The Big Shop

For the past few months, the Tesco shop has been first thing on a Friday morning - I would drop Funsize at nursery, head to Tesco, get it done, and then start work for the day. This has the big advantage of getting to the store when it's really quiet, and also doesn't take away from any of my 'good' time - that is, evenings or weekends.

Unfortunately, yesterday I was booked in meetings from 8.30 right through the whole day, which meant that I couldn't do the weekly shop. And, of course, the next two Fridays are unavailable due to the store being closed. This meant that the weekly shop this week had to be pushed back to today, and had to get enough supplies in to last us well past Christmas.

And, to add to the fun, I discovered this morning when assembling the list that many of our stocks had run out, so that needed added. The upshot of that was that today's list was going to be a big one - and to be done on a Saturday which is, of course, the worst possible day of the week to go for.

In the event, it wasn't too bad. Although I just couldn't face getting up at 6am this morning, I did get ready reasonably early, and so got there before the big rush. And thanks to a carefully-constructed list, I was able to get around reasonably quickly. The only real annoyance was in the few occasions when I really wanted to get past someone - which is normally fine, but not an option in these days.

I'm now very hopeful that I've got everything to cover us until the Monday after Christmas. I really don't want to have to head out again before the big day - each day is just going to be that bit worse, and the only day I'm not working is Christmas Eve. But if there's a need...

But with that, and all being well, that's all my preparation for Christmas done.

The Seductive Danger of Big Numbers

Today the government has announced that they have vaccinated more than 130,000 people in the first week since they began. Which is absolutely fantastic news. Except...

Firstly, they haven't vaccinated anyone yet - all three of the vaccines require two doses, significantly spread in time. So what they've actually done is given 130k people the first dose. That's not the same thing.

Significantly more concerning, though, is what that says about the overall problem. The thing is, 130,000 people is indeed a lot. But the population of the UK is 66.65 million or so.

What that means is that to get to everyone, if we proceed at that rate, we'll take more than 9 years. Just for the first dose. (Fortunately, you don't need to get to everyone... just 80% of people. So that's 7 years and 9 months.)

I really don't mean to denigrate the achievements here. Just getting the vaccine out is fantastic, and delivering 130,000 doses is great.

But the news isn't as good as is being made out. We really need to be targeting at least 300k doses delivered per day - at least a 15-fold increase in the rate. That would allow us to deal with the virus in about a year.

Perhaps more important even than that, we need a media that actually provide that context, because big numbers are seductive and can be misleading.

Three Down...

As I noted late last month, I had four tasks for Christmas: the decorations, the cards, the presents, and the food. As of this weekend the final presents have been purchased and, where applicable, wrapped. The cards were dealt with last weekend and the decorations the week before so, unless I've forgotten something, I have now completed three of my four tasks.

I should also note that in that time I have also managed my Christmas baking - another batch of mince pies. These were great, but for two small details: firstly, the plan had been for Funsize to help with these, but she opted to sleep instead; secondly, Funsize also rejected the mince pies as something to eat, which left me with the full batch to consume. Oh, the horrors!

Anyway, the upshot is that I now only have a single task remaining for Christmas, which leaves me with a Christmas that is perhaps not stress-free (since nothing is this year), but is at least as relaxed as the year will allow. Which is a win in my book.

(The menu for the Christmas food has been settled on also - turkey dinner with the usual trimmings on the day, followed by a turkey and ham casserole on Boxing Day, and then curried turkey later in the week. LC is going to provide the starter and the dessert on Christmas Day, and we'll be having a non-alcoholic sparkling not-wine with the meal. And, of course, a nice buffet supper later.)

The Celestine Prophecy

One of the advantages of having a reading list put together by others is that every so often I come across a good, or even great, book that I otherwise wouldn't have seen - "The Shadow of the Wind" and "The Kite Runner" being key examples (though even things like "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" were more enjoyable than I'd expected).

The flip side of that, however, is that every so often you come across a real stinker. Sadly, "The Celestine Prophecy" falls into that category.

The problems start right from the outset. The novel is built around the mystery of nine "insights", which the hero goes in search of. But the first of these establishes the notion that there are no coincidences - that as soon as you become aware of the First Insight you will start generating coincidences to take you forward.

Which, of course, means that the rest of the plot is then built on a sequence of coincidences, with the hero just happening to encounter exactly the right person, circumstance, or event to take the plot forward.

Thereafter, the book has a fairly routine sequence - the hero meets some character who just happens to have access to the next insight, which leads to long and preachy discussions in which this insight is expounded. These insights being a mix of low-grade philosophy, misappropriated scientific jargon, and unadulterated hippie crap.

Meanwhile, our hero is opposed by a bunch of faceless good with no real direction or purpose, except of course to advance the plot. Every so often it looks like some action might break out... but it tends not to, due to fortuitous coincidences.

Ultimately, it all feels like a less well-written version of "The Da Vinci Code", minus the compelling protagonist, the interesting antagonists, the thrilling plot-twists, and the car chases that causes it to race along. Pretty much the only redeeming feature of the thing is that it's only 331 pages and ticks along at a fairly good pace.

Avoid.

#59: "The Celestine Prophecy", by James Redfield (a book from The List)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Spiced Chicken with Couscous

This one comes from "The Hairy Bikers' Mediterranean Adventure". Like many of their recipes, this one is straightforward, and although the elapsed time was about an hour a lot of that was taken up with waiting.

