Bored, LS18

First unflocked post for ages. So what’s been going on in the somewhat diminished house of Houlden? I’m still waiting to get grant of representation that will allow me to get my dad’s affairs sorted out but the intestacy rules have some serious shortcomings about situations that weren’t envisaged in the 1920s when they were drawn up, so it isn’t that easy to sort out. Losing a parent is a big thing to deal with, especially when he was only 62, but I think winding up his estate is a good practical thing I can do for coping with it. It surprises me that organisations still act as if they don’t have processes in place for dealing with deceased customers or clients. As I wrote in a letter to E.ON:

I write with reference to your letter of 12th January 2011 from XXX regarding my late father’s account. Frankly I was appalled by its condescending tone and the discourteous approach that EON has taken in this case so far. Domestic residences have been entitled to electricity supplies since at least the Electric Lighting Act of 1882 and I would hope that by now EON or its predecessors would have developed effective and sensitive procedures for closing the accounts of deceased customers.

There’s a fair bit else going on that I may describe in a flocked post, but not in a public one.

Workwise I’m a redeployee (again) so I’m looking for a new job at the company. There are a couple of developer roles there but I’m also being asked to consider other stuff that I’ve tried before. Job searching doesn’t take a lot of time so things are otherwise pretty quiet. At least I’m still working from home.

Gym-wise, after something of a hiatus over xmas I’m getting back into it. There’s a BJJ seminar this Sunday and then I’ve put my name down to do another Thai interclub a week on Sunday. My weight did go up a bit over xmas and it’s being tricky to shift, but I’ve definitely changed my lifestyle so much that there’s no way I’m going back to the old ways. Now I’m getting back to normal and the weather’s improving I can concentrate a bit more on bringing it down.

Something I’m after now is some kind of challenge. Not probate, or the gym, or work, or computer related, but something else. One idea is writing, but what? I’ve got quite a verbose style with influences from Bill Bryson and Charlie Brooker. My Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets are obviously one form but they’re short and there’s a lot I leave out, partly to avoid too much detail and partly because I don’t like to mention everything about my life. Fiction is one idea: if music can have soundscapes it should be possible to do the same sort of thing with words, and I’m particularly interested in dystopian environments and the feeling of being “outside the system”. Fiction would also give me the chance to describe situations without getting personally involved. If you know it’s fiction you can change all sorts of details because it’s made up.

Another idea is commentary, but on what subject? The minutiae of life can be pretty boring to read. I’m interested in politics and current affairs but I find writing something coherent can take a lot of effort because I want to check facts are correct and more reliable than Wikipedia. Same with covering the rituals and superstitions that infest sport. The other thing is getting people to read what I write. Publishing online is easy but there are zillions of blogs out there with no readers. There’s the notes on Facebook as well but I find my friends list tends to shorten when I go into any sort of detail. For some reason being politically left wing and a sceptic when it comes to things like quack nutritionists and pseudo-scientific ideas doesn’t go down too well in certain circles.