A bed of roses

Finished off my character sheets - now it's on to the plot and scene list.

Did some work.

Came home and made curry for tea, and had a video call with younger grandson. He's saying lots of names, now - but still not mine. I do maintain that 'grrr' is a difficult sound, though. Older grandson has his driving test tomorrow - keeping my fingers crossed for him.

And I've just watched Game Dove's videos about FFVIII.

Some days are just not very exciting!

No baby cuddles this week - stoopid meetings - but at least I'll be at home.

Progress has been made on the PMF. It's been a real collaborative effort and I'm very proud of us all for all pulling in the same direction. I did get a question about why we would raise change requests during Dev & Test... <_< When else are you going to raise them? You've signed off the scope so you know what is being developed - anything over and above the scope is a change request, which has to be assessed and either approved or rejected. When I explained this, the penny dropped. But the PM in question felt the wording suggested you HAD to raise change requests, so I modified it a bit to make it clear they're purely optional >D

We also got one of the PMs through the stage gates on all their projects except one - and that's only because they're in the midst of a procurement and can't actually move on to Dev & Test. But they'll be racing through the gate once the product is selected.

The IT element of another project is pretty much done, so I'm looking to shut down the governance and reporting on that ASAP. And I'm still hoping to get out of doing minutes for the reorg work - the 'project board' is being run as part of the regular meeting at the exec level, so why can't their secretary do it? It's only minutes! And it's the least IT project of any of them, so I'm really struggling to see why I'm really involved - except, of course, I'm the most PMO PMO in the organisation.

Yet another reason why the PMO should be a central function *heavy sigh*

And I'm racing through the character charts, now. I did the really obnoxious character today, who is partly based on someone I know IRL but is even more obnoxious.

And I watched another episode of New Amsterdam and... I'm not as sold on it as I was. Everything goes right, no matter how whacky the thing they're trying to do. I dunno... Things always seem to work out well in The Rookie, too - but there at least feels like there's more of an obstacle to overcome.

Right, time to be heading for bed. Catch you tomorrow, DW!

The head-changing-at-supersonic-speed continues. I have a butterfly brain that enjoys flitting from one thing to another, so the variety of my job is a Very Good Thing. But I like to pick the direction, if not the destination, that I'm heading in!

I was chatting to the PM for the transformation project about how I can support it and the most important thing is to know what it's called! Apparently the sponsor isn't too bothered... But this is an organisation-wide initiative that's VERY tightly time-bound. People need to know what's going on. The PM said they'd suggested something like Project Neptune rather than trying to find a way to make the words 'organisation', 'transformation', and 'reorganisation' fit together in a New And Interesting Way, which I thought was a great idea. I threw out Project Butterfly (transformation, lifecycle...?) and Project Mercury (quick, agile, messenger...?) but then we turned to ChatGPT, which suggested Momentum, Ignite and something else I can't remember. The PM is going to run them past the sponsor and see if they'll bite.

On a purely practical level, I don't want to set something up on Teams that I then have to change the name of because it's just a pain. And it has to be something memorable that will provide something for people to rally round.

I'm toying with the idea of taking my issue with the pension fund to the union and/or student union. I'm not currently a member of the union and they're going to be tied up with the transformation project, but it might be something the student union could get behind. But I don't really have an 'in'. Is it usual for a random member of staff who isn't currently a student to raise something with the SU? I just feel it's easy for the uni to brush me off, but they couldn't ignore the students. *sigh*

Poked a bit more at Harding's character sheet. At this rate it's going to take me to 31 October to get him and Patel done!

We've had it all today - wind, rain and sunshine! Gotta love UK weather :D

There was a session in the Impact Summit today that had me thinking about Richard Rohr - looking for both/and rather than either/or. And Laura Barnard held a book-launch 'party' - she really can talk all day about PMOs.

I made a start on rewriting our governance doc but there's still work to do, so I'll pick it up again tomorrow.

And I've done a 1-page summary of Harding's Choice looking at the main plot, which is Patel's development. Definitely something that will need work if/when we get to editing but it gives us a starting point for November. I also need a timeline for the actual crimes v the discoveries. I already have the crimes overlapping, but I don't want them to be discovered in the order they occurred. I have to keep reminding myself that Smiler picks lonely men with few to no friends and family to worry about them.

No gaming or telly tonight - although I did watch a couple of short things on YT.

Hoping for a solid sleep tonight :(

This week has just whizzed by!

We're still wrangling the project process but we're definitely making progress.

I finished watching cohhcarnage play DUTM and started watching DUM.