The resulting meal was really nice, although Funsize refused it outright. The only tweak I'm inclined to make is to switch the chicken legs for thighs, and get the "bone out" variety - my understanding is that they don't taste as good, but I really don't like the hassle of bones.

There's not really anything much to say about this. It was good, we'll have it again, but it doesn't make its way into my all-time favourites list.

Jack Ryan

My experience with Tom Clancy's hero is somewhat mixed - I've read one of the novels but didn't like it, I've seen all but one of the films and liked three of them, and I've now seen both seasons of the Amazon Prime series. I very much enjoyed the first season, which felt like it had the makings of a decent "24" replacement.

But the second season was a disappointment - all through it I was waiting for a big twist, such that it turned out that the obvious evil bad guy wasn't actually the bad guy... and it just never happened.

So the 50% hit rate seems to be holding up. Given that "Shadow Recruit" is also available on Prime, I'll probably find time to watch that in the next few weeks, for completeness if nothing else. And I'll watch season three of the series if it ever materialises (naturally, with the events of this year, everything is much more uncertain than it once was).

I'm not sure if that's a recommendation or not. Guess you'll just have to see for yourself. (I would give the trailer a go. That gives a pretty good idea of what it's about, without too many spoilers. So pretty much does what a trailer is supposed to do.)

#58: "Sharpe's Christmas", by Bernard Cornwell

Snow Day! Oh... no, wait

 It snowed last night, much to Funsize's excitement.

Naturally, the main consideration I have when it snows is whether I'll be able to get the car out, and therefore whether I'll be able to go to work or not. Of course, that's yet another thing that the pandemic has ruined for us - if the answer had been "no", I would still have had to work - though I'd have had to look after Funsize at the same time.

As it happened, I was able to get the car out fine, so she went to nursery and I have retreated to my box. And all is well... ish with the world.

That's all.

#57: "Icewind Dale - Rime of the Icemaiden", from Wizards of the Coast

Theme for Next Month: Christmas

Perhaps inevitably, the theme for December will be Christmas. It's going to be a really strange one this year, but in some ways that just makes it more important.

At the time of writing I have completed four of my tasks for Christmas:

• The decorations are up. This was done over the course of the weekend, yesterday being the first Sunday in Advent.
• Given the greater importance of greeting cards this year, I will of course take on my share of filling them out and posting them. At least some of these will need done very soon, but as of just now it is a task that has not been started.
• There are the presents to buy and to wrap. I have one more present to choose and a further three to buy (though one of these is itself made up of several small items). Alas, at least one of these would benefit from the shops being open, but I'll find a way to manage.
• Finally, there is the Christmas food. For the second time, I'll be cooking a Christmas Dinner. Naturally, this will be the final task to conclude, though there may be some things to do in preparation.

More than all of that, though, I'll need to give some thought to how this Christmas will be different from the norm, and try to find ways to make it extra-special, especially for Funsize, who is perhaps enjoying the experience fully for the first time.

Theme of the Month: Wash Up

 As is probably obvious, this has been a hugely productive month for blogging, largely because I've made sure to actually write things! I suspect the output has been more than a little patchy in quality, but it has at least been present, which is the first step.

The upshot is that I am now close to being caught up on both blogs, and hopefully in a position to finish the year having achieved my targets!

Celtic's Management Woes

Something has gone horribly wrong at Celtic, and it's realy hard to see Neil Lennon surviving the last bad result. My personal suspicion is that he simply has a natural lifespan at any club, after which his style starts to grate, his opponents work out how to beat him, and things just naturally come to an end.

Unfortunately for Celtic, it's really hard to see how they can get a new manager who they can afford, who is willing to take on the job, and who understands the importance of this season above all others. The two names put into the fray - Gordon Strachan and Martin O'Neill - both feel like retrograde steps, but it's hard to come up with any better alternative.

All that said, it's probably for the best of everyone in Scottish football (except for Celtic of course) if they don't win ten-in-a-row. Firstly because it shows just how pathetically weak our game is that one club can dominate to that extent, but secondly because that then immediately creates a new obsession - forever after the other side will have to equal, or better the achievement. I'm afraid the whole thing is just poisonous.

(Finally, it is of course worth noting that Rangers have had a collapse in the second half of both the previous two seasons. Despire the way they're currently playing, there really isn't any guarantee it wouldn't happen again.)

The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special

 I can't believe I forgot to blog about the new Star Wars Holiday Special!

The original Holiday Special is of course legendary, largely due to being awful. It has two redeeming features:

• It introduced Boba Fett to the world (though, of course, I maintain that he is wildly over-rated)
• It is almost impossible to find, meaning that almost nobody has actually seen it, actually including me.

However, one of the key benefits of switching to the Lego format is that this enabled them to lean in to the inherent silliness of the occasion - since both the concept of a Holiday Special for Star Wars and the various Lego animations are rather goofy, the people making this could simply lean in to it and come to something that was actually rather fun.

And so it is with this holiday special - don't go in expecting a hard-hitting adventure, a massive new piece of Star Wars lore, or anything like that; don't expect the plot to really make too much sense or to hold up under scrutiny; and don't over-think it. Just watch, enjoy, and have the occasional chuckle.

Or watch something else instead - that is, of course, also a valid option.

A Suitable Boy

As it happened, I was in the midst of reading the novel just as the BBC started their TV adaptation of "A Suitable Boy", so we set it to record and left it at that. In the event, LC decided she wasn't interested, so I've watched it myself, finishing last night.

