tenpastmidnight blog
Making hay while the sun shines
» Sunday, October 19, 2003 «
Well, I was made redundant on Friday. I have a meeting on Monday with my old company about freelance work. Fortunately one of my friends has said he's also interested in sorting out freelance work for me, and another couple want my help in starting a business. Which is nice.
I've never been made redundant before, but I must admit, it was a relief. I didn't want to be among the people left because while they are all my friends, I don't think I could have stuck it long-term in a place that has done what has happened - much of which I'm afraid I'm not going to go in to as it's really internal company business.
Anyway, hopefully it looks like I'll have some freelance work coming. If I don't I'll need to go and sign on so I can get housing benefit to pay my rent, which I very quickly won't be able to as we only got notice of one week, as that's the legal minimum. Unfortunately I've recently had a quote of £500 to fix my car. During the week I'm going to contact the owner of the garage and see if he'll agree to an updated website in exchange for the welding I need done.
My friend Alex met me in the pub after the news, and very kindly gave me a hand home with all the stuff I needed to clear out of my office. He needed to drop in to the Neujuice office, which was on my way home, and I saw Nick, who I haven't seen for a while, Emma, who I'm not sure I've met in real life before, and bumped in to Tom, who I haven't seen for ages. So some pleasant things came out of the day.
In my non-work related life: I found a write-able CD in the car park next to my car. I've got a portable CD player that can play MP3s off of CDs, or normal music CDs. I thought maybe I'd dropped it last time I'd got out, but it turns out it's Dick Miller 'Angel Band 1', and it's a music CD with one two minute track on. I wonder if this is what file sharing is being reduced to, now the RIAA and MPAA are attacking the file sharing networks in America - dropping random CDs of music you like around, hoping someone will find it and enjoy it. I was given a free 'preview disk' in HMV when I bought the new Alabama 3 acoustic album Last Train to Mashville yesterday, perhaps random CDs of random tracks would be regarded the same way as that, a way of encouraging people to try new music.
I've been registered with BookCrossing for quite a while, but still haven't released any books in to the wild under their scheme, I usually just take my old ones to charity shops. But the idea of dropping random sample CDs around town and the thought of people finding a new band or style of music they enjoy fills me with a warm tingly feeling that can only mean I need more sleep.
I've never been made redundant before, but I must admit, it was a relief. I didn't want to be among the people left because while they are all my friends, I don't think I could have stuck it long-term in a place that has done what has happened - much of which I'm afraid I'm not going to go in to as it's really internal company business.
Anyway, hopefully it looks like I'll have some freelance work coming. If I don't I'll need to go and sign on so I can get housing benefit to pay my rent, which I very quickly won't be able to as we only got notice of one week, as that's the legal minimum. Unfortunately I've recently had a quote of £500 to fix my car. During the week I'm going to contact the owner of the garage and see if he'll agree to an updated website in exchange for the welding I need done.
My friend Alex met me in the pub after the news, and very kindly gave me a hand home with all the stuff I needed to clear out of my office. He needed to drop in to the Neujuice office, which was on my way home, and I saw Nick, who I haven't seen for a while, Emma, who I'm not sure I've met in real life before, and bumped in to Tom, who I haven't seen for ages. So some pleasant things came out of the day.
In my non-work related life: I found a write-able CD in the car park next to my car. I've got a portable CD player that can play MP3s off of CDs, or normal music CDs. I thought maybe I'd dropped it last time I'd got out, but it turns out it's Dick Miller 'Angel Band 1', and it's a music CD with one two minute track on. I wonder if this is what file sharing is being reduced to, now the RIAA and MPAA are attacking the file sharing networks in America - dropping random CDs of music you like around, hoping someone will find it and enjoy it. I was given a free 'preview disk' in HMV when I bought the new Alabama 3 acoustic album Last Train to Mashville yesterday, perhaps random CDs of random tracks would be regarded the same way as that, a way of encouraging people to try new music.
I've been registered with BookCrossing for quite a while, but still haven't released any books in to the wild under their scheme, I usually just take my old ones to charity shops. But the idea of dropping random sample CDs around town and the thought of people finding a new band or style of music they enjoy fills me with a warm tingly feeling that can only mean I need more sleep.
