Talent2 was designed by amateurs

Where I work they've recently rolled out a new HR system called Talent2. It has some great features, the chief one being that a lot of the dodgy old paper forms are now online, and when my staff fill in leave forms I get an email pointing me at the web site saying I've got an approval to do.

The thing is, the web interface was designed by amateurs, and seemingly not tested on actual people. It's the simple, easy-to-implement features that are broken. Like the email. It could link directly to the thing it wants me to look at. But no, it links me to the front page of the site and expects me to drill down to the right page. And the staff management system - it lets you "change context" so you're viewing the record of your staff. But it doesn't really show that on the interface (it does mention it in the details of the reports you get; it's just not obvious), so you can easily get lost and try to do stuff on someone else's behalf. When you need to approve leave for a staff member, and they've listed that they have a medical certificate, your can't approve it. The approve button is greyed out (you can deny the request or escalate it still). And the page gives no hint as to why you can't approve it. I hassled the HR folks and they told me that I had to click on the very non-obvious link that looked like this:

456728*

And choose approve from the dropdown menu there. I'll clarify this: there are two controls for the same bit of data, on different pages, and one will work but the other is disabled, and neither of them tell me why or what I am supposed to do in this case.

This is a system thousands of staff have to use, and is used in many major corporations around the world, and they haven't bothered to fix the small and easy-to-fix usability issues that may only cost a minute or two to the user, but that minute or two is multiplied by the many times a year each user uses it, multiplied by the thousands of staff around here, and you end up with quite a bit of unnecessary productivity loss.

Idiots.

Oh well, it's an improvement over the previous system, so I won't kick up a stink. Just send in polite and regular suggestions as to how they might improve the thing.

* Random number changed to protect the innocent

The little girl talks!

So, over the last week or two, the little girl has started with some words. And she's only ten months old. She started with Cat (pronounced Ca't), and is working on More, and has recently started calling me Da. She's also waving and high fiving! We're all quite impressed.

Foot Cat

I love cats, but am tragically allergic to them, so I have to enjoy their company from a distance. Which is why it's delightful that Squishy and I have come to the Foot Cat Compromise. After the kids have gone to bed and she feels it's safe to come out, she strolls up to the couch where I'm sitting, so I can pat her with my foot. And if I don't rub quickly enough, she'll start rubbing up against my foot herself.

Spelling antics

There's a certain period of time with children when you can T-A-L-K in F-R-O-N-T of the children by S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G thing O-U-T. Primus cut that short when he learned to read quite early, so we didn't get much time, and now he's also doing it to say secret things in front of his little brother. But not always with 100% success. At the end of dinner the other night;

"Mama, Daddy, I'm F-O-O-L."
"You're what?"
"I'm F-O-O-L. I don't want any more dinner".

and then later, after the bath, when he wanted to go upstairs and read his book:

"Daddy, I want to go upstairs to read H-A-R-R-Y P-O-T-T-Y".

Well, it's a start, I guess. He's usually a bit more accurate than the above would indicate.

Foreign Narratives

The boys were in the bath the other day - Primus playing a complicated game, and Secundus watching and learning avidly. I was dressing Tertia, who was finished in the bath, but was listening into Primus' play narrative as he explained it to me in a rapid-fire train of thought:

"...and Mr. Blucky [the blue plastic hippo] jumps on this [a foam toy with a face cloth draped over it floating in the bath, like a boat or island] and then he has to jump off to get to the wormhole [the foam/cloth platform is being moved back and forth across the bathtub] but the baddy is there and he has to get the gun and fight the baddy to get to the next level when he goes through the wormhole and if he jumps off here or here or here [he indicates various spots on the foam/cloth's path] then he falls in the lava and dies and when he gets to the next level he loses his weapons but he can get the bow and arrow and fight the next baddy [he rearranges the baddy, which is a toy boat with some plastic tubing next to it] but the baddy on the next level is more dangerous but then he can go through the next wormhole and get to the next level and..."

