I'm one part amused and one part exasperated by the following report, read on MSN UK this morning:
"Snow showers sweeping across the North West of England have led to the closure of around 200 schools and are heading towards the South."
The most any area has had is 10cm of snow. It really is not that much. However, traffic comes to a standstill, people can't manage to use a pavement, they don't show up to work and schools shut. Just what you need when there's deepening recession, I might add.
My friends and colleagues look at me funny if I get too enthusiastic about the snow in Helsinki. What they don't understand is that it is a leftover from childhood in the UK. Snow means no school, because the infrastructure can't deal with anything as predictable as the seasons. No school and playing outside all day making snowmen. Great! - when you are a child, or else have nowhere to go.
When you do have somewhere to go, you won't get there. The snow ploughs and gritters are few, and who in Britain owns winter tyres?
My former step-father mentioned that not 50 years ago, Brits treated their cars the same way as Finns are legally required to in winter; they would change to winter tyres. Somehow, the knowledge has not been passed on. Furthermore, people are too lazy and protective of their money to do so without any legal encouragement. I can't blame them for the latter, but how much is lost if you cannot make it to work?
Well, while Britain 'suffers' snow, I am off into the rain and sleet. Sometimes I wonder if I have moved countries, or if the countries just swapped themselves under my feet while the aeroplane hovered on the spot.
04 December, 2008
03 December, 2008
Risto Siilasmaa on start-ups in a recession
Risto Siilasmaa is the founder of an internet security company and its former CEO. He is now also a board member at Nokia and backs several start-up companies.
Slush Helsinki is a conference for entrepreneurs. In 2008 it was held on November 24th.
You can see the keynote speech at the Arctic Startup blog. Risto keeps it short and offers some general advice to start-up companies on the attitude they must take to increase their chances of weathering an economic storm.
My favourite moment was hearing Risto say "American football is like life."
Slush Helsinki is a conference for entrepreneurs. In 2008 it was held on November 24th.
You can see the keynote speech at the Arctic Startup blog. Risto keeps it short and offers some general advice to start-up companies on the attitude they must take to increase their chances of weathering an economic storm.
My favourite moment was hearing Risto say "American football is like life."
30 October, 2008
Scandinavian Agile 2008
Yesterday, I attended the first ever Scandinavian Agile conference, in Helsinki.
The event was going to be limited to 200 participants, but there was enough demand that there were over 250 admitted in the end. The event ran smoothly, with the sessions starting and ending on time and regular refreshment of the refreshments; every time you came out of a 'session', there was something new on the tables outside.
There were three tracks:
Awareness
Practitioner
Open space
I took advantage of the ability to flit between them. Before any flitting occurred, there was the keynote speech by Gabrielle Benefield of Yahoo! affiliation.
Gabrielle Benefield
Gabrielle's presentation was a rather general overview of what it is like to convert teams in a large organisation to agile. She surveyed the audience beforehand and found that all but six already used agile practises in their daily work. Despite this, the session felt very much like a primer speech. Perhaps she did not expect quite so many people to be practising agile already. This seems strange, because she quoted statistics concerning how widely used agile practises are in the Nordic countries.
There was a lot in Gabrielle's speech about overcoming resistance: spreading the word about agile; encouraging people to take it up; calming people's fears; taking advantage of people's desires; generally using political tactics to smooth your way. I imagine the advice was useful for many people, but I am pleased to say that I am not in a company where much of this is required.
Bjarte Bogsnes, A journey beyond budgeting
I was not too keen on the format of the presentation. It was a little rushed at the end due to too much detail about motives and the underlying philosophy in the beginning of the presentation. However, there were some key points made, and some of them were about Key Points - Key Point Indicators, or KPIs.
One central theme is that companies have to stop using KPIs as Key Point Incentives or as a power and control tool to force people to act in a certain way. This was especially true if a company also tried to do the same through personal incentives. KPIs should be used as the indicators they are; they should be the intermediate point between the goals that you wish to achieve and the actions that you know will (most likely) achieve those goals. A KPI should be a checkpoint: are you doing what you need to do to achieve the goal?
This tied in with the 'league table' theme. I call it the league table theme, because it was an analogy Bjarte used very effectively. Instead of setting a goal to reach a certain performance value, set a goal to reach a certain relative value: football teams do not try to score the most points in a season, they try to outscore other football teams. A more business-centred example would be:
'Don't tell sales people their bonus is based on meeting some stab-in-the-dark estimate of contracts gained, tell them it is based on how many contract announcements you get to make in comparison to competing companies'.
The main theme was, of course, budget. Bjarte criticised the practise of giving people a one month window to estimate their spending for the entire year. He compared it to doing that with your personal finances. According to the speaker, the benefits of going without departmental budgets are many: money won't be spent just because it is there (people think about things more); damage that is caused by estimation will be reduced; damage that is caused by the foolishness of awarding bonuses to people based on under-spending is eliminated. He neither talked about how long it takes to make an acquisition nor whether removing all budgeting affects the quantity of paperwork, particularly that done by middle-management.
Bas Vodde, A journey through development literature
Staying on the awareness track…
After the relatively heavy-going budgeting talk, this presentation was a nice one to listen to. It was a collection of small quotes from development industry books that highlighted themes that ran between the books, even though none of them had been written about that theme. It was cleverly done. It imparted the speaker's intended messages and highlighted the fact that all the books made statements in accordance to agile principles. At the same time, it added a little conflict between quotes that seemed at first to contradict each other, but then he opened them up with the use of another quote. I admired the style.
A lot of this presentation was about the importance of teams, and the importance of cross-functional teams - something we've just made radical steps towards doing better on in our company. It also highlighted the fact that when cross-functional teams were mentioned in literature, it was not a case of 'you have architects, developers and testers in one team, aren't you doing well!', but rather that cross-functional teams include marketing, documentation, design... you name it.
Business Value Workshop
After lunch I switched to the practitioner track. First up was a workshop on Business Value. Workshops are wonderful, in my book, as there's nothing like getting practical. This was a fun 'game' to play and is open source and available from the host's website.
The game forced the team to juggle customer happiness and the threat of potentially losing contracts or customers against development output. Development was measured in velocity and contained an unpredictable random factor. On top of that, the team had to take into account potential profit, potential savings from process improvements and other important factors.
The exercise highlighted the importance of knowing what is really valued in your business, and what really drives prioritisation issues: Is it the volume of a customer, the money coming in, the long term savings that can be made, how much fun a contract is to do, what brings the sales personnel the biggest bonuses, what is easiest for the developers, or something else?
This is really important for people to know at all levels of an agile organisation. Customers and business stakeholders impose their priorities on the product owner, who communicates them to the development team. When the development team works on a high-level item, it splits the item into tasks and gives them a priority. New methods of prioritisation may get introduced at each level.
