04.30.07
Posted in Holidays at 12:55 pm by emerym
After 9/11 and the numerous bombings on holiday resorts, many blamed the terrorists for impacting the travel industry. They might have triggered a chain of events, but can’t be blamed for what’s happening today.
How would you like to work 7AM to 11PM, seven days a week, for half your current salary?
I’d put money on nobody saying “Yes please!“, but this is close to what’s happened to my wife and many home workers in the travel industry. Granted it’s not happened overnight, but it has happened.
Why? Because many holiday makers (thankfully not all) are now in the habit of calling around, playing one company off against the other. Even worse, getting two homeworkers from the same company to unknowingly compete against each other. Fair enough if you think you’re being asked to pay hundreds of pounds over the odds, but I’ve had my wife complain too many times of people asking “I’ve got a quote of £X from company Y, can you beat it by £5 or £10 a head?“. Some times they don’t even start with such a statement and monopolize the homeworkers time only to then reject their quote. These people are willing to spend ages – hours not minutes – on the phone to save the price of a meal or few pints of beer. If they had someone impact their own salary they’d no doubt get very upset.
What they fail to realize is that commissions on many holidays are now so low that many home workers are having to put in longer and longer hours to earn a decent wage. Some homeworkers do it for pocket money, most need to earn a proper salary as they have mortgages to pay. Being stuck on the phone with time wasters makes things even worse. Many are giving up. Smaller companies are loosing their ABTA licenses and going bust. Unless something changes, in the not too distant future we may not have many independent holiday firms to call on, if any. We’ll have to go to one of a very few major operators and pay whatever price they ask for. Holidays will again be a luxury only the rich can afford.
I could be wrong, but believe me the signs are there…
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Posted in WM PDA Phone at 11:59 am by emerym
I need to invest in some of those anti-slip mats you can get for a car dash.
I’d left my phone on my bedside table while I went into my wifes office to send a FAX. It was plugged into the laptop via USB. While in the office my father called, setting of the phone. He left a voicemail which Vodafone then tried to deliver three times within a few minutes.
The vibration from those 4 calls and slight pull from the USB cable was enough to send it off the edge of the table three feet to the floor! Luckily there is no sign of any damage.
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04.28.07
Posted in Health at 6:10 pm by emerym
Last weekend, Friday to Sunday, had been bad, with Sunday being the worst. A massive thanks to my mum for coming to the rescue, cooking dinner for Sophie and I while Denise was away!
Tuesday morning when I woke I stayed in bed for a little while, totally still. I felt rather good. After being up for half an hour I could feel the I&I6 doing it’s thing.
I’d been told that there’s nothing I can do but keep taking the tablets and let the Kikuchi burn itself out. As the Interferons and Interleukin-6 are coming from the lymph nodes, and muscle activity is the pump for the lymphatic system, it’s reasonable to link physical activity to the cold and fatigue feelings. Having been on my feet for hours on Saturday and feeling awful, I’d been thinking more about how my activity was making it worse. I’ve been getting even more in tune with the fatigue and what I’m doing to stop and start it.
Weeks ago I would have been active around the house for longer periods, getting tired and returning to bed to sleep most days. On bad days like today I can’t do anything about it and have to sleep, but on mediocre days I can carefully balance my activity and rest to limit the effects and survive a day without feeling so bad.
I am getting better. The whole up/down cycle seems to be stretching out.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 5:54 pm by emerym
A big thanks for all the kind words from everyone at the office on Wednesday. It was very nice to see you all, and thanks to all of you who were able to join me for lunch. I looking forward to seeing you all again soon.
A extra THANKS! to Wei Li for volunteering to pack my desk up for the office move.
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Posted in Health, Music at 5:48 pm by emerym
Having put together my party play list or “Soundtrack to a Recovery” together, I stumbled upon a video with the music “Dare you to move” by Switchfoot on YouTube. I’ve never heard of them before now, but will hunt down their CDs. This has got to be my “Title track”. I just love how it sounds and with the fatigue back in anger today the lyrics strike a cord..