The kid is in a bath, playing with plastic bath toys, but he's playing a platform game! Like flippin' Prince of flippin' Persia! I've noticed it a bit before - a lot of their games seem to be computer games transliterated in to real life. It's standard terminology among his peer group and other kids his age to "Pause" and "Unpause" a game. All the games they play seem to be strongly influenced by playstation and computer games.

I know I'm going to sound like a crotchety old man, but I find it weird. They're into the same aliens and robots and monsters and swashbuckling derring-do that I was into as a kid - even Star Wars, the formative mythology of my own childhood, has come back. But they've got a different narrative structure to anything I remember from my childhood, and a different language for controlling their games. I suppose that we did this to our parents as well, and Primus's kids will also bewilder him with the way they play.

Conferencalicious

Most of the details of my life are in another blog, so I'm not visiting this one much. I'd originally thought this one might be a sort of quick blurt of the day type blog, but that's all elsewhere, so this one is for random thought and stuff that requires more detailed blather.

My conference poster went well. It's the first one I've ever done - I never went far enough as a student to get to make a poster for a conference, so it was all a bit weird, and since I'm not a student I didn't have a supervisor to tell me how to do it properly, but it turned out OK. And I've got new software for diagrams, and discovered I already had good page layout software, so all was good. Actually, seriously, Pages is really good page layout software for the uninitiated. I was surprised. I was very happy with how well the poster turned out.

The bad bit was that I had to give a presentation to go with it. I didn't expect that when I signed up for the deal, and am generally terrified of public speaking. Nearly had a meltdown when I discovered I was presenting in the big auditorium that would happily seat a few hundred. I was enormously relieved when only thirty or so people actually turned up. And the presentation went OK, though I think I confused the audience a little (my presentation was a little too techy for the conference). My colleague presented the other poster I worked on (I did most of the poster-making on both of them), and his went down well, and because the subject matter was appropriate for the conference (educational conference, and his was on the exam item bank we're working on) we were asked lots of questions afterwards and there was a lot of interest in what we're making.

On another note, this was posted on metafilter, and is nice and creepy:

Recognition

It's nifty sometimes when you notice the way your brain functions. I was in the queue our favourite chinese BBQ place, when I saw someone in the queue ahead of me that I recognized. You know how it is when you recognize someone - it's a "Bam! I know that guy" feeling. There's obviously specialized
brain hardware to take care of that sort of thing. But that really important bit of brain hardware doesn't always link to that actual useful information about the person.

So there I am, thinking "I know that guy. Who the hell is he?" I ponder a while. He doesn't look quite right. Has he had a haircut? Wearing something unusual? Older? In the wrong context?

I don't know about you, but my brain stores people by contexts. If I know someone from work, then they're stored as a Work Person, and if I bump into them elsewhere, I'm all "Hi there, person I recognize but don't know who the hell is". Often when walking though the street I'll see people who work in shops I frequent, who don't necessarily recognize me, and who look confused when I do the wave-or-nod-of-recognition thing that people do when the see people they kind-of-know in the street.

So back to the BBQ shop, where I'm standing there now thinking "hmm. He's definitely out of context. Doesn't look like someone I work with; can't really figure out where in my world he'd fit". This was gradually followed by a "hmm. He looks less crazy than usual". A glance about the shop at the guy chopping a duck up with a huge meat cleaver reminds me that The Guy should normally be waving a meat cleaver around dementedly.

In a pizza shop.

Hey! It's that guy From Fat Pizza! (Better not do the wave-of-recognition thing - might freak him out... though he's probably used to it)

That's it - Bobo!

By this stage I've noticed him glancing across at me, mildly amused at me looking at him, seemingly pleased that his minor level of celebrity has got him recognized in Campsie.

Well anyway, it's good to know that Bobo agrees with my taste in Chinese BBQ. And who'd've thought he would have a daughter?

Sorry to bore you with this. It was interesting at the time because there was a part of my brain sitting there watching the whole process of recognition and recall going on which I actually found much more interesting than the event itself, as it demonstrated the interactions between different brain modules as they each did their dodgy job of trying to extract information about something in front of me.

