Hanging on a wall in our house is a signed picture of Derek Jacobi. It is one of our most treasured possessions. It is a drawing of him as Professor Yana from Doctor Who. SPOILER ALERT He was really The Master! Back in 2007, I happened to be working next to a memorabilia shop, when…
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The WordPress app for Android prompted me to add a story! This is a new and experimental feature. Sadly, it isn’t very good. Here’s how it works. There’s a brief description and some aspirational screenshots. There’s a basic image picker. Then you get some basic tools to add text on top of your image. I…
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This is a quick round-up of the blogs which “did numbers” this year – and a few which I feel were cruelly overlooked. I posted a new blog every day in 2020 – so don’t be surprised if you missed a few. OK? Here we go! January Watch out; there’s a scam about. People love…
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Every year, I take part in NaBloPoMo the Judoon mating festival where people blog every day in November. I ended November 2019 with more blog posts than I knew what to do with, so I tried blogging every day in January. And then, well, February is only a short month, isn’t it? If all has…
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Last year, I set myself a challenge to read a new book per week. I managed to read 50 books, which I was pretty happy with. This year*, I decided to only read books written by women. Here’s what I learned. Obviously, COVID had a fairly negative effect on my reading rate. I went months…
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New Year! New Me! I’m crap at sticking to my multiple resolutions. I think I did okay on last year’s resolutions. So this year, I’m just making a single one. At the start of the Gregorian calendar 2021, I’ll begin an MSc Digital and Technology Specialist. My resolution is to get my coursework in on…
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It’s my birthday! As is customary, here’s my year in review. See 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. WHAT. A. FUCKING. YEAR! The year started with me getting a colonoscopy – and went downhill from there. Well gang, I'm drinking a litre of industrial strength laxative in preparation for a colonoscopy…
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All dogs go to heaven, that’s just science. But cats are contrary buggers and hang around long after their nine lives are up. My cat, Busby, was the scourge of squirrels. The menace of mice. The dispatcher of rats. Legend tells of the day a dozen foxes ran screaming from the bushes, being chased by…
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Well, that was a whirlwind! After 18-months at NHSX, my 6-month temporary secondment has reached its end. It’s always hard when a job finishes. The secondment was twice extended, and that let me carry on defining open technology standards for the NHS. Now it is over and I’m a bit sad. The pandemic seems to…
Continue reading →We’re exactly halfway through 2020. Fuck. It feels like I’ve spent two-thousand-and-twenty days living through the year 2020. I know how lucky I am to be employed and to be shacked up with a loving spouse. I’m festooned with privilege, but it’s emotionally tough. Liz and I have spent the best part of four months…
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