The exercise highlighted also another problem: how the important details slip by in time-restricted circumstances, particularly once a team has become accustomed to a way of working and does not spot a change slipping in. In the game, the small print about what customers considered 'good enough' was added without the organisers mentioning it. While our team spotted the small print, we did miss one line and it cost us two customers and two increments of work that we had delivered. We made the mistake during the round where our time to think and act had just been halved by the organisers.
Of course, the random factor of the development velocity was one of the most important things to take into account during planning. Managing the risks (and disappointments) caused teams headaches. A roll of a die determined whether the velocity would increase or decrease in each increment, and there were a lot of jokes about not hiring more developers, or skilled developers, but lucky developers.
Scandinavian Agile Panel
Lastly, I attended a panel where five speakers (whose names I do not have, but one of them was actually Scandinavian*) discussed agile issues and some questions raised by the audience. The most interesting topic was how both local and European laws are limiting the competitiveness of agile companies when competing for contracts. People had problems because some contracts require you to allocate, schedule and price the time of design, development and testing time of a project separately. This conflicts with agile methodology. While I find it interesting, I'm glad once more that it is not relevant to my current work.
Open Space
One thing I haven't mentioned so far is the Open Space track. I went to one of these sessions, at the end of lunch. It was about user interface design in agile. My main reason for wanting to attend the conference was a presentation on this subject, which was pulled last minute from the Practitioner track. Unfortunately, the half-hour chat was not very useful. It confirmed that we are not the only people who are tackling the problem of fitting large-scale design methods and departments of designers in with agile deliverable development work. It didn't give me any insights that I had not managed to glean from reading around. I believe we will have to do as I suspected here and simply experiment by trying to improve the problems that we have, the way that the agile system allows and encourages us to do.
That's enough work-like evening activity for me (eugh). The only reason I am happy to do it is because of the delights of Nordic sauna relaxation, but sadly the experience also encourages headaches and I now need to have a good rest.
*The thing about Scan' Agile is that, well, it's not in Scandinavia. Finland is a Nordic Country, not part of Scandinavia, as such. However, most people's idea of Scandinavian culture does include Finland.
28 October, 2008
Oh no!
I just found out I missed this year's Helsinki book fair (Kirjamessut 2008).
It's not as much of a problem as it could be, as it is mainly a place for bookshops to sell stuff. At least, that was the impression I got last year. Sure, there were talks scheduled in open presentation areas, but they are in Finnish and my comprehension is not good enough to get much value from them.
Still, I would like to have been there, for the love all all things bookish. It also wouldn't have hurt to see how much better I understood the speakers this year than last, but I think the poetry reading I attended at Night of the Arts a month or so back already did that; I'm still a bit rubbish.
I looked at the website for the book fair briefly, and cringed. You can see for yourself how ugly and, well, 1998 it is. There are some pretty good graphic designers in Finland, so I don't think they have any excuse. I can immediately think of at least one local designer who could have done a better job, JDV Design, and that's without even trying. Someone tell them, please.
It's not as much of a problem as it could be, as it is mainly a place for bookshops to sell stuff. At least, that was the impression I got last year. Sure, there were talks scheduled in open presentation areas, but they are in Finnish and my comprehension is not good enough to get much value from them.
Still, I would like to have been there, for the love all all things bookish. It also wouldn't have hurt to see how much better I understood the speakers this year than last, but I think the poetry reading I attended at Night of the Arts a month or so back already did that; I'm still a bit rubbish.
I looked at the website for the book fair briefly, and cringed. You can see for yourself how ugly and, well, 1998 it is. There are some pretty good graphic designers in Finland, so I don't think they have any excuse. I can immediately think of at least one local designer who could have done a better job, JDV Design, and that's without even trying. Someone tell them, please.
19 October, 2008
Accordion update
Just a brief update on my progress with the accordion restoration.
I opened it up a few weeks ago at the bass end, with some difficulty. The pins were rusty and very tight. I'm glad none of them were far enough gone to snap, but I do wonder where I will find replacements. You're always meant to use the originals, but in this case that would be pretty foolish. I have to work out a way to clean the rust residue from the tiny holes, too.
Once opened, my suspicion that a reed block had come loose was confirmed. The glue is so old and hard that it is not holding on to parts as it should. One side of a reed block was stuck to the frame and the rest had fallen away from it. The separation from its own side also means that two of the reeds have fallen out of their mount entirely. It's going to be a tough job getting them back in place and aligned correctly. The presence of thick lines of brittle glue do not help. I have no idea right now if there's a safe way to remove some of it, and what kind of strong glue I need to buy that can glue wood to wood or metal without harming leather.
The other problem with the reeds are the little leather strips that prevent air from flowing over reeds when the bellows are being moved in one direction or the other. Some of them have curled so badly that the bellow action just pushes them further upwards, instead of down to protect the reed. What's worse is that some of these are difficult to reach, inside the hollows of the 'giant harmonica' structure. It will be difficult to unglue them, and perhaps even more so to glue replacements without getting glue on the reeds; this assumes I can find the right kind of soft, fine leather patches.
Since discovering this, I've not touched the accordion. I've been busy working, writing and looking to buy an apartment. I'm hoping to make an offer on a new place in the next week, and if accepted, I'll have to think about packing ready for the new year. This doesn't just mean I have no tie for the accordion, it means I need to work out how to transport it without losing any parts or losing track of the placement of the parts. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.
I opened it up a few weeks ago at the bass end, with some difficulty. The pins were rusty and very tight. I'm glad none of them were far enough gone to snap, but I do wonder where I will find replacements. You're always meant to use the originals, but in this case that would be pretty foolish. I have to work out a way to clean the rust residue from the tiny holes, too.
Once opened, my suspicion that a reed block had come loose was confirmed. The glue is so old and hard that it is not holding on to parts as it should. One side of a reed block was stuck to the frame and the rest had fallen away from it. The separation from its own side also means that two of the reeds have fallen out of their mount entirely. It's going to be a tough job getting them back in place and aligned correctly. The presence of thick lines of brittle glue do not help. I have no idea right now if there's a safe way to remove some of it, and what kind of strong glue I need to buy that can glue wood to wood or metal without harming leather.
The other problem with the reeds are the little leather strips that prevent air from flowing over reeds when the bellows are being moved in one direction or the other. Some of them have curled so badly that the bellow action just pushes them further upwards, instead of down to protect the reed. What's worse is that some of these are difficult to reach, inside the hollows of the 'giant harmonica' structure. It will be difficult to unglue them, and perhaps even more so to glue replacements without getting glue on the reeds; this assumes I can find the right kind of soft, fine leather patches.
Since discovering this, I've not touched the accordion. I've been busy working, writing and looking to buy an apartment. I'm hoping to make an offer on a new place in the next week, and if accepted, I'll have to think about packing ready for the new year. This doesn't just mean I have no tie for the accordion, it means I need to work out how to transport it without losing any parts or losing track of the placement of the parts. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.
16 October, 2008
My 10 Favourite Finnish Words
Before I came to Finland, people would ask me why I want to learn Finnish. Here are ten reasons why:
1. Kuunsilta
This one means 'moon's bridge' and describes the reflection of the moon on water.
