Tag: weeknote

Weeknote 51/2023

Posted on December 23, 2023December 23, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

I’m knackered. I’m composing this weeknote from the comfort of my bed, this Christmas Adam.

zobb: christmas eve what about christmas adam kowka: happy christmas adam to all men’s rights activists forfuturereferenceonly: Please stop pestering us with things like this. This has nothing to do with men fighting for their rights. Eve is short for ‘evening’. Please don’t turn activism into a joke. Thanks. reindeerplaydate: Someone isn’t having a good christmas adam theguilteaparty: Christmas Adam: December 23rd. Comes before Christmas Eve and is generally unsatisfying. shojo: Happy Christmas Adam everyone

Well, I thought it was funny 😅

I finished work last week, so this week has ostensibly been a holiday. Yet, I’ve been pretty busy. On Monday, I went for a windy walk with Aaron around (but not on top of The Cheviot) and then we finished off in the pub.

Aaron standing in front of a shipping container styled as a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer packet

Then, on Wednesday, I met Bryan off the train in Sheffield, drove to Derbyshire, and walked Dovedale.

I took the photo below before we scrambled up through a magnificent arch to Reynard’s Cave. To give you a sense of the scale, Bryan is a good nine inches taller than me! Again, we ended up in the pub afterwards.

Bryan standing underneath a huge limestone arch at Dovedale

On Friday, it was my birthday. We changed plans and ended up at the BALTIC where we saw some amazing things, including Templo del agua, rio Tyne by Colombian artist Leonel Vásquez, which is well-described on this page. I’ve never seen or experienced anything like it.

Not having a lunch reservation, and it being the last working day for most office-based people, we were lucky to stumble a relatively-new Greek restaurant called Salparo. The food and service were excellent. We’ll be back!

Although I did a bit of work on my MSc on Tuesday, I was a little bit concerned this morning (Saturday) that I’m a bit behind. So I went to the library at the leisure centre until it closed at 12:30 and then to the gym. Relatedly, this week I’ve published:

The other post I published was (Most of) my 2023 in sport which detailed how I’m almost at 800km of running this year, and have around 300 active days in total. It’s been a reasonably good year on that front, although I’m planning to reach 1,000km in 2024. More on plans for next year in due course.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, where we’ll be doing… nothing much. I’ve got a bit more present-wrapping to do. That’s followed by Christmas Day where we’re going to my parents’ house for Christmas Dinner. Boxing Day will probably involve a walk on the beach, weather permitting. Then we’re into those weird days between Christmas and New Year.

I’ve just realised that I don’t usually do weeknotes over Christmas, and usually finish with number 50. Ah well, looks like I’ll complete the full set this year!

Weeknote 50/2023

Posted on December 16, 2023December 16, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato

Yesterday was my last working day of the year. Compared to the last few, 2023 has been a good one, so it was a shame that we had to cancel the WAO online Christmas party due to a couple of people having Covid. My sister’s got it as well, so there must be plenty of it about.

Yesterday and today I’ve had interactions with men about my age who are obviously Covid skeptics. I have no time for pussy-footing around their stupid beliefs, so I look them straight in the eye and say “oh, I didn’t have you down for a conspiracy theorist”. That usually shuts them up.

This was very much a winding-down week on the work front, especially after being in Vienna for ePIC last week. I did a bit of work on DCC and Participate projects, and some internal stuff. That gave me plenty of time to do some MSc work, for which I posted:

The module doesn’t actually stop over Christmas, so I need to keep on going. The weeks also, somewhat weirdly, start on a Wednesday. So we’re currently in the middle of Week 7, with Christmas Day coming during Week 8 and New Year’s Day during Week 9. I’m pretty conscientious, so I’m sure I’ll be fine.

After finishing listening to the audiobook version of Politics On the Edge by Rory Stewart recently, I’ve started But What Can I Do? by his podcast co-host Alastair Campbell. It’s not a coincidence, therefore, that I got in touch with the prospective Green Party candidate for the North of Tyne mayoral elections this week. He got back to me, which was surprising given that I was suggesting he come in behind Jamie Driscoll (who is running as an independent after being deselected by Labour).

My wife, Hannah, has always very much discouraged me from going into politics, but it’s something I’ve been interested in from a young age. In fact, I did enough modules in my first year at university to have switched to Philosophy and Politics. Apart from the disdain of my life partner, the other thing that has always put me off is that famous Nietzsche quotation about dragons and the abyss. But maybe it’s time to move on from the fiery caution mixed with crusading inertia* I’ve exhibited for most of my life.

We’ll see. Perhaps once the kids have left home.