Stupid horsies

In keeping with my fine tradition of deep understanding of All Things Sporting, I declared today that the Melbourne Cup would be won by "A Brown Horsie".

Of course, which flippin' horsie wins?

This flippin' horsie:

The only non-brown one on the track.

It wasn't too bad. No-one was going to let me bet on my horsie choice anyway.

He's a bright boy

I'm not sure when kids are supposed to start asking these questions, but I've recently had conversations with six-year-old Primus about:

• The concept of nothingness. His contention: "There is no such thing as nothing". My reply: "well, what have you got left in a bag when you had one apple, and someone takes it out?". I had to point out that if there was no such thing as nothing, then you wouldn't be able to take out that last apple because you wouldn't be able to have nothing left. He seemed to get it - there is such a thing as nothing, but it's not the same kind of thing as "things". I refrained from hitting him with the concept of Concepts.
• The extent and composition of the universe. This went along the lines
  P: "Daddy, where does Gold come from"
  Me: "They dig it out of the ground"
  P: "But how did it get there?"
  Me: "It was there when the Earth formed" (which cued a sidebar discussion about what elements are and some examples of elements vs. things that are made of combinations of elements)
  P: "But how did it get into the stuff that made the earth?"
  Me: "Well, it was created when another star exploded..." (which started a discussion of nuclear fusion and how elements are created in stars, which he kind of understood because he remembered the They Might Be Giants song I sometimes sing them in the bath, followed by the explanation that heavier elements like gold and iron are only created in supernovae)
  P: "Ah. But where did the stuff that other star was made of come from?"
  Me: "Well, that's what the universe was made of after the big bang. It was mostly hydrogen with a bit of helium and smaller bits of stuff like lithium and boron"
  
  
  And from there it got a bit complicated, with his queries prompting me to explain the big bang and how the universe was really small early on and grew into what we see today. And how the Universe had a defined starting point, and about the possible heat death of the universe and the Big Rip.
  
  P: "But what was outside the really small thing?"
  Me: "There was no outside - that tiny little thing was the universe."
  P: "But what was outside? There has to be something."
  Me: "Nothing. You can't have anything outside the universe. The universe is all there is!"
  P: "But there's not such thing as nothing!"

I've got to say, this is a lot more interesting than the pure "Why?" phase, even though it's essentially the same game.

Bare Necessities III

All Secundus needed to take to bed with him were three matchbox cars, a larger metal ute (or "Bute" as he called it), two superballs, a toy spider (plush, not plastic), a hand rake (part of a sandcastle building set), a train ticket, and of course Dog and Baby Dog.

New developments

Well, little Tertia (aka. E.) is starting to move around. Not crawling, but more than rolling. Squirming, I'd say. She can move across the room, just never in the way she plans. Which causes her endless frustration because she JUST WANTS TO EAT THAT BASTARD DINOSAUR AND SHE CAN'T GET TO IT!@@!*%$*(I&*^.

Secundus (aka. A.) had a new first as well. He Delegated for the first time. Just before dinnertime, he and his cousin (who was visiting) were snacking, because they were apparently (so they informed us in their two-year-old way) starving to death. Secundus was asked to take some of the rice crackers to Primus (aka. D. - remember these, because I'll probably be using these in this blog from now on after having seen Stardust, which was cool, and has encouraged the already existing in-house habit between myself and Mrs B when we want to refer to the little varmints in a coded manner*). Anyways, when I asked Secundus to take some to his brother and the little cousin's elder sister J., he immediately got two of them out, passed them to his cousin, and told her to take them in to Primus and J., which she immediately proceeded to do. I beamed with pride - my little guy is becoming a Slacker, just like his old man.

*Other options have included Primo and Duplo, or Pint-size and half-pint when we just had two.