The Melody pronunciation guide: coo-n : sill : ta!
2. Hävytöntä!
This expression can be translated as 'Shameful!' The key to the beauty of this word is in the ä and ö sounds; the sounds that you pronounce low in the throat and simply can't find in English are used to great effect in words denoting unfavourable actions or feelings. In this case, the very pronunciation of this word forces you to sound like a prudish old lady.
The Melody pronunciation guide: have : euur : duh!-n : tah!
3. Valitettavasti
Many adverbs have the -sti ending in Finnish and it improves them all, but this is my favourite. It means 'unfortunately' and it has a wonderful snappy staccato rhtyhm.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Val : E : tête : tah! : vasz : tea
4. Taivaanranta
This word isn't as fun to say as some of the others on this list, but what's nice is the direct translation. It means horizon, but actually says 'beach of the sky' or 'sky's shore'. She saw stars shine on the sky's shore.
The Melody pronunciation guide: tie : vahn : ran : ta!
5. Höpöhöpö!
This is 'nonsense'.
The Melody pronunciation guide: huur : puur : huur : puur
6. Krapula
It's such a distinctive way of describing a hangover, and couldn't be more true. You're in a place of krap indeed.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Crap : ooh : lah!
7. yrjö
Staying on the drunken theme, here is the word for throwing up. I believe it became the word for throwing up, because it is pretty much the sound you make when you try to say it. Give it a go.
The Melody pronunciation guide: euih-rr : yeuhh
8. Suhista
This is a lovely word for describing a rustling sound or the sighing of the wind.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Sue : hiss : ta!
9. Mielenkiintoinen
This means 'interesting'. I can just hear Montgomery Burns saying this; it's got far more of the long, drawn out vowels that make the word so... iiiinteresting.
The Melody pronunciation guide: me : L : N : keen : toy : nen
10. Britti-poppi
Okay, so it's a loan word at best and modern slang at worst, but this word contains the best thing about English to Finnish loan words. They turn 'Brit pop' into 'britty poppy'. How cute!
No pronunciation guide needed here. Just tie your hair in bunches and repeat after me: Britty poppy, Britty poppy, Britty poppy!
DISCLAIMER: I hold no liability whatsoever for the Melody pronunciation guide, the Finnish language, or indeed my interpretation of it. In fact, I won't even claim that the guide is usuable even if you know to pronounce the words with a 'BBC English (southern)' accent plus rolled r's. I take no responsibility for the emotional trauma that may occur in the event that Finns, or any other nation's people, laugh themselves silly at your earnest attempts to communicate and it's certainly none of my business if you injure yourself trying to pronounce the letters ö y and ä.
Melody.
1. Kuunsilta
This one means 'moon's bridge' and describes the reflection of the moon on water.
The Melody pronunciation guide: coo-n : sill : ta!
2. Hävytöntä!
This expression can be translated as 'Shameful!' The key to the beauty of this word is in the ä and ö sounds; the sounds that you pronounce low in the throat and simply can't find in English are used to great effect in words denoting unfavourable actions or feelings. In this case, the very pronunciation of this word forces you to sound like a prudish old lady.
The Melody pronunciation guide: have : euur : duh!-n : tah!
3. Valitettavasti
Many adverbs have the -sti ending in Finnish and it improves them all, but this is my favourite. It means 'unfortunately' and it has a wonderful snappy staccato rhtyhm.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Val : E : tête : tah! : vasz : tea
4. Taivaanranta
This word isn't as fun to say as some of the others on this list, but what's nice is the direct translation. It means horizon, but actually says 'beach of the sky' or 'sky's shore'. She saw stars shine on the sky's shore.
The Melody pronunciation guide: tie : vahn : ran : ta!
5. Höpöhöpö!
This is 'nonsense'.
The Melody pronunciation guide: huur : puur : huur : puur
6. Krapula
It's such a distinctive way of describing a hangover, and couldn't be more true. You're in a place of krap indeed.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Crap : ooh : lah!
7. yrjö
Staying on the drunken theme, here is the word for throwing up. I believe it became the word for throwing up, because it is pretty much the sound you make when you try to say it. Give it a go.
The Melody pronunciation guide: euih-rr : yeuhh
8. Suhista
This is a lovely word for describing a rustling sound or the sighing of the wind.
The Melody pronunciation guide: Sue : hiss : ta!
9. Mielenkiintoinen
This means 'interesting'. I can just hear Montgomery Burns saying this; it's got far more of the long, drawn out vowels that make the word so... iiiinteresting.
The Melody pronunciation guide: me : L : N : keen : toy : nen
10. Britti-poppi
Okay, so it's a loan word at best and modern slang at worst, but this word contains the best thing about English to Finnish loan words. They turn 'Brit pop' into 'britty poppy'. How cute!
No pronunciation guide needed here. Just tie your hair in bunches and repeat after me: Britty poppy, Britty poppy, Britty poppy!
DISCLAIMER: I hold no liability whatsoever for the Melody pronunciation guide, the Finnish language, or indeed my interpretation of it. In fact, I won't even claim that the guide is usuable even if you know to pronounce the words with a 'BBC English (southern)' accent plus rolled r's. I take no responsibility for the emotional trauma that may occur in the event that Finns, or any other nation's people, laugh themselves silly at your earnest attempts to communicate and it's certainly none of my business if you injure yourself trying to pronounce the letters ö y and ä.
Melody.
12 October, 2008
Sending messages into space
I've just finished reading an article about Bebo users sending messages into space and I feel the need to voice an opinion on the matter.
The article reminded me of a similar publicity stunt, for that is clearly what it is, by the company that make Doritos. The chaps at Doritos ran a competition for people to create their own advertisement for the crisps (US: 'chips') and the winning entry gets beamed into space towards solar systems thought to be capable of hosting life.
The Doritos advert depicted crisps that came to life when a human left the room. They dance around and 'sacrifice' one of their number by making it fall into a pot of dip. The human returns and the lid jumps back on the dip. The human opens said dip, and gobbles up the sacrificed crisp. Now forgive me please for thinking this is not the best message to send an alien civilisation. Assuming they are intelligent enough to work out that dancing crisps are not a representation of reality, we are still depicting a culture based on lethal sacrifice to higher beings. Gigantic higher beings, us, who are oblivious to smaller things and do not question their activities except to devour them if they happen to cross our path. You might argue that this description has some truth to it, but really, I do not think we are anywhere near that extreme.
Then we have Bebo, who have sent a lot of barely literate ramblings and teen culture images out. I've been reading some pretty funny comments about what an alien race will make of these, but the sad fact is that if they were received then they might be taken very seriously indeed. I'm not sure the probability that humour exists among sentient lifeforms has been calculated.
