A Nerd's Progress @anerdsprogress - Tumblr Blog

I quit my job this week. Yes the one it took me two years and more than a thousand applications to land. However it’s become clear that my ‘grand experiment’ in moving half way around the world hasn’t been entirely successful. Not, I feel, for lack of effort on my part but starting from the Brexit vote in 2016 it seems the current of national and world events are against me and I can only swim upstream for so long. In some respects I am lucky that I can leave. I know others who are stuck here and will be forced to endure what the next few years are going to deliver. It doesn’t look good.

So the enormous job of planning and executing another international relocation begins anew. This blog has been basically dead for a few years now but I wanted to mark the end of my time in Britain with a new post. There may be a few more if I find anything of the process worthy of note.

2020 In Review

Every year since I started this blog I have written a year end summary. This year I don’t want to think about it. The less reviewing the better.

Because it seems to be unknown to the internet, here as a public service is a picture of a Hoover model u4133. Note that the bag cover is a generic replacement - the original was a similar pattern in a matching green. This particular example was purchased in western Canada in the mid-late 70s.

Now, google image indexer do your thing!

In a Christmas sort of a mood.

Stockport Plaza Super Cinema Open Day

Bastarding vehicle II

Bastarding vehicle I

Friday Evening on False Creek

What an incredible country this is where you get free toilet paper delivered directly to your mail slot! Thanks guys I had a big curry lunch today I’m going need these in a bit.

This is of course European election propaganda from the “Yes we’re racist”, “F—- yeah we’re racist”, and “pinky swear we’re not racist” parties, respectively.

2018 - the Year the Warranty Expired

Lordy lordy who turned forty? Having missed the best part of the summer lying flat on the floor on account of my back going, to spending the last month hobbling around with a stick waiting to hear if I need knee surgery, 2018 feels like year the warranty expired.

Notwithstanding that, personal life remains a disaster, work life remains a dead-end, and the wider world continues to spiral out of control. 2019 shows every indication of being ‘the year the sh*t hits the fan’. Let’s get it over with.

Thanksgiving dinner 2018. Yes that is real pumpkin pie! Yes I made it myself! Okay the pumpkin was canned and the crust was premade but this is the first time I’ve managed to have proper pumpkin pie in five years!

Kippers for Breakfast? Is it Saint Swithin’s Day Already?

‘Tis! But kippers don’t really have anything to do with it (Unless you’re Bart Simpson). The Brits, you see, don’t do groundhogs. Instead they have a 9th century Bishop of Winchester whose only recorded miracle was to reconstitute some smashed-up eggs. His feast day is July 15th, and legend says whatever the weather on that day, it will continue for the next 40 days and nights.

Looking at the forecast above, I think I could handle that.

Fark Tumblr

And fark your new privacy policy where you have to opt-out of data sharing 331 times (yes, I counted) - once for each individual ‘partner’. And fark doing it again - so that’s 662 clicks - in the app after you’ve done it on the website. And fark making the buttons out of JavaScript that makes them slow to respond and prone to double-clicking so they turn back on again. And fark putting them so close to the edge of the screen I had to get out my stylus to even touch them. This process is not GDPR compliant. The process of opting out must be as easy as opting in. In fact out has to be the default. I hope you get sued. You’re still not as bad as EA - who start spamming you and then you have to create an account and then call two different phone numbers, which are not listed, to unsubscribe - but you’re damn close. Fark you.

Victoria Baths in all their dilapidated Edwardian glory. Just try not to think about the fact that they filled the women's pool with the wastewater from the second class pool, which was filled with the wastewater from the first class pool. Oh and chlorine wasn't used for the first 30 years either.

Fifth Anniversary from Chorlton Water Park

Today is the fifth anniversary of my departure for the UK. I don’t really have anything profound to say, other than if I knew then what I know now I probably would never have gone. It’s not been a smooth ride and I’m not entirely happy with where things have taken me. It’s hard to see much of a future here at the moment.

Chorlton Water Park is a flooded gravel pit left over from the construction of the M60 motorway. It’s bordered by the river Mersey, an electrical substation, and the old town dump.

And the clouds did part. And a shaft of golden sunlight did descend from the heavens upon the American Foods section at Tesco. And a chorus of angels did sing sweetly in oohs and aahs. For it was March, and the season for eating pumpkin pie was only 3-5 months past. But at least I found some. It's only taken five years. This is going in the cupboard for next Thanksgiving.

So Long 2017

If I must reduce this year to a single word, it would be: frustrating. Globally, the world seems to be edging ever closer to the abyss, while half the population cheers it over the egde. Rational voices - if they’re even acknowledged- are shouted down. Professionally things are also destabilising. Deliberately it seems. There is, after all, a lot of quick money to be made in breaking up and selling off. Growing and building takes much more time and money, but I wonder how long can they continue to reap without sowing anything new, nor allowing it time to grow? Personally I have come to know the power of this fully armed and operational battle station bureaucracy, in the form of both the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the National Health Service. Suffice to say I want as little to do with either as I possibly can.

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