I am currently reading The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do and how to change by Charles Duhigg. One of the things the book describes is the habit loop: a cue, a routine, and a reward. The cue triggers a part of the brain to take over …
Earlier this week, I cycled from work into Falkirk town centre. After the journey, I was asked how the trip went and my first reaction was that it was horrible. But then I caught myself.
Most of the trip went fine. It was just one particular part that spoilt it …
On Friday evening, I changed the script that I use to update the site. The new script is much more efficient and faster, however it caused the RSS feed to be modified in such a way that my feed reader thought that every article was a new article and reimported …
After my post where I sketched out the idea of Disastrous Dinners I noticed that I have been very inactive with my IChemE membership.
I am supposedly still on the IChemE Scottish Members Group committee, however I don't think I have done anything to help in the last year. A …
When out at the shops today, I tried to find a new jacket to replace my current one. My main issue with my current jacket is that it is water resistant but it doesn't hold up to heavy rain. It is also not particularly warm if I am standing still …
I have just come up with an idea this evening for a regular IChemE event. I will take the time in this post to get my idea into the screen before deciding if it is a good idea or not.
There are a few challenges that occur when trying …
I just want to say
To my young bundle of joy
Happy first birthday
My dislike of XML has just gotten stronger.
I have been working on, and failing to succeed with, two projects involving XML.
One involved manipulating XML written by another program. The problem is that this program was not intending to share this XML with any other programs, so there are …
I have spent most of my day trying to convert some graphics for a up coming project. We have been provided a method of manually converting the graphics but it takes around 5 minutes per graphic and we have hundreds.
So rather than simply using the manual method, I have …
Swing a kettle bell
Early in the fitness suite
While sweating like hell.
For a few months now I have been having problems with some of the programs on my work laptop. Today I was given a 'new' laptop with a fresh install. I said 'new' with scare quotes because I think that the laptop is the same age as the old one …
Today we went to a farm for pumpkin picking. I had envisioned going into a field where the pumpkins were being grown and picking them fresh from the stock. Of course this wouldn't have worked with the number of participants.
Instead you picked your pumpkin from a whole field of …
Today has been a day of DIY, mostly painting in the downstairs toilet. This was a good opportunity to catch up on podcasts and I spent most of the time catching up with the DisasterCast back catalogue.
I don't have much to add except that I found it an enjoyable …
Apparently there have been a lot of posts on social media about people leaving social media1. For the last two years I have effectively been off social media. I did so quietly without any posting about it at the time but I do want to record my thoughts on …
Today's highlight was getting to meet an old acquaintance at work. He was actually my boss for the last month that I worked at British Sugar. I had handed my notice in about an hour before I was due to transfer into his department, so I only worked for him …
I understand that the scientific method relies on experiments and particularly on making a prediction then testing it. However it is extremely disappointing when you think you know what is going on, then you make a test to prove it only to find the experiment fails and disproves what you …
For many years, I have wondered about the process of getting old and watching technology progress and being unable to keep up. As someone who has always loved and been interested in technology, I found it difficult to believe that I will, one day, be unable to keep up and …
I read an interesting article about setting up a calm work environment and how the founders at Basecamp do it.
One section did catch my attention though:
At a conference attended by 600 people, the authors asked how many had recently enjoyed 3-4 hours of uninterrupted work; only 30 hands …
So my daily posting streak lasted 90 days.
Last night when I got home, we ended up doing the evening routine in a different order and we swapped over who did the various tasks. As a result, I completely forgot about writing and publishing a post. Annoyingly I have been …
Well I found out why I had lost my energy. Right after posting last night's entry, I crawled into bed feeling very cold.
For the next four hours I was curled up and feeling cold despite my body temperature being particularly high. Then about 11pm, the fever broke and I …
I seem to have lost all of my energy. I had a fair amount last week but this week I seem to have virtually non left.
So if anyone knows where I have left it, please let me know.
Thanks
My legs are in pain
After I went to the gym
I must be insane
On my way home from work, I noticed the slogan on the side of one of the fuel trucks:
The slogan reads:
I'm delivering fuel to your local filling station...
... to save you collecting it from the refinery
Thanks for the help, but considering that …
I spent today fixing a number of hacks that I had previously made. One was a tool I quickly built last week as a mashup of older tools. Even as I was building it last week, I could see that there were lots of bad practices that I had used …
I am still working my way through the DisasterCast back catalogue. During the episode on security and safety.
Part of the discussion described the difference between safety and security as:
Safety protects the environment from the system.
Security protects the system from the environment.
I am not convinced that it …
Over a year ago now, the sistern on our downstairs toilet started to leak. There was a crack in the casing so I isolated the water supply and we made do with the upstairs toilet until we could get it replaced.