It's a good job that the chances of anything coming of these messages is so tiny. Even assuming we can locate a suitably advanced race of beings, they have to recognise the signals, receive them clearly, and decode them. I am guessing that the only reason scientists and politicians allow this nonsense is because they know it will fail, while bringing in a little cash for the real research. Yet still, it annoys me a little. We should have a plan about these things. We should be submitting constant, simple 'pings' that are recognisable as non-random data to a range of destinations where life may be found, and we should keep doing that and listening for 'pongs' coming back at us. Then we can try to communicate something more complicated. Perhaps the binary system of counting? I really hope someone is going to tell me this is already being implemented. It would be nice to think that we have a plan that is not limited to the narrow vision of our own lifespans.
Nanoo nanoo.
The article reminded me of a similar publicity stunt, for that is clearly what it is, by the company that make Doritos. The chaps at Doritos ran a competition for people to create their own advertisement for the crisps (US: 'chips') and the winning entry gets beamed into space towards solar systems thought to be capable of hosting life.
The Doritos advert depicted crisps that came to life when a human left the room. They dance around and 'sacrifice' one of their number by making it fall into a pot of dip. The human returns and the lid jumps back on the dip. The human opens said dip, and gobbles up the sacrificed crisp. Now forgive me please for thinking this is not the best message to send an alien civilisation. Assuming they are intelligent enough to work out that dancing crisps are not a representation of reality, we are still depicting a culture based on lethal sacrifice to higher beings. Gigantic higher beings, us, who are oblivious to smaller things and do not question their activities except to devour them if they happen to cross our path. You might argue that this description has some truth to it, but really, I do not think we are anywhere near that extreme.
Then we have Bebo, who have sent a lot of barely literate ramblings and teen culture images out. I've been reading some pretty funny comments about what an alien race will make of these, but the sad fact is that if they were received then they might be taken very seriously indeed. I'm not sure the probability that humour exists among sentient lifeforms has been calculated.
It's a good job that the chances of anything coming of these messages is so tiny. Even assuming we can locate a suitably advanced race of beings, they have to recognise the signals, receive them clearly, and decode them. I am guessing that the only reason scientists and politicians allow this nonsense is because they know it will fail, while bringing in a little cash for the real research. Yet still, it annoys me a little. We should have a plan about these things. We should be submitting constant, simple 'pings' that are recognisable as non-random data to a range of destinations where life may be found, and we should keep doing that and listening for 'pongs' coming back at us. Then we can try to communicate something more complicated. Perhaps the binary system of counting? I really hope someone is going to tell me this is already being implemented. It would be nice to think that we have a plan that is not limited to the narrow vision of our own lifespans.
Nanoo nanoo.
07 October, 2008
This blog's title is given new meaning
I mentioned that I was going to talk about writing in my original post on this blog, and I am.
Here is a picture of a plot plotting plot, or in other words a chart on my wall showing the plot lines of a story that I am working on at the moment:
If any of my colleagues think those post it notes look familiar, they do not need to worry. This project is work inspired and hopefully can be tied into the company.
I have three colleagues at work helping me out with this. If I don't produce a chapter a fortnight, I owe them each one Euro. I got some really nice feedback on the preface today, and while talking I mentioned the above wall chart. My colleague was surprised that I was taking such an engineering approach to it. It's true that my work experiences (scrum, agile, and user centred design processes) have an effect on the way I tackle problems, but what I forgot to mention is that experience plays a factor in it too.
I'm already halfway through a novel, one which I was given the original idea for several years ago. I knew that my writing would improve as I aged and practised so I left the original plot of this story brewing for a while, came back to it, paused while moving to Finland, and then reviewed it again. The review brought about some serious editing and I learned a lot from it. I put into practise rules about starting in the middle of the action and cutting out passages that are not exciting enough. I even replaced one character with someone very different, which lead to a reassessment of where the plot would need to go later on according to the personality and subsequrnt decisions of the replacement character.
Now, on my chart, I am putting what I learned into practise, so that I can produce a draught worthy of showing my colleagues. In order from top to bottom: Yellow notes mark the start and end of chapters; Red notes mark general world events (e.g. stock markets crash in Asia); Blue notes mark events based around one organisation; Green notes mark events based around another organisation; The brightly coloured notes underneath are for specific character storylines.
Here's a straight-on picture:
Straight away by doing this I can get an idea of which events occur first for specific characters; for example, travelling may take some time. I can see where there a big gaps with no character activity in them (see that gap in the character notes centre-right?). I can mark the post it notes that contain juicy enough events to write about. I can mark out points where chapters start and end, and this one is really valuable because you can see my whole story, exciting though it is, will probably only come to five chapters.
So straight away I know what to work on. Oh, and now it's a two-part story, and the wall is only showing the first part.
As for the 'original' book, the one that has taught me so much and will still teach me more, I am publishing it on the sister blog to this one:
I Want More
You can read the about section or you can go straight to the preface.
Melody.
Here is a picture of a plot plotting plot, or in other words a chart on my wall showing the plot lines of a story that I am working on at the moment:
If any of my colleagues think those post it notes look familiar, they do not need to worry. This project is work inspired and hopefully can be tied into the company.
I have three colleagues at work helping me out with this. If I don't produce a chapter a fortnight, I owe them each one Euro. I got some really nice feedback on the preface today, and while talking I mentioned the above wall chart. My colleague was surprised that I was taking such an engineering approach to it. It's true that my work experiences (scrum, agile, and user centred design processes) have an effect on the way I tackle problems, but what I forgot to mention is that experience plays a factor in it too.
I'm already halfway through a novel, one which I was given the original idea for several years ago. I knew that my writing would improve as I aged and practised so I left the original plot of this story brewing for a while, came back to it, paused while moving to Finland, and then reviewed it again. The review brought about some serious editing and I learned a lot from it. I put into practise rules about starting in the middle of the action and cutting out passages that are not exciting enough. I even replaced one character with someone very different, which lead to a reassessment of where the plot would need to go later on according to the personality and subsequrnt decisions of the replacement character.
Now, on my chart, I am putting what I learned into practise, so that I can produce a draught worthy of showing my colleagues. In order from top to bottom: Yellow notes mark the start and end of chapters; Red notes mark general world events (e.g. stock markets crash in Asia); Blue notes mark events based around one organisation; Green notes mark events based around another organisation; The brightly coloured notes underneath are for specific character storylines.
Here's a straight-on picture:
Straight away by doing this I can get an idea of which events occur first for specific characters; for example, travelling may take some time. I can see where there a big gaps with no character activity in them (see that gap in the character notes centre-right?). I can mark the post it notes that contain juicy enough events to write about. I can mark out points where chapters start and end, and this one is really valuable because you can see my whole story, exciting though it is, will probably only come to five chapters.
So straight away I know what to work on. Oh, and now it's a two-part story, and the wall is only showing the first part.
As for the 'original' book, the one that has taught me so much and will still teach me more, I am publishing it on the sister blog to this one:
I Want More
You can read the about section or you can go straight to the preface.
Melody.
