Viva la France

Ive discovered that my favourite type of music is French Electronica.
Its nice, right?

Well, it contains such gems as Daft Punk and Air, so maybe we all know a bit of it. But also, ive discovered C2C recently, and as we speak Im listenign to a new discovery; Kavinsky.

By all accounts, Kavinsky is a fictional character who crashed his Lamborghini in 1986 and now lives on as a zombie with the primary objective of music electronic music.
So there you go.

Those French, eh!

I used to be cool, honestly I did. I was always the first in school to be up on the latest music. Britpop it was, back then. Then into the 2000s Indie music was a staple, but since around 2008-ish, something odd happened and everything on the radio started to all ‘sound the same’ and was ‘all a bit noisy’.
I blame the wife.

I dont know why, I just like to.

There are 2 explanations though:
1. Something happened to Indie music
2. Something happened to me.

I do maintain, without having to explain those two statements, that Indie music is not what it used to be. The key players of the genre right now are:
1. Bastille – they are ok, but are they just ‘Radio 1 cool’
2. Fall Out Boy – Theyve been around for ever, and are a hangover of the US EMO insurgence of the late 90s
3. Fun – Its just pop, isnt it?

I think when Oasis called it a day, so did the genre.
Beady Eye and High Flying Birds dont close the gap even!
Radiohead phone it in these days too.
Ive been clinging on to Bloc Party, but that’s over now.

So I have turned my attentions away from Indie music, because either:
1. I dont understand it anymore
2. It died.
Not even Zane Lowe plays Indie anymore. Hes all dubstep and this.

What happened! What the hell happened to British music!

Ill tell you what happened. It turned its attentions to Pop, more so than ever.
And another sign that Im getting old is that I like it!
Currently in my mental playlist are:
1. Little Mix
2. Saturdays
3. James Arthur

Its not cool, is it.
Its just not.

However one thing that has always remained is the other side of the Channel.
The French seem to be able to make electronica so well!

So I shall label this as my go-to genre.
Whenever anyone has ever asked what music Im into, my response has always been Indie.

No more, Indie! Youve had your chance!

‘What you into?’
‘French Electronica’
‘OK, thats niche’
‘Yeah, maybe. Check out Neon Neon’
‘Great conversation’

Getting back on the horse

Hi everyone.
Has it really been a month?

I haven’t blogged for a while month and now I am back.
I have been spending the last month concentrating on starting my accountancy study. Wow that’s hard! Im 1 chapter in after a whole month.

Admittedly, I did have some trouble getting the book, but you dont want to hear about that.

Anyway, after a period of large outgoings, I have performed further thinking in terms of how to earn money by doing something I a) love, and b) am skilled at. The list equates to this:

1. Baking – I should think of something niche, that not everyone is doing
2. Computers – Dont love it, but could do something in this area. It is my current chosen career after all.
3. Babies – As a new parent, my attention is highly focused on this.
4. Laughing – Funny things are great, I love to laugh. Something that make others laugh would be good.

By the way, I had my first response from People Per Hour! A gentleman wants me to update his website or something. I need to call him today and find out the score. This will be a learning curve for me to find out whether I actually can do it! Maybe that is my current calling.

Stepping away from the topic, or perhaps moving closer to it (you decide!) WordPress has decided to provide me with some links that I may like to add into my post at this time, based upon the entry that I am writing. Here are a couple:

• Can You Accordion Your Horse? (horselistening.com)
• Horse bolts in Marsa, compounds traffic problems (timesofmalta.com)

Bit of fun.

Invention idea #2

Don’t you just hate it when you have a bottle in your baby’s mouth and the only way to tell how much is remaining is by taking it out and putting it on the that surface?

Well, introducing the any-angle measuring bottle!
[Insert catchy name here]
[Insert picture here]

This product will be able to read how much fluid is in a container no matter what angle it is pointed in.

Get your’s today!

_______________

I don’t know how this is going to work. I would think it would be more about calculating a volume electronically rather than reading a line. You’d need some kind of smart material that can alter what it displays.

This is one thing I definitely won’t be creating, but I hope someone reads this and makes it happen, makes my dream a reality!

Whenever I feed the baby, every time I take the bottle out of his mouth he cries. I really would love to avoid this.
This MUST be possible, it just must!
Just get the stuff made for smart phone screens and make a bottle out of it.
….then you do the rest. What am I, the ideas guy?

Oh, yeah, I probably am.

‘Our baby could be on a box of nappies’

I am well aware that I talk a lot about my son. But I feel it’s justified as he is my inspiration for doing this.

This post is no exception, as you may have gathered from the title.

