Category: Life

Newsletters

On By TontowilliamsIn Life, Quick Links

I’ve asked readers before about whether they’d read a newsletter if I produced one, although essentially Quick Links is becoming a weekly newsletter in the form of a blogpost anyway or seems to be evolving that way in my view. I’ve made no plans to change the current arrangement, although a week of blogging every day has taught me a few things and given me some ideas, but for now I thought I’d share some of the newsletters that I read and might interest you. Most require you to sign up, (the links are to the sign up pages) but all contain an unsubscribe link if you don’t like them as much as me or change you mind, I’ve also included a quick note about the normal day and frequency with which they’re published.

So in no particular order…

Christian Payne (@documentally) Backchannel (weekly, Fridays)

Warren Ellis Orbital Operations (weekly, Sundays)

Joe Hill Escape Hatch (monthly)

Giuseppe Sollazzo In Other News (weekly, Tuesdays)

Kieron Gillen Word Mail (weekly, Tuesdays)

Ganzeer Restricted Frequency (weekly, Saturdays)

Ed Yong The Ed’s Up (Friday / Saturday)

Do you subscribe to any good newsletters that you think I might be interested in? If so drop me a comment below.

Star Wars

On By TontowilliamsIn Film, Life, Video2 Comments

There’s a new Star Wars film out today.

The original films were a staple of my childhood, before video and DVD the only way to see them was in the cinema. My Dad took me to see all of them when they first came out. When the three prequel films came out, I took him to see them. When The Force Awakens came out he was too ill to make a trip to the cinema, so I bought him a copy on DVD. I don’t think he ever got a chance to watched it before he passed away though.
I’ve heard great things about the new film Rogue One, from people who’s opinion I trust, so I think I’m going to go catch this one in the cinema in honour of my Dad. Probably some time in the New Year, after the kids are back in school and I can go to a hopefully quieter day time showing.

My Books of 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Life4 Comments

According to GoodReads, I’ve read 52 books this year, I might get another one or two in before the end of the year, and I’d argue that some are a bit short to really be books in their own right. There were a couple of audiobooks in there and Warren Ellis’s “Normal” was really a book in four parts, but they’ve been listed individually. It was though one of my favourites of the year as a whole.

The counter gets reset to zero on January first, and my TBR pile will probably be larger than ever but there are a couple of books I’m looking forward to reading. David Quammen’s “Yellowstone“, “Pathlands” by Peter Owen-Jones and “Spaceman” by Mike Massimino.

Are there any books you’re looking forward to reading in the near future?

A Post A Day

On By TontowilliamsIn Dogs, Life3 Comments

I was going to start this next weekend, but I feel like starting now, so here goes…

I’m going to try and post something here everyday between now and the end of the year. After that I’ll see what happens. It might be something simple, like a photo I’ve taken that day or perhaps an old one; or it might be something else.


So to kick off, here’s a photo from nearly a year ago, in a garden centre car park, in Warwickshire – I was waiting in the car with the dogs, listening to a radio programme on the music from Star Wars movies.

Please feel free to share these posts on social media or comment below.

Third Quarter Review 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Annual Review, books, Film, Garden / Allotment, Life, redundancy, tv, work4 Comments

Each year for the past few years I’ve been doing a year end review; books I’ve read, films/tv programmes I’ve watched and other things related to work and the allotment. You can read the end of 2015 here, if you’re interested.

This year I’m trying something a little different, and am splitting my year into quarters and trying to do a review at the end of the quarter. It helps me remember stuff more easily, and is more up to the minute than waiting to until December and trying to do the whole year in one go, or at least that’s the theory. The first quarter review is here, and the second quarter review here.

Work

This quarter marks the anniversary in my change of employment, going from being and employee to self-employed. Looking across those 12 months I’d say it’s been pretty productive, although things have slowed down a bit over the summer. There are a couple of things on the horizon, but as ever they rely on things outside my control, so it’s a little difficult to say at this stage how things might pan out. Having said that I currently have a close family member in hospital, so having the time to be able to visit has been a bonus, and something I can’t ever see that I would have been allowed to do (quite rightly) when I was an employee, so things seem to work out.

