Posts and notes Life

A few months ago, the boy that my husband and I are in the process of adopting came to live with us for good. It was such an incredibly amazing day, full of a mixture of hugely strong emotions, that I’ll certainly never forget. Despite there being (potentially) still months to go before the legal side of things completes, I wanted to reflect on the journey we’ve taken so far in getting to this point. We’re far from unique in embarking on this journey, but I know everyone does have their own unique experiences, and I hope that talking about our particular ones might be some help to others going through the process, or potentially interesting to others.

I’ve been a member of Goodreads since 2013. I follow a few of my friends and family on there, and whilst it was nice to see the types of things people are reading, I only really ever used the service as a way for logging what I had read. The other social aspects didn’t keep me coming back and I personally didn’t find the home feed interesting.

As I started to get more into the Fediverse back in 2021, I joined BookWyrm (as @wilw@bookwyrm.social). I was able to export my reads as a CSV from Goodreads and import them into BookWyrm, which I continued to use as a method for recording reads and listens. BookWyrm is excellent, easy-to-use, and less clunky than Goodreads. I can certainly recommend it if you’re looking to join or build a community around books.

Starting to workout

I’ve worked out every day - pretty much - now since March 2020. The only days I’ve missed were because of illness (Covid), or another reason that made it physically (e.g. my dislocated shoulder) or logistically (e.g. during travel) impossible.

These workouts have pretty much always been “at home”, or wherever I happen to be staying at during the time. They started during the first wave of UK Covid lockdowns, in which I realised I was not getting the exercise I was previously used to when walking the 3 kilometres daily to work and back.

Whilst my days of binge drinking as a student are thankfully far in my past, alcohol is still an ongoing, yet much more minor, part of my life.

Like many millennials (and I’m sure it must be the same for other generations too), we got used to it as a mechanism for socialising. Whether this is meeting friends after work, going out for dinner with family, or spending time in the pub or at home with a significant other.

Twelve months ago - in January 2021 - I started my attempt at the #100DaysToOffload challenge. I had set myself a new year’s resolution to try to write more and, around the same time, I noticed the hashtag for the challenge circulating on Mastodon. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfil my resolution. The challenge is to post 100 times on a personal blog during the space of one year.

I maintain a small number of projects in my spare time. The amount of time I get to work on and maintain these varies depending on my other workloads.

The projects were never designed to be a means of making additional income, and were usually created simply to solve a need that I (or somebody else I know) had!

By open-sourcing them I hope that others will read through the code, and even check for (and report) problems or potentially contribute. The projects are licensed quite liberally under the BSD license.

From the hills of Dusk’s End to the small alleys of Main Street, you feel drawn to the lights of this vibrant metropolis in an uncharted internet territory. The sign reads “Nightfall”.

– Nightfall City

The Nightfall City Gemini capsule (also available via the web) is an internet community in which people can engage with each other and write blog posts and other long-form content.

The community is divided into different districts of Nightfall City: Main Street, Dusk’s End, and Writer’s Lane. These districts allow members (or “citizens”) to post links to their blog posts, zines, or other online articles. From what I can see, people tend to participate in the district or community that best fits them as an individual.

I’ve really enjoyed my recent discovery of a couple of traditional-style webzines. Webzines (sometimes referred to as online magazines, or - in this instance - simply “zines”) are a way of distributing periodic content through the web.

I’m not referring to modern-day online media outlets, but those publications which are typically written by a small number of individuals (often “netizens”) and where the focus is not on advertisements, clickbait, or the mass production of content.

I’ve recently posted about our home, in which we’ve completed a few DIY projects, such as renovating the garden and building a small loft conversion (amongst other things!). Today I’m writing about a project we did on the bathroom in the house.

When we first moved into the house, which was an old student dwelling in disrepair, the first floor had a stange configuration containing a separate toilet and shower room. Both of these rooms were tiny, old, and damp. There was no space for a bath and also no window in the shower room and the extractor fan didn’t work.