This last week I have spent most of my time with him. My wife has been revising for exams and competing coursework for the final stint of her degree. She is now finished!

To free her up to do that I have been undertaking her baby duties, as well as mine, and even took a couple of days off work to do so.
It’s been a very hard thing to do considering I have a full time job to go to as well! But I appreciate what she does a whole lot more now.

I haven’t had any time to spare over the last week, hence the silence.

It’s back to normal now though and my wife should be the proud owner of a 2:1 in a matter of weeks.

In a move to think of new ways of making money we have realised just how beautiful or child is, and not just in a biased way. We look at boxes of nappies or packets of food, or tv adverts (of which I have been subjected to a lot in the past week) and think ‘Our boy is far cuter than those, he could sooo be on a box of nappies!’

That’s a weird thing to aspire to, I know.
Further, I would like to point out that I am not about to cash in on my son’s perfection, but it’s odd what you think when you’re a parent (back me up!).

Bedtime

I’m trying to get my son to sleep. He had his bath like a good boy, didn’t want his bottle, and now he’s lying on the bed, tired as you like, and won’t let himself drop off.
If he goes down soon I still catch eastenders.

As I speak he is trying to eat a pink singing sea horse.

I don’t class myself as a particularly good father, if I’m completely honest. I feel I miss out on a lot as I’m in work. And bedtime has always been a struggle for me. That’s why I’m doing it really, to get a hold on it, and so the wife isn’t relied upon to do it every night.
But it’s proving difficult. I know he’s tired. He knows he’s tired. So why doesn’t he just go to sleep? I’m hungry for my dinner too.
If I was a baby I’d just go to sleep when I was tired. I love sleeping, it’s great. Admittedly, I enjoy sleeping a lot more since becoming a dad!

In other news, I bought my first text book for ACCA. It’s not released until the 1st of September so I don’t get to start just yet. I’ll get it next week, and then I can start learning!!

Still thinking about extra curricular earnings. Haven’t made a definitive decision about take away web sites yet.

My dad

As I grow older I grow more and more proud of my dad, and here’s why.

As each year of my life passes, think about what my dad would have been doing at my age. When I was younger that wasn’t much of a big deal but as I grew, he was surpassing all the milestones I hadn’t yet. For example at 23 he was married, I waited until 29. Also at 23 he was expecting his first child; me. Not until 32 had I achieved this.

Now as I plan my life I look back at my dad when he was 32 and think what he was doing.
Well he had a 9 year old boy, a 7 year old girl, and another on the way. Wow! I cannot imagine being mature enough throughout my 20s and early 30s (ie. Now) to have 3 kids!
On top of that, he was moving his family into their 3rd home (bought), a lovely suburban semi. Where am I? A rented house, in a far too urban location, where I honestly do not want my son to grow up in.

At 56 my dad is the most handy person I know. He can plumb, carpent (the verb for carpenter, probably), do electrics (I don’t know the verb for electrician). Whatever diy you have in mind.
I try and do diy around the house I think because I want to emulate him, but I’m so bad at it!
He made it look so easy!

56 mind!
I know, these days that’s not particularly old, but it’s not young.

I get told off by my wife when I try and be handy, on account on me potentially getting it wrong.

So as my plan takes me up to 40 as a beginning to my professional life, what was my dad doing when he was the same age?
Well I think he was 43 when he packed me off to uni. I remember it well, but most of it I forgot! (Drunk, see).

Although my dad had achieved a lot more than me at given ages, I don’t regret anything.
A wise man once said something along the lines of in your 20s you think you know it all but actually you know nothing. But live it, and start your life proper at 30. You don’t actually grow up until then.
Not to mention your body tends not to do you any favours from here on!

I think subconsciously I judge how my life is progressing based on my father and his milestones.

Here’s to you dad. I hope my son is as proud of me as I am of you.
I never tell you it, but it’s true. You’ve achieved so much.

Million dollar idea

I posted my services as a web developer on People Per Hour, but no one has responded to me 😦

I feel a bit rejected, truth be told. Although I don’t have any examples of my work to provide, so perhaps people are more likely to go with another.
My rates are very competitive. Perhaps I need to do it like they do on the Apprentice and go for the one big sale. I’ll hike my price up to a grand and then I only need one! Next job finding someone stupid enough to employ me!!

Maybe not.

I thought of a good idea for a web site though, that could make my millions; it’s like imdb but for albums.
So one massive repository for all the records ever made with scores and reviews. Every single one. And members can add ones in, and vote out of 10.

