Getting Ready to Fight Yesterday's War

Although the schools have started back in Scotland, and although I have little doubt that they will start back in England soon, I have considerable doubt that they will actually complete the school year. I think there's a good chance that we'll need another significant lockdown as things get worse over the winter. Even if a second lockdown doesn't occur, it's obviously not inconceivable that at some point something may come along and disrupt the academic year again.

The upshot of that is that obviously the education system is at some point going to have to be adjusted for this new reality - both in terms of needing the ability to transfer to mostly-online learning if that proves necessary, and also in terms of needing to deal with a curtailment of the academic year. In particular, this fiasco over exam results must surely indicate that a new approach to assessment is required.

Consequently, I've gone ahead and fixed it. You're welcome.

My proposal, simply put, is to essentially abandon year-long qualifications in favour of a much more modular approach: pupils attend a six-week module of material in a given subject, complete an assessed piece of work immediately after the end of the module, and are awarded credit in that module immediately. End-of-year exams essentially become a thing of the past. (Though exams as a concept may remain - they may be the best form for that "assessed piece of work" in at least some cases.)

The consequence of that is that if there is a sudden curtailment of the academic year, pupils are already credited for the work they have already completed, and so in the worst case only lose five weeks' worth of work-in-progress. Likewise, the academic year can essentially resume at any time, without an arbitrary start date in August (or September). (And so if, for example, we needed a lockdown from Nov - Feb, things could just pick up again in March without too much hassle.)

That solves the "sudden curtailment" part of the problem. The second issue is, of course, the need to switch to largely-online learning in some cases.

In this case, my proposal is that there should be a family of modules put in place pretty much specifically for online delivery. That of course doesn't work for all subjects, or all parts of a subject, but in many cases it is possible. And by making it a different set of modules for online and 'normal' learning there doesn't need to be any attempt to shift gears for the transition from one to the other.

(Another benefit is flexibility in the sequencing of work. When in a school environment, it makes a lot of sense to shift from one subject to another every 40 minutes or so, especially as that means shifting physically from one location to another. When working remotely it may well be preferable to approach modules as "crash courses" in a subject - tackling English one week, Maths another, and so on. Or not - the benefit of flexibility is that it's flexible.)

A final benefit of the use of 6-week modules is that it also allows a modification to a major bugbear of mine - the summer holidays. It is, frankly, madness that schools have three really long terms during the academic year and then a massive long holiday during which the kids proceed to forget everything they learned in June. It would be much better, for all involved, to have more shorter blocks of learning with a decent-sized break between each. Say six weeks on, one week off repeated seven times through the year, with one extra week of holiday at the end of December, and two extra weeks in July. (I haven't counted either the number of days of school or days of holiday here - it's just an illustration.)

Of course, I haven't addressed how modules relate to qualifications. But that's easy enough: six modules of this difficulty gives you that qualification (possibly with a caveat that "you need two from column A, two from column B, and two from column C", or whatever). Or abandon 'named' qualifications entirely, and just award credits in a subject - the universities are already well equipped to handle that, since they do it already, and employers inevitably adapt to whatever system is in place.

There are, however, two major downsides of such an approach.

The first is that it would be another significant shake-up of an education system that has had far too many shake-ups in recent years. Basically, every new education secretary seems to feel the need to leave their mark by changing things, and usually for the worst. So that advocates very strongly for not making any change.

The second is, of course, that putting together these modules, and especially the new assessments, represents a considerable amount of work that would need to be done. Inevitably, I have thoughts on that topic too, but given that I've already wittered on far too long I think I'll stop there...

The Trial of Alex Salmond

It is my belief that two things are absolutely vital for the successful running of our justice system:

1. When a serious allegation is made it must be taken seriously, and investigated properly. That applies regardless of who is accused or who is doing the accusing. Those investigations must be conducted without fear or favour, must be done promptly and thoroughly, and if there is a case to be answered then charges should be brought, and answered in court.
2. A person has the right to be considered innocent until, and unless, found guilty in court.

In the case of Alex Salmond, the first of these points actually did apply. And that's a very welcome thing - far too often, powerful men are able to act with seeming impunity, and it is important that that is challenged. So it is a very good thing that there was indeed an investigation, charges were brought, and the case heard.

But Alex Salmond was found Not Guilty on all but one charge, and Not Proven on the other. He was not found Guilty of any crime. As such, under point #2, he must be considered innocent.

Now, I should note that there is no obligation on private individuals to do anything. After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and may choose to accept or reject the verdict of the courts.

What I find completely and utterly unacceptable, however, is the ongoing media witch-hunt against Alex Salmond, most recently by the BBC last night. To me, that smacks of just just an unacceptable attack on a man who has not been convicted of anything, but more importantly it is an attack on the entire system of justice. The investigating authorities and the courts did their jobs; let that be the end of it.

And the reason this is so important is nothing to do with Alex Salmond. The sad truth is that any one of us could, at any time, find ourselves falsely accused of some crime. And, of course, simply being innocent is no guarantee that a false accusation won't come. Of course, a thorough and diligent investigation, or failing that a working court system, will ensure that a false accusation is recognised as such, and exoneration will follow. And that should be the end of the matter.

We insist on a fair hearing for Alex Salmond (and everyone else) because guaranteeing it in the high-profile cases also serves to guarantee it for all of the rest of us.

The BBC should be ashamed.

Revision

This past weekend I found myself revisiting an old theme: I had a test I needed to revise for. This was a follow-up to a training course we had had a few weeks ago, and was required to complete the certification. And, having 'failed' the mock test by one point, I wanted to make sure I was right on top of the material for the actual test.

In the event, the real test went fine. Having put in the time, I was able to get through it pretty quickly, and then double- and triple-check my answers, and thus scored a mere 96%. Which isn't too bad, really.

But my major takeaway from all of this is that I really don't miss exams, or revision, or all of that stuff. It was, I guess, fine back in the day. But these days I just have too many other things that I'd much rather do, not to mention the many other things that I need to do.

#38: "A Suitable Boy", by Vikram Seth (a book from The List)

Not Going Back

One of the surprising findings of the last several months of working from home is that productivity is actually up. One not-at-all-surprising finding is that morale has fallen, and continues to fall (though that may be less to do with working from home, and more to do with everything else also being closed). As a consequence of the latter, the powers-that-be are quite keen to reopen the office, at least to some capacity. To that end, today was supposed to be the day some people started back.

Personally, I was always rather torn about this. I have no concerns at all from a safety point of view - given the prevalence of the bug in Scotland it is highly unlikely that any of my colleagues have it, and the counter-measures put in place were pretty extensive. However, I was never sure what was to be gained - given that the meeting rooms would remain shut and so many people would still be working from home, the benefits of actually being present were already going to be diluted.

Anyway, it all became a moot point on Thursday, when tucked away in Nicola Sturgeon's update to parliament was a sentence stating that non-essential offices should remain closed until mid-September, or perhaps later. So that's that.

Longer-term, I think my intentions are to go back to the office as soon as the company specifically requests that I do so, but not to volunteer to go back any sooner than that. I'm also strongly considering requesting a shift to home-working three days a week on a permanent basis - on the days Funsize isn't at nursery my being here makes things that bit harder for LC, so there's clearly an advantage to being in the office, but on the three days FS is at nursery, it seems I could usefully skip the half-hour drive each way.

But that's still very much in the "thinking about it" stage - it remains to be seen how things will turn out when they do get back to normal... or, rather, move on to a new normal.

People are Just The Worst (again)

A few weeks ago, the internet spontaneously decided to start using the term "Karen" to refer to a particular group of unpleasant, entitled, white women. Which, of course, really sucks for anyone whose name is actually Karen, of course.

Today the show "This Morning" featured three such women, complaining that, through absolutely no fault of their own, they now find that their name has been turned into a term of abuse. Naturally, the internet reacted to this with a storm of abuse and mockery, largely centred around the notion that these women, being called Karen, are of course therefore "Karens". Because of course there could be no other reason they could possibly object to what has been done.

It is, of course, a ridiculous over-reaction to liken this to racism, systematic or otherwise. But something doesn't need to be of the same order of magnitude as racism to be wrong. And, bluntly, this is wrong.

(It's also worth noting that while using Karen as a term of abuse isn't racist, there's a rather stronger argument that it is sexist. Because you'll note that it was specifically women who were being labelled as somehow wrong. Funnily enough, men who display the same traits are, once again, just being assertive.)

#36 : "Throne of the Crescent Moon", by Saladin Ahmed

#37: "Sharpe's Skirmish", by Bernard Cornwell

Cheery Summer Reading

I've just finished "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", which is a light-hearted romp about grinding poverty, alcoholism, and eventual death, all set in the second decade of the 20th century in Brooklyn. Naturally, given the subject matter, it's a barrel of laughs from start to finish.

Though, oddly, and like "Angela's Ashes" (the novel I'd most compare it to), it is a fairly easy-going read, studded with moments of humour, and told in a sufficiently jovial way as to offset the underlying awfulness. In any event, I very much enjoyed it, and am happy to recommend it.