On Sunday I slipped and fell in the pouring rain. I landed hard on my side and ended up dislocating my shoulder.

I didn’t really want to try risking it and putting it back in myself (sensibly, as it turns out!), so I got a taxi to A&E (an emergency ward in UK NHS hospitals). I was lucky enough to be seen within a few minutes; I then had examinations, had X-rays, and was given gas. When the doctor got round to me, he managed to push it back into position after a few minutes of moving it around - accompanied by a very loud click.

It’s been a weird 18 months. Before pandemic-initiated changes, our daily lives might have involved getting up and travelling on some form of commute (either by walking, public transport, car, or something else) to a place of work each morning, before reversing the process every evening.

From my perspective, the change to working remotely from home has a number of benefits. Although I do miss seeing people on a daily basis in the office, the flexibility of remote work certainly outweighs any downsides. This is a feeling also echoed by many across my team - especially those with children or other family life that they need to work around.

Following on from my previous post about renovating our garden, I wanted to write an entry about another project we’ve recently completed.

Our home is a Victorian townhouse over three storeys, but the top floor has only one bedroom and a bathroom. The rest of that floor is essentially attic (or loft) space, accessible through a hatch in the ceiling of the middle floor.

As such, the loft is quite long, and far too big for us to use as-is. In fact, I’m a big believer in that if you need to put something in the loft then you probably don’t actually need it at all. I’m pretty sure we only have Christmas decorations stored up there.

Last week I gave a talk at the Bitcoin Association BSV Meet-up for Wales, hosted by Tramshed Tech in Cardiff.

Before learning about this meetup, I had not heard of BSV - either from a technology or currency perspective. However, as well as promoting an interesting project, the event welcomes showcases from technologists working across the blockchain space.

At Simply Do we have recently completed a project that aimed to leverage blockchain distributed ledger technology to help protect and manage IP assets in complex international and cross-domain supply chains. The project was a success and this was what I - along with my colleague, John - presented about.

English speakers’ privilege

I’ve always been crap at learning languages. From an early age my parents would encourage me to learn French, and I picked up Spanish and German at around the GCSE level too (exams we take around the age of 16 in the UK). But things just didn’t really ever sink in.

Part of this would have definitely been down to a childhood unappreciated privilege of understanding English as a first language. As I moved more into the technology domain to follow my interests (and then later for education and work), I was lucky that everything I needed was also in English (from programming languages, technologies, documentation, and more) - of course driven primarily by the US big-tech sector.

I recently wrote about reviewing my Twitter usage, with the aim of discovering any constructive takeways I get from the platform that warrants me keeping it installed as an app on my phone.

The up-shot is that I have now removed it. I didn’t delete my account as there is still enough value in visiting it less regularly (such as on my computer’s web-browser), but by removing the easy shortcut from my phone I have noticeably helped reduce the amount of time I spend doomscrolling.

TL,DR; I’m starting a Twitter diary to log interesting findings, and to measure its value to me.

Twitter is pretty much the last bastion of mainstream centralised social media that I use (aside from messaging services like Whatsapp and Telegram).

Although I primarily use Mastodon for my every-day social networking, which is more focused on the things I am actually interested in, I always kept Twitter around too as an app on my phone. This is because every time I try to remove it, I quickly feel as though I must be missing out on something. It always felt as though some news or useful announcement would go unnoticed.

About 18 months ago we bought a new home. The house is an 1880s (ish) Victorian building, and many of its original features - such as tile floors, cornice, and fireplaces - had been retained, which is great.

It had previously been a student-style (HMO - house of multiple occupation) house, in which nearly all available space had been converted into bedrooms. As you might imagine, the fixtures and fittings weren’t in great conditions, with old and worn carpets and wallpaper throughout.

