My Year in 2023

To get the most important thing stated up-front: 2023 has been a vastly better year than 2022, 2021, or 2020. It was not without its challenges, but all-in-all it has been a good year.

My Year in... Blogging 

I've managed both 120 posts here and 55 on the Imaginarium, so that's good. My expectation is that next year will see much the same here, but will likely see The Imaginarium becoming fallow once the "Isles of Dread" campaign comes to an end.

My Year in... Work

Work has been mostly good this year, but not without its frustrations. There's not much more I can say here, so I'll leave it at that.

My Year in... Health

2023 was mostly a good year, up until October, and then I was suddenly struck down by some sort of nasty cold/flu/Covid type Bug. That basically incapacitated me for most of October and November. Surprise! has likewise had a recurrence of his vomiting bug, and Funsize has had some minor illnesses. All in all, it hasn't been terrible, but the recovery from my illness put a major dampener on that.

My Year in... Gaming

The "Isles of Dread" campaign remains ongoing, though it is now closer to the end than to the beginning. I have now definitively decided that this is the final campaign with this group, which also means it is my final campaign for a good long time, perhaps ever. I remain on the fence regarding the 2024 revision of D&D - if it were published in PDF I would buy it sight-unseen, but I'm really not sure I want another set of thick hardcovers taking up limited shelf space, especially as I'm unlikely ever to play it.

My Year in... Band

Band has been fine, if unspectacular.

My Year in... Resolutions

As always, the wrap-up of annual goals, and setting of goals for next year, are handled in another post. I set a very modest set of goals for the year, so unsurprisingly they have been largely achieved.

My Year in... Travel

We made it away for one overseas trip this year, introducing Surprise! to the joys of France. That was a pleasant holiday, and a good chance to get some Sun. We also enjoyed a short break in York at Easter, which was most notable for Surprise!'s amazed reaction to seeing the Railway Museum. The wee guy loves trains!

Perhaps most of note, LC and I also spent a little time away by ourselves. Which was nice, to say the least - I'd forgotten what a solid night's sleep felt like.

My Year in... Faith

As with many things, this has seen a small but meaningful improvement. This came in two main fronts: I actually managed to spend some time working on the church website, which has therefore alleviated a lot of the guilt I was facing - there's still quite a bit to do, but at least there's some movement.

The other is that in November I was made an elder in the church. Which is a big change, though I'm not yet quite certain of just what I've let myself in for.

My Year in... Love

2023 has mostly been a quiet year, which means that the only thing I really have to mention is the arrival of Lion in our family. She has settled in, and has gradually found her voice over the last several months. Unfortunately, much of that voice consists of her saying "I'm not going for a walk in that!", but never mind.

Otherwise, 2023 has been an in-between year - the children are another year older and another year further on, LC and I marked 11 years married, but 11 doesn't end with a '5' or a '0', so... Which is fine - some years are less momentous than others.

My Year in... Frustrations

For all that this year has been good, there has been one area where I've been trying to tell myself something doesn't matter and that it doesn't bother me. But the truth is that it does, and it does. I'm not going to go into it any further here for... reasons. Probably my biggest frustration here is that this could be quite a simple fix, but those who could make the fix seem absolutely determined not to acknowledge the problem (and, indeed, to insist on the opposite). Which is annoying, because I think it does need resolved, and the alternative resolution isn't the one I would choose.

Oh well.

My Year... Overall

As with last year, I find that my summary doesn't really capture my overall feelings for the year. Unlike last year, that's for a very different reason - I found 2022 to be extremely difficult on a number of fronts, and 2023 has been a vast improvement. It's just that it has been a smallish but noticeable improvement across the board, rather than one or two things that I can point to and say "it's that!". But that's no bad thing, and for the first time in a number of years I can go into the next year with some optimism that things might improve. Which is nice.

And with that, I'll sign off for the year. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year. See you in 2024!

End of Year Update on Goals

 As part of the end-of-year wrap-up, here is the closing update on my goals for the year:

• Books: The goal here was extremely minor, in that I wanted to finish The List. This was achieved with some time to spare. There will be a separate post with the full list of books for the year, but it's not a long one!
• Blogging: My end of year round-up will be post 120 on this blog for the year. The last month has been frantic, but this goal has been achieved. I have also managed just under the 60 posts on the Imaginarium that would have been my target had I set one, which is not bad for not having anything to say!
• Redecoration: The goal for this year was to tackle various bits and pieces... and was largely done by LC. The downstairs toilet was repainted, the carpet in the hallway was replaced, and some pictures were hung in the hallway. We have also replaced the blinds in the living room, which was not part of the goal, but had become overdue.

So that's that: success on all three points!

My goals for 2024 are somewhat similar:

• Books: I would like to read more books in 2024 than in 2023, so I'm setting myself a target of 30 books - approximately 2.5 per month. In years past that would be ridiculously laughable, but with my free time being so constrained I'm really not sure.
• Blogging: Once again, I'd like to post 120 times in the year. I'm still not setting a goal for The Imaginarium.
• Redecoration: The goal for next year is to redecorate Surprise!'s bedroom - this has been the nursery for the last six years, but is now no longer required (or fitted) for that purpose. So we'll look to repaint the walls, replace the carpet (and possibly the curtains and/or blind), and hang some different pictures and other decorations. In particular, one of the pictures in that room was drawn for Funsize, so would probably be more appropriate moved to her bedroom. Additionally, we'll probably look to replace the lightshades in both the kids' bedrooms. Finally, I'd like to look into the possibility of improving the heating and/or insulation in Funsize's bedroom, which can get quite cold at times.
• Complete my Campaign: I'd like to finish the current D&D campaign, but I'd also like to finally finish the writing task associated with it - I've been painfully close for an age, and it would be good to get it actually done.
• Update the Church Website: The site suffered a mini-meltdown a while back, and while the backend has been mostly restored there are a couple of things still to do. But the world-facing side has needed something of a revision since before I arrived, and it would be good to get that done, too.

And that's that. Five goals, all of which have the feel of being nicely doable. I guess we'll see.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special

I've been somewhat negative about "Doctor Who" for several years now - sadly, much of Capaldi's run and all of Whittaker's did nothing for me, and the three most recent specials were something of a mixed bag at best. So I'm enormously happy, and relieved, to be able to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas special.

First things first: the cast. I never really had any doubt that Ncuti Gatwa would make for a fine Doctor (frankly, they've never had a bad actor in the role, and I didn't think they'd start now), but he was far better then I could have hoped - there's a freshness and a charm to his portrayal that is just fun. Then there's Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, who already has the makings of a favourite companion - an Amy Pond, Martha, or Ace.

I very much enjoyed the goblins, and the "Labyrinth"-esque plot (with only the slight disappointment that they didn't have Tilda Swinton as Jareth the Goblin King). And the ship was fantastic - especially the "language of knots". Oh, and "Spelljammer confirmed!" (for those who know...)

And it's really nice to have a happy Doctor for once. Hopefully that will stick.

Basically episodes like this are why I keep on watching the show, even when I'm not particularly enjoying it. Because when it's good, it can be really good. And RTD has excelled himself here.

Gatekeepers

I'm always rather bemused that whenever I call the GP to try to make an appointment, there then follows the dance of the gatekeepers - what seems an ever-increasing battle to avoid actually giving an appointment to see a doctor. I do understand that they're really busy, and that the service as a whole is under-funded. But when the difference between "not a problem" and "this needs medication" can be ascertained with a very quick visual inspection (but only by that inspection), I'm not sure how to deal with the offer of a telephone appointment.

I was particularly amused recently by the question of whether I had been to the pharmacy first, partly because I hadn't had any opportunity, but also partly because if I needed anything beyond over-the-counter medicines, then access to those is blocked (for very good reason) by another round of gatekeeping - in particular, I'd need a prescription from the very person I was trying to see in the first place!

The whole system seems increasingly structured to stop people from using it. But, actually, not all people - basically, the less likely you are to need the service, the harder you'll find it to access on those rare occasions when you do need it.

Oh well. Hopefully it's all nothing.

Christmas 2023

Christmas this year would have been great, but for one thing that blighted the whole.

As with last year, we decided to stay at home on the morning of the 25th. We had a fairly relaxed start, followed by the opening of our presents, then lunch, and then I took the children off to my parents' for a bit. LC remained at home to look after Lion.

At my parents the children continued the Epic Unwrapping and spent a little time with some of their cousins. And then we went on to LC's parents', where LC joined us. We had a relatively relaxed Christmas dinner, then home, a quick watch of the final episode of "Ghosts" (which was great, but for my money wasn't the tear-jerker of last year; still a good way to end). And then bed.

Unfortunately, a bout of illness marred the whole thing - on Friday I started to come down with a sore throat, which just got worse on Saturday, worse again on Sunday, and then LC was hit hard on Monday, just in time for Christmas. Naturally, this kicked off just as the doctors and pharmacies were closed for four days.

We tried really hard not to let it impact on the day, but it wasn't without it's effect - hard to enjoy turkey dinner when anything you swallow feels like broken glass.

Oh well. It could all have been a lot worse - this year more than most I've been sorely troubled by the horror stories from people whose Christmases have been limited or non-existent. So, yeah.

Bad Boys For Life

This is a rather belated review, but I finally got around to watching this film. I consider "Bad Boys" to be one of Michael Bay's few decent films, and at the time I considered "Bad Boys 2" to be pretty much the last decent action film (though it has aged really badly, and there have been some better ones since).

"Bad Boys for Life" is one of the belated sequels that I tend not to like, but it's actually not all that bad - it mixes many of the things I liked about the previous two with some new stuff that is actually worthwhile, the action scenes are handled well (and the car chases rather better than BB2), so it's fine.