Then my second son was born and we never …
Last night, one of the compressors tripped and was restarted. Due to the way it tripped and got restarted, the machine logic got stuck and generated a couple of extra alarms.
Luckily, the alarm response manual stated how to fix one of them. Are you sure? Unfortunately the logic of …
Today I was reviewing an updated policy document at work. In the document was a 'RACI matrix' detailing who was responsible, accountable, to be consulted or informed about the various steps to the process.
I had never (as far as I can recall) seen one of these matrices before but …
I have been asked to help glue two separate programs together. The first program generates four different Excel files. The second program needs multiple XML files.
It is such a complex mess and I am not sure what the best way to tackle it is.
Part of me wants to …
I have been attempting to write a letter of complaint to Aer Lingus about our return flight for the past three nights. It is a very difficult task.
On one hand I want to be as polite and respectful as possible, making my point in a prompt and professional manner …
Antaŭ unu jaro mi komencis lerni Esperanton.
I started to learn Esperanto One year ago.
For the last year I have been using Duolingo to learn the language in small bursts. It is weird how sometimes I feel that I am making good progress and can express myself pretty effectively …
I am still working my way through the back catalogue of DisasterCast and today got to one on the preflight briefing.
It was the next on my list when I was on the plane back home but I was too tired to listen to it that night. I am not …
What is this short post?
Surely this must be a cheat.
Yes, but I don't care.
At 5pm UK time we made it home. After 49 hours of traveling and 54 hours since I last lay in a bed.
I am ridiculously tried and in need of my bed.
First I apologise that this post is not polished at all but I am writing it after being awake for around 31 hours now.
Flight EI130 from Hartford to Dublin was not a good experience.
We did not get going as I had hoped last night after the storm delay …
Today was our last day in America. I am writing this in the airport while waiting for our return flight.
As always, it has been an interesting experience, seeing how things are different from home. But I am definitely looking forward to my own bed.
Unfortunately due to the bad …
I have been keeping this 'streak' of posting something every day for a couple of months now.
I was keen to keep the streak going during this trip to the USA, but how do you define a daily blog when the timezone you are normally in and the timezone you …
For the last week I have been unable to find my sunglasses. I was annoyed at myself but had accepted that they were gone.
Today my eldest son came running through the house shouting"I found Daddy's glasses”. And sure enough he had my glasses and their case in his …
Last night I finish reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. I remember hearing about the book when it first came out but have only just now got around to reading it. The book is about 75% explanation about how awsome checklists are in various fields such as aviation, medicin …
I was confused by the best by date on a packet of crutons I found here in America.
How could you possibly have a best by date over 100 years in the future?
Of course I had forgotten that the US likes to …
Today we visited the Essex Steam Railway beside the Connecticut River. It was interesting to see the difference between the railway here and comparing it with the trains back home.
I think that the rails are the same distance apart but the trains and carriages seem so much larger. They …
Every time I visit the United States, I make the same mistake. This time it was when I was asked if I wanted chips or salad with my burger.
I automatically assumed the waitress was talking about, what everyone around here calls french fries. Of course what actually arrived at …
While driving around some of the back roads of Connecticut I noticed that in some places they have installed a rumble strip in the centre of the road when there are double white lines signaling that no overtaking should take place.
Today we took a trip to the Mystic Aquarium because it was featured in a book we have been reading at bedtime and we thought it would be good to actually visit the place.
We decided to go today because we thought it would be raining all day and that …
I have now had a couple of opportunities to drive on the wrong side of the road (as apposed to the left side). They have also been my first experiences of driving an automatic car.
I think the biggest issue I have is that the mirrors are not where I …
We went to a wedding yesterday and I wore a kilt along with both my sons.
This seemed to get us a lot of attention, almost as if the folks around here are not used to seeing folk in kilts at formal occasions.
I have just come across an article written in 2005 about Good and Bad Procrastination. Essentially procrastinating by ignoring errands to get on with the big questions or tasks like an absent-minded professor shouldn't always be considered a bad thing.
Getting on with errands can feel good and productive but …
It turns out that our youngest child will probably be a rollercoaster junky. During both take offs, he had a giant grin on his face. Leaving Edinburgh he had both feet and both arms stretched out in the air. Both kids also enjoyed the strong turbulence as we were coming …
Ready Player One was one of the in flight movie options. I was waiting to watch it.
I loved it more than I was expecting. And I had high hopes.
Today was the second and last day of our quick turnaround between holidays. We have put all the camping stuff from EMF away and are getting ready for our transatlantic adventure.
The biggest pain had been trying to get our heads around transporting the extra car seats. The requirements of …
