Meme from ilanin - go through your friends list and see if you can remember how you met them.

aiwendel: She was the year above me at sixth form, and was one of the group I used to sit with at lunch. Can't remember exactly how we first met.
alextfish: We first met, briefly, at the CICCU houseparty in 2000, and played Boggle together :) We didn't get to know each other well until railwaymouse's wedding in 2004.
amykatie: She was one of my two best friends in secondary school. I guess we'd have met on the first day of first year, but we started becoming friends in the October.
androidkiller: I'm pretty sure I know him through GamesEvening, but I can't remember when he first came along.
angoel: I mostly know him through Alex. I might have met him at one of the weekend GamesAfternoons, or maybe before that at a party with people like railwaymouse?
atreic: We were in a CULES play together in May Week of my second year.
auntysarah: I met her at a St John's Innovation Centre summer barbecue, when the_local_echo and I were working at Linguamatics.
cartesiandaemon: I think he was a GamesEvening regular when I first started attending.
cathedral_life: I remember bumping into her at LSM in '03, and I think I vaguely knew her before that, possibly through toothycat?
ceb: I think I first met her when she came to collect something I Freecycled.
emperor: I assume I met him the first time I saw atreic after they got together.
godblog: Haven't met her IRL, but I remember getting to know her online when her blog started appearing on atreic's friends list.
ilanin: He was already a GamesEvening regular when I first started attending.
isa62v4: I met her when we were both in the CCMS show The Talisman in 2002.
khoth: I think he was a GamesEvening regular when I first started attending.
ladymisc: She was the other of my two best friends in secondary school. She was in the year below me, and her sister was in my year. So I didn't really get to know her until second year, but I did briefly meet her in first year, when my year were in a school trip in Wales, she turned up at the same youth hostel with her school :)
mirabehn: I met her at a party of atreic's in Coventry.
numberland: Already a GamesEvening regular when I started coming.
pigwotflies: Met her when I was at City Church.
ptc24: He had been a GamesEvening regular before my time, and started coming along again more recently. Then he started working at Linguamatics.
pw201: I met him at a party at his house, which I came to because I knew scribb1e from Autonomy.
railwaymouse: I met her when we were both in the CCMS show Working Angels' Club in 2000.
rarrkath: I think I met her visiting the hospital where she was born, but the memry's a bit fuzzy because I was only 2 :)
robert_jones: I've met him at parties of aiwendel and atreic - not sure which came first.
rochvelleth: I haven't met her IRL. Not sure how we became friends on LJ possibly something linguisticy.
senji: I think I originally know him through MethSoc.
shadowphiar: I mostly know him from Eden now, but I vaguely knew him before that because he was involved in CCMS, but not directly overlapping with me.
shortcipher: Met him at GamesEvening when he came along with numberland.
sophiejane_lj: I don't think I've actually met Sophie IRL, although I see her alter ego fairly often :)
susychurchill: Susy is my mother-in-law; I first met her when she came to Alex's MA graduation, just a couple of weeks after we got together.
the_alchemist: I remember this well - she and I were the only two people who turned up to a NaNoWriMo meet in 2003.
the_local_echo: Met her at Linguamatics.
theinquisitor: He was at Autonomy, but I knew him a bit before that, from various Cambridge geek parties.
toothycat: I think I first met Mrs toothycat at Cambridge Graphics and Animation Society in my second year, where we worked on a stopmotion together. Or I might have already known her from Eden. I think I got to know Mr toothycat at Eden.
yrieithydd: I know her through MethSoc.

Tags: friends, meme

This post prompted me to reminisce about my own childhood experiences of computers and IT teaching at school.

