nathanbentley.com

I’ve left this one kinda late to be honest… If I hadn’t been so darned busy with other, less fun stuff, like work, the gym and lugging bags up and down stairs for my flatmate (we live 4 flights up – no lift – Peter owes me big time for helping him move), I’d have gotten my act together and probably have had a better chance at getting 25 comments to allow me to enter the Carsonified Golden Ticket competition.

The Golden Ticket for those of you that don’t know, is a Willy Wonka style offering from Ryan Carson over at the ever awesome Carsonified – write a blog post about why you want to win the Golden Ticket, get 25  or more comments and enter the prize draw.

Anyway, being that I’ve left it so long, I’ll cut straight to the point… Why I’m craving the Golden Ticket.

I’ve worked in the t’interweb business for 10 years now, and have managed to keep it a passion (if anything, it’s become more of a passion – I guess I’m lucky that I’ve got a job I enjoy so much). However, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been surrounded by people who, despite working in this awesome industry, just seem to lack the passion for it. When I dashed over to FOWA London last year, I felt at home in a sea of people passionate about what they do – and better still, what the possiblities that lay ahead are.

To be fair, in my time I’ve been lucky enough to work with some wonderful passionate people – but those individuals are few and far between. Maybe, just maybe, with the chance to get amongst others who feel the same way as I do, the smile on my face that I bring back at the end of the day (not to mention the photos, videos and mountains of goodies), may inspire some of the other I work with to consider this wonderful web as more than just a 9 til 5. (*ahem* 9 til 6 if you’re a Londoner like myself).

There’s a small and slightly personal note to this post – my intentions aren’t completely selfless… For the past few months I’ve been working on a side project that will hopefully one day soon blossom into a fully fledged webapp. Work has been flagging with the torrent of stuff that has taken my time up over the past 4 weeks, but I’m hoping that with a bit of inspiration, some serious networking, and of course, a few friendly faces to bounce ideas of, it may just come to fruition.

Spare a second to comment if you can. I’ll be eternally grateful!

Nath.

Well I’ve made it through my first week at Publicis… Of course, having a four day week has certainly helped!

First day in, I had the usual overload of names and faces – suddenly I remember how it feels to not know everyones names. Don’t have admin rights to my computer, so can’t even install an FTP client. A project manager yells something about a site being broken at 6pm. I have no clue. Fear and panic sets in.

Day two, I’ve managed to figure out where the coffee machines are, and how to operate them. Still don’t have admin access to my machine, which is starting to make me very touchy. Finally after a bit of banter with the IT support team, I manage to get rights to install stuff. On goes my favorite selection of open source utils. Feel a little better.

Day three, I start digging into work. Have a meeting with a Project manager who sympathizes with my frustrations at having no resource. Install wordpress and start to skin it. Feel much better. Go to pub for someones leaving do. Drink beer and head home, despite broken tubes. Feel much much better.

Day four (Friday!) – Sausage sandwich and other breakfast goodies awaiting me when I arrive. Continue skinning site successfully, finding out that I can still remember HTML and CSS. Bonus. A few more meetings and things click into place. Thing are definitely looking up. Finish work at 5.30, and grab a beer before shooting off. Looking forward to coming back on Monday and seeing where the journey takes me next.

Firstly, and to start, I’ve got a legitimate reason for not having posted anything for a while.

Secondly, I’m about to dive out of the office, so this post is going to have to be a short one.

Back to that first point… I’m back! From Mexico! Riviera Maya to be more specific (on the Caribbean coast, near Tulum). I’m moderately tanned, somewhat relaxed, and missing the hell out of being waited on with cocktails and food all day long. London met my return with about 5 minutes of sun, before finally reverting to a nice solid grey sky – kinda fitting when you’ve spent 12 hours on a plane, followed by another hour on various trains and tubes.

Anyway, before I ramble on (and make myself even later), here is the very brief summary of my holiday:

• Took a taxi to the airport. With a taxi driver who couldn’t drive, or navigate, and who took 2 hours to get to Gatwick
• Almost missed the plane, but instead, after some schmoozing at the check in desk, managed to get upgraded to increased leg-room
• Took a 12 hour flight to Cancun
• Followed by a 3 hour bus ride to Riveria Maya
• Finally stopped travelling. Got greeted by waiters handing me cocktails. Bliss.
• Explored hotel and beach. White sands, crystal blue seas, no clouds. Check
• Took a trip to Chichen-Itza. Gorped like an idiot at the incredible architecture.
• Went to Xel-Ha, swam with dolphins (incredible!), snorkelled, and lounged in luxery. All in an eco friendly resort.
• Rode speed boats through the mangroves on the coast before snorkelling around the coral and attempting to take photos of the crazy fish.
• Got bitten by aforementioned crazy fish. Now have small teethmarks in my finger.
• Ate at a mexican-japanese restaurant where the food tasted like chinese takeaway. Top marks for effort though (the guy on the hotplate who was spinning knives on his fingers and juggling eggs was a real treat)
• Got drunk in a swimming pool with a bunch of Americans.
• Flew back!

I’ll update this blog with a bunch of content once things settle down at work – the vids of dolphins, speed boats and ancient temples will come as soon as I manage to edit the footage (taken with a Hi-def digital camcorder – in 720p glory!)

Nath.

I’ve not had a lot of spare time on my hands recently – life at the Pod is a little crazy – so to keep my promise of updating regularly, here’s a clip which can only be described as awesome. In fact that’s a lie, because at 0:35, it can be described as freakin’ awesome.

God bless the hacked iPhone…

It’s been a quiet, mostly uneventful time at bentley towers over the past week, so rather than bore you, (and because I’m really trying to update this blog at least once a week) I’ve decided to go for a recap style post.

This week I’ve…

• Spent over 14 hours solid online looking for a holiday, before finally booking a week, all inclusive, at a stunning hotel in the Caribbean coast of Mexico
• Got way too excited about the idea of swimming with dolphins
• Went to Holland park for a picnic – saw three seperate people taking their cats for a walk. On leashes.
• Had one of my commercial hosting servers go up in flames
• Spent 12 hours solid fixing aforementioned broken server and placating unhappy customers (who are now, thankfully, happy)
• Got way too much into Dexter – highly recommended if, like me, you like a bit of twisted dark humour
• Pissed myself laughing, watching Katherine Jenkins (Welsh opera singer) sing “I Feel Love” with the Blue Man Group
• Pissed my self laughing watching my flatmates watch the above video, especially at the 2:23 mark, where they were convinced her head was going to start spinning around 360 degrees a la Exorcist
• Cooked and ate a pizza loaded with enough chilis to drop a horse. Then felt waaaay rough the next day
• Started writing Javascript tutorials for the sake of the poddies (and my own sanity) – more about this soon
• Got two friends to watch 2girls1cup and managed to film one of their reactions, much to his distress

That, as we say folks, is it for the moment.

Just to cheer you up, (and so I can play with the video embedding) is the aforementioned clip of Ms. Jenkins turning demon. I’d highly recommend playing it all the way through (keeping a special eye out for 2:23 – where she kicks into operatic overdrive!)

And of course, for those folks who are interested, here is how it should be sung (by the awesome Venus Hum…!)

enjoy.