Say I wanted to buy Modern Life is Rubbish. How does it compare to other Blur albums? Is it better than Parklife? It’s certainly not as popular, but it does have There’s No Other Way on it, so that’s gotta bump it up. I’m not buying an album for one song though.
So it gets a vote and a score. You can rate it against other Blur albums, or other Britpop albums, or just all albums.
(For my 2 cents, I’d give it 6 out of 10. Parklife gets 7. Blur has got to be a 9.)

And maybe you can find out what the general public deem the best album overall in the world. Probably Thriller l isn’t it? Or Morning Glory.

I’ve googled around and there’s nothing that really comes close. I could start it up by uploading my own music collection and allow the masses (because it will be masses) to do the rest. It’s for the people, by the people. I’m sure I’m not the first to use that saying.

So there. There’s my idea. I’ll write it one day. In between bringing up my son, working a full time job, and studying to be an accountant. Oh, and trying to have a social life.

A few days under the radar

It’s been a few days, but it’s been pretty busy, so apologies for going awol.

I have spent some of the weekend analysing the wealth of information surrounding the course. The massive document I had to go through, I read about half of it. But that was taxing enough, and I had to phone them to check a bunch of stuff.
So basically I found out that ACCA don’t provide the study materials, I have to source then myself, and at £30 a book it’s not going to come cheap.

Where to get it from is a mine field though. There are so many companies that provide materials, but which to get? Do I go for the cheaper or the more respected?

In the fullness of time all things will be revealed…

So I’ve been thinking more and more lately about the impact this is going to have on my family.
The plan is to be self sufficient by the time I’m 40, but I feel that before that it’s going to be a very hard slog.
Firstly I have maybe about 3 years of studying whilst I work full time. Then I have to get 3 years of work experience. That is going to be very difficult, financially. I can deal with hard work, but if I can’t afford things for my son, how worth it is it?

But I know that if I make it through that, the rewards are gonna be pretty sweet.

Now I just have to buy some books, and get learning!

Jabs

Jabs. One word that I’ve come to appreciate sends a shiver down the spine of most new parents I imagine.

We are on 16 weeks. He had them on Wednesday, and he’s still not playing the game.
It’s like a hangover. Wednesday he was upset so he didn’t sleep. Thursday he was tired so he slept all day, and was awake in the night. Now it’s Friday, and I think I’m going to be in the spare room because he’s actually sleeping, but in our bed.
Dare we disturb him by putting him in his cot? Hell no!

So hopefully he will sleep all night and be ‘reset’ tomorrow so we can get back to normal.

For now I’m very tired as I haven’t slept in 2 days, lying on the sofa wondering where (and if) I’ll be sleeping tonight.

I think the jabs are done now until MMR, so we have a little respite. I’m so tired.

The Saga of the 52 Page Booklet, and other short stories

Booklet. Ha! That’s a joke! I could easily bind it and call it a thesis!

I’ve got to read it tonight, or at least start.
I made a big effort to get up early this morning for the sole purpose of getting to work before anyone else so I could print the damn thing before anyone questioned what I was doing printing 50 odd pages. But dramas being what they are lately I want able to download it from the work WiFi. Cunningly, I downloaded it on 3g on my phone and emailed it to myself. Took me few minutes to work that out mind!

Anyway, done!

Now I have no excuse. I have to start it tonight. Then after that I’ve got to do actual studying.

I’ve been rather consumed over the last week with the accountancy thing, I’ve lost site of my short term goals. Or have I?
I don’t want to stop trying to raise capital for the future venture, but have I done enough to establish myself as ‘on the road’ in terms of getting this 8-year plan going?

I really need to think about my ‘roots’. I started this wanting to build a comfortable life for my family by the time I’m 40, and that is still the goal, but I also wanted to work for myself. I wonder if I have started to lose site of that?
I hope not.

There are so many reasons for doing this, and it’s evolved into so much more than it initially was:
1. (In order of importance) Comfortable life
2. Career change
3. Self employed
4. Just to be happy

I’m now striving for all these things within the umbrella of ACCA.
It’s a big task, and I’m starting to think it’s bigger than it was.

Don’t get me wrong. I am, by no means, daunted. I’m just as driven as ever. But this is becoming something new, and I think I’ve grown in just this last couple of weeks since talking to all of you.

Remember thinking about what I could do next? Like it’s that easy? I can’t just pick up a whisk and call myself a baker (or, as my predictive text just suggested, a badger).
It’s gonna take hard work and dedication. I suppose I knew that, but I think I flippantly thought I could change my life.
I’m not quitting my job, that would be suicide. I’ll be biding my time until my life changing opportunity comes my way.

After a long hard slog of studying that is.