Tuesday 30 November 2010

St Andrew's Day

Thanks to my work giving us St Andrew's Day as a public holiday I've spent a relaxing time at home with my feet up, eating good food and watching anime.  Currently watching 4 ongoing anime, that is ones that are still being broadcast and are made available to watch once a week and a whole bunch of others that have completed their runs.  My favourite at the moment is Amagami SS, which Bob the Axeman tells me is based on a Playstation game.


Changed my wallpaper to suit, using my favourite of the characters so far, Morishima Haruka.





The evening may end with a final blast at Bakemonogatari, which is excellently directed and has a really good style to it.  Only got a few episodes to go before I have finished it though so may limit myself, it's so good that I want to stretch out my enjoyment as much as possible.

Sunday 14 November 2010

ILUG

Back from three days at the ILUG (Irish Lotus User Group) in Belfast and what a great three days it was. I'm always amazed at the amount I take away from events like these, not only in material I have learned but  in ideas that form in my head on things we should be doing differently.


Paul Mooney and his "green-shirts" did an absolutely outstanding job of organising all of this, giving both their time and their efforts for free. Everything (well most things) ran smoothly and the only sore point I had was my bottom from sitting too much. The team had managed to get a fantastic selection of speakers and software suppliers to participate in the event and I was amazed at how approachable everyone was. The only complaint I had was there wasn't as many coffee breaks as I needed :)


Had to stay in a city centre hotel (Jury's Inn) and taxi it back and forth to the event hotel but that just added to it all. If you ever go to Belfast the traffic is OK every day except Thursday, late night shopping kicks in and everyone seems to go mad. The weather wasn't brilliant but it was November after all. I'd thoroughly recommend Belfast to anyone thinking of going there, a lovely city full of friendly people.


Happy to be back sleeping in my own bed again though, not that the bed in the hotel was uncomfortable, it was just unfamiliar. Back to work on Monday though and looking forward to submitting some change requests for improvements to the system.