14 September, 2008
Accordion Cleaning
Here are a few pictures of the cleaning process, and the unending filth coming out of my poor old accordion.
I have the keyboard detached now. I must have spent almost seven hours cleaning, yet am barely half-way done.
The detached keyboard and the inside of the front of the accordion, caked in grime:
The pads that prevent the air from flowing into the 'giant harmonicas' when the keys are not pressed:
Some of the keys still stick and it is hard to tell what is causing it as the springs seem ok. The springs are just wire, with a loop in it, to make a kind of sprung hinge. The stiff keys do spring back far enough to, perhaps, just close the holes but I'm not convinced the pressure is enough to prevent air getting to the reeds when it isn't meant to. I'm concerned that there's something stiffening the actual pivot of those keys, but there does not seem any way to take them out.
Here's a pile of dust and rotten loose felt extracted from beneath the keys:
These are just a few of the cotton wool buds I've got through. Great tools:
I have the keyboard detached now. I must have spent almost seven hours cleaning, yet am barely half-way done.
The detached keyboard and the inside of the front of the accordion, caked in grime:
The pads that prevent the air from flowing into the 'giant harmonicas' when the keys are not pressed:
Some of the keys still stick and it is hard to tell what is causing it as the springs seem ok. The springs are just wire, with a loop in it, to make a kind of sprung hinge. The stiff keys do spring back far enough to, perhaps, just close the holes but I'm not convinced the pressure is enough to prevent air getting to the reeds when it isn't meant to. I'm concerned that there's something stiffening the actual pivot of those keys, but there does not seem any way to take them out.
Here's a pile of dust and rotten loose felt extracted from beneath the keys:
These are just a few of the cotton wool buds I've got through. Great tools:
13 September, 2008
Overused Topics in Finland
I've been in Finland nearly a year now, and I socialise with a lot of ex-patriots from around the world. There are some topics of conversation that occur over and over, with just about every one you meet. It's a nice safe way of conversing with people and building bonds, so I don't expect to be free of these conversations at any time, but I think they should be avoided where possible for the sake of everyone's sanity.
Finnish Social Habits
Finns are said to be shy, but to be honest they often seem pretty rude. It's not that they are not nice; if you actually talk to them they are perfectly pleasant. However, you might wonder if they are being artificial, because they rarely follow up on it by inviting you out for a drink, to a party, or round for a visit. On the other hand, Finns sometimes complain that they think people are being false if they show friendship immediately.
You can see the cultural difference here, and it's a big problem for people who come to Finland late. Finns can build relationships in school that they stick to loyally for the rest of their lives, without questioning it or wanting more. Other people do this too, but it's very common in Finland. When you don't have that advantage, then you are stranded in a community where people don't reach out to you and view any attempts of you reaching out to them as suspect.
If you are lucky enough to be able to socialise with Finns, there will probably be alcohol involved. This does mean that they may not remember you.
The advice with socialising in Finland is:
Be patient, things worth having are worth waiting for. If you struggle with that, hang out with ex-pats. Making no effort to make Finnish friends and just being around for a long time is a good way to make Finnish friends.
Alcoholism
It's a huge problem, and there are drunks everywhere.
However, the drunks that stink out the tram and search bins are just the extreme. Your average Finn gets a worrying gleam in their eye given the opportunity to drink alcohol and it's just a little bit too much a part of the culture. You can only get alcohol from state-run stores at certain times of the day and this is often lamented. It's sometimes used as a crutch in social situations.
Finnish Men/Women
The women in Finland are domineering, but beautiful, where as the men are more often plain, and submissive. This is the overwhelming first impression and stereotype that forms, and often barely, or not at all, true.
Finnish women in particular have an uncanny knack of luring foreign men to Finland, and though the men tend to stay in Finland, they don't always stay with the woman more than a few years (this is what I call 'the usual story').
Men and women alike can be seen losing their social inhibitions in bars by getting drunk enough to actually talk to each other, but it is still usually the woman who has to make the moves.
Finland was the first European country to give women the vote, they have a female president and they have some of the most equal child care laws you can find, however despite the culture being one of the most favourable towards women that you can find in Europe, the statistics still show them being paid less than men in the same job positions and occupying less high-profile jobs.
Those Little Functional Differences
Everybody Speaks English
Finnish learners, myself included, often complain about this fact. It's easy to blame it for a lack of progress and it certainly is frustrating. Other people use it as an excuse not to bother learning Finnish. It can reinforce what is probably an unhealthy impression that everyone in foreign countries speaks English and if they don't, well, they should do. For those that don't believe everyone should speak English, it is almost disheartening to see how widely it is used in Finland: but don't worry, Finnish (or Finnish-Swedish) is still the language of choice when you are not listening.
The Finnish Air Force
The title of this point does not refer to the pilots of Finland, but rather to the mosquitoes that characterise Finnish summers. If you go to a lakeside cottage, or visit Lapland, you are especially at risk. They will always win, no matter how extreme your method of defence. They bite, it itches, they make a whining sound and it is very annoying. There really is not much more to say on the matter.
The Swedish
The stereotypes claim they are, on average, better looking than most people. Swedish accents can also sound pretty funny, and there's a rumour that you can cause a Swede consternation by failing to maintain a smile in their presence.
The neighbourly in-joke is to claim Swedish guys are gay. The usual tactic is to make your Swedish friend the butt of some kind of joke and then to sympathise that 'they must get that all the time'.
Sweden used to be the ruling class in Finland, and nowadays they are better known internationally despite being next door and, in some ways, still intertwined with Finland. People claim this causes some jealousy and consternation and an underlying rebellion against a feel that 'they are better than us'.
Weather Preferences
Everybody loves the sunshine, though the larger you are the lower your temperature threshold.
When the sun isn't shining it had better be -20 with a foot of snow on the ground, because it feels drier and makes the long nights darker.
In midsummer, the long hours can keep you awake all night, but you may still feel less tired than in winter.
Rain is good for the berries and mushrooms, in moderation.
These views are not all my own, but are derived from numerous conversations and observations. I love Finland.
There are also numerous stereotypes here. I take all stereotypes with a pinch of salt so I hope anyone reading this will do the same. I tend to find that any general traits I've observed never really apply to any individual I get to know.
- Finnish Social Habits
- Alcoholism
- Finnish Men/Women
- Those Little Functional Differences
- Everybody Speaks English
- The Finnish Air Force
- The Swedish
- Weather Preferences
Finnish Social Habits
Finns are said to be shy, but to be honest they often seem pretty rude. It's not that they are not nice; if you actually talk to them they are perfectly pleasant. However, you might wonder if they are being artificial, because they rarely follow up on it by inviting you out for a drink, to a party, or round for a visit. On the other hand, Finns sometimes complain that they think people are being false if they show friendship immediately.
You can see the cultural difference here, and it's a big problem for people who come to Finland late. Finns can build relationships in school that they stick to loyally for the rest of their lives, without questioning it or wanting more. Other people do this too, but it's very common in Finland. When you don't have that advantage, then you are stranded in a community where people don't reach out to you and view any attempts of you reaching out to them as suspect.
