So how much should I be saving?

There's been an awful lot of talk recently about pension provision and what we should all be saving for retirement which has depressed me somewhat, so I sat down and worked out what I should be saving for a retirement income of £40,000 before tax and then also looked at monthly expenses which I can't avoid.

Mortgage - £825
Pension - £1,200
ISA - £600
Insurance various - £150
Mobile phones - £100
Water - £30
Gas - £130
Work travel - £200
Cycle scheme - £43
Council Tax - £150
Child trust fund x3 - £300
Childen's education trust £300
Children's long term fund £300

That comes to a grand total of £4,328

Now I've got a decent job but that aint gonna happen especially if I want to eat, buy clothes and maybe go out once a year which as you'll note I haven't put in here. So what now? I suppose I could cut out £900 for the kids but that seems a little harsh.

Twitter in real life

For me Twitter has now almost completely surplanted my iGoogle RSS feed reader, but for many it sems to be being used as a Facebook extension which to my mind misses the point.

The video below does expose the potential ridiculousness of Twitter.

Watch Real Life Twitter on CollegeHumor

Added a Twitter app to my page

I know it sounds ridiculous but updating the blog just got too much with my new job and home and all that entails and I'm using Twitter because it's so much easier an interface, so I've added to my blog on the right hand side, so you can follow me there much more easily.

Every car you chase

I like the frivolity of a decent mashup and this one's pretty good. Thanks to partyben.com

OK who wins

Two lip synchs from last year, who wins the original or the copycat.

First the original one from the guys at Vimeo:


Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Second a bunch of french engineers who ripped the original one off but pretty well and also with noice adaptive touches:

Heaven - LipDub - Undone - Weezer (in Paris)
Uploaded by yom_

Twittering?

I have to say I'm not sure this has got me like it has some others but I do update every few hours so I suppose it could catch on.


How Do You Use Twitter? from biz stone on Vimeo.

Drinking from the furry cup

I really don't think it's a wind up, but for fucks sake.

What's really being said

The Brooklyn art project monitored the RSS feeds of the Obama and Mccain blogs to visualise what was really being said:

Found this on a site I came across today

Made me giggle.


The Auditioner from Kate on Vimeo.

I'm in remission - which is nice

I went to the doctor for the results of my month 12 check up and found
out I'd reached molecular remission. News I'd been hoping desperately
for and which when delivered left me completely cold. In fact more than
cold the news left me bizarrely flat.

Apparently it's a very common phenomenon and for a wide variety of reasons; you've been the centre of attention and now everyone says 'that's fantastic, wellI'll get on with things now'; having had the attention of doctors, consultants, clinical nurse specialists, trialists, counsellors, fellow patients and on and on, they all suddenly move on and your left to get back on with your life; having decided to live
your life without limits and without regrets suddenly you're back with
a normal lifespan out ahead of you rather than a life that may end any
time now.

For me I think it's more complicated, the drug I'm on in all it's wonderful wonderousness, is an inhibitor. That means that it stops the process of mutation of
the disease. What the drug doesn't do is kill the cancer so that it
never comes back, or at least gives you a damn good chance of it not
coming back. So the disease is still there - but it's under control. So
for me remission could just be a stopgap.

Anyway a week on I do feel positive, not ultra positive but positive none the less. I guess one of my problems is that I have a very even personality, the diagnosis never really hit me that hard, so why should it be that the really positive prognosis
make me feel any more euphoric.

As I said at the start. I'm in remission - which is nice.