Next week, I’m walking a route that involves The Cheviot with Aaron Hirtenstein. Then Bryan Mathers and I are planning to retrace the steps of Ian Cylkowski who shared his experience of Dovedale back in October. I haven’t been there for years, and it’ll be an enjoyable walk — especially if we can find the limestone arch Ian mentions in the post!

I had planned to have dinner with my sister and family, who live nearby, as it’s my niece’s 18th birthday. However, I feel like I very much dodged a bullet by not getting Covid in Vienna, and I don’t want it for Christmas! So I may have have to rethink that one.

I’ll have circled the sun for the 43rd time next Friday, which is also the day the schools break up. As it’s so late, our two kids won’t end up going back until January 8th. So we looked at going away, but as we didn’t start doing so until after we moved, everything is now super-expensive. We still might find somewhere, but whereas I’d like to go back to Iceland, the rest of the family fancies some sun. I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.

* In Joseph Heller’s otherwise-forgettable novel Good as Gold this is how one of the characters describes the main protagonist, Dr. Bruce Gold.

Photo: sunset over Morpeth, taken by me yesterday

Weeknote 49/2023

Posted on December 11, 2023December 11, 2023 by Doug Belshaw

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
(Oscar Wilde)

Photo of Doug in Irish pub wearing 'Mince Pie Appreciation Society' to-shirt. Original photo taken by Julie Keane

I’ve spent the majority of this week in Vienna for ePIC 2023. It’s the first time I’ve visited the city, although not my first visit to Austria, as Team Belshaw included Salzburg on an inter-railing trip around Europe five years ago.

Given I’ve got a layover with nothing much to do in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, I’m composing this post on Friday evening. I’ll add to it later.

Earlier today, as I was about to get on a train in Vienna, I received notification that a grade and feedback had been given for my first tutor-marked assessment. As regular readers of this blog will be aware, I’ve recently started the first module of an intended MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice.

I don’t mind sharing that I got 73% which is… fine. I didn’t do so well on the longer question 2, partly because I introduced too much narrative — a cardinal sin in a word limit-constrained environment. To be honest, although my academic pride is at stake, although I get a passing grade on each module (50%) I don’t actually care that much. It’s about the learning and application for me.

Travelling in post-pandemic (but not post-Covid) times is weird. At least three people at the conference tested positive while we were there, which is unsurprising given how people are coming together from all over the world. Thankfully, people know how to behave these days and so there was masking and self-isolation.

I just hope I haven’t got it, as that would be a not very fun end to the year. The only time I’ve had it was in January 2022 and, although I managed to work through it, I couldn’t run for about 10 weeks after it. In fact, it felt that it added about five years to my life. So I’ve been wearing a mask on the flights and on public transport. I also took a test this morning which was negative.

Unless we decide that we’re not going to meet up together any more, go on holiday, or spend time in enclosed spaces with other humans, I’m not sure what else we can do.

During the three days of ePIC, I was on stage three times. The first was just a very short heads-up to people that the ORE community has released v0.1 of the Open Recognition Toolkit. The second involved moderating a panel which featured Anne Hilliger, Kelly Page, and Noah Geisel. And then, I jumped on stage a third time to show the posts I wrote about using Open Recognition to map real-world skills and attributes.

It was a smaller gathering this year than in previous years. I think that’s for several reasons, including the location, time of the year, and clash with other events. Despite that, it seemed to have representatives from more countries and continents! There was certainly a fairly large contingent from the US and Canada.

The conference programme was fairly packed and focused mainly on presentations. This was quite tiring, especially in the afternoon, with the heating on and a room filled with warm bodies! I ducked out of a few sessions, in one case heading to the Christmas markets which were truly magical. And I say that as someone who is pretty cynical about such things.

There were many things at the conference I agreed with and applauded. There were some things I actively opposed. But that’s the point of bringing people together in person: it’s a chance to thrash things out a bit and to have the kind of dialogue that sometimes aren’t so conducive within online gatherings.

I’m now adding to this very early on Monday morning. I slept in my home office for a couple of nights while I made sure that I didn’t start exhibiting Covid symptoms. It seems that I’m fine. The weekend didn’t amount to much: a basketball game and a football match for my son (win and a loss); getting drenched while taking my daughter up to practice some football after most of her activities were called off this week; tidying and cleaning the house; playing the demo of Football Manager 2024.

Next week, I’m pleased to say, is my last working week of the year. The thing to keep reminding myself is not to start anything new. I’ve got a couple of short proposals to get to clients, a bit of work to do with Laura, and some things to finish off.

Other than that, I’m going to cruise into the end of the year and then take three weeks off. I’m very much looking forward to that, although I’m still going to have some MSc work to do!

Original version of photo of me wearing a festive t-shirt in an Irish pub in Vienna taken by Julie Keane. I upped the contrast and made it black and white.