I am hoping that things will pick up, as I do like being my own boss, but if they don’t I will have to look for alternatives.

Allotment

It’s been a very good year on the allotment so far, we’ve spent most of this quarter not having to buy any fresh produce from the supermarket, as we’ve been able to provide our own from the plot. This has started to ease off a little now, and I am having to buy odd things – either as crops have started to slow down their production with the shortening days or because things aren’t quite ready yet. In some areas though e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, we have lots stored that will see us forward for many weeks yet.

I’ve also been trying to do regular update videos on my YouTube channel, and often embedding them here too.

Books

I’ve been reading pretty consistently and have gotten through a number of books this quarter including a couple of “biggies”. I’ve started adding a “currently reading” item to my Quick Links entry each week (when I remember too!).

There are a few that I’d like to mention specifically, and in no particular order they are:

“Normal” by Warren Ellis – This was actually a novella released in 4-parts, one a week over a month. What I liked about it the most was how it told the story in that weekly pattern and how well this worked. Whether or not that was intentional I don’t know, but I don’t think it would have worked as well as just a single book. It reminded me a lot of one of those weekly black and white serials that used to be shown in cinemas e.g. King of the Rocket Men, when I get time, I’m going to sit and reread all four – hopefully in a single sitting.

“Joyland” by Stephen King – I’ve had a copy of this for quite some time, but had never gotten around to reading it until recently. What I liked about it the most, was that it reminded me of some of the early Stephen King books, which I enjoyed far more than some of from the late ’90s / early 2000s. I’d stopped reading his books not long after Geralds Game and The Tommyknockers, so can’t speak for other ones he may have written more recently, but I did think that Joyland was more of the old King.

“Seveneves” – Neal Stephenson – This was one of the biggies and took me a while to get through, but it was worth it. Although it is a work of science fiction, it has a very believable story and characters and despite it’s size held my interest throughout.

“The Book of Yaak” – Rick Bass – Rick Bass has had a mention in both of the previous quarter reviews, and I still have a number of his books that I haven’t read yet, so may well feature again. I really enjoy his writing, both fiction and non-fiction. This is a work of non-fiction and brings to the fore another area of this writers passions. As an environmental activist this book highlights the issues in the Yaak Valley in Montana and the tensions between preserving the old growth forest, the nature and wildlife that it supports and other areas that are important for their nature conservation and the pressures of development and modern intensive forestry. It’s a treatise to the area and the issues, and a fascinating read. It stirred the passion in me for some of the environmental issues that I feel are important.

Films & TV

It’s been a bit of a summer of sport with Euro football and the Olympics and Paralympics. I don’t generally watch much sport, so we’ve been watching a lot of reruns or turning it off. Outside of that there isn’t much to report. We’ve watched a few DVDs but nothing that really inspired me enough that I want to mention it here.

Life In General

Pretty good. As always there are areas I’d like to work on. I’d like to be writing more, and I’d like my business to grow a little, but for the reasons mentioned above I’ve been occupied in other areas and am grateful to have had the time to be able to do those things.

Early Start

On By TontowilliamsIn Dogs, Life

2016-09-15-07-04-02I’ve been sleeping badly the last couple of nights because it’s been hot and humid, so I’ve been getting up early and getting out with the dogs on our morning walk. I do love this time of the day, just as the sun is rising.

Routine

On By TontowilliamsIn Life2 Comments

2016-05-21 13.47.07

On May 21st, I broke my watch. I caught the face against the corner edge of my desk as I was hoovering, although I didn’t hit it that hard, the angle of the impact was enough to smash the face. I’ve only worn a watch on one other occasion since (and then it took me several hours to notice that it was still running on GMT and not BST). The once white band on my wrist has pretty much disappeared and I’m not sure I notice that I don’t have a watch on. When someone stops and asks me for the time, I still go to look at my wrist before checking myself and getting my phone out of my pocket to check the time on that. This has pretty much been how I’ve kept track of time when I’ve needed to since, not that I’ve really felt the need beyond the basics of making sure I’m where I need to be, when I need to be there by.