About nine months ago - at the end of November last year - we adopted a dog. Although I’ve always grown up with and around dogs owned by parents and siblings, I’ve never been a huge “dog person” myself. However, it is very easy to get attached very quickly!

The dog we adopted is an English working cocker spaniel. As you might imagine, he is extremely energetic. He’s a nightmare on (and sometimes off) his lead, and his recall isn’t fantastic yet due to us needing to re-train him after his previous owner.

Recently my colleague was talking to me about the concept of the “5AM Club”, as defined in the book by Robin Sharma.

The “Club” is focused around starting your day early, with defined time slots for exercising and thinking.

There’s a great video here that summarises it all in about eight minutes.

The rough idea is to get up strictly at 5AM, and then spend 20 minutes exercising, 20 minutes reflecting, and then a final 20 minutes growing. By 6AM you are then energised and invigorated to start your day more effectively and successfully.

Wales Tech Week is an annual event held by Technology Connected. The 2021 event is running this week, aiming to bring technologists together from a wide range of businesses and organisations across Wales.

Today, I was a member of a panel discussing blockchain - “Welsh Businesses Bringing Blockchain to Life”. I was speaking alongside experts from other companies working in the blockchain and crypto space, and an academic focused on applying the technology to government functions.

Getting and “installing” the nuc

For his birthday a few years back, I bought my (now-)husband a beehive and a honeybee nucleus.

Some might see this as a strange gift, especially given that we live close to the city centre. It was certainly a surprise for him, but given his love for animals and science I knew he would like it.

We were lucky enough to have a relatively large garden, given our location, of around 20 metres in length. Since we didn’t really use the end of the garden much, it was a good location for hive - though other people have successfully kept bees in much smaller areas and on rooftops.

Just a quick post to say that I recently got married! By coincidence the event was three years to the day after our engagement.

It was a lovely day - great weather and really nice to see those that could attend. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go away later in the year if/when things start opening up again 😁

Growing up and the “Warcraft years”

In my earlier years I was fairly into gaming. I was definitely only ever a “casual gamer” in the scheme of things today, but I would play at least a small amount of something most days.

When I was young it was mainly those games based on Nintendo platforms - Super Mario, Mariokart, Super Smash Bros, etc. These were great with friends and were the kind of games (along with their various sequels) that we could play over again and for many years to come. Pokemon was also a big hit for me, which would continue on through the consoles.

The effects of working from home

The UK went into its first proper COVID-induced lockdown back around March time last year. At this time, our company locked its office doors and we all began working from home. We’re now all still working remotely about 14 months later and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.

Before we closed the office, I used to walk across my city - Cardiff - to get to work. It’s about a 3km walk, which would take me about 30 minutes to walk each way. I enjoyed the walk - I could stop for coffee on the way through, and the distance meant I could take different routes on different days if I wanted a change of scene.

This is a bit of a vanity post, but back in December I was lucky enough to be included in the 2020 WalesOnline “35 Under 35”.

This list aims to present the “best young businessmen in Wales” for the year. It was definitely an honour to be included and it’s great to see the efforts from the whole team at Simply Do reflected. We’re still only at the beginning of our journey and so we have an exciting few years ahead!

Back in November I started an Invisalign course to help straighten my teeth. Invisalign works like traditional braces, but is instead formed from transparent teeth “trays” that others can only really notice up-close. Given my personal situation, this seemed like a better approach than the traditional metal braces.

In all honesty, my teeth weren’t that bad to begin with but - like many people - as I got older I was beginning to notice a little more “crowding” (where teeth bunch together and start to move out of place). Invisalign was something I had wanted to try for a while, and whilst the UK was in lockdown and I couldn’t see anyone anyway, it felt like a good time to go ahead with it.

Pre-ordering the PinePhone Beta

Earlier this week I ordered a PinePhone, which recently became available as a Beta Edition.

