My Year in 2018

Finally, we come to the end of 2018! It has been quite the year, with the main theme being one of great change. So, time for the end-of-year round-up.

My Year in... Blogging

As in 2017, I set myself a sort-of goal of posting 120 times here and 60 times on the Imaginarium. And, as in 2017, I hit both those targets, despite a major drought on the Imaginarium in the first half of the year. I'm happy with that.

My Year in... Work

For much of last year and the first half of this year, I wasn't able to talk about a big change coming at work - we were recently acquired by another company. I'm still not going into the details here, as part of my "don't talk about work" policy, but I will say that it has been a very positive step, for a few reasons.

The other big news is that around Easter of this year I finally received the much-hoped-for promotion. Which was nice!

My Year in... Health

Things have been much better this year than last year (when they weren't too bad either). So that's all to the good!

My Year in... Gaming

On the other hand, 2018 has been somewhat of a disappointment on the gaming front. I have, rather unexpectedly, found myself running a game at work, which is nice. However, I have largely fallen out of the Falkirk RPG group (for reasons of distance and scheduling), but have not found a group in Livingston. I would be nice to think that might change, but I fear the reality is that if I wanted a group I would have to set one up... and I no longer really have the time or energy to be bothered.

In short, I expect 2019 to also be a very quiet year for gaming.

My Year in... Band

Things have been ticking along quietly in my new band - I'm involved enough to keep practicing without feeling any real pressure, which is nice. I do kind of miss the teaching aspect of it, and there's no prospect of that changing in the new band, but on the other hand I'm not feeling particularly inclined to push for a change.

My Year in... Resolutions

As always, the wrap-up of annual goals, and setting of goals for next year, are handled in another post.

My Year in... Travel

Ah, this year has been crazy!

Our first trip of the year was just a few weeks after the arrival of Funsize, when LC and I travelled to London for a friend's wedding. It was the start of summer, and a really hot weekend - especially as the AC on the train coming home failed.

Then there was the big trip out to the US for a family wedding. This was the best of the trips of the year, with a good time being had by all.

And then there was a third wedding, this involving a short journey and then an overnight stay. I wouldn't mention this except that it was followed immediately by an unexpected journey down South to say goodbye...

A few weeks later, that was then followed by another trip down South for another, more formal goodbye. This was also a good trip, albeit a painful one.

Then, more happily, LC and I (and FS!) spent a few days in Antwerp. This was a good trip, but by then I was really starting to get fed up with travel. I did also feel that just a few days was really enough for Antwerp - we could perhaps have found more to do, but we might have been making things up for the sake of making them up. I recommend the zoo. And the fries.

Not finally, I then had to make a trip back to the US, this time for work. It was fine - tiring and hard work, but very productive.

And then there is one more trip that I shall mention but not discuss further at this stage. Watch this space...

2019 looks like it will start much as this year has been, but will then calm down almost completely. (I may have as many as three trips with work in January and February, but have indicated that I am then not available to travel until the summer.)

I think that our own personal travels will be considerably shorter in range next year - we might make a trip to France in July, but otherwise are likely to remain in the UK, or perhaps even just in Scotland. Part of me thinks that we should seek to travel while it's still easy (grr, Brexit), but a bigger part of me has little desire to spend any more time in a plane!

My Year in... Faith

It has been a good year. LC and I have setting into our new church and been made very welcome. We're both becoming increasingly involved, which is a good thing... to a point. I expect 2019 to essentially be more of the same, which would be good.

My Year in... Sadness

As I alluded to previously, 2018 was another year that featured a great sadness, with the passing of Grandad. As with last year, I wrote about this at some length at the time so won't reiterate here. However, my thoughts at this time are very much with Grandma, who has just faced her first Christmas without him in more than sixty years.

My Year in... Great Joy

In sharp contrast, though, this year saw the completion of Project Tadpole and the arrival of Funsize. Again, I wrote about this at length at the time, so I'll not reiterate it here. Suffice it to say that she's been keeping us busy!

My Year... Overall

As I predicted at the end of last year, 2018 was a year of massive changes. Most of these have been positive, some hugely so, alloyed with one great sadness. I feel we've now really started to settle in Livingston, which means we now have a foundation for moving forward, and I have some significant optimism about 2019 as a result.

Anyway, that's the end-of-year review. As always, I wish you a Happy New Year, and will see you in 2019!