Perhaps also of note, I'm now down to 25 books remaining on The List. One of these, "Ulysses", appears on both the British and American sides. There are two that appear only on the British side, those being the longest two books left: "A Suitable Boy" (which I will be finishing shortly) and the complete works of Shakespeare. The other 22 are all on the American side.

My expectation, therefore, is to complete the British side of The List some time next year (as the remaining books are all either long or difficult), and then hopefully the American side some time in 2022. But we'll need to see how it actually plays out.

#35: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", by Betty Smith (a book from The List, and the new leading contender for Book of the Year)

Hobson's Choice

Here's an odd thought: in the Scottish elections we're not voting for which government we want; we're voting for which type of SNP government we get.

The thing is, there are only three outcomes that are remotely likely. The most likely, per the polls as they stand, is that the SNP will win an outright majority of seats (and, indeed, quite possibly a significant majority). In which case we will, of course, get an SNP government.

The second possibility, and the next most likely, is essentially a rerun of the last election - the SNP fall slightly short of an outright majority, but the Greens gain enough seats as to give a pro-independence majority. In which case we'll get an SNP minority government, backed by the Greens. And things will carry on pretty much as they are.

The third possibility, and the least likely of the three, is that the pro-indepence parties will lose enough seats that the Tories, Labour, and the Lib Dems between them hold a majority of the seats. However, neither the Tories nor Labour will have enough seats to build a government either alone or with the Lib Dems - it would take an alliance of all three to form a government. And there is simply no way that either Boris Johnson or Kier Starmer would countenance such a thing. (Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard might, given the perks of the job, but they'd be over-ruled.)

The upshot of that is that either the SNP will then form a government that is then utterly paralysed by the combined opposition, or we'll end up with another set of elections (in which case, see above). There is basically no prospect of anyone else forming a government.

Which really isn't a healthy place for Scotland's politics to be. It's not even as if you could look at either the Tories or Labour and see any viable government in waiting. Quite aside from them having no chance of winning the seats, there just isn't the talent there for it to be anything other than a disaster. The SNP have to have the job since, for all their faults (which are increasingly obvious), they are able to offer governance that is at least marginally competent.

It's shocking that that has become the bar to be aspired to.

Missing Out on Summer

Needless to say, we're not going away for a holiday this summer. We are potentially going to look at going away for the September weekend and the October week (usually we'd only do the latter), though in both cases it is likely to be only a few days, and somewhere within Scotland. At the start of the year I had looked at going to Vienna, but we shelved those plans some months ago - right now, there's no way I'm going anywhere near an airport.

The upshot of that is that, unfortunately, this summer just feels like a big waste.

The other consequence of this is that, other than a day or two here and there, I haven't had a proper holiday since Christmas. Easter was cancelled due to the start of lockdown, Summer has now been cancelled due to the middle of it... I do hope that October won't be cancelled by the second wave, but you never know. Which is far from ideal - there is a limit to how long you can just keep going.

The upshot is that I think I will be taking that week off in October, basically regardless of what happens, because I do now just need a break.

Bang Up To Date

I've never been hugely into video games. Even back in my first year of university it was more a case of one game in particular ("Civilisation II") causing me problems rather than flitting between many such games. Nonetheless, I gradually accumulated a large number of games, most which did at least get installed (albeit not played) on the PC I had at that time.

Naturally, after I gave up on video games following the aforementioned Civ2 incident, I pretty much stopped buying them. This wasn't a complete stop, as I was occasionally tempted by a game, which I then mostly ended up not playing, but it wasn't a particularly huge issue.

When I finally retired that PC and moved to my laptop I decided not to install anything until I actually came to use it, which meant that only one game was installed. That then held true with the move to my current PC.

A couple of years ago, during one of my decluttering phases, I finally got rid of almost all of those games that hadn't been used for years and were just taking up space. I haven't felt their lack. However, I did keep two games - "Icewind Dale II" (which I'd never played but thought I might), and "Neverwinter Nights 2". That last was the game I'd installed on the laptop, got a fairly long way through, and then abandoned. I thought I might give it a go again.

Anyway, those two have been sitting on my shelf taking up space since then. Until Saturday evening, when I finally got around to installing them onto my PC. I still haven't actually played them, of course, but that is at least now an option.

As you can see, I'm bang up to date on PC gaming!

Back to Nursery

Funsize started back at nursery on Friday. They'd been open since the 15th, but we weren't really in a rush to send her - we just wanted to make sure she was eased back into it before LC went back to school next month. So she went, and it seems she had a good day.

I had two concerns prior to the return to nursery. The first was the obvious one about safety, but the truth is that that was always very minor - even before the lockdown her nursery had some fairly significant protective measures in place, and are obviously taking the matter as seriously as possible. Short of us more or less completely isolating ourselves (with all the problems that would bring), there isn't really much more we could be doing on that front.

My other concern was one of socialisation. Being an only child, Funsize has spent the last several months with no other children to play with. And while she's too young to remember all of this once she's grown up, she's not too young for it to have an effect. So, when she returned to nursery, how would she play with other children.

Well, it sounds like she did just fine, which is obviously all to the good. At least, so far so good - she's only done one day so far, so it's possible a meltdown is coming on Wednesday, or perhaps Thursday. But we'll just need to deal with that if it should occur.

Still, that's one more step back to normal life, so that's good.

Overdrafts

A little while ago, our marvellous government decided that banks would no longer be allowed to charge a higher interest rate (or other fees) for unexpected overdrafts than for arranged ones. Which was always a bit of an odd move - I would have thought that that actually was a reasonable place where the charges could vary. Anyway, as a response to this the banks of course introduced new, and much higher, interest rates for all overdrafts. Which wasn't so much an unforseen consequence as one that was totally obvious.

Anyway, on Saturday I received an annoying letter from my bank, explaining that they had been oh-so-good to us, in that as part of their Covid response they had delayed bringing in the new, higher interest rates. However, the time had now come for them to do this.

Well, fair enough. I have had an overdraft facility with them for decades, and apart from one occaision when there might have been a short term dip (depending on the order in which things happened) I've never actually used it. Nor indeed would I intend to - there have always been cheaper ways to get credit.

But what really annoys me about this is the utter and inexcusable unfairness of the system as a whole. Yes, it's right that banks should charge interest on accounts that are overdrawn, but it's a bloody liberty charging punitive interest rates on such accounts when they have a 0% interest rate on credit balances. Indeed, there isn't a bank account out there that pays anything even close to the ~35% rate charged on negative balances. Frankly, I find it utterly and outrageously one-sided.

So that's my rant of the day. It is, of course, not a reason to switch bank (since they're all much of a muchness on that measure). However, it is worth noting that I am now up to two actual reasons for switching banks. I suspect that may be coming sooner rather than later...

#33: "Carte Blanche", by Jeffery Deaver

#34: "The Fall of Gondolin", by J.R.R. Tolkien (which was much better than "Beren and Luthien", which is nice.)

When Adapting a Novel

Neil Gaiman has indicated an interest in doing a second season of "Good Omens". Because as soon as you have a major hit on your hands, of course you want to do more. Never mind that the adaptation used up all of the existing source material, and the only people qualified to write more are Gaiman and Terry Pratchett working as a team. And while Pratchett has been unusually prolific for an ex-writer, this would be ambitious even for him.

Unfortunately, this is another case of falling into the same trap as "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Attwood, or "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. The first season adapts the book, and does so really well, turning into a big hit. Everyone involved therefore wants more, and that desire wins out over good sense. And then the regret sets in.

So, my new rule of thumb: when adapting a much-loved novel for TV, once you reach the end of the novel it is time to stop.

Pipe Down

For obvious reasons, band practice has been cancelled since mid-March, and the entire pipe band competition season has been cancelled for the year. As things started to unlock, I found myself wondering if and when we'd be able to meet again - I had assumed it would be fairly soon.

Alas, the news does not sound good: https://bagpipe.news/2020/07/03/covid-19-the-game-changer/

Basically, the risks associated with instruments like the bagpipe are particularly severe - one infected player could very easily infect the whole band. And the measures that are proposed to mitigate it sound all but unworkable - protective screens, extensive shielding, and the like. For serious competition bands I suspect they might be a sacrifice that is worthwhile, but for everyone else I doubt it.

The upshot is that I suspect there will be pretty much no pipe band events, of any sort, until a vaccine is found. Certainly, indoor practices on the pipes, and anything involving a parade will be out of the question.

Solo piping, and the use of the practice chanter, should remain possible. But that's about it... and that's rather disappointing.

Day 200: Update on Goals

It's day 200 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 200 I should have read 32.78 books, so I'm right on target. I'm also up-to-date on all sub-lists, and am making good progress on "A Suitable Boy", which I should finish next month (it's really long!). So everything looks good here.
• Weight: Blah. Progress gets made, progress gets reversed.
• Blogging: I'm a little behind on this blog, but right on target on the Imaginarium. So that's looking promising.
• Work: Sadly, this goal won't be achieved this year, a casualty of the virus. Which is a shame, as otherwise I suspect it would have been done.

And that's that. We're now looking at two goals that will succeed, one that will fail through circumstances beyond my control, and one that's not looking good (again). That's a middling report card, but with some reason to be cheerful.

