New site… again

Once again I have decided to freshen up the website, where “fresh” I guess is pretty subjective - at least it’s new.

The old site was built a while ago and whilst I am still using Squarespace, the newest features like the flexible design are very good and make customisng a whole lot easier.

It’s still not perfect and I guess that comes from being someone technical who can see the between the lines, there might be one or two things I wish it had - but at the same time it’s also very impressive. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to maintain a tool like this behind the scenes and it’s far better than I could do on my own, or at least it’s way less time consuming.

I’ve added a new about page, as well as adding some links to my business where I am spending a bit more energy these days, and I’m very happy overall with it!

Anyways, the show goes on.

Nanny Joan’s Memorial

When someone passes away, it’s hard not to look back at life. Given the timing of Nanny Joan’s passing over two years ago and the state of the global pandemic since then, the whole family has had a lot of time to reflect. Not least in the immediate aftermath where most of our time was just sitting in a room, trying to keep busy.

Often in this reflection, people ask themselves what the last thing you did together was, the last holiday you went on, the last happy memory, the last words you said. Of course, I remember the last words that I said to Nanny Joan - I said “I’ll see you soon”.

At the time we knew things weren’t perfect. It was just before the pandemic really spread, but we knew that Nanny wasn’t well. My Dad, my brothers and I had rushed over on an emergency flight, not just to see Nanny Joan but also to support Mum who was going through the toughest time in her life. And when we left, I knew it wasn’t good - but I didn’t know what else to say, so I just said “I’ll see you soon”, like I always used to say.

No matter what happened, every year we always used to have fixed dates set in stone to see Nanny, whether for Christmas, birthdays, Easter, no matter how long we were apart as a family, we always knew it would be a case of “See you soon”.

For a while I regretted those words. I wished I had said something more, something like “I love you”. Something like, “Thank you for always being there for me, for Mum, for my brothers”. But I didn’t say that and now more than two years on, I know that no words would have ever been enough.

More importantly, I hope that anything I could have said, she already knew. I hope that she knew that she was so loved, by all of us. I know I never said thank you enough but I hope she always knew that I was thankful.

I look back now and smile, because I did see her soon. I see her every day with her picture on my bookshelf, I see her when I look through the photos of our holidays together, I see her when I think back to find family memories of everyone eating together at Christmas.

And eventually when I as too pass on, as we all will - I will see her again one last time, and I very much look forward to seeing you again Nanny Joan.

#WorkingWithMe

I love the idea of a “Working with me” document from Monzo.

From all of my experience working with teams from big to small, I don’t think anyone spends enough time thinking or acting on the most important team-working skill… communication.

What's a "working with me" doc at Monzo, and why are they so important? 🤔

THREAD 👇 pic.twitter.com/gvPvFTet4Z

— Making Monzo (@MakingMonzo) August 12, 2021

Personally I would find it extremely useful to see this document when working in a team, particularly in a new team or with colleagues that I have not yet worked with.

It is true that you get to know people eventually, but having a document in plain English that might spell put things you can’t notice, and having that upfront from day one is such a great head start to creating positive and productive working relationships.

I also find it refreshingly honest. Nobody is perfect and anyone who can’t tell you something that they aren’t good at is a lier or like me a long time ago - too naive to see my own flaws.

But I’m a better person now and I know what I can and can’t do. So, I want to create my own version of a “Working with me” document as an exercise to be more self aware but also to help improve relationships with anyone who wants to work with me!

Working with me: Chris

What I’m good at:

• Coming up with creative solutions to tricky problems

• Adding structure or tidiness to disordered situations

• Data driven approaches

• Knowing when to

• Listening

• Quoting films

What I’m not good at:

• Reading between the lines

• Handling surprises or changes last minute

How to work with me:

• Some people call me “Fisher” because Chris is a common name and it gets confusing, so please feel free to do that too!

• Don’t beat around the bush, be direct and precise, I won’t be offended

• Be on time, or let me know otherwise!

Starting something new

Ok, if it wasn’t already apparent - I’m not great at the whole “writing every day” thing. I could say that I’ve lost all motivation due to being stuck inside all day because of this virus but the truth is, it really never became the habit which I wanted it to be.

On that note, I am going to explore something new. I have always loved being a developer - no, a software engineer, and although most of my career has been with web development I know that some use cases necessitate a more native app experience. So I’m going to try building an app!

If you asked 10 year old me what I wanted to be when I grow up I would have said an inventor. I have always loved inventing things and it wasn’t until later than most that I channelled that energy into problem solving with computers. In fact I’m convinced that I invented so many things before they actually became real products, I wish I knew what patents were when I was 10.

