New tablet

Last spring I was starting to use my graphic tablet again. My arms are getting better, and I good start using my hands again. But preferably not the mouse! A graphic tablet is quite like a normal pen. None of these weird clicking motions. And in the months in between, the tablets did good services, even when my arms that worse again.

I don't know how old this tablet is, but it was starting to show signs of old age. My previous tablet lasted all the way until it just wasn't compatible anymore with software on my computer, but this tablet is starting to falter independently. It still responds effortlessly to input, but the problem is that it also started to respond effortlessly to absence of input. And one thing you don't really want is you trying to do something on your computer and your tablet interfering with it. I checked whether perhaps it was dirty, I googled troubleshooting tablets, I did what I could. But I didn't manage to improve the situation. My tablet would just detect things and respond to them and be a right nuisance. It was time to do something about it.

Some months earlier, I knew the School had bought a number of tablets. At the time we were asked who needed one; not me back then, as already had one I had one myself. But now I wondered if any of these are still available. And they were not, but that School was willing to buy one for me. And I was glad about that; it's about time the University takes its duty of care seriously and gives me the hardware I need to be able to work without hurting myself. So it took a few days for it to arrive but then I could pick up a new tablet!

I went to the office and unpacked it. It was huge! Every tablet I buy or get is bigger than the previous one. And its use wasn't intuitive to me. I didn't have that much time in the office to do something about that, though; I had a lot of tutorials to go to, but when I got home I downloaded the user manual and checked YouTube tutorial. With the help of these two sources I managed to tweak the settings so it became easy to use.

With this new tablet I think I am better prepared for whatever work throws of me! And there is the other thing; I had received a desktop, but that didn't come with Dragon installed so I would have to install that using my hands. I really wasn't ready for doing that without the use of the tablet! So now I have the tablet, so now I can go and see if I can make this desktop my default computer, operated by voice. Watch this space!

Out with the old, in with the new

Owning part of the house

I can clearly remember crossing off all the French classes I had to do in secondary school before I could drop the subject. I wanted to be rid of it, and I wanted to see the progress I was making towards that goal. I didn't like French! Later I was grateful for everything I learned of that language, but that is another matter. I wanted to visualise getting closer to my goal: not having to learn French in school any more.

There is something entirely different I would now like to get rid of. It's my mortgage! I've had it for four years now, and that is, of course, not enough to get rid of it, but it is four entire years of progress. And I'm the sort of person who likes to see progress. And I had pondered a bit on how to do this. And I had decided that what I could do is calculate how many square metres my house is. And then do a calculation of how much each square metre costs. And then calculate how many of these square metres I have already paid off. And then basically see the house becoming more and more mine. I could slowly work towards owning another room!

One day I was in the dentist's waiting room, and I had some idle time. I knew I had the dimensions of my house, as given by the estate agent at the time, on my phone somewhere. I started calculating the area of each room, and a total area of the entire house. It's not very precise; I don't think these estate agents care about a few centimetres here or there. And they didn't give any dimensions for, for instance, the entrance. But hey, this doesn't have to be precision work. I ended up with my house being some 94 m².

So that was the area of the house. The next thing was the mortgage. How much of that was paid off? And the problem with that is that you don't really know until you paid it off entirely. I know how much money I borrowed, and I know how much of that is still outstanding, but only when you get rid of it do you know how much interest you have paid in the end. But again; this doesn't have to be precision work. And I can keep an eye on my mortgage on the website of the mortgage lender.

I took the simple approach of taking the price of the house at which I had bought it, dividing that by the area, that way calculating how many square metres of the house I didn't own yet, and in that way also calculating how many I did. So now I can do some silly thought experiments on which parts of the house I would want to own first. And check how much of it is already paid off. Would I start with the lounge? It is my favourite room! You can relax there, and read a book, and socialise, and sit by the fire. But when it comes to the practicalities of life, it is probably more crucial to own the bathroom, or the kitchen. It would be rather impractical to not own the spaces that have things like running water, connections to the sewer system, and gas. And a bedroom would be nice too. And there is something unsatisfying about owning various spaces but not owning the connections between them. The landing, for instance, is not on my priorities list. It is a bit of a weird space. It used to be a reasonably sized room, before the staircase down to the kitchen was put in. Now you are left with a strange L-shaped space you can't do much with. It did function as an improvised living room before the real deal was done, though. But were I not to own it, I would have no way of getting into the lounge, or to the upstairs rooms. Choices!