Whole lotta not blogging going on

Not a lot going down lately, so no urge to blog. Stuff that's happened:

• A. is toilet training. Argh! the horror!
• D. performed at Town Hall in his junior choir. They were exceedingly cute.
• E. has taken to howling blue murder when she doesn't get her way. Such as when she gets put to bed. She's howling now, because her brutal and cruel parents have put her to bed.
• Empty staff positions filled. Yay! Don't have to do no personnel stuff for a while. Note to self: glue staff to chair to avoid having to re-hire.
• Taking two weeks off work for school holidays. I intend to indulge in some sitting, and maybe some hangin' around.

That's all for now. Catch you in a few weeks' time.

Learning to talk

A. is at that most entertaining time when he's starting to talk a lot, and starting to become understandable, but still at an entertainingly low level of verbal accuracy. Some recent gems:

• "Bibby Bec! Bibby Bec!" when looking for auntie Bec
• Cucumbers have been variously referred to as "Doobadabbas" and "Cubacubbas" as he gets more of the consonants in line
• There is a crane yard near our house that we occasionally drive by. It's very exciting for boys who are fans of Cranky the Crane. Thus, the cries of "Ganky Gane! Ganky Gane!" when we drove by yesterday. Poor old Ganky has been a popular toy lately with A., leading to some water damage when he was played with outside in the rain.
  
• D is becoming a fan of Guitar Hero now that he can actually play it a bit. So both boys were singing along to Cherry Pie. A.'s rendition of the lyrics "She's my cherry pie": "Cheers my beppy bye"
  

Long long weekend

Took an extra day off for the APEC long weekend. Memorable highlights:

• bought a 24" monitor that was on sale for $599. Now we've got to get the Mac Mini to go with it.
  
• D. quote (while playing with his soccer medals and awarding them to people): "Baby E. wins the Nobel Prize for Kickboxing!" (further research indicates it is a simpsons quote, but I found it hilarious when he said it anyway).
• A. being discovered riding his bike around in the rain, wearing only socks (his galoshes had fallen off). He was thoroughly soaked.
• D's writing has massively improved - he was writing a lot this weekend.
• Saw Ratatouille with the kids. Quite entertaining, and while it lacked some of the substance of previous Pixar movies, it was entertaining, and beautifully animated.
• Tomb Raider Anniversary edition gave me vertigo and sleep deprivation.
  

Off to Canberra for a conference later in the week, to be joined by J and kids at the weekend for Exciting Times In Sunny Canberra.

Random posting

So, haven't posted in a while. It's a pity to disappoint my vast readership, so here's some blather, some tiny sparks of pointless conversation to fill the yawning silent void that is the blogosphere.

Trois Freres is still awesome.

If you're 6, Ben 10 is awesome.

If you're 2, Hi 5 is awesome. Personally, I think it's a lot less interesting now that Kathleen is gone. She was a hottie. Not much point watching the show now. And I've just discovered (while extracting the above web link) that The Princess Bride is one of her favourite movies. And her husband has the same name as me. And her favourite number is 1. That's one of my favourite numbers! up there with Graham's Number and n. It's her birthday tomorrow too, and another of her favourite movies is on TV right now, so it's a good time to be Kathleen, I reckon.

If you're six months old, pretty much anything you can grab and chew on is pretty awesome.

D is going through a Favourite Music phase. On the way home this evening he controlled the iPod (with the little radio dongle to make it play through the stereo). He couldn't quite figure out the controls, but he was very excited by the power, and was trying to find his favourites (he was disappointed by the lack of Doo Wah Diddy Diddy). On a regular basis he'll come up with a new favourite band. We listen to a lot of music - at home, as well as to and from school/work in the car each day. So I'll frequently get drilled on my favourite songs (and mine vary depending on mood as well, but I can generally fall back on Golden Brown and most of Faithless' Reverence album). He'll frequently claim the Cat Empire and the White Stripes as his favourites, but today it was The Police (mainly because of Guitar Hero and Singstar). Regina Spektor gets listed frequently, as does Jackson Jackson (though I'm not sure why - he doesn't really know their songs). I've gotta say, for a six-year-old he's got pretty good taste in music :)

Governed by thugs and degenerates

From what I can gather (via listening to Hack and a bit of web searching), proposed new legislation (see also) will mean that the ACCC can sue unions and community groups for organizing boycotts of companies, if the company makes a complaint. The companies will have nothing to lose in doing this, since the ACCC foots the cost of the lawsuit. So things like boycotting oil companies that are producing shale oil, or are cruel to animals, or engage in any other unethical practice, would become illegal. So personally boycotting a company isn't illegal, just encouraging others to do so is.

