Tough Times

It has been a difficult year for the band. Attendances at practice have been well down over even last year, to the extent that practice has actually been cancelled for the last couple of weeks. Meanwhile, we only have a handful of events for the year, and have been in the position where one of those events we could only go ahead with because of guest players, and another we formed a combined band and would have had to cancel otherwise.

There is, unfortunately, no sign that this is likely to improve – the band hasn’t really recruited anyone for the past few years (and, indeed, only one regular player since I joined eight years ago), and the existing members are either starting to find it harder to carry on due to age or are becoming increasingly busy with other things. The upshot is that we can’t really learn and then play any new tunes (since we’re absolutely reliant on people who aren’t attending practices and so not learning the new tunes), and even without that we’re down to the bare bones for events.

I’m not really sure where things go from here. The truth is that almost all non-competing bands are suffering the same problems: because competition bands absorb almost all of the players, the bands that are left are all shrinking and finding it hard to carry on.

Meanwhile, the events that give those bands their purpose are also suffering a bit of a lull – partly because they’ve never recovered fully from Covid, partly because the organisers are basically getting sick of what is a fairly thankless task, and partly because the funding for the events is receding sharply (from the Council point of view it’s basically gone, as budgets have had to be cut to the bone; and corporate sponsors are cutting back, or seeking to provide practical rather than monetary support – which will well received, but sometimes there’s just a need).

All of which amounts to saying I’m not sure if the band is meaningfully going to survive, and I’m also not sure I’m keen to remain involved if it’s just to be the person who ends up switching off the lights for the last time. Which is a shame.

So That Was “Content”. I DIdn’t Care For It

A week ago I found myself casting around for something to do – everything seemed to be nicely in hand, there was nothing much on the to-do list, and I was starting to go stir crazy. I then realised that this was a good thing, and that actually what was needed to be content, and just enjoy things for a while.

But then things started to fall apart – there’s a task to get the painting of the bathroom finished off, which involved patching a small crack in the ceiling. In preparation for doing that, I noticed that the door to our utility room needed another adjustment. But when I tried to do that, I found we’d reached the end of the road on making adjustments – it needs a proper fix. Then, Funsize ripped it off the wall yesterday. We’re also looking at replacing our washing machine, which will require that the wall connection be changed (at the moment it’s wired directly into the wall; that wants changed to a proper plug-and-socket).

And now LC’s car is acting up again.

So that’s that. It was nice… well, it was okay while it lasted. But now it’s time to get back to work.

The New Season Starts

The new football season starts on Saturday, which is fantastic. One of the best things about this, of course, is the opportunity to pretend that it isn’t all a foregone conclusion.

The reality is that there’s a gulf in Scottish football – Celtic are miles ahead of Rangers, and Rangers are miles (albeit fewer miles) ahead of everyone else. And so, barring a major shock, the league will be won by Celtic, Rangers will be second, and then the top six will be made up of Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, and one other in some order. Sadly, Livingston and Falkirk will probably find themselves in the bottom two positions.

The cups are a bit more volatile, as there’s always scope for an upset that knocks someone out unexpectedly. So while Celtic are massive favourites, that is by no means a guarantee. It would certainly be nice to see the honours spread around a bit – when winning a Treble was an unusual thing it was good to see it happening, but in the world after the “Quadruple Treble” I think I’d prefer never to see one again.

Also, I wonder how long it will be before the annual “Rangers Woes” post?

Seven Weeks for a Decision

Now that the Summer holiday is done, I find my mind turning to the events of the second half of the year, the biggest of which is Christmas. And that finds me at a crossroads.

Last Christmas was one of the best that we've had, certainly in recent years. There were several reasons for this, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that we were hosting for the first time, which meant that we were somewhat tied down in location, and that meant we weren't tempted to try to fit too much into the day - there was a walk, the build up to the big meal, and then a relaxing time after the big meal.

However, I'm painfully conscious that that meant we didn't see some people who would very much have liked to have seen us on Christmas, and indeed we didn't see some people we would very much have liked to see on Christmas. Boxing Day just isn't quite the same thing - close, but not the same.

Which leaves the big question of what to do this year: do we do the same again (effectively making the statement that "this is how it's going to be now"), do we revert to what we had done previously ("this is how it's going to be from now on... sometimes"), or indeed do we do something different again (and if so, what?)?

That is, definitely, a tricky one. Not least because there are several other people who have a view, and some of those views are quite important!

Anyway...

For the moment I'm not making any decisions - my countdown to Christmas starts on the 16th of September (100 days), and I refuse to start it earlier than that. However, when we do come to that key date, I want to get a decision in place more or less right away, so that plans can be laid. As I said, there are therefore seven weeks to mull it over for the decision.

#17: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", by J.K. Rowling (a book for Funsize)

A Cautionary Tale

On the ferry back from France, shortly before we docked, I had a notification on my phone that a number of apps hadn't been used for some time and were therefore slated for deep sleep. I didn't pay this one too much attention - given that these were indeed apps I wasn't using, and since there wasn't any option to not take this action anyway, I shrugged and moved on.

