So, within the month I’ll be working largely with 18-20 year olds on my Uni course.

It’s going to be quite the contrast to my current work, where I’m the youngest in my department.

As a result, I’m a little concerned that I might be a little Hall And Oates (i.e. Out of Touch… HA HA HA! CONTEMPORARY REFERENCE, KIDS! HA HA HA!) with my coursemates.

To prevent myself feeling like the granddad of the team, I need to get down wid da kids.

How? Well, I think the list below will help me seem like One Of The Yoof:

• Saying “Dude”, “Rad”, “Cool” and “Hip”
• Playing Gameboy games
• Swearing using “Bloody” and “Ruddy”
• Blaming Thatcher for most things
• Knowledge of the Radio 4 schedule
• Regular assertions that a good night in is far better (and much more cost effective) than a good night out
• Wearing heat-sensitive T-Shirts. And Neon. Lots of neon.

That should help, I think. Any other ideas?

Pat

I’ve just been listening to some of Hanz Zimmer’s superb soundtrack to Christopher Nolan’s equally superb film Inception, whilst sitting at my desk in work.

My God.

Writing emails about system migrations and launch confirmations has never felt the same.

Normally my feelings around these sorts of things would be best described either as a colour: grey, or as a sound: ppft.

However, with particular tracks from the Inception soundtrack blasting in my ears:

• UK WAR File Deployment Change Request completion:
  • Normally: shrug
  • When listening to The Dream Is Collapsing: a panicked, frantic mashing of keys desperately trying to explain that “everything is OK!” before the Change Request team lose all patience, fork out tens of thousands of pounds on flights and head here from America with rage in their eyes.
• PVCS to AccuRev content migration:
  • Normally: meh
  • When listening to Time: an email of such world-changing importance that every keystroke composing it has more impact than any corporate-changing strategy ever written by a top excutive. On sending, a sense of immense pride and excitement fills one’s soul, purely to have been a part of such a historic event. Tears are almost wept at the sheer gravity of the situation.
• Dev systems account password update confirmation:
  • Normally: tum-tee-tum…
  • When listening to Dream Within A Dream: utter terror; they might be development system passwords only, but oh god – what if someone uses the old one before the email gets out? The impact… THE IMPACT. Hurry, Pat, HURRY! Oh god, oh god, is everyone on this list of recipients? What if I forget someone and… oh man, check it again, Scullion, CHECK! If even one of those accounts get locked… tens… no… THOUSANDS may die! SOMEONE GET THE PRESIDENT, NOW! THE PASSWORDS HAVE CHANGED!!

So, basically, the Inception soundtrack inspires ludicrous hyperbole. :-)

If you’ve got a fave soundtrack for work spice-upping, what is it and what’s its effect?

Pat

They’re great.

And by “great” I mean “valuable if you’re paying attention”.

And by “paying attention” I mean “doodling”.

Obviously, I don’t do that. But if I did (which I don’t) then these would’ve been doodled in the most recent AEM I went to.

But I didn’t doodle them then, so that’s fine. I doodled them at home. Yes. On my work sketch note pad. Which I carry around with me at all times. Yes. Because I think work is great.

And by “great” I mean “valuable if you’re paying attention”.

And by “paying attention”… :)

Doodle 1

Doodle 2

(Not referring to anything in particular. Clearly. Good.)

Pat :)

A Friday poem written to my EuroMils syndicate workmates. Thought I’d share with you:

– An Ode to EuroMillions, Pat Scullion, 2011

ForTheRecordThisWorkplaceIsGreat
AndIWouldNotEverDoAnyhingLikeWeeOnADesk
OkThanksBye

This is totally, utterly unacceptable.

GAH!

On a lighter note, So I Married An Axe Murderer is hilarious fun (and good to see Mike Myers playing the “Scottish” father using the same accent as Shrek and Fat B*stard) Oh and also today (with the awesome assistance of my mum – thank you so much!!) I finally sorted out my garden, so now it doesn’t look like a jungle. Awesome!

Toodles,

Pat

Feeling: A bit shocked
Song in Head: Spin Doctors – Two Princes

Heya!

