Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
We’re taking over….
Posted by on May 17, 2005
One of my other daughters has also just set up her own space…. Check out http://spaces.msn.com/members/britishsarah/.
She has a nice selection of photos of family and friends.
To Jan
Posted by on May 15, 2005
I don’t know who actually wrote this – it wasn’t me. I came across this on another site, but it’s so perfect that I’m borrowing these words and dedicating them for Jan, my lovely wife, who I miss like mad right now……
Every once in a while,
I want you to close your eyes
and remember….
all the smiles that you and I
have shared.
And, when you open your eyes,
I want you to smile
one more smile….
as you gently realize
that no matter how many days
or how many miles
come between us…
You and I will always be
As close as close gets.
Why “JohnK”?
Posted by on May 14, 2005
So, why "JohnK" and not "John"?
There are two reasons for this. In my first ‘proper’ job after school, I worked as a member of an 8 person team, and we had 4 Johns in the team. As a result, the first John (the manager) was just called John, and to differentiate between the remaining 3 johns, the first letter from the surname got tagged on. That also became my e-mail id (this is the second reason), and I was able to carry that ID into all of my subsequent jobs, so the name JohnK stuck.
In fact it’s stuck to a point where if I use my real name in a work conversation with someone I’ve just been introduced to but who I’ve exchanged e-mail with, I typically get the response "John who?" or a puzzled look, and then after a second or two, I get the follow-on comment "Oh… JohnK. So you’re JohnK!" and then they launch into a load of stuff that is usually too embarrassing to repeat (and usually but not always for good reasons)!
So I’ve become JohnK, or occasionally JK to everyone except my family (who only has one John to deal with – luckily for them)
Coping with time zones and keeping in touch
Posted by on May 14, 2005
Tips for a geographically dispersed family #2: Time zones can be a killer….
If you want to keep in touch in real time where there’s an 8-hour time zone difference between you and your family, picking a good time to communicate becomes very difficult, especially if the concerned parties are working or at school.
As an example, when I’m going to bed, my family is getting up and getting ready to go out. When I’m getting up, during the week my family is at work/school, and at the weekend they’re typically shopping/out with friends or doing things that they can’t do during the week because they are at work/school. Their evening is my work time during the week, and by the time I can get out of work, they are in bed. The only ‘good’ time to ‘chat’ is at the weekends late in the day for them (mid-day to mid-afternoon for me).
What this has meant is that during the week we typically have short ‘chats’ in the evening their time when I can divert myself from work for a bit (I’m lucky enough to have a job where interruptions like this don’t cause a major problem), and at the weekend we end up having longer chats during their evening, but to achieve this I end up running around like mad either first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon to do stuff that I need to get done over the weekends.
There is no easy answer to this, but it is important to keep in touch, especially if you are apart for an extended period, so do what you can to make it work as much as possible. If all else fails, make good use of e-mail, as that makes it easier to deal with time differences for non-direct communication. It’s important to have direct real-time communication on a regular basis though, so don’t just rely on e-mail.
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
Posted by on May 13, 2005
I’ve been a fan of Douglas Adams stuff for a long time – I’d listened to the original BBC radio series of ‘the guide’ long before I read the books, and I was pleased that the books preserved the plot and ambiance of the radio series. The BBC television series also followed the plot of the books very well, and was a masterful piece of TV broadcasting for its time.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (in 5 parts!) should be required reading for everyone – my youngest daughter chose to study these books as part of her English Literature coursework at school and got hooked also! The books poke fun at our way of life in such a quirky English way that I can’t help but be cheered up by them, and Marvin ("I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed", "Here I am, brain the size of a planet….") is my favourite character!
I was pleased when a couple of years ago rumours started spreading that there was finally to be a film of the book. It went on release on April 29 to much media hype in the US, and while it’s a good film, and does its best to stick to the overall themes of the book, and it is dedicated to Douglas Adams, the story does deviate somewhat from the books.
I’m not such a fan that this upsets me, and I think they’ve done a good job with the film, and it was really cool to see them use the ‘original’ BBC Marvin robot as a cameo in part of the film, and overall I give it a thumbs up, but I can imagine that some ‘guide’ purists will be upset by this Hollywood version of the story.
I give it an 8 out of 10!
The BBC have also picked up where they left off years ago, and last year started a project where they would bring to radio the remaining books in the series. They did book 3 last year, they are working through book 4 now, and book 5 will follow later. Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/.
Images by John 'K' 