But then the horror began.

It turned out that one of the affected apps must have had some connection to the touchscreen driver, but I soon found that it had become painfully unresponsive - pressing one key would lead to another number appearing, or multiple key presses, or none at all. Which made unlocking the phone impossible.

A Google on LC's phone suggested that the most likely remedy would be to restart the phone. Which was not unexpected - turning it off and on again is not only a fine joke, but also the most likely way to resolve most IT issues (and mobile phones these days are hugely sophisticated computers, so this is an IT issue). The big problem with that being that my phone required you to unlock the phone to either restart it or to shut it down.

Luckily, though LC may dispute this, I'm not absolutely dependent on my phone for my life. I know there are quite a few people these days who use their phones for everything, to the extent that they simply don't carry any cash or cards to pay for things - just use Apple-Pay for everything.

So there ensued a few frustrating hours as I carefully, painstakingly, tried again and again and eventually managed to get the thing to unlock. Whereupon I was able to quickly restart it, and all was well once more.

But the moral of the story is simple: don't become so dependent on your phone that if it is lost, stolen, or gets locked or damaged that you're utterly paralysed!

Frasier

We're back with Paramount+ for a few months, most of which will involve me watching the last several Star Trek seasons (the final season of "Discovery", of "Lower Decks", and the new season of "Strange New Worlds". Oh, and the "Section 31" movie.) However, the other thing we've been watching is the second season of the "Frasier" reboot.

The bottom line: it's alright.

The fundamental problem with the show is that it's very much a repeat of "Frasier", but with less charm and fewer jokes than the original. The cast do their jobs, and do them well, but they just don't quite have the same cohesion as the cast of the original.  And so, people who weren't fans of the original are unlikely to be won over by this show, which really doesn't have much to offer them, while fans of the original are left with an inevitable and unfavourable comparison. However, you cut it, that's not ideal.

Ultimately, the show basically sums itself up in an episode in the second season, in which Frasier returns to Seattle and KACL to find the station on its last legs. He eventually persuades Ros to give it up as a lost cause: it was fun, but it's had its day. Which, sad to say, is true of "Frasier" itself.

An Unmet Need

In the UK, it may well be a close to universal frustration that the bins aren't emptied often enough. Or, more accurately, they probably are emptied just enough, but absolutely no more than that. Which means that if you ever miss a collection you're suddenly in real trouble.

This post isn't really about complaining about the bins, however.

One of the many things I've been reluctantly learning recently is about the concept of Customer Needs, and specifically unmet Customer Needs. Basically, it's really hard to sell someone something that they neither want nor have any use for. But if you can provide something that they want, that's much easier. And if you can provide something that they need, and specifically something that they need and can't get anywhere else, well...

Anyway, we have recently returned from vacation, being away from home for just under two weeks. More importantly, we were away on the day of two bin collections - the garden waste bin (which we could probably have managed without) and the paper/card recycling bin (which is considerably harder to miss). (The worst of all, of course, is the general waste bin.)

Now, as it happens we have a good relationship with our various neighbours, and so we were able to prevail on some of them to put the bins out and put them back. But many people are not in that position for one reason or another.

Which brings me to the unmet needs.

It strikes me that during the summer holidays in particular, there are quite a number of teens at a relatively loose end, quite a number of people who need a bin or two put out, and there's therefore an opportunity: "send us a message on Facebook, or similar, and we'll stick your bins out and bring them back in for the princely sum of {whatever} a bin. We cover these streets..."

I mean, there's probably some horrible reason why it just wouldn't work, of course. This is the UK after all, where nothing really works well. But it does feel like a rather neat solution to what might otherwise be a problem.

How Annoying...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm waiting on a price drop on a key bit of kit for the Home Automation project. Annoyingly, though, it did drop in price, and indeed dropped below the price I'd been hoping to see, for Prime Day. But, alas, Prime Day happened to fall when I was out of the country, and although I could have purchased the item and had it delivered to the office, I forgot.

Compounding this, I received an email last week about a somewhat tempting offer that I'd decided to take the provider up on, only to promptly forget that as well until this morning... and, of course, it expired at midnight.

Still, it's not the worst thing in the world to not be spending money. It has been a hugely expensive couple of months...

Day 200: Update on Goals

Time for another update on goals for the year:

• Books: By day 200 I should have completed 16.44 books. I’m therefore comfortably ahead of schedule on this one, and happy it should complete successfully.
• Weight: This is going to be my big focus for the second half of the year – there’s a target, and implied rate of required progress, and a plan… just no success to report so far.
• Career: This is now done!
• Church Website: There’s no update to this since last time. I’m waiting on feedback from the various groups, and until I get it there isn’t much more I can do with the site. If I don’t get anything back by the next update, I think I’ll start work on putting together a shell for the various groups, and then populate the individual pages as I am able.
• Redecoration: This is now done!
• Blogging:  If I had set my usual goal for this year, I would expect to have posted 66 times by now. Due to a flurry of posts right at the end of June, I was actually briefly on target for the year, but my expectation is that this is now likely to slip back a bit. I guess we'll see.
• Home Automation: No update since the last time – I’m still waiting on a key price drop.