Prepping for a New Normal - Webcam

One of the features of lockdown has, of course, been extensive use of Zoom and similar tools for video chat. One of the key things that has enabled this is that I brought the entire contents of my desk from work, including a webcam. Said webcam has been doing double duty as a webcam for our home PC. This has been a major boon, but of course there will come a time when I have to return to the office, and the webcam will go with me.

It is my expectation that even after things return to normal, the use of video chat will remain something of a feature - it's just much easier to get people together online than in person. Consequently, I knew fairly early on in lockdown that I would want to invest in a webcam of my own. (Additionally, if I do end up doing more extensive work from home in the new normal, having a camera here would just mean one less thing to have to cart back and forward.)

So I did what I usually do with this sort of thing and spent some time researching the market, narrowed my choices down to a few solid options from reputable suppliers, and then picked an item. And having made my choice, that was it - I try really hard not to agonise over these choices once they're made - even if they're not the best choice, they're typically good enough... and certainly good enough to render any further stress not worthwhile.

The chosen camera was out of stock everywhere, of course. And then, when it did come in stock, there was a Coronavirus premium applied, such that it was way more than it 'should' have been, and certainly way more than I was set to pay when there was no pressing need for it.

Still, it was a pain constantly looking to see if it had come back into stock at any decent price, or being tempted with alternatives at lower prices - most of which, I'm sure, were perfectly adequate for the job I wanted done... they just weren't the chosen item.

Well, the good news is that the item in question finally came back into stock, from a source I hadn't really considered (but am happy to use). So it should arrive later this week. I'll then look to set it up on both PCs, in preparation for returning the current camera back to the office.

#31: "The Broken Sword", by Poul Anderson

#32: "Sharpe's Sword", by Bernard Cornwell

Things Best Left Behind

This post is prompted about the recent events concerning Black Lives Matter, but it's not about Black Lives Matter. Largely because I have very little to say on that topic - of course black lives matter, and I'm frankly stunned and dismayed that it even needs to be said. But, evidently, it does.

However, one of the consequences of recent events is that WotC have started talking about making some changes to D&D and it's associated lore as a result of this, and the consequence of that is that the message boards are full of long and painful threads about the various changes.

This post isn't really about that, either, except tangentially.

The sad fact is that some of the material created for D&D over the past 45 years is indeed problematic in various areas. That's hardly shocking, given the amount of material involved. More troubling is that some of the more problematic areas include some very long-standing material and even some well-loved material. There is even significant debate over the most popular and most lucrative item in the entire setting.

This realisation, and the debates surrounding it prompted some uncomfortable reflections on how it should be dealt with. Because, bluntly, if WotC are serious about dealing with the issue then where there are genuinely problematic areas they will have to take some sort of action. In some cases, the areas affected can be fixed. In others, they just can't, and the offending material will have to be excised. (I should note that I don't necessarily agree on all the areas that have been flagged as 'problematic', and neither do I necessarily agree with whatever actions are proposed. Ultimately, though, that's a question for WotC, and it's also not really the topic of this post.)

But this isn't really about D&D, but culture more widely, be it in the form of films, books, and TV shows; or in the form of the statues we place in our cities; or indeed in the names of some streets.

Ultimately, what I'd like us to aim for is a society as envisaged by Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous "I have a dream..." speech - a world where race ceases to be a problem because we reach a point where it just doesn't matter. Obviously, I'm not so naive as to believe we're anywhere close to there, nor indeed do I think we'll get there in my lifetime, but that's pretty much the goal as I see it.

And the truth is that if we have elements in our culture that stand as an active insult to big parts of the population, we're just never going to get there. Some of these things need to be marked "handle with care", some of them need to be moved to the proper place and context... and some of them just need to go.

And some of the things that need to go may well include things that are very long-standing and much-loved. If we are to collectively enter a better future, there are some elements of our past that we will need to leave in our past.

Which doesn't make it any easier to take, of course. But there it is.

Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga

This was one of those films that really highlights the benefit of these subscription packages - there's no way that I would have paid to go see this film, but when I saw it included in my Netflix subscription it definitely became something I was interested in. And it was a really good choice - it's been a long time since I've laughed so much at a film.

This is a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, which as the name implies is built around the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm not going to say any more about the plot than that, though it's almost sufficiently redundant to the silliness - you've seen it several times before with some near variations.

The film it actually reminded me of most was "Blades of Glory", which is probably no surprise given the presence of Ferrell in both.

There's actually not much more to say than that, except that it was nice to see so much of Edinburgh featuring in the film. I especially liked the shots of that well-known Edinburgh landmark, the Hydro (which is traditionally in Glasgow).

And yes, Graham Norton is in the film, doing just as he does at Eurovision every year. He's probably the best thing about the modern Eurovision, and he's great here.

(This is also a film with a really good trailer, in that it gives a good flavour of the film without using all the best material. Which means that you can watch the trailer and know easily whether this is a film for you. It certainly won't be for everyone, and won't suit every mood, but it's worth two minutes to check out a trailer, I would have thought.)

In Between

This afternoon I re-watched the "Voyager" episode "Flashback". I'm not a fan of "Voyager" by any means, but this is very definitely one of the best episodes, though it does suffer, once again, from showing hints of the show I would much rather have seen - Captain Sulu commanding the Excelsior. Oh well.

But it did occur to me that, given the state of "Star Trek" at that time, a full seven-season, 154-episode show may well have become very tired, very quickly. And that's assuming they could even afford to recruit the key actors required.

But it does occur to me that not every show needs, or indeed benefits from, that sort of massive multi-season approach. And, indeed, there are some cases where the show would have been improved by committing to a smaller, fixed run - "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Picard" immediately leap to mind as examples.

Of course, that's where a somewhat-underused format comes into play. A seven-season "Sulu" show was probably never going to fly. But what about a four-episode mini-series? (Likewise, I would very much like to see a "Doctor Who" mini-series starring the Eighth Doctor...)

For some reason, the mini-series seems to be deployed for adaptations of novels and not much else. (I entirely understand why it's used for novels, of course, given the limited source material. It's the "not much else" that surprises me.)

Anyway, that's what has been on my mind today. Or at least for the past couple of hours.

#30: The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence (a book from The List)

Malaise

On Saturday I finally got caught up on all my tasks, found myself with a little free time, and thought I'd get on with one of the things I'd said to myself I'd do during lockdown... and promptly decided, "nope". After spending so much time in front of a PC all week, I found I just couldn't be bothered at all to sit and do so at the weekend. (Nor, indeed, could I face sitting watching some TV or a movie. Basically it was screens that I was burnt out on.)

Which was a bit of a bummer, since the chances of me getting some more free time any time soon are extremely small. So I guess that project just isn't going to happen.

I do have one more thing that I (well, actually LC) wants to get through during lockdown, and that doesn't require a lot of time. So maybe I'll make some progress on that this weekend. But I wouldn't count on it!

#29: "50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know", by John Sutherland

A Matter of Style

My latest book is "50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know", which is rather interesting. Yesterday I came to the section on "Style", which suddenly crystallised something I had been aware of but hadn't been able to really grasp.

The relevant sentence reads, "The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time." (That is itself a quote from Raymond Chandler.)

As I mentioned once before, some years ago my grandfather wrote his life story. Once he had completed it he sent it out to the various branches of the family, at which point I spent some hours reading through it, and what surprised me about the work was that while the events of the story were of interest for themselves, and while the story was written in good, functional English, it was all surprisingly underwhelming. Given grandad's education, his career, and the fact that he was extremely well read, it was somewhat surprising that the whole thing wasn't, well, better.

Chandler, of course, neatly explains all that in a single sentence. The issue is that style isn't something that you either have or don't have; it's something that a writer develops and builds with practice. As such, it does indeed require an investment in time. (And, since writing the story of a long life is a significant undertaking, it has the same constraint as 'quality' in a software system - it's not something that you can add later. It needs to have become second nature, so that it's built in. Which means it really needs that investment of time.)

Grandad, for all that he was very well read, and for all that he was an educated man, had spent his life as an educator, not as a writer. He simply hadn't made that investment in time required to move beyond "good, functional English" to something more stylish.

And that's why his life story, while interesting to the family for the events that it recounts, felt somewhat underwhelming.

(Lest I be thought uncharitable, I should also note that at the time he wrote his life story, grandad was already into his eighties and in fairly poor health. So, really, the fact that he was able to produce it at all was rather remarkable. I just thought it was worth noting the revelatory moment I enjoyed yesterday evening when so much became clear.)

Back to Normal

For the past week or so there has been a formatting error on the blog, showing the sidebar at the bottom of the page. That was due to an HTML error on my part. Hopefully it's fixed now...

#28: "Sharpe's Company", by Bernard Cornwell

Space Force

When I heard about a new comedy parodying the newest branch of the US military, starring Steve Carrol and created by the guys responsible for the US version of "The Office", I was certainly interested. When I heard it was coming to Netflix I started looking forward to it in earnest. I've since watched all ten episodes... and I'm afraid it's not really worth bothering with.

I should first note that the first two episodes are very much worth a watch - the first to establish the scenario and characters, but then the second is very funny indeed.

Unfortunately, after that one the series seems to run completely out of ideas, and goes into a holding pattern of recycled plots, character moments that seem to come straight out of the nineties, and not much else. (It also doesn't help that Trump really isn't a laughing matter any more.)

