There’s lots of big works planned for the garDunn this year. Costly ones too!
We’ll be replacing a few hundred paving slabs with grass again, to break up the whole “Roman ruins” current look of the garden. We’ll be tidying up the brick boundaries to make sure it all looks great.
Paving slabs will be used to set up other areas of the garden though to save on materials. The end result should mean a more balanced look around the garden – and plenty of areas where there’ll be loads of colourful flowers to bring everything to life and attract loads of wildlife.
The garden did initially have lawns some 20 years ago, it will be great to see it reappear. Guess i’ll have to buy a lawnmower and all the wonderful accoutrements like an edger, strimmer and boxes of lawn feed!
As well as the garden, there’ll be loads of work on the exterior of the property (painting, roof tile cleaning, gutter tidying), as eventually this will fall inside as we update some furniture, get the TV on the wall, reintroduce brick back to the fireplace, and do simllar fun things to really make our place our home.
First stages first though… quotes are still coming in for the garden work.
I’m looking to complete the ISTQB CTFL 4.0 Foundation exam this year. I’m figuring it will require around 5 hours a week of study to get me up to scratch for the exam.
I’m lucky that I’m in the SIGiST (Specialist Group in Software Testing) within the British Computer Society (BCS) – and I have a great mentor – the editor of the excellent monthly SIGiST newsletter, The Tester.
There’s a lot of work involved – and especially as the CTFL exam isn’t really my “day job”. It’s all part of my ongoing development to become more rounded in important area of software development. I’ve already started down the DevOps route, and will be doing a Firebrand training boot camp in September – with a view to passing the DevOps Foundation Certificate.
The resources I’ll be using for my CTFL studies are:
The Official Handbook “Software Testing“
The Self-Taught Software Tester (Chhavi Raj Dosaj) as extra study support, it’s not directly related to the Software Testing course – but the jargon and core concepts will most likely be the same
Test Automation – something planned for the future, but I can use it as part of my studies to firm up on core concepts and jargon
Moleskine Classic Extended Notebook – what, paper?! Surely not?! For me, it’s absolutely the way to go. All my notes from all resources I’ll be using will go in here..
Obsidian (on the screen shown above!) for tidying up my notes from my notebook and “distilling” the main messages (concept sneakily stolen from Tiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain”).
Software Engineering 10th Edition – Sommerville. A fab starter resource for everything software engineering, and an ideal toe-dipper to get me on my way.
I’ve heard mixed things about the overall “worth” of the CTFL qualification. Most of the negatives seem to come from those people that don’t have it. At the very least, the CTFL qualification is the ideal “foot in the door” qualification to get any prospective software tester CVs past the Level 1 “straight to bin” stage.
I’ll be posting my thoughts and progress on this exam in the blog. I hope this content resonates with some of you testers out there.
I’ve been dabbling with paper things again. And I’m really enjoying them! I’ve been trialing the Bullet Journal Method for the last 8 weeks, and doing some personal journaling, while still keeping my digital apps on the go. It works. My new mantra is “Paper Planning, Digital Presentation“.
It really is the best of both worlds. I’m loving the screen-free, tactile sensation of throwing thoughts and ideas on to paper. I’m equally loving the idea of presenting those thoughts digitally. Mainly as I have the handwriting legibility of a 2-year old, and it helps to read what I’ve thunk.
If I’ve learned anything through trying to find a system that works for me, it’s that no one size fits all. It is, after all, personal productivity. To get me to where I am, I’ve pinched from many sources to find what works for me.
Here’s the digital and analogue tools I’m using:
Digital
Gmail – email
Google Calendar – calendar
Google Keep – for quickie notes. Great on the phone to call up stuff quickly
Todoist – for all recurring home tasks (take out the bins, wash kitchen floor etc.) – I also use this with my wife for errands, monthly plans, and gift lists.
Nirvana – for all my non-recurring tasks, especially those associated with work.
Obsidian – for digital presentation of my “learning” projects.
Paper
Leuchtturm 1917 A5 hard-cover notebooks – one (a 411 notebook) that follows the Bullet Journal Method pretty closely. One that is just a freehand personal journal. I love Leuchtturm stuff. I’ve got the ballpoint and gel pens too. They’re great. The simplicity of having numbered pages too. That’s a big win for me.
Leuchtturm 1917 A6 Jot pad – this is a great little tool that I take out and about with me to make some quick paper notes. It’s mainly used as a “snag” catcher, which ultimately ends up as a task in Nirvana or Todoist.
RHODIA 118769C rigid notebook – dot-grid, a “sort of” bullet journal style for everything at work, using slightly different spreads and templates than those offered in the official Bujo book. I really like the “feel” of this notebook.
Moleskine Classic expanded notebook – a ruled book that will contain al my notes for an “ultralearning” project I’m working on.
My process is broadly based around GTD, with bits of Bujo, “Make Time”, “Ultralearning” and “Deep Work” thrown in!
Here’s what I’ll do on a daily basis:
Capture any items/thoughts on my Jotpad.
Evaluate and organise those captured items as projects, tasks or notes into either Nirvana (non-recurring tasks), Todoist (recurring tasks), or my bullet journal for notes.
Move notes into Obsidian when appropriate (end of day, or end of week)
Do a daily review in my bullet journal, and set up the next day’s bullet journal day – with at most 3 tasks (one of which is the day’s “highlight”)
Do the work – typically using The Pomodoro Technique as I’m a terrible procrastinator
Do an end of day longhand journal entry.
Do a GTD-like Weekly Review (often on a Sunday morning)
Set up a Monthly review/spread set up on the last day of every month for the following month in the Bullet Journal. (I love this ritual!)
Review/revise any Quarterly Themes or goals
I’ll no doubt refine this going forward, but for now – it works for me!
After a year or so pointing my blog domain name at Medium, I’ve come back to WordPress.
Why?
Well, editing posts on WP is just more flexible. I’m more in control of how things should look and can easily faff about with CSS/HTML and arrange as I want. I’m also fully in control of the content I post.
I’m not going to diss Medium, however. It’s an extremely valuable site – with great articles from talented writers – and if I find that I can devote more time to writing and, perhaps get good at it, I may devote more time to it again.
I’ll keep “The Dunn Thing” publication going on Medium – for now it’ll be to duplicate some content from this site just to see if there’s any interest or traction.
Any hoo. I’m really pleased to be back with my WordPress site and hope to make some interesting posts, armed with my lovely Canva and SketchWow apps to hopefully make content interesting for y’all.