What is the crazy invention this time? I hear you ask. Well, it’s top secret - like all good inventions. This isn’t a plan to create the next big thing, or to make my millions, it’s just an excuse to start something new. Hopefully something I can actually stick to.

Nanny Joan

Today at 11am will be the funeral of my wonderful Grandmother who we all knew as Nanny Joan.

I’d be lying if I said it isn’t difficult being stuck inside and not able to attend the mass, but I take some comfort in knowing that the words I wrote for her will be read out:

Dear Nanny, 

You were always there for us, every birthday, every Christmas and you were even there for my graduation. I am going to miss seeing you so much, I will miss hearing the story about how you used to take me for a walk in the park when I was little, and I will miss making you laugh at the dinner table with all of our silly jokes.

You were always such a strong person, right until the end. You have fought so many challenges, but through all of them I am happy that you can finally rest in peace with your beloved Jakob.

I will always think of you when I hear those Irish tunes.

All of my love,

Christopher

Dear Mum

Dear Mum,

Half a century ago today, in a small town in Switzerland you were born. 

I’m sorry that we can’t be together today to celebrate, but I know that we will be soon enough. Nobody in the world is doing what they expected to be doing just a couple of months ago, and yet you are doing what you always do - caring for someone you love, no matter what the cost.

When you set out a lofty goal for your 50th birthday I was immediately inspired, for me it was never about the tasks or the money, but always about the ambition and the sentiment. You have always tried to do the right thing and you have always had kindness and love in your heart - a gift that I will spend the rest of my life paying back to you.

When I wrote the first post on your blog I quoted Abraham Lincoln, he was either very smart or very misquoted, because again I find his words of wisdom very appropriate:

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years.

If our lives are like books then your life is a a library full of wonderful stories. On every one of those pages in every one of those books you have always been an amazing mum who works hard, laughs loud and loves endlessly.

When everything settles down we will have a big party, until then know that we all love you very very much.

Happy birthday Mum x

Making the world a better place

Tomorrow I will have the chance to take the first step in actually making a difference in the world, it’s a little bit scary but I’m also excited.

A year ago I signed up with Anthony Nolan to be a stem cell donor, partly because there are people in my life who have had cancer and I want to “pay forward” for all of the amazing people who helped them, and partly because it’s just a good thing to do.

A week ago I received an email informing me that I was a match and asking if I was still interested in being a donor, of course I said yes. The next day I was on the phone to someone working at Anthony Nolan and working out what dates I could be available.

It’s all happened pretty fast and I am most nervous about the medical, where they confirm all my past sins of one too many donuts and one too many glasses of wine… but at the end of the day if it all goes ahead I will be able to truly give something back to the world, and that’s something I can be proud of.

If you want to be a stem cell donor (and I strongly encourage you to do so) then you can register online and if you want to find out more about what this all means then have a look on the Anthony Nolan website.

Goodbye Facebook

Facebook is a shitty company, that’s the bottom line here.

I’ve been working in web software for five years and studied computer science for another four and I can tell you that the scandals Facebook has had go beyond simple mistakes and are simply a symptom of a company who has no humanitarian values or core goodness.

I know that’s a spicy opening so let me be clear, I know there are good people in every company and this isn’t a specific blame on any one individual person, or even a group of people. What I think is wrong is something more cultural, something that is not so tangible but still exists in the air and that allows bad decisions to pass without and common sense checks that put the public before the business.

This is about privacy, about one company having too much power and influence over people and their data. It’s going to be really hard for me to remove Facebook products from my life, and in truth one less person using those services isn’t going to matter.

The buck has to stop with the people running the company and those advocates and good people inside the company need to be given the empowerment to do what is right for the wider public.

The Roaring 20's

It’s the end of a decade… a fucking decade I tell you. I'm still in the part of my life where I’ve only seen a couple of those so forgive me if I am shocked at how quickly it has flown by - but it really has.

Lacking in the writing department

I haven’t written on this blog as much as I’d like, truth be told I’ve thrown myself into work a lot over this last year or so, with much berating from friends and family. But I love writing and so here I am trying to build up that habit again.

If I look back over the last year I can see a couple of challenges that have blocked my writing and if I can find ways to remove those then I hope my ambition of writing more will become more realised.