It's certainly not classic cinema, though! Basically, if you liked the first two, you'll probably like this one. If not, you won't. And if you're looking for something suitably brainless, this is a decent candidate.

And that's that. Hopefully, I'll watch a film that's genuinely good next!

Experimental Cookery 2023: Easy Sausage Carbonara

This one came from Jamie's "5 Ingredients" book, which I always ifnd interesting but never quite dip into as often as I feel I should. Unfortunately, on getting home from work yesterday I walked into a warzone, and so wasn't able to give this my full attention. One of the consequences of this was that I didn't sequence making this quite correctly, and so had everything else cooked before I even started the sausages.

Despite that, the meal turned out okay. No better than that, but just okay. That said, I now know where I went wrong, so if and when I do this again I know how to adjust it to make it better.

All in all, I'm calling this a success - we had gradually become disenchanted with Hugh's Chorizo Carbonara, so it's good to have an alternative to use for a while.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I had been planning to see this for my birthday, but in the event we decided against due to some truly horrendous reviews. Now that the film has come to Disney+ we watched it over the course of a few nights.

It's not terribly, but it's not particularly good either.

The truth is, these belated sequels are generally poor - somehow Stallone managed to make a decent one with "Rocky Balboa", but it is very much the exception. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was terrible, and while "Dial of Destiny" is better, it's not a patch on the original three.

There are several problems, but the biggest of these is the use of CGI in the action scenes - the characters are very obviously weightless and made of rubber, which means there is no peril and no stakes.

There is also, I'm afraid, an issue caused by Indiana Jones' age - like Picard in the Next Generation movies, he's just not able to carry an action movie, which means the bulk of it is carried by Wombat, effectively making Indy no longer the protagonist in his own movie. Which wasn't good in "Mad Max: Fury Road", but at least the rest of that movie made up for it.

All that said, and despite my comment about CGI earlier, I did find the start of the film (with a de-aged Ford) extremely impressive. In fact, we're only a few years away from Disney being able to do an entire film as a WWII period piece, and with Ford providing just the voice (or even a synthesized voice as with Vader and Luke in recent Star Wars projects). Which on the one hand sounds really grim, but on the other probably represents the best way to do any new Indy film. And we know they're not going to just let it lie.

All in all, I'm glad we skipped this one at the cinema, but I also don't regret watching it now that it has become available. That said, I can't see myself ever watching is again - for me, "Indiana Jones" will remain a trilogy, just like "Toy Story", "Lethal Weapon", and others.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary

I didn't really enjoy "The Star Beast". Frankly, I felt that it was a preposterous and convoluted plot that existed solely to get to the point where the Doctor had to trigger the metacrisis to win, only to immediately be followed by a terrible handwave to just wish the whole thing away. Throw in a bit of casual misandry, and I was all set to walk away at that point.

Fortunately, the second episode, "Wild Blue Yonder", was vastly superior. This one only had a couple of actors slipping back in to well-worn roles, some nice creepy villains, and a surprising amount of tension, and it all felt like a really well-done episode.

And then there was "The Giggle". I felt that this one was fine. It's not the greatest episode ever, but far from the worst. There were some things I really liked, and for once it was a pre-regeneration episode that didn't consist of just waiting to actually get to that regeneration, which was nice. And Ncuti Gatwa was immediately impressive in the role. The only thing I didn't like was them keeping David Tennant around as an active Doctor - that feels like a way to bring him back if ratings dip again.

All that said, while I thought this amounted to some good episodes, I didn't really feel that any of them, or even the collective of them, made for good anniversary episodes - there's nothing like "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors", or "Day of the Doctor" there. Indeed, even the generally-terrible "Dimensions in Time" represented a better anniversary piece for the show, and that was a crossover with "Eastenders" of all things! (As fas as I know there wasn't any anniversary special for the 40th.) In fact, last year's "Power of the Doctor" was a vastly better anniversary special than these episodes, despite coming right at the end of what was, sadly, a rather poor run.

Anyway, that's that. I now find myself more or less looking forward to the Christmas special (and, indeed, it's really good that we're back to actually having Christmas specials!), where after "The Star Beast" I had thought there might be a good change it would be my final episode. So that's a good thing.

Oh, also... I really enjoyed the BBC's Musical Celebration. There has been some really good stuff written for the revival series, and it would good to hear some of those pieces in isolation. And Surprise! enjoyed them too - he loves music of all sorts.

And... Relax

At the weekend I hit an important threshold: unless I've forgotten someone (which remains a horrible possibility), I have now bought all of my Christmas presents. There is still one out for delivery, and three needing to be wrapped, but basically that is the job done.

And that means I've reached one of my favourite milestones: this is the point where I can actually start to enjoy Christmas, rather than it being a source of hassle and stress.

Huzzah!

Made A Mistake

Earlier in the year I decided to give something a go for three months and then make a decision. I did, made a decision. And, I'm afraid it was the wrong one.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

I'm on the verge of cancelling Paramount+, but in a piece of remarkably good timing they've just got the most recent Transformers movie. These have ranged from mediocre to abysmal (though "Bumblebee" was okay-ish), but I've watched all the others so I figured I'd try this one.

And, surprisingly, it's okay. It's not a good film by any stretch, and frankly it's nothing we haven't seen half a dozen times before, but it's not a cinematic abomination like some of the others.

Which isn't exactly high praise. But it's still much better than I expected.

Makes a Mockery

I finished reading "The Fall of Númenor" over the weekend. Like a lot of the recent "Tolkien" books, it struggles to put together a coherent narrative from a great many disparate writings. This one was largely successful, however, filling in a lot of the blanks about the Second Age. (I daresay if you had read all of "The History of Middle Earth" and other books, there probably isn't anything new here for you. I hadn't, so I enjoyed it.)

But my biggest takeaway from the book is a reinforcement of just how weak "The Rings of Power" really is. This is true on three main fronts. The first is the timeline - in the book events play out over centuries and even millennia, while in the show, even if it runs for the mooted ten seasons, it will cover a decade at most. This means, for instance, that there are a scant few years between the founding of Barad-dur and the Last Alliance, instead of the half an age in the book.

The second is the handling of Galadriel, who in "The Rings of Power" just isn't the character Tolkien wrote.

The third is thematic. Númenor, as presented in the book, is as close as possible to paradise on Earth. The Men of that realm are rewarded by the Valar for their aid against Morgoth in the First Age. They are also given one instruction: don't try to travel further West. And, partly due to the nature of mortal pride, and partly due to the influence of Sauron (although the latter only towards the end), people gradually fall away from that ideal and rebel, at first in small ways and finally in calculated defiance of that one edict. And so, they bring their doom on themselves.

In "The Rings of Power", Númenor is presented as being close to that worldly paradise, and being populated by essentially good people being led by essentially good rulers. Númenor, in the show, is set to be destroyed by a natural disaster, just because.

I guess much of this is inherent to the source material that RoP is working with - they have access to only key, small parts of Tolkien's work, notably not including the work here, and so they have to make do. But given that, I can't help but feel that they'd have been better just... not?

#21: "The Fall of Númenor", by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Brian Sibley)

Some Thoughts on The List

Earlier this year I finally finished "The List", my multi-year reading project. The List itself was made up of two "100 books" lists, one from the UK and one from the US - there was significant overlap, so it probably amounted to 170 or so books in all, about 30 of which I had read before I formally started. So, at the end of such a project, what are my reflections?

Well, the first of these is that it was an extremely useful source of reading material. Most of the books on The List were quite good, as might be expected, it contained a wide variety of materials, and it therefore served very well to give some structure to my overall reading goals.

On the other hand, there were some real stinkers amongst them, and I don't just mean Dan Brown. The List inevitably included a load of books that were either featured in Oprah or Richard & Judy's Book Clubs, which was a very mixed recommendation, and also a load of books that happened to be popular at the time. It wasn't quite recent enough to include "Twilight", much less "Fifty Shades of Grey", but there were books there that would have stood in the same company.

On the other, other hand, it guided me to some books that I probably would never have heard of, much less read, and some of these were very good indeed - "The Shadow of the Wind", "The Kite Runner", "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", "100 Years of Solitude". These aren't particularly obscure titles, but faced with endless bookshelves in Waterstones, or worse the digital storefront at Amazon, I would be unlikely ever to land on those. So that was good.

And, of course, it meant I tackled a load of the doorstop books ("War and Peace", "Les Miserables", "Atlas Shrugged") and a load of the classics (Dickens, Austen).

It's hard to pick a single best book from The List. I think "Shadow of the Wind" probably edges it. Certainly the funniest moment in all the reading came when I discovered that George Lucas stole a whole section of dialogue from "Gone With the Wind" for use in "The Empire Strikes Back".

Would I do it again? Well, no - it was a massive commitment, and I don't fancy going down that road. (Plus, "Twilight" and "Fifty Shades of Grey"...) On the other hand, I'm glad I've done it once, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as an approach to someone looking to broaden their horizons.

But don't leave "Atlas Shrugged", "The Fountainhead", and "A Woman of Substance" as your last three - The List did not end on a high.

#20: "The Ink Black Heart", by Robert Galbraith

Michael Matheson Must Go

Back when I came to supporting Scottish independence, the reason for that was the desire for better governance. At that time, the Coalition government was the worst we'd seen, and I'd never seen a Westminster government that I'd consider 'good' or even 'adequate', while Ed Miliband's Labour offered absolutely no hope of anything better. Meanwhile, Salmond's SNP government were demonstrating that better was, in fact, possible.

Spin forward a number of years, and the Coalition government looks like a comparative Golden Age. We've now had a succession of three "worst ever" Prime Ministers in sequence followed by Rishi Sunak's best efforts to continue that streak. Meanwhile Labour are promising a continuation of all the same inhumane policies of the existing government, just executed with rather more ruthlessness.