Very long time no blog. I might start up again at some point, but no promises. In the mean time, here’s an update regarding what I’ve been up to these past months:

;-)

Toodles,

Pat

It’s been a long one, but I think Pat’s come out of it feeling pretty good (Aside from this cold I’ve got, just in time to go away! – Pat) – stop being a pansy! (Oh, ok, no problem, you can enjoy your flight in the hold…- Pat) Er, I mean, oooh dear sorry to hear that!

(We’ve started this post with a side-comment extravaganza – Pat) Yeah probably not the best way to begin is it? (Nah, makes you look a little scatty and odd – Pat) Makes me, eh? This blue alien blob who somehow lives with you and is currently typing onto your keyboard, yeah? I’m the one who’s scatty and odd? (Um, shall we move on? – Pat) Yes, let’s. Take two:

Hello!

This past week has been a long one for Pat, but despite being a bit ill towards the tail end of it he’s not had too bad a week. Let’s have a look at the past few days’ worth of photos:

Monday

Yep, this has really been the theme of the past two weeks. Amazingly, Pat’s surpassed his usual lame level of gym attendance and, even I have to admit, has done pretty damned well this past two weeks. 5 times to the gym last week and 4 times this week (he was sniffling and snuffling last night so made some lame excuse about needing a lie in this morning (Boy did I… – Pat). He’s already down from 30 stone to 28 stone! (Oi! – Pat) ok ok I’ll be nice this once… he’s actually managed to lose a few kilos since the start of the year. Hopefully the snowboarding will help it keep coming off!

Tuesday

Pat’s been busy using my beautiful looks to create some custom “Squgs”, which have been dished out to some of his friends and have been making people happy (at least Pat’s hoping they have been – the reception’s been good so far, which is not at all surprising – I mean, who wouldn’t want a mug with my face on it? Eh? EH? Exactly). Pat has said cryptically that this is just the beginning of something big this year – maybe he means he’s going to be drinking lots of beer from Squgs and get back up to 30 stone again… (Yep, I think if I take a couple of T-Shirts from the suitcase I can put Squage in the hold… – Pat) I mean, er, yes! Pat’s going to do exciting things art wise this year!

Phew.

Wednesday

Ok so there’ s not actually a daily photo here. If there was one it’d probably be of the odd painting in Prezzo that he and Ruth from work were pondering over for a while. Here’s an “artist”‘s impression:

Doesn’t quite do it justice somehow. (I dunno, looks about right… – Pat). Man, I think I’ll try to do some artwork this year too if that sort of thing can get bought by restaurants…

Thursday

Packing for BOARDING! Yep, as Pat ended up feeling crappy yesterday he ended up not going out to London (which was sucky as he was looking forward to a decent catchup with Andrea and Sinead (We’ll def. meet up on my return, ladies! – Pat)) he decided to make the most of his evening by packing.

As a shocking result, he actually managed to get 95% ready for a holiday with a full 36 hours to go! First time for everything… (Oi… actually, no, fair enough – Pat)

And yep, that is me indeed. And yes, I need a bath. Gonna have a snow wash next week :-)

Friday

Pat’s definitely not gonna be missing the journey to work.

So, right now… Pat’s all packed (aside from a few technical items – he’s still charging one of his camera’s batteries and is about to sort out the music on his MP3 player) and really, really looking forward to tomorrow’s day of traveling, starting at about 8:20am and ending about 12 hours later via a bus trip, an airport, a plane ride, another airport and another (long) bus ride to the picturesque resort, 2,500ft above sea level, ready for some serious boarding, chilling out and fun having. And maybe sitting in a hospital bed. (Oi! Don’t jinx it! – Pat) Hey that’s not jinxing, jinxing is saying something like “Pat will definitely, definitely not get inj”(-Ok ok ok ok ok – Pat). :-)

Have a great week and we’ll see you on the other side – plenty (and I mean plenty) of photos to come!

Toodles,

Squage (And me! – Pat)

This is apparently from the US equivalent of the Tellytubbies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PqjMSNfkU

Does anyone want to come to the tummy party?

Pat

Spooky, huh? :-)

Pat (who was definitely not bored at work at any point today)