The last few weeks have actually brought a remarkable turnaround in some of the goals – it now looks like two are done, one is pretty much sure to be done, and there are plans in place for most of the others. It’s only the blogging non-goal that seems unlikely to reach the nominal target, and even that has advanced significantly. So this is a rather positive update for once.

Exciting Times

It has been a good couple of weeks. After too much deliberation, I finally took my car to first get its rear parking sensors sorted out and then to get the alloy wheels refurbished. Expensive, but this should clear up the two big issues with the car. It then went for its MOT, and then had its insurance renewed. All of which was horrific, but it's done now.

At work there was some big news (which I can't talk about) which led to some more big news (which I can't talk about), which clears up an awful lot of stuff (which I can't talk about). Meanwhile, I made a huge breakthrough on the project (which I can't talk about), and so suddenly that's all clear skies. There's still some tricky work ahead, but that's rather less disastrous.

Finally, at home we got our windows replaced. Another big expense, and an awful lot of hassle for a couple of days, but again it's done now. And the new windows are so much nicer than the old, and have the advantage of not letting in so many drafts. With luck, Funsize in particular will have a more enjoyable winter.

On that one, there is of course a significant amount of clean up still needed - we have to put the house back to rights. And, unfortunately, that does leave us one particular challenge: about a year ago we got some very nice (and expensive) blinds in our living room, which need to be remounted. At the time, we made sure to ask what would happen if we had the windows redone, and were assured that it wouldn't be a problem - they could be taken down and remounted without issue. When time came to get the windows done, we again made sure to ask what would happen, and were assured it wouldn't be a problem - just leave the mounting points up and they'd work around them.

Yesterday I can to remount the blinds, only to find they'd taken down the mounting points and now they don't quite fit. In other words, there's a problem.

Now I should note at this point that I only had a very small amount of time to actually look at these, while I was tired and hungry and indeed while I was in the process of cooking dinner. So beyond ascertaining that it was a non-trivial task, I'm not sure just how big an issue this is. But at first glance it looked to me like there was an issue with the geometry. Maybe.

Oh, yes. And as of lunchtime today I'm on holiday for two weeks. Which is really good news - the first half of this year has just been brutal.

Nostalgia for Things I Didn't Like

Here's a weird thing: for me, the best bit of the recent Doctor Who finale, "The Reality War" was the appearance, very briefly, of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. And yet, as I've mentioned before, I really didn't care for that era of DW - while JW is very definitely a talented actor and has done good work in other things, I felt she was sorely let down by the material she had to work with and was asked to play the role in a manner I found fairly grating.

But that's not the only time that's happened.

One of the best parts of the (very excellent) "Star Trek: Prodigy" was seeing Janeway back in action (and, for that matter, Wesley Crusher, Chakotay, and others). But back in the day, when watching "Star Trek: Voyager" I really didn't like Janeway, or indeed most of the rest of her crew. And, as I am gradually rewatching ST:V, I'm finding that this wasn't just a bad first impression - much of that series just isn't great.

Then there's "Ahsoka", in which the reappearance of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker made for the very best part of the very best episode (which itself is probably the single best thing Disney have done with Star Wars... including "Andor" and "Rogue One"). And yet, while HC received a lot of very unfair flak for his portrayal, the prequels were really not great (and, for my money, the best of them is "The Phantom Menace", in which he does not appear).

It's very odd.

Part of it, I think, may be just the passage of time. And with so much of the newer material really not being great in general, perhaps time is kind to those things.

But perhaps part of it is that these things fit better in the hands of other writers - that RTD was able to draw something out of Thirteen than Chibnall was, because it wasn't his beloved character.

Or maybe it's just that these things are good to see but strictly in small doses. Who knows?

How to Train Your Dragon

For my birthday, we took the kids to see the "How to Train Your Dragon" remake. Though as it happened Surprise! fell asleep halfway through, while Funsize was really toiling by the end, so it was mostly LC and I who watched the film.

The original "How to Train Your Dragon" trilogy is almost unique because, at least in my opinion, the first film is actually the weakest. 'Weakest' is still very much a relative term, of course, as the first film is still very, very good (and, of course, it builds the foundation for the other two to stand upon), but both the other two are outstanding - and, for my money, better.

This remake, then, takes that first film and turns it into live action, in their vein of "Aladdin" or "Beauty and the Beast".

And the result?

This new film is basically a shot-for-shot remake of the first film. There's almost nothing new here. And that's no bad thing - so often we've had remakes that have felt the need to put their own stamp on things, only to mess up the source material. And with a strong cast, truly great music (again, basically the same music), and some great visuals, it made for a good experience. At least, I enjoyed it.

One thing: this is a film to see in the cinema - the small screen won't do it justice in the same way, such that you're basically just as well watching the original.

And now... bring on the sequel!