But meanwhile in Scotland the SNP government are now not demonstrating that anything better is possible. In fact, the notion of independence under this shower terrifies me - an independent Scotland would absolutely have a written constitution, a good written constitution is necessarily hard to change, but the constitution written by this government (or, more accurately, the "independent" committee they set up and cherry-picked to write it) just does not appeal one iota.

Thankfully, that's something we don't need to worry about, as the SNP gave up on independence a long time ago. Yes, they talk about it. Of course they talk about it - there's an election coming, so they have to try to get out their vote to keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

Anyway. What does this have to do with Michael Matheson?

The story is pretty straightforward: he went on a family holiday, taking his work iPad with him. A bill for £11,000 was duly run up. He then submitted this expense claim for reimbursement.

So far, so simple. But then the whole thing unravels very fast.

Because running up a bill of £11,000 over a few days is ludicrous. It actually should never happen (I'll get to that), but not surprisingly it gave the media something to sink their teeth into. Because the only way to run up that sort of bill is through streaming video - either lots of calls, or something else.

MM declared that it was, of course, an entirely legitimate expense - he'd run up the bill on constituency work. So, fair enough I guess.

But it was a lie - it turns out that the two days on which the biggest usage occurred just happened to be days when Celtic were playing football.

The new story is that MM's children, unknown to him, had used that data to stream the matches, thus running up the bill. An honest mistake.

Well...

Assuming we believe the story that "his children", and not MM himself streamed the matches (which is a huge assumption), we still have huge problems.

Firstly, there's the issue with the bill existing in the first place. Apparently MM was told, a year previously, that he needed to update his SIM for the parliament's new provider. And he was further told that foreign travel had to be logged, so that a roaming package could be put in place. As I said, that £11,000 bill should not have existed in the first place, and I'm afraid it is at the very best carelessness, and more likely incompetence, that brought it about.

Secondly, though, there's the issue of MM's children using the iPad to stream the matches. There are three possibilities here:

• They actually used the iPad, with MM having unlocked it for them. In which case he knew they improperly used a public device, and his story is a lie.
• They actually used the iPad without MM's knowledge. Which means they must have the password - meaning it was either ridiculously easy to guess, or MM had given them the password. Either way, that's a shocking lapse in security.
• Or they used the iPad as a hotspot, effectively connecting their phones to it via wi-fi. The problem with that - MM would have had to set that up for them and shared the password. So improper use of a public device and a shocking lapse in security.

Finally, how did they stream it?

Because in the UK, the matches were available on Sky, but that only applies in the UK. To stream from Sky while abroad you would need to set up a VPN to spoof your location (which would be illegal). Alternately, there are a wide variety of "unlicensed" streams available. Which are both illegal and tend to be riddled with all manner of malware and other nastiness. Again, a massive security risk.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, £11,000 is a drop in the bucket of government expenditure. And, yes, compared with the torrent of corruption in Westminster, it's trivial.

But it's a matter of someone claiming expenses where they should not, then trying desperately to cover it all up. And it is that that makes this whole thing stink. He could, perhaps, have survived if he'd simply held his hands up at once and apologised. But now...

Fundamentally, is better governance possible? Or is the SNP exactly the same as the other parties - a bunch of self-serving grifters who should be barred from ever holding office precisely because of their desire to do so?

The Ongoing Tragedy

The situation in Israel and Gaza is absolutely tragic, and becomes more tragic by the day. We absolutely need an immediate and indefinite end to the killing - I don't care whether you call that a 'pause', a 'ceasefire', or any other damn thing you like; I care about a stop to the killing.

Beyond that, the people of that region will have to find some way to co-exist in peace. It is not a viable solution to simply wipe out one or other of the populations. Nor is it a viable solution to relocate one or other of the populations. Israel cannot exist under the constant threat of terror attacks on all sides; that is not viable either. And neither can Gaza continue exist with the threat of huge military bombardment, up to and including a nuclear strike; that is not a viable solution.

Finding peace in Northern Ireland was bloody difficult, and the situation in the Middle East is vastly more complex. Nonetheless, some sort of lasting peace deal must be found. I have no idea what that looks like, except that it needs to exclude terror attacks and endless days of bombing as reprisals.

Alas, I think we may need a miracle, and those seem to be in perilously short supply these days.

Is it Covid? Is it Flu?

I'm ill. I've been ill now for a few weeks - every time I think I'm getting better, it comes back and batters me again harder. Which sucks.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is - it could be a really bad cold, it could be flu, it could be Covid. It could be none of these - or even more than one in sequence. Not that it really matters, since I'm essentially incapacitated.

Only I'm not, because I really can't afford to be incapacitated. Which sucks even more.

Oh well. The doctor wasn't overly concerned, and said to come back in four weeks if it hadn't cleared up. That was two weeks ago, when I achieved the impossible feat of getting an appointment on the same day. So we'll see. Two more weeks is cutting some things really fine, though.

Accountability

The testimony coming from the Covid enquiry is absolutely shocking - far, far worse than I had imagined it could be (and that after a whole load of evidence has ever-so-conveniently been lost forever).

The depth of the failure within government is shameful. The fact that so many people knew and said nothing is almost worse - what is the point of journalists like Robert Peston or Laura Kuenssberg if they could see even a fraction of this, and said nothing? It is literally their job to report on these sorts of things!

Most importantly, though, I want to know what happens next? Where's the accountability?

It is manifestly obvious that those running the country at that time were, at best, utterly unfit to do so. Many of them, far from helping, actively made the problems worse for their own benefit. And I don't think we've even heard the worst of it yet.

So charges should be brought, and swiftly. And we need a widespread reform of our systems of government to make sure this can't happen again.

Because if we don't make sure it can't happen again, we ensure that it absolutely will.

Experimental Cookery 2023: Pumpkin & Carrot Soup

We had some pumpkin left over from making the chilli, so to use it up I purchased some ingredients and made soup. The method came from "A Soup for Every Day", which is a generally useful book to have.

Making the soup was easy, with hacking up the pumpkin being the most time-consuming bit. Then the stove did all the work for me. Job done!

The resulting soup was, initially, somewhat bland - as with a lot of vegetable soups, it needed quite a lot of help from salt and pepper to help bring out the flavour. But once that was added, it really came together quite nicely - one to have hot on a cold day, and with some nice crusty rolls.

Experimental Cookery 2023: Slow-cooker Pumpkin and Beef Brisket Chilli

Until yesterday I had somehow never cooked with pumpkin. I'd always been intrigued by them, but we only ever had one for carving, and I'd never quite found a use. But this month's Tesco magazine has a couple of good slow-cooker recipes, and with there being the annual Halloween event on Saturday I thought this would be an ideal pre-event repast.

Well, it would have been, except that I ended up cooking it on Sunday rather than Saturday, and then we barely ate any of it. This weekend has not been the most successful.

Anyway, this was quick and easy to put together, as is generally the case with slow cooker recipes. And then it was just a matter of waiting for a very long time.

The result was... interesting. It's very different from the chillies I've made in the past, though that's not necessarily a bad thing - it was considerably meatier but with essentially no heat at all. As I said, it would probably have been just the thing for us all to have in rolls before heading out to the village Halloween event.

Oh well. Maybe next year - because this is one I do intend to do again.

Experimental Cookery 2023: Curries of the World 1

On Wednesday I enjoyed a team-building day at the "Edinburgh New Town Cook School". ("Enjoyed a team-building" anything should really be a contradiction in terms, but this once was an exception.) The course was the aforementioned "Curries of the World 1", the nature of which should probably be obvious.

It was a really good course - well presented, and the instructor was clearly both well on top of her subject and also enthusiastic about presenting it. All of which is to the good.

The day began with a demonstration, as a curry paste was put together and then used to cook a dish. This then served as a morning snack, before we proceeded with our cooking: two curry pastes, and then four dishes, most of which we took home. There were lots of prawns.

Anyway, it was a really good day, and I found I enjoyed it a bit more than the Nick Nairn thing I attended a few years ago, though probably just because I knew some people there!

And that's actually all I have to say about that - the latter half of the week has been a disaster, so I'm playing catch up more than a little.

#19: "Firefly: What Makes Us Mighty", by M.K. England

Day 300: Update on Goals

We've now reached day 300 of the year, so it's time for the penultimate update on goals for the year:

• Books: This is done - I finished "Atlas Shrugged" during the October break, thus completing The List. My total number of books is a measly 18, which I'll aim to improve on next year, but that's okay.
• Blogging: I'm now back to being on target on this blog. I just need to finish up the year on schedule and this goal should complete. Over on the Imaginarium I'm quite some way behind the goal I would have set, had I set a goal there. I'd quite like to get caught up, but a lack of inspiration is hurting that.
• Redecorating: The new carpet arrived on Wednesday, so this is now done.
• Other stuff: My updates to the church website are proceeding apace, but the process is going slowly. Similarly, I've done a small amount of writing towards that 6,000 word target, but there's a long way to go there. And I'm in the process of populating the NAS with data, but given the sheer volume that may be a year-long project.

Currently, it looks like all three jobs should complete, given that two are done and the third is on target. That's not exactly the biggest achievement, though.

New Worlds to Conquer

Originally, this post was going to be entitled "no more worlds to conquer", and was going to note that the NAS was something I regarded as my 'last' big purchase - it essentially completed the set of things I wanted to own, and thereafter purchases would be a matter of updates and replacements. At least until something new changed the game.

