Three Fingered Salute

Got the confirmation that I'm now officiallty at 'Risk of Redundancy' at ITV from Accenture.

one word.

Bastards.

Actually, that's being a little unfair... so to all Bastards out there, let me apologize wholeheartedly.

While all the retained team go off and have sandwiches and coffee (!) with accenture; myself, one of the contractors and our soon to be gone developer went to the pub.

As you can imagine, the conversation was not a pleasant one about the current situation and ranged from deluded death threats to the person who instigated this whole process and sorry for the poor chumps left running the systems. The only conclusion that we have is that in future employment, it doesn’t matter if you are helpful or go the extra mile, because that doesn’t count with either ITV or Accenture. I know the staff they’ve left behind and I think they’re going to have a ‘challenging’ time ahead.

On an evermore depressing note, the neighbour has put forward objections to the extension. This has send LSW into a depression. I’m trying to keep her sprits up by pointing out alternatives but when she gets her head like this, it’s too much effort to get her out of it.

The business has stalled for the moment, as I await all the bureaucracy to catch up. OVI, will not allow me to sign on as a developer until I have a VAT Number. The VAT Number will take a month (!) to process but for that I still waiting on my Business Bank Account. It’s very frustrating. I was under the impression that everything was going to be ready for yesterday but not much luck their.

It’s the Wee Man’s 3rd Birthday this weekend but this weekend we’ve also got Little Miss’ Ballet Show. So we’ve officially moved the Wee Man’s Birthday back a day. The grand parents are really looking forward to Little Miss’s stage time, but she’s got three shows to do. I hope she’s not exhausted by the end of it.

At Least it keeps LSW’s mind off the Extensions and mine of the Job Situation.

Still nothing from the agencies, so I’m going to have go on the offensive. There are four outstanding leads at the moment. Two of which are maybe, one’s a long shot and one is something that would be really interesting. But I haven’t heard a thing, I put it down to the fact that the Easter Holidays were on but now I’m getting worried.

Presently, I’m still getting my knowledge sucked out of my head but I’ve got two things of higher priority. In both cases, I feel like they’re pushing me to get these done before I'm kicked out the door. Feeling more and more isloated and people who I used to like are indifferent at best and I don't want to even consider the worst.

On the personal side of things, LSW and I are exhausted. Mind you LSW and I aren’t getting on too well at the moment. It’s the combined stress of this job and the extension that she wants to put in place. The kids are running us ragged. Even thought they are a lot better behaved. We’ve had to put a star chart up for their sleeping and as soon as the chart goes up, they’ve started to sleep well. Wish I could say the same for me.

Three to four hours sleep a night due to the stress at work. Maybe it would be better if I had something else lined up but hell, how do follow up working on Coronation Street and Emmerdale? I don’t know. It feels like a missed opportunity. I could have tried something more with my writing and get into some of the writer’s sessions.

LSW is more stressed about the neighbours, the one we’re worried about hasn’t given us back the party wall response, another couple of days and we’ll be considered in dispute. I’ve got to fill out this planning application and it’s very confusing. I’ll call up the builders and see if they can help or give a quote on the plans. I’ve still got to do a diagram of the new parking spaces we’re going to need.

The Business is still being set up. The Mac Mini arrived yesterday. I had to buy a new keyboard for it but it seems to work fine. Now I’ve got to get it hooked up to the Net and get the iPhone Development set up.

For the last three years, I’ve been looking after and enhancing this old VB6 system. I’ve done what I can to enhance it and fix it, and to be honest I’ve done a really good job. I’ve implemented a new way for people to work which cuts down on paper and it’s saved thousands in just paper costs by itself.

Now the handover process has started in earnest to the other company and this system I’ve taken ownership of is being taken away from me. I’m finding after three years, it’s hard to let go. I’ve still transferring all my knowledge but that’s to a member of the old team who will be tupied. But when you hear this being related to the off shore people, it really is heart breaking.

I know its only a stupid computer system but I feel like I’m the kid left on the playground after all the others have gone to play a game your not invited to. In three months or so, I won’t even be allowed back into the playground. This system has been such a focus for me that I’m now wondering why I wasted three years of my life doing it;-

1.It was in my comfort zone.
2.The end user’s really appreciated what I did.
3.I enjoyed the subject matter the system handled.

But even then, you can see the users just accept that I’m going, that’s there’s nothing that can be done. I appreciate the sympathy and the thanks but what I’d really want to do is carry on with what I’m doing.

As far as I can see it, I’ve got two or three slim shots at maintaining some kind of contact but that’s all they are just slim. The new job search is not going well and the strain this process is having on LSW and the kids is beginning to tell. I’ve got only one thing that’s keeping me going to be honest and that’s this new business (which is covered in the other blog).

Bottom Line, I’m scared that I’ll end in a worse position in the next year or so.