Wankers.

Argh! ADSL woes!

Stupid new ADSL modem doesn't like stupid long ethernet stupid cables, so we're back to using the slow old ADSL modem (which has served us faithfully for years). The new one worked for a bit last night, and for a bit this evening when I jiggled the cable, but then it died. Probably some requires-cat5e-cable-not-dodgy-homemade-cable malarkey. Anyways, it seems to work if I have a short ethernet cable and a long phone cable, but I don't have a phone cable quite long enough to run without turning the house into some sort of Shelob's Lair of Networking, which Mrs B seems to have some weird objection to. Chicks, eh? Whatcha gonna do?

The upshot is that tomorrow is Go Visit The Nice Cable Selling People Day, and until then I'm living like some kind of Saxon serf in the dark ages with only a 1.5Mb connections to the interwebs.

Opportunities lost...

So there I was (I've long thought that's the best way to start an anecdote), in the men's bathrooms (not the best way to continue said anecdote, but bear with me here), washing my hands. An Important Academic is in there too, washing his hands (not a euphemism here - we were actually washing our hands). He points at the windows, and says something to the effect of "You know it's a dodgy neighbourhood when they've even got bars on the windows of the toilets". And I'm hit by the "there's a joke here" demon.

In this case, as you know, you generally have about 2 seconds to come up with your response. And I know it's there, and it's pretty funny. The words are all in there, tumbling across the landscape of my consciousness like great big tumbly consciousy things, toying with me, but I can't get them to perform the right acrobatic maneuvers to turn into That Joke I Know Is There. A second passes, and I say "yeah" to kind of stall for time, and That Joke is still there, not ready to come out right (it could come out, but it'd be a bit of a mess).

Then the academic starts talking about the project we're working on, and the joke hits me. Bam! And it's pretty funny for an off the cuff remark, but it's precisely one second to late. He's all like "blah", and I'm all "blah blah" and if I backtracked the conversation I'd look a bit tragic, like some guy that can't get his witty rejoinders out quickly enough, so I let it go, just a little sad that such a good joke was gone forever (unless someone else ever comments on bars on the windows of a bathroom, in which case Bam! they're gonna get a good one).

It's just one of the sad tales of my life. I'm surrounded by some very witty people (as well as some people who tell a lot of jokes), and it's rare that I come out with a good one really quickly. There was That One Joke I Made At Mardi Gras which pretty much everyone I know knows, because I've told them, just in case they weren't aware of how witty I can be. I remember one radio comic (Ross Noble) cunningly coming up with a way of repeating a joke he'd come up with at a live performance (he apologized on air to a lady from the live audience after accusing her of having sex with wizards). But this one is lost to posterity; and on reflection it wasn't that great. And most of you have probably figured out what it was by now, so I'd better not tell it here. After all, I wouldn't want anyone to take the piss.

Bare minimum redux

The other day's Only the bare minimum post reminds me of a D line a few years ago. He was two or three at the time, and liked to be carried, or at least have his copious pile of two-year-old necessities carried, and would be disappointed when we would respond that we couldn't because our hands were full (with shopping and other junk).

So one day, D and I were walking up the stairs, both carrying stuff. He turns around and says:

"Daddy, ask me to carry that" (pointing at whatever I was carrying)
"Why?" I responded (or it might've been a confused "Huh?")
"Daddy, just ask me to carry that!"
"OK, D, could you carry this for me?" I respond cautiously.
"I can't! I'm full of hands!" he beamed.

