#weeknote

[techforevil]

January 2025 | monthnote

Is it even a new year if I don't make some doomed attempt at weeknotes?

Random notes inc work stuff

Vicky dying still does not feel real. I feel privileged I got to spend some siginifcant time with her when she came along to Conferencia Agile Spain (like most people I primarily knew her from her writing and online presence, altho we met briefly a few times when we overlapped at GDS) and was hoping to follow up on a few things we talked about at GovCamp but equally it means I can't just indulge in my full-on denial mode...

Worked through xmas-ny break like usual. It's usually a chill time unless I am in this department, where apart from the ongoing time-sensitive work lots of random emergencies happened. So glad I'm off for a couple of weeks now, I've not had a proper break since Japan in March/April and I'm shattered.

Overall so much random and weird shit was going down at the end of Dec / start of Jan (including both me and my flatmate having very strange dreams) I was beginning to suspect a gas leak... 🙃

Got extended till Feb 2026 in my current contract. 🎉 It should make getting a mortgage easier, now just fingers crossed that the property does not get down valued like the last one and my sellers find something they want to purchase soon.

Quite a lot of change at work, lots of it quite neatly coinciding with my leave. The migration from GOV.UK PaaS my team was prepping for for the last year got delayed last minute and now I'll be missing it but I'm sure it will all go fine.

Booked in with Keemee for a tatoo just after the holiday. 🌺

Govcamp happened and I was mostly helping our rather than going to sessions. :o Good times as usual, felt particularly busy this year for a 'normal edition'. I really like that we finally have a bit of a Teacamp return with TransformGov Talks and also sort of DataBites! \o/

Spanish classes are back. I've not signed up for Korean yet, there's probably a fair bit I can do to brush up close to my former level by myself if I just find the motivation. :s

Watched

Lots of Taskmaster, the perfect crocheting accompaniment (see below)

Nosferatu - the scene in castle 100% played like something from What We Do in the Shadows, I'm not even sorry for giggling throughout. 😔 Needed more Dafoe hamming it up. I was shocked the cat was not named in the credits - breaking a sacred tradition of cinema. 4 stars.

Presence - not a horror, not my kinda thing otherwise (family drama). The central gimmick could be fun in an actual horror movie tho. Another one they kind of employ ('not being bound by time') is sort of redundant because the progression is linear (I suppose otherwise the twist would be ruined). The marketing vs movie kind of fell in place for me when I realised it's the same distributor as Longlegs which was also underwhelming.

Late Feb / March seems staked with releases I want to see: The Monkey, The Last Showgirl, Mickey 17, Death of Unicorn... probably more. Those are just the trailers I saw before Presence lol.

Played

This is probably between Dec-Jan rather than strictly Jan.

Fledgling Manor - Stefan's route only, basically not sure how the other ones can top it so I lost interest but it seems all need to be played to resolve some plot points so maybe in the future...

Sorry We're Closed - I thought this would be a VN but it's a survival horror and I find the shooting stressful haha. You can say I hould have read the description before buying but I was blinded by the art. -_-

bits of Arco (love the mechanics and the story is good but I got stuck at an encounter I can't pass but I'm too stubborn to back out and return at higher level), Animal Well, Stanley Parable (at very long last - yes, it's as good as I thought it would be), I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (tbh the mechanics were more interesting to me in a more down to earth setting of Growing Up), Cryptmaster (Steamdeck does not work well for this).

Waiting for Yakuza in Hawaii, more Hades 2 patches, next Deltarune chapters, and Ghost of Tsushima sequel + Assassins Creed Japan (open world map marker slop > therapy, don't @ me).

Makes

Decima is still closed so no pottery. I've probably forgotten 100% of what little I could do. I'll probably do a course at Mudgang when I'm back to return to some working level and then get either a studio space subscription from them or Turning Earth near Haggerston, depending on how the flat buying is coming along.