It is all a bit silly, but I do like that I now having a visualisation of how my mortgage is progressing. And it makes it a bit more tangible as well! It's more satisfying to see a lump of money leave your bank account if you can point at the area in your house you bought with it.

Pedants might notice I have only calculated the house. Surely that is inaccurate! I also bought a garage and a big garden. But I chose to focus on the house. And only on the price of the actual house, and not the total amount I will pay, but I suppose that's okay as I calculate on the basis of what is still outstanding and not what I paid off so far. And when the moment comes I paid it all off, I can celebrate also owning the outside spaces. It might be a while, but it will have been worth it!

The living room; setting one back about £21,000!

Efficient exam period

In the first semester, I am module organiser for two modules, and I teach on a few more. One of my own modules doesn't have an exam. That means that by the time the exam period starts, all the marking for that module is already done! And my other module is more or less 50-50 split with my colleague Tom. And then there is a module that is led by Tom that I teach on; this year more than before, in order to fill the void that Suzie left when she quit her job. That module has an exam as well. So in total, I was involved in two exams this exam period. One was done on the Wednesday, and one on the Friday of the same week.

By the end of the week I had finished marking all my questions on Wednesday's exam. And by that Monday, of course, the other exam would be waiting for me. I thought that might be the rather big job, but I went through the short answer questions rather quickly, and it turned out that not that many students had chosen my long answer questions. So in two days that was out of the way as well! Now the other people on these modules can do their bit. I don't think of ever been this quick in an exam period. I liked it!

Dull, but GDPR-compliant exam-related picture  

Thinking about heating

I had been pondering how to heat my house in the future, even before last spring and summer my boiler started breaking down repeatedly. It is just a bog standard gas boiler; that thing has no future. But what to replace it with? If money, time, and inconvenience don't matter, then a heat pump would be ideal, but the problem is that I don't really want to half-demolish the house in order to install a heat pump. Apart from the fact that I don't think I could at this moment afford it! But then what?

The good thing about my side gig is that it forces me to dive deeper into questions like this. If I want to tell other people what they can do about climate change, then I need to know it myself as well! So it focused the mind. So what else is there?

I want solar panels on my roof sooner or later, but heating your house with solar panels doesn't sound like the most logical thing to do. You take light and turn it into heat. Not as efficient as using heat directly for using the house! And there is such a thing as thermo-solar heating. You basically just have black tubes on the roof or thereabouts, and the sun directly warms your water. All sources I found, though, suggested that that is not enough to heat your house. It will be enough for your hot water demands, but what are these, anyway? I've been having cold showers for the best part of a year now, so my hot water demands are only for dishes. And how often do I do the dishes? Twice a week?

What about hydrogen boiler? If you burn hydrogen, you do not emit greenhouse gases. And the idea is good, but there are two issues with this; firstly: how is the hydrogen produced? If that causes emissions then you have not actually made an improvement. And there is not enough sustainably produced hydrogen around to heat the country's houses. And the other thing is that hydrogen is not yet supplied in the gas net, and you can't buy a hydrogen boiler yet. The best you can do is buy a boiler that can take a 20% hydrogen fuel mix, and hope that that will become useful in the near future. And keep your fingers crossed for how that hydrogen will be generated.

I came across another possibility, though: infrared heating. Infrared heating works well in draughty places. This does mean you can use them without first having to clad your house in a thick layer of cork or other insulating material. And if you have solar panels on the roof, and a big fat battery somewhere, then you could use the sun to heat your house. When the sun shines you probably don't need much heating, but you can store the energy, and switch the heaters on when you need them. I think the idea is good for a one-person household, especially one with a cat; the thing is that not all my rooms need to be warm. I only be in one place at the same time and only that place needs to be warm. And infrared heaters work rather quickly. You can just only heat the place where you are. And I tend to keep all my doors open so the cat can freely roam around the house; that does mean that if I heat one room, that heat will escape and start heating the rest of the house. And I might not be in that rest of the house. But with infrared heating, the heat is more likely to stay put. So I could keep all doors open and still only heat the part of the house I need!

