This is the Message Centre for Madent

I like the idea....

Post 1

a girl called Ben

... of having myself, Hoo, JtP and Sat on the same list...

smiley - laugh

B


I like the idea....

Post 2

Madent

I figured if I was going to make use of the facility, I might as well pick researchers who write interesting stuff ... smiley - winkeye

Plus I can find pretty much anyone else worth talking to through links found on all your pages smiley - ok


I like the idea....

Post 3

a girl called Ben

Tart that I am! smiley - diva

I am genuinely flattered to be in that particular company - it suggests a certain iconoclasticism, (is that really a word?) and a certain "well-f**k-you-ness", both of which are, unfortunately strong features of mine.

smiley - biggrin

B


I like the idea....

Post 4

Madent

You're welcome, Ben, and thank you smiley - biggrin I find that each of you is quite different.

With JtP I get to see a completely insular and distorted view of the world. Blinkered by faith as it were, J seems almost incapable of original thought, bigotted beyond even the most ardent fascist and borderline for admission to a psychiatric hospital.

Natali is a constant reminder of how we all were during our teens and tweens. Right and wrong, black and white, no middle ground. Hopefully we were all just like that - it ought to be compulsory.

Hoo is amongst the most intelligent and highly strung people that I have ever met (online that is).

And you are, depsite your protestations, you. I seriously doubt whether you are a biddy. Age is a state of mind - although having said that a quick look through the online dictionaries reveals at least one definition that goes "young bird" smiley - winkeyesmiley - winkeye

"iconoclasticism" - Since this is the internet, I can't for the life of me think of a better alternative. What with all these little icons everywhere smiley - winkeyesmiley - laugh

Keep up the good work on the UG. I do have a look every now and then to see how things are going smiley - winkeye, but I'm keeping my head down and trying desperately to:

a) do some work
b) be a good father
c) find a new job
d) develop at least one of my ideas
e) find the answer (what was the question?)

I'll see you around, Ben smiley - cheers


I like the idea....

Post 5

a girl called Ben

Interesting that you see Hoo as highly strung. It is not a phrase I would have used to describe him, but it is accurate I think. I have met him in person several times, and count him among my friends, exasperating though he often is. He can certainly shoot from the hip.

I may change the 'biddy' to 'broad' at some time, but I think the 'girl' is gone for good. I am told I don't look my age, (though that is one of the comments, like the ones about the size of one's bum, that one can never entirely trust), and I have no idea whether I *think* my age or not.

What ideas are you working on, or are they private for now?

B


I like the idea....

Post 6

Madent

("shoot from the hip" - I very nearly wrote that myself, but typed highly strung instead.)

Inside every highly opinionated youngster, there's a mature adult just waiting for a chance to put in an appearance. I'm starting think that it takes a concious choice to make the transition. Some people will never grow out of their failings.

On looking your age; the last time I was in the states, just a couple of years ago, I was asked for ID when buying wine in a supermarket by a checkout girl who was roughly my age. The time before I was asked for ID going in to a casino. And the first time I went there on business, I was around 26, having been a lead engineer on a multi-million machinery project and some of the customers employees thought I was still at school. I'll be 35 this year with a lot less hair than I had when I was at school!

Ideas are tricky things, usually related to what I'm working on. Since my job consumes a lot of thinking time (a rare commodity with 2 boys to entertain), most of them are related to my work, so they are all engineering solutions or similar. The better ones have all been worthy of patenting, which unfortunately isn't fashionable where I work.

The others ideas all come from how I manage to spend my free time. I have a series of paintings I want to do, a book to write, a novel computer console to build, a web portal to develop and a rather neat idea to reduce the amount of freight on our roads.

Unfortunately I currently lack the time, discipline and single mindedness required to really do justice to any of the above.

Which is part of why I need a change of scene at work. Plus I have made a large number of changes to myself and continue to see myself as a work in progress.

What about you? Looking forward to your road trip?


I like the idea....

Post 7

a girl called Ben

Looking forward to the road-trip, but we are going to cut it back to 2 months which is affordable. 3 months was beguiling but insane. To be honest a lot of my energy has drained out of the road-trip project, we should have just thought 'f**k-it' and done it as quickly as we could! But I know it will blow my mind.

I am caught up in a situation of making good money, but not actually enjoying what I do that much, and I am trying to work out what I want to do instead, and at the same time saving as much money as I can to fund the change. This is fine in theory, but I am not working just now, or not making significant money at the work that I am doing, anyway! Luckily I am used to surfing the edge of the razorblade, so I am not going out of my mind, though I probably should be.

You are right about the passion of the young. (My god - did I really type 'the young'? I can remember when I was one of 'the young'...) But I find that degree of certainty tiring rather than inspiring. I guess I have such a commitment to learning and to developing that I find myself just feeling patronising. Maybe the next thing I should learn is to admire youthful energy and enjoy the certainties they feel without being patronising about it.

B


I like the idea....

Post 8

Madent

One "those" ideas, eh? Sounds great when you say it, but gets more and more difficult to do the longer you leave it. Don't doubt, do it. (Sounds like an advertising slogan!) Though like you say, it will probably blow your mind.

On the work thing, I feel somewhat the same. I used to enjoy my job, it was a great learning environment and I enjoyed enormous latitude in what I did. I virtually wrote my own job description for a decade. Then it all changed two or three years ago. The first 18 months were fine; not great but okay. But now its not okay. Time to leave.

But what to do? I think I need to just take a week off, to myself, to take stock and review what I can offer, then find the right company and move. But I still feel some trepidation at the prospect. I have worked for the same company for a long time; over half my life.

I look back and realise I've been lucky. Not a razorblade in sight. I was always relatively well off, even at university (full grant, plus sponsorship, plus guaranteed work during hols at full pay).

I can feel frustration at too much immaturity, particularly in some of the more serious topics under discussion round here where it can be tiresome, but this place would be much the worse without it.

Rather than admire their virtues, encourage their growth. Far too often I meet "mature" people, who have not progressed past the views they held at eighteen. That I find disappointing.


I like the idea....

Post 9

a girl called Ben

Let me recommend 'what colour is your parachute' - I worked my way through it when I made a major career-shift 4 years ago, and I am working my way through it again now.

It presents a whole load of exercises so that you do a lot of very strucured left-brain and/or right-brain analysis of who you are and what you want to do and where you want to do it. It kick-starts you into exploring ideas that you otherwise would not even have. And for me it meant that I could be completely confident that what looked like a major life-change was actually the right thing to do.

I give copies away liberally, because I prefer to keep my own.

Ben


I like the idea....

Post 10

Madent

Thanks, I'll check it out


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