Seeking the work of others for inspiration

There are times when photograph inspire, times when they just encourage you to give up with no hope of ever getting any good, and other times when you just sit back and enjoy. Fortunately, Trey Ratcliff’s work often falls into the later camp and stuckincustomers.com is one of the best sites on the web for photographers.

Amazon book reviews and the average reader

I do find it amazing how many book reviews on Amazon claim that the book isn't for the average reader. To quote from my recent comment on this: 

I do wonder who this "average" reader is that anyone posting on these feedbacks seems to consider themselves to be above.

My guess, and it is no more than that (I have no reliable information on "average" reading abilities in USA or UK) is that the vast majority of basically educated people in the developed world with some secular religious education who use a kindle are probably perfectly capable of reading and understanding this book, it is not after all an academic tomb, especially with wikipedia and the like but a click or two away to fill in some background.

Living in a flat v. living in a hotel

All of my assignments since joining PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting over ten years ago (most of which have been with IBM of course since PwC sold their consulting business) has seen me living in hotels at least three nights most working weeks. Until my last assignment that is. For the last two and a bit years, I have been able to reside in a flat rented on the Marina in Swansea (the photograph shows my view from the patio doors of my flat).

Now, whilst Swansea would not be my first choice of a second home, it is no where near as bad as so many make it out to be. This view might be coloured that by the relief of being able to live in a flat. Some people prefer hotel living, not wanting the hassle of a second home to sort out (you have to rent in your own name and pay all the bills associated with such a property), but I liked it on several grounds:

1. cooking – no more hotel food, mostly unhealthy and certainly boring after the second time through the menu;
2. clothes – I can leave things around, no need to clear everything out every week, and stay an extra night with no hassle;
3. freedom – able to live as I wish, including watching programs of my choice.

I am sure that it is no coincidence that my improvements in health, considerable weight loss, and general all-round wellness brought about over the last year have been in large part down to living in a flat rather than a hotel.

The flat has also been the source of a few cheap holidays. Several times, I took some time off work and had my wife stay with me in the flat. Occasionally, my daughters have also joined me. We have enjoyed travling around the area. The photograph shows an over the top painterly effect tone mapping of an HDR shot overlooking Langland Bay in the Gower near Swansea. Light was not promising so decided to have a play as I was not going to be able to get a nicely lit landscape. Another time maybe (or maybe not, now).

The flat was around 5 miles from the client location, but IBM ran a free bus service, and there were lots of public bus services near by. I tend not to get on well with buses, especially small old buses with poor suspension. I often felt sick, so mostly drove in each day. Not very environmentally friendly, I know. I did switch to a Prius part way through the assignment though. Once I started going to the gym regularly after Easter 2011, I had to take the car anyway as the gym I used was no where near the flat and I wanted to go there directly from work.

It was good living in a city, although it felt rather too small to be called a city. Must be a Welsh thing. Reasonable dining around, plenty of entertainment (including theatres, comedy clubs, and cinemas) and, of course, plenty of shops. There are a good few museums and art galleries as well, which I confess to having mostly ignored.

The next assignment will no doubt see me living in a hotel again, at least for a while. I think I can now survive a Marriott/Hilton again for a bit and will do no harm to restock the hotel points for family convenience. Hope I can get a flat again though.

The end of the long commute and audio book experience

I recently came the end of a long term assignment that had me travelling to Swansea every week and living in a flat three, four and sometime five nights a week. The drive at the beginning and end of the week was somewhat draining as it took at least three hours, more usually four allowing for a break and sometimes, when very tired or weather bad, five or more. Typically I drove down on a Monday morning in time to get started at 10am and left on a Thursday around 4pm.

I am not sorry to have come to the end of my commute. Of course, my next assignment might be worse. Fingers crossed that it will not be.

Years ago, I pretty much always preferred to travel by train. Problems with my back meant that this became impractical as the carrying of a suitcase and work bags, not least transferring between platforms, was not viable. These days, my back is a lot stronger thanks to finally getting into a gym habit but there was no practical service to Swansea. I am hopeful that might next assignment is convenient for train travel. A short drive to Stafford station and then a comfortable journey on the train where I can get some work done will be most welcome.

Thank goodness for Amazon's audible book service. I have devoured a huge variety of books from classics, sci-fiction, thrillers, biographies to psychology studies. I started on the monthly plan @ £15 per month which gives two book credits, and a credit can be used to buy pretty much any book regardless of length or standard price. Most of the books I go for are over 10 hours long (I try to avoid abridged works). I listened to the entire, and superb, Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (sadly, late) series on these commutes. I admit, there have been times when I realised I had failed to listen properly to sections when driving took more of my attention, but overall I have to say this is a brilliant way of reading books. Most of the readers are amazing, most of them are actors. The range of voices, subtle rather than comic, that they can bring so that in both tone, pacing, accent, etc the characters become very distinct, is incredible and really makes for a grand experience. Particularly impressive is when women or men are voicing the opposite gender and it not being odd in anyway.

One set of books I read, starting with WWW:Watch, by Robert J. Sawyer, was unusual in having five narrators. The narrators did not play individual characters but rather read from the point of view of particular characters, which mean each narrator had to voice all of the characters. The amazing thing was, whichever narrator was reading, you immediately recognised the character that was speaking as they had agreed on how to express each voice. Clearly, the women's voices were overall higher than the mens' but it made no difference. Amazing.

I suspect I shall go through fewer books now, may need to revert to the one book a month plan. You never know though.