Wheelz Online

After reading my last post back to myself I decided that the best way to make myself worth something again was to branch out and try other technologies.  I’ve been developing in Adobe Flash for a few years now and although the things I’ve done have been nice and pretty and sometimes useful, I always felt I could do more interesting apps if I had the time.  I came across Flex 3 when i was browsing the Adobe website.

Flex is a XML based language that creates .swf files  without having to know too much about Actionscript.  The Flex SDK is actually free and opensource so you can just go to the adobe website and download it for free.  But the best way is to use Flexbuilder.  Its an IDE, much like Flash or Dreamweaver, that you can use to create Flex apps by dragging components onto the stage.  For code junkies you can easily switch into code view and write is solid code if you would rather.

At the moment Adobe are running a competition to win a copy of Flex builder so head on over to their facebook page for more information.  One last bonus - If you are a student or lecturer you can get a copy of Flexbuilder for free.

So, as I said last time, i’m now back at work for a while.  I now go into Hospital for surgery on 22nd November and until then I’m full-time back at work.  This has been quite an adventure as with only 8 weeks of working time I’ve not been included in any projects to get stuck into.

So what have I been doing?  Well, before I was ill I was in charge of most of the online technology solutions (wiki’s forum’s etc) and was happy with that.  I knew what I was doing and felt as thought people needed me for things.  Now i’m back I find that I’ve lost control of all these to an admin person and all I’m left doing now is formatting Word Documents.  It seems that all that I’ve fought for over the last 12 months has been wiped off the face of the planet.  I put in place some unpopular workflows which created a sense of professionalism to clients that came to us but as soon as I go, they also go.

There is only so much fighting you can do before you give up and just go with the flow.  So this worker will now just do stuff which any monkey can do in his sleep rather than what i’m paid for.

After what seems like more time that it actually was, I finally went back to work on Monday morning and was greeted unexpectently.  I had people from different offices coming in to welcome me back to my desk which was a nice feeling really.  Its nice to be missed.  Even though i’m only going to be back for 8 weeks before I have to go back into hospital.  Yes, they have pushed back my operation until the end of November now.  Great i’m going to be laid up over Christmas - arn’t I the lucky one..

I’ve also started to refind my love of programming over the past few weeks when I downloaded Adobe Flex builder 3.  This is a programming language for Flash and my geeky side likes it more than the artistic way you do things in Flash CS3.  So i’ve been reading every book i can get my hands on and I have really enjoyed myself for the first time in months working on a computer.

Myself and my girlfriend went to the townhall on Sunday to look at what they can do in the way of weddings as we have decided its about time that we actually got married rather than just assuming that it would happen on its own.  September 2009 is the general timespan for it to happen although we havent narrowed it down to a date yet.

Apart from that its been quite a normal few weeks; my nephew has started school and he appears to like it, my sister has started back in her second year of midwife course and my brother still hasn’t got a new job yet.

I had another hospital appointment today where I had to endure 2 hours of laying on my back and an x-ray machine taking photos of my guts every 10 minutes while being pumped full of fluid.  At the end of all that I got to have a scabby sandwich from the WRVS shop.

In the afternoon I met the ‘big man’ consultant.  He and his troup of 3 other doctors came in and sat down and closed the door behind them.

So, we’ve run the tests and they haven’t got any better so its time to have surgery.

Matter of factly like that, no

Sorry but i’ve got some bad news

or anything like that.  Just a bombshell that I was to be slit open and have some guys hands messing around inside me.  Aparently its a biggie too.  I’m probably going to be in the hospital for 2 weeks and then a few more at home before I can move around on my own.

The day?  13th November has been penciled in for this fun event.  To say i’m a little upset is an understatement.

So what has happened to me over the last few weeks to keep me from writing in.  Where to start?  Well as you know I was back in hospital for a week.  During that time I had a tube placed through my back into my kidney.  This isn’t the nicest and most comfy thing in the world.  Almost 3 weeks later and it still hurts when I move around.  It turned out I spent a week in the Hallamshire and then was sent home for a week until the return journey to hospital.  This time I was on familiar ground at the Spinal injuries department.  I followed my instructions to go up to the ward  and as I got there, it turns out that no-one expected me.  A great way to start the day.  After a few minutes of panic, I was hustled down to the day ward and into the clutches of the consultant.  2 hours later and I’d had various liquids pushed into me while rigged up to a computer and still this didnt make anything clearer to the doctors.  Go home and come back in two weeks I was told.

So I go back on Monday for the repeat tests and do I think they will show anything different?  No chance.  This leaves two options that I can see.  Either they just send me home for another 2 weeks or they decide to keep me in again until I’m sorted.  Either option I’m not that thrilled about so i’ll just have to wait and see.

So on Tuesday I got a phone call from my consultant to tell me that although yesterday she was happy with the results of my blood test, this morning she decided that I was still pretty ill.  This is news to me as I’m starting to feel pretty good again.  So now I’m back in hospital awaiting more tests and a few tubes stuck into my body for god knows how long.
I don’t mind been in hospital when I feel ill as I can see that its going to make me better, but when I feel like I am now then I get pretty pissed off.  If I haven’t mentioned this before, I have the worlds biggest needle phobia.  I mean big time phobia.  Last month when I was sent to hospital I had to go to A&E first and they put a canula into me (This is like a needle which stays in your arm so that they can put stuff in it without having to put an injection in every time).  I almost passed out.  The room was spinning after he stabbed me with the thing and I had to lay down as I was pretty sure the consciousness was about to leave me behind.
So as you can see I’m not thrilled about coming in here again.  What makes it even more horrifying to me is that when I saw the doctor this evening he obviously hadn’t read my notes because he wanted to do something to me that was physically impossible and he would have known that if he had spend 30 seconds and read my file.
Looking forward to tomorrow.

