About me

From somewhere small: Transport in the USA (well, Seattle)

Just over three years ago I packed up my Guernsey life to come and work for Microsoft in Washington. I thought it might be fun to share some things I’ve learnt. This one is about transport.

Origins of a love affair

From an earliest memory of a cream colored box emblazoned with letters, mostly black – some red, came an owl proclaiming allegiance to the BBC.

Friday Fill-Ins #91

Started by Janet, picked up via Brad.

How did I get started in software development?

Ken Egozi tagged me with the latest meme and this time it’s at least relevant :)

From the vaults of Twitter

I don’t normally republish my Tweets but are my highlights.

DamienG.com rises from the ashes (and how to flush your DNS on Windows and Mac)

On Saturday an explosion at ISP ThePlanet took this site offline and it remained like that for 48 hours whilst power and structure were restored to the 4,000+ affected servers.

May 2008 checkpoint

I am now settled into my new, albeit temporary, apartment here in Vancouver, BC working for Microsoft!

Joining the LINQ to SQL team at Microsoft

I’ve been quiet on my blog lately largely because I have been preparing to change job and relocate half-way around the world to Vancouver in the beautiful province of British Columbia (where I spent my 2004 summer holiday).

Year 2007 personal retrospective

Recent activities and inactivities

It has been a crazy couple of months between moving home, spending a week in Seattle and a couple of days in Holland for my real day job (the source of income!)

Returned from Redmond

It’s been an overwhelming few days listening and interacting with bright people from the .NET community and within Microsoft itself (wish I could say more but I can’t). Here are just a few of those names, I wish I knew them all but I was so busy listening to what they had to say I often forgot to ask for a card:

Heading to Redmond

I’ve been invited out to Microsoft HQ for a couple of days (October 22-23) which should be very interesting – more details on the what, why and how at a later date.

Confusing co-workers, family and friends for fun

Everybody enjoys a good laugh and there are some fun simple things that can confuse your co-workers, family or friends for a few minutes.

Moving home

I have been planning on moving my blog off my little Windows Shuttle PC at home onto a hosted service for some time and the latest flurry of activity followed by DSL line meltdown was enough to give me the nudge I needed to get the job done.

What are you doing for the next 6 months to be a better developer?

Scott Hanselman posed the open question on his Hanselminutes podcast and there have already been some good responses. My own plan includes:

Things I learnt in Japan

I loved my trip to Japan and thought it would be fun to reflect on what I've learnt.

Damo Awards 2006*

The Xbox 360 enjoyed its second year and titles continue to impress although the count is still a little on the weak side. The addition of 1080p output was a great bonus but one many people (myself included) can’t take advantage of without a HDMI cable and nobody seems entirely sure if the 360 can pump out a digital video signal (I doubt it).

BSc (Hons) Information Technology & Computing, 1st-class

As anyone who’s been reading this blog for too long will know I’ve been taking a degree in computer science (well, the closest the Open University had) in my spare time since 1999.

Update from Japan

Will only be a short one as I’m pretty tired from all the walking and traveling around.

Going to Japan

I’ve wanted to visit Japan for quite some time but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. When my friend Matt wrote to me about his trip there and posted some great pictures of Japan I was more tempted than ever.

What I’m up to at the moment

The project I’ve been working on professionally for the last two years reaches a milestone this week and so is a great opportunity to take a well-deserved break for a couple of weeks.

Back in mostly one piece

I’m back home again after our whirlwind of activities in Southampton.

Adding depth to my programming ability

A penny for your Guy thoughts

So, it’s that time of year again.

The nine finger grip of death

A few weeks ago I got a cut, mysteriously, on my left middle finger right on the outer knuckle joint. In fact on the very spot of an old scar – I forget which of my many little incidents caused that one but it probably involved a BMX and my childhood thirst to perform tricks beyond my ability.

Reflections on Damien Guard, BSc (Hons)

Taking a computer science honours degree in your spare time is a massive commitment and one that I’m not sure I would have embarked upon had I appreciated just how long the road would be when I started back in 1998.

Welcome to my new home

It’s been long overdue but you can thank Blogger for being down for long enough to force me to move my blog to the same host as my web site.

