I’ve moved on from the loyalty company I was contracted to at the beginning of the year. I then worked for an online dating company for a few months, adding some new functionality to their sites and now find myself on a three month contract for a major financial institution here in Belgium! This is my first contract outside the UK and so far it’s going well.

I’m working with a nice bunch of people, the work is fun and I’m renting a nice house, about 10 minutes from the office.

I have some new toys: on the musical side of things I have added a 24″ Apple iMac, an Akai MPK49 and Native Instruments Kore2 & Komplete to my studio. The iMac is dedicated to running Logic and is simply wonderful. The MPK is a really nice control keyboard. I looked at quite a few, but settled on the Akai mainly down to the features and it’s build quality – built like the side of a barn! The NI kit is a never-ending source of really usabale sounds and was well worth the investment. I’ve also been using Spectrasonic’s Atmosphere and am looking forward to their new updated offering, Omnisphere, which was released this week.

My Studio

I’ve also just received a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and it’s just rocking my world! B-> When I was younger, Sci-fi programmes were full of people using these wireless, handheld gadgets to communicate and receive messages etc – that’s what this does and it does it so well! I now have the gadget I always dreamed of owning! It works seamlessly with either wifi or via Bluetooth to your phone and whatever 3G network you happen to be connected to. It really looks the part too.

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

I’ve been learning some new skills too, both on this contract and on my own time. I’m currently grappling with JQuery and have spent quite some time recently working with SQL Server 2005, rather than 2000, which I know so well. I’ve had some ‘issues’ with the Studio (I’ve been heard to say: ‘I know where this thing is in Enterprise Manager, but where have they hidden it here!’ quite a few times).

At home our bathroom has been ripped out and is being rebuilt from the ground up – we’ve had all kinds of fun finding tiles, finding a bath and shower that would fit, rebuilding walls, knocking those new walls down again, so we could replace the bath with another one that fitted, but was more appropriate for my wife, building another wall – the usual things. We’re also about to have the whole house rewired, including CAT5 cables to every room (At last!).

Recent discoveries in Film & TV include the wonderful film Hairspray – not my normal cup of tea, but a really enjoyable ‘feel good’ movie. I’ve also been quite gripped by an early 70s animated french film called ‘Fantastic Planet’ – quite simply the freakiest, trippiest film I think I’ve ever seen – lots of psychedelic images and sounds. Also worthy of note is ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ – a parody of all that was bad about TV shows in the early 80s – great stuff! I’d thoroughly recommend any of these.

Beardless!

Final news: The beard is dead, long live the face! Yes, I have shaved off my beloved beard – after 15 years, I decided it was time for a change, so off it came. I’m left with a moustache and a ‘Soul Patch’ beard (a small, triangular patch of facial hair just below my bottom lip – sometimes called Brazilian Velcro or a Soup Catcher! B->)

Thats all for now – I’ll post a few more details about some of the things I’ve mentioned over the next few days, if I get the time.

All the best

RustyBadger

Now this, REALLY looks like me! B->

Yay! I love Christmas!

My wife has bought me two great presents this year:

A Delonghi Magnifica Espresso machine

A Yamaha DTxpress electronic drum kit

Good times!

The show was being recorded for a DVD release, so I look forward to watching this show again and again, like I do Bill's other DVDs.

There are a few video clips from the show on You Tube, but I did spot this classic moment from Bill's Part Troll show:

Wonderfully talented chap!

All three of them are doing well.

All the best to the family, Kola.

A little while ago it was popular among the ColdFusion Development community to create a Simpsons character that looked like yourself. I did as everyone else did, but as I wasn’t actively blogging at the time, the file stayed on my desktop until I decided it was time to tidy up on the train this morning.

I decided that – late or not – my blog would be the best place for this image, so here it is, for your delectation! B->

Enjoy!

Ok, calm down Cliff!

[Deep breath]

Apart from some funky goings on with the Mac Mini that I had planned to connect to it (strange problems creating a share that the Sonos zoneplayers could access), I now have both zoneplayers accessing my music library and very slick it is too.

More about this when I’ve stopped playing with the remote control! B->

Stelvio Pass, Italy

My wife and I love challenging roads and are avid viewers of the BBC’s Top Gear programme, so were inspired when watching this weeks show, where the presenters go off in search of Europe’s greatest driving road and end up showing the Stelvio Pass, just over the Swiss border into Italy.

We are now planning a trip to this location next year – the pass is only open from June to early October!

I’ve read a few forum post from people who’ve driven this road, many of whom mention that they were driving through snow in August! Nothing to worry about there then.

Must remember to get the brakes checked before we go! B->

Peacock

I got home from work yesterday and my Brother-in-law pointed out that there was a Peacock sitting on our neighbour’s roof!

That was strange enough, but I heard a odd noise just before going to work this morning and my Sister-in-law discovered that the original Peacock was still on the neighbour’s roof, but now there’s another one in one of the trees in our front garden!

It just gets stranger and stranger.

We discovered that a local business man was known to keep Peacocks, but when my Brother-in-law checked, his were all accounted for, so we have no idea where they’re from.

This evening, they’re both sitting by the pool in the back garden. The RSPCA have been informed and we’re waiting for them to arrive.

Very strange!

(Check out this beautiful picture)

My name is Cliff Pearson, I’m 41 years old and live in a little village on the North-east Essex coast, to the eastern side of the UK, some 70-odd miles from London with my wife of 22 years, Wendy. We don’t have any kids, but a cat, a dog and a pair of cockatiels keep us busy!

(Sorry about the stupid viking picture, but all the others were worse, believe me!)

I’ve always worked in IT and have been a web developer for 13 years now. I’ve focused on ColdFusion for the past 12 years and have been self employed for almost 9 years now.

Favourite TV shows include Heroes, Prison Break, House, 24, Doctor Who, Jericho, QI, Life On Mars, Battlestar Galactica, Bones & Waking The Dead.

Food – I cook a mean Italian and my wife says I’m a better cook than she is!

Outside of computers and the Interweb, my main passion is music. I was a part-time DJ for about 20 years, but retired recently, due to health problems (it’s a young man’s sport!) I dabble with various instruments – mainly keys and bass guitar.

I’m a Progressive Rock fan – a deeply unfashionable musical genre which most people dismiss. I won’t start preaching about it here, but yes, there are people still making this music, it didn’t die out in 1976, despite what the press might want you to believe!

Curious? Then I urge you to check out:

• The Flower Kings
• The Tangent
• Riverside
• Porcupine Tree
• Blackfield
• Pure Reason Revolution
• Mew
• Lazuli
• Beardfish

..among many others!

Probably the strangest thing I’ve ever done (apart from skiing) was to dress as a pregnant bride at a friend’s wedding, chasing the groom around the hall to the sounds of Yvonne Fair’s ‘It Should Have Been Me’! (No, Vicar Of Dibley fans, I’m afraid that wasn’t an original Richard Curtis idea – I did this in 1990 and have video evidence! B->).

I spend far to long reading other people’s blogs, but find I learn so much.