End of Year Update on Goals

It's a bit odd having an end of year update on goals, given that I deliberately only set one for the year (and haven't achieved that). However, since one of the other purposes of this post is to set goals for next year, I'm sticking with the format.

So, firstly an update on the goal:

Books: My stated goal for the year was to complete my reading though the British section of The List. Despite having made some significant progress, this goal fell short - there still remain five books on the list to be read. That's somewhat unfortunate, but not a disaster.

I have, however, managed to read 60 books this year, and have also completed all but one of the normal sub-lists I would set (I've read fewer books from The List than I would prefer). So that's a bit of a result.

Next, some thoughts on things that are not quite goals:

• Weight: I have ended the year basically where I started. That's slightly disappointing, but also not a disaster - especially given that I recent trip to the US played havoc with things.
  
• Gaming: This has been an odd one this year, in that I've been involved in a game at work, which was unexpected but quite nice. Otherwise, it has been a year entirely devoid of gaming, which is unfortunate. Indeed, this year is probably more notable for my starting to get rid of some of the cruft from my gaming collection, and also scanning and shredding my old paper notes, than it is for actual gaming.
  
• Blogging: As usual, my semi-formal goal has been to post an average of 10 times a month here and a further 5 times a month over on the Imaginarium. Despite a fairly lengthy drought on the latter, I've actually exceeded both those targets, which is nice.
  
• Work: I can't say too much here, but it has been a successful year at work - the much hoped for promotion finally happened, which is nice.
  
• The To-Do List: There have been a large number of tasks around the house that have needed done, and these have mostly been completed. I'm particularly pleased with the redecoration of the main bedroom, which has come together nicely. I think I'd still quite like to get the study redecorated, and there's still a few bits and pieces of decluttering to do, but that's not too bad.

So, that's how things have panned out over the past year. What about goals for 2019? I'm going to propose four:

• Books: The usual goal of 60 books for the year. As in 2018, I'm stating a goal of getting the British segment of The List done. Other than that, it's going to be an odd year for reading - I only have three sublists, two of which won't run for the full year. The rest will be made up of a mixture of books, unless and until I hit on a new theme.
  
• Weight: In 2019 I'll need to get back to work on this. The target is to end the year 20 pounds lighter than I start.
  
• Blogging: Time to formalise the informal goal of past years: 120 posts here, plus 60 on The Imaginarium.
  
• Redecorate the Study: When we moved in we identified two rooms in the house as needing redecoration - the main bedroom and the study. Having redone the main bedroom in 2018, it is now the turn of the study.

And that's it. Part of me would like to set a goal to get some gaming done in 2019 (outside of the context of the work game), but I'm really not sure how realistic that is. I think, therefore, it's best to leave that as a nice-to-have for this year.

#59: "A Song of Stone", by Iain Banks #60: "Pathfinder: The City Outside of Time", by Amanda Hamon Kunz

My Latest Silly Idea...

With Parliament in recess and Trump about to go off on holiday, it's time for us to spring into action. I suggest that, starting on the 1st of January, we collectively agree the following:

• Kiefer Sutherland has actually been president all along, having become so in a bizarre and convoluted sequence of events. (It has to be him, so that there's televisual evidence. After all, TV wouldn't lie to us...)
  
• Brexit was actually Ricky Gervais' most ambitious comedy project ever, and a true triumph of British humour. I mean, the very notion that we'd consider utterly trashing our economy simply to get blue passports. Naturally, Brexiteers should be lauded for playing their roles to perfection, and Theresa May deserves all the plaudits going for her absolute commitment to playing such a terrible character. Truly, she stands in the top echelon of such characters, along with Basil Fawlty, David Brent, and Gordon Brittas.

Of course, whenever anyone expresses any doubt about how this all came to be, we need to collectively shake out heads, mutter something about "fake news", and absolutely positively deny any and all knowledge.

I reckon, if we stick to it hard enough, we can convince the world that it really was all a dream.

Why Did Nobody Tell Me?

In amongst all the excitement of the last few weeks, I neglected to mention my exciting new find: when hunting for Christmas presents during the Black Friday sales, I happened upon the not-quite-latest range of Transformers toys. And it seems that the "Return of the Legends" line was followed by a "Power of the Primes" line... which featured new versions of the dinobots!

