Wow, it's been a month since the last post and there's been a heck of a lot going on but not a lot that I can really blog about. There are a couple of topics that I won't normally post about and they've been the interesting ones of late. For those of you who haven't been bored by these subjects before, I don't post about the day job other than mentioning when I've been travelling and there is another subject in my personal life which I will one day discuss but at the moment I don't feel ready to. I've probably made that sound more interesting than it actually is!

What I can talk about is that I've become a plurker of late. If you haven't found plurk yet it's a micro-blogging type of site much like twitter. Having been a plurker for a few weeks now I can honestly state that it reminds me of instant messaging back when I used to use that more and would have 5 or 6 conversations on the go at any one time. It's good for posting a few lines about what you're up to at any given time but other than that I can't decide what the point of it is longer term. You get a karma score based on things like the amount you post and interact and that seems to help keep people posting more. If you decide to give it a try, do so via this link because it'll help my karma.

In other news, tomorrow I should be taking part in a 12 mile walk for Tay FMs Cash for Kids charity but I've had to pull out because of this knee problem that keeps rearing its head. Could be time for a trip to the doctors to get this sorted. To make up for pulling out I'm planning on doing something later in the year so get your wallets/purses ready. I'll be round looking for your cash.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

I started watching West Wing from Series 1 again recently as I've mentioned before. After having a break from it for a few weeks while other tasks commanded my time, I returned to watching Series 3 where I discovered one of my favourite episodes; the one where Toby has a crush on a poet, and another episode that I feel sounds familiar.

The episode starts with President Bartlett being interviewed on the US Morning shows. After each interview he exchanges a few words with each interviewer. While 'live' there is a red light on the camera which becomes green when they are no longer recording. During one of the post interview exchanges the President makes a comment about his opponent that questions his intelligence. I apologise to those who don't want to hear the outcome of the episode but basically C.J. eventually confronts the President with the notion that he knew the red light was still on when he made the comment.

I feel this sounds familiar because this week a government minister walked into No 10 this week with a memo 'accidently' on display for the waiting reporters. Is it just me who thinks that this was planned as a way of leaking the news without making an official unpopular statement?

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

...and all he brought back was these lousy photos.

I had a bit of spare time while in London on business and as it was a nice day I decided to have a bit of a wander. Over the course of 20,000 steps I took a bunch of photos and the full set is on Flickr. However here are a few of my favourites.

1. There's quite a few buildings that are currently facades while they build a new body.

2. My first time across the Millenium Bridge and they first time I realised that St Pauls imposes the skyline as you look northwards. I love the juxtaposition of the ancient with the new.

3. The revelation that cheese never sleeps. This shop is just round the corner from London Bridge station and alongside the big market.

4. Drake's ship. The worlds first martitime museum and what strikes me about this is how small it is. I can't imagine travelling the world with a boatload of men in such a small space.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

... are the ones that tend to get lost and the things you want to get lost are the ones that you can never seem to lose. Okay that's probably not the case but it sums up my discovery this week.

I've been following a blog/work of faction about a breakfast dj on a fictional radio station. The story ended recently and all bar the final two posts were removed at that time. Now I started reading half way through and was planning on reading from the start at one point and so was a bit sad that I wasn't going to get the chance. That was until I discovered that Google Reader saves all the posts from the blogs that you subscribe to. Cool for me, perhaps not so cool for the writer of the blog who is, I assume, trying to get a publishing deal just now.

It makes you realise that it's even more important to be careful about what you post online. A fellow blogger had, in the past, posted a few things that obviously reflected their anger about a situation and I'm sure it was a cathartic experience. It worried me though that it could, in the wrong hands, be used to cause trouble for the original poster. They've recently removed the posts but in light of my new discovery I'm questioning whether it's really possible to erase these things at all.  

... now someone go and implement it.

Brindy has started 'twittering' to his lj recently which mean that anything he posts on twitter is collated and posted as a blog entry at the end of the day. Now this is a great idea if you use twitter but I don't, nor would I have any plans to.

Instead I want a similar thing that would work with my pedometer. It's a bit 'Bridget Jones' but I like the idea that I could just wear my pedometer and it would send my daily total to my PC or to a piece of software that would write to my blog. If it's happening already then I want to know about it, otherwise feel free to take my idea and implement it. Just remember to send me a free one - for testing obviously.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

We had an hour less on the show this week but that just meant it was less of my choice and all about the listener.