After what they had done to "War and Peace", "Les Miserables" and "The War of the Worlds", I was really nervous about this adaptation. As it happened, though, those fears were unwarranted - always nice when that happens.

"A Suitable Boy" is a very long, very detailed book. Cutting it down to six hours is a massive task. Fortunately, the structure of the novel seems to have supported that well - although the six episodes remain extremely dense, the major plot points have been covered well. The material excised has almost entirely taken the form of subplots that have just been dropped - there's an entire story about Pran's health and career that simply doesn't appear, for instance.

The cast of this adaptation are universally excellent, with those playing Maan and Firoz being particularly of note - the relationship between those two is key to almost the whole novel, and the actors portray that perfectly.

The only character that didn't feel quite right was Haresh - his performance was absolutely fine, and captured the essence of the character, but... the impression I got from the novel was that Haresh was a very plain man, distinguished only when he smiled. The actor here was perhaps rather too attractive for the role. (Then again, maybe it's a case of "TV ugly"?)

But that's a tiny, tiny nitpick. The adaptation was excellent, and I would highly recommend it.

#56: "Faeries", by Brian Froud and Alan Lee

Spidersbane

Poor Funsize got a bit of a fright the other night - she had decided to sit on the floor to finish her dinner, only for a mid-size spider to sneak along the floor to join her. And at a stroke all my efforts to persuade her that spiders are, by and large, both friendly and harmless were undone.

Anyway, I sprang into action, caught the spider in a glass, and then ejected it from the house. It will bother us no more. As a result of this great deed, I am now claiming the title of Spidersbane... at least for now.

I may lay it down again once the offended spider returns intent on wreaking a terrible vengeance!

#55: "The Long Tomorrow", by Leigh Brackett

If Looks Could Kill...

I would have died rather confused yesterday.

I've been feeling pretty lousy all week (almost certainly just because I ate something that didn't agree with me - certainly nothing to do with Covid). And, amongst various tweaks to try to improve my general health, I've decided to start taking a vitamin D supplement, as that deficiency is rife in Scotland. (In previous years I think I've probably been okay, but this year has of course seen me spending a lot more time indoors than previously... especially now.)

So I went to an appropriate shop and picked up said vitamin D supplement. Heading to the checkouts from there, I noticed that the one directly in front of me had a single customer who was just finishing up - and indeed had finished up by the time I got there. So, rather than head to the self-checkout (and potentially have to wait for authorisation to buy what is, after all, medicine), I figured I'd take advantage of the lull and go there.

Except that the checkout assistant gave me the blackest look, and doubled down on it when I said "just that, please". It was most odd.

I suppose it's just about possible that it's about minimising contact - yes, it was just one item, and yes I could have gone to self-checkout and possibly have reduced the contact by one. But I really didn't expect something so blandly inoffensive to become blog-worthy!

Anyway, in other news: this weekend just can't come soon enough!

Experimental Cookery 2020: Rich Pork Goulash with Gnocchi

This one came from "The Great British Bake Off Winter Kitchen" - a book that I like more in theory than in practice, though one that does have some good entries. This one caught my eye largely for the gnocchi, which I really like. (Though LC, alas, does not. Funsize also refused.)

Anyway, this was a quick and easy preparation followed by a long, slow bake - ideal time to go off and do something else. There's certainly a lot to be said for just allowing the oven to take the strain!

The result was very nice. LC certainly enjoyed it a bit more than the goat goulash we've had before. I also thought it was fine, though I remain uncertain as to whether the remaining two portions will freeze okay. All in all a success.

Why There Must be a Plan B

The SNP want Scottish Independence. I suspect that's not a controversial statement. They also very much want that to come about as a result of a binding referendum, held under the authority of a Section 30 Order from Westminster. And I agree that that would be the ideal way forward - the two sides agreeing the terms of the contest, and then the people of Scotland being given the decision to make.

But...

Given the way the polls stand it would be the height of folly to assume that Westminster will grant that Section 30 Order, regardless of the outcome of the election next year. Indeed, the stronger the showing by the SNP, the greater the motivation for Westminster to try to avoid a referendum.

The thing is, if the polls are at all accurate (and a long sequence of similar results suggests they are), then it is likely that the PM who grants a Section 30 Order will go down in history as the PM who ended the United Kingdom. (Of course, that may be inevitable. Were I the leader of Sinn Fein, I would be biden my time until late January, and then calling loudly and long for a poll on Irish reunification. The strict terms for holding one have been met, and with the new President being a huge friend of Ireland, indeed considering himself to be Irish, Westminster probably couldn't resist that one. And with Brexit causing at least some pragmatic Unionists to value the economic benefits of remaining in the EU over the emotional pull of remaining in the UK, we may well be at, or very close to, the tipping point.)

Anyway, back to Scotland...

If we accept that there is at least the possibility that the PM of the day will just say no, regardless of the democratic will of Scots, then there must be a Plan B - what are the SNP going to do next?

Now, at this point the First Minister's loyalists will advise people just to trust Nicola, assuring them that she has a plan, and that all will be well. But there's a problem with that...

Even if we accept that Nicola does indeed have a Plan B, primed and ready to spring into action should Boris (or his successor) refuse a Section 30 Order, she will need to have a mandate to carry it out - it will have had to go before the electorate and been endorsed (or rejected, of course - but in that case all of this becomes moot).

It's not enough to have a Plan B for what happens if the Section 30 Order continues to be refused. That Plan B must be in the manifesto.

