2014 Resolutions Wrap Up

As the year draws to a close, it's about time to see how I fared in keeping my resolutions this year.

Resolutions wrap up

Major resolutions

1. Go to the gym three times a week

This lasted until about halfway through the year - around the time we had to move to Newcastle - and while I've started riding to work (reasonably regularly), I still don't think this quite counts as being kept. Better luck next year, I guess. 

2. Drink less alcohol

I think I could count on my fingers the number of times I've actually been drunk this year, and even when I've had a few drinks socially, I have definitely cut down on the quantity. I've shifted to fewer, better quality drinks - craft beers and international brews. Yes, that makes me sound like a hipster douchebag, but on the upside at least I can chalk this resolution up as being kept.

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June

You know what they say - better late than never. My half of the wedding was 'paid back' in September, the savings of which are now going towards our house deposit. You can read more of a recap back here.

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge

Done and dusted. I covered this not too long ago here, and made an Excel creation for anyone who wants to do the challenge next year.

5. Practice mindfulness

I have made a good start on my journey to mindfulness. I have covered the app I have used to guide me through the practice here and, more recently, my stats so far here. I think this resolution has made the most impact on my wellbeing this year; I believe it has made me more resilient and able to cope with changes throughout the year. I am looking forward to continuing the practice next year.

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life

I am not sure whether I have fulfilled this one or not - I hope I have. If I have been in touch with you throughout 2014, for a birthday or just catching up, I hope that I have made that moment with you enjoyable and special.

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band!

Most of this resolution didn't really get off the ground due to relocating to Newcastle. But on the positive side, I did keep up the good work with the band. My Canberran band Tortured got a bunch of stellar gigs this year, supporting a lot of great local and renowned international acts. While I can't possibly remember every gig we've played in 2014, among the highlights were sharing the stage with Carcass, Coroner, Sinister, Hypno5e, Psychrist and Cruciform, and tearing it up a East West Deathgrind Fest again this year. While I never expect that I'll make it big playing death metal, it's definitely rewarding to look back and appreciate some of those moments.

Minor resolutions

1. Music Tuesday and rudiments practice

A good idea that was slightly spoiled by moving back to Newcastle. On the plus side, I've started jamming with some good mates on a Tuesday night now - you can check out some of their work here.

2. Mind expansion Sunday

Another good idea, but I didn't stick to it too well. Here's some things I've put my mind to this year: Stuff You Should Know podcast episodes, re-learning statistical techniques, learning how to code in SAS, modern monetary theory, and trying to understand trends in technology and the internet. Next year, I think I'll try doing an online course on Coursera or something similar.

3. Writing this blog

This post will mark the 45th post of this year, and while I haven't quite made it to 52 posts or one post per week, I wasn't overly far behind. I had other posts in 'Draft', but I hadn't quite developed the ideas in them far enough to be happy with them. Again on the plus side, I've managed to stick to writing on a semi-regular basis now for twelve months, which is a lot further than I've got previously. Additionally, I'd say my writing style has developed somewhat by putting all these paragraphs in the cloud. 

There's definitely something to be said about just sitting down and starting to write - I didn't much feel like writing today, but once I got going the words really started to flow. I enjoy writing and I'd like to do more of it, more often, though I think that next year I will give myself more time to develop my posts before publishing them. I often found myself rushed this year, trying to think of something to write each week, and because of that I feel that the posts I wrote ended up being very focused on myself. Hopefully with some extra time between posts, I can look outwards a little more.

4. Spring cleaning the house

Well, this one didn't get far now did it? Again, better luck next year.

5. Read 12 books this year

I actually got much further with this in 2014 than I thought I was going to: the grand total for 2014 was 17 books read. If you've been reading this blog throughout the year, I have posted a quick summary each time I had finished one or two, but here's my full reading list for the year:

• A New Spring - Robert Jordan
• The Eye Of The World - Robert Jordan
• Louder Than Hell - Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman
• All three reviewed here.
• The Value of Nothing - Raj Patel
• The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan
• Both reviewed here.
• The Logic of Life - Tim Harford
• The Dragon Reborn - Robert Jordan
• Both reviewed here.
• Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
• Reviewed here.
• The Noticeably Stouter Book Of General Ignorance - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
• Reviewed here.
• Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
• The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan
• Both reviewed here.
• Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
• Reviewed here.
• Eric - Terry Pratchett
• Reviewed here.
• The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan
• Mortality - Christopher Hitchens
• Both reviewed here.
• Battlers and Billionaires - Andrew Leigh
• Reviewed here.
• Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan
• Reviewed here.