Personal checkpoint, March 2006

Forgive me readers for I have sinned. It’s been ten days since my last post.

Four things meme

Fellow #webdev member Steven Woods has tagged me with the latest meme so here it is…

Adventures in Jackson, Wyoming (part 2)

Adventures in Jackson, Wyoming (part 1)

Once a year I head out with a bunch of friends for a week of winter sports. This year my snowboarding buddies and I (a skier) decided to skip the unfriendly European slopes and flip over the Atlantic to Jackson, Wyoming in USA for a whole 10 days of slope mastery.

Resolutions for 2006

I don’t actually wait until the new year to make resolutions but this is a convenient way of posting…

A German Christmas

This year I broke with my life-long tradition and spent Christmas not at my parents house with my family but with my girlfriend and her family in Germany.

Another meme

Questions stolen from the same source as the last one ;-)

Höchstadt, now and then

I’m just back from another trip to Germany, this time by way of Gatwick and on to Munich by redeeming some BA miles that had accumulated.

Your favorite: discontinued

One of the problems with a capitalist society is the conception that if something is not number 1 then it should be killed/will soon die and make space for another attempt. These products may be profitable and have their own niche and killing them just hands back the market-share to the number 1…

Travels in France, part 2

My apologies for the second part taking so long to arrive here. I wrote this section a while ago before Zoundry Blog Writer threw it away. Doubtful I could write again with as much enthusiasm I left it but a series of questions has prompted me to write it again. It was better the first time, I promise.

Quays, keys, ink and rings

Yesterday, at St. Pierre du Bois Parish Church, my eldest little sister got married and I was fortunate enough to be the one to give her away. The ceremony was perfect and the newly appointed best man got everything spot on despite the one days notice. My little brothers even managed to perform their usher roles without supervision.

Travels in France, part 1

Unlike my previous trips I had little access to the Internet while away and failed to take writing materials. Many of my observations and thoughts were lost but here’s what’s left in my mind:

Travel tips and in-tray surprises

The agenda for my trip is coming together although various changes had to be accommodated because of factors outside of my control, the biggest one being me now returning home right after Nuremberg followed closely by the change to take my car across for the French leg.

Damien does a music meme

LemurGirl has passed me a music meme, so here I go!

Illness, travel and the French

My girlfriend Clarissa has given me a bug, and not the sometimes fun type that involves single-stepping to locate and subsequently fix. She has a very high temperature and her doctor has signed her off work for a week.

Planes, trains and engine failure

A little after 5am Friday morning last week when I arose somewhat dazed from bed and made final preparations for a trip to Prague. My sister is getting married in July and my future brother-in-law was kind enough to invite me along to his stag night.

Les Arcs 1800, Part The Second – France

We checked in as two small groups to avoid the disproportionate delay with checking in larger groups and headed off to the airport shops for breakfast and retail therapy.

Les Arcs 1800, Part The First – London

Every year I head out skiing with some snowboarding pals for some high-adrenaline thrills coupled with binge drinking. It’s not always a pleasant combination and this year I took my fifteen year old brother with me so my drinking took a back seat.

Ice, rocks and minor injuries

Just got back from a week skiing and boarding in Flaine. On our last visit we were wading knee-deep in powder just to get on the lifts however this time the god of snow had wandered off leaving Helios in charge. We soon unimaginatively tagged the runs that were open ‘Ice world’, ‘Rock world’ and ‘Walk world’ – no guesses as to why.

Reflections, Christmas 2004

Christmas came and went and now once again the end of year looms menacingly just a day away.

Open University M360 results for Christmas

As some of my friends know I’m currently studying with the Open University for my computing degree.

The day after last night

So the ball went very well indeed. We are lots of food, met lots of people and drank my own body-weight in alcohol. At some point my friend Wazzy acquired the world’s fattest cigar while I attempted to redo my bow-tie without a mirror or fine motor skills.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to yet another person jumping onto the already overloaded blog-wagon.

Preparing for the Christmas ball

Tonight I’ve been invited to a large ball for a large bank as part of the whole celebrating Christmas roller-coaster.