I’m still here, but being honest, the never endling grind of lockdown drained my energy and motivation to write anything more than a tweet.

It also takes me far too long to write these month notes because I am trying to cram too much in and I am a sod for drafting and redrafting.

No more. You’re just getting this stuff as it comes out my head. Sorry.

Thoughts

There has been so much going on at work over the last few months that entire weeks go by in a blur now. I must admit that I do find continuous and rapid context switching difficult at times, and I worry that I am going to miss something important somewhere along the line. I try to at least get a half day blocked out during the week though to sit down and think about things, or noodle with some data models and designs for the various bits I’m involved with. Some of these will never see the light of day but they’re a useful sense-making exercise for me.

I am involved in one project that I am really excited about, though I can’t really talk about it yet. I am working with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met on it, and it has given me reason to pick up some books on Clojure which I had on the pile of shame for a while and have now been moved to the front. I am really looking forward to getting into the meaty bits of this work as I think it has the possibility to demonstrate a deep and effecting change in the way data can be shared across government.

Feelings

Sonny has started school this year, and being under lockdown so long and an only child has been hard on him I think. He has settled in really well, although already hates homework but I am kinda on board with that myself anyway.

Over the summer I started Couch to 5k and I actually finished it. I genuinely couldn’t believe it, I do not have a track record of sticking to exercise but after I had let my weight get back to the heaviest I have ever been over the last year, I knew something had to be done.

I don’t love running, but I do love how low inertia it can be. Trainers on, out the door, go! That said, around me (and Cornwall generally) it’s all ruddy hills. So I took a decision around week 6 to go and run most often at a trail a few miles from my house instead which is about the only flat place around. The view isn’t bad either.

The Pentewan Trail

I have kept it up after getting to the end of week nine, and I’ve even started going a bit faster running 5k in less than 30 minutes the other day. To anyone reading this who’s in midst of C25k, my only advice would be this;

  • Weeks 4-6 are the hardest
  • The whole thing is an act of self-psychological warfare, or at least is was for me

I really started to feel different about the whole thing around week 7. That’s the first week where you just run solidly, for 25 minutes. I was dreading it to begin with, but that was the week where I first found myself thinking about things other than running while running. Now I find an early morning run a great place to think about my day.

Our house had been under scaffold the whole summer, while we had the roof replaced and the exterior painted. Glad to get that gone. Some before and after shots will appear here in future, once I get around to painting the front door.

Words

Read the classic “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. Man there’s a lot to unpack there, and I will probably have to go back there. Easily the best thing I’ve read about regression to the mean in that book.

I also went back and read some older issues of The Blizzard I hadn’t got around to reading, as well as many of your blogs.

Oh, and I read all of The National Data Strategy the day it was published, and a few more times since.

The fact remains that I still suffer from reading inertia and I just don’t know why.

Sounds

Feeding my need for noodling lounge jazz in the absence of new material from BADBADNOTGOOD has been All News Is Good News by Surprise Chef.

A Heroes Death from Fontaines D.C. got me moving around the kitchen in places.

The new Tricky album Fall To Pieces got a spin too.

Inner Song by Kelly Lee Owens is right up there with my favourite albums of 2020 so far.

Run the Jewels were back with a bang on RTJ4. The shocking pink vinyl looks practically edible.

Idles continue to win me over by shouting at me and everyone else like they have on Ultra Mono, also, what a cover.

Nicolas Jaar continues to be one of my favourite electronic producers/musicians/whatever he is. He’s released two albums this year already, and Cenizas was my favourite of the them (by a hair’s breadth).

Tastes

We learned a lot about gardening this year, not least of all how useful a greenhouse is. Did you see my chillies?!

Chillies

Fun

We went to a drive in movie! The boy was sat on his mum’s lap in the passenger seat and jumped so violently at one point he smashed the windscreen. Hardly noticed though. No sense, no feeling.

Games

I picked up Wasteland 2 (the game that Fallout is based on) for cheap a while back and have been enjoying the little of it that I’ve played. Generally I’ve not had much time or energy for games this year, but I am sure that will change when Cyberpunk 2077 arrives in November.

Cheers ‘n’ gone.