Given the reviews, I find it really hard to believe that this will be renewed. Even if so, it would require some major rework before I could recommend giving it a go. The gag ratio is just far too weak, that one episode excluded. Which is a real shame - it had such potential.

#26: "Sword of Kings", by Bernard Cornwell

#27: "Call for the Dead", by John Le Carré

Dear 2020, I was just joking...

A million years ago, back at the end of March, I noted that the current situation had a few parallels with the old show "Crusade". I signed off by noting that the show was cancelled, and so the answer to "what happens next" was "either I don't know... or worse."

Given the direction 2020 has taken in the last few days, I'm suddenly rather concerned that we are in fact heading for cancellation, as the lethal cocktail of incompetence and malevolence that we seem to have collectively voted for starts to take effect in earnest.

Good luck everyone. Here's hoping someone resets the timeline soon.

Experimental Cookery 2020, Addendum: Cottage Pie

A couple of months ago my Experimental Cookery was shepherd's pie, taken from Hugh's "Love Your Leftovers". Since then we have had roast beef a couple of times, and so yesterday with the leftovers I made a cottage pie. This is, of course, almost exactly the same, but made with beef instead of lamb.

And it was fine, but we both definitely preferred the shepherd's pie. There wasn't anything wrong with the cottage pie... it just wasn't as nice.

(The other thing I would note is that while Hugh recommends aiming for 1kg of meat, making up any shortfall with leftover veg, I think I'm inclined instead to recommend about 700g, made up to the kilo with veg. That seemed to me to give a better balance between the flavours. But maybe that's just me.)

And that's all there is to say about that, really. It was blog-worthy... but only just.

Theme of the Month Wash-up: Quiet

This month has indeed matched up with the expectations - it has been a far quieter month than previously.

One thing that has been quite noticeable, though, is that on almost every forum that I've been talking with people we seem to have run out of things to say. Nothing much is happening to generate new conversations, and so the well just runs dry. Which is a shame, but I suppose not really unexpected.

Next month is likely to see things start to get back towards normal as we proceed with the unlock, which in theory at least should see new conversations being generated. I guess we'll see...

Things I Miss, and Things I Don't

During the lockdown there have been various things that I have missed for obvious reasons - seeing friends, family, and even colleagues; going to church, and for other outings. I'm not going to talk about those here, since they are indeed obvious. Instead, there are a few things that I have missed more than I thought, less than I thought, or in a surprising way, and it is those that I thought I'd discuss here...

My Commute: Not surprisingly, I don't miss the drive to the office and back. For the most part, it was just an annoying drain on time, a source of frustration, and something I'm quite glad to be without. But...

The commute did have one thing going for it, and that was that it gave me time. Specifically, time by myself to try to decompress after the day, before getting into the various activities of the evening. In lockdown, my 'commute' consists to leaving one room and going into another, and just doesn't provide that airlock. And what I'm really missing is:

Time to Myself. Prior to lockdown, there was a block of time on Friday afternoons when, almost every week, I had come home from work, LC was still at work, and Funsize was at nursery. And so I got a couple of hours in the house by myself with very little requiring my attention. In lockdown, that's gone.

To a certain extent, I've been able to carve out a little time by continuing to get up early, even on weekends (thanks, insomnia!). Though even that is far from certain, since Funsize is quite likely to wake up at the key time. It's not a particularly good block of time anyway.

Costa: This was an occasional treat that became a weekly treat (on my way back from Tesco), and it is something I miss. But, again, there's a caveat - once lockdown ends and Costa reopens, I think my intention is not to return to my previous pattern. The issue is that the cost really does add up, and it's been something of an eye-opener to see just how much money I've been saving by being forced to buy everything in a one-and-done Tesco shop. All those little "occasional treats" really should go.

Band Practice: I thought I'd miss this, but I find that I haven't really. I mean, band's fine and all, but... I just haven't missed it. I think part of the issue here is that we don't really learn any new tunes, and we don't really practice for anything, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to the point. But maybe that's just general malaise.

Being able to "just pop out". This one perhaps fall into the 'obvious' category, but I do miss being able to think of something I'd quite like to do and being able to just go and do it. Though, again, I'm not sure that's something that will revert to normal even when things do start back up again.

Day 150: Update on Goals

It's day 150 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 150 I should have read 24.59 books. I'm somewhat ahead of target. I'm also up-to-date on all sub-lists, and have finally finished "The Count of Monte Cristo". So that's all looking really good. In fact, my biggest concern now is that I'm running short of reading material, but I'm working on that.
  
• Weight: No progress since the last update. I'll need to take some action here.
  
• Blogging: I'm pretty much right on target on both blogs.
  
• Work: This continues to go well, mostly. I'm due my annual appraisal soon, so we'll see just how true it really is. But, either way, I won't be talking about it (much) here.

So, everything is actually going pretty well. I'm rather hoping that by the time of the next update the lockdown may be over, or at least much relaxed, but we'll need to see how true that proves to be. That in turn may have an impact on the progression of the goals, so we'll need to see how it goes. The next update is in July, so we'll see then.

#24: "The Count of Monte Cristo", by Alexandre Dumas (a book from The List)

#25: "Blindness", by Jose Saramago (a book from The List, and now the leading contender for book of the year.)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Chilli with Nachos and Cheese

This one comes from the Hairy Bikers "One Pot Wonders", and is pretty much what the name implies: a big bowl of chilli served with a topping of nachos and cheese.

The recipe for the chilli is slightly different from that in their Hairy Dieters book, and it's fine but not game-changing - it was another perfectly-serviceable chilli that we enjoyed but that won't be becoming our default chilli recipe. The topping of nachos and cheese was likewise very nice, but not exactly a revelation.

So file this one under "very nice, would definitely have again, but otherwise unremarkable". Sorry there's not more to say about it!

#23: "Centuries of Stories", edited by Wendy Cooling (a book for Funsize)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Malloreddus (sort of)

This one comes from "The Hairy Biker's Mediterranean Adventure", and is described as a gnocchi-like pasta. However, I found it because I had some gnocchi and was looking for a use for it, and liked the look of the sauce described here. So what I actually cooked wasn't Malloreddus at all, but rather gnocchi with a tomato-y, sausage-y sauce.

And very nice it was, too. I really like gnocchi (having had it all of half a dozen times), and so was always on to a winner, and it's quite hard to go wrong with good sausages and tomatoes. I was rather surprised at the tiny amount of liquid that was added to the sauce, but it turned out okay.

All in all, this was a winner. The only downside was a half-hour simmer step, but that should have been negated by starting cooking earlier than I actually managed. Would definitely have this again - indeed, I may end up having the leftover sauce with some of the leftover gnocchi for a lunch later this week, if LC doesn't beat me to it!

Experimental Cookery 2020: Pepper & Tomato Pasta Traybake

This one comes from this month's Tesco magazine, and was a bit of a winner. It's quick and easy to put together but, perhaps more importantly, it was a nice tasty vegetarian dish that we all enjoyed.

I don't have a great deal more to add at this point, due to the relative simplicity of the meal, except perhaps to note that I'm looking to gradually expand my repertoire of vegetarian meals in general. And this is a definite addition to that set.

#21: "Sharpe's Battle", by Bernard Cornwell
#22: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Gaming the System

One of the ongoing controversies in the Scottish political scene concerns the formation of a new "list party" - a new party that will not stand in constituencies but will instead only stand on the regional list, and hope to do well enough to get a handful of MSP seats as a result.

The stated goal of such parties is to "maximise the pro-independence majority". The logic here is that the results of the regional votes are corrected to give each party the 'right' number of MSPs, so the better a party does in the constituencies, the fewer seats they get in the region. Thus the SNP, who can expect to win most constituency seats, have a very large number of 'wasted' votes in the regional votes.

Up until the weekend, this was a largely theoretical proposition. Over the weekend, though, a number of disaffected ex-SNP members registered a new party, and thigns got real.

I can't say I'm a fan of the notion, at all.

I should note at this time that my opposition is not from the "it almost certainly won't" work line of attack, nor even the more extreme "it's likely to be counter-productive" line of attack. Both of these are probably correct, but frankly that's beside the point.

On the one hand, if all the party exists for is to maximise the pro-independence majority, then frankly that shouldn't be allowed. It's an attempt to game the system - about 50% of people in Scotland are pro-independence, so there shouldn't be a significant pro-independence majority.

On the other hand, if the party has some other agenda that puts them at odds with the SNP (whether it's that they don't feel that the SNP are pushing independence strongly enough, because they simply don't like the current SNP leadership, or the trans-rights issue that I am absolutely not going to comment on at all, or whetever else), then that's fine - people can set up whatever parties they want and campaign on whatever platform they want... but in that case they should be campaigning explicitly against the SNP. They're rivals for the same vote, so they should act like it.

And that, incidentally, is both why this post hasn't made mention of the Greens, either as potentially "taking votes away" from the SNP (since they have that distinct agenda), and also as being the list-only alternative to the SNP (because if the new party is distinct from the Greens also, then that is also their prerogative).