So today I went back to the hospital to see my consultant.  For anyone who is interested, the reason I have such a gap in posting in July is that I was very ill in hospital and didn’t have my laptop with me.  Although I was only in for a week, I was very ill and I was let home on the provision that I did as I was told to by the doctors.  Now this might sound like a stupid statement but i have a track record of forgetting to do what I’m told if I start to feel ok after a bout of illness.  But this time I’m going to give it a go and do what I’m told to.  This is slightly upsetting as today I was told that my blood count it too low and my kidney problem count is too high and I have to have more time off work until they settle down.  Hurrah! i hear you say, but its not.  As explained in my last post I don’t think of this as a holiday but as a time to recover.  Except while I feel fine in myself (and my test results clearly show this is not the case) I’m starting to get an itch to go back to work.

Therefore I’m starting to get cabin fever and I’m hoping that this is the last time that I will hear the words

Stay off work for a while longer.

Until next time…..

On 11th July, Apple released the iPhone 3G.  At the time I looked at it with envy because I was stuck with the original iphone which I bought on release day by standing in a queue for 2 hours in London.  I thought that I was not going to be able to have the new one because I was tied into the contract, but then 02 did a nice thing.  Let iphone users upgrade early to the 3G.  I was going to do that, but over the next few days I decided against it.  I didn’t need it, I had a nice one already but I have to report that my willpower deserted me and yesterday I came home with my shiny black 16gb iPhone 3G.

So is it worth it?  Well I think so.  The download speeds from the internet are a lot quicker which is something that means alot to me as I use the internet and email on my iphone quite a lot.  But as with all weak men, I ended up buying the accessories  - namely new headphones (shure SE210) and a new dock because of the new shape.

On another bright note, I go back to the hospital on Monday and hopefully get the all clear to go back to work.  Don’t get me wrong having time off sick is a nice thing, but after a few weeks you’ve done everything in the house you want and I now just want to get back to normality and go to work.  You see, I don’t go and treat it like a holiday. I guess this is because when I was younger my mum used to say to me

If you are too ill to go to school then you must be too ill to play out.

That stopped me from skipping school because there wasnt any point if I was to be confined to my bedroom while I was ‘ill’

I’m getting married next year after being engadged for a few years now so Mrs-to-be has started looking around again at places to have parties etc.  I’m looking forward to it also so marrage type things which I’ve seen have sometimes perked my interest lately.  Well I found this on the internet and thought it would be cool to put up here.

Couples First Dance.

Finally today a note on what I write on here.  They are my own thoughts at a particular time.  For example the post about my best mate.  I make no appologies for defending him in anything he does,  I’ve grown up with him and friendship can be blind to what rights and wrongs are.  The comments I made about his ex are my opinions and no-one elses.  I have a right to express what I think on my own blog.  If she was upset by my comments, its a bit tough but at the time that is what I had to say on the matter.  Througout life people come and go through you circle and your lucky if you have a long term friend, especially guys and being loyal is a trait which I think you need in a friend however misplaced that loyalty is.

Hi again.  So sorry for not posting for ages, I kind of went through a little slump of feeling sorry for myself and the last thing I wanted to do was write on here.  So what has being 33 years old done for me upto now?

Well first thing is that I’ve been ill pretty much all the time since April and i’m just getting over it now (which might be a reason my mood is picking up  lot) .  Oh yeah, in May I went to London for the week with my partner on the pretence of an urban holiday, although I was at the @media2008 conference for two of those days.  I’ll tell you all about that next time - I don’t want to go and create a long post that no-one is going to read when I can tease you all!!!

Work was also pretty crap.  I was being left out of important meeting which I felt I needed to be involved in because at some point in the future I would be doing the work and there were issues which needed addressing at the time.  But this has changed dramatically in the last week.  I’ve have two managers at the moment; a real line manager who looks after the holidays and I have to share the office with her and the team, and then there is the firms webmaster who is my ‘workload’ manager (my other one doesn’t know what I do most of the time and isn’t technical enough to understand it).  So last Monday I was asked to take on a project that another member of the team wanted to offload as she was on her holidays.  Basically I was asked to turn a few pdf documents into a full blown ebook in a week.  I did pretty well and if I do say so myself I did a pretty good job of it.  Anyway we had the meeting with the guy who is funding this bit of work and he was very pleased, but we (meaning I)  have decided to go further and produce an all singing-all-dancing version in the next month.  I was asked if I could do it which I said I could but didn’t know how yet.  My boss then said

We don’t have a don’t know how to do it.  Its a challenge

which is certainly is, but this is the thing I love doing, so work is picking up and I’m enjoying it again.

My partner is a star, still love her to bits even though for the last week all she has been doing is playing Indiana Jones Lego on my Xbox360.  But I’d rather have her in there playing than not have her atall like my best friend.

Last Monday I got a text message from him to say that his girfriend had broken up with him.  Now, I was pretty pleased about that !?!?!?!  Not because I like to see my friend in pieces and upset, but because she was leading him on and being unfair to him.  This was made more apparent to me when I was told that she didn’t even have the guts to break up with him on the phone or face-to-face.  She txt him!!!!  There is only one word that I can think of to sum her up

BITCH!

He’s cut to pieces but I’m sure he’ll get over her.  He’s got good friends and its like the Carling Advert when all his mates turn up on their horses to get him out of the house.

This post is far too long so I’ll stop now.  Catch you later