Mark Carroll's Journal

When applying to universities for my first degree, I largely targeted four-year courses in theoretical physics. I achieved A grades in A-level pure maths, applied maths, physics, and was most curious about fundamental physics. I am not a genius but I am interested and capable, I could have hoped to understand plenty and figure out at least something more.

What actually happened is that I noticed that the University of Cambridge's tripos system at the time allowed me to apply for computer science, switch to natural sciences after the first year, and still do as much mathematics and physics as the physicists. I considered applying for maths there instead but did not want the hassle of caring about STEP papers on top of my examination load (I actually took four A-levels and another GCSE).

Once studying at Cambridge, I was bothered by that, in the final term of my freshman year, we were getting ongoing updates from physics lecturers about what may or may not be examinable. It turned out that they were in the midst of redesigning the physics course. Then, the mock examination was far easier than the real final. Reasoning that they were incompetently making up a new undergraduate course as they went along, I bailed and stuck with computer science, rather than remain among their year of guinea pigs.

The above is background for: I never lost my curiosity about physics, even though I know that, by the time I might plausibly get to study properly, I will be decades behind others and my faculties will be waning. I read things about, say, parity violation and the weak force: how we have only left-handed neutrinos that experience only that force, that it doesn't affect right-handed electrons, etc., and there is such a sense of what is going on? that demands explanatory hypotheses investigated using maths and computing. I envy those who get to search for the answers even though, regarding the greenness of grass, I probably took the better-paid option.

Now some way into this administration's term, there is still little sign of much student loan debt being forgiven. This is not surprising: while Joe's Agenda for Students remains mostly a to-do, and graduates still await immediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person, the midterms are coming, both chambers^* hang in the balance, and it is difficult to act on student loan debt without upsetting people. On the one hand, student loans drive inequality, they're even regressively racist; on the other, forgiveness has the odor of being unfair to those who worked hard to repay their own loans.

Given that many Americans' outstanding loans include a significant fraction of accrued interest, I wonder if a more achievable option would be to provide refinancing with loans that are offered on far better terms, such as those in Scotland. Perhaps that would not seem as offensively unfair to some while, at least in the longer term, making an appreciable difference for those who need it most.

^*Is that what one calls the two parts?

I heard a local college student mentioning how they were glad of semester ending because they were obligated to attend class to earn credit but the classes do not require masking or distancing. It made me realize better how lucky I am to even be wrestling with the question of having to stay more isolated and protected for even longer, that my circumstances allow me the luxury of choosing. With the delta then the omicron variants each lengthening our dark tunnel, at least I am afforded the opportunity to remain relatively sheltered from the pestilence.

Last week I mentioned my disappointment at how transportation to my youngest's high school seems to be arranged as if airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among teenagers is not an important issue. I believe that being unhappy with public policy indicates that one should contact those in a position to change it. Yesterday, one of my local councilors got back to me about my concern, enclosing a new press release announcing that, from next week, students will be encouraged to wear a face covering on the school bus. There is no mention of distancing or ventilation but at least it's progress.

I enjoyed the weather in central Ohio. Winter lasted for a week or two longer than I might have liked but, among other things, we did get some good storms. Here in the Carse of Gowrie the weather is much milder in every regard. However, last night we did get some decent thunderstorms rolling through, with thunder and lightning from yesterday evening to this morning; now the sky has cleared. We lost power occasionally.

I had been looking forward to discovering from our youngest how seats are marked off on the school bus. After all, while face coverings are required for regular public buses, they are not even recommended for the school bus; I trust there is at least some distancing. However, due to last night's storms, a few schools in the area are flooded: it will now be next week before we discover such details of the transportation.

In the UK: Do healthcare staff get adequate PPE^* for treating patients presenting with suspected COVID-19? Do traveling care workers treating the vulnerable-demographic patients isolating in their homes get adequate PPE? Are there still enough mortuary bags for the cadavers? What is the current official advice on all this? Etc.

It is hard for me to tell. I see reports of Her Majesty's Government and some healthcare providers saying that everything is fine, from other people on the ground saying, probably with extra expletives, no it surely isn't, and I wonder if they all think they're correct, if there is some incompetence in between, regional variation, whatever. Clarity on what the facts are would much assist in figuring how to proceed.

Then there are the reports of people sourcing their own PPE only to have their workplace disallow it. I have every sympathy with those wishing to help but not feeling that they're provided what they need to keep themselves, thus their family and patients, safe. I am reminded of related scandals of our sending soldiers into combat zones with inadequate PPE.

^*Personal protective equipment, yet another badly overloaded acronym. For example, at Cambridge I took a Professional Practice and Ethics course, thus amusing me that the part of the building housing my desk at work warns me not to enter with PPE. Indeed, Oxford offers a whole bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Yesterday we drove from Lancashire down to Cornwall. There is a slow-moving low pressure system causing abundant rain, some of which was rather heavy, but at least we were in no hurry. On the motorways it was interesting to see many matrix signs warning, Freight to EU Papers may change 1 Nov please check. One can't easily escape the threat of Brexit.