However, over the weekend I realised that there remain two more 'things' to be considered, things that were actually enabled by the NAS, and having the data populated (at least in part):

• At some stage I would like to set up most or all of our rooms with suitable tablets/speakers to access content from the NAS. These can be relatively basic, in that I'd like them to be able to handle streamed music and internet radio, and not much else. Even viewing video files it probably beyond the scope of what I'd envisaged... although, maybe.
• The other thing, coming out of having those very tablets, is that it then becomes practical, nay easy, to set up a home automation setup - smart lightbulbs everywhere, smart plugs in key locations, and so on.

Neither of these is urgent, of course, and neither of them is a one-and-done project (they can easily be built up over time). But they would, I think, represent genuine improvements in our quality of life, which is obviously something to at least consider.

A TV In Her Room?

Growing up, the ultimate thing to have was a TV in your bedroom. The main reason for this was economic - it was an indicator that your parents were so well off that thy could afford the indulgence of not just one but multiple televisions. The other factor was one of control and independence, as having a TV in your room gave you unilateral control over what you watched.

A couple of weeks ago, Funsize asked about getting a TV in her room. She's not getting a TV in her room.

In fact, it's very likely that Funsize will never have a TV, as such, in her bedroom. Because, quite simply, the whole notion is just obsolete these days.

Right now, Funsize has a tablet of her own. This in itself is a rather ludicrous thing for a five-year-old to have - it's way more powerful than she needs, and frankly is a crazy indulgence. And yet, we've found that it is insanely useful especially on long journeys, such that not only do we not at all regret the purchase, but it's likely Surprise! will be getting one fairly soon.

(The other thing, of course, is that Funsize won't remain five-years-old, and although the technology will age and become less useful with time, at the power level of the thing it should remain good enough for a good long time. So it's a crazy indulgence that becomes less crazy as time goes on.)

And there will come a point, probably sooner than I'm really comfortable with, that she will benefit from having a laptop of her own - initially for homework, of course, but the reality is that these things have a great many uses.

And unlike when I was growing up, these days there is no meaningful distinction between a TV and a laptop, or even a tablet - via the magic of wi-fi and some carefully selected apps, those devices can watch anything that's available on our TV, and vastly more than I ever had access to.

I think there is, still, just about, justification for having a dedicated family TV. I don't think there's any real justification for having a TV as such in a bedroom - too many other devices can do the key things well enough to make it worthwhile.

Feel free to tell me I'm wrong!

In Which I Am Less Right

Last night Spain did Scotland a favour and beat Norway. The consequence of that is that Scotland have now qualified for the Euro 2024 competition. Huzzah!

A few years ago I made a rather pessimistic prediction that Scotland's men would never again qualify for a major tournament this side of independence. Obviously, independence has not occurred. (I did put a caveat on that "unless they change the rules to basically let anyone in", which is why I don't count Euro 2020 - the "UEFA Nations League" basically meets that criterion.)

Anyway, the upshot of all of that is that I was, quite obviously, wrong in that prediction. Happily so.

(It's just as well, really  - given that the SNP basically gave up on independence some years ago, the prospect of independence within my lifetime is essentially over.)

Anyway, now the challenge is to try to finish top of the group, but more importantly to then try to get out of the group stage in the tournament itself and achieve our best-ever result. But that's a problem for another day. For today, it's all to the good.

Status Report

I've spent much of the past week feeling various measures of not great, and the last two days feeling pretty awful. Fortunately, it has nonetheless been a productive week - I had a list of five things I wanted to get done, and can report significant progress on four of them:

• I finished two books this holiday, being the final book from The List, and one from the big pile of waiting books. That clears off one of the items from my "clearing the decks" list, and takes a bite out of another.
• We've arranged to have the carpet in the upstairs hallway replaced - that should be done by the end of this month, and just in time for my penultimate update on goals for the year.
• The NAS has been set up! It was horrible, but the various steps were taken, the PCs are now backed up (and set up to back up), the media server is set up and working, and the library is populated at least with some things. I now have a very large task to populate the rest of it, but that's another job for another day (or year).
• I tried to update the church website, only to discover that the server is positively creaking. Some surgery has been done to this, and a big chunk of the update is now done (or at least good enough). There's quite a bit still to go, especially on the back end, but I'm happy with what I've done.
• I did not, however, get any of those 6,000 words written.

All in all, I'm happy with that. I now have one more task on the "clear the decks" list to go, and one goal to complete on my trio for the year. So that's pretty good, I think.

Baking with Surprise! #1: Meringues

One of the side-effects of making the chocolate velvet ice cream is that it left me with three egg whites to use up. Which obviously meant that there was a need to make meringues. And so yesterday, Surprise! and I made up a batch.

Making meringues is, of course, pretty easy, which makes it ideal for a small child to help with - Surprise! had great fun adding the sugar a spoonful at a time, until he got bored of that, and then he had great fun using the electric mixer to combine the sugar with the eggs.

And so now I have ten meringues to eat up...

Not Baking With Funsize #8: Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream

We've all been on holiday this past week. We didn't actually go anywhere, which has meant we've been scrabbling around for things to do. And so, one of those things was for Funsize and I to make some ice cream. Which was, of course, great fun.

I've made this ice cream before, and it is very nice. That hasn't changed with this iteration. Neither has the simplicity of making it. The main benefit of the experience this time was that Funsize enjoyed the process, such that she is now keen to make many more ice creams in the future.

Which means I'll need to come up with some nice flavours for us to try.

#18: "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand (the final book from The List!)

Babylon 5: The Road Home

As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of "Babylon 5" - I consider it to be the third-best Sci-fi show of all time (behind only "Star Trek" and "Doctor Who"). So when it was announced that a new B5 Tv movie was coming, I was of course going to get it and watch it!

Unfortunately, B5 has a significant problem in that the core story (seasons 2-4 of the show) is absolutely solid, but everything around that is of wildly variable quality - "Crusade" had potential but never lived up to it, "Legend of the Rangers" didn't proceed beyond a pilot for fairly good reason, season 1 was very slow and season 5 stretched too little material into too many episodes, and of the T movies only "In the Beginning" was truly great. And any new B5 project has an even bigger problem that about half of the core cast have now passed away.

So a new TV movie was a somewhat dubious proposition. But it's B5, so of course I still watched it.

And it's good. At least, it's good if you've seen and enjoyed the show - it adds a bit more context to some parts of the story, it fills in some of the "darkest timeline" stuff we see in a couple of episodes, and it of course centres around some beloved characters. It's a fairly small moment, but my favourite point probably involved some corn fields, of all things.

But my main reaction to the movie was that it left me wanting to watch "Babylon 5" again, and I just don't have time for that.

My recommendation for this one has to be conditional: if you haven't seen "Babylon 5", don't bother with this. And if you didn't enjoy B5, you won't enjoy this. But if you did, and you feel like revisiting the Third Age of Mankind, this is a fun way to do that.

Ahsoka

There is no Star Wars TV series that I have looked forward to more than "Ahsoka". I'm a big fan of "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels", and very much enjoyed Ahsoka's appearances in both "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett". But after the abject failure that was "Secret Invasion", I actually approached the series with something approaching terror.

The good news is that that terror was almost entirely unfounded - "Ahsoka" has an excellent cast, a strong (albeit very slow) plot, and loads and loads of Star Wars goodness. And the fifth episode, in particular, may be the single best thing Disney have done with Star Wars since they got it.

I don't want to say much more about the series now, to avoid spoilers. I strongly recommend it. But, if you haven't watched "The Clone Wars" and, especially, "Rebels", I strongly recommend waching those first - while "Ahsoka" does manage to stand alone, it gains a huge amount from the context that those shows give.

#17: "Elektra", by Jennifer Saint (good book, by the way)

The SNP's Management Woes 2023

Oddly, the SNP today find themselves with almost exactly the same predicament as Rangers did on Saturday night - the guy at the top is clearly not cut out for it and absolutely has to be replaced, but despite that there is the issue that whoever they appoint next will still have to deal with the same players, who are also clearly not good enough. (There's also an uncanny similarity about them both being utterly strapped for cash, but that's a whole other topic.)

The big difference between the situations though is that Rangers do at least have the ability to go and find a manager from anywhere, and in theory they could find someone who can get more out of the existing crop of players and coax them through to the transfer window. The SNP's list of viable candidates for leader has exactly one name on it, and during the previous leadership election the powers-that-be within the SNP did a really good job of toxifying her in the media.

So, they're basically screwed. At this stage, the future for the SNP looks like being limping through to the General Election, taking a major kicking, limping through to the Scottish Elections, taking another major kicking, dropping out of government, and then maybe rebuilding from there.

In the meantime, Humza Yousaf must go... but don't expect much to improve as a result.

Paramount+

We're coming to the end of our three-month deal with Paramount+. As it happens, I'm going to renew for one additional month (to let "Star Trek: Lower Decks" conclude its fourth season), but after that I'll be cancelling.

Overall, I feel I've had my money's worth from the subscription, but only just - I basically subscribed for the various "Star Trek" shows, and have had good viewing from those. I've also watched two films, one of which I enjoyed and the other not so much. (It would be quite nice if "Scream 6" happened to return to the service in the next month, but I'm not too hopeful.)

Ultimately, though, I have very little interest in the rest of the offering - and, indeed, since I went in assuming I was going to cancel before too long, I deliberately didn't take a chance on any of the other series.

The upshot, therefore, is that I think this is probably a channel I'll dip in to for a couple of months roughly yearly, to catch up on the various Trek series, but otherwise won't bother with. And my recommendation would probably be to do the same. (This makes it different from Disney+, which is basically a permanent subscription for us - there's just too much good stuff on there.)

Clearing the Decks

Now that we're more than three-quarters of the way through the year, and with both my RPG campaign and the final book in The List coming towards their conclusions, I find myself thinking about the benefits of a clean slate going in to next year. There are a number of things that have been sitting in my To Do pile for quite some time, and a few other things that haven't been but maybe should.

