That feeling when NS&I send you an email on premium bonds draw day, only for you to log in and find it's just a duplicate 'secure' message copy of an email they sent you 4 days ago.

Thinking about making an illustrated picture book called 'look mum, that looks like grandad' and it's just a series of different people, animals and objects wearing a flat cap.

What can you learn about team dynamics from watching a film about football? Quite a lot actually. See my weeknote. richblake.github.io/blog/weeknot...

I'm slowly trying to get into week-noting and writing more about creating great teams as well as living with arthritis. Feel free to follow along. Oh, and there's a backlog of ideas linked from the homepage. richblake.github.io/blog/weeknot...

At least the worst user journey about going to the library in the sodding rain only to realise you forgot to bring the book you wanted to return is that you can just renew it and get another book.

Trying to decide how to log a cook book in story graph. 100% when you've done the flick through of the pictures and decided what you like the look of? 100% when you've read all of the prose at the start of the book? 100% when you've cooked every recipe? surely not!

My service to Hertford North (on the tannoy) says Cambridge North on all of the in train signs. I am feeling quite tired. so let's see if I end up in the right county or not.

Need to spot a Brit in Helldivers 2? Simple! Watch for people getting into the right hand side of the fast recon vehicle expecting to put the pedal to metal and get the hell out of danger. Then a sad pause, followed by a 'loop of shame' where we run around to the left side. Drive on Diver!

Welcome to Jira Camp. We're going to stand in a circle, and update each other on how we got on. When you're done. just trust fall into the arms of the next person so they know it's their turn to talk.

I WAS RIGHT FFS!

In today's episode of Rich is an idiot. I've been playing a lot of Clair Obscur. It has a lot of French swearing in it, which I don't know the words for 😇 Anyway I've figured out that they're not exclaiming about a Canadian dish of chips, cheese and gravy when bad things happen.

The pricks in my pub come with a follow up tetanus shot.

Who's taking part in 'bring your parents to work day' tomorrow. And will it help them understand what you do? How many of them are going to have a sleepless night thinking you're going to physically put them inside a computer?

Was feeling the high of hearing my new PC is on the way. Then hit by the car crash low of seeing the words 'our delivery partner is DPD'.

Slack is such a menace for focus.

Playing a co-op campaign of BG3 and my companion made a bad roll which angered Scratch during the meet. And now I need to spend the next sixty hours campaign being cross at them. Poor Scratch.

Ah! Sunshines out. Time to start my annual campaign annoying my science friends by saying 'Ahh time to cool down with a refreshing, cooling cup of tea'

Hello Germany 👋 Please can you think about the name of the compound noun that you'd use to describe the feeling of editing a 500 page document using Microsoft word on a slow laptop. If you can't help, I may need to learn how to communicate in emoji. 🐌😭😱🚨😅

There's been a great disturbance in the force. Jira has moved the drop down to transition the state of a story. The plans for the death star can't go into 'sent' if you can't find the drop down to change the status from 'open planetary shield' after you've fought Krennic on the Comms tower.

We need to come up with a word to describe the temperature of water that comes out of your pipes after we've all set out boilers into summer mode because of one 'almost' heat wave two weeks ago.

My local council has switched from one 'remember what bin day it is' tool to another, but they've got rid of the old tool without putting in place the new tool until an unspecified date... My neighbour is on holiday. So I guess we're in the end times now.

Slip of the day.. Don't worry. I'll do the Spreadshit bit for you, so you don't have to. Spreadsheets Rich. 🙈

Scientists should study the nausea created by asking your northern friend (bonus pain: I'm also a northerner) how much they'd reckon the flat you're living in would cost

If a colleague tells you they've just redone their website and are going to start writing some more blog posts, I will be happy for them... but also start planning for them to leave 🤣

Had a power cut this morning about 7 am. Just got home and reset the cooker clock. And now my flat will be operating on the Next Power Cut time zone until further notice. It's now 00.01 NPC

Split Fiction is hands down the most fun video game I've played in a really long time. It's funny, silly and really well designed.

