I decided to stop posting daily and use the extra time to work on other things in the evening. I wanted to see the effect of changing how I use my limited resources of time and focus.
The first night was very successful. At the time when I would normally …
Towards the tail end of last year I spent a number of days considering how I spend my time and asking if I am truly getting value for it. For example, I don't spend time watching the news or any other TV shows. I do go to a gym class …
There are times when I want to do all sorts of extra activities, write about this, program something to do that or fix some other thing. Sometimes these activities are based on the computer others are physical tasks around the house or garden.
Unfortunately of late, I have found that …
On Tuesday night I bemoaned that I was unable to borrow my wifes brompton fold up bike because it has been out of service for several months. One nut had fallen off and we had never gotten round to getting it fixed. For some reason I had gotten it into …
Last night, the IChemE Scottish Members Group hosted a Cooking with Science workshop. Our presenter, Kostas, has hosted this kind of workshop at a few of the local science festivals.
The event was hosted in one of the classrooms at the University of Edinburgh; I believe that the last time …
I am attending an event at n Edinburgh tonight, a fair distance from the city centre. In the past when going to this venue, I would take a train, with my wife's Brompton, then cycle the rest of the way out.
Unfortunately my wife's Brompton is out of service just …
I was asked to join some others on a site visit today to look at an upcoming job. As a control engineer, it is very rare that I have to ware overalls and do site visits, most of my time is at my desk, in the control room or in …
In the past I have commented that I have limited a lot of my general consumption. I have mostly stopped using social media and after a week when our TV broke, I noticed that I didn't miss anything and have not watched much since then [ref] With the exception of …
One of the problems with trying to improve is that you don’t know what you don’t know. I don’t have any solution to this problem (if you do have a solution, please let me know). But there are sometimes clues, occasions when you realise that there is …
You have probably heard the quip
You only live once
It is usually used as an excuse to justify doing something that is unwise.
On a podcast today, I heard a brilliant response:
No. You only die once. You live every day.
Recently, with the Queensferry Bridge being closed there has been a lot of people getting stuck in their vehicles longer than normal. Even people who would normally go nowhere near the bridge are getting feeling disruption because all the bridge traffic is now clogging up their normal route. Then there …
I looked up the physical properties of sugar to answer a question, and while I was reading, I noticed the LD50 value.
LD50 or Lethal Dose 50 is the dosage required to deliver a 50% chance of death. Obviously we have limited data on this for most substances, it is …
I attended a training session today on compressors, turbines and how they are controlled. It was specifically looking at the advanced control schemes used to avoid surge, while maintaining smooth operation and maximising the operating range of the machines.
While the specifics of the algorithms used were interesting, it was …
I have had a couple of occasions over the last few days when I have been left to my own thoughts, able to think freely without distraction for a prolonged period of time. During these occasions, I thought of lots it things that I want to write down, long flowing …
I have just caught myself trying to come up with excuses for not doing a job, looking for alternative "better" tasks to do instead. The thing is that the task wasn't that hard or unpleasant. I spent longer looking for a alternative than if I had just done the task …
Despite the forecast of Storm Ciara, we decided to risk it and go on an expedition today. This was not us being cleaver, only cheap. Denise had a spare train ticket that was about to expire. So we ventured into the city to make the most of the day.
While …
The best way to find out if you really understand something is to explain it to someone else. I haven't found any other test that is as rigorous and certain to uncover the truth.
I was reminded of this today. I knew that I wasn't completely up to speed with …
Below is an email sent to the members of the IChemE Scottish members group
Hi Everyone,
We have been busy organising the first few events of the year, but we haven’t really gotten around to publicising them. The events are now live on the Scottish Members Group events page …
Smart goals are defined as:
Smart goals are often described as the "correct" way to set goals and if you don't set yourself smart goals, you won't achieve good results.
I don't particularly like smart goals.
My first issue is with the acronym. Specific and …
I was faced with a difficult task today. The task wasn't physically or technically difficult to carry out. I just had to go down stairs and help tidy up.
What made it difficult was that my youngest child had fallen asleep in my arms. It was very tempting just to …
Tonight we went out for a family dinner. We picked a local pub/restaurant that had a soft play room at the back.
For the first hour the kids had lots of fun running back and forward, up and down the play equipment. Then disaster struck, at 6pm, the staff …
One of the main components of the Stoic philosophy is the dichotomy of control. The vast majority of things that happen are not under our control. We may be able to, at best, influence things. The things that are under our control are very limited and essentially boil down to …
Today, at a quiet private ceremony, my wife became british. I am now the only one in our family who is not a dual citizen. The ceremony was relatively short, included a bit of local history, pledging allegiance to the queen and country and finished up with everyone standing and …
I am getting more and more fed up with companies using no-reply email addresses. It is almost as if it is a trendy thing to do that all big businesses do. If you don't send emails via a no-reply email address, you are clearly just an amature outfit.