Well, It's not unexpected to be honest. The lack of any credibility in this process has undermined any confidence that I'll be retained. I was right, they just got rid of the last three people who were hired. The other two have got something lined up but because I wanted to continue with what I was doing, I didn't put in for VR.

There you go, I'd almost come round for working for Accenture because the last presentation appeared to be good but after the way they informed me of the decision and the people who we've got to hand over our systems to, I'm glad I'm not going over.

It does mean that I'm at 'Risk of Redundancy'. Everybody who's worked at ITV knows what that means, we go at the end of 90 days, appeal or not.

I was allowed to go home early because I was a little upset.

Do you blame me?

They announced it on Christmas Eve when everybody was on holiday.

Sneaky eh?

Looks like we'll get the decision in March and nobody will leave before June.

Started to improved the CV.

Its just been announced that that don't want all of us.

Out of our team of Eight, only five of us are going to be needed.

If you don't get TUPIed, you get made redundant.

Not Looking Good

ITV doesn’t want us. We’ve been TUPED over to another company. What does this mean for me? Got no idea. There’s supposed to be a meeting on Wednesday with the Technology Board Member and this new company’s representative.

How does this make you feel? Well, first of all, you’re bought and sold like a piece of meat. It demoralises you beyond belief. I normally look forward to coming in on a Monday. This has been the only job I’ve had so far that does. However, now I’ve had to adopt the Homer Simpson guide to motivation. (i.e. you have a picture of LSW, Little Miss and the Wee Man on your phone and little note with the words, “You are doing this for them.”)

All of the Development Staff will be working for this other company, the business Analysts have to reapply to their own job. They’ve only got 14 positions available for thirty or so people. All the management and the admin staff have been highlighted at risk. There’s nothing left for them. They can apply for positions within the new structure but there’s not much there.

LSW is not worried just yet. It means that I’ve still got a job after Christmas. Apparently, I’ll still be with ITV until March and then we’ll be working for the new company. Well I say working, they way I see it one of the following will happen. ;-

1.Things carry on just as they are. I.e. I just look after the ITV systems that I look after and still get my orders and requests from the ITV Analysts
2.The new company will only work on the ITV systems now and again but will have me work on other systems as well, slowly moving me away from ITV.
3.They will analyses what I do and after three months, will make me redundant and move my job to India.

Guess which one I expect to happen. I haven’t mentioned who the new company is because ITV haven’t even signed the contract yet. However, I have seen their promotional video and it doesn’t look good (Bodyshopping with hotdesking).

More tomorrow

Why? Who Cares? It doesn't really matter. No-one is interesting in my view of the world and to be honest that doesn't matter because I've found, if I don't write down my frustrations and annoyances, then they tend to eat me up from the inside. How about that, blogging as therapy.

So what's getting my Goat? Well, LSW and I appear to be OK. We've just got back from a holiday in Crete, with the whole family and it was fantastic. It's the first holiday without any problems and the hotel/village was that nice I didn't want to come home.

Both Little Miss and the Wee Man are fine. They run us ragged but little kids always do that. Both are sleeping through, which is good. I wish I could fall asleep too.

At the moment, I'm lasting on four to five hours nights sleep a day but its not enough, so I'm a little bit dozy. Why am I not sleeping? Well, I got a lot on.

1) Finish off My FiL's new Website - This is being a pain and it shouldn't really because it's quite a simple port from a vb.net 1.0 website to a c# 3.0 website.

2) Interphace is becoming like a millstone round my neck. I've got two versions, the free and the retail. However, in order to get it on the Nokia or Sony app stores it has to be Java Verified. To be honest, it's too expensive, I don't have the time or the cash to put it though the process. I haven't found any other distritubuter to take it. Ironically, it's finished and works (which is a great achievement) but trying to sell it is more hard work that writing the blasted thing.

3) Work - It's a real mix bag. I'm enjoying the work using the 3.5 .Net to build new web sites but It looks like I'm going to be rolled over on something I worked on in my spare time in work. I've written a prototype mobile video player which could have liked into our streaming technology at work (very much like the BBC iPlayer). Nobody seems interested.

This is the topic I'll be raging on for the next couple of months. Oh and I'll use the companies initials just so that they stay anonymous (!) I.T.V. ;-)

Well, here I am again having a winge. LSW and I are ok but as per usual the Wee Man is ill and that means we haven't slept for a week. This means we spend a lot of time looking after the wee man and ignoring little miss. She's getting very annoyed about this and is now trying anything and everything to get attention. It's making things very difficult, with the usual lack of sleep, grumpyness and short tempers that goes with it.

It was supposed to be our 9th wedding anniversary but because of the wee man we just gave up on it.

Work is strange. The Technology review is ongoing and it means that we have an extra six month of job, as it presently is. I've given up caring just get the tasks done and take the money.

I'm releasing the Mobile Phone game! Interphace is coming out on the 13th July!! Be interesting to see if I get any sales.

