The Self-Referential Portrait

One Street: Market Square, Shipley #54

I'm writing this up on the last train home. It's getting rather tedious to keep saying that it's been a long day. For you as well as me. I'm working on a complex and important piece of code and I'm having great difficulty in debugging it. Unfortunately, it needs to be ready for Monday. It's one of those cases where it really has to happen but I can't see the how. At the moment I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. I'm sure I'll find a way to get there. I invariably do. It's just that it takes me so much longer now than it used to when my mind was more agile.

That said, I know my mind is still reasonably agile. I was quite shocked today at my young and supposedly smart team. We were going through our list of tasks to complete in order to get to the next delivery point on our new software, allocating hours to each, when came the time to add them all up. We use our own software for managing our software development, which works rather well for the most part but is currently lacking any analysis tools. It didn't occur to me to do anything other than add the figures up in my head. There were about 50 rows in the table and it couldn't have taken more than 20 seconds. I gave them the figure I computed but they refused to trust me. They were entirely compelled to follow their own method of exporting the table and importing it into Excel, from where they could do the calculation. It must have taken them the best part of 5 minutes, mostly because Microsoft Office wasn't installed on the machine we were using! My figure was 184 hours. Theirs - eventually - was 187 hours. I was mortified that I'd missed a row and had got it wrong. They were gob-smacked that I was so close. It then occurred to me that this generation has never had to do any mental arithmetic. With calculators always to hand they have never had to acquire the skill. It's something I guess I've always taken for granted. It felt good to be able to have one chalked up to the old man for a change!

Since this blip taken on the train the other week, I've been on the lookout for my own reflection when taking portraits on the street and an opportunity arose today on my brief foray into Market Square. John here is quite a character, a rather languid sort of fellow. After a short conversation he decided that I was far too trusting in humanity for my own good. "You've never had a bad experience with a stranger have you?," he asked, and I'm sure I haven't. I think I have a natural trust and respect for everyone I meet and that seems to be reflected back to me. To that extent I certainly believe in Karma. Those people who lack a faith in and a respect for their fellow human beings are likely to have that enmity returned to them. "It doesn't mean to say that you never will," he continued, "and when it comes it will be a really bad one!" Despite our very different philosophies I still rather liked this John. When I first asked him for a photograph he declined but by the time we'd finished talking he'd changed his mind. I'm really glad he did. It still amazes me how few people say no when I ask, especially considering how intimate a portrait is. I can see that revealed here very clearly.

Thanks for all the kind words and stars and hearts for yesterday's blip. You're very kind. I only have a few minutes of opportunity each day at the moment but I keep being granted these gifts. Each feels like a little everyday miracle. It's wonderful to be able to share them with you.