Happy Blogday

Well this is my first blog ever. Thanks to Mark Roworth for the inspiration to write this, you can read about his adventures on his blogspot.

Being new to blogging I really don't have any idea about what I should put down. But if I keep it up, it will probably evolve into something interesting - hopefully.

I'm currently sitting in an air conditioned room up on the seventh floor of a tower block building that constitutes City College. Out of the window I can see a residential tower block built on top of a car park, an office complex which includes the DVLA office and the side of Brighton Station.

City College has been my work home for over four years now and I feel like part of the furniture, old, well used and in need of attention - ha ha! Don't get me wrong though, I like it here. The people are friendly and the stress level is minimal - which for those of you that know me, is high on my agenda. And, god damn-it, the work is occasionally interesting. Who could ask for more? Me probably.

One of the things I like to do to make my work life more interesting is to think up new stuff. Of course being a programmer, I have to do this pretty much most of the time. Every bit of software I have to write is a unique being, with its own personality and problems. These beings are hungry things and devour concepts and ideas and time with great voracity. Like cheese, most of these ideas are fairly mundane and common place. But, some of them are more like gourmet food and require a lot of preparation, thought and a fair sprinkling of skill.

This analogy with food is apt, since food is also a great love in my life. I especially like strong tasting, interesting food. The flip side is that food is a very functional thing for me: I get hungry, I eat. This means that I'm happy to eat the same food day in day out, as long as it tastes good.

And that brings me on to stress. Essentially, the less of it the better. Of course, stress can mean many different things. But my definition includes a discomfort of some sort. So it may be physical, like not having had enough sleep. Or it may be mental, like trying to decide whether I want a new job. I do actually have a strong philosophy on stress, which helps to keep me sane, and also explains a large part of my character.

My working assumption is that stress is produced from within, but is often triggered from without. What do I mean? That I'm the person experiencing the stress, and that this stress is often triggered by other people or circumstances. I would go so far to say that all stress is triggered by other people. We are not islands, but connected.

This point of view allows me to have some semblance of control over stress. I can choose to move my left foot if I want to, and equally I can control being stressed, it's just learning how that's the hard bit.

To control it, you need to understand the source of stress. Fundamentally it's to do with choice. Now, I think there's no such thing as no choice, in any situation there's always a choice to be made however small or large or complicated or difficult. Stress occurs when there's more than one choice to be made in a given moment. It's this dichotomy between choices that is stress or causes stress. So to remove stress, the dichotomy needs to be broken, i.e. a choice needs to be made. I'll talk about making choices in a later blog.