Mumbled Musings

Most people appreciate that while time is always short and there are never enough hours in the day, the thing that is really in sMost people appreciate that while time is always short and there are never enough hours in the day, what's really in short supply is concentration. If you have something difficult to do, something that requires your brain to exert itself, you don't just need time. You need to summon up something else as well. We often regard this as needing willpower. You're sitting there ready to do great things, but you just can't get yourself started.

As a small boy, I desperately wanted a telescope. I loved looking at the stars and the moon. Light pollution meant I could only rarely make out the Milky Way—when I did, it just looked like light cloud—but I really wanted to see it in more detail. I'd also heard that stars had different colours. These weren't visible in the town I grew up in.

I often mistake my ability to Google information for talent rather than a resource. I'm working on a big software project, and it's frustrating when problems arise that I can't simply search for answers to online. Oddly, this doesn't stop me from trying. It's now routine for me to attempt to Google a solution before thinking about it myself.

I like to linger on my writing. I enjoy leaving it, coming back to it, and editing it. Then re-editing it. The less pressing the writing is, the more leisurely my approach. The writing that is least important to me, and judging by my stats to everyone else as well, is my blogging. As a consequence, I produce very few blog posts, and what I do produce often stays in draft form for quite a long time. Often indefinitely.

​​ The Pomodoro technique is very powerful and very useful. I find it invaluable and the main tool I use to get things done. I’ve got a number of different ways of doing to solve different problems. One of them is when I have a job that is long, difficult, and requires a lot of concentration, and then I’ll do it by alternating sessions with more mundane work.  

I have been doing the 16/8 diet for about 3 months now so I think it is time for a summary of what I’ve learnt. The first thing is that is definitely a good way to lose weight.  I am just under 5Kg lighter now than when I started it.    It is a slow way to lose weight.  You hardly notice the difference week to week.  This is probably a good thing.  Weight loss programmes are notorious for recidivism.  The majority of people who lose weight put it back on again.

I’m not a fan of the British Conservative Party on the whole. But most long established organisations have both good and bad in their history, and the Tories have had their moments that command respect. And certainly as a body of people they aren’t uniformly bad. It is unfortunate that right at the moment they seem to be fielding not so much their B team but more a group of chancers that would normally have been shown the door long ago.