In which case, here's the list of things I'd like to get done in the remainder of this year:

• Finish the final book on The List.
• Start reading through the big pile of books I have waiting.
• Replace the carpet in the upstairs hallway.
• Set up the NAS. (Yes, I recall my post from last month. But it bothers me having it just sitting there as an active accusation.)
• Update the church website. That has been sitting ignore dfor far too long, and really needs some attention.
• Finish the writing of the final part of the campaign - I have 6,000 words to go, and it would be good to get them written.

And that's it. I don't expect to get all of these done, and indeed may barely scratch the surface, but at least there's a list to be working through. Oh, it's also perhaps worth noting that this is not an ordered list - it's just a bunch of things to do, without priorities.

Experimental Cookery 2023: Blackberry and Apple Crumble

Excuse me while I wax nostalgic for a moment...

Growing up we had a variety of desserts, often fruit-based (a particular 'favourite' was tinned peaches with condensed milk). In hindsight, this was largely a consequence of my parents raising a large family on a single income. Unfortunately, as time went on the stresses of this got to Mum, and desserts became even more constrained by the need to be extremely convenient as well - fruit sponge was replaced with 'treacle' sponge as the latter could be made in the microwave.

I have, of course, made crumble before. However, I think the last time was back when I was in high school. And, like the aforementioned fruit sponge, these are the sorts of desserts that we used to enjoy that we just don't have any more.

The method for this one came out of Mary Berry's "Simple Comforts". I make no apology for using a recipe for this rather than doing it from memory - that is, after all, what we have recipes for.

Needless to say, this is quick and easy to put together. I spent more time peeling and chopping apples than I did on anything else, and I didn't spend much time even on that. Then it went into the oven, and was forgotten about for 45 minutes.

In terms of taste and feel, this was great. A real nostalgic treat. And, yes, I'd certainly have this again, despite my total inability to persuade Funsize either to help with the cooking or indeed to eat any of it.

All in all, that's a win in my book.

The Countdown

I'm currently reading the final book in The List, which runs to 1,168 pages in length. Given the density of the text, I've set myself a target of 12 pages per day, and have just passed the 800 day mark, which means I should finish it around the end of next month.

I'm very much looking forward to it all being done - this final book is not exactly great (more on that when it is done), it will be good to finally complete this task, but also I have a huge pile of books waiting to be read and it will be good to feel free to get to them.

Rangers Management Woes 2023

These seem to be coming earlier and earlier each year!

After today's defeat, Rangers find themselves 7 points behind Celtic. That means that if they change their manager now, the new guy has it within his power to win the league - just win all your games, and it's job done. If Rangers lose one more game, that is no longer the case and they'll need someone to do them a favour.

(Of course, the current Rangers team are in no shape to win all their remaining games, but that's another issue - I'm just talking about the mathematics of the situation.)

Since Michael Beale is clearly not the solution they need, and isn't going to make it to the end of the season, that means the time to act is now. But there's a really big problem: if you're going to change manager, you need to find someone better. And in this case that someone must be able to take this group of players through to the January transfer window without dropping any points, and then must be able to get through the rest of the season with, most likely, only nominal rebuilding (because Rangers spent all their money backing Beale).

It's really hard to think who they could get in that circumstance.

And yet, do it they must.

The Dream

For the past few years we have had milk delivered to our door. Consequently, the dream has always been to get up before the milk is delivered. ("The dream" doesn't need to make sense; it just is.) I had actually assumed that this was impossible - when I returned home after Grandma's funeral I found the milk waiting for me at half past midnight that night, so getting up before that would be madness.

However, since we adopted Lion I have been responsible for the morning walk on weekdays, and that has seen me leaving the house at 6.15. And the last twice we have had a milk delivery, I've returned from that walk just as the milkman has gotten to our house.

So, huzzah, the dream has been fulfilled!

The downside now is that I need a new dream...

(Incidentally, prior to Covid we had milk deliveries at the office. And on exactly one occasion I made it to the office before the milk arrived. So the dream was fulfilled there, too. We don't have milk deliveries any longer, though that isn't really anything to do with me.)

Resting my Brane

I fell in front of the TV on Wednesday. This seemingly-mundane event really isn't like me - the last time it happened was on the day after Funsize was born. So it's a sign that I'm really tired. Not my usual, extreme, level of tiredness, but something more.

As a consequence of this, I've been taking things somewhat easier the last few days, and intend to keep doing so over the weekend. Sadly, the auspices don't look good...

Millstone

A few months ago, after many years of consideration of the matter, I finally bought a NAS. It's a lovely device, that sits proudly on a shelf in pride of place.

And I wish I'd never bought the damn thing.

It took me several weeks to find any time to get the thing out of its box, and then still more weeks to install its expanded RAM, find, a spot for it on a shelf, and the switch it on. And then I promptly switched it off again, because I had absolutely no time to do anything more with it.

Several weeks later I again found a little time, and started on the "quickstart" guide for setting it up. Which took several hours, and got the device configured so that it is usable.

Sort of.

Because while the device itself is usable, in order to actually do anything it needs to be made visible on our network, it needs the relevant files copied across (and regular backups set up), it needs configured as a media server, and all our other devices need set up to act as clients.

And I have neither the time or, frankly, even the remotest inclination ever to do any of that. Because the whole thing is such a massive pain to do anything with that I really can't be bothered.

At this point, the most honest thing for me to do with it, and the thing that would cause me the least pain and hassle, would be to put it back in its box, put the box in the garage, and forget I ever bought the thing.

(I can't even sell it on now, because it's set up just enough that I'd have to restore it to factory defaults before I did. And even the thought of doing that pisses me off.)

The whole thing has just turned into a devastating waste of time, money, and energy. And is, frankly, really upsetting.

No, Tesco, Nobody Said "Christmas"

Doing the weekly shop this morning I noticed that Tesco now have their first Christmas displays up, bearing the legend "Did somebody say Christmas". Given that it is the 15th of September, and indeed we were enjoying our belated Summer only a week ago, this is frankly absurd.

Hang your heads in shame, Tesco.

How to Screw Up an Idea

Apparently the Welsh government are about to change the default speed limit on their roads to 20mph. Which is absolutely fine, I guess - I'm not particularly a fan, but I don't have any enormous objection.

But...

The law is being changed to make this the default the speed limit on all "restricted roads", which are defined as those where the lamp-posts are less than a certain distance apart.

At which point the whole thing goes from being a reasonable change that I don't particularly like to being one that is utterly insane. Because drivers won't be, and indeed shouldn't be, aware of the exact distance between lamp-posts as they drive through an area. Not only is it an inappropriate distraction from what they should be paying attention to, it's also something that people aren't going to be able to estimate - if there's a row of lamp-posts on the road ahead of you, your estimate of the distance separating them is going to itself be affected by the speed at which you are travelling!

By all means, reduce the speed limits. But for goodness sake, clearly and explicitly indicate the speed limits that apply! We have perfectly good, indeed extremely clear, signs that can be used to indicate the speed limits. Use them.

Day 257: Update on Goals

I realised last night that I was overdue for an update...

• Books: I'm almost halfway through the final book from The List, and expect to finish either late October or early November. I've read a total of 16 books so far this year, which isn't exactly a huge number.
• Blogging: By day 200 I should have completed 84ish posts here, plus a further 42 on The Imaginarium. I'm behind on both blogs, although not disastrously so in either case.
• Redecorating: We've mounted some nice picture frames in our hallway, and so the final remaining job that I'd like to do this year is to replace the hallway carpet. That feels like it should be doable by the end of the year. That leaves a grand total of five rooms in the house that we haven't redecorated since moving in, where the next on the list will most likely be Surprise!'s bedroom. But that's a discussion for another day.
• Other stuff: Nothing to report here.

The goals remain more of less achievable by the end of the year. But given how light they are, that's not a great achievement.

#16: "Firefly: Carnival", by Una McCormack

Gubbed

It turns out that I was wrong about my hard drive - although it did start working again, that was a final flourish before giving up the ghost. It appears to be totally dead this time.

I have purchased a new (and, indeed, bigger) hard drive to replace the failed unit. I decided that was cheaper and less hassle than having to engage with tech support (who, almost certainly, would just replace the drive anyway, with all data lost). I'll have a go at recovering the, fortunately few, things on the old drive that weren't backed up, but I don't hold out much hope.

Which is all somewhat odd: prior to 2023 I'd never had a hard drive actually fail on me. In the course of this year, LC and I have now each had a drive do exactly that, in each case with the loss of some, but not all, data.

That's What Passes for a Good Movie These Days?

The other thing I did on Sunday was finish watching "Top Gun: Maverick", which I'd made three previous attempts to watch and only managed ten minutes (the joy of Funsize and Surprise! discovering TV). It was one of a handful of things I wanted to watch before our Paramount+ subscription expires (the remaining two being "Scream 5" and a second watch of the D&D movie).

Anyway, I had been quite hopeful about TG:M, as it had had some rather good reviews.

Um...

The film follows a time-honoured formula: Maverick is a hotshot pilot who falls afoul of authority. He finds himself called back to Top Gun as an instructor, taking on the mentor role from the original film. There he deals with students with such well-developed personalities as "the arrogant one", "the angry one", "the female one", and, um, "the other one". (There only being three character traits possible for a fighter pilot, and "has boobs" is one of them.)

He also rekindles an on/off affair with Generic Bar-owner #1, in which Jennifer Connelly does her absolute best with a character with no personalty at all. (In theory, the character does also have the hook that she's a single mother. But as far as I can tell, her daughter exists for the sole reason that the two of them can have a conversation about a boat, thus passing the Bechdel Test.)

Anyway.

