There's happy and too happy.
The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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8:20am on Monday, 2nd December, 2024:
Weird
When our children were young, we threw out most of the toys that came with McDonalds' happy meals. For some reason, though, we kept this one:
There's happy and too happy.
10:07am on Sunday, 1st December, 2024:
Anecdote
I keep a folder into which I put images that I may get around to using one day. Some of these have the name they came with ("20221016_150845" is a photo taken in 2022, for example), but others have been renamed with a title that reflects why I saved the image in the first place.
Occasionally, I trawl through these to purge some and remind me of others. Here's a picture I put in last year that is rather more prophetic than I'd wish:
I entitled it "Computer Science versus the rest of the University".
9:34am on Saturday, 30th November, 2024:
Anecdote
We inherited this plant from my mother. It was given to her for Christmas in 2022 and had red flowers on it. They lasted a couple of months then died off. It hasn't performed since.
My wife, who is in charge of plants in our house, hates it. I didn't even rate it when it had the flowers; the red wasn't a nice red. Bugs never go anywhere near it as they don't like it either. Still, my wife decided to keep it to give it a chance, so here it is.
Other than the concession of putting it in sunlight, it receives no attention. It's never watered. The only reason it's still alive is because it's near the kettle. You may have noticed that the photo looks misty: this is because I took it through steam as the kettle boiled. I think some of the moisture that fills the air must get onto the plant's leaves and stop it from drying up. The dead parts of the leaves may be the result of someone's not lining up the kettle the way I do it, so subjecting the foliage to scalding jets of water vapour at 100°C.
Maybe, if it survives the winter, we'll put it out in the garden and let it roam free.
That wasn't intended as a metaphor for my own situation, but thinking about it, it does seem disturbingly accurate.
11:07am on Friday, 29th November, 2024:
Anecdote
Essex University was in the BBC news yesterday in a report about its financial situation: "University to cut 200 jobs amid £29m shortfall". 200 jobs are going to go.
The situation would be far worse were it not for the School of Computer Science and the Business School, who together are supporting the rest of the university. This is somewhat ironic, because around 10-15 years ago there was talk of closing Computer Science down: it was losing money and most of the university is humanities-based. This was despite the fact that it had been Computer Science that had staved off financial disaster 10-15 years earlier when the number of humanities applicants dropped drastically.
Ultimately, the university's financial woes are down to over-expansion during recent boom years. The aim was to get to 20,000 students, which it almost did, but applications dropped and we're now at just under 18,000. Most of these are undergraduates, who don't bring in anywhere near as much in fees as postgraduates. We have empty accommodation units for which we're still having to pay back the loans we took out to build them. COVID-19 is partly to blame for interfering with our cash flows, but its effects have mostly passed through the system now.
Brexit isn't really to blame. Yes, we're getting fewer applicants from the EU nowadays, but they were no more profitable than home students (which is to say, the margins were slim). Rather, it's the drop in international postgraduates that has hit us hard. This was precipitated by the decision by the Conservative government not to grant visas to the families of students coming to study at postgraduate level. The then-government's idea was to reduce the headline figures for immigration, which it did (but not by much); this was regardless of the fact that most of these people were going to return to their home countries afterwards, and those that weren't were by definition highly-educated and therefore would become assets to the UK. Because people with spouses and children no longer came to the UK, neither did those of their friends and colleagues who didn't have spouses and children. As a result, there's been a collapse in postgraduate numbers that has affected the whole sector. It's not just Essex that finds itself having to live off its reserves (which in Essex's case, word-of-mouth is reporting are relatively high).
Still, thee university does have to balance the books.
On Monday, we games lecturers had a meeting with the Head of School about the future of the Games degrees. The School is cutting under-performing modules and degree schemes in order to free up lecturers' time to teach other modules and degree schemes. It wouldn't need to do this if we were able to recruit more staff, but a recruitment freeze was imposed earlier this year when the possibility that there might be a shortfall was looking to become more of a probability. We were already short of staff in Computer Science because of a feedback loop: insufficient numbers of staff meant more workload, which caused lecturers to leave, which raised the workload for those who didn't, which caused more of them to leave, and so on. This was in part due to the long lag between advertising a post and having an actual lecturer in front of students. A recruitment freeze makes the situation even worse, because we don't get any new staff to replace the ones who leave. Computer Science may get some special dispensation for this, on the grounds that it's the goose laying the golden eggs that the university needs, but even if it does then the problem of a high workload will remain (because it was there before the drop in postgraduate applications bit). Therefore, some heavy pruning of modules is needed so that people don't have to teach as many of them, so reducing their workload and stemming the tide.