In the meantime I have finally sort of learned how to crochet. I got a kit from TOFT to make a black and white cat, resembling Bella a bit. I tried crocheting before a few times (I learned very basic knitting during lockdown and have half a pride blanket from Wool & the Gang somewhere) but it always ended up with me crying, once in public. 🥲 The kit said it's level 2 so I got another level 1 one (labrador)

TBF they are not that different, cat requires changing colours which is actually not hard if you get over the initial barrier to entry of crocheting anything at all. 😬 The cat is also bigger which makes the process much less fiddly.

TOFT instructions are quite barebones and don't have any interim 'this is what it should look like by now' pics which as a complete beginner is quite rough, but I think I managed to make decent approximations of the cover images. I made some changes to the cat on purpose.

Belly disagrees.

The biggest issue I have with TOFT kits so far is that the amount of yarn provided leaves no room for errors or even leaving longer tails. With both patterns I made mistakes (crocheting with dark yarn is particularly hard going if you don't know wtf you're doing) and the yarn started fraying real bad so I had to chop it. I actually had to buy more yarn (which doesn't exactly match...) to finish the cat at all. :(

I got yarn and patterns for two sheep (Seth and Tobias) from them to keep busy on the upcoming flights so we'll see how consistent this minimalism is. 😬

Anyway then I went crazy at John Lewis sales so I have lots of materials now, just need patterns and ideas. The first one is not going particularly well and I'm losing my patience sligtly, might swap to something else.

またね! ✌️😗

[alxfsl]

Sketchy Notes 2024: Digital Sketchbook #2 'Grandma memories: the black dress' I haven't been publishing my weeknotes yet because I am changing and restructuring my blog, but as I do it in my limited spare time (yes, the PhD is to blame), it still need some work. Today, however, it's a special day for me, and I really wanted to share it. A sketchy note to my grandma, who taught me the love for craft and learning, and would have turned 100 today:

https:://alxfsl.com/sketchy-notes/crafty-memories-and-birthday-wishes Software: Affinity Photo Device: Surface Laptop

[thejaymo]

Have Some Ambition | Weeknotes

Here we all are, moving to a new table in the casino, hoping it’ll somehow feel different this time.

We built small thoughts in little boxes, Stacked them high on shifting sands. The tide swept in, and still we gathered, Chasing echoes, clutching hands.

[oluonline]

friday is the new sunday when it comes to my weeknotes

[andypiper]

Maintaining a rhythm

A short post to summarise the end of the week. #Blaugust2024 #100DaysToOffload

A bit short and unstructured today, but posting to keep things moving along. End-of-weeknotes, if you will. Fabrik (which I only wrote about a couple of weeks ago!) is changing their London offering and closing the physical space, so I’ve been trying to track what’s going on with that, but not able to get to any of the meetings about it all. I’m sad about it. We recorded episode 476 of Games at…

[bdarfler]

I have had a weeknotes practice for a few years, starting in my upward 1:1 doc, and more recently expanding to public slack posts. It is always worth the time for my own reflection, for future reference, and for radiating intent.

[thegoodevil]

🎄What a journey!

Only 12 months have passed since the last holidays and new years break. An exciting year has passed and we can't wait until 2024 to show you all the games we worked on in 2023. But until then, we take some time to recharge and feast on nuts and chocolate, like Squirrel.

If you celebrate Christmas and feel the need for a last minute present, get a gift card for the Nintendo eShop. Always useful, low impact on the environment and our little badger "Rascal" might visit soon. Until then, Happy holidays and a nuttastic start into 2024 from all of the Evils! ✨ (We will be back in office on January 8th).

[hughlh]

Fed is best | Weeknotes 5/6/23

I’ve been really swamped at my day job for the last few months, and, surprise, my routines have suffered. But a huge project I was working on just ended, and things should revert to something like normal. But the end result is my writing practice has suffered. I have still sent my newsletter each week, even if I have sent it late twice. People were kind enough to not remark on that.  In the…

[scriboniuscurio]

weeknotes for this week on my personal site!