This just reminds me how much my routine has changed in the last 12 months. I no longer have a regular alarm clock, instead preferring to run my day around what work I have on and other calls on my time. I still do use an alarm if I have a morning appointment and have to be somewhere at a particular time but otherwise I rise pretty consistently at the same time most days. Walk the dogs, visit the allotment with them if I need to – either to harvest food, or water the plants – and then start work. Work varies depending on how busy I am (not very at the moment), if there is no work for clients I’ll be working on something else, mostly my writing.

Stop with lunch with Ann, and catch up on any personal things and my Words with Friends games. Then depending on workload, carry on into the afternoon. I’ll take an afternoon walk with the dogs, normally this will be a longer walk and if I remember I’ll take my camera with me (I often forget, and use the one on my phone). I’ll then come back and finish any work that’s outstanding and then prepare supper.

We might watch a little TV in the evening, depending on what’s on, although with Wimbledon, Euro2016 and the Olympics, there has been an awful lot of sport on recently, and so we’ve been catching up on DVDs or things that have been recorded long ago and not watched, as we’re not great sports fans.

Then to bed and read. I do read at other times during the day depending on what else I’m doing and often if I’m travelling by train or bus (which I have done quite a bit of in the last few months). I also keep a handwritten journal, and will update that throughout the day if there are things to record – it’s mostly a nature / allotment journal, so I don’t write in it everyday.

Just over a year ago, my day was dictated much more by others. I think it requires more self-discipline now than before, but it does feel much more like my day.

Second Quarter Review 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Annual Review, Life3 Comments

Each year for the past few years I’ve been doing a year end review; books I’ve read, films/tv programmes I’ve watched and other things related to work and the allotment. You can read the end of 2015 here, if you’re interested.

This year I’m trying something a little different, and am splitting my year into quarters and trying to do a review at the end of the quarter. It helps me remember stuff more easily, and is more up to the minute than waiting to until December and trying to do the whole year in one go, or at least that’s the theory. The first quarter review is here.

Work

I’ve covered before my change in working arrangements that happen nearly a year ago, and becoming self-employed. If you want to know a little more about what I do now, click the “Home” link above.

This quarter has been quite quiet, and I’ve mostly been working on things for existing clients, closing out their projects, or taking some further forward. It’s quite a dynamic time, and each week “profile raising” finds its way onto my to-do list, as I’m concious of contract end dates, and the need to find more work. It is with a little uncertainty that I close out this quarter and head into the next work wise.

Brexit will pose some rather unique challenges for me, as part of my work is around helping companies and organisations attract / apply for EU funding. I’ll need a plan b, for that part of my work now. I have some ideas, but I also need to spend a little more time thinking about that.

Allotment

This quarter is probably one of the busiest on the plot, and there are plenty of other posts / videos about what I’ve been doing, so I won’t go into it in detail. It has been both a busy and rewarding time though, and my allotment is looking good. As always there are things that I’d do differently if I do them again, things that haven’t worked quite as well as I’d hoped or fallen foul of pests / disease, but that’s just how it is. I’m looking forward now to the time, when we really become self-sufficient for our vegetables again, I seem to be able to stretch the period each year so it becomes longer, and there is less of a gap between one years and the next. I’m hoping to be able to do the same this year, and have some plans (and hopefully some plants) for that.

Books

I’ve hit my GoodReads reading challenge target already, I’m not going to change it, but just keep going and see where I end up. It’s become less important to me to hit the target, but just to be able to take the time to read. In the last quarter there are three books that I’m going to mention here, that particularly stood out for me:

“Raptor” by James Macdonald Lockhart. The author attempts to view every single native bird of prey in the UK, and this is his story of how he went about it and what happened. I’d thoroughly recommend it, particularly if you are native to the UK yourself. It does however tell part of the story of just how persecuted birds of prey have been and continue to be in this country, and therefore how difficult it actually is to still see some of them without the concerted effort that the author goes to.

