Alex Hardy

So it begins all over again… I want to get back to the condition of weight and general fitness that I was at when I did the run last May. That means losing about half a stone in two months by forgoing the deli at lunchtime and getting some exercise.

I went to the gym last night, and ran for 25 minutes and had two 15 minute sessions on the bikes without any difficulty. I am fitter now that when I started training for the run last year so really it should be easy this time.

I’m going out for a run after work with Stuart and Dani. We went last week, hopefully this will become a routine up to the run and beyond.

Wish me luck, and don’t forget to sponsor me!

Widespread reports and a post on Michael Bay’s blog all point to Agent Smith himself, Hugo Weaving, playing the Big Bad in the upcoming Transformers movie.

There’s bound to be some complaint from the hardcore fans that Frank Welker (the actor who voiced Megatron in the 80s cartoon and animated movie) wasn’t cast, but those guys will be impossible to please.

I think that is a superb bit of casting.

In any case the important thing is that Peter Cullen has been cast. It won’t matter how different he looks from our childhood toys and imaginations – when he speaks he’ll be Optimus Prime and I’ll be 8 years old.

Top London cop, Police Constable Nicholas Angel, finds himself reassigned to the sleepy West Country village of Sandford.

With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman, an oafish but well meaning young Constable.

Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems.

Steph and I went to see Hott Fuzz at the Lowry last night. I’m a fan of Simon Pegg, having loved both Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, so I expected to enjoy myself.

Written by Pegg and Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz is an affectionate homage to the American buddy cop movie, British murder mysteries, John Woo and apparently anything else that came to mind. It is self-indulgent and geeky, but also very funny. I should also mention surprisingly violent, with comic gore as seen in Shaun of the Dead as villagers meet their grisly ends. It’s also a bit of an excuse to get their mates involved, with Bill Bailey, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Steve Coogan (to mention but a few) getting some face time.

It was also nice to see Timothy Dalton on the big screen. I always felt that he was one of the better Bond actors, regrettably saddled with two quite weak films. He makes an entertaining bad guy.

This is one of those “If you liked [previous work by same], you’ll like this” kinda films. We had fun watching it, but I hope that Pegg diversifies before his brand of comedy outstays its welcome.

[rating:3.5]

Today is the first day (in work) of my fifth year at The Foundry, a creative agency in Altrincham, Cheshire.

I was hired principally for my Director skills to maintain a presentation system for one of the company’s major clients. Time passes, and that particular project has run its course. They keep me around though – must be for my charm and wit…

These days, I’m almost entirely occupied with building web sites and applications. My toolbox includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Zinc, Final Cut, XHTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL. Work is pretty varied, and an enviable client list keeps life interesting.

Occasionally I get my crayons out to do some design work, but that isn’t really part of my remit here. I work out any creative frustrations that I have via this website and the occasional freelance job with Stephen of D3 Creative, a friend and former Foundry colleague.

At 28 years old, this is the longest stint I’ve put in at a company to date and I’d attribute that mainly to the people. I’m all too aware of friends and family who endure difficult environments. I’ve also learned from experience that working alone from home doesn’t suit me, so to spend my days with people whose company I enjoy is worth a great deal.

In the long term I haven’t entirely decided where my ambitions lie, although like Brent I think about this as the Big Three-Oh looms closer. My gut feeling is that I won’t always work in an agency, but for the foreseeable future I’m happy where I am.

That is all. Back to work.

As is his way, Brent has once again indirectly inspired musings on a subject. In this case the matter is of credibility. I recently read an amusing article called You Are Being Lied To on a related theme:

Those business writers and speakers… talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk. I know many of the world’s leading customer service speakers and writers. Call them. You will be lucky to get your call returned. The relationship experts aren’t usually in a relationship… The financial experts are broke. I even know experts on ethics and integrity who don’t pay their bills…

It argues that there are no new secrets to success in business (indeed any aspect of life), that haven’t been true forever. Anyone who claims otherwise just wants to sell you a book or a seminar ticket.

The web provides a platform for any of us to “publish” our thoughts and connect with others. There lies the caveat though… Anyone. The blogger isn’t necessarily a professional journalist. They need no recognised qualification or experience in their chosen subject, only a computer and an opinion.

I wish I had a pound for every tutorial I’ve read that was hopelessly inaccurate, every script I’ve tried that simply didn’t work (or was too poorly documented to employ). I have plans along those lines, but they can wait for another day…

So credibility becomes a crucial issue, perhaps the most important currency you can have. Can it even be achieved, or does it only exist in the eye of the beholder? How do you recognise and measure it? How do you retain it?

I know I’m good at what I do. This certainty has nothing to do with how inspired my visuals are, or how refined my code is. My graphic design skills are, frankly, a little rusty from four years as a developer. As a coder I’m lost without my previous projects, books and a web connection to find the syntax I want.

I know it because when I set out to create something, I succeed. Because each time I work, I try to do it better than last time in some small way.