But there's more even than that. Because not only are the dinobots cool in and of themselves, and not only do these new toys closely resemble the originals (but better, it would appear), but...

• It looks like the new dinobots are actually a combiner set, able to merge to become Volcanicus!
  
• There's a new dinobot! She's called Slash, and transforms into a velociraptor. (Of course she transforms into a raptor. After Jurassic Park, how could she be anything else?)

Of course, this is all counterbalanced by the silliness of renaming Slag to Slug. This appears to be something to do with the slang associated with 'slag', but that then leaves me confused - what with 'slash' being slang for 'pee' (that said, pretty much everything is slang for 'pee' somewhere...)

Anyway, all of this raises the crucial question I raised above: why did nobody tell me?

Time for a Conclave

Our MPs, and especially the ones who make up our government, are now actively harming the country day by day. We not only need a good answer to the problems of Brexit (or at least a less-worse answer), but we also need it quickly. And amongst the problems are that we have too many outside considerations crowding in - whether it's appealing to the people, playing for a General Election or people who are leaders of parties but are not themselves MPs getting involved.

I have a solution.

The word "conclave" literally means "with key". When the time comes to elect a new Pope, the Cardinals are locked into a debating chamber, and have to stay there until they come to a decision.

So, what I recommend is that we do exactly that - our 650 MPs are locked into the chamber, with no access to telephones or the internet, no contact with the outside world, and with the microphones and cameras switched off. Three times a day, we'll deliver them bread and water, and those who have medical needs will have those tended to (I'm not a monster). But otherwise they stay there until they choose from the three available options: Theresa's Deal, No Deal, or Remain.

Once they come up with an answer, whichever one it is, we then take that to the people in a referendum: "Do you agree that we should {chosen option here}? Yes/No".

If the answer is "No", the MPs have to go back in and choose again from the remaining options. (It is possible, of course, that the people might choose to reject all three options in referendums, and our MPs have to go back in to choose from zero choices. That's a feature, not a bug.)

But if the answer is "Yes", the chosen option will then have an impeccable double mandate - it will have been agreed by the majority of the House and a majority of the people. So that's what we'll do.

(Of course, there's no chance of this happening - Westminster runs on conventions and rules, and none of them allow for something like this. Unfortunately, the conventions and rules don't seem to actually offer any way out of the mess. It should, hopefully, now be clear to all involved that politics as practiced in Westminster is just not fit for purpose. Once this mess is dealt with, we need reform - I would submit that that starts with a proper written constitution and goes from there.)

Good Doctor, Bad Series

This post contains spoilers for the most recent series of "Doctor Who", including the finale. As usual, if you don't want to know...

I have long considered that Colin Baker has had a bit of a raw deal. I wouldn't consider him a great Doctor, by any means, but a very large part of the problem with his tenure was due to the material he was given, the costume he was forced to wear, and the fact that the show was just getting rather tired by the time he took over. None of those were things he could really do anything about; he did the best he could with some rather poor material.

As predicted, Jodie Whittaker has been absolutely fine as the Doctor - she seems to be channeling a lot of David Tennant's portrayal (which is no bad thing, as he remains the best of the 'new' Doctors), while also bringing a lot that is unique to the role (also no bad thing).

Unfortunately, this most recent series has reminded me more of Colin Baker's tenure than anything else.

I do need to note some positives of the series. Firstly, and most significantly, the episode "Rosa" was excellent - perhaps the single best episode since the show resumed, eclipsing even "Blink" and "Day of the Doctor". (It benefitted from a very strong real-world premise, where the other two I mentioned leaned very hard on time-travel premises. For me, that gave that episode a gravitas the other two couldn't quite match.)

Bradley Walsh has also been very impressive as Graham - as with Catherine Tate I thought he would be awful, but he surpised me a great deal. I thought he was excellent, and would have been great as a lone Companion.

And the new take on the theme music has been great.

Unfortunately, that's about it. The rest of the show has wavered between the mediocre and the dire, with occasional ventures into the realms of being okay.

It all started with the first episode. On the one hand, regeneration episodes always suck (to the extent that next time they really should just skip it - jump ahead to "some time later..." and go from there), but this one was especially poor. I was utterly bemused to see the various reviews falling over themselves to heap praise upon what I thought was a godawful, muddled mess.