The first issue I have is the classic writers block, not in a sense that I don’t know what to write because I have an idea every day but the type of writing is where I tend to run off the trail. That is, I always have in mind a think-piece or some big metaphorical statement that I want to make - but that type of writing takes a lot of mental energy and a whole lot of editing, which means more time and ultimately less articles written. So my focus will be to try to just write something every week, almost so that I am writing just for the sake of writing. I will still keep those bigger pieces on a strong cadence but getting into the habit keeps those writing muscles well stretched and ready.

The second issue I have is the technology needed in order for me to write or more specifically, to upload an article to this blog. Unfortunately Squarespace has decommissioned their blogging app which, for all its flaws, was a seamless way of being able to upload some thoughts quickly and on the go. As I write now it’s on my MacBook but that won’t always be suitable so I need to work out a nice way to solve this. Maybe there’s something cool I can do with iOS shortcuts? We’ll see.

Into the next decade

For me personally the last few years have been a rollercoaster, both in the “wow this is amazing” sense and in the “stop I want to get off” sense, such is life. But I really am excited for the next decade. Ten years is a really long time and I hope that the hard work that I have been putting in will bear fruit in the world of work.

I have some amazing people in my life, whom I love more than anything else in the world and the most exciting part of my future will be spending my time with them. If this blog ever had an objective then it is to be able to look back at the end of my life and read all of the wonderful memories, to relive the special moments and to know that it was all worth it in the end.

I love Monzo

A short and sweet one really, but I just have to say how much I love Monzo at the moment.

I am at the stage in my life where I need to organise and arrange some financial documents, including bank statements. I have two bank accounts (since I’m in the middle of moving everything to Monzo) and the difference between my old bank and Monzo is night and day.

Gone are the stupid login systems to outdated websites with interfaces that look right out of the early days of the Web. I was able to find the button to export my bank statement as a lovely PDF - which is a challenge in itself with some banks, and to then auto save that via iCloud to my desktop, in the exact folder where I was already collecting all my other documentation.

Exported and synced in a matter of seconds and even has a sensible file name. Glorious. I couldn’t be more sure about my decision to go all in on Monzo.

Breath Of The Problem Solving

I’m really proud of how much of this game I worked out for myself, no guides or helping. Only twice have I got stuck on a shrine for so long that I had to check it out on YouTube.

Both times I was gutted by how simple the answer seemed in retrospect and both times I had been overthinking the solution.

It was the same with the fire in Akala, for hours and hours I thought I had to be carried from one side of the map to the other, and I even got pretty far. But eventually I realised that there was a second fire much closer.. again the answer was simple and I was looking for the complex. 

Theres an important life lesson here and a personal insight into how I think. I’ve learnt a lot, enjoyed the hundreds of total hours I’ve played this game so far and I’ll remember it well.

Who says games aren’t educational? 

Government websites

On my list of odd jobs to do before I go away is to renew my driving license. Of course, using any government related website is an awful journey through bad UX, pointless questions and for some reason painfully small interface elements.

Questions related to my driving license data... shouldn't the DVLA (the agency who has all my data) know this already? Why do we still use this ancient system of National Insurance numbers to verify identity? Computers can hack even relatively sophisticated encryption systems now. Brute forcing a nine character code is child's play.

I have to pay to renew my license, a small fee but a fee nonetheless. Then I have two cut my old one in two and return it to the DVLA. By pigeon I presume?

The rumours of a fully digital driving license could not come quicker.

Goodbye Apple Watch

At least for now. Today as I pack for a holiday in Portugal at NOS Alive, I've decided to leave my Apple Watch at home just in case it goes missing.

It will be the first time I've not worn it for a prolonged period of time for a while, especially obvious by the now prominent watch tan line! It will be interesting to see how much I truly use and rely on it when I won't have it at all.

Plus, one less thing to charge. Nice upside.

Xcode is a pain

Recently I've been getting stuck into some iOS app development at work. This is something I've been aiming to do for a couple of years now and I joined this company because I knew there would be an opportunity for me to learn more.

So far it's very early days. I'm fortunate to be part of a great team, a great company and to have the background knowledge of having already built the React version of our app myself. I'm enjoying it all.. but wow Xcode is painful.

Having come from a background of mainly web development with only a dash of Java, I've always used much simpler coding environments more akin to text editors than full blown IDE's. Compared to the likes of Sublime and Atom, Xcode is heavy, slow and overly complex in many places.

I had expected this, it's an IDE which has been built over so many years and so much evolution of the iOS ecosystem, of course. It's going to be a steep climb to becoming an iOS developer.

