Still tired

My mood is improved but I am still tired. This morning I stayed in bed until maybe even 9h and at 10h I was still in the armchair, resting my head and yawning. My workout was gentle indeed, barely managing 22 of the machine's calories per minute. I have decided to already scale back my exercising. I now have aching limbs and a growing headache; I have taken acetaminophen with codeine. I have a few things to do this weekend but not many, perhaps few indeed if rain comes.

I thought I might just be tired from our annual users' meeting at work: I was tired indeed on the evenings following the meeting days and I am not naturally extroverted so the social interaction itself may be taxing. But, given my tiredness last week too I wondered if I may even have some low-grade infection or somesuch. Perhaps the meeting was tiring indeed for those who traveled from different time zones, including Portland, Oregon, and Kobe, Japan. Our Brisbane-based colleague was unable to join us for family reasons. Many of our visiting users are interesting and nice.

The users' meeting comes with various free-food perks, including a wine-tasting last Thursday evening. Tastings are not especially my kind of thing but this year I did taste three of the eighteen and that worked out well. There was some kind of full-bodied red I liked, then an unfiltered red I followed it with was a bit sweeter, then I had some Chinese ice wine that was sweeter still. There were also cheeses and I always like cheese.

I have a bit of work to do early next week as leftover help for some visiting users I talked with but nothing too onerous. I enjoy having a bit of variety in my work tasks.

Local candidates for the general election

I had not realized how soon the general election now is. It is time for me to take stock of our local candidates:

Peter Anthony Barrett, Scottish Liberal Democrats

Locally they usually do even worse than Labour. They want to increase income tax a little and spend a fair bit, including on mental health services. They favor the triple-lock on pensions. They want a referendum on Brexit terms but not another on Scottish independence. They seem keen on public transport and renewable energy. The national party are keen to create more garden cities.

Ian Duncan, Scottish Conservative and Unionist

Currently an MEP. Keen on the environment. Is gay. We have had plenty of Conservative literature through the door, judging from which various older people like him. Said literature focuses on being against the SNP and a second independence referendum and includes a vague nod to improving public services and the economy. In general the Conservatives are for retaining Trident, reducing immigration, means-testing benefits and ending the triple-lock. One sometimes gets the impression that they would like to bring back the workhouses.

David Hugo Roemmele, Scottish Labour Party

Has quite a beard. Locally the party gets fairly few votes. They are in favor of retaining Trident, nationalizing public services and they oppose another independence referendum. Their website is poor. It isn't quite clear if the national party is presently up to organizing a wedding, let alone running a government.

Pete Wishart, Scottish National Party

Already has some power in the Commons. Background in community and charity work. Favors copyright term extension, perhaps related to his performing in bands. We have had plenty of SNP literature too, partly about opposing spending cuts but also mentioning many local issues. The SNP favor the triple-lock on pensions, another independence referendum, immigration and EU membership. They want to raise the top rate of income tax to 50%, spend plenty, stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia and scrap Trident, and abolish the House of Lords.

Noting the candidates' and parties' principal and incidental properties does help me to decide for whom to vote. I let myself be guided by what they headline in their own literature as indicating what they care more about actually achieving. Perhaps at some point I should note the various issues and mention how I feel about them. Naturally they rarely greatly fit one party's manifesto over another, hence the diversity in my voting history in both the UK and the US.