Regular readers might note that I haven't posted to this blog since last August. Sorry.
A few things going on in my life:
I'm in a newly formed band. Rehearsals are going well but we still need a bassist. Hopefully more news on this soon, possibly gigs will start late August / early September. The band is tentatively called Lode Runner after the retro video game of the same name.
I've been waiting out the last year of my contact with Vodafone, a company I found to be pretty deficient. Hopefully on Friday it will happen - I'm off to O2, iPhone 3G will be mine. I sit in my workplace in the centre of Manchester with my K800i and can't get a signal on Vodafone while colleagues sit there with full signal (as I used to get on Orange). They've phoned me several times this week to talk me out of leaving and can't seem to grasp that if I'm slap bang in the middle of a city I expect to have more that just 'no network coverage' on my phone's display.
My sister bought a house with her boyfriend.
I'm getting that 'I'm going to sell stuff' feeling again.. the Wii is going to go, along with some sets of books I think.
I'll probably have to view Dark Knight in the IMAX this weekend. Life is tough.
Went to see Armrug again this week, they've gone kind of electronic/gameboy keyboardy style and one less guitar. It's still fun to listen to but in my opinion one less guitar gets you a -1 on the awesomeness scale.
The problem I noted in
this post has actually been considered as worthy of dealing with if they spend the 300 proposed bajillion pounds on the Manchester transport network. In
this new pdf of the proposed tram network (see picture) it includes a second route for trams through the city centre. Unfortunately part of the deal includes the dreaded congestion charge. This probably won't affect me too badly though...
if I read
this map correctly I mostly travel within the inner zone, so won't pass over any of the charging lines. On the other hand the map is pretty non specific - perhaps
on a map proposing road charging they should include, you know, some roads? Fair enough the outer ring follows the M60 but the inner one.. are we supposed to use ESP to figure out where they want the boundary to be?
The
website, which seems basically designed to talk you into supporting the plans, by being dead slick and all that, seems to gloss over the details at times. Statements such as 'Train stations will be more welcoming' appear, but without any specific details. In order to come to a properly informed decision you need all the hard facts, not just pretty flash animations for morons paid for with my taxes.
Perhaps I'm just kidding myself - don't these things tend to just happen anyway, consultation or not? Seems to me these consultations are generally there to placate the people who might want to actually question the common sense of the proposals rather than to listen to their concerns. I can't say I'd be surprised if in 10 years the plan has been executed 99% the same as proposed.
So I'm back.. cynical to the extreme as always.
