The Test Department

I was catching up with my brother and his wife the other week. They both live in the US so we do not get the chance to blether. My sister in law reminded me that this would be a good time to knock my old Nanowrimo into some sort of shape. My sister in law is a successful author and has written many novels. They range from old fashioned crime in the style of Agatha Christie to modern thrillers. A few years back I attempted the Nanowrimo challenge of writing 50k words in one month. The challenge appealed to me and I thought I could do 50K. I have always wanted to write something that involved time travel/fantasy. So I plumped my self down on November Ist and went for it. I had no plant a rough outline in my head. I would not even say it was an outline. The story had immortal beings, it was set in Edinburgh in the present and the late 1780s. The story is about bad immortals wanting to return the world supernatural to our world. It's about good people trying to stop them. I am not ex...

2020 is turning into a rubbish year. I heard the news that Tim Smith leader of The Cardiacs, one best unknown bands on the planet has passed away today. He was only 59. Tim has been debilitated for a few years after suffering a heart attack a few years back. I was introduced to their music in my first year of University in 1987. I loved them from the get-go. The music is a giddy mixture of punk/prog/pop. Jarring time signatures will drag you one way and the next. The band was uncompromising. The opinion of them was into two camps, the ones that loved them and the ones that hated them. The Cardiacs influence many bands, Blur being one. I remember reading that Blur asked The Cardiacs to support them on one of their gigs. They did not go down well at all with the lager lov'in brit pop boys and gals! One of my favourite albums by them is Sing To God. I always thought that if Radiohead had done this album the critics would be all over it. As it is this album is a hidden gem. Here i...

I not being very productive at the moment. Other than my hair growth to a length that has not been since the early '90s. I have nothing to show. My Python learning is, well non-existent. If I was to go for an interview and they were to ask me to even do a simple piece of code. I would have an extensional breakdown as I did in my maths O grade exam when I was in high school. I have always had a rather fractious relationship with numbers and maths. I could never wrap my head around even the simplest of equations. The result was, as you can imagine, not doing at well in maths class. In those days, classes for those who were not good at maths/arithmetic were terrible. Full of kids with learning difficulties. Hooligans who were waiting to be 16 so they could escape the school. Most of the teachers in turn were either one drink away from being alcoholics. Worse still indifferent to our mental suffering. Not being able to do long division in our teenage heads was not their concern. I did ...

It has been almost three months since I lost my job. So time to pause for thought and how I have been doing. I have been applying for jobs with no success. When I have been lucky to get an interview, the feedback was that I came across well. I would be a good fit for their company..BUT..there the other candidate had a better skill set and so they went with them. I have been plugging away with the Python coding. I will be truthful it is not easy and the concepts are not sticking in the old grey matter. I was under no illusions that it would be easy. It is a bit disheartening, that after much head-scratching and swearing. I have to go and look at the solution to the challenge that I am doing. I have people on the Ministry Of Test tell me that the best way to learn is to do a project. There was a friend of mine who wanted to do a project with me. They are learning Javascript and I would rather stick with the Python. This individual is proving to be less than reliable for arranging a time...

Scotland appears to be slowing easing itself out of the imposed lock down. We have done this a lot slower than England and with good reason. There is still no antidote and there will not be until at least middle of next year. Even with the lock down easing I have no intention of vising any pub, cinema, gig for the foreseeable future. It does break my heart typing that.Reality is it only takes one careless individual who does not know they have COVID19. To cause the infection to take hold again. Just look at what happened in some places in the US and here in the UK with Leicester. I am not one for preductions, but I will make one. I can see local lock downs happening a lot more, espeacilly as we get into the winter months. Until we have atitdote this is going to be our reality. We did manage to get out Edinburgh yesterday for a much needed jaunt into the countryside. Walked round the lovely Jupiter Art Land estate. The estate that has various art installations in the woods...

I have been trying to keep active and go attend as many web-x talks that I would find might be beneficial to me. My unplanned unemployment and enforced lock-down have meant that I have all this free time to use. So what have I been doing? You can pretty much guess, can't you? Twittering about on Twitter, weaving about on YouTube. On the whole watching nature live webcams and vlogs about people living a hobo lifestyle in the USA. Not exactly productive Between all this I have been trying to learn chunks of Python coding. I have been following Python By Example by Nichola Lacey. I am not a great student, at the best of times, I realised that I spend more time twittering and You Tubing. I have decided that this week I would take a break from the majority of the Social Media platforms. . I will continue to use Linked and continue to dip in the Ministry Of Test Slack channels as I need to find a job. I am into my 3rd day of not using Twitter and Facebook. To be honest I...