I can’t tell anyone the right way to build a web page: no one can. I can tell you how I built one today. I can share the ways in which it was a little better than yesterday, a lot better than last year. You might suggest how I could do better tomorrow.

Perhaps all any of us can do is send our flawed, preconceived opinions out there. Hopefully a respectful dialogue will ensue that leaves us all a little wiser.

As a wise fellow put it:

“Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.”

I’ve created a page on My 9rules. In a nutshell, 9rules is a high-profile community of bloggers and one that I’ve been aware of for some time. You can freely join the site and add your blog feed, which will then be aggregated and searchable by readers.

The true ambition though is to become a “member” of the site during one of their submission rounds. The quality of writing on the site is very high, so to be accepted is a recognition of your efforts by a vibrant and helpful community.

I’ll submit when I’m ready. If nothing else, it’s a spur to make this site something special.

I just spent about an hour going through and binning correspondence. I admit, if I bothered to keep on top of it the job wouldn’t have seemed so bad. I thought to myself how wasteful this whole process is, as I ripped up statement after notice after special offer. Wasteful of my time and of an appalling amount of paper. So I’ve decided to get on top of things:

• Gas, electricity and water
• Council tax
• TV license
• Current account and savings account
• Credit card statements
• Cable TV, broadband and land-line
• Mobile phone

I want paper free everything.

Halifax Online leaves much to be desired, but does provide online statements that I’ve previously saved as PDFs. Really, that’s a little shabby of me because I could download Quicken documents that I could import into an app like Money.

I’ll start by doing that. I’ll report how many of these services I’m able to tidy up on.

You don’t see a gig for ages, then you go to three in a week . Steph and I carried on our crazy gig-going week with two visits to the Manchester Apollo. I have to say, I prefer the Apollo to the M.E.N. Arena. It’s a smaller, more intimate experience and the decayed grandeur of an old theatre – turned gig venue gives it a great atmosphere.

The Fratellis – 19^th February 2007

Band frontman Jon Fratelli seems quite modest, thanking the audience on the band’s behalf for their recent Brit Award and went on to say that they were unused to being so far away from the crowd. It’s not that long since they were playing clubs – in fact we missed a chance to see them at the Late Room before they were famous.

They were a lot of fun, projecting artwork and playing tracks from their debut album Costello Music along with some new material. Towards the end I was beginning to tire of the way that many of their tracks sound so similar, but they didn’t outstay their welcome.

They encored with a cover of Goldfrapp’s Ooh La La (which they had previously performed for Radio 1’s Live Lounge) and a message on-screen “Thank Fuck for the Fratellis”. Indeed.

Digression: I saw Goldfrapp at last year’s O2 Wireless Festival, where they were definitely one of the highlights.

The Kaiser Chiefs – 21^st February

I’m not a fan of the Kaiser Chiefs. I basically went because Steph wanted to see them. When I hear them on the radio, I find their music brash and annoying. So I’m quite surprised to say that I enjoyed myself.

Those same tunes work very well in a gig – rousing, repetitive jump and clap and shout songs that got the crowd far more worked up than the Fratellis managed (the photos testify to this). Ricky Wilson knows how to work a crowd, and dived into them at one point. The security staff struggled to extract him and replace him on stage, but he kept singing all through it .

I won’t be going out to buy their Employment album, or their new album which is out soon. I do recommend seeing them live though.

Thanks to Akismet, none have slipped past it so far.

Maybe I should feel flattered. I’ve truly arrived.

Bastards.

Mark, Gordana, Steph and I went to see the Killers at the M.E.N. Arena last night. Steph’s quickdraw mouse finger had scored us the tickets which sold out in seconds. I got Mark’s ticket as his 30^th birthday present. I thought it would do him good to listen to some of that rock and roll that ‘kids today’ enjoy.

After an unremarkable support band who were too heavy for Steph’s liking, the Killers came on at 9ish. They didn’t waste much time on audience interaction (lead singer Brandon Flowers didn’t seem to know what to say) and pressed on with a selection of songs from their debut album Hot Fuss and their new album Sam’s Town.

I’ve been a bit indifferent to Sam’s Town and a couple of dodgy performances on television meant I didn’t expect great things from Flowers’ vocals. I was pleasantly surprised. What he lacks with hit and miss pitching he makes up for in power and an animated presence on stage. Their songs lend themselves to live venues with plenty of bits that the crowd were singing along to.

I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.

I also have a badge, but I’m not a badger.

They sang a Joy Division song as part of their encore, which thanks to Google and my recollection of a few lyrics I have identified as “Shadowplay”. I read they have recorded it for “Control”, a biopic of the band’s front man Ian Curtis.

There was a great buzz in the (packed) arena and I think Sam’s Town may grow on me yet. Steph has lent it to me along with Costello Music by the Fratellis - homework because we’re seeing them tomorrow night at the Apollo

[EDIT] I should also mention that the above photo was taken on my phone, a Sony Ericsson K800i. Not bad at all considering…