State primary school, 1986-1989
There were one or two BBC Micros in each classroom. I remember getting to play games like Granny's Garden. There was a basic word processor, I think called Pen Down, which we were allowed to type up our best stories on, and print out. I also remember playing a vaguely Mad Libs-type game, where it prompted you for people's names and occupations and so on and then produced a story about them.
I don't remember much actual teaching, just being allowed to sit and use the computer. I guess I must have been taught how to use the word processor.
We also had a BBC Micro at home, with BASIC, and Frogger. My dad taught me enough BASIC to load Frogger and to PRINT and INPUT stuff.

Private primary school, 1990-1992
I moved to the private sector partway through what is now year 4. I don't remember using computers here at all. Surprising that the difference between state and private would be that way round.
I didn't do any computing at home then either; I think we'd got rid of the BBC Micro, and not replaced it. I sometimes played computer games at my grandparents'.

Secondary school, 1992-1997
When I started secondary school, there was a computer room, with maybe about 8 computers? Not enough for one each. I remember being taught to use Corel Draw and clip art. We would cluster round the computers in groups and take turns. I can't even remember what kind of computers they were. We didn't get to use them very much. We also did a bit of LOGO at this stage. We had a patronising computer teacher who didn't know very much herself. She got us to name the external parts of the computer, and when I said "monitor" she said that was too complicated and it was a "screen".
We had a PC at home now, with DOS and Windows 3.1 and some games and WordPerfect. I got reasonably good with DOS, writing batch files and things.

Then the school upgraded and got enough PCs for a whole (small) class, plus one in the library. The one in the library had Encarta on it, which we were allowed to use freely during breaktimes.
I had learned at home how to change the DOS prompt, and what AUTOEXEC.BAT was for. So I played a prank on the library computer, changing the prompt from C:\> to a message about being an alien from the future who'd hacked the computer through a timewarp. I remember having a few tries to fit the message into the character limit. And I put it in AUTOEXEC.BAT so it would come back every time the machine was restarted.
The aforementioned IT teacher had no idea how to fix it and was in a bit of a panic. She ended up getting one of the parents in to fix it. I was a bit startled by how much I'd upset her with my harmless prank, and confessed.

During the GCSE years, our actual IT lessons consisted of the dreaded CLAIT course (Computer Literacy And Information Technology - the "And" is very important). It was a course in very basic proficiency in Microsoft Office, and you had to do everything exactly as you were told. If you were supposed to save a document by clicking File and then Save, you'd lose marks if you used a keyboard shortcut or a toolbar button. It was extremely frustrating. There was endless copy-typing of documents from the textbook, with repeated insistence from the teacher that we had to type them exactly as they were in the book, no changes, not even if you thought they were improvements. So one time I dutifully copied out a spelling mistake exactly as in the book, and she ringed it round with red pen on my printout and said she was surprised at me, and I pointed it out in the book, and she was like "yes, well, harrumph."
I'd be hard pressed to come up with a curriculum more stifling to potential future programmers.
At home, I now had my own PC (386! 20MB hard drive!) and a copy of QBasic. I really wanted to program, but had already learned most of what my dad could teach me (he's very good at sysadmin, not so much at programming). I tried to teach myself from the QBasic help file, but a tutorial or textbook would have been more useful. There were a lot of basic concepts I just didn't get, functions being the main one I remember. I could do loops, if I wanted to execute the same code more than once; but if I wanted to execute nearly the same code but slightly different, I was stuck. (Occasionally I'd just copy-paste chunks and make the changes, but even then I had an instinct that was a bad idea.) Arrays were the other main thing I really didn't understand. They'd have been useful for a lot of games. I'd have got it if someone explained it to me, but the help file assumed you already knew what one was.
I wrote a bunch of very simple games under these constraints, mainly text-based things like Consequences.

In my final year, the school got a PC in every classroom, with Windows 95 or 98. My friend Amy and I were now responsible fifth-years, and my DOS-prompt prank was forgiven, so we were made computer prefects and were responsible for helping the class teachers configure things the way they wanted (desktop icons, Windows system sounds, options in MS Word, etc). The school had also recently got online, and Amy and I got to write the website (I think we were the only people in the school who knew any HTML, teachers included). It was pretty basic, just formatted text and <BR>s and maybe a photo, but we were pleased with it, and it was years after we left before they replaced it.