(It's also why I don't have an issue with the three major Unionist parties all standing and vying for votes, even though the regional list system gives the a leg up. The three are all fairly clearly distinct voices - they just happen to agree on one topic. I just wish they were better.)

The Crisis Hits

The one thing that I will confess to panic buying before the lockdown was a stockpile of books. I figured that there was a good chance that deliveries of non-essential items were quite likely to be hit, and also that there was a good chance that the lockdown would last 2-3 months, so I stocked up.

However, I'm now reaching a point where I'm running short on some of my sublists. Worse, I'm now getting to a point where I'm running out of ideas for books to read at all - I have enough earmarked for the rest of this month, but thereafter I'm out of ideas. (Funnily enough, I predicted that that was likely to become a problem, and when, two years ago.)

The sublists for the year are four in number: Books from The List, New Books (which only has 10 entries), the Sharpe novels, and "Other". I have plenty of books lined up from The List and in the Sharpe series; the problems lie with the other two. New Books would have been fine, except that the virus has caused most of the novels on the list to be delayed by some months. But at time of writing, the next one is released on the 28th of the month, with one scheduled for each month thereafter. That means that I have a gap right now, but then should be okay for a while... assuming they don't get delayed again.

The "Other" sub-list is the most problematic. I need approximately fifteen books to see me through the year, and can scare up one or two for right now. Annoyingly, I can find loads of partial trilogies, but in each case either the early books have dropped out of print or the final volume has not yet been released.

The likely upshot of this is two-fold. Firstly, it is likely to mean that I'll read more books from The List than I had perhaps planned for the year. Secondly, it is quite likely that the reading goal will come to an abrupt end - many of the books from The List are hefty tomes, so expecting to read the full 60 books with so many of these to tackle isn't terribly realistic.

Unless, that is, I have some sort of inspiration...

Natural Optimism

During the lockdown, one of the things we have going on at work is a "Picture of the Week" contest. Well, a contest of sorts - it's mostly just a bit of fun. But one of the things that I have noticed is just how many of the pictures that are posted are of landscapes, or sunsets (or sunrises), or animals, or otherwise of the natural world. I suppose that's not surprising - the human world has come crashing down, so it makes sense to take comfort in what remains.

I can't help but thinking, yet again, of how priviliged that makes us. In most places in Scotland it's not that hard to get away to somewhere natural, or at least some facsimile of it. And even the less renowned parts of Scotland can still manage to be rather nice:

Given that we're stuck here for another three weeks, given that that lockdown is becoming increasingly hard to bear, and given also that even when it does end it won't be a reversion to the way things were before, it's very nice to be able to at least step out of doors and get a genuine and refreshing change in the outdoors.

#20: "Eberron: Rising from the Last War", by Wizards of the Coast

Theme of the Month: Quiet

One of the features of April is that it includes both our wedding anniversary and LC's birthday. Many years it also includes Easter, and it includes the schools' Easter holidays. So Easter can be a rather hectic month!

Of course, this year was complicated a little further by the start of lockdown in March, which then continued into April. This took quite a while to settle down, which made for an even busier month than normal.

So the theme I'm hoping to set for May is simply "Quiet". My hope is that it won't be a month of huge transitions (except maybe back towards 'normal'), while it is also unlikely to involve many celebrations or events. Alas, the gala days that should have started thing month have, of course, been cancelled or deferred until later.

That's the plan, at least. Cue the entire situation being turned on its head once again!

A Knigdom of Isolation - wash up

So, the end of the month, and the end of the theme of the month. I think some time next month we'll probably see a loosening of the restrictions (unfortunately, probably for just long enough for us to really regret it). Whether that is the case or not, I'll have a new theme for next month.

Anyway, it has been a largely uneventful month, as was always to be expected. But before it ends, a quick grab-bag of thoughts on some of the topics I mentioned at the outset:

Home working: This has been going fine. I've now settled on using our study for my home office, which means that each day starts and ends with the ritual of building up and tearing down my work system (so that we can use the room normally for the rest of the time). Staying in touch with colleagues has mostly been easy enough, subject only to the whims of the wi-fi and VPN connection. So that's all to the good. Mostly, though, this the time when we really benefit from all the investment that the company made to support people being mobile in their work. They didn't intend it for this purpose, but it has worked out well.

Food supplies: Fortunately, Tesco now seems mostly back to normal, so the big challenge is building a sufficiently-complete list that I only have to go once a week. So far, so good. Our freezers and cupboards remain full, so apart from some key staples such as bread and milk, we'd actually be able to manage a two-week total lockdown if we had to.

Quarantine beard: Nah, I shaved it off. I had a fairly extensive festive beard late last year (due to other stresses), so didn't really fancy growing one this time. So I let it grow out for a couple of weeks, but mostly through pure inertia, before getting rid.

And that's pretty much that for this month.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

One of the great pleasures of the subscription model for TV is that it gives access to a whole slate of shows that you might never actively seek out, and certainly wouldn't pay for, but that you might consider on the basis "why not?" Much of these are dross, of course, but every so often you come across a gem.

"The Dark Crystal" is a film I'd actually never seen until recently. To be honest, I don't really consider that much of a loss - there's a lot of really clever world-building there, but the plot is somewhat lacking.

I therefore approached "Age of Resistance" with a degree of trepidation. After all, not only is it a prequel to a film that didn't wow me, it's a prequel, which is never a good sign. And the very first episode was essentially more of the same: lots of great world-building, but...

Ah, but... After that first episode it gets better. And then it gets better, and better...

We're now five episodes into the first season, and I've just seen that there is indeed going to be a season 2, which is excellent news.

So, count this as a recommendation. And a further recommendation for the DMs out there: take notes!

Living Dangerously

Been a while since I did a post about the weekly shop...

It's a strange thing, that we're now at the point where the most dangerous thing I do is to go for the weekly shop each Friday. Honestly, there was never much risk - just the commute to and from work, but now the trip to Tesco means risking exposure to the virus. It's not likely, but unfortunately it is possible - and it's also the one vector for infection I have left.

As a consequence of the lockdown, we've taken steps to minimise contact, and that has included avoiding takeaway food. Which sucks - the local Dominos are still delivering, and I'd really quite like to order... but really don't think I can justify it. And likewise, we're trying really hard to only go shopping once for the week. The upshot is that we're both having to be quite careful in putting together the list, and also having to order more, both than we usually ordered, and also than we perhaps think we need. That has meant, of course, that the cost is higher than it has generally been. But since it's now our only big expenditure, it works out well.

The other thing that has been noticeable is a big win. It has been my practice when putting the list together to write everything down and then carefully re-order it to match the order of items in the store. (Naturally, I have the store layout memorised. Doesn't everyone?) This has occasioned a certain amount of bemusement on the part of LC, for reasons that I'm sure are obvious.

But in light of the virus, Tesco have now introduced a one-way system. This is intended to minimise contact between customers, of course - if everyone moves through in a fixed order, that will aid with that.

And, of course, that suits me perfectly - I was already following the system anyway, so the upshot is that now pretty much everyone else was already. Basically, I had pre-optimised for these days. Huzzah!

The only remaining downside is that my preference now is to hit Tesco just after opening on Friday (8am), but they can't start selling alcohol until 10am. Under the circumstances, it would be really useful if the government would relax the relevant licensing laws accordingly. In the absence of that, my pattern is to go at 10am once every few weeks, and to buy a fairly considerable amount of wine at that time. We won't be consuming any more than previously - just combining the purchases for several weeks into one bigger shop. But that's all just a minor quibble.

#19: "I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin", by P.N. Elrod (unfortunately, a likely candidate for the weakest book of the year.)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Green Lentil Curry

As a consequence of doing the Ham & Pearl Barley Soup, I found myself in possession of quite a lot of excess green lentils, and so the hunt was on to find a use for them. Fortunately Tesco provided an answer to at least part of that, which led to today's dinner.

The recipe was quick and easy to put together, though it did include a 45-minute simmer stage. So it's one for a weekend rather than an weekday evening. But that's fine.

Interestingly, this was a recipe that really highlighted the value of seasoning - after the simmer stage I tasted the meal and it was foul. But with the addition of salt and pepper, and a bit of a stir, and suddenly it all came together. That was really something.

I also whipped up some flatbread to go with it. They were very nice, but I wouldn't really dignify them with the name 'naan'. (Though, of course, that just means 'bread'. :) )

The meal as a whole was a massive success - tasty and very filling. Not to mention cheap. We'll definitely be having this again, if only because we still have an abundance of lentils to use up!

Experimental Cookery 2020: Ham & Pearl Barley Soup

A few weeks ago, I noted that Tesco had some rather nice-looking gammon joints, and so that became one of our weekly roasts (which are taking a short break just now). Since it was a piece of meat big enough for 6, this left us with quite a large amount of leftover meat. Some of this went into a very nice macaroni cheese, and today I used the second batch in a soup. This one came from the "New Covent Garden Food Co. - A Soup for Every Day".

As with soups generally, this proved to be pretty easy to put together, and although the elapsed time was a bit more than an hour, this was mostly taken up with two 30-minute simmer stages that didn't require much attention.