It is …
I feel like I want to complain. Last weekend we were away for our winter trip. I remember going skiing during these trips when I was younger. But we haven't had anywhere near enough snow in recent years. This year, after the holiday, on my first day back at work …
Earlier this month, I completed the (online) paperwork for the UK tax. All things considered, it was actually a pretty easy system. The online forms from HMRC did actually help you and did do most of the calculations for you.
Today we tackled the US tax paperwork. By the end …
I spent the last weekend up at Nethybridge in the Highlands. While I have been there many times, I learnt something new this time.
Apparently 1 the village was originally called Abernethy, but when the railway station was built, this would have caused confusion with the other Abernethy near Perth …
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be Thankit!
The Selkirk Grace, Robert Burns
The above prayer is often recited before a burns supper. I expect that vegetarians (and vegans) would be …
This morning we had to get ourselves ready for a trip. Rather than trying to ~~fight~~ pack with the kids, we sent them off to spend the morning in nursery like they normally would be.
So we had the house to ourselves, no kids and distraction free, for four hours …
I think I have paid my tax for last year. This is the first time I have actually filled in a tax return for myself, in the past I have always just relied on the PAYE calculations.
Despite the website saying "you do not owe anything", I was still uncertain …
I have stated this before, but I am a slow reader. Couple that with commitments and life in general, reducing the amount of spare time I have, it takes me a while to get through a book.
I had borrowed a book from the library that was due to be …
I was on daddy daycare duty today. Rather than locking ourselves up in the house where I would be outnumbered all day, I organised meeting up with granny for a walk in the woods with her dog.
It was lots of fun watching the boys run down the paths with …
Today we received a letter in the post from an old friend. Someone who we used to spend a lot of time with but now live far enough apart that we are lucky if we meet once every couple of years.
The letter was handwritten and only the size of …
One of the job requirements of being a parent is reading aloud to your kids. Unfortunately, it is something that I am not really competent at. I have tried reading silently but the kids are having none of it.
During my wedding, I had a short reading to deliver. As …
I like my coffee. When out and about, particularly in cold places, I find it difficult to resist buying a coffee (as long as they are selling anything that isn't instant). I do however get rather frustrated when they serve the coffee in semi-spherical cups.
Whenever I read something that I had previously written, I almost always end up cringing. Sometimes I don't remember writing it and I wonder which idiot it was that wrote it!
I am not just talking about the old blog posts, but almost any writing, old procedures I have written …
Tonight, like most nights, we listened to CBeebies Radio while the kids were falling asleep. It is a nice mix of gentle music and bedtime stories. One of tonight's stories was the tortoise and the hare. This was a fine story right up until the end, when the tortoise tells …
There is phrase associated with quizzes: All questions are easy when you know the answer.
I noticed today that it can apply to many problems, not just quizzes. In quick succession, I ended up being presented with a number of problems, each one of which I had either come across …
After the workout, the muscles in your arms are complaining that you are holding a cup of coffee.
No news is good news except if your news source is broken. I use a series of RSS feeds to keep me up to date with whatever I am interested in. Rather than repeatedly going to someone's website (or following them on social media), I subscribe to their feed, then …
We spent this afternoon exploring Linlithgow Palace, a large ruin that is frequently mistaken for a castle. Only the stone structure remains, all the wooden floors and roofs were destroyed by fire hundreds of years ago.
Occasionally a plan is mooted about restoring …
Last weekend, as we walked around a shopping centre we noticed a series of awards on the wall. Then we noticed the dates were all around 1995 and 1996. Is it something to be proud of, to have won a "family friendly" award over 20 years ago.
Sure, if it …
I have a problem with my wedding ring. No I haven’t lost it. I do like wearing it. My problem is that my fingers are not always the same size. I think this is true for most people, though most people just find that their rings get very tight …
I had my first long cycle in the dark tonight after a series of events that ment I had been using the car. It is amazing how much faster things seem when the path is lit only by the lights from the bike.
I am sure that it would be …
IChemE Members Groups are organised by volunteers. People give up their spare time to try and organise events for other members. Regular committee meetings are held to help co-ordinate what everyone is working on.
The Scottish Members Group covers a large geographic area, not quite all Scotland but not far …
It seems to be a common feature of financial blogs to review their spending at regular intervals1 usually monthly or quarterly. I am not about to try and become a financial blogger, offering saving and investment advice, but I do think it is worth keeping an eye on our …
Tags: Work
I spent most of today working on a remote computer. I have spent many days working on this remote computer, usually without issue. Today that was not the case. Every so often the connection would drop. Sometimes for 30 seconds. Sometimes for 5 minutes.
Each time the connection …
I took my kids for a walk to the supermarket this morning mostly to get them out of the house. In the way there, the younger one asked to be carried. That's unusual. Then walking around the shop, he decided one but of floor made an awesome bed.
He didn't …
So today was my first parkrun in almost exactly three months. What happens when I don't run for three months? I managed a personal worst. My time was 22 seconds slower than my very first parkrun which was after nearly 10 years of no racing.
Never mind, I can't change …
