I moved into my current place back in August 2019, bringing with me a fairly small desk. Originally, many years back, I'd had a pretty big office with lots of office space but, upon moving up to Scotland back in 2016, I needed to go with something a lot smaller.
Which was perfectly fine. Me and that desk wrote a lot of code. Me and that desk transitioned from one job to another, and then another. Me and that desk made it through the pandemic.
It's been a good desk.
But it was small. I'm in a place where I could spread out a fair bit again, but I also kept putting it off and putting it off.
Earlier this year I decided that it was high time I actually upgraded; I also promised the desk to someone else who I know will get a lot of good use out of it; so finally earlier this week I put in the order for something bigger and fancier.
Yesterday, with the help of a very good friend (thanks Mariëlle!), I got the desk built and roughly in place, and then today I've been putting the desktop back together and adding extra bits.
It's so nice to have more space to spread out, it's also nice to have a black desk again! (the last one was white because... reasons) But what's really exciting is that it transforms into a standing desk at the touch of a button.
I've been trying it in the standing configuration today and, while I doubt I could do a whole day of coding with it like that, I'm already really liking it as a way of breaking up the time at the keyboard. On the days I work from home, or the days of my own where I get sucked into a personal project, I can absolutely see me swapping between the two states.
All that's left now is to get used to it. The screens are ever so slightly further away, the height is ever so slightly different (although I can adjust it, of course, but what I've done is adjust the sitting position to a nicer one and that's going to take some getting used to), my iPad and Stream Deck are in just a slightly different location, etc, etc... So I'm sure there'll be a few days of sitting here and making small tweaks to the spot where things live.
Before I know it I'll be used to it. It'll be "my spot".
Just over five years ago I got a message from my then employer to say I was going to be made redundant after 21 years working for them. After the 3 month notice period the final day came. Meanwhile, I found something new that looked terrifying but interesting. In the end it was less terrifying and way more interesting than I imagined it would be. It was fun too.
But... (there's always a but isn't there?)
In the four and change years I've been there the company got bought out, and then the result of that got bought up. As I've mentioned before I'm generally not a "big company" kind of person; in all my years I've found that I'm happier working in a smaller place. After a couple of buyouts my employer had gone from being 10s of people in size to 100s of people in size (and technically 10s of 1,000s of people in size depending on how you look at it).
This change in ownership and size meant the culture became... well, let's just say not as friendly as you tend to enjoy when it's a smaller group of folk. On top of that I was starting to notice that my efforts were making less of an impact as things got bigger, and I started to feel like my contributions weren't really relevant any more. There were some problematic things happening too: undermining of efforts, removal of responsibilities without consultation or communication, that sort of thing. Plus worse. There's little point in going into the detail, but it's fair to say that work wasn't as fun as it used to be.
That felt like a good time to start to look around. If work makes you feel unhappy and you can look around... look around.
Thing is, I wasn't sure what to look for. I was in the comfortable position of, unlike last time, not needing to find something, so I could take my time at least. Over the course of the last year I've spoken to many different companies and organisations, some big (yes, I know, I said I don't like big places -- sometimes what's on offer deserves a fair hearing), some small, but none of them quite said "this feels like me". In some cases the whole thing didn't have the right vibe, in others the industry either didn't interest me, or felt uncomfortable given my personal values. In one particular case a place looked interesting until I checked the CTO's socials and OMG NO NO NO AVOID AVOID (that was a fun one).
Then I saw Will McGugan saying he was hiring to expand Textualize. This caught my interest right away for two reasons.
I can't remember how long I've been following Will on Twitter; I likely stumbled on him as I got back into Python in 2018 and I also remember noting that he was a Python hacker just up the road from me. We'd vaguely chatted on Twitter, briefly, in that "Twitter acquaintance" way we all often do (I remember one brief exchange about fungus on The Meadows). A small company run by someone I was acquainted with seemed like a safe bet.
The second reason was Textual itself. I'd been watching Will develop it, in open, with great interest. I had (and still have) a plan to write a brand new CHUI-based (okay fine TUI-based as the kids like to say these days!) Norton Guide reader1, all in Python, and Textual looked like the perfect framework to do the UI in. The chance to be involved with it sounded awesome.
Now, I said two reasons, but there's also a third I guess: Will's pitch for applying to Textualize felt so damn accessible! I'm on the older end of the age range of this industry; for much of my working life as a developer I've worked in isolation from other developers; while I first touched Python in the 90s, I've only been using it in anger since 2018 and still feel like I've got a lot to learn. Despite all these things, and more, saying "aye Dave this is beyond you" I felt comfortable dropping Will a line.
