Day 100: Update on Goals

The second update on goals for the year:

• Books: By this point I should have read 8.2 books. I've completed 7 books, with three in (slow) progress, so I'm behind but not terribly so. I'll try to rectify that for next time.
• Blogging: Oh dear. This goal is going horribly wrong, and already looks to be impossible. We'll see - maybe there will be a flurry of posts for next time... but I'm not hopeful.
• Redecoration: As I anticipated in my previous update, we have now done the bulk of the redecoration of Surprise!'s bedroom - the walls have been repainted, the pictures changed over, the one key picture moved to Funsize's room, and new lightshades installed in both bedrooms. The new carpet is on order and due to arrive tomorrow, after which we will hang one final decoration and call it done. I would still like to look into improved insulation for Funsize's bedroom, and LC has expressed a desire to re-repaint the study and replace the carpet in that room, but those are tasks for later in the year (and the study isn't part of the stated goal anyway).
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign is still on the verge of completing Part Three and moving to Part Four. I have managed to get some writing done, such that I'm down to just over 5,000 words to go (from 6,000). It's now a race to try to write it up before the characters get to that point.
• Update the Church Website: The stability issues on the church website were tracked to one bad plugin, which has now been removed. This allowed me to restore the site security, which is a big relief. The only remaining part of this task is to refresh some of the content, but that's not entirely in my gift.

The conclusion is a lot more positive than it was last time - I'm a little behind on the reading and horribly behind on the blogging, but have made very significant progress on all three of the other goals. My challenge for next time is therefore to try to be rather less behind!

Close It Down

What a time to be alive.

Back in 2008, the Labour/Lib Dem coalition in Holyrood had clearly run out of steam and was in desperate need of being replaced. And so the people of Scotland voted them out and installed an SNP government.

In 2024 the SNP government have now reached the same point - they desperately need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, in the interim the Labour party in Scotland have learned precisely nothing. They are every bit as arrogant, stupid, and dogmatic as they were in 2008 - their grand strategy for renewal has consisted of waiting for their rivals to become equally rancid.

Meanwhile the Lib Dems have become an irrelevance, and the Greens have revealed themselves as a horror show.

And, needless to say, the Tories aren't even worth considering.

The bottom line is that we desperately need a new government and there is not a single party in Holyrood that are even worth considering for a vote. The whole thing has failed.

At this point, I would therefore suggest that Holyrood has failed and should be shut down, except that it wasn't so long ago when I said the same about Westminster - and that hasn't changed. Down there, the Tories have become the Monster Raving Loony Party, Labour have become Thatcherites, and the Lib Dems an irrelevance.

So, basically, we're at a point where I think we should simply shut it all down, and just try not having a government for five years, and see how that goes. It's hard to see how that can be any worse.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Sticky Hoisin Wings with Cucumber Salad

This one came from the most recent Tesco magazine. It was really quick and easy (as wings tend to be) - put the ingredients into a bowl and massage to coat, then move to a tray and bake until done. The result was also really enjoyable. Actually, if anything, the cucumber salad was the real surprise on that front.

All in all, a winner. Which is nice. We'll definitely have these again.

#4: "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?", by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
#5: "Atalanta", by Jennifer Saint
#6: "Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life", by Arnold Schwarzenegger
#7: "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes", by Rob Wilkins

Relieved

I am by no means a fan of Donald Trump - despite my deep misgivings about Biden's mental health I would still vote for him over the other candidate. However, I must admit I am extremely relieved at the Supreme Court overruling those states that had decided to exclude him from the ballot paper.

There are fundamentally two reasons for this:

1. In a two-party system, you really can't have a situation where one party is not allowed to stand their preferred candidate. That becomes a one-party system, and that's very much not democracy.
2. But more importantly, there was a distinct possibility that in a tight race Biden might 'win' solely on the basis of Electoral College votes garnered from those states where Trump was excluded. Which would have been an absolute disaster - the scenes from 6th Jan 2021 would have had nothing on what followed.

So I'm hugely relieved that Trump is allowed to stand. Now I only hope Americans collectively have the sense to reject him.

Disgrace

I knew the House of Commons was a cesspit, but I thought there were at least some limits - I would never have expected them to engage in base politics over as serious an issue as the situation in Gaza.

The whole edifice is a blight on our country. We need to shut it down, and start again.

Day 51: Update on Goals

Slightly late, here is my first update on goals for the year.

• Books: By this point I should have read 4.1 books. I'm actually very close to that - I expect to finish book 4 imminently, and have read the .1 already (book 4 took longer than expected and got bogged down somewhat, so I decided to read another book in parallel, allowing me to finish the stuck book at my leisure.)
• Blogging: As should be obvious from the fact that even this update is delayed, I've been finding it really hard both to find time to blog and find topics for blogging. So this goal already looks impossible.
• Redecoration: There has been no movement on this goal, but that's not a surprise - my expectation is that we'll aim to tackle the bulk of this task during the Easter break, in time for Surprise!'s birthday.
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign has resumed, and is about to start on part four (of four). However, I haven't managed to write any of it, which means they're about to hit the section I don't have planned out.
• Update the Church Website: There has been no movement on this one, which is becoming increasingly urgent.

The conclusion there isn't good - I'm behind on just about everything, with one goal already looking lost and two becoming increasingly urgent. I have some things to think about.

#3: "Smart Leadership", by Jo Owen

The Worst Combination

I've talked before about the tendency to avoid tasks - when there's something that needs done but that you don't want to do, suddenly it becomes vitally important to reorganise some documents, or sharpen every pencil to exectly the same length, or to alphebetise your DVDs, or whatever.

But there's one combination that's even more pernicious: having two tasks you want to avoid. Because that then opens up whole new levels of avoidance strategy: you get to spend a whole lot of time getting one ready for action, then switch to the other, then switch back long enough to decide it needs yet more preparation, then back again, and on and on it goes.

Ultimately, there comes a point where you do just have to knuckle down and address one of the tasks, get it done, and then face the other. But there's a whole load of sweet, sweet temptation to wade through before that point.

Please and Thank You

The story of how we came to have an Amazon Echo 5 in our living room is almost worthy of a saga itself - initially I bought it for the kitchen as a replacement for our CD-player/radio, only to discover I really didn't like it at which point I banished it to the garage, and then find that I really wanted to leave some ambient music on to keep the dog company during the day, leading to Alexa's triumphant restoration to the living room!

Anyway, this device is now the first part of the home automation setup I talked about some months ago, and plans are afoot to start expanding the ecosystem. Because while I initially resisted getting any of these voice-activated assistants, once we had one in place it gradually started to see more and more use. We've still barely scratched the surface, largely due to my lingering disdain, but it does seem to be a good place to start.

All of which is by the by. My main point for this blog post is that we now have an Alexa device in the living room, and of course there is therefore a need to address the device and ask it to do things.

I'm also in the process of raising two small children, and one of the important lessons to be taught is the importance of saying 'please' and 'thank you'. Always and every time, nay habitually.

The upshot of that combination is that I now make sure to say 'please' when asking Alexa to do things. Hopefully Skynet will take that into account when the time comes.

#2: "Promise of Blood", by Brian McClellan

Lather - Rinse - Repeat

I know the blog has been quiet for quite some time. Unfortunately, I'm finding it hard to find things to talk about, as right now life seems to mostly be stuck in a loop of trying to survive to the weekend, then not quite enough rest to recover, and then repeating. This seems to be pretty common in January, but does seem especially tough this year.

The good news is that today I noticed for the first time that the sky was distinctly lighter by the time I left the house, so we're gradually getting out of the dark. Hopefully things will pick up soon.