsoft just want to make a lot of money which they do through market dominance. I leave it to the courts to decide if what Microsoft does is done in a legal or good or bad way. However I do believe that we the masses are being screwed by Microsoft because they want to keep prices high for tech goods that are now so ubiquitous and necessary they should be cheaper than peanuts. The only way Microsoft really holds onto its dominance is by holding people to ransom to keep us locked into their business. Which is what they do with a lot of open standards that could free consumers choice; Microsoft buys off companies and governments to make them stay on their side of the fence. It’s legal, but really, it’s not right.
Today I see another avenger of justice on the desktops of ordinary people, and for the first time believe that one day I’ll live to wake up to a world where Microsoft isn’t on every computer everywhere I go.
Andy.
