For a while I wondered why, when people online complain about their workplaces or past jobs, they refrain from mentioning the precise location of said job. I now realise that the reason why this is done is so that the complaint can't be traced back to them. Since I tend to show my website to many of my colleagues when I'm at work this is a particularly dangerous fact. That, and the fact that this site 1) is listed on my CV and 2) itself contains lots of blog entries concerning failed interview attempts may also actually damage my chances of finding employment in the future. It is for this reason that I've installed Wordpress on my PC and am currently working to separate off my blog from the rest of my website.

Of course, since Things Of Interest runs on a content management system of my own devising, exporting said blog entries (175-ish of them) to Wordpress has hardly been trivial, but that's life, I suppose. In all other respects, Wordpress seems to be a pleasantly intuitive and customisable piece of equipment.

It's been a busy few weeks. On 3rd November I traipsed all the way to Swindon and met some Everything2 noders for a nodermeet which was highly amusing. Readers who know me can find the relevant E2 node themselves.

From 5th to 8th November I was working at... well, **REDACTED**, but it's somewhere I've worked before. That was HELLISH. I was in their finance department, opening and stamping letters ("But this phone bill is 270 pages long!" "Nope, every page must be stamped!") and then typing invoices into the computer. Their computer network is so tightly locked down that you can't even get context menus on icons. That's right, you can't RIGHT-CLICK. Nor was I able to alter the settings to show file extensions or stop opening each folder in a new window, etc. etc.. I had an internet connection capable only of viewing *.gov sites and a group of line managers who watch me so intently that if I spend more than sixty seconds sitting still they ask me "Got enough work, Sam?" Yes, I have enough work, I'm just not doing it because my brain is shutting down. Work so tedious as this actually makes my mind hurt. It was like being in secondary school again. Luckily, this was a flexitime post, 25 hours a week, so I elected to do 7 1/4 hours daily and have Friday off. It was the right decision. Never in my life have I looked longingly at the clock so many times in one day. Utterly humourless individuals. And an office in which some of the neon light tubes have been removed, so that 1) there's no glare on their screens ("Oh, we can't afford glare shields") and 2) the room is in perpetual twilight. This, also, hurt my head.

I could go on. The job was originally for four weeks but this was mercifully cut down to one - possibly due to my own attitude, but to be honest I think that me not working there for any longer is the right move for both of us.

Friday 9th I visited Andy P in Peckham for food and some beer - the man is an excellent cook, but his local, while spacious, is filled with, well, Peckhamites. Saturday saw a reunion with James R, James B and Mike at King's Cross Station for a brief, impromptu afternoon pub crawl. Mike had a gastropub guide which led us to a variety of good drinking establishments, one of which was quiet as a library which is something I prize and treasure in a drinking establishment. We discussed the forthcoming A to Z Pub Crawl (details have been emailed to some of you, you know who you are) and then headed off in search of the Jerusalem Tavern, which turned out to be closed. This was a Saturday night in London, by the way. Somehow it also sits in the one location in London which is deserted on a Saturday night. We were scratching our heads.

12th to 16th was a straightforward audiotyping job at the OTHER Nottingham hospital. Office was not as untidy as the previous one but still pretty cluttered. Office was freezing cold for the entire week.

And on 16th I was back at Corpus for formal, which was the awesomes... except for the food. Starter was beef tomato which I don't like, with salad, which I'm also not keen on. Then guinea fowl, which was actually very nice, alongside uninspiring green beans and what looked for all the world like a hash brown, and then some strange translucent gelatinous dessert with berries embedded in it. Wine was good though. And also plentiful. Had a chance to catch up with Juliette, but hardly anybody else, unfortunately, as I left fairly early in the evening. Trip home was uneventful, but about an hour longer than it should have been. Replacement bus services SUCK.

Breakfast the following morning was at the Copper Kettle opposite King's - of which I have never, in fact, taken any photographs.

The book is getting closer to publication. I am getting closer to a job. Stay tuned.