Getting solar panels, and a battery, and infrared panels is altogether quite an expense, but I can do it in bits. I suppose the first thing needs to be the solar panels. Then I might be skint for a bit. The next thing will be the battery. And then the last thing will be the infrared heaters. I can just start with one to see how I like it! Suppose I don't like it, then I am still generating sustainable energy, so nothing is lost. And if I do like it I just keep adding more infrared heaters until the whole house is heated by them. It doesn't really matter there would be a redundant boiler gathering dust in a corner! And some radiators on the walls.

And then in the long run a heat pump could still be installed, but that is something I will think about when the time is right to do so. 

I suppose the time might have come to find some local installers of solar panels, and get a bit of an idea of what can be done. I have more or less south facing roof, so I think the location is fine. That part of the roof is not very accessible; below it is the roof of the neighbour's house, rather than just the ground. If you want to put scaffolding up you have to come from the side. That can't be ideal! But I suppose that solar panel fitters have seen and done it all, and are not fazed by a bit of an awkward roof. And the neighbour already has them, and he has a very comparable roof, so the type of roof shouldn't be the problem either. I suppose it would be a question of finding out how big, and what supplier and installer. And if I can find a setup that is satisfactory and feasible, and I make it happen, then I would have taken an important step in the right direction!

My not-very-accessible but south-facing roof

Two MSc students

Not many of our students are particularly interested in foraminifera. Every year we are asked to submit project proposals for masters projects, and every year I submit projects that involve forams. And I always either get one student, or no students at all! But this year, for some reason, my favourite microorganisms were suddenly very popular, and I'm going into 2022 with to MSc students. They have chosen to separate projects. I hope they will both have a great and educative time with these versatile creatures!

Welsh books from the same family

A fair while ago, I started a new book. It was probably after I finished the one about the local quarry hospital. And I started something I wouldn't finish anytime soon! So what was it?

There is a sort of scheme in the University, which has native speaking University staff volunteering to regularly speak with Welsh learners so they can practice their conversational skills. I have been speaking with a linguist, Peredur, for over a year now. And he drew my attention to a book his grandfather had written: Marged. He said it was one of those books that follows the main character over the decades. His description reminded me a bit of Traed mewn Cyffion by Kate Roberts. I had really enjoyed that book! Even though I was keen to read something a bit more modern after I was finished with it (it had been published in 1936). So I bought the book. It is a bit of a tome.

It starts with the main character, Marged, as a rather young girl. It starts in the 1870s. I don't know yet where it will end! I am as we speak approximately halfway through. It is not an easy read; it is set in the working class community of Llanrwst in the 19th-century, and it was written in the late 60s, so you get a combination of the book being approximately 50 years old, with language that pretends to be some 150 years old. And then in Llanrwst slang. It is a bit chewy! But I will have to step up my game.

Peredur himself writes as well, and he has scored a book deal since we started speaking. His book will come out in spring! And I think I really should finish his grandfather's book before I buy and read his. So I have until April to finish the second half of the book. And then I can jump straight into the current generation of Davies writers. And his book will of course be as recent as a book can be, but it also pretends to be a lot older than it really is. I know yet how inaccessible the language will be. I will find out soon enough! After that I think I will really need to diversify my reading! I might actually read something in English from a different continent, recently written, just for the contrast…

Coming out in spring!

CRTT call-out

I woke up in the middle of the night. What was going on? And the only reasonable thing that could be going on in the middle of the night was indeed going on: a cave rescue callout. There was a party overdue and they needed assistance. It was the same venue as the two New Year's Day callouts! There seemed not to be any casualties. But if you are underground for a lot longer than you expect, you might end up tired, cold, hungry, thirsty and struggling to face whatever challenge it is you might be facing. So we were needed! So I got out of bed. I put my clothes on, put the kettle on, got my kit from the garage, and quickly made a few sandwiches. I figured I shouldn't skimp on supplies; these people underground might welcome them. Soon I was in the car and on my way.