If you've no idea what this is about these are the songs that the listeners choose on Ali McLaren's Saturday Night Love on Tay FM. It's basically 4 hours of the best love songs and slow jams. Why not listen online one Saturday Night. You'll find the link on the Tay FM website.

10.30pm
Westlife - Home
Seal - Kiss From A Rose
Take That - A Millioin Love Songs
Natasha Beddingfield - These Words
Lonestar - Amazed

11pm
Frankie Miller - Caledonia
Bon Jovi - Always
LeAnn Rimes - How Do I Live
Jack Johnson - Better Together
U2 - With or Without You
Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds
Aerosmith - Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Savage Garden - Moon and Back
Starship - Nothing's Gonna  Stop Us Now
Meatloaf - 2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad

12 midnight
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Chicago - If You Leave Me Now
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
R Kelly - If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
Wet Wet Wet - Goodnight Girl
Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Oleta Adams - Get Here

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

So I did it. This afternoon I stopped procrastinating and, even though the snow was starting, I headed out on the bike for the first time in 8 years. Let me say that riding a road bike and riding an exercise bike are two different things. You probably know that. Let me also say that a helmet doesn't keep your head warm.

I spent 30 mins on the bike riding 5 miles around the local park and discovering a new part of the city that everyone else seems to know about.

I returned and then went for a walk around another park with my friend Tony thus notching up another 7000 steps in the process. It's now 9pm on Easter Monday and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself after for actually doing something with my weekend. I'm heading back to work tomorrow feeling pretty positive and I'm very proud of that given that there have been plenty of things happen over the past 5 days that could drag me down. I guess I'm just not going to let them.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

A long time ago I lent my West Wing Series 1 & 2 DVDs to a friend and this weekend I got them back. I've anticipated their return for a long time and so tonight I sat down to watch the entire 7 seasons from the first episode. Obviously this isn't a one night plan especially since it's 154 episodes.

Having watched the first few episodes I can see how this got commisioned and I totally remember why I loved it so much. The dialogue, especially in these Aaron Sorkin penned episodes, was fantastically crafted and include some of my favourite lines. Here's a few examples with apologies for reprinting without permission:

Sam: About a week ago I accidentally slept with a prostitute.
Toby: Really?
Sam: Yes.
Toby: You accidentally slept with a prostitute.
Sam: Call girl.
Toby: Accidentally.
Sam: Yes.
Toby: I don't understand, did you trip over something?

------

Van Dyke: If our children can buy pornography on any street corner for five dollars, isn’t that too high a price to pay for free speech?
Bartlet: No.
Van Dyke: Really?
Bartlet: On the other hand, I do think that five dollars is too high a price to pay for pornography.

---

C.J.: Is there anything I can say except 'The President rode his bicycle into a tree.'?
Leo: He hopes never to do it again?
C.J.: Seriously, they're laughing pretty hard
Leo: He rode his bicycle into a tree, CJ. What do you want me... 'The President, while riding a bicycle on his vacation in Jackson Hole, came to a sudden arboreal stop.' What do you want from me?
C.J.: A little love, Leo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leo: He was swerving to avoid a tree.
Donna: What happened?
Leo: He was unsuccessful.  

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

bike_stuff

Little things get me excited. Exercise, or perhaps the promise of change as a result of, gets me excited. This weekend the small exercise thing to get me excited was my bike arriving at my flat. It has been my bike since the late 80s but somwhere along the way I got out of the habit of using it. In fact it's been my Dad who's used it most in the past 10 years.

Yesterday my bike and I were reunited and to celebrate I went out today to buy some 'bike stuff'. Did you know that Tesco stocks loads of things for your bike and I now own a lot of it. You'll be pleased to hear that I stopped short of buying the lycra shorts because, to be honest, the people of Scotland aren't ready for the sight of me in lycra nor the unsightly bulges that would no doubt result.

Last time I was on a bike would've been the summer of 2000 when I went mountain biking with some of the campers of Camp Androscoggin. As I recall we covered 30 miles over the course of that day.

So I have the bike and the gear but I don't know where to go. Glasgow City Council produced a series of leaflets detailing routes around Glasgow a few of which I picked up while I was in their offices a few weeks ago. Tonight I went searching for details about the Glasgow to Edinburgh cycle routes and found the Sustrans website. In particular I found these publications which will shortly be heading to me: Forth to Clyde cycle routes and Glasgow & South West Scotland routes.

