Neil Hopcroft

neilh

It seems last years resolution of sorting out my career has been somewhat more successful than my previous ‘sort my life out’ resolutions – sure, its not completely fixed yet but things are looking a lot better now than they did this time last year.

What else do I need to sort out? There is something to be said for stating these resolutions very publically (as was pointed out to me by timsmith when talking about giving up smoking). But what should the resolution(s) be? There are two things that come to mind – I’m not very good at relaxing and I’ve an irrational fear of intimacy. But I don’t know how to solve either of those, and I suspect I’m not in a good environment to actually do anything (other than introspect) about either.

What else can I do to make my life better?

Categories: Memories.

/ 11 Comments

11 comments

jarkman

2004-01-01 at 17:03

Well, you’re an engineer. You know the process.

Search the userbase for unsatsfied requirements, ask the support people if there are any requests they hear frequently, do a survey of the competition, look at implementations in nearby fields that may offer ideas.

If all of that doesn’t suggest anything, eat cheesy chilli late at night and lie awake pondering the question. Something will turn up.

Reply
- neilh
  
  2004-01-01 at 17:10
  
  Yeah, I didn’t have any chilli, had to use tabasco sauce instead.
  
  Reply
  - jarkman
    
    2004-01-01 at 18:33
    
    Ah – but did you use any cheese ?
    
    Reply
    - neilh
      
      2004-01-02 at 17:34
      
      Ah, you don’t know about my Mozarella habit? It needs feeding daily, otherwise I get real cranky.
      
      Reply
      - jarkman
        
        2004-01-02 at 19:43
        
        Perhaps you’ve grown uused to it, and it’s no longer causing the degree of intestinal upset required for nocturnal inspiration. Tried Stilton ?
      - neilh
        
        2004-01-03 at 12:29
        
        I think yesterdays smoked bavarian with cracked pepper was probably quite enough of the nightmare generation, today I’ve eased off to only a few gratings of mozarrella and a couple of kraft plastic slices in the hope of sleeping a bit better.
      - jarkman
        
        2004-01-03 at 13:28
        
        Maybe you’ll need to run the formal process, then.
      - neilh
        
        2004-01-07 at 14:22
        
        Dammit, I hate it when that happens.
neilh

2004-01-03 at 00:44

Probably not, given that her English is as good as my Japanese:

PVC: moshi moshi
Me: Erm, hello
PVC: Anata wa desu ka?
Me: Its Neil here
PVC: Wakaremasen, baka gaijin.

…or something.

Reply
neilh

2004-01-03 at 12:37

Re: Matti’s guide to getting arrested in foreign parts

I’m guessing that my refusal to use such cheesy lines at least partly accounts for my failure to start relationships over the last couple of years – mostly I don’t want to spend time with the kinds of people lines like that actually work on.

My accent is silly enough for everyone here anyway – mostly they’re Americans or Australians so at least its weird for them to hear someone from ‘the old country’ – so any comedy dialect would just make them as confused as the poor local girl.

She didn’t seem entirely unreceptive to my few attempts to communicate with her, but I’m sure she didn’t understand. Oh well, I’ll try again on the 17th…

Reply
neilh

2004-01-05 at 15:11

Re: Matti’s guide to getting arrested in foreign parts

Oh, you mean all those memories of being a dangerous loner at school were made up by a brain surgeon I paid to implant them so I would feel happy about a career as a geek? That would explain a lot.

“All the clocks are broken”

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Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

11 comments

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