The result was pretty much exactly as I'd expected - it was a very nice soup that bulked a fairly small amount of meat out with a lot of pulses to create a very filling meal. The only thing to watch is that the gammon was very salty to start with, so go easy on the seasoning!

The best bit: that has left us with two additional servings, that are now sitting in our freezer for another day. A winner all around.

#18: "Skyward: Claim the Stars", by Brandon Sanderson

Day 108: A Belated Update on Goals

Day 100 of the year slipped past without me noticing! So here's a belated update on my goals for the year:

• Books: If I had written this update on time, I would have been reporting that I was somewhat behind on my goal. However, thanks largely to a good long weekend of reading, things have changed. By day 108 I should be on 17.213 books read. I'm actually some 90 pages ahead of that target at the time of writing. Which is nice.
  
• Weight: Lockdown seems to suit me. According to the scales this morning, I am 8 pounds down from where I started the year.
  
• Blogging: I managed to get caught up by the end of March, and am now right on target for this month.
  
• Work: Again, this has been made right since the previous update, and is back to going well. That remains true despite the lockdown.

And that's that. This is a hugely improved status than the previous update, and even better for being delayed (allowing me to catch up on the book front). The other consequence of the delay is that the next update doesn't seem so far away either. We'll see how that goes...

#15: "I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire", by P.N. Elrod
#16: "Sharpe's Gold", by Bernard Cornwell
#17: "Further Tales of Little Grey Rabbit", by Denis Judd after Alison Uttley (a book for Funsize. We've actually read the whole series (well, all the ones we have), but this is the only one that is really long enough to count as one of my books)

A Tribute to My Wife

A week ago on Friday, Emma Brockes in the Guardian wrote, "We are all working on our time management skills, while realising that the only really valuable time management tool is a wife to watch the kids."

I'm not entirely sure whether this was an attempt at humour or something less pleasant, but that comment did strike me at the time, and has stayed in my mind since. Of course, that's because there is a nugget of truth to what she says.

The simple fact is that I couldn't still be working from home full-time were it not for LC being both willing and able to look after Funsize to allow me to do so. Of course, that's not entirely a matter of choice (since my working means I still get paid, which means the bills still get paid, which means a major worry is lifted.) However, I'm also well aware that it's not an easy ride, and would not be her preferred use for her days. As much as LC sometimes complains about her job, I'm convinced that she would prefer to be out doing that.

And, of course, there are also different ways that one can react to the necessities of the days - accepting things and carrying on with grace is not the only way to proceed. Things could be a lot harder than they have been... and that's largely down to LC.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that I've come to the stunning revelation that a marriage (and indeed raising children) is a partnership. And like all partnerships, it works best of both partners do their bit to complement the other. That doesn't necessarily mean a 50/50 split of everything, since it's likely that aptitudes and interests will differ. But it does (or should) mean both doing thier share, and if need be stepping up to support the other in difficult times.

It is now eight years since LC made the crazy mistake of becoming my wife. Those eight years have been amongst the very best of my life, filled with very many more good times than bad (or even indifferent). She was, is, and remains my best friend, and I count myself very lucky (especially in the current crisis) to have met and married her.

And that is all I have to say about that. At least for now.

Lines of Succession

I'm no fan of Boris Johnson. I don't like his policies, I don't like his approach to politics as a whole, and I consider him yet another really strong argument for Scottish Independence.

I also don't think that the Queen should have asked him to form a government when Theresa May offered her resignation. Constitutionally-speaking, the Queen is supposed to appoint as PM the person who commands the confidence of the House of Commons, which at that time Boris manifestly did not (hence all those defeats he saw in his first few weeks). Instead, the Queen should have required May to remain in post * until either Boris could show he did command the confidence of the house or until an election took place. (The order of events matters because as a new PM Boris probably saw a boost in the polls that Boris-as-Tory-leader almost certainly would not. That may or may not have affected the outcome of the election.)

* As a member of the Privy Council, the PM cannot simply resign at will - he or she serves at the pleasure of the monarch. So while Theresa May could tender her resignation, it was officially for the Queen to decide whether to accept it or not.

But all of that is by the way. The fact of the matter is that Boris did win a landslide majority in the General Election and he therefore did have the right to form his government afterwards. Which includes naming his own deputy in case he was incapacitated... as indeed is the case now.

What that means is that right now, and in the short term, it is right that Dominic Raab stand in as Boris' deputy. And, if need be, it's right that he exercise whatever decision-making powers are needed to take us forward through the crisis. (I'm suspicious of why Raab was chosen for this role, but that doesn't really matter - it was Boris' prerogative to choose. I also don't necessarily agree with the specific choices that are being made... but that falls under my current stance of not commenting.) So, in the short term, Raab is the guy.

What is extremely worrying is what happens if it becomes apparent that Boris simply won't be able to continue - if he's incapacitated long-term (or worse).

In that case, it's no longer appropriate that the country be run by a deputy - there would need to be a new PM appointed. And, normally, that would be a matter of finding the person who commands the confidence of the House of Commons, which in turn normally means the leader of the largest party (in this case, the Tories).

The problems right now are two-fold: the House of Commons isn't sitting (so how can its confidence be judged), and it's not really practical to run any sort of leadership contest right now anyway.

Plus, there's the other issue - an awful lot of the contenders would look at the current mess, dealing with Covid-19, then the mother of all recessions that is almost certain to follow, and dealing with Brexit on top of that, and decline to step up. Nobody in their right mind would want to be in the top job right now. But by the same token, they'll also look at it and calculate that they also don't want whoever does end up doing it doing too good a job, so that there's an opening afterwards. From a purely self-serving point of view, the optimum strategy is to stay out of it... but quietly frustrate things from the sidelines. (Or to get behind a fairly hopeless compromise candidate, who is more or less good enough to get us through it... but only just, and with a lot of pain.)

Which would, of course, be an utter and complete disaster for all of the rest of us.

The upshot of all of this is that I am desperately hoping for a full and speedy recovery on the part of Boris Johnson. Not just because that's the right thing to do (which it is), but also because the alternative is terrible.

Experimental Cookery 2020: Shepherd's Pie

I have, of course, made shepherd's pie before, but this one comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Love Your Leftovers", a book that has been generally useful and that is really showing its value just now. This was also my opportunity to use up the 550g of leftover roas lamb from last week.

As with the Hairy Bikers version (which, oddly, I don't seem to have posted about), this was not terribly difficult but was extremely time consuming - I was basically at work on it for two hours start to finish, with relatively little downtime during the process. But that's fine - there's a reason I set aside a weekend day for this.

The end result was great, being a marked improvement over the Hairy Bikers version (though largely due to the leftover roast lamb rather than the mince). And in addition to large portions for each of us, I was left with four more portions for later use. So that's good, too.

I'm not sure when I'll do this again, as we tend not to have roast lamb all that often, and are left with large amounts afterwards even more seldom, but I'm sure we will at some point rely on this one. Either way, it makes for a really useful option to have available.

Theme of the Month: A Knigdom of Isolation

It should probably go without saying that the major fact of this month is the ongoing lockdown. The government are set to review it in a couple of weeks, but I can't imagine that they won't renew it (and then renew it again - I can't see this ending before mid-May at the earliest). The Knigdom of Steph/vonia remains in sparkling isolation.

I remain determined not to comment on the actions of the government (any of them) at this time, despite sore provocation - there are many things I would normally want to say, but now is not the time. Instead, expect to see some musings on how we're getting on, on the topic of home working (and especially emergency home working), on our food supplies, and indeed the progress of my quarantine beard.

And, as I said before, I wish you the very best of luck as this grinds on. It's going to be a tough time, but unfortunately it looks like the alternatives are considerably worse.

#14: "The Stone Diaries", by Carol Shields (a book from The List)

Theme of the Month: Wrap Up

We're now pretty much at the end of the month, and so it's time to consider how I did on my theme of the month, which this time was "catch up".

It actually went pretty well:

• On the topic of weight loss, there's some good news for a change - at the last weigh-in I had actually managed to hit my nominal target for this point in the year. Huzzah!
  
• Likewise, on the topic of work the rot has been stopped and I'm now back where I would like to be.
  
• And on this blog, and also on the Imaginarium, I'm essentially back on target.
  
• The one area that isn't so good is the reading target. For one brief, shining moment I was actually bang on target... but that lasted all of 24 hours before I was behind again. Basically, "Heroes" by Stephen Fry took me much longer to get through than expected (as, incidentally, did "Mythos"). "The Stone Diaries" is likewise proving a challenge. So I'm likely to end the month further behind than I started, which is unfortunate.

Still, I'm actually pretty happy with progress from this month - one goal may have slipped, but I'm in a much better position on all the others.

Cooking in the Crisis

Perhaps foolishly, I thought I'd have more free time as a result of this lockdown - since I'm not commuting to work, I figured that would give me an hour a day, and since I'm now not able to go out to band, to chuch, or to see family, that should clear huge swathes of time. But it hasn't been the case - because I'm still working full-time (albeit from home), LC has been stuck with the lion's share of looking after FS, and as a consequence of that most of the times when I'm not working I'm trying to provide as much support as I can.

