Monday
Jan312005
Running on Rails
Monday, January 31, 2005 at 10:02PM
And so to London. As to prove conclusively that it does exist early in the morning, the universe treated me to a fantastic sunrise, viewed through the train carriage all the way from Hull to Peterborough. Wisps of cloud lit golden by the rising sun were like streaks of fire across the dark blue of the sky, whilst on the ground the trees that rushed past were swathed in rolling mist.
Unfortunately I'm having to use inadequate words here because I couldn't get a photograph, darnit.
London was, well, London. "Full of Sound and Fury, signifying nothing" (I think I took the lyrical pill this morning).
David and I gave a conference paper which seemed to go down OK. However, you would think that with all my years of marriage I would have learnt to keep my big mouth shut. But no such luck. Someone said something about how horrible programming is, and how unpleasant it is to learn it. They even went as far as saying they gave a "Welcome to Hell" speech at the start of their programming courses. Wah! As someone who puts programming in a category of self expression alongside writing poetry and drawing pictures, I take strong issue with this. And done properly and with commitment from the person being taught, learning to program is actually quite fun. I said as much and was in the process of being shot down for saying this when someone called time out. Just as well I suppose.
The trip back was made slightly more interesting by a points failure just outside Selby which meant an extra half hour on the train. Ho hum.
(extra note: The Blogger spell checker is wonderful. It suggested "featherbrained" for Peterborough)
(extra extra note: The quote above is from Macbeth. Just to prove I have a literary side too...)
Unfortunately I'm having to use inadequate words here because I couldn't get a photograph, darnit.
London was, well, London. "Full of Sound and Fury, signifying nothing" (I think I took the lyrical pill this morning).
David and I gave a conference paper which seemed to go down OK. However, you would think that with all my years of marriage I would have learnt to keep my big mouth shut. But no such luck. Someone said something about how horrible programming is, and how unpleasant it is to learn it. They even went as far as saying they gave a "Welcome to Hell" speech at the start of their programming courses. Wah! As someone who puts programming in a category of self expression alongside writing poetry and drawing pictures, I take strong issue with this. And done properly and with commitment from the person being taught, learning to program is actually quite fun. I said as much and was in the process of being shot down for saying this when someone called time out. Just as well I suppose.
The trip back was made slightly more interesting by a points failure just outside Selby which meant an extra half hour on the train. Ho hum.
(extra note: The Blogger spell checker is wonderful. It suggested "featherbrained" for Peterborough)
(extra extra note: The quote above is from Macbeth. Just to prove I have a literary side too...)
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