weeknotes for w/c 06/01/25

hello! shockingly, weeknotes are here on time for once (new year, new me?). as i spent most of my week in Edinburgh and didn't get up to much, these are comparatively short and sweet

• completed about 30% of the tasks in my cycle this week. i think that's slightly below my average, and a lot has been rolled over into next week. i think i'll spend a bit of time this weekend pruning my backlog so i can hit the ground running next week 🏃
• went out to my bank on Monday to get two cheques (yes, they still exist. and yes, i have a use for them). i was initially after a chequebook, but i learnt that the staff could issue them in branch. waiting in the queue is unfortunately an hour and a half of my life i won't get back 💸
• spent Tuesday to Thursday of this week in Edinburgh. 🏰
  • caught the overnight express coach to and from Edinburgh. catching a Flixbus is, to put it incredibly politely, a hellish experience i wouldn't wish on anyone else
    • what reasonable person thinks a coach is the best place to have an incredibly loud conversation at 0011?
    • making the seats recline was a mistake
    • some guy slept on me for the whole eight hour journey up, but thankfully i got an empty seat next to me on the journey down
    • fell asleep to New Blue Sun on the coach. it's really calming
  • went to the Teaching Programming across Disciplines Winter School conference (bit of a mouthful, i know). it was a lovely conference filled with talented academics who are all passionate about pedagogy
    • the Winter School was an incredibly well run and well organised hybrid event (i know two of the organisers personally and they put their all into their work, so i'm glad they managed to pull off such a complex event)
    • i successfully traded stickers with someone sat next to me, which i think is a huge success!
• spent some time in job interviews this Friday, running on five hours of sleep. ya boy is incredibly close to becoming gainfully employed again. 💼
  • had three interviews this week, and got two scheduled for next Tuesday
  • i heard back from one interview a few hours after, inviting me to do a technical test. i'll probably find some time to smash it next Monday
• performed some chores 🧹
  • hoovered the house and watered all the plants
  • upgraded my phone plan and made it cheaper. it only took a few minutes to check over my usage over the past year and pick an appropriate plan. it's now £24 cheaper over the course of the next year, which i consider a win
• managing to keep myself busy and keep my spirits up 😄
  • as part of my resolution to make time for things i don't know much about, i've signed up to go to AIDLE next Tuesday
  • kept myself busy with a little consultancy work through Voxa this week
  • i've been making a concerted effort to do things as they come in, instead of putting them off until some indeterminate future time. it's been going really well so far
  • got the first non-weeknotes blog post of the year cooking. it's likely to drop at the end of this month, so keep your eyes peeled
  • been on a bit of a binge listening to TENDER. Both Modern Addiction and Fear of Falling Asleep are brilliant electronic masterpieces
• i somehow caught a cold in Edinburgh and have to miss a friend's board game night this Sunday 😔