Old bands, new music

I’ve only very recently started listening to one of the newer Blink 182 albums, Neighbourhoods. Upon reflection I feel that I was avoiding it because of fear that my once beloved favourite band had changed into something which I might not like.

The truth is that I now love the album. It’s different, but at it’s core it’s still the same whiney voiced, crazy lyriced punk rock music which I fell in love with in my teenage years.

This feeling has again come back to me with the recently new release of the album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys. The album has seemingly been derided on social media (admittedly that isn’t a scientific measurement, go get your salt) - but also within my own social circles too.

Having not heard any other opinions on the album before I first listened to it, I went straight in with the optimism I had been filled with from my similar experience with Blink 182. The short story is that I think it’s a great album.

Their best work ever? Perhaps too early to tell at this stage, I suspect not. A stadium filler? A festival banger? Again perhaps not.

But a different flavour, a much needed experimental take from the now world famous band with their whacky lyrics and song names too long most people don’t even remember them.

It’s change. A permanent one? Again I don’t think so, in the same way other artists like painters go through phases, musicians do too. But us humans, we don’t like change. And in a world where everyone and their dog can voice their opinion online, it might seem like the whole world now hates this new album.

So heres one person at least putting their name down on the like list.

Hidden Figures

I recently watched a film which I’ve been meaning to watch for a while and whilst I’m not a film critic, I feel the need to share my thoughts on a film which I found joyful and inspiring.

Hidden Figures is a film about three black women who work for NASA, based on the true stories of three women, Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. Each of these women have their own story, unique in it's challenges and inspiring moments and I strongly encourage everyone to watch this film to learn to listen and watch their stories.

There was one which stood out and resonated with me the most of the three, and that was the life and career of Dorothy Vaughan. What a wonderful, inspirational woman. As well as the obvious narrative of space exploration at NASA, the film loosely threads a sub plot of the transition of computing from human computers to electronic computers, a topic of deep interest to myself as a programmer.

Throughout the film, Dorothy showed character and leadership. Ultimately leading her to transitioning her own role as a people manager of human computers to, as the epilogue of the film reveals, a supervisor of the Programming Department at NASA. Picking up something new, diving into the deep end of a task is such a courageous thing to do and I found this to be such an inspirational narrative in the film of course, but also in the life of Dorothy herself.

Go watch the film, learn about an important part of history and be inspired. 

Tough mudder

This week I signed up to do Tough Mudder in September at work, the full 10 miles.

A whole bunch of people did it last year and although I'm not particularly looking forward to it... I am excited to do something for charity! 

Love liberates

Dr. Maya Angelou once said:

"Love liberates. It doesn’t bind. Love says, ‘I love you. I love you if you’re in China. I love you if you’re across town. I love you if you’re in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I’d like to have your arms around me. I’d like to hear your voice in my ear. But that’s not possible now, so I love you."

Today would have been her 90th birthday. Not only one of my favourite poets, but such an amazing and powerfully spoken woman.

Good habits

I'm trying to get into a few good habits lately. One of course, updating this blog. I've added a new set of categories, major, mini and micro and a nerdy tagline to go with them 🤓. So I'm pretty pleased with that!

The other new habit which I'm trying to get into is mediation, using an awesome app I heard about called Headspace. Apparently it takes 28 days to form a habit. Whilst I haven't been mediating regularly, I am enjoying the increased feeling of mindfulness. Whether or not that is psychosomatic remains to be seen.

Design is hard

I've been tweaking my website over the last day. It's still frustrating using the Squarespace editor to be totally honest.

I constantly get warnings in Safari saying that the site is using significant amounts of memory, and it's noticeably slow and clunky to use. Colours and fonts are easy, but I've had trouble with tweaking layouts specifically. There are some customisations for mobile in the particular template but not as many as I'd like and I can't get the header to style the same on mobile and desktop 😭.

I'm not a very good designer, as I'm sure you've picked up on by now. So I've tried to keep things simple on the site, with easy to read fonts and a one colour approach that mixes different shades.

Given the main aim of Squarespace, I can understand a few hiccups around the place. But the one huge frustration is the way images are dealt with. I really want a small circular profile picture in the footer... and I know how easy that is in CSS. But here I just can't get it to work, even by writing custom CSS in the site template itself, I think it's the strange grid layout that is causing issues.

Not knowing the underlying mechanism is what is annoying I think, especially as the one of the major reasons I love technology is finding out and exploring how things work under the hood.

Still... I will persevere. At least I'm not trying to debug why my Apache server isn't picking up the correct settings 🙄.