albitron limited

  Actual footage of me working remotely. I've been perplexed over the last year or so, like many people, about this whole Return To Office (RTO) thing. One of the silver linings of Covid was supposed to be that we'd all learnt that a lot of roles can be done remotely...and now we seem to be backtracking. I've not understood it.

  Being in this heart somewhat exaggerates my already prominant widow's peak... In my critically revered post about my trip to .Net Oxford recently, I mentioned that I'd had inspiration for another blog post. So here we go!  I also mentioned that I value putting different stuff in my head and shaking it up. This is kind of one of those things.  A few hours before .NET Oxford, someone in my team asked me why I thought teams, or projects failed. Obviously, this threw me a bit... I've never been part of a failing team, because every team I've been on has had me...so they were, by definition, awesome.  But, staggering humility aside, I cobbled together an answer around how a lot of issues are rooted in team dynamics.  Fast forward to .NET Oxford and I was introducing myself to someone. "I'm an Engineering Manager" I said. "Oh, are you still hands-on?", they enquired, "or do you just do management and architecture now?" As is often the cas...

  My biggest fans will note this is a different old photo to the one I've been photoshopping into images lately. This photo is from my meetup profile. As I'm talking about meetups, it seemed appropriate. I used to do a lot of meetups pre-pandemic...but I didn't really adjust to them being remote during lockdown (I've always felt that getting out of the house is part of the point!), so kinda got out of the habit. I've made it to a couple of geek nights in the last year or so, but that's been about it.  But, I knew a couple of people that were going to .NET Oxford , so I figured "why not?". Needless to say, it was really interesting! And it triggered in me a kind of muscle memory. Whenever I went to meetups in the olden days, I'd blog about it and share it with my team at work. So I figured I should write a blog post to "share my learnings".  That said, there's no point in me regurgitating content a little worse than the original presen...

I've put some things out there over the years.  I used to run another blog - "pubsgrubsandbeers.co.uk" - where I wrote reviews of...pubs, grub and beers.  I published a couple of apps, most notably the amazing "Ghostify" (RIP). I've written a few LinkedIn articles, posts etc. And lots of reviews.  It's fair to say, though, that I've never taken these things seriously from a money-making perspective. I've done these things for myself, to see if I could, to learn stuff, for fun...and anything on top of that is a bonus. One time, a pub down the road invited me to eat for free at their restaurant to try and improve their one-star review on pubsgrubsandbeers.co.uk (a quirk in SEO meant that my review actually appeared above their own website on google searches) - this was a big win!  Ghostify earned me some money. I think getting towards £100 in total. Having never gotten any money for code I'd written for myself, I was delighted. Given that I...

  One of my favourite coffee spots down by the river. Honest. I never even used to drink coffee.  It was only really when I had kids it became medicinal.

I have that sinking feeling you get when you post a reference to a meme that nobody else is old enough to remember... I find the focus on education for healthy eating fascinating. The idea that people just don't understand how bad for them junk food is. Of course we understand! That's exactly the point.  The thing I like most about junk food is that I know it's killing me a bit. Imagine, if fish and chips was the healthiest food there was. A superfood. All you need to live a happy and healthy life. Would you still crave it so badly on a Friday night? Or would you realise that without the inherent naughtiness of eating it, it's actually a bit "meh" as a meal?  I certainly feel that way about Dominos. I know there's enough salt in each pizza to turn my daughter's aquarium from freshwater to marine. I know that I'll wake up the following morning feeling like a tomato that's just been sun-dried. But, again, that's kinda the point.  This is a lo...

No real datasets were harmed during the making of this graphic. "Shopping for jobs" is the way I usually describe interviewing. You fancy moving on, you get to go and visit a few different companies, meet some new people, learn about how they do things - and decide whether that job would be a good move in your career. It's good fun!  Usually, however, I'm employed when I'm looking to move on.

This is just a LinkedIn post I wrote earlier in the year. But it feels like it sits nicely in my reflections on unemployment, so keeping it here for safekeeping. Carry on, past James: 

I've been practicing my photoshop lately. Starting to get some really seamless results! For the first few months of this year I suffered my first significant period of unemployment in my career. Having now "come out the other side", I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what I learnt through the process, so I'll be writing a few blog entries on this over the coming weeks. 

I mentioned in my last blog post  that I was submitting my site for review from the Google Adsense people, to see if I could have a few adverts on this site.  Well, my review's now complete and the outcome is... DENIED.