BTW, which one's Pink?

I finally got around to watching the Pink Floyd doc that was on BBC One last week. I have to say it was really enjoyable. Featured plenty of footage I've never seen before and points of view from the band that I've up until then not heard.

Most suprisingly of all was the change in Roger Waters. The 20 minute set they did for Live 8 really seems to have changed his outlook. Up until then, the interviews I've heard and read has him sticking to his guns with regards to his views on why the band split up and the fact he was right. Yet in the documentary on more than one occasion he admitted being wrong. Very surprisingy but fair play to him.

Another thing I've noticed is that despite all their differences, they all have the same regrets with regards to Syd Barrett. They all regret burying their heads in the sand and not helping him.. being in a state of denial.

The guilt and love they have for Barrett (famously) comes through in their music, most of all in Shine On. Its those honest lryics and the music that goes with it that makes it one of the two 5 out of 5 star tunes on my iPod. Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky being the other.

Finally, it still shocks me how every time I see that Live 8 performance (which granted, isn't often), I love it. There is something about seeing that that puts my hairs up on end. They showed a clip from it of them finishing off Comfortably Numb (that track would be another 5 out of 5 song if it wasn't for the parts of the song that isn't a solo). I've never seen them play with so much passion.

One last thing. I've got Piper at the Gates playing whilst I write this. Superb album, buy it if you don't already own it!

The Weekend

I saw this video on Becky's Facebook funwall. Thought it was worth sharing.

It's not so bad really..

It's safe to say I probably had my most stressful week in work to date last week. That counts for any job I've done in any business I've worked for. People who know me will know I don't stress that easily so fair play to Debenhams, they've truly achieved something.

However, it's a new week and in spite of the fact those same stresses are lingering somewhere; I'm far happier right now. Every now and then something triggers off the thought that I really like my job. I'm shocked that it happened earlier today (especially bearing in mind last week) but it happened.

I was sat at my desk doing some DB2 SQL in VI when someone came round to my desk with a new member of staff. He seemed quite a young chap. In fact it might well be true that I'm no longer the youngest person in Debenhams Development (that might never have been the case though). Whilst we were going through the usual introductions and handshakes (both of which I'm rubbish at) I noticed he glanced at my screen. At this point I thought to myself "If that were me and I saw someone working away on some code in an ugly looking command line editor (VI), I'd be really impressed". Sad, I know, but I'd think to myself "That job looks great. Proper geeky.". Once the introductions were over and he moved on to someone who said more than a whimpering "Hi" with a handshake to match, I took it a step further and wondered what else my job looked like.

Behind my VI session was an UltraEdit session with yet more confusing yet intriguing code. On my desk was a Boba Fett Star Wars figure hanging from a basketball hoop with a "Birthday Girl" badge attached (cheers Dean!). Next to that were a few programming reference books. Also on the desk was the iPod and a bag of opened Haribo.

I'm confident no one else feels the same way, but when I think of all that I consider myself to be really lucky to have such a great job. I've got my entire music collection there which I can spend most of the day listening too. That alone is fantastic for me. It helps that I get a kick out of the coding I do. Heck, I even have my own telephone number which rings once or twice a month.

So to sum up, in spite of the stress it brings, I really like my job.

Dave: Totally Viral

I watched a really good show the other night on Dave called Totally Viral. It's something I've been looking for for some time.

Basically they take the best video content from the web (eg. YouTube etc) and put it into a half hour tv show. I'm sure there is some great content out there on the web, but for now at least I don't really want to sift through all the videos of folk miming to Britney Spears and Feeder. Now I don't have to!

They feature some really funny clips. It's like the show that launched with BBC Three - Monkey Dust - but without the repetition.

More at: http://uktv.co.uk/dave/homepage/sid/6351