Journal Entries
Going through the motions - Mrs Zen - NaJoPoMo - 16th November 2011
Posted Nov 16, 2011
So many things I could say, but the most pertinent one is that I want to go to bed.
Good night sweet hootizens.
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Latest reply: Nov 16, 2011
Birthday baloney - Mrs Zen - NaJoPoMo - 15th November 2011
Posted Nov 15, 2011
One of my colleagues had a birthday last week.
There are about five of us in the team, and we have he highly offensive habit of buying a birthday cake, which no-one likes, grouping round the victim's desk, which no-one likes, and generally making a fuss, which no-one likes.
Dave's birthday was last week and he took the whole week off to avoid the cake / candle / congregation of colleagues thing, and we just lay in wait until he got back and did all the baloney today instead.
wtf?
I mean...
What The Fuscia?
We are, individually, reasonably sane adults; two of us are overweight, two of the others are insane gym bunnies, and two seem entirely sane. So why are we doing this whole cake / candle / card rigmarole? Over half the cake was still on top of the confidential waste recycling box when I left at 6:00 this evening.
For my next birthday I am going to call bullshit on this - http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped-gardeners/OU5023AG
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Mrs Zen - NaJoPoMo - 14th November 2011
Posted Nov 14, 2011
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Latest reply: Nov 14, 2011
Why are we waiting, oh why are we waiting?
Posted Nov 13, 2011
I am about to do something I said I wouldn't do. I am about to write a journal about h2g2. I am doing this because, forgive me, I am tired by the insinuations that we are keeping things from people.
If you are bored of hearing about "How we saved h2g2" then PLEASE stop reading now. Endless self-regarding conversations ABOUT h2g2 could just kill us all, which is why I want to spend my time on site in "normal" threads and why I wanted to keep my NaJoPoMo Journals about things in my life that aren't h2g2.
That'll be a FAIL then.
SO - if you want to enjoy h2g2 as it should be enjoyed - as a place for stuff that's interesting and fun - PLEASE stop reading this and go and read all the wonderful stuff here that IS interesting and fun....
Have they gone yet?
Surely they've gone now?
Right. We must be down to the hardcore of people who want to know WHY we haven't put up the help pages they want yet, who are worried about the processes, who are fretting about how things work under the new owners.
These are all valid concerns: I re-read some threads from 2001 recently, and events I remember as being months apart were in fact a matter of weeks apart. It feels like a long, long, time when you are waiting.
I know people are frustrated that we are not getting information pages out sooner. I don't like it much either. But it is not because anyone is deliberately holding things back. It is because everyone deserves that when things are put up for discussion that we've got the time to actually discuss them, instead of fighting fires. And everyone deserves that when things are published, they are correct.
What I've done here is list, day by day, what I've been working on. I've still not got my head above water. What I SHOULD be doing is working with other people and helping them do a lot of this; in practice I've been fighting a lot of fires and only doing the odd bit of fire prevention.
I spent the first week after I was back on h2g2 working on the pages the Mods will need to do the Modding and the second week working on information about how h2g2 is owned and run.
Neither of these tasks is finished yet. Designing the processes and pages would normally take me two to three weeks working full-time, and the documentation another week or a week and a half. (I am a slow writer, but by god am I accurate when it's official). Then there would be dicussions with the people actually using the tools, and reviews of the documentaton. This works out at 4-6 weeks full-time work; so I shouldn't be annoyed with myself for not doing it in two weeks of evenings and weekends. 
Anyway - here goes.
Wednesday 26th - Evening
Early night after handing in Dissertation
Thursday 27th - Evening
Have celebratory meal with Z - discuss the Mods processes in detail
Friday 28th - Evening
Work on the Mods Toolset, documenting the processes described by Z and desiging the pages that make up the Yikes process and the pages the Mods will use.
Saturday 29th. Morning and afternoon.
Work on Mods Pages and Processes. Hand over to Pastey.
Go shopping.
Carve h2g2 logo on a lantern for The Post.
Carry on working on other teams' Pages and Processes.
Evening.
Have Skype conversation with Happy Nerd about Help Pages Project - realise that with about 150 or so of them, it will take about 8-9 months to replace them all.
Sunday 30th.
Review and update the draft of information and diagrams about NPL and the ownership structure for h2g2 and about how the volunteer groups are organised. Send some of it to Z, Robbie and Brian for comments and feedback.
Email Guide Editors about their toolsets which also need designing.
Put together a shopping order for Tescos so if we are stranded again, we will at least have food.
Monday 31st. Evening.
Continue working on toolsets.
Have Skype meeting with Brian, Aly and Robbie about volunteer structures.
Tuesday 1st. Evening.
Weekly Skype call with Senior Volunteers.
Discover that there are technical issues which mean that the toolset designs are not as urgent as previously thought.
Decide to spend three evenings a week and one weekend day on h2g2, but take the rest of my "free" time off.
Wednesday 2nd. Evening.
Migrainy. Leave work early. Have early night.
Thursday 3rd.
Continue working on documentation. This sort of documentation would take about a week of work-time (ie 40 hours) plus reviews and discussions. I have about 15 hours per week to spend on it, so it's no wonder it is not moving forward fast.
Friday 4th. Evening.
Evening off.
Saturday 5th. Morning.