#54: "Sharpe's Regiment", by Bernard Cornwell

Experimental Cookery 2020: Veggie Quesadillas

This was one that Jamie did on his "Keep Cooking" show, with the recipe being posted online afterwards. It looked good at the time, so I felt I needed to give it a go. And, of course, I've mentioned before that I'd like to increase our range of vegetarian meals, so I figured I'd give it a go.

This proved to be nice and easy - finely chop a bunch of stuff, mix with cheese, and then sanwich with tortillas and heat. And I rather enjoyed it. LC wasn't so keen.

In future, I think it needs somewhat fewer veggies and quite a bit more cheese. And less in general. Oh, and maybe a little ham.

But it was mostly successful, I thought, and I think we'll have them again... occasionally.

Never Happier to be Wrong

About a month ago, I wrote: However, given that this is Scotland and we specialise in losing in the most heartbreaking way possible, that match will no doubt be the one where we finally put in a great performance, score early one, then desperately defend for the rest of the match... only to lose two goals in injury time. Or something like that.

Last night, that prediction came horribly close to coming true - the strong performance, the early-ish goal, the desperate defence, and then one going very late in the game. And then extra time. As the clock neared 120 minutes, Serbia got another corner, a carbon copy of the one from which they got the goal, and I was certain it was going in again.

But it didn't, and we went to penalties. And, somehow, Scotland have managed to retain our 100% record in penalty shoot-outs. Huzzah!

And so, we're off to a major tournament for the first time in 23 years, and travelling to the distant and exotic cities of, um, Glasgow and London.

A Merry Christmas for my Nemeses

As I've mentioned before, back in the dim and distant archives of this blog, I count the greetings card industry as one of my nemeses. The major reason for this is that greetings cards are basically an example of something people do because you 'have' to do it, at unreasonable cost for almost no benefit, and with significant environmental downsides at that.

Basically, I object to the fact that a huge number of people are busy sending bits of card through the post every year to send one another entirely impersonal personal messages of well-wishes that they don't really mean, and that are only ever acknowledged in their absence.

But.

This year of all years is one where suddenly it all does make sense. It is extremely likely that we won't be able to gather for Christmas, which means that those seasons greetings won't be shared in person. Which sucks, but there it is. And that being the case, suddenly there is some value in using another means to send them. While Zoom and similar alternatives are available, they just aren't the same.

And so, this year... and only this year... I will be doing my bit to support the efforts of my nemeses to part people from their hard-earned cash. Because for once, they're actually offering a somewhat-meaningful service.

Just don't expect it to last!

#53: "The Sword Saint", by C.F. Iggulden

Fiat Lux

I have run into an unexpected issue with working from home. When we began, we were just leaving th winter months behind, which meant that I was starting my day just after dawn and finishing up while it was still light. Over the last month or so, however, that has shifted - I now start before daylight, and then finish just as it's getting really dark - and it's never really getting all that light anyway.

The upshot of that is that I'm a lot more reliant on artificial lighting than was previously the case and, sad to say, the lights in the study just don't cut it. Worse, the nature of the light fitting in that room does not lend itself readily to swapping in brighter bulbs, and so the light I've got is, unfortunaely, about the limit.

For the moment, my workaround will be to pull in a standing lamp. This isn't ideal, especially since we kinda need that lamp in another room as well, but it's probably better than nothing. However, it does mean that as we head towards the shortest days I'm more and more going to be on the lookout for a better solution.

#52: "I Know This Much Is True", by Wally Lamb (a book from The List)

The Thing I Didn't Want to Do

Yesterday afternoon I caught myself - there was a task that I really had to do, but it was just hard. Frankly, I didn't want to do it. And so I had spent the better part of two days doing absolutely anything but work on the task at hand. It was all good, worthwhile stuff, but it really wasn't the priority. And, of course, as long as I didn't get the big thing done, it remained an ongoing source of stress.

Anyway, I then focused my efforts have have since dealt with the task. So that's good. But obviously not an ideal situation to have been in the first place.

Hello Old Friend

I received an email from an old friend this morning. That was a very pleasant surprise - I had assumed that that friendship was pretty definitively ended. (There wasn't any drama there. It's just shockingly easy to simply lose contact. The days pile up and become months, the months become years... and then all that's needed is a house move, email address change, or similar, and the connection is gone.)

So, anyway, good to hear from him. Hopefully, that marks a reopening of those lines of communication, rather than just a blip. I really must do better on that front!

#51: "Fantastic Mr Fox", by Roald Dahl (a book for Funsize)

At the Crossroads

Well, today's the day. Today, America goes to the polls to decide whether we continue along the darkest timeline, or whether to change course for one that is marginally less terrible. It looks like they're also deciding whether we go for a No Deal Brexit, or whether Boris chickens out and begs for something slightly less bad.

I really wish I was more hopeful than I am. And I really wish the Democrats had a better candidate, though I'm hard pressed to think who that might be - it's a fairly damning indictment that "he's not Trump" is the very best accolade that can be given to their very best candidate. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren blew it, and Sanders was never going to be elected in the US. So Biden it is.

Good luck everyone!

Theme of the Month: Blogs

The theme for this month is "blogs" - I'm going to attempt to get caught up on blogging, both here and on the Imaginarium. So my intent will be to post roughly daily on one or other of the two blogs, until such time as I'm caught up.

We'll see if that works out, but it's going to need some fairly drastic action if I'm going to meet my stated goal for the year!