So all in all, this year's reading was pretty heavy on fantasy, with 11 of the 17 books written by either Robert Jordan or Terry Pratchett. The remaining six (non-fiction) books were a bit more of a mixed bag, though half of those were economics related (The Value of Nothing, The Logic of Life and Battlers and Billionaires). I think I'll keep a similar resolution for next year - 12 books is quite achievable, though I think I will try to aim for a little more balance between fiction and non-fiction.

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It's always refreshing to reflect on what you've done and how far you've come throughout the year; writing this post has given me some time to appreciate some of that. I have some ideas forming in my mind already about what my resolutions for 2015 will be. I hope you will join me again on that journey. But for now, I'm off to the Hunter Valley to bring in the new year - have a great 2015!

Stats from Headspace

It's coming towards the end of the year, so I thought I would write a couple of posts on stats from the various web services I use. Today I look at my stats from Headspace, which I wrote a review on earlier this year. This was one of my strategies to address my resolution to be more mindful this year; the other was changing my approach to 'to do' lists using iDoneThis, which I sort of covered here. Anyhow, onto the basic stats that are available through the app itself:

Click to enlarge. Source: https://www.headspace.com/

I signed up for Headspace on 11 April this year, though I had already completed the first series (Take 10) which was available as a free trial, so I think I first started meditating on April Fool's Day. Excel tells me that, as at today, that is 267 days ago. Completing 174 sessions over this time is a rate of about 65%, so a little over one session every two days. Meditation is supposed to be a daily practice, so I guess I'll have to work on lifting that one.

I was actually rather surprised by the total time I've spent meditating: three thousand, one hundred and eighteen minutes. There are 1440 minutes in a day, so that equates to a little over two whole days spent meditating this year.

It should be noted that I signed up before they released 'Version 2' of Headspace, so I am still working my way through Version 1. The Series Progress in the above stats only shows progress against Version 2 packs. In Version 2, you can pick any series that you want to do, in whatever order you wish; however, in Version 1, you have to complete each series in a linear order (see graphic below). I am currently about halfway through the Creativity series (the 6th series), so I have some way to go before I move onto Version 2.

Click to enlarge. Source: https://www.headspace.com/

As I haven't spent much time in Version 2, I haven't really used any of the Singles packs yet. But the small experience that I've had with them has been positive. There are three Singles packs: On-the-go is for extending mindfulness to day-to-day activities, like walking, eating or sleeping. Classic delivers guided or unguided meditation for set length of time. And SOS is for when you really need to get some perspective.

I usually like to try to meditate in the morning to set myself up for the day, but there's a lot of times when that won't happen. I haven't been in a good routine lately, hence why my current run streak is zero, The maximum run streak I've got to is 15, which earns you a reward - a month free to give to someone else - which is nice.

As with any new (good) habit, your body and mind will often fight to keep you at your current status quo. Seeing stats like these helps me to stay motivated to keep doing whatever it is I'm currently doing. I find them useful to keep the tendency to be pulled back to the status quo at bay.

Another major resolution down and another excel creation

Resolutions update

Major resolutions

1. Go to the gym three times a week

2. Drink less alcohol

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June (Finished September 2014)

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge (finished 19 December 2014)

5. Practice mindfulness

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band!

Minor resolutions

Music Tuesday and rudiments practice

Mind expansion Sunday

Writing this blog

Spring cleaning the house

Read 12 books this year - Done!