And I've just got shivers watching Rex Sterling play the ending of FFVIII. That game is so important to me. It kept me sane when shit was flying around at work. It introduced me to walkthroughs, which led me to online forums, AIM, fanfiction... And ultimately here! It's no exaggeration to say it saved my life and changed it in ways I cannot even think of.

Part of me wants a remake so damned MUCH - I want Squall to really be the best looking guy in the room and to drink out of his glass rather than pour his drink down his own ear >D But part of me is worried about them trying to make the story make sense, when it's the plot holes you could ride a chocobo through that make it so dear to me. It's a hot mess in places - but Hyne do I love it.

Also did a bit more Nano prep. My current internal debate - do we use taxis? and, if we do, who books them? It would make sense for it to be the Big Bad who is a bit of a control freak. But if it's the Smilers, all the risk is on them. If I do go with the taxi idea, it needs another character - the girl who takes the bookings who sees a pattern in the fares. I like her being an unexpected witness - possibly even dismissed by the police at first...? Yes! If she speaks to THAT officer... OK, taxis it is.

Finally got in an episode of Umbrella Academy, too. They're all so messed up, they're beautiful.

And now to bed.

As predicted, the final dungeon and boss fight of ISS took a long time to get through. I even paused the final boss fight for a couple of hours whilst I had my dinner and did some 'beat the intro' with the boys! It was a VERY annoying fight in which I got the boss' health right down to about 25% and then died at which point the health bar zipped back up to 75%, which happened a number of times. Helpfully, though, my missile inventory refilled automatically during the fight, so at least I always had something strong to fire at the boss. After the fight, there was a tiny bit of story - which felt distinctly underwhelming after the boss battle - and then I had the option to complete the clear out of the Bad Organisation. I declined. I'm also probably not going to bother with Infamous: First Light.

I then played about 90 minutes of Deliver Us Mars, which features characters from Deliver Us The Moon. For a game that's only a year old, the character designs are ropey. I don't expect hyper-realism from every game but... I think the models in ISS were better and that game's 10 years old. It's one of the reasons I like stylised/cartoony games. They age well, and they also do a great job of hiding lower budgets. Anyway, it's too early to say what I think of the game itself.

I also did a couple of loads of washing and made some progress with my miniature tea shop. It's really coming along.

Today's progress with Harding's Choice was all in my head, but I think I know which character will be based on someone in RL that I really like. There is a question around how much of the RL person's life story to include... I think it might just be one thing too many to wrangle, especially for a quite minor character. I'm also having ideas about the Smilers. I originally thought of them as stereotypical long-term unemployed men, but it would make them more interesting if some were professionals fallen on hard times for various reasons. It would also increase the mystery around the connection between them.

It was good to have a total indoors day. Tomorrow will require some adventuring!

A few weeks ago I wrote to one of my aunts because I want to keep vaguely in touch with my family. Today I got her reply. Looks like it was my father's birthday on Sunday - the day after granddaughter arrived. My youngest cousin and I share a birthday; now my father and granddaughter almost do. 

Feelings about my father are most definitely Complicated. I never knew him, so I rely on other people's memories of him. But I'm also of a disposition where I'm uncurious about people whilst being very interested in what they choose to tell me about themselves - but I let them lead by telling me what they want me to know. This means a) I don't know what I don't know about my father and b) I don't know what I WANT to know! Just realised I've lived more than twice as long as him.

In work news, I managed to turn around two sets of minutes in record time, updated both the Dynamics and Forms versions of our project request form, and drafted my monthly report. I really Got Shit Done!

I've also started the part of the Snowflake Method where you write the story from the POV of each character. This helps give the story layers because, of course, everyone has a slightly different take. It also helps develop the relationships between the characters because you're writing about how A feels about B and vice versa - and that might be the same or very different. And it also gives an early indication of where some ideas are going to really, really work, and where they really, really aren't - without you having to write the whole bloody thing first! It's a great method and I'm glad I've given myself enough time to do it properly this time.

Finished off with an episode of Umbrella Academy. Talk about terrible people in terrible relationships :D

And now to bed to prepare for my last day in work. Sooo looking forward to my week off.

We're getting to meet granddaughter on Wednesday <3 Younger grandson will be in nursery but it'll be quite nice to meet the baby on her own.

Managed to cajole my brain into doing some actual work today. I just need to get through this week, have a week of complete chill-out - then jump into September with both feet!