Halloween 2020

Due to the pandemic Halloween was of course rather different this year. Rather than just having the kids miss out completely, our estate organised a suitably distanced affair - those houses that wanted to be involved decorated the outside of the houses, put up a pumpkin sign in the window, and then left sweets outside to be collected.

Funsize dressed up as a butterfly, although the effect was lessened somewhat by needing a jacket over her costume. We then walked around the estate observing all the various decorations, and making the customary collection.

It was fine. In fact, if I'm honest I think I prefer it this way - I'm not a huge fan of Halloween in general, so being able to boil it down the essentials and to remove the need to answer the door was a definite boon for me.

So that one is no great loss. Bonfire Night will be much more of a loss, of course, with all the organised events being cancelled. On the other hand, Bonfire Night is frankly rather problematic, so maybe that's for the best, too.

That leaves Christmas, of course. Unfortunately, I can't see any possibility of it being even remotely normal this year (and, frankly, it shouldn't be - the pandemic just isn't going to go away in the next eight weeks). But that's a topic for another post...

#50: "Fire and Blood", by George R.R. Martin

Day 300: Update on Goals

We've now reached day 300 of the year, so here's the latest update:

• Books: By day 300 I should have read 49.18 books. After having fallen behind by the last update, I'm pleased to say that I have caught up - I'm almost exactly bang on target. I'm also up-to-date on all the sublists, with only one book from the "New Books" sublist to finish by the end of this month to be there.
• Weight: This isn't happening.
• Blogging: I'm some way behind target on this blog and well behind on the Imaginarium. I now think it's unlikely that either blog will reach the targets set by the end of the year.
• Work: There has been something of a setback, such that even for next year this goal seems unlikely. Which is desperately frustrating, but can't be helped. Since it's not a goal I was going to carry over, I've decided not to worry about it too much.

So, that's one back on target, one heading for failure, and two definite failures. Given the mess that has been 2020 generally that's a fairly small matter, but it's still an annoyance.

#47: "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" by Roald Dahl (a book for Funsize)

#48: "The Lies of Locke Lamora", by Scott Lynch

#49: "Fifth Business", by Robertson Davies (a book from The List)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Lamb Chops

This one was a recipe passed to LC shortly before our wedding. I don't know the original providence. It would perhaps be more accurate to describe it as shredded lamb with salad and a chilli and mint dressing.

Once again, this was a nice easy meal to put together, and was very nice indeed. The dressing was extremely hot, so that has to be factored in - this isn't one for the faint-hearted!

I think we're more likely to have this again than the previous entry, though I'd be inclined to make use of some leftover roast lamb rather than chops. Additionally, it is worth noting that this meal wasn't really enough for us - we ended up ordering a pizza later in the evening. It could do with some sort of carbohydrate to bulk it out, in addition to the recommended rolls.

Experimental Cookery 2020: Chicken and Tomato Stew

This one came from the Tesco magazine of a few months ago, and was pretty much exactly what the name implies. It was easy, and surprisingly quick, to put together. The only thing to note was that the cooking time for the chicken was wildly, and even dangerously, short. Otherwise, I have no complaints there.

Unfortunately, while it was okay it was rather bland. This isn't a meal I think we'll have again. A shame.

#46: "The Last Wish", by Andrzej Sapkowski (the first volume in "The Witcher" series)

Astonishing

I find it extremely surprising that Scotland can play as badly as they did last night and still win a game of football. Pretty much the only positive from the experience was that we somehow have a perfect record on penalty shoot-outs - not only have we never lost one, we've never failed to score a penalty in a shoot-out. Granted, that's out of a sample size of one, and five penalties taken.

Bluntly, Scotland did not deserve to win that match. But then, Israel didn't deserve to win either - frankly, if that's the standard, the fairest result was just to eliminate both teams. But since there had to be a winner.

The final playoff match is against Serbia next month, to be played somewhere in Serbia (probably Belgrade). Based on the performance last night, and the comparitive performance of Norway and Serbia, we're looking at a thrashing. However, given that this is Scotland and we specialise in losing in the most heartbreaking way possible, that match will no doubt be the one where we finally put in a great performance, score early one, then desperately defend for the rest of the match... only to lose two goals in injury time. Or something like that.

Alas, I'm afraid I don't really hold out much hope of us actually getting through. And not just because of my prediction that we would never qualify this side of independence - that held a caveat that it wouldn't apply if they changed the rules to just let anyone in, and adding a route to the playoffs for the winner of the lowest-ranked Nations League group does pretty much do that. But based on performances under the current and previous manager, and given the performance of the opposition... I'm sorry, I just can't see it.

But it would be nice to be wrong. Maybe 2020 can surprise us?

Sickened

The revelations from the Alex Salmond inquiry have become something of a deluge in the last few days, and frankly have left me sickened. It's really starting to look like there really was a conspiracy to stitch him up, and further that people right at the top of the SNP were heavily involved.

Which is horrifying, for a few reasons. The first, and most important, outcome of all of this is that we really need to find out the actual truth of this urgently, and find out exactly where the trails lead. It remains just about possible, though almost incredible now, that there's nothing to see here. But the hope of that is rapidly shrinking - the lack of transparency about it all leaves me extremely concerned.

If the outcome of all of this is indeed damning, then those involved have to go, whoever they may be. If they do not, and especially if this whole thing is dragged out, then the consequences could be disastrous.

But the unltimate reason I find this so sickening is this: if there was indeed a conspiracy led by key SNP people and they don't clear them out urgently, then the net effect of that is that the SNP government will have to be replaced.