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With the Thursday just past being the last pay week of the year, I can officially say I have now completed the 26 Fortnight/52 Week Saving Challenge. The fundamental idea is that you can save about $1,400 over the course of a year - starting with just $1 - by saving one extra dollar each week than the previous week. I made a couple of modifications to this to fit my circumstances. For instance, I adjusted the amounts for a fortnightly pay cycle and reversed the order of the payments. I did this so that it got easier throughout the year and so that I wasn't trying to put away more money during the time of year where I would need the extra disposable income (basically from September to December or birthday/Christmas season). After a few pays, I also upped the ante by adding a fixed amount to make the end result prettier - after all Jess and I are trying to save for a house deposit so I wanted to have very little disposable income available.

Looking at how I went over the whole year, I only actually missed four payments. However, they took a long time to catch back up on. The culprits? Clearing credit card debt and registering my car. While I always try to keep my credit card completely paid off, if left unchecked, it's easy to let small amounts grow into bigger ones. And car rego always buggers me up; every year I vow to make sure I put a little bit away to prepare for it, but it never ends up happening.

Thinking about trying the challenge for yourself? Well, luckily for you I've made a modified version of the Excel spreadsheet I used to keep track of how I went. You can find it by clicking the link below:

DOWNLOAD SAVING CHALLENGE SPREADSHEET

It's pretty straightforward to use:

1. Download the file and open it (you'll need Microsoft Excel to run it obviously)
2. Click 'Enable Content' near the top of the screen to allow the macros to work. The macros in this workbook just hide rows in the table that you don't need to see, depending on whether you say you are paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly
3. Complete the Salmon/Pink shaded cells on the Info worksheet
4. Click the button
5. You're done! Update this table each time you get paid to see how you are tracking.  

If you have any problems, suggestions, questions or feedback, let me know in the comments.

Book Review: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

Making it the 17th book I've read this year, this week I cover Robert Jordan's Lord of Chaos.

So it turns out I was wrong, and I could actually finish another book before the end of the year. All this driving to and from Canberra recently has been an opportunity to make good headway on listening through audiobooks.

Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there in a number of formats

The sixth book in the Wheel of Time series follows a number of story arcs. Escaped 'false dragon' Mazrim Taim swears to the Dragon Reborn and is given the task of finding and training other men who can wield the one power; the rebel Aes Sedai and the White Tower both send emissaries to court Rand's allegiance; Nyaneve and Elayne are sent to find a powerful relic to try to break the Dark One's hold on the weather; Egwene's training with the Wise Ones is cut short when she is summoned without warning to the rebel Aes Sedai; Perrin is pulled to Rand, feeling that Rand will need him; Queen Morgase is detained by the Children of the Light; and Mat is caught in the middle of a lot of plots, and is generally shoved this way and that.

Book Review: Battlers and Billionaires by Dr Andrew Leigh

Is there a strain on the Australian social fabric? Battlers and Billionaires looks at the historical trends in inequality in Australia to find out.

I usually wouldn't make a post for just a single book, but it's getting close to the end of the year and I'm not sure if I'll finish another between now and then. That, and I've still got some catching up to do on my blog posts - so yay for extra content.

As much as I love my Kindle, sometimes you want to read a real bookbook. So I went down to my local library over the weekend, procured a library card and borrowed Battlers and Billionaires. As an aside, libraries are seriously underrated - I will have to write about this at a later date. Anyway, I had a bit of extra time to read this week because I was travelling for work, so I was able to knock this one over pretty quickly.

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there for Kindle or on Paperback.

I've got a fair bit of respect for Andrew Leigh. He's one of only a handful of federal MPs that I can think of who has a PhD, and I think he's one of the only ones that doesn't distance themselves from it for fear that being seen as an academic will somehow make him less relatable to ordinary folk. In fact, probably because he is an academic, you get the sense that he values data and evidence, and can be objective; other MPs might talk about 'evidence-based policy', but - for me at least - he walks the walk. It also helps that he has a passion for the dismal science - economics - so that gets points in my book.

Battlers and Billionaires, as the subtitle neatly describes, is the story of inequality in Australia; firstly looking at inequality over time through the lenses of income, wealth and consumption, then examining its drivers, effects and possible solutions. And it does this in a relatable, conversational tone which makes it easily readable, and easy to grasp his arguments. Note that Leigh doesn't argue that we should pursue perfect equality, or that we should attempt to recreate the 1970s-1980s. His main point is that inequality is an issue worth discussing and addressing, and that we could apply lessons learnt from this period to today.