I’ve been excitedly following the progress of the PinePhone for some time now. I’ve joined various Matrix rooms, subscribed to blogs, and started listening to the PineTalk podcast. The phone is a hackable device that runs plain old Linux - not an Android variant - and thus helps users escape from the grasp of the Google and Apple ecosystems.

Minimising possessions

Like many people I these days try and live a minimal life when it comes to possessions. Having more stuff means there is a greater level of responsibility required to look after it. I love the principles involved in “owning less”.

Although I am in a very different situation to Pieter Levels, I find the ideas behind his 100 Thing Challenge (and other related pieces) to be inspiring.

This month marks a year from when I decided to (mostly - see below) stop answering my phone. This was not because I wanted to be antisocial (quite the opposite), but because it’s become the wrong form of communication for me.

Why did I stop?

Like many people, I am inundated with sales-y and spammy phonecalls. I have had the same mobile phone number since 2001 (that’s 20 years this year), which I am sort of proud of and would prefer to keep. However, careless (or malicious) entities over the years (and more than likely mistakes also made by my younger self) have meant that my number and name are now in the databases of many different types of agents - from insurance/legal company sales teams through to dodgy Bitcoin spam companies.

Many people no longer feel comfortable using Facebook. Whether you were never a member to begin with or you’ve had an account but chosen to remove yourself from the service, or you’ve simply tried to start using it less - either way, it’s no surprise given the way that they, across their family of products (including Instagram and WhatsApp), operate in terms of your own data and time.

This is a huge subject on its own and it’s really up for everyone to make their own minds up when it comes to their own stance. It’s been widely discussed pretty much everywhere, and there are loads of resources available on this handy website if you’re interested in understanding more about what goes on behind the scenes on these platforms.

A few months ago I discovered Blogging for Devs - I think through Product Hunt when it made it to #1 Product of the Day back in August last year.

At the time blogging was something I had been thinking about quite a lot. I actively followed several other blogs - both from people I know and from others in the tech community - and it was clear that, in addition to producing content that was interesting to read by others, writing was something these bloggers actually enjoyed and found valuable too for their own learning and engagement with the community.

I know that I’ve been a bit crap at updating my blog properly and consistently over the past few years. One of my new year’s resolutions this year is to get into the habit of writing more, and so #100DaysToOffload seems a good opportunity to challenge myself to make sure I do.

The guidelines for and the ideas behind the challenge are on the challenge’s website. There aren’t any rules really, but the essential message is to “Just. Write.”. So, I’ll do my best before the end of 2021, and given that I’ve already published two posts this year I’ll count this number 3.

I haven’t written a post since summer 2015. It’s now March 2017 and I thought I’d write an update very briefly covering the last couple of years.

I finished researching and lecturing full-time in the summer of 2015. It felt like the end of an era; I’d spent around a third of my life at the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, and had experienced time there as an undergraduate through to postgrad and on to full-time staff. However, I felt it was time to move on and to try something new, although I was really pleased to be able to continue working with them on a more casual part-time basis - something that continues to today.

I recently received confirmation of my completed PhD! I submitted my thesis in May 2014, passed my viva in September and returned my final corrections in December.

I was examined internally by Dr Pete Burnap and also by Dr Jeremy Pitt of Imperial College London.

The whole PhD was an amazing experience, even during the more stressful moments. I learnt a huge amount across many domains and I cannot thank my supervisors, Dr Stuart Allen and Prof Roger Whitker, enough for their fantastic support and guidance throughout.

I recently spent a week in France as part of a holiday with some of my family. Renting houses for a couple of weeks in France or Italy each summer has almost become a bit of a tradition, and it’s good to have a relax and a catch-up for a few days. They have been the first proper few days (other than the decking-building adventure back in March) I have had away from University in 2013, so I felt it was well-deserved!

I managed to turn about two tonnes of material into something vaguely resembling ‘decking’ in my back garden this weekend. It makes the area look much nicer, but whether it actually stays up is a completely different matter.