But the only alternative to an SNP government is some sort of alliance of the Unionist parties, and those parties frankly don't have two brain cells between them to rub together. Damningly, it is a unique selling point of the SNP that they are the only party that are able to offer remotely capable governance (even if even that is just barely). Putting any one of the Unionist parties in charge, never mind a fractious alliance of more than one of them, would be profoundly irresponsible.

But it's worse even than that. Because I'm now of the opinion that Scotland must become independent as soon as possible, and that it is indeed a matter of life and death. Because the only thing protecting us from the UK government's malicious evil is their lethal incompetence.

But only an SNP majority even has a chance of delivering an independence referendum. Albeit an extremely small chance - frankly, I think Nicola Sturgeon has largely given up on that dream.

As I said, it's sickening. We must have an SNP majority, and may well also be in a position where we have to kick out that same SNP government, to replace it with an alternative that we know will be a disaster.

There is a very real possibility that my vote in May will be my last ever vote.

The Testamants

I meant to blog about this at the time, but completely forgot...

A few weeks ago I read "The Testaments" by Margaret Atwood. I must admint that I approached this one with a significant degree of trepidation - "The Handmaid's Tale" is excellent, but my fear is that it could be another "Go Set a Watchman". That is, a novel that undermines the foundations of the original so thoroughly as to actively lessen it. Further, given that the TV series had become increasingly weaker the further it strayed from the source material, I had become concerned that the more that was revealed about Gilead the more the underlying silliness of the premise would appear.

(It also didn't help that this was a case where the reviews were utterly useless - regardless of what was contained within the covers the reviews were inevitably going to be glowing, and of course it was going to win the Booker Prize. The politics of it all demanded that that be the case, and rendered any judgement rendered useless.)

As it turned out, my fears were almost entirely unfounded. "The Testaments" is a great novel - not a classic of the same calibre of "The Handmaid's Tale", but a worthy companion piece. It's extremely well written, it ties in very well both to the original and the TV series, and although all the big revelations are pretty much immediately obvious, there's still a certain amount of tension to be wrung out of them.

I do have one small issue with the novel, though, and it applies to the TV series also. (And, if I'm honest, to most TV series...) But before I get into that, I should warn you that major spoilers follow. If you don't want to know, best skip the next paragraph...

The issue is this: just because a character is prominent within his or her story, and is the protagonist of the book, TV show, movie, or whatever does not mean that they are particularly significant within the world in which they live. Offred is stronger as some random person who happens to leave behind a journal, the Anne Frank of Gilead, than as some legendary freedom fighter who births the two women who ultimately bring Gilead down. That those two daughters also happen to fall into the orbit of Aunt Lydia, who is here transformed from a largely-unknown villain into the heroic double-agent who provides the explosives is... not the best. By trying to make these characters more, they are ultimately made less.

But I've complained about that before (in the context of Firefly/Serenity) and, ultimately, it's a very minor nit to pick. Other than that, I'm happy to give the novel a glowing recommendation - as I noted, I had had some fears, but they proved entirely unfounded. So that's a win.

#45: "Sharpe's Honour", by Bernard Cornwell

Bookends

It looks like Covid-19 has effectively killed the cinema industry. That's not really surprising - to be honest, it has been a struggling medium for some time, given the rise of streaming, the improvements in home TV equipment recently, and the demands of the studios for ever-increasing cuts of the ticket prices. Factor in much reduced capacities, a big hit on their ability to sell popcorn (which was largely keeping them afloat), and the general paranoia that inevitably accompanies the experience, and the writing was on the wall. Then factor in the fact that no new films were being released, and they're screwed.

The upshot of that is that it's quite likely that "The Rise of Skywalker" is the last film I will see in the cinema, joining "Superman III" as the bookend on that experience.

What's perhaps interesting there is that both films have some good material but both films are a very long way from being the best entries in their respective series. (Indeed, in both cases it is either the first or second film released that is the best.) Also, of course, both films have at least some music composed by John Williams, which is fitting given his importance in film music.

(I should perhaps note that "Superman III" would not have been my choice of film - I wanted to see "Return of the Jedi", but it was 1997 before I saw that one in a cinema.)

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that, I think. Except perhaps to note that Cineworld have acted fairly shamefully in their handling of their staff - layoffs at this time were entirely understandable, but for many of the staff to learn via Twitter is frankly outrageous. Meaning that if they do reopen and things go back to normal, I'm afraid I'll now think twice before heading there for a show anyway.

Treading Water

I mentioned late last month that I had slipped behind on several fronts, and that catching up would probably be the theme of this month. In the event, the theme of this month would probably be more accurately named "treading water" - although I have caught up somewhat on the book front (such that I'm about two-thirds of a book behind), I've managed only ten posts on this blog (leaving me exactly where I was), and two over on the Imaginarium (which is therefore now behind). So after fairly significant efforts, I'm pretty much where I started overall.

My goal for next month will very clearly to get back on target for each of these aspects, but that may be a pipe dream. I guess we'll see...

#44: "Whispers Under Ground", by Ben Aaronovitch

Lockdown 2

Well, here we go again. As of last night we have a significant tightening of Covid restrictions. Thus far, this has stopped short of a proper second lockdown, but I very much suspect it is coming - in fact, I'm pretty certain that we really should have had a full-blown second lockdown, but the political will was just missing. So we'll pay the price for that one in a few more weeks.