A couple of things struck me while reading this book. The first being that your perspective of Australian inequality very much depends on when you were born; Leigh's anecdote is that older Australians have mostly experienced falling inequality throughout their lives, with the last few decades being "an aberration", whereas those in Generation Y have only seen increasing inequality.

The second was how high tax rates were during the War periods. In the later years of World War II, the top marginal tax bracket was 93%. Clearly this was required to shift resources from the private sector to the public sector to assist the war effort, but it also shows that Australians can withstand much higher tax rates providing it is linked to the national interest. This is quite relevant today, despite political rhetoric that 'Australians are paying too much tax'.

Overall, I thought it was worthwhile reading.

An issue I have with Facebook

Face facts: You probably have a lot of people on Facebook that you don't interact with. If you don't interact with them, why do you remain "friends"? Does Facebook hold relationships in stasis?

You're probably most likely reading this because of a link that I posted (automatically) on Facebook. If so, congratulations - you made the cut. Yesterday morning I shortened my friends list on Facebook by more than half; from about 150 to less than 75. I culled, and I culled hard. My guiding rule was that if you are not family and I haven't spoken to you (outside of a work environment) in the last 6-12 months then you're out. And I feel lighter for it.

My interest in Facebook was already waning, and especially since I did a month without media at all. I've stated before that the only useful features of Facebook now are messaging and events. In fact, with the Facebook Messenger app and integration of Facebook events with my regular calendar app, I pretty much have no need for Facebook's news feed and no desire to check it, except if I'm bored, procrastinating or looking for something to do that doesn't require much thinking or effort. Hypothetically then, if I've dramatically reduced the number of potential sources that populate my news feed, and if those who are left are the contacts that I value most, shouldn't the outcome be a news feed that I am more interested and engaged with? Maybe, but this doesn't take into account whether the stuff that people post is interesting. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

One element that I dislike about Facebook is that it preserves relationships in some sort of cryogenic stasis. To me, relationships are organic. They are created and sustained by mutual interaction, sometimes they bloom into something bigger that can be sustained over a long period of time, but sometimes they don't, and sometimes they fade. There's nothing inherently good or bad about any of this, but Facebook doesn't allow much for relationships to fade. If you've known someone, anyone, at some point in your life, you can be branded as "friends" by Facebook. Maybe you were at some point, maybe you weren't. But that distinction isn't really separated by Facebook. Being branded as "friends" conjures up a lot of connotations, whether intentionally or not, and this makes it a very hard decision (in the sense of being both difficult and cold) to "unfriend" someone. I visualise the concept of unfriending someone online as the digital equivalent of your primary school self saying "You're not my friend anymore" in the playground - that it is a very hurtful thing to do to another person. Only it shouldn't be. Some relationships dissolve over time - people change and shared interests and situations fall away. And that's okay, in real life and online. But I'd prefer not to be psychologically held hostage and compelled to remain attached to people when I haven't maintained a relationship with them in reality. I'd bet that Facebook would never introduce a feature that reflects your actual social network; one that would automatically unfriend people based on how much interaction you have with them.

And yet, there's some part of me that is afraid of missing out. Afraid that by not using technology to keep in touch with people or to expand my social circle, that I'm missing out on opportunities to refresh those connections or be able to take advantage of them (you know, the I-know-a-guy situation). Unfortunately, this appears to be the cost of a bit more privacy and a bit less inanity.

Book Review: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan and Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

With the reading challenge surpassed, this week I review Mortality by Christopher Hitchens and The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan.

Well, this is a bit of a surprise - I didn't think I'd be able to read 12 books in a year, let alone 15. There's something a little different too. I thought I may have been reading too much fiction and not enough that was grounded in reality, so I decided to read Christopher Hitchens's final book Mortality.

The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there in a range of formats.