If you are lucky enough to be able to socialise with Finns, there will probably be alcohol involved. This does mean that they may not remember you.
The advice with socialising in Finland is:
Be patient, things worth having are worth waiting for. If you struggle with that, hang out with ex-pats. Making no effort to make Finnish friends and just being around for a long time is a good way to make Finnish friends.
Alcoholism
It's a huge problem, and there are drunks everywhere.
However, the drunks that stink out the tram and search bins are just the extreme. Your average Finn gets a worrying gleam in their eye given the opportunity to drink alcohol and it's just a little bit too much a part of the culture. You can only get alcohol from state-run stores at certain times of the day and this is often lamented. It's sometimes used as a crutch in social situations.
Finnish Men/Women
The women in Finland are domineering, but beautiful, where as the men are more often plain, and submissive. This is the overwhelming first impression and stereotype that forms, and often barely, or not at all, true.
Finnish women in particular have an uncanny knack of luring foreign men to Finland, and though the men tend to stay in Finland, they don't always stay with the woman more than a few years (this is what I call 'the usual story').
Men and women alike can be seen losing their social inhibitions in bars by getting drunk enough to actually talk to each other, but it is still usually the woman who has to make the moves.
Finland was the first European country to give women the vote, they have a female president and they have some of the most equal child care laws you can find, however despite the culture being one of the most favourable towards women that you can find in Europe, the statistics still show them being paid less than men in the same job positions and occupying less high-profile jobs.
Those Little Functional Differences
- Keys turn in the locks the wrong way
- Bathroom locks are often built into the handles, in stealth mode
- The light switches' on/off positions are upside-down
- Doors open outwards
- There are no carpets on the floors
- The washing machines are kept in the bathroom
- Built-in showers are far more common than bath tubs
- There's a cool dish-draining cupboard above every sink
- The top drawer in the kitchen is a built-in chopping and breadboard
- People take the entire light fitting with them when they move
- You have to weigh and price your own fruit
- Cars can still turn the corner when the pedestrian light is green
- Apartment blocks come with flawless central heating, plumbing, and a caretaker
Everybody Speaks English
Finnish learners, myself included, often complain about this fact. It's easy to blame it for a lack of progress and it certainly is frustrating. Other people use it as an excuse not to bother learning Finnish. It can reinforce what is probably an unhealthy impression that everyone in foreign countries speaks English and if they don't, well, they should do. For those that don't believe everyone should speak English, it is almost disheartening to see how widely it is used in Finland: but don't worry, Finnish (or Finnish-Swedish) is still the language of choice when you are not listening.
The Finnish Air Force
The title of this point does not refer to the pilots of Finland, but rather to the mosquitoes that characterise Finnish summers. If you go to a lakeside cottage, or visit Lapland, you are especially at risk. They will always win, no matter how extreme your method of defence. They bite, it itches, they make a whining sound and it is very annoying. There really is not much more to say on the matter.
The Swedish
The stereotypes claim they are, on average, better looking than most people. Swedish accents can also sound pretty funny, and there's a rumour that you can cause a Swede consternation by failing to maintain a smile in their presence.
The neighbourly in-joke is to claim Swedish guys are gay. The usual tactic is to make your Swedish friend the butt of some kind of joke and then to sympathise that 'they must get that all the time'.
Sweden used to be the ruling class in Finland, and nowadays they are better known internationally despite being next door and, in some ways, still intertwined with Finland. People claim this causes some jealousy and consternation and an underlying rebellion against a feel that 'they are better than us'.
Weather Preferences
Everybody loves the sunshine, though the larger you are the lower your temperature threshold.
When the sun isn't shining it had better be -20 with a foot of snow on the ground, because it feels drier and makes the long nights darker.
In midsummer, the long hours can keep you awake all night, but you may still feel less tired than in winter.
Rain is good for the berries and mushrooms, in moderation.
These views are not all my own, but are derived from numerous conversations and observations. I love Finland.
There are also numerous stereotypes here. I take all stereotypes with a pinch of salt so I hope anyone reading this will do the same. I tend to find that any general traits I've observed never really apply to any individual I get to know.
03 September, 2008
My first accordion has arrived
So, I got a German piano accordion with Italian reeds sent from England to Finland.
It was my former step-father's father's instrument, which probably dates it to some time in the first half of the 20th century at its youngest. Boy does it look its age righ now. In fact, probably older. My not-quite-grandfather died before I was born, so for at least as long as I lived, this accordion has been stored in attics, under beds, and who knows where else. It's full of dust, but that's the least of the problems.
Here's a few things I have to fix:
On the plus side, it is light and the reeds that work are making a nice sound. I'm not sure it is even worth it's postage at the moment, but perhaps. I'm not going to be able to learn much on it.
Now, some pictures (hopefully the 'before' of a 'before and after):
It was my former step-father's father's instrument, which probably dates it to some time in the first half of the 20th century at its youngest. Boy does it look its age righ now. In fact, probably older. My not-quite-grandfather died before I was born, so for at least as long as I lived, this accordion has been stored in attics, under beds, and who knows where else. It's full of dust, but that's the least of the problems.
Here's a few things I have to fix:
- Replace the leather straps
- Clean the dust out from behind the grates (yeuch)
- Reattach/replace the bass reeds, which by the rattling and lack of sound, are loose.
- Solve the problem of the sticking keys
- Replace the gauze behind the grates
- Replace the metal screws and hooks that are missing or rusty
- Get it tuned
- See whether the scuffed bellows can be perked up
On the plus side, it is light and the reeds that work are making a nice sound. I'm not sure it is even worth it's postage at the moment, but perhaps. I'm not going to be able to learn much on it.
Now, some pictures (hopefully the 'before' of a 'before and after):
11 August, 2008
Careers in Writing
I'm linking up a worthwhile article for anyone who reads this that has recently come to the realisation that they like to write, have some talent, and may actually try to do something with it:
So you wanna be a writer?
There's more than one way to be a writer, and to practise your trade whilst getting paid for it.
So you wanna be a writer?
There's more than one way to be a writer, and to practise your trade whilst getting paid for it.
08 August, 2008
Accordion News
It's amazing what you find out once you start talking about different topics of conversation with people.
I just found out that my former stepfather has an old piano accordion gathering dust at his place. It used to belong to his father, who I never had the privilege to meet. It is funny how you can grow up in the same house as someone and never know so many things about them. Whenever I talk to him on the phone, we talk about a huge range of topics for a couple of hours, and still there are stories I've never heard before - and this guy has never even had a passport.
Still, back on topic. The accordion should arrive in a couple of weeks. Mum was going to ship me a few things anyway, so I've asked if she can ship that too.
He says it's a German accordion, but may have some cracks in the bellows, so I don't have any expectations of it being playable. I'll see what I can do to bring a little life back into it, though, and give it a more reverent place than under a bed!