Sixth form, 1997-1999
I went to a new school for sixth form, and it was kind of a step backwards IT-wise. There was a computer room, bizarrely populated with old Macs. We could go there to type and print essays if we wanted, and to send emails from a single shared school email address. I rarely bothered because I could do these things at home. We were only taken in there officially for a lesson once, which was a careers lesson where we were shown how to type a CV.

Summary
It would have been amazing to have a competent IT teacher or some other mentor at secondary school, or a computer club where kids interested in programming could go and practise and help each other out, like at alextfish's school, or even some introductory programming textbooks.
I also wonder what it would be like to have had the Internet with all its resources and tutorials and simplified programming languages and Q&A forums when I was a teenager. Probably confusing and frustrating in its own ways, but an improvement overall.

Tags: programming, society

Bethany got a book for Christmas called 101 First Words. It's pretty good, but one of the 101 is a word which was not previously in my vocabulary ("hoglet" - a baby hedgehog), and a couple more are pretty obscure words that I don't think I learned until adulthood ("ukulele" and "pinata").

It also contains a photo of a young black girl about seven years old, dressed for ballet - who Bethany insists on identifying as "Dada". We think it's the curly hair.

Tags: bethany, books, language

I mentioned to my mum that Alex and I had been on a date. She was confused, and I think slightly shocked, as though she thought we were experimenting with polyamory. I explained that I just meant we'd had a rare opportunity for a special couply evening together at the theatre. She said that usage of "date" was unfamiliar to her - that in her usage, a new couple, getting to know each other, could "date", but not once they were established as an item, and certainly not once they were married - but now she understood what I meant, she thought it was quite nice to call it a date.

I wondered if it was a generational difference, or perhaps if my usage was a Christian-subculture one; Mum wondered if mine was a Cambridge usage. Thinking about it some more, I think my usage might be primarily American, which I've absorbed partly due to being younger and partly via the Christian subculture; but I could be completely wrong.

What does "date" mean to you? What kind of people do you think use it differently?

Tags: language, mum

I have chronic writer's block. I haven't done any writing for about three years, apart from a few very short pieces (just a few hundred words each, and written for specific competitions rather than because I felt inspired to write them. They didn't win.)

It's tempting to blame Bethany, as she does occupy a lot of my time and attention and energy; but in fact I do still have some left, and besides, this has been going on since before she came along.

Part of the problem is that my critical taste has developed in advance of my skill, so it's hard for me to have an idea without thinking "that would be rubbish" and/or "that's been done". Exposure over the last few years to TVTropes is also unhelpful: not just because it contributes to the "that's been done" reaction, but also because it encourages my already over-analytical thinking, so I mentally reduce ideas to formulas and summaries.

I know the standard advice is to "just write" and not worry about it being rubbish, to help get past the block. But it feels like I've forgotten how. I find it hard to believe I ever wrote six NaNo novels.

I want to write. It's fun. But for any given idea - whether from my own head or from desperately combing plot generators for inspiration - I don't want to write that.

Tags: life, nanowrimo, writing

I have decided not to go back to work after maternity leave, and to look after Bethany full-time.

This is mainly because Alex's company wouldn't let him go part-time, so we couldn't go with our original plan of each looking after her half the time and working half the time.

I'm happy about it, though a bit sad that Bethany and Alex won't get that time together. I'm especially looking forward to being at home with her in a year or so, when she's talking and we can go to lots of toddler things together.

Tags: bethany, life, maternity, work

One more week to go until the Alternative Vote referendum...

Here is an excellent illustration of how first-past-the-post can easily give you something the majority don't want.