You know when you are old when you have to introduce the idea that there's an actor called Adam Sandler and he had a movie called waterboy to someone during a tea break at work.

I'm not into contact sports but that was wild. Bluesky artists 1 - Adobe 0. Well played.

Since ancient times it's been said that eclipses aren't truly over until you've checked the chart of Google searches to see the spike in search terms like 'Why are my eyes sore' 🌙

Just wrote the sentence 'Jira is infinite' and I had to go take a break and have a word with myself in the mirror.

This is a call to all friends of a fellow Kevin to follow my petition to have the Kiloelectronvolt (KeV) removed as the keyboard default abbreviation when you type 'Kev'. keV is more than just kinetic energy. He tells dad jokes too.

2 presentations today within 45 min to the same people The first, improvised. It felt natural and fine. Second prepared, but scripted. It caused a full on panic attack 2 hrs later. Knew from rehearsing it might happen Brains are weird It's OK to find presentations tough Important to do anyway

In today's 😱 how did I get so old the 'left shark dance' gif, which I use daily is now ten years old.

👀 Mid level and Senior Developers in Bristol, London and Manchester Last week GOV.UK Pay completed £38.80m in payments safely, securely and accessibly. 💸 We are recruiting permanent roles until 24th February 2025. Apply now www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi....

Yeah, sure. Autonomy, mastery and purpose are all good measures of motivation theory, but has anyone studied the motivation fuel that is slack tada emojis on your messages.🎉

If anything can make you go 😱 when you're making a large payment with a bank is your Nvidia driver install turning off your monitor the second you click 'confirn payment' 🤣

I am terrible at decision making when it comes to choosing my next read. Has anyone read any 5* fiction recently? 👀 Ideally an easy, but fun read, my brain is too full with other things. Bit of escapism, you know? I prefer one off stories, over saga 📚 Fantasy, sci-fi, action, ok to suprise me.

Spotify should have a special playlist controlled by your device 'brightness' settings to dictate the type of music that you are presented with. Feeling overjoyed? tap it up and start listening to something upbeat feeling down? tap it down and listen to the fray.

Rich, when someone said 'look, can you just be more agile'... just for a moment... you looked like an actual Meerkat. 🚨

📅 Save the date. GDS are hosting Agile London on 28 Jan 5pm to 7pm. Meet members of the Agile London commutniy and GDS. Can't wait to hear some great talks and thoughtful discussion with the attendees. See you there. www.meetup.com/agile-london...

Bath recommendations please! The city, not the tub. Looking for fun things to do with a friend on a Saturday in January (let's assume it's going to snow). Things to do, places to eat, drink welcome.

Please note that the fun will happen AFTER the planning. because that is the law.

I very rarely get hyped by movie trailers, but wow... that poem in the 28 years later trailer is chilling.

Oh, shit — well, I'd been ignoring it... but it's officially Christmas. now that these essays are out 🌲 www.ithoughtaboutthatalot.com

Don't forget it's the last super moon 🌕 of the year folks. Get yourself outside and take a look. Can recommend the last opportunity to experience the disappointing feeling of "well, I've already seen the moon before, but yes - maybe it's a bit bigger' 10/10

You'd think that Secret Escapes would be smart enough not to try to sell you a hotel next to Liverpool Street station in London when you are looking for hotels in Liverpool eh? Apparently not.

First Christmas Sandwich of the year from M&S. Not a strong start. Don't call it 'pigs in blankets' if you're not going to wrap the bacon AROUND the sausage. Lazy. Nice pickle though. 4/10.

I tried to use a LLM to help break my writers block. I find it really hard to write, but I know I can talk out loud about the aubject. So I bought a subscription and tried voice chat hoping it can just listen and it has NO CHILL... just let me say ummm for a second? Please?

Big announcement folks. I've been diligently writing a book after years of research and practice. Today I'm pleased to announce its title. 🥁 Charcuterie driven development: how to stay lean and agile on the cheese and fatty meats Chapter 1. Choosing your board and cheese lanes 🧀 ...

Imagine being a product manager on linkedin and saying. 'i know. We need puzzle games' as a platform feature.... and then people buying into that.