And lo, the era passed when the roads were clear and progress was made in a timely fashion. New term came to be and behold, the streets overflow with people carriers and jeeps.  Ignorance smote the world with increasingly large 4×4s and stupidity spewed huge, windowed vans containing one baby upon us.

As the seasons changed, unhelpful molecules slowed the pressing river to single digits and eventually bring the impatient flow to a standstill to let insignificant streams join the flow.

Woe overcame previously joyous denizens, woe, woe and thrice woe.

This week has not been good. There is no reason to what has happened, but if I was even slightly inclined to believing in fate or gods then this would have had much more meaning…

Sunday - Roads are treacherous due to it pissing down with rain after a hot day.  I get all the way back from Lincoln to Radcliffe and then get arse ended at a roundabout due to some fucking bloke pulling up JUST BEFORE THE ROUNDABOUT.  We all scream to a halt, the car behind using me as extra brakes.  While we are out and assessing damage, the idiot that pulled up wanders over and asks how to get to Dorset.  My directions were “you are having a fucking laugh mate, this is all your fault!”. Tool.

Tuesday - While I am off work with man flu, my house gets struck by lightning with me in it.  It was damn cool, but could have been a lot worse. It only knocked the power out.

Thursday 1 - At the (admittedly dodgy) gym at lunchtime straining away at some tricep pushdowns when three badboys in hoodies come in and start shouting at the (massive) owner of the gym. It gets a bit lairy, so we leave.  They fuck off and I go back over, only to see that they have been throwing dumbells around and at the gym owner who has blood pouring down his face. I don’t even want to know what that was about.

Thursday 2 - Having had my car checked over to make sure it is safe to drive, I am going home with the crumpled exhaust banging away, then I hear a big clunk and the banging stops.  When I get home, the backbox is no longer attached to the car.  Left it in Nottingham SOMEWHERE.

So all in all, I have had enough of this week. I can’t remember breaking any mirrors or upsetting any gypsies.  I hope next week is better.

Nick

The idea is that you make the company look bigger than it actually is, and go after projects that are at the upper reaches of your capabilities or beyond. This is a good idea when you want to grow your company, as it can allow you access to larger projects and more profitable markets.

Unfortunately, “Punching above your weight” can easily become “Getting knocked out” when you can’t actually deliver what you have promised. To move to the next step, a company needs razor sharp internal processes, committed, expert staff and a clear direction. It’s a big gamble, and it’s double or quits.

There appear to be two ways of doing business: Firstly, do everything right, keep within your focused area of expertise and grow steadily. Secondly, expand quickly, promise the earth and worry about whether you can deliver it afterwards. This appears to lead to poor, rushed projects that take too long and do not deliver, and a lack of confidence from the client.

Way 1 gains long term customers that trust you to tell the truth and deliver what you promise. Way 2 gets you the business in the short term, but means you don’t learn how to manage the project properly and the client will probably jump ship as soon as they can and hire someone that can do what they promise.

No more messing about with hand coding hack for fixing PNG alpha transparency in Internet Explorer 6 or less.  Just bung this jQuery plugin into the head with a small bit of script and it fixes it all

jquery.pngFix.js - PNG transparency for Windows IE 5.5 & 6 (IE PNG Fix)

A lot of traditional Buddhism is no use to me because it is laden with Indian tradition, religious concepts and suggests withdrawing from the world to best practice Buddhism. None of these things are practical here and now for me.

It also seems a bit pointless withdrawing into a monastery. Day to day life is what needs the concepts of Buddhism, not living in a castle half way up a mountain. Life is inherently easier there in many ways because you don’t have to deal with the ignorant masses.

Anyway, back to engaged and contemporary Buddhist practice.
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