Only the bare minimum

Small children have a natural tendency towards minimum. A. will only take the bare minimum with him when he goes anywhere. Nothing extraneous or unnecessary. For example, the other day, when he woke up from his nap, all he wanted to bring downstairs was Dog (his dog, who comes everywhere), two books, some cars, a train, and baby Dog. Nothing unnecessary. Same with going to the park the other day. Just Dog, a ball, a book, some pencils, and a pokemon ball thing.

Such wisdom in today's youth!

This evening:

D (constructing something in the bath): Daddy, does this look like something from World of Woodcraft?

At bedtime:
A: Want books! [he likes to take books to bed] [and cars] [and fishing lines, hair ties, spinning tops, and so on]
Me: (sighs) OK, go get some books
A: (wanders over to bookshelf, comes back with arms full)
Me: Goodness Gracious! Look at all those! Did you plunder D's room?
A: Yeah!

Speedy fast quick swift interwebs

Yay - new ADSL plan came through today, tripling my ADSL speed. Ordered ADSL2 modem, so I can multiply by another 16 times (well less, since most people don't get the full 24Mbps as far as I can tell).

So I guess I can expect to blow my quota a bit more often :)

Bastard cables are bastards

It's looking like it's time to restructure the TV cables. I'm watching more and more stuff on the computer, and it plugs into the same slot as the video and the playstation. And they're getting used more often these days (and A frequently randomly decides to plug in the playstation, just in case. So when someone has watched a video, my computer doesn't play on the TV, and I have to get up. When someone watches a video, and I want to watch computer stuff, I have to get up. And the Divine Light What Created The Universe gave us remote controls so I don't have to get up.

So, I think the plan is: AV1 is computer, and AV2 is everything else, on the little switch thingy. Coz we have to get up to put physical media in DVD, Video, and Playstation, so the switch can be flicked then.

Controlled Crying == Awesome!!!

Well, firstly, controlled crying is somewhat of a misnomer - you actually kind of do the opposite. Rather than jumping up every time the little gal squawks, we let her cry a bit, and make sure we don't rock her to sleep.

But it works so well. Baby E now sleeps in her bed - actually goes to sleep by herself! Suddenly, rather than having to spend hours trying to get the little girl to sleep, we've got hours of time to our grown-up selves - like, from 9pm until "crap better go to bed or I'll be real tired tomorrow" o'clock (which has been my standard bedtime for the last 20 years or so). Can't claim to be using the time wisely (see, for example, the post regarding Flight of the Conchords, or the one about playing with Blogger templates).

On a completely different note, Joan Chen is awesome. How many other actors have been in MacGyver, Tales from the Crypt, and The Outer Limits, among other classics?

Kids and cars

When D was smaller (around 3) he went through a phase of being fascinated by the controls of the car - I think they all do (A is starting to get into it). He wasn't too accurate with all the names of all the bits of the car, but we still use his phrase for describing the hazard lights: "havoc lights". Much better than my previous term, the "Screw you, I'm parking here" lights.

Good show

If you haven't seen it, Flight of the Conchords is bloody good fun. I enjoy a good silly comedy now and then. Need to see if I can get some of the music.

Freecycling

Joined the Sydney South Freecycle group today. Not sure whether it's to get more stuff, or to give stuff away. Hopefully the latter. Subscribing to Unclutterer has helped me to tame my stuff acquisition drive (or at least temper it somewhat with an ability to purge junk I don't need).

Thunder and Chaos

We had 20 people in our house for lunch today - the 5 of us, plus a wide assortment of siblings and cousins. It was noisy and chaotic. Much geekery was had - Settlers of Catan, 6 laptops or so on the kitchen table after lunch. Plans and plots for a shared Stuff Server to hold photos and music and all sorts of stuff to be shared between all of us. Lots of noise and shrieking little people.

The lads were extra cranky this evening - required constant supervision to prevent them disemboweling and/or strangling one another. D on a major Favouriting binge - he basically wanted me to rank all the characters of the first Harry Potter book in order of favouriteness, via pairwise comparison. A gave E a nasty scratch across her face. Not sure why.