Then there are the monsters. I actually thought the decision to put all the recurring monsters on hiatus was a good one - Daleks and Cybermen in particular had become very tired, and the rest are best used very sparingly. Unfortunately, that decision only works if the new monsters are good, and I saw no evidence of that - I mostly saw a Niffler knock-off, a bad CGI tree, and a mock-Terminator.

As I said, BW would have been great as a lone Companion. Unfortunately, Ryan and Yaz weren't so much Missy's "exposition and comic relief" so much as terminally dull and completely pointless. They even failed in their duty to ask stupid questions so that the Doctor could explain the plot, forcing JW to spend loads of time talking to herself. Such a waste.

But the absolute worst aspect of the series was the curious lack of tension at key moments. The Doctor is being drowned in a witch trial! Quick, let's talk about it all at length - no need to hurry! The entire Earth is about to be consumed with crushing psychic energy! Quick, let's monologue at length about all the various resources we have at our disposal!

I guess talking is a Free Action in the Doctor Who RPG.

Anyway.

The upshot of that is that I was rather glad to see the end of the series, and curiously unmoved by the confirmation that the New Year's episode will be the only new Who in 2019. If what we've just seen is what we have to look forward to, then it's no great loss.

As a consequence of all of this, I'm not sure where to place Whittaker on my list of the Doctors*. Given that she's only had one year, and is going to have at least one more full season in the role, I think I'm inclined to put her just ahead of Paul McGann in the "Doctors with Potential" pile - based on her performance, she should probably be higher; based on the series as a whole the rating should be lower, so that's probably about right.

* Remember that I re-evaluated Capaldi's portrayal at the end of his tenure, leading to him being moved a good bit higher. I will do the same for Whittaker when the time comes, hopefully with the same outcome - I would much rather like something than not!

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that, for now at least. I daresay I'll have some things to say about "Resolution" in early January...

#58: "Pathfinder: Temple of the Peacock Spirit", by Jason Keeley

Christmas Preparations

I posted a couple of years ago about how to have a stress-free Christmas. Since this year marks something of a change from the way things have been (in that Funsize has changed everything), I thought I'd recap where we are at this time. Of course, much of this is subject to change, and some of it is likely to need revision for next year!

• Black Friday: Much as I am coming to dislike Black Friday, and even more "Black Friday Week", I admit it has its uses. There's no specific task for this week, but keep an eye out for useful bargains of all sorts!
  
• Christmas Presents: In theory, my preference for these would be to buy them all in the first weekend of December. The reality is that that's not practical - firstly because the rising tide of media pressure makes it difficult to delay, and secondly because the required lists aren't necessarily all available. So my actual position on this is that I want to finalise my list of who to buy for by December 1st, but will start buying at some likely time, and will aim to complete buying by the 10th.
  
• Advent Calendar: This should be bought as part of the last weekly shop in November. In addition, as of this year we have a reusable Advent Train which needs filled with goodies - these should also be bought in the last weekly shop in November.
  
• Christmas Decorations: Ideally, these should go up the first weekend in Advent. Even better would be the Sunday, but if scheduling makes this busy then either the Saturday or even the Friday night will work.
  
• Food Order: The big addition as of this year is that we'll be staying at home on Christmas Day, which means I'll be cooking the big meal. That means that a suitable bird needs to be ordered, and this should also be done on that first weekend in Advent.
  
• Christmas Cards: Another of my great nemeses, Christmas Cards continue to be a thing. And so, despite my vocal protestations about the environmental impact (and my real objection, which in truth is just about sheer laziness), I guess these should be done. My inclination is that the time for these is between the first and second Sundays of Advent. This gets them done in time for international postage (if applicable), and also in a slightly less busy part of the month. Anyway, get the list of recipients identified, get the cards written, addressed, and posted. (Also, as with wrapping the presents, my innate preference would be for a one-and-done approach, but I suspect it's actually a three-stage task - see the next item...)
  
• Wrapping Presents: My preference here would be a one-and-done task, to be completed in that second week after all the presents are in hand. This has failed the test of reality, which has led me to the conclusion that it's probably a three-part split - as soon as almost all the presents are in hand, set time aside to get those wrapped. Then there will need to be a second wrap party once the rest of them arrive, and then a final task of wrapping the inevitable last straggler. I've already completed the first, expect to finish the second this week, and very much hope to finish the third by that third Sunday in Advent.
  