Unlike the first lockdown, this one leaves me absolutely furious. Not because it isn't necessary - I absolutely agree that it is, and indeed that it should have gone further. However, it shouldn't have been. A few months ago we had this thing under control, all the metrics were going in the right direction, and we had an opportunity to eradicate it.

Instead our governments unlocked too fast, in too haphazard a manner, and lost control of the situation. And then they dithered and let the virus get back into a position where it could grow exponentially... and here we are.

And I'm afraid I consider the Scottish government pretty much as bad as Westminster in this regard. On the one hand, it is true that they didn't have all the levers available to an independent country, and so probably couldn't have managed outright eradication. On the other, I can't help but note that a few weeks ago there were an estimated 300 contagious people in the whole of Scotland, and now it has exploded out of control. They had a grip, and they lost it. So if they're better placed than Westminster, I'm afraid it's a difference of degree not of type - the report card still says "must do better".

Oh well. The damage is done, so that's my last moan about that.

Where that leaves us is that any notion of returning to the office is well and truly parked now, with almost no prospect of that happening this year. It's also likely that our Christmas lunch will have to be cancelled, or somehow done remotely, which is a shame. Otherwise, work will go on just as it has been.

For the time being, the schools are remaining open, and given the political costs involved, the powers-that-be will be absolutely determined to keep them open until they absolutely have to close them. I have my doubts whether they'll reopen after the October holiday. Likewise, there are no signs of Funsize's nursery closing, and I'd be surprised if that changes without a full-blown lockdown coming into force.

And the final factor that plays into this is the Furlough scheme, which was supposed to come to an end next month. The problem there being that if it ends then people will have to go out to work en masse, meaning that a lockdown won't be possible - it doesn't really matter what the government order on that front, without the necessary support people will just have to go to work. And yet, I'm increasingly fearful that the reason the scheme is coming to its end if less about blind ideology (which, frankly, wouldn't have brought it in in the first place), but rather for a simpler, harsher reason - the country is simply broke.

So...

My expectation is that these new measures will be largely ineffectual. I expect therefore that we'll see a much tighter set of restrictions coming soon, that may or may not be backed with an extension (or replacement) of Furlough... and depending on that may or may not be effective.

And, bluntly, as a consequence of all of that, I fear that Christmas is cancelled.

Ulysses

It's fair to say I wasn't overly impressed with "Ulysses" - if it hadn't been on The List I would have abandoned it fairly quickly. It is, by far, the toughest book I've ever read, and while I have very definitely read it, it's also fair to note that I've read it only in a strict sense of that word.

Boiling it down, my view is this: some novels are written simply to tell a story, some are written to explore a theme or otherwise make a point. "Ulysses" seems to have been written to experiment with the use of words themselves - it's very much in the Modernist tradition. But the net effect of that is that it renders the plot largely incomprehensible and the theme, if indeed there is one, entirely irrelevant. And, as such, while I can see the value of the work as an experimental piece, and indeed as an object to be studied, I'm afraid I find very little merit in it as a novel.

That said, I did have a chuckle at one section where two characters were discussing the merits of Irish independence, which did feel oddly familiar...

Experimental Cookery 2020: Naughty Naughty Nachos

 This one comes from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh, and Easy Food", which is one of my more-used cookbooks. The occasion for this one came as a result of taking LC out for lunch - on Friday we had that rare combination of a day when neither of us were working but Funsize was at nursery, so we took advantage.

Normally when we have nachos, it's haggis, but as we didn't have any haggis I figured I'd try something different, and this was the result. The key difference was that the salsa and guacamole were made from scratch. Nonetheless, this was a quick and easy snack, and rather enjoyable. Would definitely have these again... though we tend not to have nachos too often, so who knows when that might be?

Experimental Cookery 2020: Curried Naan with Sultanas, and Chickpea Curry

 A somewhat belated Experimental Cookery, this one was produced for a lunch a week ago when we had guests. They come from Paul Hollywood's "Bread", which is a book I like but really haven't made much use of - were it not for the pizza base method, I would have gotten rid of this some time ago.

Still, the meal was nice and easy to produce. (I wouldn't say 'quick' because bread seldom is - all that proving takes time.) And the results were very impressive - a feast for four people that everyone enjoyed, with a minimum of fuss and hassle. So I'm calling this one a win.

(It's also worth noting that this is another successful vegetarian dish, which is something that is always good to have in the repertoire.)

#41: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", by Roald Dahl (a book for Funsize)

#42: "The Testaments", by Margaret Atwood

#43: "Ulysses", by James Joyce (a book from The List)

iPlayer Woes

At the weekend we made the unfortunate discovery that iPlayer support for the PS3 is to end early next month. My plan had been to wait another five years or so before investing in a significant upgrade to our entertainment system - probably a new TV, whatever Playstation is then current, a full-blown surround sound system (potentially professionally installed), as well as integrating our media server if we ever get one, and potentially retiring the Freesat box in favour of a better solution.

But that had rather assumed that things would continue to work as they were. Now that that's not the case...

I have researched our options, and they broadly fall into four categories:

• We could just live with it. iPlayer would still be available by PC if there was anything we really felt the need to watch, but would be a hassle.
• We could invest in a Firestick (which would also give us Disney+), and also an HDMI switch so that we can connect it to our soundbar. That's a bad solution, from a technology point of view, but would solve the problem without too much expense.
• We could replace the TV with a smart model. That's a much better solution, albeit a more expensive one than we'd wanted at this time (and also Funsize is a little less tech-proof than perhaps we'd like).
• Or we could bring forward the big expense and just do everything now. I'm not doing that.