Have to say though, I'm pretty pleased with the boys' eating habits. Morning tea was chunks of cucumber, and when dinner wasn't coming quickly enough, they devoured bowls of cucumber, carrot, and lettuce. And came to blows over who got which pieces (on the other hand, they were coming to blows over pretty much anything - merely being within belting distance was sufficient provocation).

Tooling with templates II

Not too sure about this template. It's got a nifty photo, but it's fixed width, and I'm not sure if that width is width enough. This looks like it'll be workable with CSS3. Might revert, but I'll think on it.

The picture is one I took at the park this morning, while chasing A around while D played soccer (and scored a goal!).

Tooling with templates

It seems I can't use a tool without customizing and tweaking, so naturally I've fiddled with the templating tools here. And I probably will again. The image above is from late last year, when we went to see the Sculptures By The Sea.

A memory

I've told this one plenty of times, but it's one of my favourite "Kids Are Stark Raving Bonkers" tales.

D was going through a phase of fascination with Favourites. Our days were filled with
"Daddy, who is your favourite Star Wars Character?"
"Mama, what is your favourite movie?"
"Daddy, what is your favourite fruit?"
"Daddy, who is your favourite Star Wars Character?" (grumbles: "Same thing as five minutes ago, D")

So anyway, D and I were driving along a major road, going to the shops or something.

D: "Daddy, what's your favourite Insect Orchestra?"
Me: stunned silence

Maybe, maybe...

Well, things are looking up personnel-wise.

Also, this Cthulhu Mythos apocalypse blog looks awesome, though I've only read the first entry. (via Ectoplasmosis, which everyone ought to read).

Had a nice dinner out with the family last night, but it resulted in three very tired and cranky little people. I'm gonna go get some free lego now, courtesy of the excellent Al, who is moving house and sensibly lightening his load of miscellaneous property.

Personnel stuff sucks

One of the most painful parts of this job is handling recruitment. you spend ages trying to find someone who could do the job, and when you find 'em, they don't want it. Blarg.

Day Off

Had a day off yesterday. Not much excitement. Dropped kids off, shopped, had lunch, sat around, picked up kids, took D to Piano then soccer. E had her nurse visit, and it's Controlled Crying time. Yowser, there was a lot of shouting.

A is still in the Terrible Twos, and D is in the Terrible Having A Terrible Two And A Baby In The House phase. D Almost pushed A down the stairs this morning.

Terrible Two example: the other week, A was climbing on something perilous at childcare, and one of the carers asked him to get down. He turns around, and shouts "NO! GO TO YOUR ROOM!" at her. Perhaps D has been sent to his room a few times too many lately :(

Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski

Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski (via)

I haven't read much peanuts, and I ought to read more Bukowski, but this was awesome.

Why am I blogging?

Well, it's partly because so many of my friends and family are, and partly as an experiment for work. We'll be working on reflective journals for students as a part of an e-portfolio, and I want to get my head around this blogging thing a bit. I don't know if I'll keep it up, I don't know if I'll tell anyone, and I'm not sure what my "blog voice" will end up being - the short barrage of quickies that I'm doing today, or the fuller, more edited posts a lot of blogs seem to run with. I'll see how it goes.

Late night stuff

So, I had a decent day today. Possibly hired two new people (if they say yes, which they probably will). Hopefully this means I don't have to do any hiring for a few months.

The nurse from Tresillian is coming tomorrow to help us teach E. to get herself to sleep. Little ratbag currently won't sleep without being rocked and held for ages. A. is being adorable with E., and absolutely adores her. At dinner this evening, E. was in sitting in her high chair (for the first time ever!), but got bored of it, so I picked her up. A. was wandering about the room, having finished his dinner, and strolled over to the high chair and was very concerned when he couldn't find her there.

Anyways, day off work for me tomorrow. Hopefully I'll end up a little more chilled out than now.

I hate skywriting

It's a blasphemy against all that is good in the world. On the other hand, someone has come up with some decent skywriting. Found on one of the blogs I read (can't remember which one, and Google Reader doesn't seem to have a search function).

First Post

Well, it seems the time has finally come. Welcome to my blog.