Which resulted in a chat.
Which resulted in some code tinkering and chatting.
Which resulted in...
Something new.
So, yeah, as of 2022-10-10 I'm on yet another new adventure. Time for me to really work on my Python coding as I work with Will and the rest of the team as part of Textualize.
Or, as I put it on Twitter a few days ago: "I'm going to be a Python impostor syndrome speedrunner".
Today is a fairly significant day for me. For the past 21 (and a bit) years I've worked for the same company. I know that, for lots of people in my industry, that's a hell of a long time to be in one position. It was a setup that served me pretty well; the company was small (I'm not much of a big company person), I generally got to dictate the development tools and direction, and I also got to work from home.
The working from home part was especially helpful as other life events involved me and happened around me. The job I've been in has seen a marriage come and go, and a move from Hampshire to Lincolnshire, and then from Lincolnshire to Midlothian. There's been a few adventures along the way.
But, three months ago, I got a call to say that I was to be made redundant. This sucked, obviously. It also appeared pretty stupid on the part of my employer: a company that is based around software had decided it no longer wanted an in-house software developer. A bold, and I think unwise, choice. From this point on they've decided to only go with contract developers and only contract developers from overseas (or so the story goes).
As it goes, things have turned out okay. Today is my last day with my old employer and, as I'm sat here typing this out while having some lunch, I'm actually glad that it's coming to a close and that I can get to move on.
I have a new employer, and will be starting in my new position during the first week of January. It'll be very different. It'll all be different. Not only will I be back working in an office (one where jeans and t-shirts are the norm, thankfully!), I'm also going to be working in an industry (as a developer still, of course) that I have no background in and no real knowledge of. It's going to be a seriously exciting challenge.
Over the next couple of weeks I've got a fair amount of background reading (and video watching) to be doing. This isn't so much that I can get on with the job of development (although there will be a good bit of that to do too -- who doesn't want to be trying to understand new options for development?), it's more about understanding the language of the industry I'll be in and so that I can understand the needs of my users.
Goodbye fashion retail and all related things. Hello genetics and... well, I don't know, I'm going to find out. :)
I woke up this morning to see this being retweeted by a few people I follow:
Even if I was to let my usual net-cynic side take over and decide there's a good chance it's a made-up story there's no getting away from the fact that this is a story that isn't in isolation. I hear this sort of thing time and again; especially from people who have to deal with the fallout from this first hand.
This is something that is happening, in 2015, in the country I live in.
I wish it wasn't.
This is why I find Labour's accusation of lying so damn annoying and frustrating. For a short while I simply decided that that was that. They're as corrupt as the rest of them and only in it for the money. This was made even more clear by how often they kept trumpeting the new member numbers. It's all about the numbers -- all about the money.
and got to thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, some change for the better is actually happening inside Labour. Perhaps I should give the organisation the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, if I contacted the membership team and asked why they'd decided I was lying, they'd give me the information and I could sort things out.
So I did. I wrote to them. I sent this to them, via the form on their website, on 2015-09-28:
On September 5th 2015 I received an email from you accusing me of having lied when I sought to become a supporter, with a view to applying to be a member after seeing the results of the leadership election. This was a rather hurtful event and one I wrote about here: http://blog.davep.org/2015/09/07/labour-said-no-thanks-to-my-support.html
Having watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYNPzJgV8TI I find myself in the odd position of liking the message of a party that, at the same time, accused me of something without evidence.
Given this I'd like to get to the bottom of what happened, hopefully find out what evidence was used to make the accusation and, perhaps, get an apology so that I can seriously consider joining and supporting what is happening.
I look forward to your reply.
I, of course, gave all my full details -- the email address I'd used, my home address, my full name, etc. All the information that I'd given when I signed up as a supporter. From what I could tell they had everything they needed to be able to check and give an adequate reply.
It took a while but I finally got a reply. This email came through on 2015-10-06:
So that seems pretty clear: a non-answer to my question and they're asking for another £10 on top of the £3 they already have off me to find out what evidence they have that meant it was okay for them to take my £3 and then accuse me of lying.
What's the betting that I'll spend that £10 and get a non-answer?
What's even more infuriating is that I'm not actually asking for information they have on file about me, I'm asking for clarification for something they've already told me.
It's really hard not to view this as a simple bait and switch.
So now I'm left wondering what to do next; trying to decide if I just give it up as a bad job and accept that, really, nothing has changed and they're as bad as ever. Corbyn might well be talking a good game but, under that cover, it's still just another money-grabbing organisation that wants power and very little change.