(We could also upgrade the PS3 to a PS4, but the timing of that is really poor, given that the PS5 is due to launch very soon. So I don't intent to do that unless we see an absurd deal.)

For the moment, we're going to go for the first option. My suspicion is that that won't stick.

One last thing: I'm starting to think we need to be prepared to abandon Freesat - the range of boxes seems to have dropped significantly, there's no great signs of the range of channels ever increasing, and so my feeling is that it won't be worth investing in a replacement should our existing box stop working. That being the case, I think it's time to look again at why the TV aerial doesn't seem to work... when it really should.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

A few weeks ago I purchased a DVD of the Arrowverse event "Crisis of Infinite Earths". I rather enjoyed it - certainly, I've found what I've seen of the Arrowverse shows (not much) to be rather more enjoyable than the DC films. With the exception of "Wonder Woman" they've really not been particularly good. (That said, we haven't seen "Aquaman" or "Joker".)

One of the things that was particularly interesting about the show was the many, many cameos - we get hints of the 1989 Batman, the 60's Batman and Robin, Smallville, Birds of Prey, and so on. All of which were pretty cool, but they also emphasised something that I had kinda been aware of but perhaps hadn't fully grasped: you can't cheat when it comes to building investment. Tom Welling's appearance as Clark Kent works because he spent years playing that role in Smallville, so having watched that show (until I gave up), I was immediately oriented as to context.

I think that's also why "Avengers" worked but "Justice League" didn't - the former laid out lots of groundwork and then brought the team together; the latter tried to short circuit it. Which is a real shame, as some of the characters DC have are great.

The other thing that really struck me about the show was a reminder of just how great Brandon Routh was as Superman... or, more correctly, as Clark Kent. "Superman Returns" wasn't a great film, and really suffers now for Kevin Spacey and Bryan SInger's respective problems, but Routh was great in the role. And, doing double-duty in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", he is great in this. (There has been some talk of them doing some sort of Superman mini-series starring BR, largely off the back of his appearance here. If so, I'd certainly be interested!)

Anyway, that's more or less all I have to say about that.

Keyboard

Over the past few days I have been pondering the fact that I get more done at work (or 'work') than at home. That has led to me conducting an experiment - today, instead of switching out my home keyboard/mouse combination when setting up my work PC, I instead moved the wireless dongle from the home PC to the work one.

The results have been very instructive - despite coming highly recommended, the home keyboard is nowhere near as comfortable to use as the one for work. The keys are just a little smaller, a little closer together, and the whole thing is just a little bit more tiring. The upshot is that there is a small, but very noticeable, difference between the two. (By contrast, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the mice.)

I suspect that that means I'm now in the market for a new keyboard - the difference is enough to really annoy me, and the productivity differences are surprisingly noticeable. All of which is rather interesting, especially since the home keyboard is considerably more expensive than the work one!

This does also highlight something rather frustrating - now that I know what I'm looking for in more detail, it's proving surprisingly hard to actually find the item. And, oddly, the pictures of keyboards on online shops are really bad. It's almost as if they don't want you to see what it is you're looking to buy.

House of Ill Repute

Last night the House of Commons voted in favour of the Internal Market Bill, the same bill that was explicitly stated in the HoC as breaching international law. That being the case, the fact that that bill was even presented to the House brings shame upon our government. That it didn't meet with mass resignation from ministers brings shame on their offices. And the fact that the House voted for it confirms that the House of Commons is a pointless waste of money. We're no longer electing representatives to hold a government to account; we're electing a dictator for five years.

The UK no longer has a government. We have a regime. (Incidentally, we also have weapons of mass destruction and oil, so that's all three ingredients needed should the US feel like a fun bit of invading.)

And... that's it, really. For a long time I held out the slight hope that at least Scotland might eventually seek independence and at least we'd get away from all this. But all I hear from the SNP these days is empty words - Ian Blackford stands up and makes his speech about how Scotland "cannot and will not" allow the latest outrage to stand. And then Boris, quite rightly, pays not the slightest bit of attention and just does whatever he wants. Because when push comes to shove the SNP do nothing. It turns out that Scotland absolutely will put up with it all.

#39: "Firefly: The Magnificent Nine", by James Lovegrove
#40: "Sharpe's Enemy", by Bernard Cornwell

Day 250: Update on Goals

It's day 250 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 250 I should have read 40.98 books. I'm significantly behind on this goal, but have several books in progress. I hope therefore to be back on track some time in October - certainly by the next update.
• Weight: Nothing to report. This one is going to be failed again.
• Blogging: I'm several posts behind on this blog, but right on target on the Imaginarium. I'm also finding it tough finidng a conjunction between having inspiration and time in which to blog, so I'm growing increasingly concerned about this one.
• Work: I said last time that this one wasn't happening, but might have happened but for the virus. It turns out that it probably wouldn't have happened even then, but looks likely for next year. Which I'll take as a good thing.

The report card right now looks pretty bleak - two near-certain failures, and two behind target. I'll try to pull some of that back for the next update, but I'm not entirely confident.

Slipping

August has proven to be a bad month for goals - despite finding myself a whole book ahead of my reading goal on not one but two occasions, I'm going to end the month two books off target, while this blog has slipped from being one post behind to five.

All in all, that's a poor showing, especially at this stage in the year - my ability to catch up is extremely doubtful. I guess I know what the theme for next month is going to be...

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.