It was very quiet on the roads. And when I got to the scene I parked up and let the controller know I was there. He gave me a quick brief: it was a party of 12, and they were just a lot slower than they had anticipated. When that became clear a group of three had gone ahead to go out and contact Cave rescue. The rest was still in there, but we didn't know where. The controller suggested that the people that were there that already had their outfits on would start walking to the entrance; it is a fair walk. Me and two blokes who arrived just after me would start our way up when we were ready. And then we became four, and we set off at ten to four. We had only just set off when we were called back; we were asked to bring some haul bags and suchlike. So we accepted the additional burden and continued our way. It was a beautiful night, fortunately! That can't be taken for granted in January.

Someone who knew the way very well in the first group had left some tape to make sure we went the right way. Not every one of us was totally at home here. I wasn't. But with the help of the tape we got to the level from which you can see daylight through the Tyllau, if it is light. And the group was there! All of them! Success. This also meant that they had already done all the difficult bits of the mine. The only thing they now needed to do was find the exit, and that was what we were for, and help them as they were tired by now. It was about 5AM by then. I offered hot drinks, But there was less enthusiasm for that than I had thought. But that's okay; what I don't drink I'll just carry down the mountain again.

The group had a rather low average age, and quite a lot of them were women. I was glad I was there! Is is fairly standard, I was the only woman in the rescue team. And given these people were a sizeable group, I don't think any of them would have been uncomfortable with male-only rescuers, as they had each other, I still figured it was good to have female presence there. And it was good to see young cavers who were so much more diverse than we were!

After a very brief break for drinks and snacks we were off. These people had been in the mine long enough! And it was a bit of a scramble to get to the incline. Some of us adopted a particular caver to help them down. There were several who, by now, were quite happy to be taken by the hand. But by this time they had been underground for some 15 hours; who wouldn't? But soon we were on the incline, and even there some handholding was needed, but then we were in the adit. And then it is just a horizontal walk out! I had a nice chat with some of them.

When we were out we couldn't admire the view; it was about 6:30 and it was still dark. And the way is still quite steep in the beginning. And then we got back to the parking lot. The group was staying just 200 m down the road. So we wished them a great rest of their weekend, and they thanked us for our assistance. And that was basically it! I went to change. And we had a little bit of a chat afterwards, but everyone was tired and wanted to go home. And that included me.

When I got home I put my kit in the garage. But what now? Was it time to go back to bed? I had only had some three hours of sleep, if that! But it was light by now. Should I just muscle my way through the day? I supposed that was the better idea, but I was tired. I did have a bit of a snooze, which the cat thought was an amazing idea that she was keen to participate in, but then I had a shower and decided to attack my to-do list. And so I did!

This was the most serious callout I have attended in a long time. I think it went well! Everyone came out in one piece. And that's the important bit.

But it is only January, and we have been put on standby for groups who were late coming out of this very same mine system three times already. And once it led to an actual full team callout. How often will we be asked to show up in the rest of the year? And why this same system?

We think this has something to do with social media. The trip is the Croesor-Rhosydd Through Trip. And it is not unusual to see people mention it on Facebook or YouTube or whatnot. And we think it has become a bit of a must-do for the social media generation. A bit like that it seems you need to selfie on the top of Snowdon, leading to enormous queues near the summit. Now we have one group after the other doing CRTT. And just as not everyone who embarks on a trip to the top of Snowdon is properly prepared, which regularly leads to callouts for mountain rescue, not everybody goes into CRTT with proper preparation. To be honest; the first time I did it I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. But at least I had been doing SRT for some 2.5 years by then. And we got away with it. 

Now it seems that so many people are doing it that even if a small percentage of them need assistance, that will be an impressive array of callouts. But if that's the way it is then so be it! At least I only live 45 minutes away...

Scrambling. Pic by the team

Adit. Pic by the team

Out! Pic by the team

The cat enjoying a post-rescue snooze and snuggle