Maverick has to train his students for an almost impossible mission: they have to blow up a uranium refinement plant in an entirely-undefined enemy nation (might as well be Canada). The approach to this will not be easy: they are required to skim the surface to this point. Then they have to hit a target point that is only two metres wide. Oh, and they have to use missiles, presumably because the shaft is ray shielded. (They even have a bit where one of the characters has to make do without a targeting system, presumably using the Force instead.)

Throw in a couple of scenes lifted almost whole-cloth from the original (replacing beach volleyball with beach football), and then add a handful of callbacks to the first film to tug on nostalgia. And we're done.

On the one hand, it's a work of absolute genius - huge numbers of people went to see it and by all accounts had a great time, and to do that with no originality in either characters or story is impressive. On the other hand, it's just plain silly.

So I must admit, I'm perplexed as to how it can have garnered such impressive reviews - I can buy "terrific, brainless fun", but anything beyond that...?

A Lucky Escape

My big challenge on Sunday came in the form of a broken PC - after restarting Chrome to update I discovered it suddenly wouldn't load my home page (which is a page of links stored on my D drive). I then rebooted the machine as a whole, only to find that the D drive as a whole had disappeared.

Needless to say, I was less than pleased with this, given that the PC is less than six months old. I was less pleased still when I discovered that Dell's automated chat assistant was only able to point me at a couple of utterly useless troubleshooting articles. And, of course, it being Sunday there was no chance of speaking to an actual human.

Though in the event that wasn't such a big deal - the root cause turned out to be nothing Dell could really help with anyway.

In an attempt to diagnose the fault I removed the drive, plugged it into my adapter, and connected it to LC's laptop. That confirmed that the drive itself was working. I then reconnected to the other machine, and accessed the BIOS, and it was working there too. But rebooting the machine still showed the problem.

Then I got lucky. Somewhere in there the machine restarted, and suddenly it was all working again!

The reason for this is that I have a powered USB hub attached (which is on its way out) and an external hard drive (which is definitely on its way out). When the PC restarts, but not when it boots from cold, this hub often fails to activate three of the ports, including the one with the drive attached. It appears that one of those two components is causing the problem.

Which is all to the good. I'll need to get a new USB hub sooner rather than later, since the other devices that are attached are rather important. And one of these days I'll find time to actually set up our NAS, after which the external drive will be obsolete.

So, a lucky escape. Not my best ever Sunday though.

Strange New Worlds

The new Star Trek shows have been a distinctly mixed bag. I've enjoyed "Discovery", but it has been fairly workmanlike rather than a true "must see". "Picard" was okay in the first season, pretty dire in the second, and then great in the third. "Lower Decks" has been consistently great, and after a slow start "Prodigy" came together well (just in time to be cancelled).

"Strange New Worlds" is the best of the bunch. Starting with a fantastic cast, and a setting that hits just the right level of nostalgia, it then adds a whole bunch of really good episodes that just ties things up neatly. Plus, with it being more than 20 years since "Voyager" ended (with "Enterprise" doing something distinctly different), it seems like the writers found themselves sitting on a bunch of really great Star Trek stories that they've now had opportunity to pull out.

It's all great. I don't know how long they'll be able to maintain the quality, and I'm also not sure when I'll get to watch (my current offer on Paramount+ isn't for much longer, and it isn't worth subscribing to for anything other than Trek), but I have no hesitation in recommending this one - if you get a chance to see it, take it!

The Weekend From Hell

It's fair to say we've not had the best of weekends.

In honour of the schools going back, Surprise! came down with some nasty virus last week. By Friday he was mostly back to himself, or so we thought until about 10pm, when he woke up and spewed everywhere. As a consequence of this, I found myself sitting up with him until 1am, initially watching nursery rhymes on YouTube, and then later catching up on the new Futurama while he slept. (Sadly, I'm not particularly impressed with this latest reboot, but that's another story.)

I was then up just after 6am to take Lion for her morning walk. Needless to say, that meant that Saturday was essentially a write off. I'm sure I did the Broxburn Gala Day, but don't really have any memory of it.

Sunday started okay, with us getting up, going to church, and then having lunch. So far, so good. Unfortunately that's where things came unstuck - Surprise! really needed a nap but absolutely refused to go to sleep. Cue lots of crying, lots of frayed tempers, and a generally bad time had by all.

Eventually he did go down, and once he'd had a sleep and then something to eat (after another bout of crying because he was hungry but refusing to eat), all was well once again. But the weekend was thoroughly destroyed.

Needless to say, I was glad to reach Monday!

Catering for Fifty

I have recently found myself cooking BBQ for fifty people. The story of how this came about isn't something I can share here, but fortunately I can share that it went extremely well - the food all came out well cooked (well, mostly - there were a couple of very crispy burgers in there), everyone had enough, and there weren't any points where there was a big queue of people waiting to be fed. Which was all good.

The big lesson to learn from this is: never again! It was too much to take on, at least with the facilities that I had available. For cooking for fifty I think there would be a need for some other cooking facilities, such that I can produce some pulled pork, or similar options to cook for a lot of people at once - a water smoker or similar would be needed.

The second lesson is that the job was actually a lot worse in the build-up than in the reality. I had spent quite a lot of time worried that it just wouldn't work out, and in the end it turned out just to be a big effort, but not fundamentally difficult.

The final lesson, and one that is of use even for our 'regular' BBQs is that the approach of having a dedicated serving area was definitely a good idea - we had a big table set aside for all the non-meat foods, and then another table with the meats (and meat substitutes) to be served from. And these were carefully segregated to account for dietary needs.

And that's really all there is to say about that. It was a really good day, quite aside from my part in it.

Edinburgh

A few weeks ago I found myself needing to go to Edinburgh. That's something I avoid as much as possible as a matter of course, but this time there was no avoiding it. Planning the journey, though, reminded me of why I try to avoid the place.

The first thing that I discounted was driving. Edinburgh Council are famously anti-car - the roads are terrible, the parking is extorionate and quite some distance from the center, and if you do get lost it can be a nightmare.

For much the same reason I discounted the buses. Although there are some buses from close to the office that go in to Edinburgh, without pre-existing knowledge of Edinburgh it's really hard to know which bus you need, which stop to ask for, or indeed how to get back out. Plus, the roads are terrible.

There's the tram link. On the face of it, this is pretty ideal - it runs from Edinburgh Park right in to Princes Street, there's only one stop there, the tickets are a fixed price, and there's a tram every 8 minutes or so. Ideal.

Or it would be, except that there's no parking at Edinburgh Park. There is the Retail Park, which does indeed have parking... but only for customers. Which means that getting the tram means either walking the few miles from the office to the stop (which, in fairness, is quite pleasant - but which adds an awful lot to the journey), or it means driving to Ingliston and parking there - defeating the point of using the tram.

Finally, there's the train. Which has all the same problems as the tram, but also only runs every half hour.

However, in the end I did take the train - just not from Edinburgh Park. Instead I worked from home in the morning, then took the train from Livingston. Which was fine, since it has parking.

But, honestly, it's really not good. For Scotland's supposed capital city, it really should be more easily accessible. Really, how hard would it be to provide usable parking at the key train and tram stations along the way, so that the public can actually make easy use of the public transport that is available?

Oh Deer

I almost hit a deer on my way to work today. While the schools are on holiday I've switched to using the motorway to get to work as it is, in theory, marginally faster. While heading towards the motorway this morning I saw a young deer crossing the road ahead of me. Then it got spooked before crossing the other carriageway and instead ran back across the road - right in front of me.

Fortunately, I was able to stop safely and in time, and so the deer emerged unscathed. Less fortunately, I fear that may be an indication of just how my day is going to go.

#15: "Parenting Hell", by Widdicombe and Beckett

Introducing "Lion"

It has been an exciting week. In addition to the potty training/broken washing machine combination, we were visited by the new addition to our family: as of Thursday the Knigdom of Stevonia will adopt a dog!

She's a retired greyhound - huge, but very calm. She immediately took to the children, and they to her.

LC and I have been talking about getting a dog basically since we got married, but while we were living in the flat in Falkirk that just wasn't an option. When we moved, Funsize was already on the way, and then there was a small window of opportunity once she was two but Surprise! not yet on the way. So this is, in effect, the earliest this has really been a realistic possibility.

Since everyone else has a chocolate-themed "blog name", our newest addition needs one too. And since I could think of only one animal-themed chocolate bar (though I expect the immediately think of another dozen options once I post this), she shall henceforth be known as "Lion".

Bad Timing

We started Surprise! on potty training on Sunday. It's probably a little overdue, but not by too much, and children do seem to take to it a bit better if it's left later.

Our washing maching broke down on Sunday. Because, of course, the moment you start doing something liable to generate a load of extra washing, that's when you want the machine to give up the ghost.

The good news is that it's covered by warranty, so someone will be out to fix it on Thursday. But the next few days could be exciting.

#12: "Lion", by Conn Iggulden
#13: "Star Wars Roleplaying Game", by various authors
#14: "Guardians of the Wild Unicorns", by Lindsay Littleson (which started as a book for Funsize, but she lost interest)

Good Omens 2

LC and I finished watching this last night. Going in, I had serious misgivings - partly because the first series exhausted the first book, partly because sequels are just never as good, and partly because the Pratchett/Gaiman pairing had a certain magic to it that Gaiman alone necessarily lacked.

So...

Yeah, it's good. It's not as good as the first series, but then I don't think anything really could have been. But Tennant and Sheen are now a well-practiced double act and they're both clearly familiar with their roles and also clearly having fun. And the series is just that - fun.

Ultimately, I do recommend it, and I'm finding myself looking forward to the third (and, I think, final) series. It might not work out, of course, but it has been left in a good place (from a storytelling point of view), and there's a lot more fun to be had.

