test please delete

[DoctorStrangelove]

Dexter set The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, which was also one of the first Morse novels adapted for telly, in an exam board. EBIL is lucky he didn't get bumped off, if the depiction in there of exam board life is anything to go by

From some years of observation of exam boards, sans any actual experience thereof, the primary danger, at least in Ye Sloughe of Desponde, seems to be death of existential boredom as one watches hours of ones life slowly ticking onwards to inevitable death.

Said exam boards have been know to last for 8 to 10 hours, to be reconvened the next day.

[NickFitz]

From some years of observation of exam boards, sans any actual experience thereof, the primary danger, at least in Ye Sloughe of Desponde, seems to be death of existential boredom as one watches hours of ones life slowly ticking onwards to inevitable death.

Said exam boards have been know to last for 8 to 10 hours, to be reconvened the next day.

Ten years ago I was contracting at Cambridge Assessment or, to give it its more formal title, The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The syndicate is composed of three exam boards providing various kinds of exams: GCSE and A Level, university exams (which they also provided for numerous foreign universities, not just Cambridge), and even the tests required of immigrants to the UK.

We were working on a system for doing school exams on computers, so we had a lot of fun making things like interactive SVG charts and what have you. We even implemented an entire JavaScript library, as jQuery was fundamentally unable to handle a lot of things we needed like XML namespaces. I was particularly pleased with the animation component I wrote for that, which allowed you to declaratively create animations to run sequentially or in parallel, including treating such combined animations as a single unit to be composed into further more complex animations; it was animations all the way down

And although it was primarily to be used for visual animations, it wasn't constrained to that; it might be that a candidate clicked Start, and in the background an "animation" would run for the allotted time of the exam, at the end of which it would proceed to an "animation" that switched to the "Time's up" screen while a parallel "animation" submitted the candidate's answers. It really was pretty nifty for anything to do with controlling things happening over time

Then, after nine months or so, the exam board decided that they were killing the project as they wanted to buy something in from one of their outside suppliers instead, even though that wouldn't actually be available for another two or three years

[DoctorStrangelove]

The exam boards to which I refer are, of course, the inspection of exam results for each student.

When there's shedloads of students it takes A Very Long Time to go through them all.

In other news, the B&Q Diamond Card so beloved of us crinklies is now reduced to abject uselessness since it gives 10% off gardening stuff and that's it.

I thought it was quiet in there.

Sounds like another brilliant way to shoot yourself in the foot, along with shutting 50% of the stores.

Used to be crammed with old farts like me on a Wednesday.

Not very likely to be like that in the future since there are other places to buy stuff.

[NickFitz]

The exam boards to which I refer are, of course, the inspection of exam results for each student.

When there's shedloads of students it takes A Very Long Time to go through them all.

Indeed. I was rather glad that we didn't have much to do with the actual exam setting-and-marking side, as it didn't seem like my kind of thing at all. Elderly gentlemen in tweed jackets (I would describe them as "donnish" but that seems redundant as they were, of course, actual dons) seemed to rule the roost over on that side of the building

[DoctorStrangelove]

Probly all either Russian spies, recruiters, or fellow travellers if some of my recent reading is at all correct.

[NickFitz]

Currently listening to the viol music of Marin Marais et al. from the soundtrack to the film about his life, Tous les Matins du Monde, while taking a break from a quick'n'dirty Django app I'm slinging together to make working on this map API documentation stuff a bit easier

[covbob]

Evening all

Back after a little break...

[covbob]

So, what's been going on in my world?

After investigation as to why I'm so knackered all the time sleep apnoea has been determined as the cause. I was sitting in meetings or at my desk and nodding off - not good for productivity. As part of the diagnosis I've been instructed not to drive until the symptoms are alleviated.

Of course that put paid to the contract requiring me to be in Manchester 4 days per week. Luckily they were very understanding and said I'd be welcome back in the future.

I've picked up a new WFH contract with an old clientco, which will keep me busy for a bit. I just need to remember to get out of the house during the week and try to see some daylight.

This morning's fun was a visit to the dentist, having spent the last few days in increasing pain. The result was an hour of root canal work, with a follow up appointment for more digging around in there in two weeks. Luckily the pain is receding a bit, touch wood.

What have I missed from the TPD collective?

[ladymuck]

Exam done! I only needed 30% to pass course. Here's hoping I managed that!

Completely didn't remember (aka don't bother revising) the actual mechanism of bone creation/reabsorption. I could wax lyrical about the thryoid and parathyroid, osteoblasts and osteoclasts and how you need working liver and kidneys to get any use out of vitamin D though. So, hopefully some points for effort.

[BR14]

Another takeaway curry for dinner.
took my lassie's boyfriend's R1 for a spin earlier <almost literally>.

managed to avoid the '0 to upside down in 2.3 seconds' scenario.
you have to be Very carefull not to grab a handfull of anything.

feck that! - i don't have the reaction times for that tulip any more <if i ever did>.

sacred myself sh1tless!

hence the curry.

feckin' good fun though