Think that's everything. maybe I'll manage another entry in six months. ;-)

Well, things between myself and LSW hit an all time low last night. Turns out after all this time, I've just found out that the Mother-in-law and Father-in-law don't like me that much. They think I don't pull my weight looking after LSW and the Kids. Hurt is an understatement because I quite like and respect my in-laws, it's a pity they don't return it. It caused/causing one of the biggest crisis of confidence I've ever had, even worse that some of the issues with the last place of work. LSW is caught between us and is finding it difficult. Because of the effort of looking after the kids, we don't have much time for each other. I hope this doesn't slide into something worse,

The new work place is great and, although I'm having some teething troubles with ORACLE APEX, I doing so much better. I actually look forward to a Monday. never thought I'd say that.

The game is progressing slowly. I'm almost there, it will take one final effort to get it into beta and then hopefully I'll start looking for a publisher.

Still writing, although slowly. My first novel is now completely planned out and I'm three chapter's in. The final FF I was working on has stalled but I'm picking it up every now and then. However, I did note down future idea's and there's tonnes of them I'd love to do.

I'm surprised that the blog is still here.


Well, what's been happening? Lets see;- LSW and I are still together and we now have a son.

The Wee Man is now six months old and he's one of the happiest little babies I've ever seen. Little Miss is fine but adjusting to the fact that she's not the center of attention anymore. She's now three and turning into a right little Madam. I feel that she gets her own way too often but she's still as lovable and cheeky as ever.


The Wee man is a lot tougher than little miss was. He's almost sleeping through and he hasn't had any of the illnesses that his sister had at his age. LSW is made up, we've got one of each now and She's loving it. Myself, well to be honest. It's great but a hell of a lot more work than just one. I should be thankful that I get an hour to myself a night, LSW doesn't even get that. She passes out about nine to ten.


Oh, I got made redundant from my Job. It happened about seven months ago and was the lowest point I've been. It wasn't just that Little Man was due in a month, LSW had just recovered from a broken leg and I had spent the first three months of the year working 50 hour weeks trying to hit an unrealistic deadline for a project I wasn't supposed to be doing. You can imagine my disgust when they say that first of all my position was surplus to requirements and on top of that they accused me of being incompetent. I'm still bitter about the way I was treated and if there is any way I can legally get my own back on them I will.


In some ways, it's a blessing in disguise. I managed to get a new job with in a couple of months so all the redundancy has paid for things which were needed to be done to the house, and to be honest, I'm loving this new Job. It's with a big Media company and it involves a lot of high value, confidential information, so don't expect to see any specifics here. It will just be the usual winging about deadlines and scheduling. However, it does mean that I'm going to have to come up with new names for all my colleagues.


I finished my story and placed it up on fan fiction. At the last count, it had over 75,000 hits and the reviews were good. I know I had problems with the actual grammar, and the worst of all, repeating myself but all in all I'm happy with it. It came in at 65,000 words odd. which is longer than a short novel. It was a great learning experience and I'm planning and writing on the next story. This one, I'm hoping to be a full blown original Novel. Dunno when it will get finished though considering what else is happening.


I've still got my MXO account and play for a few hours every month but I'm beginning to wonder if I should keep playing. It doesn't cost that much to run every month but I can't put in the time to enjoy it. They've just upgraded Neverwinter Nights 2 so that the camera makes a lot more sense and I'm thoroughly enjoying that. I'd given up on that game because of it. I now have both a Ranger and Wizard working their way through the Official Campaign and the Add on is on order for Christmas.


That leaves the game. Yup, it's almost four years in development, or should that be refinement. There's been no new version of it for 18 months, mostly due to other commitments. it also doesn't help that the Nokia N80, which I've been using for my main mobile test platform, has a fault with it's bluetooth, so effectively all the error's I've been getting are due to a faulty handset and not my code. But that's only taken six months (and a new Nokia n95) to figure out. I'm winging a lot more of the game's blog so I'll leave it there.




Think That's it.


Till next time.

Oh Poor little Miss. She'w waking up early in a pool of sweat. She's screaming for us as well but LSW now says the it's part of the terrible twos. She's going to have to learn that we can't always come when she yells for us. It breaks your heart when you hear 'Mummy, Daddy! Come Here PLEEEAAASSSEEE!' After all the effort of getting the wendy house up, she won't go anywhere near it because it's covered with ants. I've put a trap down but she still runs away screaming.

LSW is getting sick of the hot weather. Mostly because Little Miss is so unsettled and very much of a handful. It's getting to the point that she's praying that her mum comes up for a visit. There's just too much to do and not enough time to do it. She passes out at about nine every night and she's still tired in the morning.

I think the latest version of the game is complete, the next (and final) free version will be released probably towards the end of august (I hope!). It should be ready in time for a compitition.

The story is comming along nicely. I'll be uploading the latest chapter up on the web next week. It will be interesting to see if I get a strong reaction because a major character is killed off.