Clean house. This is a big deal since we have had limited time to do any cleaning for about 6 weeks while I was working every weekday evening and all day every weekend on disssertation, and while Z was testing h2g2 when it moved from the Beeb to the new forums.
Afternoon. Friend comes round to visit. Have not seen her since August, and previously have not seen her since March.
Evening.
Fireworks.
Sunday 6th. Morning.
Carry on cleaning house and doing laundry.
Afternoon
Various emails and discussions, eg discuss what to do with s2g2 with Vip, Aly and others.
Write up meeting notes so there is a record of decisions made. These are in fact notes from a meeting during the bid which had gone awol and had turned up while cleaning the house.
Evening
Edinburgh Skeptics Committee Meeting. First I've been to for 6 months. Discuss plans for next year's Fringe.
Late evening.
Create a To Do list for the Business Process and Admin Team. Should have done this before but it's been scaring me too much and I was flat out on the toolsets. It takes a couple of hours to put together plus another 30 mintues wrestling with trying to format it on the NOesis forums.
Monday 7th. Evening.
Get feedback from Robbie, Z and Brian on information written last week on how site is owned, etc. Collate all draft information on how site is owned and run, community involvement, running projects on h2g2, the Company Ltd by Guarantee, elections into a single document. Realise that there is an awful lot still missing. Feel exhausted.
Tuesday 8th. Evening.
Should be in Skype call with Core Team. Actually have evening out with colleagues of Z's to celebrate one of them getting married. Realise I have not seen them for 5 months. Enjoy catching up.
Wednesday 9th. Evening.
Work on draft information and diagrams.
Discuss with Happy Nerd whether we can release any help pages early.
Discuss Armistice Day options by email with Robbie, Aly, Z, and various Senior Volunteers.
Thursday 10th. Evening.
Have a call with Robbie about Core Team activities, recent events on site and future planning sessions.
Continue discussion about releasing help pages early with Happy Nerd.
Friday 11th. Evening.
Take time off to spend evening together.
Saturday 12th. Morning.
Discuss practical ways for making the consultation process with the community fairer and simpler with various Senior Volunteers on Skype. Put a draft description of a "consultation process" up in Noesis where it can be seen and discussed by the people who are likely to be starting the consultations.
Saturday 12th. Evening.
Asteroid Lil has some questions about the Artists' processes and we discuss the pros and cons of various ideas at length, drawing on her experience as a Community Artist back in the day, and the challenges facing the Community Artists' group now.
Sunday 13th. Morning.
Try writing a proposal for the Artists' process to discuss with Tavaron and the Arts and Design Eds, but get caught up in a discussion on site about Moderation Processes instead, despite the fact that the Moderation processes are already documented in several help pages.
Afernoon.
Edinburgh Skeptics Committee meeting, followed by Book Group. The first I have been to since February.
Evening.
Should be continuing with the information about ownership and structures. Should finish email to Tavaron about Artists. Should do diagram about community consulations. Instead, feel compelled to justify why none of it is done already....
This has been an interesting exercise; I am torn between being around and able to talk things through with people, and actually getting things done. I don't know which is more important, to be honest.
I wish I didn't feel so defensive about the whole thing.
The long and the short of why we've not released detailed information about how the site is owned and run yet is because it takes a long time to get it all together and get it all right. It really doesn't help that answering complaints that we have not yet released detailed information about how the site is owned and run is also incredibly time consuming.
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Latest reply: Nov 13, 2011
Skeptics between the Covers - Mrs Zen - NaJoPoMo - 12th November 2011
Posted Nov 12, 2011
Last year Z, I and another person set up a Skeptics' Book Club in Edinburgh; the first of its kind so far as we know.
The criteria are broad, the book should be "of interest to Skeptics" and can be fiction, though most are non-fiction or else they are polemics. The one we've read this month is one about evolution called "Your Inner Fish". The meeting's tomorrow; this is the first one I've been to since February or so.
We need to suggest a couple of books for December and January, or maybe for January and February.
I fancy a history book, and Z's suggested Guns, Germs and Steel. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guns-Germs-Steel-history-everybody/dp/0099302780/
I bought Marcus Brigstoke's book about god a couple of months ago, but was sadly underwhelmed. http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Collar-Marcus-Brigstocke/dp/0593067363
I started reading this, but stopped for some reason, which was a shame because it's really good:
The Islamist: Why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left - Ed Hussain - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Islamist-joined-radical-Britain-inside/dp/0141030437
My other thoughts from books I have already read are Feet of Clay by Anthony Storr about gurus and cult leaders, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-Clay-Study-Anthony-Storr/dp/0006384234/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1
Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones is interesting, thoughtful and well-written and about his experiences joining different kinds of religious communities - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Utopian-Dreams-Tobias-Jones/dp/057122380X
We are a Muslim Please, bu Zaiba Malik is about growing up in Bradford and working as a reporter including a dramatic visit to Pakistan - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Are-Muslim-Please-Zaiba-Malik/dp/0099522276/
Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay - John Lanchester was recommended to me by Hoovooloo and I've not yet started it - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Whoops-Why-everyone-owes-one/dp/014104571X
However, I'm quite tempted to suggest either Hogfather or Small Gods to give us all some light relief.
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Mrs Zen
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