Today it was also interesting for me to be driving around the town of St Austell by instinct. I've traveled its streets very many times but many years ago and was quite pleased to be able to make my way through the center to the road I had in mind. Indeed, back when I was learning to drive, some of my lessons took place in St Austell and one of my first summer jobs was in the town. Although there were plenty of traffic and marked cars on the narrow, hilly streets it felt comfortable and easy to make progress.

I got to thinking about my time at Truro School. I have never felt that I quite fit in among the high-achieving alumni. I remembered that I was unusual in having Her Majesty's Government cover my school fees and recently realized that, at least in terms of wealth, I was not of the same social class as many of my classmates.

If I am flown long-haul with my children then I get extra salads to eat. Now we have university open days for applicants holding offers (where our younger goes as the guest of our elder child) I find that I also receive the fruit that came with the provided packed lunches. Today's haul includes an apple and a clementine. I came along to the previous open day so got my own cookies too; I wonder what I will harvest from next Saturday's.

This month I haven't done well so far: I haven't achieved much and my workouts have become infrequent. ( After work I find myself feeling tired and cold so I just stay in the house. )

In particular, I wonder if my recent slowness has arisen partly from work. I have not been much of a fan of enterprise software frameworks. Recently I have been battling an upgrade of popular Java ones: Hibernate and Spring, with Hibernate Search atop Lucene. These frameworks are ( fine when they behave as expected but this month they haven't. ) I have pored through source code, documentation, framework reference guides, release notes, bug reports, etc. looking for clues.

Yesterday afternoon at work I reached a good enough point to allow us to move forward. ( I finally found workarounds for a couple of strange issues. ) Over the rest of the month I hope that things will work more easily so that I can frequently make tangible progress instead of puzzling over new stubborn mysteries. If one doesn't know if a code change will work without trying it, that's a bad sign.

I need to get back to writing in languages like Haskell. With that it is a lot easier to write code that ( clearly helps to solve the problem at hand without depending on complex frameworks so ) my paid use of mainstream approaches throws into sharp relief why, where I have a choice, I do things differently.

At work the indexer problems ( were but just one of several matters to which I should attend. )

My domestic to-do's are in a similar state. I have computer operating system overhaul work postponed from last year. However, as at work, urgent tasks are displace the important backlog. The end of winter brings gardening to-do's like pruning the crab-apple tree. I still need to file my FBAR with the US Treasury ( and ) I can now get my 2018 taxes done. Further, another time-sensitive issue is that of managing our investments ( as this year I expect ) to rebalance much further into corporate bonds or somesuch. In the meantime I shall pay more attention to relevant indicators. It is nice being in the UK: I consider only the NYSE and NASDAQ so after work once I have settled in the evening the trading day is still open. On a more urgent matter, in computing I also have server-side certificates to renew and install before the end of the month.

Some of my time has gone into helping my children with their math and science homework and revision. Just as I enjoy programming, I had forgotten how very much I enjoy ( those subjects. )

I had made slow progress at home in reading non-fiction but have continued to make easy progress with fiction: I am now moving on from Tom Baker's Scratchman to the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic which I don't recall having read before. I also watched and enjoyed Predestination (2014): I do appreciate a movie to which the creators gave careful thought and that requires some attention from the viewer; it was a surprise bonus to see among its cast the guy who plays Hitler in Preacher (2016).

A month ago we had largely recovered from our holiday colds and I had mentioned needing to file my FBAR and having enjoyed some programming (these days, coding) at work. I was also noting that I should be able to fit into my life all I want and need to do. The stressors of last year are past and I hope that as work improves so will my ability to perform domestic tasks over coming weeks. I prefer not to take time off work to catch up on them: small but positive net progress will suffice and the opposite would require further time off as backlog reaccumulated.

Having been disappointed by the typical quality of work done by the lawyers in my price range I have mostly done my own legal work. ( I may know far less but I put much time and care in. )

Still, how do I get away with it? I think there are a couple of reasons. One is that I make use of ( what professionals already figured out. ) The other reason that has probably been my principal savior is that I always sail obviously far from any lines: ( I do not try to push my luck at all. )

It has probably also helped that I have tried to maintain a broad background understanding of the law: I can better stay in safe waters and discover specific issues with a case that concerns me if I can already guess where those issues might lie. It felt very strange to first set foot in the US and thus become subject to a different legal environment. Getting to the real point of this journal entry, my first broad introduction to the law of England and Wales was the excellent Newnes Family Lawyer from 1962. What is special about it is that it combines both breadth and detail: for example, it might tell one plenty about conveyancing, or disputes with tradesmen, but also what can constitute assault and how that differs from various degrees of battery. ( I would love to find a current equivalent but so far I have failed. )

Of course, Scottish law is ( quite different from English. )