Weeknote 24/2024
It’s Father’s Day in the UK so I’m currently drinking one of the several beers my family bought for me. My own dad is coming over later to watch the England match. I have also bought him beer 🍻
I’ve just got back my mark for the first tutor-marked assessment for my current MSc Systems Thinking module (TB871). Given that I kind of rushed it while my wife and daughter were away last weekend, 85% is pretty good. I’m pleased with that, although there was a note that the usual leeway given for word count won’t apply from the next assessment onwards.
This week I’ve been a little out of my usual routine due to half of Team Belshaw returning home on Tuesday night, in a whirlwind of chatter, tiredness, and clothes to be washed. Our daughter ended up having Wednesday morning off school as she was exhausted after her team came third in the Barcelona Girls Cup. I’m not saying middle school is less important, but she had a trial for Newcastle United’s Emerging Talent Centre (ETC) on Thursday night that we wanted her to be recovered for. In the event, she performed well, and has a callback next week.
We still haven’t got enough work on through the co-op, so I’ve been applying for jobs. While I’ve got some buffer, things have been so quiet this year, and the stories from others have been so dire, that I’ve got to act responsibly. As a result, I’ve got three interviews coming up: one for a position at a university for a national project, one with a company focused on skills-based hiring, and one as a digital strategist for an agency. If you’re reading this and have a Doug-shaped hole, let me know!
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post giving some advice to someone who had been in touch asking for some pointers. I really appreciated the same person reminding me of that post this week, after they read my last weeknote. Sometimes I’m not necessarily great at following the advice I give others.
I published a post on the WAO blog about the three-sided marketplace of digital credentials, some posts here about my MSc work, and a bunch of things over at Thought Shrapnel.
EURO 2024 has started, meaning I’ll be spending a lot of my time watching football over the next few weeks. I’m currently top of the family’s fantasy league table, although I can’t see that lasting long, given my son’s encyclopedic knowledge of player stats.
Tomorrow, I’m accompanying him to the University of Edinburgh‘s undergraduate open day. We’ve already been to St Andrews, and we’ve got Loughborough, Lancaster, Durham, and Sheffield left to visit. They’re all great universities, and he’s entirely capable of getting the necessary grades, so the main thing I’m trying to help him understand is the difference between the different types of campus.
Image: the 65″ Samsung ‘The Frame’ TV I bought before we moved to our current house which my wife said was ‘ridiculously big’ but which fits the space perfectly. I’ll mount it on the wall once I’ve done… all of the other jobs!