There's also this one, which shows how FPTP pressures individuals into picking something which isn't their first choice.
( Read more... )


Or, if you prefer long reasoned argument to clever cartoons, I recommend Tim Gowers' article.

Tags: av, fptp, politics, society, voting

I didn't realise the "individual" portions of the census have to be filled out for children and babies as well as adults. Some of the questions sound a bit incongruous when the subject is a baby.

I'm glad the religion question is optional. I think it would be wise to leave it blank for Bethany. Either of "Christian" or "no religion" would be potentially misleading and a theological/political statement.

There's a question about what language you speak and how well you speak English. I think the only truthful answer to that for Bethany would be "not at all", but it's not like she speaks another language either. (I think, strictly, you have to state your "primary language" and then only rate your competence in English if English isn't your primary language. So I guess we simply say English is her primary language, but I'm not sure it actually is, any more than Christianity is her religion; both are what she's been exposed to and is likely to pick up, but she's too young to exhibit either for herself yet.)

And I'm not quite sure how to answer "what was your address a year ago" for her. I guess in as much as she lived anywhere a year ago it was here, but still.

Tags: bethany, census

When I gave birth I groaned and screamed a bit, and I think I've permanently damaged my vocal cords. I can't really sing any more. The effect is like when you sing with a sore throat. The sound either cuts out altogether, or comes back in a horribly strained squawk.

Now, I was never a Proper Singer. My tuning is a bit flaky. I wasn't in a serious choir like a college chapel choir, and I wasn't a performer of solos. I can't sight-sing except simple nursery-rhyme-like tunes. I struggle to keep harmonies going, and can't improvise harmonies at all.

But I sing for fun - glorious, enthusiastic, joyfully amateur fun. I love to sing at friends' singing parties, or just in the car with Alex. I love singing games like Humm Bug or Singstar. I sometimes sing in a choir for Christmas carols or the chorus of a musical.

And now I can't - especially the loud bits and the high bits, which were the most fun. I used to be able to get up to an F without trying and a B flat on a good day, and now I can barely get halfway up the treble clef. It gets worse if I try to sing several songs in a row - by the end there's hardly any sound coming out except an occasional, unpredictable squeak that forces its way out. It's a bit like letting air out of a balloon and squeezing the neck tighter, so it wavers between squeaking and cutting off the sound altogether.

I think it's getting better. It was worse immediately after the birth. For about six weeks I couldn't raise my voice to shout over background noise or call through to the next room, and I couldn't sing at all, not even simple quiet lullabies to Bethany. Now I can at least do that.

I don't know what to do about this. I don't know whether to try to speak to a doctor, or a singing teacher. It seems a bit trivial for a doctor, especially since I'm not a Proper Singer (if I needed to sing for my career or something, they might care). I did mention to the doctor at my six-week postnatal check-up that I'd knackered my voice and so couldn't sing to my baby, and she said the baby won't mind if you're out of tune, and I said I know that but I can't make any sound at all, and she said that would probably improve, which it has. I'd feel a bit silly going to a singing teacher, because I never previously bothered to spend the time and money getting lessons to improve my singing from mediocre to good, so it seems a little odd to do so now to restore it from almost-nonexistent to mediocre.

Anyone else encountered anything like this? Does it just go away with time?

Tags: life, singing
Current Music: 4'33" for solo soprano

Higher-rate taxpayers can no longer claim child benefit from 2013.

So the Conservatives are, effectively, going to tax the richest for an extra few hundred a year, and Labour are upset about it and saying it's unfair. Sometimes I really don't understand politics.

The higher-rate salary threshold is £44k. That's high enough that it doesn't affect us, and yet we're rich enough that child benefit doesn't make a noticeable difference to us and I have some vague qualms about even claiming it; if they took it away from us, it would seem only fair in the current economic climate. Given that we as a country have to make some cuts somewhere, you could hardly do better than taking away a small handout from people who mostly wouldn't even notice it was missing.

Tags: child benefit, politics, society