“The Wild Marsh” by Rick Bass, this is the second of Rick Bass’s books I’ve read this year, and it won’t be the last. I really enjoy his writing, and although this one could be a little self-indulgent at times, it tells the story of a full year in Yaak, where the author has his home. Great writing, and recommended.

“Running To The Mountain” by John Katz I probably read this book at least once every year. It talks to me, and is one of my favourites. I think it’s because it is essentially a book about making decisions and changes in life direction, as well as including the authors dogs. I guess at the moment, with my own life having undergone quite a bit of change in the last year, which hasn’t quite settled down yet, it speaks to me even more.

Film & TV

It’s unusual for us to get to the cinema these days, so most of what we watch is either on DVD or online, and often some months (or occasionally even years) behind when it was in the cinema.

I remember back in 1977 when my dad took me to see Star Wars. I was about 5 years old and it was called Star Wars, not episode IV or anything like that. I can remember that quite vividly even now, and going with him to see The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. It kindled that early love of Sci-Fi in me, and also just spending time with my Dad, doing stuff. When the next three films came out, the prequels, I took him to see them. Now “The Force Awakens”, has been released he’s not been in the best of health, and so we didn’t make it to the cinema to see the film, and I didn’t particularly feel like going by myself, so I bought him it for Father’s Day. I had already seen it, as I was given a copy myself and I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next two, and the various spin offs that have been talked about.

I’ve also watched  “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, again well after it was in cinemas, and indeed released on DVD. I like the Marvel films, and although I didn’t think this was as good as some of the others I did enjoy it. It had some good “new” characters, and allowed the existing actors to develop their characters and their relationships a little more. Recommended.

We saw the remake of “Dad’s Army” just a couple of weeks ago, again, one that I missed when it was in the cinema but a film I wanted to see. I was pleasantly surprised with it. The film stayed close enough to the original series to play a good homage to it, but was different enough to be original. I don’t think it could ever really replace the original TV series, as that is ingrained too much, certainly in my psyche, and I suspect many other people’s too, but it was enjoyable and again I would recommend.

TV watching has been a little sparse, I think due to the time of year, so we have not had the thing on all that much, but I have enjoyed watching “Rick Stein’s Long Weekends”, part cookery, part travel. Essentially if you don’t know about it, this is chef Rick Stein going away for a “long weekend” and exploring both the local area, and cuisine he finds there. It seems to be on a break at the moment, as I think there have been five episodes so far, but it’s a ten part series. If memory serves he’s been to (Bologna, Berlin, Reykjavik, Vienna & Bordeaux). Not sure when the other five are likely to be on, but if you get a chance to watch it, I’d recommend it.

Life In General

I’d say this quarter has been slightly harder than the last. I’m conscious that my mind is much more on work than perhaps it should be or more correctly put about where the next job is coming from.

I’d like to be writing more, and I have been to an extent here on the blog, but although it’s read by quite a few people it’s not a massive audience, and I’m thinking about other potential avenues where I might be able to do that more, and who knows, potentially generate a little income from that.

Overall though life is good. I’m still settling in to my new “job” I think, and have more to learn about that, but otherwise I can’t really grumble.

Algorithm Armageddon?

On By TontowilliamsIn Life1 Comment

2016-06-03 11.25.19Sometimes Amazon’s algorithms make me smile, other times they make me cringe. Now I know that Amazon uses your purchases and those of people who have also bought the same thing as you to make recommendations. (I know I can manually “tune” my recommendations, but sometimes it’s fun to discover new things).

The other day I ordered some more plant clips (see picture above), they’re handy things to have in the potting shed and the allotment, but they wear out and break eventually. As I had seemingly broken the last of our old ones I ordered some more. Now it seems Amazon wants to sell me horse blankets and no we don’t have a horse, but obviously someone out there who also buys plant clips does.

It begs the question however that with all the consumer tracking (and other tracking) that goes on out there, what happens if one day some I buy something, also bought by someone else who also has some other less than savoury delectations? Does anyone screen these things, or is it all automated? My guess is the latter.