The other thing about all this that I find remarkable is how we've managed to accidentally be about as well prepared for this as I think we could be. I should note immediately that I'm not pretending any special genius here, but I find it strange that a couple of weeks either way could have seen us enter lockdown with empty shelves, where as it happens we'd restocked just before things got hard to find.

I am conscious, however, that the lockdown is very likely to be extended beyond the three weeks initially set, and that the supply situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. (Although maybe not too bad - both because the supermarkets seem to think their underlying supply chains are still working, and because we're now moving into spring when our farms start to become more productive. Plus, if the panic buying calms down, and the supermarkets start rationing supplies, we may actually be okay. I guess we'll know in a few weeks.) As a consequence of that, I've been trying not to eat into our stores too much, by continuing to include several freshly made meals each week. Luckily (again), I am equipped with a multitude of useful cookbooks, including one specifically on the use of leftovers.

The one thing that has been a bit tricky when planning meals is knowing what I will be able to pick up at the supermarket. Thus far lamb mince and tinned tomatoes have eluded me (the latter being a bigger loss than the former), while I was able to pick up baked beans last week but not this.

(I should note at this point that both Jack Monroe and Jamie Oliver have been producing advice on how to make use of whatever you have when cooking. For those unfamiliar with Jack Monroe, she was a single mother who went through some really hard times, and therefore knows a great deal about making do with what you have. She's probably the expert to consult. I mention Jamie mostly because several of the things he's shown us are actually things I would happily eat even in normal times. But the truth is that his show is probably less about actually cooking, and more about getting a friendly, reassuring, and, crucially, familiar face on screens to avoid people losing their minds. Not that that's a bad thing.)

Being a software architect rather than a professional chef (or pandemic expert), I'm not going to offer a lot of advice here. Generally speaking, it's better to find actual experts and listen to them. But two things that I think are worth noting:

• I would recommend going through your cupboards, fridge, and freezer and making an inventory of everything that you have in the house that is edible, including use-by dates. (That's use by, not "best before". The distinction may matter.) That way you know what you've got, what key gaps you need to fill, and have a decent idea of how to maximise it. (I should also note that that one comes to me by way of the aforementioned Jack Monroe.)
  
• The Sunday roast has been a real friend to us. Last week we had a roast chicken, from which we then harvested meat for a second dinner in midweek and a couple of lunches. This week I picked up a shoulder of lamb, which we'll be having tonight. We haven't been having any difficulties getting hold of root vegetables, so this has been a very efficient way to cook meat for the week.

I guess I should note something about my shopping list - normally, I would plan out a week's meals and then assemble a shopping list to suit. The last couple of weeks, I have noted things like "roasting joint", and then picked up whatever they have. Hence the chicken, then the lamb. I've also noticed that Tesco always had plenty of ham joints left, so maybe that's next. From next week, I think it will probably include a "look for..." section, where I'll try to source things like tinned tomatoes without having a specific plan for them - I can't assume I'll get them, so they won't feature in the meal plan... but if I do get them then we can plan to use them the week after.

Anyway, that's the update. For the moment, we are all well. Long may that continue. I hope things remain well with you, or as well as can be hoped. Good luck!

The Doctors, re-rated

Some time ago I rated the various Doctors. This post provides an updated list, so that I have a single point of reference...

Note: I'm not going to repeat everything from the previous post, so this list may seem a bit bare-bones.

1. The Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker: The obvious choice, and still the best.
   
2. The Tenth Doctor: David Tennant: Another obvious choice, and the best of the 'new' Doctors.
   
3. The Eleventh: Matt Smith: I know he wasn't everyone's favourite, but I liked him. I was especially impressed with his first season.
   
4. The Fifth: Peter Davison: He's my Doctor, so he's always going to be high on the list.
   
5. The Twelfth: Peter Capaldi: Started poorly, but ended strong. He's probably the best actor ever to hold the role, but unfortunately the Moffat era was losing steam by the time he took over. But he benefited enormously by being able to play off against Missy.
   
6. The Ninth: Christopher Eccleston: First of the 'new' Doctors, this was another one who ended much better than he started. Probably the single worst feature of the new series is that we didn't get enough from this Doctor. But then, Eccleston saying "no" gave us first David Tennant and then William Hurt, so it's not all bad.
   
7. The Third: Jon Pertwee: Another classic.
   
8. "Doctor Ruth": Jo Martin: The first of the "Doctors with Potential", I do like what Jo Martin has done with the role, and would like to see more. That said, I have a big problem with her placement in the canon, which is a bit of an issue. But that's a problem with the material, not the performance.
   
9. The Eighth: Paul McGann: Bad TV movie, good short appearance later. Another Doctor I would very much have liked to see more of.
   
10. The War Doctor: John Hurt: Another one I would very much have liked to see more of. Alas, it was not to be, and now the chance is gone.
    
11. The Sixth: Colin Baker: A spectacularly misjudged first episode and a terrible costume relegates what could have been a good performance towards the bottom of the list. A shame - I felt he was poorly served.
    
12. The Seventh: Sylvester McCoy: The man who really brought the curtain down on the classic era, he's mostly at the bottom of the list of 'old' Doctors because somebody has to be.
    
13. The Thirteenth: Jodie Whittaker: My view is that, more than anything, she's just really badly served with the material. Unfortunately, the performance that she's being asked to give really grates. So unless the next series is stellar, I'm hard pressed to believe she'll be climbing the list.

As before, I haven't included the First or the Second on the list. One day I may take out a subscription to Britbox and watch the stories (or borrow some DVDs or something), but until then I don't have enough familiarity with the extant material to fairly judge them.

And that's that... until next time.

Thirteen's Second Outing

LC and I finished the most recent season of "Doctor Who" last night. We had been in the practice of watching it as we went, but then stopped after five episodes (three of which had been dire, one was pretty good, and one was good but didn't match the hype). We then banked up the second half of the series, and have now completed it.

It's very much a mixed bag.

As noted, the first half of the series pretty much sucked. To the point where I strongly considered giving up completely, was all set to declare that everyone involved in this travesty needed sacked, and indeed considering that maybe it was time for another hiatus.

The first two episodes back were slightly better, but then the next two were generally excellent. The finale was... okay. (Though I hated the big revelation. The only good side to it is that there's a massive amount of wiggle room, so that the next guy can treat that like the revelation that the Doctor is half human (from the TV movie) - basically, that it never happened.)

Some more detailed thoughts:

• Unfortunately, Jodie Whittaker is now rooted right to the bottom of my list of favourite Doctors. I don't think she's terrible in the role, but she's being really badly served with material. And, unfortunately, much of that material presents the character as an enthusiastic but overwhelmed supply teacher. Sorry.
  
• The three Companions are likewise a weak spot, especially the idiocy of refering to them as "fam". Even Graham, who was the high point last time, doesn't hit the spot this year. Time for them all to go. (And that's a shame, because at least two of the actors are clearly very good. That's the material again.)
  
• There's too much bloody talking, most especially in the form of the Doctor talking to herself. That's particularly galling because the purpose of the Companion is to ask the stupid questions so the Doctor can inform the audience, but they've dropped the ball on that one. Instead, the Doctor has to ask herself all the stupid questions, gurn a bit, and then we get to see a lightbulb gradually come on.
  
• Too little tension. This is the thing that made the difference between episodes 8&9 and the rest - previously, the characters would talk and talk and talk, and then eventually something might happen. In the good episodes, things zip along at a pleasant speed. The worst offender was episode 5, which as I've mentioned before had a literal ticking clock which then expired... and then an age more talking.
  
• I do need to give a great deal of credit to Sacha Dhawan (the Master), Jo Martin (the Doctor), and Patrick O'Kane (the lone Cyberman). All three guest stars were good in their roles (though the Master, again, was somewhat let down by the material). To the extent that I think I'd actually much rather be watching Doctor Ruth squaring off against the Lone Cyberman in a series than the one that actually aired.

And that's basically that. I obviously have no idea when "Doctor Who" will be returning, nor do I know what we're likely to see when it does come back. When it does, I'll give it a go, but it does remain very much on the brink of abandonment. Which is not something I thought I'd say, even back when Peter Capaldi's first season failed to impress me.

Each Night I Dream of Home

A few years ago I posted about how the situation with Brexit reminded me very much of the end of "Babylon 5", and especially the fall of Centauri Prime.

"Babylon 5" had a spin-off, "Crusade", the premise of which was... interesting. In revenge for their defeat in the Shadow War, the Drakh launch an attack on Earth. Being defeated, they then launch one final assault - seeding the planet with a plague that proceeds to become a pandemic. And so the people of Earth batten down the hatches and desperately try to ride out the storm, while the experimental ship Excalibur and a crack team of experts race to try to find a cure.

Which is all depressingly familiar.

Unfortunately, there's another sting in this tale: the answer to "what happens next?" is not a happy one. "Crusade" failed almost completely, and as a consequence was cancelled after thirteen episodes. So either I don't know... or worse.

Community Spirit

It's funny, but we've had more contact with our neighbours in the last few weeks than in the two years prior to that. Before you panic, I should note that that has been from a distance - we have of course been taking the necessary steps to reduce risks, both to ourselves and to others.

But about a week ago LC took round notes to the near neighbours giving out contact details and offering assistance in case of need. As a result of that we were invited to the neighbourhood Facebook group, and things have gone from there.

