Cue the Violins

I watched the second episode of the new series of House tonight (Broken part 2) and, I confess, I cried and I'm not at all ashamed to admit it. The plot was brilliant (and a welcome departure from the usual formula) and the closing music Seven Day Mile by the Frames put the finishing gloss on my tear streaked cheeks.

Music can do that can't it - I've found myself welling up simply listening to a violin played by Nigel Kennedy.  But sadly those skills are not available to me and at my age I think are beyond my reach.  But writing is not...

I'm elated, inspired and excited by House making me blub.  You see I want to write professionally, so to be affected in that way by writers at the top of their game fills me with the desire to emulate that feat.  To form an emotional connection with a reader, listener or viewer is, to me, a magical and precious thing...

Please join me in my journey,

Posted via email from Chas's posterous

Testing Posterous

Day 1 of 30 Missed the midnight deadline so back at day one. Testing
Posterous to see if I've set it up right. Should do blogger, facebook
and Twitter.

Posted via email from Chas's posterous

Maybe it is rocket science...

Be a Blogger Day 1 of 30: I was struck by the power of accumulated experience this morning while working on a website. I bet X would really enjoy doing this, I thought. He's a smart guy, he wouldn't be phased by this, it's easy enough, it has structure and patterns that make it easy to see what it does. I was staring at a page of XML.

To me it did look comfortingly easy and clear. But last week my Mum pointed out I've been programming computers since I was 16 - as near as damn it 30 years. So I paused for a second, looked at the code again and thought about it. I tried to remember how it felt to first look at a language I didn't understand. I tried to recall that "first driving lesson" feeling - but I don't have it. I remember struggling really briefly - seems like a day or two - but my youthful enthusiasm battered it down like a balsa wood door. Though I rather suspect I struggled a lot more and that time has dulled those memories.

Those memories are viewed through the lens of 30 years of accumulated knowledge. I've learnt five 3GLs, four or five 4GLs, half a dozen scripting languages, several dozen tools for designing, coding, testing, debugging, version control and documentation. I also realised the best skill of all is the skill of acquiring new skills. I haven't had any formal training in XML but, as part of a Joomla! template, its purpose in the larger picture is as plain to me as what I've just written

I have to conclude I really shouldn't use the phrase "It's not rocket science..." or "It's quite straightforward..." to people who are just starting out. I'm incapable of seeing it from their viewpoint now. With regard to X, he's 22 and could shower the world balsa fragments if he chooses to, but I shouldn't tell him it'll all be easy, because it won't.

Raisin Bar

I retrieved this from the cut off back of a packet of Sun-Maid (tm) Raisins. My Mum made it for me many times when I was a child and it is, needless to say, a fond childhood memory. I'm leaving all the brand names in out of courtesy to the original copyright holder.

Ingredients

• 4oz (115g) Butter or Margarine
• 6oz (170g) Soft Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 4oz (115g) Plain Flour
• 1/2 Level tsp Salt
• 2oz (60g) Kellogg's All-Bran(tm) or Bran Buds(tm)
• 6oz (170g) Sun-Maid(tm) Seedless Raisins

The original recipe calls for icing but I think it's better plain.

• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs and vanilla essence together and gradually beat into the creamed mixture.
• Sieve flour and salt together and fold into the mixture with the All Bran/Bran Buds and the Sun-Maid seedless raisins.
• Grease the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) square cake tin and spread the mixture level.
• Bake at Gas Mark 4/350F/180C for one hour.
• Turn out and cool.

Victoria Sponge

Sat in bed reading Paul McKenna's "I Can Make You Thin" I gently brush aside the crumbs of Victoria Sponge and turn the page. I stare at the cake box mulling over the idea of a third slice, with the stern words of a Doctor ringing in my ears with the phrase "morbidly obese".

It seems odd that as a species we are so successful, yet, as individuals, so often flawed. Why does something as marvellous and complex as the human brain come with no instructions? How has has evolution propelled us to such heights when most of us can so happily indulge in potentially harmful habits like drinking, smoking and eating crap?

It took the emergence of Richard Bandler and John Grinder to make a first quantum leap in self control. I have their tool (NLP) firmly in my grasp, and I've had a degree of success with it in the past (destroying a phobia my Mum had in about 10 minutes) However, I have consistently failed to use that tool for my own benefit.

The answer, I think is the sheer power and comfort of habits. Every weekend I come home with the firm intention of swimming a couple of times, going for a bike ride and making an impact on the two hundred plus unread books I've bought from Amazon in the last ten years. And every weekend I completely fail to do those things. This is because I have a habit, a pattern, a furrow which I find comfortable and reassuring.

I have a two and a half hour drive home on Thursdays and I'm usually quite tired from a week of sleeping badly in strange hotel beds. When I get in I enjoy, without a pang of guilt, the jumbo sausage, fried chicken and chips that Sue brings home. I enjoy a couple of Murphy's and a bit of TV before bed. I enjoy going to bed gone midnight, getting up around 10:30. But these are things I need to change. The adult swimming session starts at 07:00...

I spend Friday productively, for the most part, progressing various projects... but that bike ride... when do I do that bike ride? It's evening again and I've been working all day, time for more Murphy's, more TV, another late-night-and-lie-in. Something has to change...

Saturday is chores day followed by an evening out with friends. Another swim missed another bike ride avoided... Something has to change...

Sunday, big lie in, listening to BH on Radio 4 and the Podcast of Friday Night Comedy. Another missed swim and the overcast skies make a bike ride an unattractive prospect. Something has to change!

I've bought Bandler's new book "Get the Life You Want" and the chapter headings indicate that there are elements of moving towards desirable behaviour as well as curing bad memories and modifying bad behaviour. A month from now I hope to be reporting the wonders dipping cellery into a tub of houmous and talking nostalgically of deep fried chicken. I'll keep you all informed how it goes.

PS To all snooping health insurers I only really had one guilty slice of sponge, call it artistic licence!