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
I dare you to move
The tracks been used as the music to a fan made Star Trek Enterprise video about T’Pol and Trip. Yes, I’m a Treky, and love the video too. Shame they canned the show.
The lyrics are here and YouTube video here.
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04.21.07
Posted in Health at 7:50 pm by emerym
The cold symptoms have continued all week. The last few days I’ve woken very early and had to give my nose a good sorting out, waking the wife. Good job she gets back to sleep in seconds!
Everyone’s walking around in with just T-Shirts on and I’m back in multiple layers, feeling cold. I’ve had a few odd looks as I go for my walks, tucked up in my sweat top and coat. I think half the people are kidding themselves that it’s much warmer than it really is, the other half just like being cold. First sign of sun and they think summer’s arrived.
The feeling of fatigue in the top of the chest and shoulders returned this morning, I’d hoped to have seen the last of that. 
It fades a bit if I rest, so when I do just rest rather than sleep, I’ve been resting in bed with the laptop wide open, propped up by a pillow on my stomach. Not sure the Occupational Health team would approve re the resting position, but I’m comfortable 
I’ve tweaked rlToday on my PDA as much as I’m going to for the moment, but still keep an eye on the forums and surf the web for other PDA tools while I listen to my music. Mortscript 4.01A is my brains current gymnastic apparatus, it’s a great scripting tool. It all helps pass the time, but I’d rather skip a few weeks like Adam Sandler’s character in the movie “Click”.
On the subject of Occupational Health, I’ll be coming into the office on Wednesday for an 11:00 appointment. Also my boss is keen to see me doing some project work again, which will be a good way to get back into the swing of things. I’ll need to negotiate with OH as they say they don’t normally allow home working, I don’t think my body’s up for traveling much yet, especially after todays experience. “Normally” suggests that they allow exceptions to the rule. Another opportunity to be a statistic 
I dread to think what my Inbox will look like after three months. By this stage I thought all email to it would be bouncing. I sent a quick test from my home account and nothing came back! Not even an out of office! Oh My!
I hope to see some of the team after the meeting with OH, maybe grab some lunch at 12:00 if Interleukin and his mate Interferon have taken a break
If they haven’t I’ll shut them up with a few pints of something strong.
And talking of alcohol… I got taken to the shops this afternoon for what was supposed to be a “quick” buying of a top for the wife’s business trip this Sunday. Then my daughter had to buy something. What are women like! By the time the three hours in shops was over, if my body could have screamed without the use of my lungs or mouth it would have done so, with my arms, chest, legs and hands all having a go. I put up with too much.
Luckily my wife wasn’t in the mood for cooking and we had something at Miso. A starter of two bottles of Sapporo helped take the edge off. What a day! At least I’m getting over my paranoia of mixing with others.
Ending this long rambling on something positive, I’d forgotten an entry for my “Looking forward to” list – My 42nd Birthday Party! The track listing that will be playing, in random order, can be found here: Party Track List
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04.18.07
Posted in Health at 3:24 pm by emerym
The fatigue after Sunday’s nice afternoon hasn’t been as bad. Still there, but reduced. Now I feel like I’ve got a cold. Maybe I have, it’s hard to tell one from the other. According to the recent letter from Prof Linch at UCL it’s “Interleukin-6″ and “Interferons” causing all the side effects. Call Captain Scarlet.. no wait, that was the Mysterons 
I should count my blessings and be thankful for the Allianz cover and prompt service I’ve received from everyone. Old Grim’s got an eye on my street. I’m not feeling great, but I have two close neighbors who are really suffering which puts things in perspective. One has just gone into hospital with advanced Alzheimer’s and isn’t expected to be allowed to return home – he keeps wondering off and getting lost. The other has been suffering from long term depression and had other complaints overlooked, he’s also just gone into hospital. His wife’s been told he’s got prostate cancer, it’s spread into other organs and is past the point of treatment. He’s been given weeks to live.
Life’s not fair, he’s such a nice bloke.