I just found out that my former stepfather has an old piano accordion gathering dust at his place. It used to belong to his father, who I never had the privilege to meet. It is funny how you can grow up in the same house as someone and never know so many things about them. Whenever I talk to him on the phone, we talk about a huge range of topics for a couple of hours, and still there are stories I've never heard before - and this guy has never even had a passport.
Still, back on topic. The accordion should arrive in a couple of weeks. Mum was going to ship me a few things anyway, so I've asked if she can ship that too.
He says it's a German accordion, but may have some cracks in the bellows, so I don't have any expectations of it being playable. I'll see what I can do to bring a little life back into it, though, and give it a more reverent place than under a bed!
30 July, 2008
Hiring Testers: What skills to choose?
I work in a good environment for a quality engineer, or software tester. My company has enough size for there to be variety in teams, yet is no so big that we are out of touch. We have a particularly good sense of community among quality engineers who would not have reason to meet if it were not for the fact that knowledge sharing is actively encouraged.
We share knowledge sometimes by sending a few testers to a conference and listening to them present the things that, essentially, caused them to have the biggest emotional reaction - a moment of epiphany, a feeling of disapproval, a change of heart.
In the latest, a bit of a 'war of presenters' was mentioned. One of them went into great detail about how all quality engineers should be made to be as technically knowledgeable as a good developer. The other was very passionate about hiring people based on the more intangible aspects, such as whether they could solve problems, rather than looking for someone technically proficient.
I was hired on the latter principle, general ability, experience, and attitude over intense technical training. I had doubts that I was going to get the job, and honestly responded in the interview that if they were looking for someone with extremely high levels of technical literacy, I was not the right employee for them at this moment in time. I felt I needed to say it, because I had seen the lengthy requirements lists on job advertisements that I had hunted through. I'll admit, it made me feel a little inferior.
However, my employers do something that did not seem to be accounted from in this war of presenters at the software testing conference. They take both approaches, depending on what is more appropriate for a given team at a given time. They seek balance.
We have both technical testers, as well-versed as any developer, who write automated scripts, analyse performance of products on every level, who find complex bugs and proceed to drill down to the root of them so that the developer need only write the fix into the code. We also have testers who use black box testing, who rely on internal tools to capture logs that developers can use for investigations and who unearth any annoyance that may assault an end-user's eyes. Both types of tester are useful and it is rare that you will find someone truly talented at both things. Even if you do, they probably cannot cover everything (unless your product is very, very, small).
The different types of testers can be used in different ways. They can work together pair-testing and passing knowledge to each other. This enables them to become more rounded in experience. They can work separately, one testing the interface and another performing load testing. This enables them to become experts in their specialised areas. Which of these is best is a topic for other discussions.
Essentially, I don't see what the fuss is about. You hire people based on what fits the needs of your team and your specific company culture. Preaching that one type of tester is better than the other is completely illogical to me. Testers are not all the same, and the field of quality engineering is not all that small.
I work in an agile environment, so I will talk more about the effect that has on quality assurance and how it is performed another time.
We share knowledge sometimes by sending a few testers to a conference and listening to them present the things that, essentially, caused them to have the biggest emotional reaction - a moment of epiphany, a feeling of disapproval, a change of heart.
In the latest, a bit of a 'war of presenters' was mentioned. One of them went into great detail about how all quality engineers should be made to be as technically knowledgeable as a good developer. The other was very passionate about hiring people based on the more intangible aspects, such as whether they could solve problems, rather than looking for someone technically proficient.
I was hired on the latter principle, general ability, experience, and attitude over intense technical training. I had doubts that I was going to get the job, and honestly responded in the interview that if they were looking for someone with extremely high levels of technical literacy, I was not the right employee for them at this moment in time. I felt I needed to say it, because I had seen the lengthy requirements lists on job advertisements that I had hunted through. I'll admit, it made me feel a little inferior.
However, my employers do something that did not seem to be accounted from in this war of presenters at the software testing conference. They take both approaches, depending on what is more appropriate for a given team at a given time. They seek balance.
We have both technical testers, as well-versed as any developer, who write automated scripts, analyse performance of products on every level, who find complex bugs and proceed to drill down to the root of them so that the developer need only write the fix into the code. We also have testers who use black box testing, who rely on internal tools to capture logs that developers can use for investigations and who unearth any annoyance that may assault an end-user's eyes. Both types of tester are useful and it is rare that you will find someone truly talented at both things. Even if you do, they probably cannot cover everything (unless your product is very, very, small).
The different types of testers can be used in different ways. They can work together pair-testing and passing knowledge to each other. This enables them to become more rounded in experience. They can work separately, one testing the interface and another performing load testing. This enables them to become experts in their specialised areas. Which of these is best is a topic for other discussions.
Essentially, I don't see what the fuss is about. You hire people based on what fits the needs of your team and your specific company culture. Preaching that one type of tester is better than the other is completely illogical to me. Testers are not all the same, and the field of quality engineering is not all that small.
I work in an agile environment, so I will talk more about the effect that has on quality assurance and how it is performed another time.
29 July, 2008
Why the accordion?
Many people from the UK consider the accordion to be a comedy instrument, if indeed they think about it at all. It is not something that is often portrayed in the media and it is certainly not trendy. So why do I want to learn it?
Well, I played violin, piano and treble recorder as a child and had the usual school music lessons. As usual, my ability to pass academic studies without too much thought was the source of an apathy that led me to let the chance to really enjoy learning music slip by. Later, with little money and other things on my mind, I further failed to make any effort towards music.
Now that I am a fraction older, living comfortably and surrounded by musical talent I have been reminded how much I do love music. It's frustrating to me that I cannot talk the language that I want to with my more learned friends. I notice how much I sing and how often I seek out music. I know myself well enough to know how to focus on the root of my enthusiasm and use it to achieve a useful outcome - in this case, learning more.
I have known for some time that I need to really get a buzz for something to be able to follow up on it continuously and get through the rough spots. I thought about various instruments like the piano, the guitar, the drums, violin and realised that while I love them, I did not want to play them. I'm the person who thought they were bad at languages, then decided to learn Finnish. I like to explore things I know nothing about, things that are slightly unusual and things that take a little more effort in general. I knew I wanted to play an unusual instrument, but had no idea what it was going to be. I supposed it would be an obscure ancient Asian instrument and made a mental note to bear it in mind if I ever went to Asia.
Thankfully, lightning struck rather closer to home. There I was sitting on the tram, when I saw a shop full of accordions. I wanted one. I don't usually care for things in shop windows. It was a total eureka moment, true Melody-Jane style, but just to be sure I did some research. The more I did the more excited I got about it and the more certain I became that this was an instrument I actually wanted to learn. If I were anyone else I'd not have been so sure, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm the person who decided to learn Finnish on a whim. Now I've relocated to Finland permanently and have a basic level of spoken Finnish that I am continuing to improve on.
I want more accordion. And I'm going to get it!