All I need now is some good weather this summer.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Sat 22nd March '08

10.30pm
Amy McDonald - Run
Nicole Scherzinger - Baby Love
Enrique Iglesias - Hero
Michael Buble - Home
Oleta Adams - Get Here
Limahl - Never Ending Story

11pm
Cliff Richard - Lean on You
Sinead O'Conner - Nothing Compares 2U
Madness - It Must Be Love
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do
All 4 One - I Swear
Christina Aguilera - Hurt
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Curtis Stigers - You're All That Matters
Reo Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling
Billie Myres - Kiss The Rain
Westlife - Us Against the World

12 midnight
Cutting Crew - I Just Died In Your Arms
Peter Cetera - Glory of Love
John Paul Young - Love Is In The Air
Whitney Houston - Greatest Love of All
Aerosmith - Cryin'
Alicia Keyes - No One
LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight
Air Supply - All Out Of Love
Poison - Every Rose
Mariah Carey - Hero
Bon Jovi - Bed of Roses
N-Sync - This I Promise You

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

A couple of days ago I posted this:

"Next week I'm off on Friday because the Tay crowd are having a couple of quiet beers and a bunch of us are staying at a local hotel. I'm thinking it might get messy.... if we're lucky"

Yesterday I got an email reminding those of us staying at the hotel to be on our best behaviour. Spooky!

It got me thinking though that many of us don't think about the consequencies of our actions when representing our companies. Take, for instance, driving a logo-ed company vehicles. If you speed, cut someone up or just annoy them with your poor driving then you'll find that person associating your actions with the company. At best they'll just think that your company employs poor drivers, at worst they'll not use your service or product. Most of these vehicles have the phone number on the side too so you can potentially find complaints about your actions being reported.

A few years ago I received a call while on air at a radio station from the police. They were following up a report from a woman who'd been cut up by a radio station pool vehicle who was both speeding and driving dangerously. As it was a well logo-ed car and because we only had one of that make we were able to work out exactly who had been driving it.

You think that you're immune from this when out drinking and especially during the Christmas party season but you're not. A great example of this was going to a free bar evening run by a recruitment company who were trying to get business from the company that I worked for. Myself and a colleague had a few beers and then a few more thinking nothing of it especially since we seemed to have the blessing of the management. All it took was a little snide comment from the recruiter the following day to our management about how our boys "liked a beer" and we were in trouble. Silly really but worth remembering.

Of course it gets worse and when you start arguing with bar staff or causing trouble/fights, even within your group, when you can be identified then the repercussions are going to be bad.

I learnt my lesson a long time ago and especially when on radio nights out in our broadcast area, I'm always on my best behaviour. I like my job too much.  

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

After taking far too few hols last year I now have 30 days to take this year before December so you'd imagine that I'd be taking every public holiday going.

Not quite.

I've elected to work tomorrow and take Monday and Friday off next week. My thinking is that with no phone calls tomorrow I'll get lots of work done. It's a nice theory.

Next week I'm off on Friday because the Tay crowd are having a couple of quiet beers and a bunch of us are staying at a local hotel. I'm thinking it might get messy.... if we're lucky.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Many moons ago I purchased a book by Paul McKenna called "I Can Make You Thin". I bought it because I was intrigued by its title and wanted to read it in order to disprove the statement. Thing is, the statement is correct although the title should really be: "I Can Make You Thin By Telling You To Do Common Sense Things". I have a recollection of talking about this on the radio show but I didn't blog it.

In the book Paul McKenna gives 4 simple tips about making changes that will lead to a healthier and slimmer you. The one that struck me was the exercise tips where he was pointing out that walking a bit more makes a big difference. He suggested buying a pedometer, seeing how far you walk and then trying to walk a bit further every day.

In this post I mentioned how I used to walk 10,000 steps a day during the week and now don't so it was with some trepidation that I dug out the pedometer recently. I was interested in seeing whether walking home after work (it takes about 50 mins) would be enough to get the step count up. What I discovered is that it isn't (it takes me to 9000) but also that just having a couple of shorter walks during the day does help and is more manageable.

