This is because I am coding as we speak.

With our view of the world shaped now by 24-hour news which, in the case of the 2010 General Election, has been the Westminster edition of Hello Magazine full of tittle-tattle and gossip rather than meaty substance, now we have a coalition government in the UK and things have been fleshed out somewhat, I actually have the same feeling I had when Tony Blair walked into Downing Street in 1997.  Let me make clear at Uni I was a card-carrying Labour member, nut not in 1997. However, I voted for Labour as I felt the country needed a change; sorry everyone it was all my fault.  Anyway, after the last five years I’ve had, I am definately not a Labour supporter now and voted for change again.  Will it be my fault again?

Now… Sky’s reporter; Five News is Sky News really; asked a question designed? to slightly embarrass David Cameron, nothing wrong with that, but Cameron did turn it round beautifully into a funny moment whilst making a good point at the end.  The interesting thing was that both Clegg and Cameron have different personalities to the ones they had before the May  6th Poll.  They are both giddy and excited more than is comfortable for men of their age, but I actually believe what they say and the clup above shows either steely determination to do something good for the country or they’re good at spin.

Beneath the banter is substance: look at the treasury, for example.  The top two jobs have gone to a Tory and a LibDem, thus sharing the glory or blame.  The fact it’s a formal coalition rather than a lose gathering of MPs in the hope of grabbing a lobby majority means this might just work.  Both parties have agreed a path beforehand rather than the Tories forcing through their policies and hoping they can convince other parties. It looks like Cameron and Clegg have attempted to get the founations right before forming a government and that bodes well for us all.

As my neighbour’s eight year old son said, if the Marquee and Federation can make it work on Voyager, there’s hope for us all under this new government. Erm, quite.

No, I don’t know why either.

Anyways, the Rantman domain is up for renewal and to be honest I’ve better things to spend £3.77 on, so I’ve moved the site lock stock to rozzier.com.

I am currently working on a new theme, so bear with me…

So there.

This is in respones to an EU Directive that was instigated in the wake of the London bombings in 2006.  Many ISP’s and teleocoms companies across Europe have resisted the proposals, whilst some countries are actually contesting the directive.

The Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, Jim Killock stated that it was a “crazy directive” with frightening and dangerous repercussions for all net users within the EU.

The direcive states that all ISPs within the EU have to store the records for a year from now on; a similar framework is already in place for telephone records.

I naturally gab and I’ve been told I like the sound of my own voice before now, and it’s true.  I suspect in interviews this gets the better of me so I am determined to improve how I prepare for an interview and how I come across:  the STAR method rules! (Situation Task Actions Results)

I intend to enhance the way I prepare for an interview but still include

• Researching the company
• Learning the JD
• Finding out how the role fits within the organisation
• Preparing STAR examples/answers based on the above

I’m also going to prepare and practice out loud, answering standard questions such as

• Tell me about you
• What can you bring to the role
• How do you see the role within the organisation

I am going to practice saying other things out loud so that I learn to not over-speak in interview…I shall learn to listen to questions and answer them not waffle on!

I know I’m a pretentious twit, but hey…needs must..and if I want to improve my chances in interview, I need to practice!

Amongst the books I bought were some Penguin’s from the 1940′s/50′s and are true pulp fiction – the literary equivelant of a film noir.

I’d love to be able to write something more creative than a staff appraisal casting the subordinate in a surprisingly positive light, so I thought I’d suggest the old GCE English Literature, wet playtime game we used to play a couple of decades ago, but without such a draconian set of rules or Mr Harrison going on about how things weren’t as good as twonce they were..

Anyhow, in the style of a bad thriller novel, I thought I’d suggest we all take a few sentences or a paragraph each to see what we turn up..

So I’ll start then you lot take over!

The wind blew in from all directions.  He pulled his coat-collar up, took a drag from the cigarette he’d just lit and marched across the court-yard.  His faithful spaniel scampering ahead,he disappeared into the night.  Things would never be the same again…

Here are some of his best bits!

Ralph McTell is put on trial for selling a guitar book without any fretboard finger markings…and the star witnesses for the prosecution are Mark Knopfler, Lemmy, David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd fame), Mark King and Gary Moore.

Wouldn’t it be great for this to be remade with Dave Grohl, Kelly Jones, etc!!!

These top three I always read and have done for ever are:

1.0 Random Acts of Reality which is written by a Paramedic based in London

2.0 The Policeman’s Blog which was stated by a UK-based office who later emigrated to work as a Canadian officer

3.0 Iain Dale’s Blog by, erm, Iain Dale who is a political blogger.

Recently I discovered Nee Naw, another paramedic blog, and so far this is my favourite post:

Address: PIZZA WORLD TAKEAWAY, 200 HIGH STREET, NE20
Diagnosis:  CALLER STATES HE IS THE KING OF ENGLAND AND WISHES TO GO TO PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL.
Special Instructions: CALLER WILL WAIT INSIDE PIZZA SHOP AS HAS ORDERED A PIZZA.

From: LONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE
To:  METROPOLITAN POLICE SERVICE
Message: PLEASE CAN WE HAVE YOUR ASSISTANCE WITH MALE PSYCHIATRIC
PATIENT, POSSIBLY VIOLENT, STATING HE IS KING OF ENGLAND AND WISHING TO
BE TRANSPORTED TO PSYCH UNIT.

From:  MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  SORRY, NO POLICE AVAILABLE AT PRESENT.  WE ARE ON CHANGEOVER.

From: LAS
To:  MPS
Message:  NO WORRIES - APPARENTLY PATIENT HAS ORDERED PIZZA WHILE HE WAITS.

From: MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  NO ANCHOVIES FOR US PLEASE.

Twenty minutes later.

From: LAS
To:  MPS
Message:  PLEASE CANCEL.  PATIENT HAS RUNG BACK STATING PIZZA NOW READY.
IS TAKING BUS TO LOCAL HOSPITAL.

From:  MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  WE ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED.  OFFICERS WERE HUNGRY AND LOOKING
FORWARD TO MEETING KING OF ENGLAND.

Nee Maw May become a regular! )

I woke up today to find around 6 inches, or 15 cm, of snow in the yard! Wooo…

There seems to be a Plimsol Line when it comes to snow: below it everyone gripes about how we can’t run a rail network, that the councils don’t know how to grit the roads properly and so on.  Above it, Dunkirk Spirit and a sense of community arrives.

The main road throught the village (just on the right above), was completely unusable and so rather moan and gripe, people came out of their houses and cleared it all away.  The local florist had a delivery of fresh flowers from The Netherlands everyday and the delivery lorry couldn’t make it into the village proper, so everyone mucked in and helped Lee, the florist, by carrying his stock to the shop.

In a nearby farmer’s field, there are hundreds of kids and parents sliding down the hill and building the world’s largets snowballs!  Usually there is the distant hum of traffic and industry, but today there is only the noise of children’s laughter!

It is days like this I am really glad I left the big shiney city for rural Northamptonshire.