Well, I played violin, piano and treble recorder as a child and had the usual school music lessons. As usual, my ability to pass academic studies without too much thought was the source of an apathy that led me to let the chance to really enjoy learning music slip by. Later, with little money and other things on my mind, I further failed to make any effort towards music.
Now that I am a fraction older, living comfortably and surrounded by musical talent I have been reminded how much I do love music. It's frustrating to me that I cannot talk the language that I want to with my more learned friends. I notice how much I sing and how often I seek out music. I know myself well enough to know how to focus on the root of my enthusiasm and use it to achieve a useful outcome - in this case, learning more.
I have known for some time that I need to really get a buzz for something to be able to follow up on it continuously and get through the rough spots. I thought about various instruments like the piano, the guitar, the drums, violin and realised that while I love them, I did not want to play them. I'm the person who thought they were bad at languages, then decided to learn Finnish. I like to explore things I know nothing about, things that are slightly unusual and things that take a little more effort in general. I knew I wanted to play an unusual instrument, but had no idea what it was going to be. I supposed it would be an obscure ancient Asian instrument and made a mental note to bear it in mind if I ever went to Asia.
Thankfully, lightning struck rather closer to home. There I was sitting on the tram, when I saw a shop full of accordions. I wanted one. I don't usually care for things in shop windows. It was a total eureka moment, true Melody-Jane style, but just to be sure I did some research. The more I did the more excited I got about it and the more certain I became that this was an instrument I actually wanted to learn. If I were anyone else I'd not have been so sure, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm the person who decided to learn Finnish on a whim. Now I've relocated to Finland permanently and have a basic level of spoken Finnish that I am continuing to improve on.
I want more accordion. And I'm going to get it!
How I started to write
I started writing by accident, when I was seventeen.
I'd been placed by a course that was designed to help the government reduce unemployment figures for the under eighteens. I had dropped out of my media studies course at college with depression, I was living alone and I had to work out what I actually wanted to do. I know know that many people go through life not knowing what the hell they want to do and I even embrace that approach to some extent, but at the time I was happily taking what the system offered me to set me up on the path to a suitable career.
However, the British government kind of assumed that people from a working class background who have managed to misplace their parents before they are through college are, well, somewhat illiterate. They were mostly right, and so I was placed on a course that was not suitable to someone who had completed a scholarship-funded public school education. No big deal, I enjoyed it and they did help me to get the long term work placement that led to my first paid job.
Before I reached that blissful point of employment, however, I had to be kept busy on the government course by doing all the activities they had to offer:
Driving theory, so that people can become delivery personnel;
Food hygene, so that you could work in MacDonalds;
First aid, so you could become a home care helper;
Health and safety... well, I expect it is good for supermarket jobs;
Basic IT, so that you could become an office monkey.
The longest course was IT, but I was already proficient enough to whiz through the levels and become rather bored. That is when I started writing. I started to enjoy writing, too. I'd had no interest in English in school and I completed assignments with little thought or effort. I didn't think about the way the books I loved reading had been formed, what made them so good, and what could have been better. Once I started writing, it all changed. I payed attention, practised and learned and I realised that I was never as bad at it as I had thought. I realised that I was capable of getting better. Best of all, I realised that the process of getting better, of learning, was enjoyable.
So at seventeen, without quite realising it, I learned to write. Meanwhile, I spent my days in the belief that I was working my way towards a long career in electronics.
I'll write more on this topic, I'm sure.
So if you want more, read on.
Melody-Jane.
I'd been placed by a course that was designed to help the government reduce unemployment figures for the under eighteens. I had dropped out of my media studies course at college with depression, I was living alone and I had to work out what I actually wanted to do. I know know that many people go through life not knowing what the hell they want to do and I even embrace that approach to some extent, but at the time I was happily taking what the system offered me to set me up on the path to a suitable career.
However, the British government kind of assumed that people from a working class background who have managed to misplace their parents before they are through college are, well, somewhat illiterate. They were mostly right, and so I was placed on a course that was not suitable to someone who had completed a scholarship-funded public school education. No big deal, I enjoyed it and they did help me to get the long term work placement that led to my first paid job.
Before I reached that blissful point of employment, however, I had to be kept busy on the government course by doing all the activities they had to offer:
Driving theory, so that people can become delivery personnel;
Food hygene, so that you could work in MacDonalds;
First aid, so you could become a home care helper;
Health and safety... well, I expect it is good for supermarket jobs;
Basic IT, so that you could become an office monkey.
The longest course was IT, but I was already proficient enough to whiz through the levels and become rather bored. That is when I started writing. I started to enjoy writing, too. I'd had no interest in English in school and I completed assignments with little thought or effort. I didn't think about the way the books I loved reading had been formed, what made them so good, and what could have been better. Once I started writing, it all changed. I payed attention, practised and learned and I realised that I was never as bad at it as I had thought. I realised that I was capable of getting better. Best of all, I realised that the process of getting better, of learning, was enjoyable.
So at seventeen, without quite realising it, I learned to write. Meanwhile, I spent my days in the belief that I was working my way towards a long career in electronics.
I'll write more on this topic, I'm sure.
So if you want more, read on.
Melody-Jane.
Introduction
This blog provides you with my thoughts on the following topics:
Writing:
I write. I think about writing. I even write about writing.
Usability and Quality in Software:
My day job just happens to be in quality, with focus on the usability and design area. Chances are that I will occasionally have something to say on the matter.
Music:
I'm about to start learning the accordion, and learning about music. I will spread some of my excitement around here when I am in the mood.
Finland:
I fell in love with Finland before I'd even been there. On a whim, by accident, the way that all my life-long loves seem to occur. I now live there and am studying the language, and I have plenty to say on the matter.
Life:
Life is interesting. I'll probably notice something worth commenting on that is not specific to me, and want to write about it (see 'Writing'). You can relax, though, as I don't intend to describe my daily routine or why Sally and Lucy have fallen out over Harry.
I'll tag each of my posts with 'writing', 'software', 'music', 'Finland' or 'life' accordingly.
Welcome, and read on...
Melody-Jane.
Writing:
I write. I think about writing. I even write about writing.
Usability and Quality in Software:
My day job just happens to be in quality, with focus on the usability and design area. Chances are that I will occasionally have something to say on the matter.
Music:
I'm about to start learning the accordion, and learning about music. I will spread some of my excitement around here when I am in the mood.
Finland:
I fell in love with Finland before I'd even been there. On a whim, by accident, the way that all my life-long loves seem to occur. I now live there and am studying the language, and I have plenty to say on the matter.
Life:
Life is interesting. I'll probably notice something worth commenting on that is not specific to me, and want to write about it (see 'Writing'). You can relax, though, as I don't intend to describe my daily routine or why Sally and Lucy have fallen out over Harry.
I'll tag each of my posts with 'writing', 'software', 'music', 'Finland' or 'life' accordingly.
Welcome, and read on...
Melody-Jane.
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