This makes a great deal of sense, and it also addresses another lingering issue. We used to have a problem with modules that were basically sinecures so that professors with a high research income could meet their teaching obligations without doing a great deal of said teaching; those days are now largely gone, but there remain a few hold-outs. A departmental-wide effort to remove the deadwood will be the final nail in that coffin.
Of course, the fact that this makes sense doesn't mean it won't be painful for some. One of the degree schemes that doesn't do well is the Games MSc, which this year has two modules that are only taught to only 3 students. OK, so last year it was 12 students, which was profitable, and the numbers do fluctuate quite a lot, but 3 is dismal. The word on the grapevine is that people from the Indian subcontinent in particular are heading for Queen Mary University London for their Games MScs, rather than to Essex. QMUL's games offering is indeed excellent, and is the very reason Essex's isn't: it's core is comprised of former Essex researchers who were poached by QMUL pre-pandemic.
The Games MSc is therefore being put on hiatus ("suspended" is the official term). It won't be recruiting next year. The Games BSc is safe for now, because two of its programming modules are very popular among non-games students, both in terms of how many students take them and how well they do in the student assessments of modules. The two design modules (which I teach) are also popular — or at least they were until this year, when non-games students were forbidden from taking them. I start teaching next term, so won't know until then what the damage is, but I expect it will alarming. I believe only 10-15 students are on the games degree in the third year, which will rather put a dampener on the class discussions.
During our meeting with the Head of School, the future of the BSc Games was also discussed. I pointed out that I was due to retire in 2026, so next academic year will be my last. Whether it's the last for the Games degree is another matter: the School is keen for it to recruit more students, and sees a lot of the problems it's having being to do with advertising (the university has limits on what we can put on its web pages, and games don't exactly fit the corporate line).One of the other lecturers is very dynamic and if given the support will be able to turn things round. Besides, when Computer Science itseelf wasn't recruiting (in the decade following the bust that came after the dot-com boom), it was the then-new Games degree that was keeping the department afloat. We were to Computer Science what Computer Science currently is to the university. If Computer Science thought the university was wrong to contemplate canning it (which it was), perhaps it would be prudent for Computer Science not to can Games in case that might be wrong by the same token.
I was asked at the meeting whether I was sure I'd be retiring in 2026. I said yes, and maybe before then if the Vice Chancellor were to bring out a voluntary redundancy scheme (which is what many of our peer universities, such as East Anglia, have already done).
Well, if you've read the BBC article, you'll see that there is indeed a voluntary severance scheme on offer. In an email to staff yesterday, the acting VC said that she'd consult with unions regarding what kind of package to offer, and hopes to have something agreed within four weeks. I'll have a look at what it is, and if it seems fair and I qualify for it, I'll take it.
I'm probably in the way for revising the way we teach games anyway.
8:39am on Thursday, 28th November, 2024:
Anecdote
Here's another puzzle format I've been working on. I called it Kakusareta, on the basis that most of these puzzles have a Japanese name so I may as well go with the flow.
Let me know what you think.
8:00am on Wednesday, 27th November, 2024:
Weird
A fly got into our house at the weekend. After buzzing me intermittently for half an hour, it disappeared when I snapped and reached for the fly spray. That seems to happen a lot; I suspect that flies have evolved to recognise the appearance of a fly spray can.
Anyway, after a search I couldn't find the fly so had to give up. I kept the spray handy in case it decided to return and harrass me at a later inopportune moment.
Fortunately, I needn't have worried. One of our glass ornaments had my back.
Cats will be cats.
9:54am on Tuesday, 26th November, 2024:
Anecdote
I appear to have bought some more playing cards.