Good stuff.

Still Counts as One

One of my goals for the year was to repaint the painted sections of our main bathroom and downstairs toilet, to hang some pictures in the hallway, and to replace the hallway carpet.

Over the weekend, LC proceeded to paint the downstairs toilet, and also to purchase and fill some picture frames that I then duly hung. Consequently, that goals has taken some massive strides forward.

I do need to stress, of course, that almost none of this was my achievement - all I did was hang the picture frames (and not terribly well!). Still, the goal has taken a big step forward, and it still counts!

#10: "Crucial Conversations", by Grenny, Patterson, Switzler, and McMillan
#11: "Bond: With a Mind to Kill", by Anthony Horowitz

Secret Invasion

There is no MCU TV series that I have looked forward to more than "Secret Invasion". I'm a big fan both of Nick Fury and Samuel L. Jackson, and so a series starring both was almost perfect for me. Plus, the notion of a spy thriller within the MCU, and especially one involving shapeshifting aliens who can look like anyone, with all the tension and paranoia that that implies, is just great.

There is no MCU project that has left me more disappointed than "Secret Invasion". After three really slow episodes of build-up, the series then did very well with episodes four and five, or so I thought, only to blow it with the final episode.

Ultimately, I'm afraid this takes its place as yet another underwhelming MCU project, a tag that applies to most things post-Endgame. It seems that the big plan just came to an end, they've been left with a load of ideas and dangling plot threads, but ultimately they just haven't had any vision for how to build to another climax. Add to that a real-life tragedy that derailed "Black Panther" and a real-life scandal that has left them with huge issues with their new Big Bad, and they have problems.

Sadly, with Lucasfilm also having big failures on all fronts, Pixar largely seeming to have gone cold, and Disney seemingly more interested in dire live-action remakes than in producing the animation they're famed for, it suddenly looks like Disney+ may not be the juggernaut it seemed just a few months ago.

Time for Phone #6

Smartphones have many great advantages, which isn't exactly a surprise - who would have thought carrying around an extremely powerful web-enabled computer at all times would be a definite boon? However, they do have one distinct disadvantage, which is that like PCs they become less useful with time. This takes three forms: the same general slowdown that computers suffer as they are patched and repatched successively, a degradation in the battery life between charges, and storage that becomes increasingly and unavoidably full. All of which means that a smartphone probably doesn't last as long as a non-smart mobile, nor indeed as long as a PC (at least in my hands).

The upshot of all of this is that I've now reached the point where it is time to upgrade my phone again. The previous one has lasted six years after all, which is a good run by any standard, but it has now basically had its day.

Obviously getting a new phone is now much like getting a new PC (though perhaps less confusing, since there's very little by way of an upgrade path once the phone is bought - just the possibility of a Micro-SD card to provide more memory). Which means that having the new phone will be great, since it will represent a significant improvement in performance, but it also means a fairly long and annoying process of getting the new phone set up.

On the plus side, I'm keeping the same SIM, number, and contract, so much of the basic functionality should just carry over. On the downside, I have no idea what my Whatsapp login details are...

Day 200: Update on Goals

Time for the latest update:

• Books: I have recently finished the second of three books from the List. I haven't yet started on the final book, but should still finish by the end of the year (just barely). As anticipated, I have read very few other books this year.
• Blogging: By day 200 I should have completed 67 posts here, plus a further 33 or so on The Imaginarium. I was quite a bit behind at the last update, but managed to catch up in between. I'm now a little behind again, but not by a great deal - with luck I'll be up to date in both places by the end of the month.
• Redecorating: No progress here. I did have to make another small repair job on Funsize's wall, but that doesn't really count.
• Other stuff: Nothing to report here.

I remain optimistic about completing the three goals by the end of the year. The most doubtful, I think, is the redecoration, which we'll know about by the end of October.

For Our Fallen Gondorians

 Back in April, while doomscrolling on Twitter, I saw someone joking that they'd changed their band's signature tune to "For Our Fallen Gondorians". The bagpipe sheet music for this was included in the tweet.

Since then I've never been able to find this sheet music again, no matter how I searched.

Until today. It turns out that my phone quietly saved the file in a secret location, and when I found my phone once again slowing down due to a critical lack of storage, and thus began a purge of old data, I happened to find it.

Which is nice. Now I just need to learn it, remember it, and contrive a good time to sneak it past someone as a lament...

Oops!

I was speaking to a pollster a few minutes ago, and one of the questions I was asked concerned the most pressing burning political issues at the present time. I gave two answers that I thought were fairly non-controversial (the economy and Brexit), then gave a third... and promptly had to clarify what I meant.

Because the third answer I gave was "immigration", at which point I immediately realised that (I think) most people who give than answer mean stopping immigration, which is certainly not what I meant.

On the contrary, I think the way this country is treating people who want to build their lives here, and especially those unfortunates who come here desperately seeking refuge is shameful and is (or should be) damaging to our standing on the world stage.

Indeed, one of the biggest problems we have as a country is that no senior politician (at UK level) is brave enough to stand up and say clearly that immigration is a good thing. Not just because of all the necessary jobs that immigrants appear to be willing to do and nobody else is, not just because they pay in far more to our economy than they collectively take out, but simply in terms of being here.

Diversity is a good thing. It's a shame our politicians can't acknowledge that.

(And if my answer ends up getting lumped in to some Daily Mail headline about immigration being one of the big concerns of British people, I am truly sorry. I should have thought more before I spoke.)

#9: "A Woman of Substance", by Barbara Taylor Bradford (a book from The List - one more to go!)

Minor Annoyances II

Our council are in the process of changing the day for our bin collections, which is absolutely fine. This has, however, led to a big gap between the final "general" bin collection of the old cadence and the first "general" bin collection of the new cadence. That's rather more tricky, as the council have deliberately set the picks ups right on the edge of what people can manage. Still, since it's a necessary change, we could probably be a bit clever and thus cope - it's only another five days wait.

Except...

The council wrote to us offering an additional pick up of the "general" waste bin last week - just put it out, leave it out, and it would be collected. We therefore put our bin out. The council therefore did not collect it.

And that, of course, means that we didn't carefully adjust our behaviours to stretch the additional five days, and now have a bin that is absolutely rammed with almost a week to go before it is collected.

It's fair to say this is a minor annoyance at worst. But those are the worst kind.

Experimental Cookery 2023: Five-spice Chicken Wings

My Birthday BBQ was on Saturday, and in addition to the usual burgers and sausages, this year's flourish was these chicken wings. The method came from Tom Kerridge's "Real Life Recipes" - a book I've used once before with disastrous results.

The good news is that this was a much more successful effort. The chicken just needed put into a bowl with a quickly-assembled marinade, well rubbed, and then left overnight for the flavours to develop. Then a reasonably short time in the oven, turn, another short time in the oven, then five minutes on the BBQ to finish. Oh, and the application of some sesame seeds to complete.

And the chicken was excellent - well cooked, full of flavour, and just generally nice.

The BBQ as a whole was a great success, despite being madly over-catered (I'm not actually sure how that happened - I think some people must just have not eaten as much as expected). We were even lucky with the weather, which had featured showers earlier in the day, rain later in the day, but a dry spell just when it was needed.

All in all, that was a big success. We'll definitely be having these again. (Probably not at the same time as the Firecracker Chicken we've had before, which was also excellent, but there may now be a chicken dish as a mainstay of BBQs for the future.)

Minor Annoyances

A couple of the tyres on my car are slowly losing pressure. That's annoying, but not particularly surprising.

However, the reason I know that two of the tyres are losing pressure is that the screen periodically pops up with the message indicating this. It knows that that is the case because there are pressure sensors on the tyres. And, of course, it is able to detect each time any of the tyres loses pressure, so it is able to check each of the sensors individually.

Which means that the system has everything it would need to tell me which of the four tyres had dropped in pressure, thus saving me the effort of having to check each of the tyres individually.

But, of course, it doesn't do that. Because that would just make things too easy.

(I suspect the real reason is that there's a patent floating around out there which means that Vauxhall can do it on LC's car, but Ford can't on mine. Because some patents are just absurd.)

Anyway, it's a minor annoyance. But those are the worst ones.

Progress on the To Do List

Before the Christmas holiday I made a To Do list with several items on it. I completed very few of these during the holiday, but did eventually complete all but one item.

Before the February break I made another To Do list with several items on it. This time I made a bit more progress, but did eventually complete all but one item - the same item as was outstanding after Christmas.

Before the Easter break I made yet another To Do list. As of this morning I have completed all but one item on it. And, you guessed it, that one outstanding item is the same one as from Christmas.

Still, that's some progress, I guess. I wonder how I'll get on over the Summer holiday?

(Though, funnily enough, that one might actually be completed - due to the nature of that break I won't be inserting that one item on that list. It will still exist on a more general list of things I want to do, but not the list of the holiday specifically. So we'll see...)

Back to School?

Funsize finishes up P1 next Friday, which is fun and exciting - her first ever Summer holidays!

Meanwhile, Tesco's seasonal aisle has, for the past four weeks, been festooned with their "Back to School" range - lots of new and exciting school uniforms that we should buy now to beat the rush (in nice time for her to thoroughly outgrow them for actually going back).

Much as the creeping advancement of Christmas through the calendar annoys me, in truth this is significantly worse. Not only do kinds not even get to enjoy getting to their holidays before being reminded that they're going back soon, but the items on sale become increasingly useless the earlier they are purchased!

The Path Not Taken

One of the more interesting blogs I read has been arguing since day one that the SNP have made a terrible mistake in electing Humza Yousaf, and has been adamant in his belief that they need to replace him with Kate Forbes at the earliest opportunity. One of his arguments recently is that Forbes is apparently the most popular senior politician in Scotland.