[lloyddavis]

Weeknote 23/49

Ah me, it’s week 49. # I usually write *something* at the end of the week, but rarely (if ever) manage to publish it. For me, writing is thinking more than it is anything else and giving my thoughts on the week an extra polish in order to share them is usually too much effort. But I’m remembering the benefits of sharing this rough stuff in public and every now and then the internal battle turns…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Head in the Clouds (Weeknotes)

I don’t think my head has actually been in the clouds–metaphorically or otherwise. I’ve been too grounded in the news. Or sucked into the news like a 1970s tv character into quicksand. Except the news is real. No director is going to yell cut and end the scene. If only… But between the destruction and horror, I’ve been getting my students to create a newsletter! I’m not sharing the newsletter…

[styledeficit]

Weeknotes of the past

"Find it difficult to get ‘Oranges and Lemons’ going, whilst at same time appearing to give intelligent attention to remarks from visiting mother concerning Exhibition of Italian Pictures at Burlington House. Find myself telling her how marvellous I think them, although in actual fact have not yet seen them at all. Realize that this mis-statement should be corrected at once, but omit to do so, and later find myself involved in entirely unintentional web of falsehood. Should like to work out how far morally to blame for this state of things, but have not time." Extract from Diary of a Provincial Lady, E. M. Delafield (Back when weeknotes were diaries)

[alxfsl]

Sketchy Notes 2024: Digital Sketchbook #1 'Interviews'

Software: Affinity Photo Device: Surface Laptop

[thejaymo]

THAT Debate | Weeknotes

It's been a week of major storms here, both literal and metaphorical. But Summer is still clinging on, and so am I.

[oluonline]

late weeknotes:

[martin-jordan]

End of year review 2024

It’s the first day of 2025. I am continuing last year’s practice of answering the 39 questions Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson proposed.

Here we go: 1. What did you do in 2024 that you’d never done before? I went on a proper 3-day hike to the Triglav Mountains – 14 hours being our longest hiking day. I was much more exhausted than after a half marathon. I could not move for over half an hour after finally arriving at the hut.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I kept a few, but not all. I spent almost all of my vacation days. I did more public speaking than I aimed for: 14 of 7 talks. I wrote 48 of 52 weeknotes I wanted to write. I published 6 of the 7 texts I wanted to get out. I did far less exercise than I wanted to. I achieved all the financial goals I set. I will continue writing resolutions, but not meet them.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friends Birga and Mauro became parents again. I’ve met the little fellow now twice. Members of my design team, other colleagues at Digital Service and former GDS colleagues became parents.

4. Did anyone close to you die? A close friend’s father died after a prolonged illness. But really close to me, no.

5. What countries did you visit? As mentioned, I hiked in Slovenia. For the Lunar New Year, I travelled to Hong Kong 🇭🇰, where we spent time with Roxy’s family. We then went to Macao 🇲🇴, North Vietnam 🇻🇳, and Taiwan 🇹🇼, using Hong Kong as our travel hub for 3 weeks. I travelled to the UK 2 or 3 times. From London, I went up to Edinburgh to attend a government design conference. In early October, I went to Helsinki, Finland, to attend two service and system design conferences. We then travelled back by ferry and train from Helsinki 🇫🇮 to Stockholm 🇸🇪 to Malmö to Copenhagen 🇩🇰. This is the most I have travelled since the beginning of the pandemic. We had some beautiful moments abroad.

6. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024? More time to do some crucial things that are not urgent yet. I also want to make more small contributions towards bigger goals in a 10-to-15-year timeframe. Most of my activities don’t go beyond a 2- to 3-year horizon.

7. What date from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory? I remember what I did on my partner’s birthday. I had to think longer what I did on my birthday.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Helping reviving the Service Standard for German government. We managed to get so much further than I could have imagined. The second biggest achievement is building the team to over 35 people, solidifying the user-centred design discipline with 2 sub-disciplines: content design and user research. And: losing no one from the team while other disciplines had some churn to report.