Over the past 3 weeks of wearing the pedometer again I've been averaging 7000 steps which is pretty good going. I'm looking forward to getting the average up as well as putting the Paul McKenna advice back into practice again.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

It's been a strange old time recently. The past few months have seen a number of changes some of which have been good, some of which have been less than good. If you've followed my lj blog then you'll perhaps have noticed that I don't post any private stuff about my personal life. This is for two reasons, first it's not always that interesting and second, it's none of your damn business (said with tongue pressed firmly in cheek).

So the changes have been a change in radio job, an evolution of my day job role and the end of a relationship. The common link between them all is the strange feeling that they have all resulted in. My move to Tay FM has been great but it's very strange being on air late at night. The response to the show is absolutely amazing and even though it's taken a couple of months to settle in, I'm starting to really enjoy what I'm going. You should listen one Saturday night between 10pm and 2am. You'll find a link to the stream on the website.

The evolution of the day job has been interesting and has brought new challenges which I'm tackling in my usual manner. I could write a daily blog based on the events in this job but, in my view, it's both unethical and a fast track to trouble.

The relationship end was sad and exceptionally strange especially given that we have both remained good friends. The other half of the relationship has blogged about the reasons and I see no reason to repeat that.

All this has made me realise that I need a holiday, a break, some time to chill and do nothing. A very close friend mentioned much the same thing a couple of weekends ago. I've basically spent the last 8 years working harder and harder and I've forgotten that a break is needed every now and then. My last proper holiday was in 2004 and that's too long ago.

So here I promise to myself that I will take better care of myself this year. As a start I'm planning, weather permitting, on doing some cycling this weekend and staying away from the PC as much as possible. You never know, it might actually happen!

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

At the invitation of Jake1.0 I've decided to set up a Vox journal and linked it to my LJ blog. I'm intrigued to see if this is better or about the same. This is going to be my third blogging home and I wonder whether there's an easy way to merge them all.

Originally posted on niceguyali.vox.com

Amazingly this blog has lasted a whole year albeit with slightly patchy posting in the second half of 2007. For that I pathetically blame working too much and having a life. I really must try posting more in 2008.

Back at the start of 2007 I posted a blog about the stars and as part of it I posted my horoscope to see if any of it came true. For most of last year I kept the supplement that it came out of but managed to throw it out when leaving Kingdom. Anyway the horoscope was about "love and nookie" and here's how it went compared to the reality.

Apparently my ruling planet, Jupiter, is passing through Sagittarius creating longings and desires that need to be fulfilled. Worse still, if I try to resist then they will persist until I give in. Ho hum! 
This was an interesting one as there was a desire that persisted throughout the year until I gave into it but it wasn't around love and nookie. The desire was to progress in my radio career and while it may have taken 10 months before I did anything about it, it would certainly fit with this prediction.

Lots of comings and goings at the start of February and unexpected emotions will surface between me and someone in a different geographical location, perhaps we can't look each other in the eye? 
Really not sure what this might've been. We had a new news operative join Kingdom in the shape of Laura Haldane and February was the month of the Girlfriend Job Ad.

"But a reunion is assured as August begins. There is no mention of whether you will have one person back but what takes place this April, and you should circle April 10th, will give you both the personal freedom and loving relationship you seek. You'll find a rare contentment within the 'confines' of one partnership. If you still haven't found this person by summer, mark October 3 in your diary. This is your year for second chances."
Yes, Mr Toper managed to mention a broad enough spread of dates there so he was always going to be close. The reunion was May/June and a relationship did indeed blossom from it. 

I think the jury is still out on all of this stuff although I am minded to dismiss it as vague nonsense. I haven't had a look at this years horoscopes but it might be interesting to repeat the experiment.

Imagine you could say anything to anyone without repercussions, what would you say and to whom? Now think about your answer and ask yourself, why? I have a suspicion that this answer is the more revealing one and provides an insight into our own minds that we possibly don't always have.

A wise woman once told me that until we are comfortable in our own skin, it's very difficult for others to be comfortable around us. I completely subscribe to this view and it's no great surprise to discover that it was just after I started liking who I was that my life turned for the better and things started to fall into place.

Like everything in life, there will always be setbacks along the way, the trick is to spot them and deal with them. It's also important to keep moving forward.

My answer to the questions were that I'd say to me, "Remember who you are and what you are capable of doing" and the reason why would be because I'd forgotten.