I made a start on my nano planning using the 'snowflake' method. I've already got a dozen characters - two main, one not quite main but more than secondary, and 9 secondary. Then there'll be the 'big bad' who'll be not quite secondary but more than incidental. And then... who knows how many incidental. I also want to work out just how many plot threads there are, and which is actually the main one. Because solving the main crime is NOT the main plot. Patel's 'coming of age' is. I think... It's also going to echo Sense & Sensibility by being ABOUT Patel but told from Harding's POV. S&S confused me for years because I couldn't work out who the heroine was. Then I saw a video on YouTube about stories that are about one character but told from the POV of another and the penny dropped - there's a technical term for it, I'm sure! Then there's also Harding and Selena's 'romance' but it's more a 'getting each other out of the system' thing. The real romance is Selena's daughter and Harding's ex's stepson, which will sort of go on in the background where it'll hardly be noticed :D

Yeah - it's complicated and I don't know how much justice I'll be able to do all of that in a nano.

Played an hour of ISS - just running around spray painting and drug busting. Did a showdown in one area. Next time, I will do the next story thing!

And watched an episode of Umbrella Academy. It's bonkers, really - but I find myself caught up in it. Psych was a different kind of bonkers and I just enjoyed the ride. UA has so much going on. Each character has their own story-arc - then there are combinations of different characters - and then the 'umbrella' arc of Saving The World. Again... And I thought my nano was complicated!

Right, time for bed. I've got an earlyish meeting tomorrow.

Had the kind of pretending-to-work-but-not-really day I haven't had in a looong time. Yesterday was close but I did at least engage with work-related stuff. I mean, I did a couple of small things today but not the big thing I'd planned to do. Next week I will be better. And then I have a whole week off, and in September I'm going to introduce a little more discipline to my mornings.

I am. Definitely.

Talking of discipline, I finished #70 of 70x700. It's been really interesting to revisit them. Some of them needed very little work, most needed some sort of tweaking, a few needed far more work than I was prepared to put in for this exercise. And I have the basis for a Nano! So I have September and October to put some serious work into plotting. My main challenge is the setting. I need a place that's large enough to have its own police station without needing to call in the 'big boys' from a nearby city but small enough that Harding and Patel are stationed in that main station. But then... maybe they do need the big boys to do the investigating but they're based locally because that just makes sense...? And Harding and Patel are excluded precisely because they're local. And Harding's former nearly-lover is called in as an expert and CAN be a lecturer at the big city university. OK - it's coming together.

I'm sort of reading through a book by Ursula K. Le Guin called 'Always Coming Home'. It's not a novel in the usual sense - more a collection of stories and information about a fictional group of humans. The premise is interesting but something about the execution hasn't grabbed me. Anyway, at the start she talks about having to uncover the evidence for this group, dig them out almost. And that's how I feel when I'm hunting for my characters and their story. I'm not creating them, I'm discovering them.

This week's Friday Feature was about stupidly difficult puzzles. The only one I've actually engaged with was from BG&E :D

Oh, and Night Sky Prince did a video about how great FFX is - and he persuaded me that I've actually under valued it. It's now switched places with FFXII in my 'favourite FF games' list. FFVIII will always be top but X is now second.

The new Premier League season started tonight, so the boys watched the game whilst I played an hour of ISS. I'm trying for good karma - but then civilians get caught in the smoke bombs I'm throwing at baddies and I hit them thinking they're gangsters! Stoopid civilians... Hunting out the hidden cameras is quite fun, though.

And finished the day off with an episode of Umbrella Academy. Keep calm, Vanya!

Still no baby...

 So, grandson #1 turned 18 today. Husband, son and I went up to daughter's house to see both grandsons and the dog - and the adults, of course...

The 'slang phrase book' we got has some... questionable phrases. Let's just say, they have all the bases covered. But it's his first real adventure - who knows what he's going to need to know :D

He leaves for Greece on Tuesday and I'll be worrying about him every day. I told him to make sure he stays with his mates (there are 6 of them going), stay hydrated and use sun screen.

Grandson #2 continues to be very cute. Granddaughter continues to grow - daughter looked like she might pop any minute! I think we might not have to wait for August after all...

I also edited another of my stories, which I know was inspired by a line in The Magician's Nephew - Jadis says her grandfather killed 400 nobles for rebellious thoughts. My story ends with the 400 assembled guests drinking a toast - but what happens next? I think I may have the origin story for my MC in this year's Nano.

Also got in a couple of sessions with Tunic. I've found all the fairies - next step is the remaining secret treasures, then the rest of the manual. I'm hoping the remaining money banks and gold coins will also be revealed as I do. Then there's just the 'good ending' and the gun, and I should have the plat.

And rounded the day off with Playstation Access' Friday Feature (evil corporations we secretly want to work for), and an episode of Psych.

Tomorrow is the usual round of cleaning and slobbing out :D