Last night, as part of the morale-boosting efforts, I was asked to play "Flower of Scotland" on the pipes at 8pm. Which was nice.

Of course, we're not the only people to be doing things like this - videos have circulated of people in Edinburgh singing "Sunshine on Leith", Italians belting out "Nessun Dorma", and so on. Suddenly, it does seem that we've started to step back from a very atomised society towards something more resembling communities again.

Even a pandemic, it seems, has a silver lining or two.

#13: "Heroes", by Stephen Fry

Too Much Speculation

For the most part, the 24-hour news cycle is actually quite a good thing - people can dip in to the news when they want, get a quick update on everything, and drop back out again. That's during normal times, of course.

During extraordinary times, though, there's a problem - everyone is focussed on one topic, everyone is desperate for information, but there isn't actually anything to report. The news stations can't really report on much else, because of their audience's monomaniacal focus on that one topic, but they have to fill 24 hours with nothing.

And as a consequence, they proceed to fill the airwaves with lots of experts of various stripes who proceed to speculate at some length about what might happen. The problem being that one of two things is true: (1) either they're not privy to what is going to happen, in which case their expertise is limited in the key area of interest; or (2) they are privy to the next steps but aren't able to reveal that information ahead of time, in which case they can't comment on the key area of interest.

Meanwhile, of course, there are all the other talking heads that the media channels get on because the actual experts aren't available. And so we have the madness of Nigel Farage, or Caprice, or Stanley Johnson being asked to opine on a topic that they know bugger all about.

Finally, starved of real information, social media and informal networks of course rush in to fill the void - but they can't actually fill it with real information, so what you get (if you're lucky) is people's well-meaning best guesses.

The upshot of all of this is that it is really easy to just let yourself saturate in nonsense, misinformation, and endless speculation. Which can be really unhealthy.

All of which is a long-winded way to say I won't be commenting on how I foresee any of this to go, I won't be commenting on the political responses (either from Boris or Nicola, nor even Donald), and so on. I probably will comment on how we're getting on, but it will almost entirely be focused on the past tense - even locally, the future is too unclear to comment sensibly.

Lockdown

After a few weeks of speculation, we finally received the instruction that the office was closing. We're to work from home for the foreseeable future. (They've said until the end of April, but the reality is that that's likely to change.)

Funnily enough, I'm not sure that that will affect me all that much. Work have put a great deal of money into providing us with powerful tools for remote working, so this should just be a case of actually using them. In which case, the major impact will be that I won't have to commute each morning.

(In practice, it won't be just so easy: on the days when LC and FS are at home, being able to isolate myself in order to work will be a challenge. And I'm far from convinced that the schools and/or nursery are going to remain open. But given how fast everything is changing, there's not much benefit in speculating.)

Anyway, it's something of a relief to have the decision finally made - it's been a case of knowing that this was coming, but not knowing exactly when. Now that it's done, we can start to adapt.

How to Resolve the Season - My Proposal

The SPFL announced yesterday that football was suspended until further notice. I think they are hoping to resume in just a few weeks, run into the slot vacated by the sure-to-be-cancelled Euro 2020 competition, and thus complete the season a little late. I think that's wildly optimistic - the peak of this thing is estimated to be 10-14 weeks away, so I'd expect them to be shut down for months.

That raises the question of what to do about the season, if it cannot be concluded in any reasonable time-frame. Do they just conclude it as-is, declare Celtic the champions and Hearts relegated? Or do they declare the season void, and start afresh with things as they stand?

The problem is that there is no fair solution. And for Dundee United and Hearts, in particular, any decision that is taken will have profound financial implications - relegation for one means promotion for the other, and vice versa.

So here's what I propose:

1. Whenever it is considered safe and appropriate to resume football, pick up the league season as it stands, no matter how long that takes. Play out the final dozen or so matches with all reasonable speed, and thus complete the season.

2. As soon as it becomes apparent that the league cannot be completed by the start of June (when contracts tend to expire) open a transfer window, to run until the season resumes. Yes, this means that the squads that come back are not the ones who have played so far, but I think we just have to accept that. (Besides, technically there's nothing to stop a team recruiting an entirely new squad in January, so that's a possibility anyway.) They might want to put a spending limit on clubs for this window.

3. While the season remains paused, suspend any and all penalties associated with entering administration, provided the club has come back out by the time the season resumes.

4. However, in the unfortunate case where clubs simply fold in the interim, treat this as would be the case anyway - they're assumed to lose all remaining matches by some known scoreline (3-0, I think?), and that's that. That really sucks, I know, but we'll just have to deal with it.

Then, once the current season has run to a completion, have a fairly short close-season, and then set up for the next season of competitions.

However, for that season, depending on the time that needs to be made up, either contract or extend the season to suit. (For instance, if they need to make up a month, they could have everyone play each other twice, then have the split, then have two sets of post-split matches. Or they could remove all cup replays. Or whatever.)

The benefit of that is two-fold: firstly, it means there's no need for a ruling that will massively impact either Hearts or Dundee United (and also both gives Celtic the benefit of the lead they have deservedly built up without putting a big asterisk beside their 9-in-a-row). Secondly, by deferring any compromises until next season they allow everyone to play on with a level playing field, because the rules are agreed before they take effect.

At least, that's what I'd do.

#12: "Sharpe's Eagle", by Bernard Cornwell

New Mini-list

I'm a big fan of Bernard Cornwell, and over the years I've read most of the novels that he has published. But there has always been one massive gap: I haven't really tackled many of his Sharpe novels, despite these being his most famous works. The reason for this is that my experience of "Sharpe's Waterloo" was not terribly good - it all felt just a bit too close to the TV episode of the same name.

However, I have been struggling for new series to read for some time, and so following a happier encounter with "Sharpe's Rifles" I have now settled on that series of novels as one of my mini-lists for 2020 (and into 2021).

According to Wikipedia there are 21 novels in all, plus three short stories. Of these, I have now read five. That means that I should finish the series around June next year, which is pretty good.

(That said, I am somewhat mindful of the possibility that I might find the next few too close to the series again, in which case I'll rethink my approach. But here's hoping that "Waterloo" was something of an outlier - I have reason to think that that might well be the case.)

#11: "Sharpe's Havoc", by Bernard Cornwell

Time To Let Go?

I've been on a bit of a "Firefly" kick since the start of the year, reading through three of the new graphic novels by Boom! Studios and the first of the new "Firefly" novels, "Big Damn Hero". And for the most part I've been enjoying them - they do a decent job capturing the spirit of the show and the various characters, the plots move on at a decent clip, and while they're not exactly high literature they are at least entertaining.

But I can't help but consider that "Firefly" was a show that ran for a single season in 2002-03, which was then followed by the film "Serenity" in 2005. That's now fifteen years ago, or more than a third of my life.

(Of course, in that time we have had persistent but unrealised rumours that there was going to be a continuation of some form. I've long thought that that would be a bad idea, especially following the death of Ron Glass. If they're to bring it back, my preference would be for a complete reboot - leave the original to stand as it is, and see if the concept has legs. But that's just me.)

The upshot of this is that I'm thinking maybe it's better to just let "Firefly" go. It was good, it's done, move on...

#10: "Firefly: Big Damn Hero", by James Lovegrove

The Evil Algebra Trap

Last night as I was going to bed, I chanced to see something that LC had left open on the PC. It was a simple puzzle, that boiled down to three simultaneous equations to be solved for x.

Alas, just like Admiral Ackbar, I realised too late: it's a trap!

I found myself unable to sleep, with this puzzle left unsolved. How annoying. After several minutes of this, I proceeded to get up, go and solve the puzzle (£2.50), and then returned to bed. The problem solved, I had no difficulty going to sleep... well, no more than usual anyway.

And that is the tale of the Evil Algebra Trap.

His Dark Materials

It has taken a while, but LC and I finished up the first series of "His Dark Materials" at the weekend. This is the start of an adaptation of the trilogy by the same name by Philip Pullman, covering the first novel and parts of the second.

For the most part I very much enjoyed it. I did feel that the first three episodes took a long time to get going, but then episodes four to seven were very good indeed. Unfortunately, the final episode was a nonsense of sound and fury, and therefore nowhere near as good as what went before, but it was still okay - and the final twist somehow still managed to surprise me. I guess it's just been a very long time since I read the trilogy.

I should note that I thought the decision to move some of the second novel into the first series was a very wise choice. Otherwise, the sudden and total shift in emphasis would likely have been quite jarring when we go into the second series. As it stands, much of the groundwork has been laid, allowing them to push on with some of the meatier story aspects sooner. All in all, a good choice.

And that's that. How nice to be able to actually be positive about something on the BBC for once!

Theme of the Month: Catch-up

As I said in my most recent update on goals, I've fallen behind on almost every front over the past few weeks. I've actually slipped a little further still since then.

So the theme for March is to catch up - to make up ground on my reading target, on the blog, and on the work front also. Let's see if that's any more successful than January's theme was...

Just a Thought

Could we maybe tell Boris that Scotland is pregnant, and we think that the baby might be his? We'd be independent within days!

#9: "Fall on Your Knees", by Ann-Marie MacDonald (a book from The List)