• Stocking Fillers: These are not quite presents, but need a similar level of secrecy. Also, since they're not wrapped I don't really want them hanging around for too long. So the plan is to go get these some time in the last week before Christmas. I have a list...
  
• The Big Supermarket Shop: The weekly shop during Advent is the time for an almighty shopping expedition, stocking up on absolutely everything that is needed - ridiculous amounts of Coke and wine, stupid numbers of snacks, enough sprouts to cancel Brexit, and so on and so forth. The only exception to this is if the last weekend in Advent falls a long way before Christmas Day, in which case some fresh items may need purchased later.
  
• Pick Up the Bird: Having ordered a turkey, don't forget to go pick it up on the appointed day!
  
• Meal Pre-preparations: The cooking of the main meal is going to be hectic, so anything that can be prepared in advance should be. Therefore, it's wise to identify a starter and a dessert that can either be bought in or made in advance. In the latter case, Christmas Eve is the time to get these in hand.
  
• Cooking the Meal: Roast turkey takes a while, but fundamentally it's just any other roast dinner. So leave aside plenty of time, take your time, and get on with it. The major considerations here are really: (1) when do you want to cook, (2) does this give you opportunity to go to church, and (3) do you kick everyone else out of the house while you're cooking?

And that, I think, is where I'm at on the first part of Christmas - the run up to the day itself. As you'll probably note, I haven't included my various lists of things (the lists of who specifically to buy presents for, the list of Christmas card recipients, the list for the butcher and the big final shopping list). These will come later, and not on this blog. Also, I haven't included things like visiting Christmas markets, Santa's Grotto, and the lighting of the Christmas tree in the village. I've come to the conclusion that these are too variable to plan for in advance, so it's better to build your master list with significant gaps, identify the things you would like to do, and slot them into those gaps (if possible).

There will probably be a part two of this post later, dealing with the big tidy up afterwards. Or maybe not...

Ambushed by an Ending

I finished up "Father Christmas's Fake Beard" yesterday, that being absolutely the last book by Terry Pratchett. This time, there really will be no more.

This ending was particularly painful, because it seemed to come out of nowhere. Partly because the last several pages of the book were a taster for "Truckers" (a genuinely excellent novel), which proved deceptive, but also because the last story came to its end right at the bottom of a page, so I got there, turned the page... and there was nothing. Much like with this post.

#57: "Father Christmas's Fake Beard", by Terry Pratchett

New to (Part) Five: Sock Conspiracy: The New Evidence

I didn't dare post this at the weekend, but on Saturday LC was heard enticing FS to "go on, grab Daddy's socks". Funsize is currently at the stage where anything in the hand promptly finds itself in the mouth, so...

What this all means:

• As we know from "JFK" (the film, not the president), when two or more people are involved you have, by definition, a conspiracy.
  
• As I have long suspected, the secrets of the Sock Conspiracy are indeed passed from mother to daughter.
  
• You might not hear from me again after this...

Tee hee.

Phenomenal Symbolism!

Ten years ago, Irn Bru gave us the truly phenomenal "Snowman" ad. It really was, and is, great. Here it is:



So far, so good.

Of course, I have my issues with what's happened with Irn Bru this year, but there's no denying that the new "Snowman" ad is likewise extremely well done. And here that one is:



In particular, I really like the symbolism of it all.

Firstly, the original advert is ten years old, which means that the can of Irn Bru that gets stolen is from the old recipe. And, indeed "he nicked my Irn Bru and let go of my hand" is a pretty bang-on description of Barr's actions this year.

In which case, the can represents old Bru, the Snowman is A.G. Barr, and the boy is those of us who desperately want it back.

So far, so good. But wait, there's more!

Because the big winner in the advert is none other than Santa, who in the struggle manages to sneak off with the grand prize.

Note, though, that Santa is a big, jolly fellow wearing red.

But so what, I hear you cry. After all, Santa always wears red!

Aha! But here's the thing: waaay back, Santa used to be depicted in a whole host of different ways - tall or short, fat or thin, human or elfin, and in a variety of colours. The key thing that essentially settled us into the now-universal depiction of a fat, bearded, jovial man in bright red is another iconic advert.

For Coca Cola.

And so the ultimate symbolism of this fabulous new advert is that in the struggle for Irn Bru, the big winner are Coca Cola.

I tip my hat to the animators. Sterling work!

#56: "Whit", by Iain Banks