UPDATE: They’re letting him come home to die. At least his family will get to see him at home and not in some stuffy hospital.
On the subject of medical cover, the bills have been rolling in over the last couple of days. These consultants are on a good rate, one’s charging £233 an hour! I know they’ll be paying for the use of an office at the hospital they’re working from, but they’re still earning well. I must add “Surgeon” to the list of jobs for young Sophie. One of the Doctors I spoke to has a daughter at the same school as Sophie and said she would do well to concentrate on Math, Chemistry and Biology.
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04.15.07
Posted in Health at 9:55 pm by emerym
This afternoon was bloody brilliant.
Nice weather, no fatigue and only a very slight feeling of a cold. I had a lot more energy. Sophie and I went to the park for three hours and played on the swings and listened to music. After dinner we played Payday yet again. She thrashed me once more. I’m sure she’s got magic dice
Hopefully there wont be a big down swing tomorrow.
Good day!
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04.14.07
Posted in Health at 5:03 pm by emerym
Thursday was a crap day, the KFD side effects were at the worst they’ve been for a long time and I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. Friday was a bit better and I got to sit in the garden, get some fresh air and chat to Denise’s Jag owning B.N.I buddy.
Today I’ve felt quite drained. Sophie asked that we play six months of “Payday”. I was yawning my head off the whole game. By 11 I was back in bed and slept for another two hours. It’s becoming quite a regular occurrence – I sleep for around 10 hours at night and then another two during the day. Almost always it’s two, half a normal four hour sleep cycle. At least it helps lessen the feeling of fatigue and makes the days shorter.
This afternoon I took a walk up to the chemists to get another bumper box of ibuprofen and sneezed all the way. I could do without the blessed tree pollen. Fast forward spring, roll on summer!
My mum and dad have been a great help looking after my daughter for the odd day here and there. I’m sure my wife’s feeling the strain of having to work and keep an eye on Sophie while I’m resting.
While we were playing Payday I had my old PDA hooked up to the HiFi playing music from my “Party” list. The highlight of the morning was watching Sophie miming to Iron Maiden’s “Run To The Hills” while playing the game.
She got the giggles when I explained that she looked the part as lead singer Bruce Dickinson also had long brown hair when he sang the song. He’s not an obvious roll model, but has done quite well. Airline pilot, international fencing champ, 80 million+ records sold..
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Posted in WM PDA Phone at 4:01 pm by emerym
Hi,
The Mozilla based Minimo web browser has been updated to 0.20. I last tried the 0.16 version mid Feb, and found it way too slow. So far I’ve found 0.20 much faster and it’s GUI has improved a lot. Well worth trying out and keeping an eye on. It supports Javascript, AJAX, variable font sizes, etc. It’s so much better than PIE already.
I’ve been using MortScript 4.0 on the PDA to do a number of things, such as provide a method for updating Registry keys for my rlToday skin. Highly Recommended for the PDA hacker.
Sorry no links for the next lot, try XDA developers, Aximsite then Google. I’ve included the file names to help with searching. If you still can’t find it add a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
If you want to change your keyboard layout track down RipBoard (RipboardV02B2.zip). The XML config file allows you to change where each key is, it’s size and what it does with caps on or off. Great for making a coding keyboard with all the {}; etc you need.
If like me you’ve got a pre-WM5 PDA or two with a half dead touch screen track down PIrazu (pirazu-pocketpc2002-204.zip). It uses the D-Pad to control an on screen cursor. My old Jornada PDA, close to going in the bin, is now fitted with a SanDisk 128MB WiFi card and is a streaming Ogg Vorbis player for the kitchen. “Keep on moving don’t stop, no..”
Another one worth tracking down is File Dialogue Changer (filedlgchg.zip) If you have an app that uses the default file dialogue that doesn’t let you control file locations this is just what you need. I can now have my Interactive Fiction files in another folder and open them okay.
The last one for the moment is “FloatMe” (floatme_cab.zip). It makes full screen windows into windows that can be moved around. Not that 240×320 gives much space for multiple windows.
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