These were first manufactured in 1935, but were still being made 20 years later. Mine has an old-style cardboard box, though, rather than a plastic one, so is probably early, say 1935-1940.
The cards were manufactured by Müller & Son in Switzerland, and depict characters from the French court in the 17th century. Formally, they're "playing cards no. 244", but informally they're "Richelieu".
I don't normally buy playing cards this late, but I do have some earlier Müller & Son playing cards depicting Swiss costumes, and I liked the look of them so I put in a bid. No-one else did, meaning I got them very cheap (as in, the postage to Colchester from Eastbourne cost more).
The corner indeces are a little too intrusive for my liking, and there doesn't seem to be any need for the large suit indicator inside the portrait box. They're in excellent condition, though, including the gold corners, so overall I'm very pleased with them.
You can just about see the manufacturer's name on the Jack of Spades if you look in its lower-left aand top-right corners hard enough.
10:02am on Monday, 25th November, 2024:
Weird
Nobody was interested in the Christmas Tree's presentation.
10:28am on Sunday, 24th November, 2024:
Weird
I took this photo in July while we were in La Spezia, Italy.
That's not a window, it's a painting of a window.
It's so detailed that it must have taken ages to get right. I wonder if it might have been cheaper just to build in a window.
10:21am on Saturday, 23rd November, 2024:
Weird
Ah, you've got to love the Essex County Standard.
Maybe they should rename it the Essex County Low Standards.
There's also an article on page 21 about signage on Wendy's High Street restaurant that starts with the exact same two paragraphs as the article opposite it on page 20 about signage on Wendy's High Street restaurant. There are two articles about the fact that a Molly O'Reilly pop-up pub won't be allowed to pop up, two about a hotel opening and three that mention the A12.
Curiously, none of the articles mention that "man" has been arrested or charged or in court or jailed for having done anything. There is a headline use of "revamp", though, so not all its traditions have disappeared.
9:40am on Friday, 22nd November, 2024:
Weird
I took this photograph when I was in the beautiful village of Nerja last month.
It seems that wherever they are in the world, white-van drivers have that same disregard for their fellow motorists.
8:15am on Thursday, 21st November, 2024:
Anecdote
After explaining my convoluted solution to the annoying dreams I was getting, I was futher annoyed a couple of days later when I had another one. The mechanism I'd worked out to explain it wasn't what was going on at all.
It turns out that my programmer's interpretation to do with toggles and reboots was rather more bonkers than it seemed at the time. I was in fact getting the dreams by one of my usual three methods: waking up gave me the dream. We still had our summer duvet on, I was getting cold, I woke up and the dream came with it. The only difference to the norm was that I had the timing wrong and thought the dream was earlier than it was, so didn't connect it to waking up.
My guess is that the anaesthetic I had for the op threw my sleep-time timing off. It seems to have recovered now of its own accord, anyway. Also, we've put our winter duvet on now.
Yeah, OK, so sometimes I post things that are of no interest to anyone but me and legions of future biographers. Sprry about that.
8:53am on Wednesday, 20th November, 2024:
Weird
How can you be "just" airport taxis when you're also Lynn's pristine cleaning services?
Maybe there are unjust airport taxis out there?
6:07pm on Tuesday, 19th November, 2024:
Anecdote
I went to London today to meet my best friend from university, Ulin. He's a year older than me and has now retired, but we sat and chatted outside the Starbuck's at St Pancras for nearly four hours. Although we keep in touch, I haven't seen him in person for about 30 years.
He hasn't aged.
HE HASN'T AGED.
Apart from wearing glasses, he looks pretty much the same as he did last time I saw him. Oh, except he has two white hairs on his head, too. I have more than that in a single eyebrow.
I don't know what sorcery is involved, but whatever it is, it's effective.
8:48am on Monday, 18th November, 2024:
Anecdote
Here's another puzzle format I've been working on, provisionally called Rat Run.
The puzzles are fun to create, but take much longer than the Plaitword ones do. I'm not sure that the instructions are clear enough, they seem a bit too wordy.
Anyway, let me know what you think.
Here's another one:
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Copyright © 2024 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).