I've never been a member of a political party. Ever. The main reason is I'm not that much of a "joiner" and I tend to dislike making compromises on subjects that actually matter. I have been a member of political causes in the past but even those I've had to leave because of the struggle I felt when it came to being associated with actions I disagreed with (yes, I am looking at you National Secular Society). While there are plenty of causes that I support, either in spirit or in actual donations, I almost never actually join up.
I've also been a fairly flexible supporter of candidates in general elections. While my politics are very much what you'd call "left" my voting patterns tend to be related to how suitable I find a candidate from the parties that I find I have a lot of overlap with in terms of stated aims. Unsurprisingly, for all of my voting life, this has been a case of selecting from Labour or LibDem candidates (with the odd look at the Green candidate). When doing so one of the major factors in making the choice has been tactical voting given that, for most of my life, I've lived in (what normally appeared to be) Tory safe seats.
But, for many reasons, I've always felt an important connection to Labour.
Possibly one of the best moments, in political terms, was that night in 1997, as I drove back home, down the M3 from London, listening to the radio, hearing Tory after Tory fall and realising that, for the first time in my (politically conscious) life, I was going to enjoy the benefits, we were all going to enjoy the benefits, of a Labour government. This was such a sweet victory after having really felt the defeat of 1992.
The Blair horror show that followed was.... horrific. I don't think I've ever felt as let down by an organisation as I did by that Labour government.
Fast forward to this year and I was really hopeful that, perhaps, Labour would be back in government, and this time, lessons would have been learnt. I wasn't as enthusiastic as before but I was cautiously optimistic.
Sadly, it wasn't to be.
After this happened, and looking around me and seeing where we were now and where we were heading, I found myself thinking that, perhaps, this time, it was time to break my "no joining" rule. I started to seriously consider joining Labour, lending some sort of support, somehow being involved and taking part.
That's when I first noticed the whole business of being able to take part in the Labour leadership election by being a supporter. This seemed like the perfect way to dip my toe in, see how I felt about being associated in some way, get a feel for how things worked and, perhaps, depending on how it all went, actually join.
So I paid my £3.00 and looked forward to the process that was to follow.
I then waited, and waited, and waited, and then on Saturday this happened:
And a couple of events before this have me wondering and a little suspicious of how this went down.
I'll make clear here though: my application to be a supporter was 100% genuine. As I say above, this was a first step on a road that I felt might actually end up with me joining a party -- something I've never done before. It wasn't something I did lightly. It was something I did after conversations with a couple of other people where the conversations were about genuine concern with how our country is shaping up right now.
Even as late as a week before I got the above email I was having a conversation with my nephew who, I'm deeply proud to say, is a very politically-aware teenager (far more than I was at his age) and is actually a member of the Labour Party. The conversation was about how I was starting to trust the party again and how I was even considering joining depending on how events went.
My application wasn't some joke thing, wasn't done on a whim, wasn't done to try and skew any result. It was done because it was something I cared about and wanted to explore further.
Anyway, come late on last week I'd had no sort of ballot email and, prompted by a couple of emails from a couple of the leadership campaign groups, I filled in the form to ask them to hurry it up. I think it was late on Thursday evening (2015-09-03) or early Friday morning (2015-09-04).
A little later on Friday this happened (Android twitter):
Same follow as seen from TweetDeck:
I've no idea who @polycarponkundi is but it seemed clear from their timeline that they are a Labour supporter or even member and that they are a strong supporter of the Liz Kendall leadership campaign.
I didn't think too much of the follow; it seemed like an unusual coincidence that I'd chase up my ballot email and then someone apparently involved in the party would follow me, but coincidences happen.
Then, the following day, I get the letter telling me to sod off. Suddenly the coincidence seems less of a coincidence. I go and check the profile and notice that they've even unfollowed me, just a couple of days after the follow.
Note the lack of "follows @davepdotorg" in the profile?
Very odd.
Right now I'm not drawing any firm conclusions about what happened, and I have asked them what the follow and unfollow was all about. It would be unfair of me to decide the events were connected without asking first.
All of this though has made something clear to me. Labour have decided that they never want my support, ever again. I have it in writing. Well, sort of.
What I actually have in writing is an email that says "we're taking and keeping your £3.00 and we're calling you a liar while we do this. If you want to prove that you're not a liar you need to actually join us, actually send us even more money. Oh, and by the way, we're not going to tell you what evidence we have that you're a liar, so ner."
Thank you Labour. At least I know where I stand now. You can safely assume that you'll never have my support ever again.
