Still lots to learn about Hugo, and not enough brain capacity. Also Markdown. Apologies for poor formatting.
Over the weekend I went running, watched John Wick 4 (spoiler alert: thankfully there won’t be a JW5 as I don’t think I have the stomach for any more), visited an ink and illustration fayre in Topsham, ate too much parkin, and grappled with issues around the sale of my Dad’s house.
So what happened this week? These are going out early on Friday because reasons.
Monday
4hr 30m sleep: 66bpm resting heart rate: 14st 13.2lb weight. Earworm: tonite by LCD Soundsystem
Up early and listened to standard-issue BBC podcasts. Did a bit of research around more ethical and sustainable suppliers, both banks and server hosting. We won’t do a big bang and move everything at once, and I need to go through a process, but the sound alternatives seem to be out there, which is reassuring.
I also dealt with an outage on the legacy infrastructure that we use to host one of our CKAN open data platforms. The customer has agreed that we can migrate off the platform, so working on that over the next couple of weeks.
In the office I worked on developing a proposal for a possible client, and looked at some project updates from collaborators, had calls etc. I’m dog tired.
QOTD: “Take it easy, but take it all.” - Lemn Sissay
Tuesday
4hr 47m sleep: 66bpm resting heart rate: 14st 13.6lb weight. Earworm: Block Rocking Beats by Chemical Brothers.
The highlight of my day was receiving an ITT from an unnamed cultural organisaiton who want me to go through a 2-stage bid process for a 3 month project worth £3,300 inc VAT. I woke up at 2am again, not sure why it’s happening but it sure is tedious. Delivered another proposal to a different prospective client, and caught up with a project in progress.
More house admin done. Not sure if there’s any kind of end in sight, but these are problems many people would kill to have. Despite that perspective, I’m miserable.
QOTD: “I never wanted to believe that my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.” - @IHasWisdom@mastodon.social
Wednesday
6h 2m sleep: 65bpm resting heart rate: 14st 11.6lb weight. Earworm: Jennifer by Everything Everything.
Ran first thing this morning, Was out for 68 minutes, running for 45 of them in 3 intervals. The last 25 minute interval was the hardest, but I was ok. Slightly more sleep also helped, but I’m still some way off where I want to be.
The accountant had some interesting things to say about the Profit First methodology, and as a result I’m looking at implementing only a cut-down version of it. I think it has value in it’s core message and I’m basically keeping that while being flexible about how I implement the details.
At the Hub for the rest of the day, having dropped a documentation bomb off at the solicitor’s offices on the way. Working on data cleansing a smallish dataset.
QOTD: “When people ask why I’m fighting the climate crisis in the UK, I ask them which country they think carbon dioxide is in” - Phil Sturgeon, Protect Earth
Thursday
6h 48m sleep: 64bpm resting heart rate: 14st 12.2lb weight. Earworm: Freddie’s Dead by Curtis Mayfield.
A day full of data wrangling ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Bristol for a client workshop.
TIL that there are several UK companies called variations on “Complete Control” and am suddenly very disappointed with our own branding choices.
The working day ended with drinks and pizza (I don’t indulge) at the Hub, it was nice to meet a few new people but I’m poor in these situations, probably saying something wrong to at least one person. I also had an involved conversation with the conveyancing solicitor and let’s just summarise that our roofer is going to need to supply a few answers.
QOTD: “My favourite 2 words in business English? ‘Remittance Advice’. Why yes I am a grubby capitalist who wants to get paid one day.” - Me
Friday
4h 7m sleep: 65bpm resting heart rate: unweighed. Earworm: Reward by Teardrop Explodes.
Really poor night’s sleep and up and out early to travel to Bristol where I’m meeting Simon and Lucy and doing a client workshop. These clients are terrifyingly knowledgeable and good at what they do and it always puts me slightly on edge, but this is the kind of challenge I need.
I suspect I’ll write off our current bids in progress and we’ll assume nothing is happening. Standard. We’re busy right now, but as ever I’m thinking 2-3 months ahead when we’ll have more capacity. So if you’re out there and have a strange project that doesn’t fit a standard subcontractor and need a flexible, creative and technically multiskilled data/tech/design partner then ping me.
QOTD:
- “Me at 15: The Dead Kennedys are right about everything.
- Me at 20: Actually these issues are way more complex.
- Me at 28: But really it comes down to larger, systemic issues.
- Me at 35: The Dead Kennedys were right about everything.”
@LeavittAlone on Twitter, 2019