9. What was your biggest failure? Investing far too little in physical and mental exercise.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? After the 14-hour hike and a painful last hour towards the final hut, my left toe was numb for over 5 months. Only recently, the nerves started responding again.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Maybe it was Roxy’s birthday cake. It was impressive, she loved it, and it absolutely delicious, too.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? In closer proximity: Our organisation’s executive team has been doing an awe-inspiring job throughout the year. Christina’s communication is worth highlighting especially.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Politicians in so many countries and entitled billionaire.

14. Where did most of your money go? I spent a lot of money on travel. We went beyond the average 6–8% of income range.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? [To be completed later}

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2024? As odd as I might find the song, ‘Apt.’ by Rosé and Bruno Mars is a song I will link to 2024.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: I am grateful and impressed of what we did

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wanted to write more. I wrote a lot – more than in the last 5 years. But some vital texts have been sitting untouched.

Also, I wanted to do more exercise. I did poorly in this category.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I guess that’s sweets and carbs in general. I gained some unhealthy belly fat.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? As Christmas already happened: I spent it with my family at my sister’s place.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? Like last year, that was my mother. I don’t speak to many other people on the phone these days. Not outside of work.

22. Did you fall in love in 2024? It’s well ongoing, I would say. Rising would describe it better than falling, I think.

23. What was your favourite TV programme? 2024 was less remarkable—or I missed things. ‘Severance’ was good, and so was ‘Silo’ on Apple TV+. The latter I did not finish yet. The first half of ‘Sunny’ was good. The second half less so.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t use the word, but I have no respect for some ‘liberal’ politicians who continue to lie openly and deceive everyone around them.

25. What was the best book(s) you read? The most revealing book was ‘How to ADHD’ by Jessica McCabe. I wish I had read it earlier.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? I keep listening to the same music. Spotify can confirm that. I am in the top 0.01% of Philip Glass listeners globally. But I continue to explore new music from him.

27. What did you want and get? That seems like a very consumption-oriented question. I got Roxy her Rollei 35 SE camera. She grew fond of it, which is great.

28. What did you want and not get? I wanted to get a camera for myself, but I still don’t prioritise it. I looked at models at least. As a birthday present to myself, I bought a small Vitsœ 606 shelf for above my working desk at home. It’s lovely.

29. What were your favourite films of this year? ‘Civil War’ was impressive. ‘Lee’ had a strong story, too. ‘Society of the Snow’ had dark and intense moments, but reading the full story on Wikipedia afterwards gave me more hope for humanity again. ‘Poor Things’ was wild—just too much male gaze that made parts uncomfortable!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 42. On my ‘birthday table’ I found a homemade matcha tiramisu cake. As a surprise trip, Roxy brought me to Beelitz-Heilstätten by train. We had vegan Japanese fine dining at ‘Oukan’ afterwards. 31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I feel pretty satisfied, personally. More successful future-proofing policies getting through parliament would have been great. And a few more things about our work getting even more attention would have been incredible.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024? Buy very, very few things. Try to repair things that are broken. Sneakers were possible, and nicer smart shoes when necessary. Shirts always. Layers for all environments.

33. What kept you sane? Self-efficacy in the work context, the communities I nurture and cooking and baking too late at night. 34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? This question still doesn’t resonate. I find German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck impressively articulate.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? I don’t know where to start. The decline of democracy and rise of far-right parties in Germany and elsewhere, the cultural war and hate conservatives and far-right politicians

36. Who did you miss? There were fewer moments than last year, but I continue to miss my grandmother—especially when the family gathers. 37. Who was the best new person you met? My new colleagues in the Service Standard team are ace! I had some doubts in the summer about whether new folks could pull this work off. They exceeded all expectations I had.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024. Give things time. Don’t give up. Make continuous small contributions, and things can suddenly gain an unexpected momentum.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? I need to pass on this one again. Maybe next year.