Which is true, but...

The fundamental problem is that Kate Forbes represents the path not taken. So as time goes on, and the SNP's problems deepen almost daily, Humza Yousaf looks increasingly like that mistake (in some ways fairly; in others, not so much), and Kate Forbes looks that much better by comparison. "Oh, this is horrible! If only we'd gone for her instead..."

But would the reality of Kate Forbes as First Minister actually be any better? I have my doubts.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that a sizeable number of SNP parliamentarians (in Holyrood and Westminster) are part of the LGBTQ+ community, or allies thereof, and were not unreasonable in their objections to some of the views she expressed in her leadership bid. (I think those questions were largely posed to her as an intentional trap, but that doesn't negate the issue that her answers did represent a genuine statement of her views. All of them, including the statement that she has no interest in rolling back rights, but nonetheless it's not a surprise that people were less than thrilled.) That would make it extremely difficult for her to command the party discipline needed to be an effective leader.

But the second issue concerns the alliance with the Greens. Probably the biggest problem that the SNP government currently has is that everything the Greens touch falls to pieces. Bluntly, the SNP really need to end their alliance with the Greens. That's something Kate Forbes might well do; it's something Humza Yousaf will never do.

The problem is that ending that alliance means returning to minority government. And to run an effective minority government you need allies, or at least people willing to vote for individual measures in order to carry on. In the current climate, that won't be any of the unionist parties - at this stage, and especially with the potential to bring down the government, they're not going to play ball.

And that leaves the Greens as the only option. Break the alliance, and it may well be that the government falls in short order.

While it is looking increasingly like Humza Yousaf is leading the SNP to a relative disaster, at the General Election if not in the Scottish Election, I'm far from convinced that Kate Forbes is the answer. Indeed, I'm increasingly minded to think that there is no answer.

The Worst Gala Day of All Time

Until this weekend, the very worst gala day of all time I'd attended was in a place called Black... something - a tiny village near Greengairs where we'd had a terrible experience. The parade started in one field, passed along a road then to another field, and although there was light rain when we started it rapidly got much heavier. By the time we reached the second field we were wading in mud, and the whole thing had to be abandoned.

Which was a shame, but which pales into insignificance with Saturday's event.

This event is the longest parade we do. The village in question doesn't have much to it - two housing estates separated by the main road - so the parade meets at one end, proceeds down the road and around the other estate, then back up the road and around the first, ending where it started up. It was a hot and sticky day, of the sort that one might mistakenly believe makes for a pleasant piping experience (but really, really doesn't).

But none of that was a problem.

We happened to be there in really good time, and were tuned and ready to go twenty minutes before the start time. And we were second in the parade, behind an ancient open-top "wedding" car, where every time it moved we enjoyed a miasma of fumes.

But none of that was the problem.

While we were waiting, the car would occasionally move forward a bit, and we were asked to move forward to close the gap. After a while, our Pipe Major got bored with this and decided to play a bit to pass the time. So we started - we played "Scotland the Brave" and the first half of "Rowan Tree". The rest of the parade, on hearing us starting, decided that it must be time to GO! This then prompted a panic from the police, and the event organisers, and it all went a bit haywire.

However, that all got sorted out. And we waited another ten minutes, and then it really was time to GO! So off we went - we played "Scotland the Brave" and the first half of "Rowan Tree", got to the top of the street where we were to turn right... and then it all came to a halt.

There was then a lot of frantic discussion, and a fairly long delay. Eventually, word came that we were rerouting the parade, and going to do the last bit first. So off we went. But because of the way the parade was set up, we kept leaving the back of the parade behind, and so had to keep stopping to let them catch up. Then, about two-thirds of the way around the estate, while we were engaged in one of these waits, the wedding car stalled. And the driver couldn't get it going again.

At length, they got some of the local youths to push the car, got it going again, and we completed that circuit. We got back to the top of the first street (where we were supposed to turn right), and then we stopped. And there was a really long delay.

And none of that was the problem. Frankly, the whole situation was very, very funny.

Until suddenly, it wasn't.

Because it turned out that the reason for all of the delays was that the Gala Queen's Mum had collapsed in the street and the paramedics were desperately trying to revive her. She didn't make it.

In the end we completed the parade. The people there very carefully didn't tell the Queen until such time as there was finally no avoiding it, on the grounds that there was nothing to be done, so they let her enjoy her day as much as she could for as long as she possibly could.

But it's fair to say that the second half of the parade was a very different experience to the first.

It's Worse Than That

This afternoon the Commons are going to have a vote on the sanction recommended by the Privileges Committee against Boris Johnson for his many lies over Partygate. It is, frankly, a rather toothless and pointless sanction under the circumstances, but given that it's all that is available, it's welcome.

There is a great deal of anger at what Boris did: that he partied while people died.

But, actually, it's much worse than that.

Because what those many parties at CPHQ and No.10 show is that those involved simply were not taking the threat seriously. And anyone working there who was taking it seriously will have found their work impeded by those who were not.

It's not that Boris partied while people died. People died because Boris partied.

There is no sanction adequate for that man.

The Vacancy Party

Right now our politics is in such a mess that I've realised that those constituencies held by Sinn Fein are actually the best-represented in the country.

And the fundamental problem is that someone has to win the election: I don't particularly like some of the things our current MP has said, and she represents a party that currently makes the Titanic look sea-worthy (even in its current state), but replacing her just means putting into position someone worse from an even worse party.

And that's pretty much universally true everywhere: somehow, they're all worse than each other.

So what I think we need is a new party, the Vacancy Party. They would have no policies, and make only one promise: if elected, their representative would do as Sinn Fein famously do and refuse to take up the seat. Leave it vacant for five years, and force the parties to get their acts together.

Of course, I dread to think what would happen if the Vacancy Party won a majority. Which, given how abysmal things are in our politics right now, wouldn't entirely surprise me.

How Did They Get That So Wrong?

Spoilers for "The Flash" ahead. If you don't want to know, skip this post!

The best superhero movie I've ever seen is probably "The Dark Knight" (though "The Winter Soldier" comes close). The superhero who has been in the most good movies is probably Iron Man. But if you ask me to name a superhero, my first go-to will always be Superman. And the most iconic of all Supermen is Christopher Reeve. Indeed, so iconic was his portrayal that the entire look of Superman changed.

So I presume that the decision to include a cameo of Reeve's Superman in "The Flash" was made for people just like me.

But having seen it, it is an horrific thing. It just looks bad.

And here's the thing: I'm actually not inherently opposed to CGI cameos of characters played by dead actors - I quite enjoyed seeing Tarkin appear in "Rogue One", for instance. But they have to be done well, and this one wasn't.

In addition to the look of the thing, there's another thing that bugs me: in the cameo Superman's entire world is about to be wiped out... and he stands there and watches. I'm sorry, but that's not Superman. Frankly, the ludicrous cameo by the Nic Cage Superman and the giant spider (which is hilarious in its stupidity) is better than this mess.

I still haven't seen "The Flash" as a whole. It had put me in a bind: on the one hand the trailers looked really good; on another the DC films have largely failed to live up to their promise (the first "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman" were okay); on a third, there were the star's well-publicised issues.

I guess this one makes it quite easy for me: I'll watch it in a few years when (if) it makes it to Prime.

I Suppose It's Never Not a Bad Time

I have a cold. It started with a scratchy throat yesterday, and has rapidly progressed from there. In hindsight, attending the gala day was probably a really poor decision.

Unfortunately, this has come right on top of an already sucky time, and also at a time I really can't afford to be sick. Hopefully it will prove to be a 24-hour thing, or something close to it. (Or, failing that, at least it could have the decency to incapacitate me for a day or two into the new week...)

Capitulation

I see that Pepsi have quietly reformulated their main drink to remove about half the sugar and replace it with artificial sweeteners. This is rather unfortunate, as it now leaves me stuck - up until now, wherever we went they would serve either Coke or Pepsi products, but that always left at least one option to avoid sweeteners. We're now at a point where half the time there will be no option available that avoids them.

The upshot of all of this is that I'm going to have to admit defeat. And, although I very much dislike the sweeteners, and although they don't really agree with me, I think I'm just going to have to get used to them.

On the plus side, that does mean Irn Bru can come back onto the menu (the 1901 stuff was just too expensive to be more than an occasional purchase, and so eventually just dropped off my radar).

Or this could be the time to stop having these drinks entirely. But that's probably crazy talk.

The Sharp Pencil Conundrum

I have a not-quite-serious theory: those in greatest need of a sharp pencil are those least likely to have one to hand.

Back when I was at high school and exam time came upon us, there were a number of my peers who would immediately spring into action: they'd develop a lovely and detailed study plan, giving adequate time to all the subjects, with all sorts of elaborate schemes and divisions, carefully coloured and decorated. It was a thing of beauty. And then they would organise all their materials, making sure everything was carefully to hand and well prepared.

And then they would carefully sharpen all their pencils to a needlelike point and all to the exact same length.

Meanwhile, a few of us would sketch out the briefest possible plan ("I'll study Chemistry this morning and Maths this afternoon...") and get on with it.

By the end of the day it was likely that the people in the first group had put in an awful lot more effort. But that's not the same thing as actually studying.

The sharpening of the pencils is an especially absurd step: although there is a large extent to which you should, of course, take good care of your tools, pencils naturally lose their sharpness over time if left unused. So the optimum approach with those is to pick a reasonably good one when needed and sharpen it then. Then use it, put it aside, and repeat when you next need a pencil.

Since school, I've seen that pattern repeat over and over again. Basically, in almost every organisation I've seen there are some people who can be relied upon to get things done and some people who can be relied upon to put in a lot of effort.

And those are not the same thing.