The fifth book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series follows the beginnings of Rand's campaign towards the Last Battle. Rand pursues the Shaido Aiel across the Spine of the World following the trail of death left in their wake. Long-dead memories help Mat become an adept battle strategist  while he attempts to break away from the Dragon Reborn. Elayne and Nyaneve find their way to the rebel Aes Sedai and Queen Morgase of Andor escapes from a trap of compulsion.

Mortality - Christopher Hitchens

Image credit: Amazon, available in a range of formats.

Christopher Hitchens has long been a hero of mine. His last book before his death is his raw, confronting story of his diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and his observations on the way we think and speak about death in our day to day lives. Part of what is so powerful about this book is because of it's rawness; it is not complete - you can envision that Hitchens had much grander plans for this book, but was cut short. The final chapter is a collection of his jottings and notes, of ideas that he wanted to connect, of chapters he wanted to form - perhaps after doing some more research or reading, or perhaps just that he hadn't yet gotten to writing them. A writer, public speaker and debater without equal - fearless to speak his mind, charismatic and witty; the world has indeed lost one of it's greats.

I'm back (kind of)

My trusty Excel calculation (=weeknum(today(),1))) informs me that the 44th week of the year is coming to an end quickly, and I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to meet my goal of writing one blog post a week this year. So then, a quick update of what I've been up to while I haven't been blogging.

Basically, I've been fucking busy. My last post was at the start of October, and since then I've:

• celebrated Jess's birthday (which was a bonanza)
• celebrated Erin's birthday
• played a gig with Tortured
• driven down to Canberra and back twice
• started doing some research assistant work for Jess' mum
• finished a book and started two more and 
• started jamming with Namazu - a new Newcastle band with a bunch of cool guys, including Ian and Scott from my Exploding Clover days (You can check out some of their stuff here.)

All while also working full-time - it's been absolutely hectic. In fact, this weekend is going to be my first that is reasonably clear in all that time, and it's only because I'm planning on celebrating my birthday. I'm heading out to Potters Brewery in the Hunter Valley for lunch and tomorrow I'll be going out to Springloaded in Gateshead - a room full of trampolines - to throw dodgeballs at my closest friends. Followed by a barbecue.

On the subject of birthdays, Jess's birthday went very well this year - we had dinner and cheesecake with her family one night, we went out for dinner at Fortunate Son the next (awesome restaurant on Beaumont Street, by the by), and we had a barbecue with our friends the day after. And she seems to have really enjoyed her gifts, most of which I coordinated.

Last weekend, Tortured played a gig at The Basement in Canberra with Claret Ash, Psychrist and Cruciform. It was a pretty bad-ass show; all the bands were goddamn heavy, and I think we devastated even though we haven't had as much jam time since I moved to Newcastle. We even had our former bandmate Bobby from Wretch join us on stage, so meaty dual guitars topped off our sound for the night. Once again, I've got to give kudos to Aaron from Claret Ash for letting me use his kit; travelling light between Newcastle and Canberra is a huge bonus for me.

In other news, I saw that today was supposed to mark the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo if you insist. I was considering taking part, however, with how little time I have at the moment, I feel I would be crushed by the weight of the 1,700 or so words that I would need to write everyday to complete the challenge. Next year, mayhap.

One major resolution down!

Resolutions update

Major resolutions

1. Go to the gym three times a week

2. Drink less alcohol

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June (Finished September 2014)

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge

5. Practice mindfulness

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band!

Minor resolutions

Music Tuesday and rudiments practice

Mind expansion Sunday

Writing this blog

Spring cleaning the house

Read 12 books this year - Done!

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It's taken a little longer than anticipated, but I've finally managed to pay back my share of the wedding. This goal was kind of arbitrary as Jess and I paid for our wedding with our own savings, so we weren't really paying anyone back per se, the goal was just to break even/get back to where we were beforehand. The money that we 'paid back' for the wedding has been going towards our house deposit.

Most of the other goals don't have a defined end date, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post another of these until the end of the year.

On another note, I've started getting back into Mind Expansion Sunday - now that I have something to work on, that is. I recently found out I can undertake SAS training through my job at the University, so I intend on working my way through those courses and hopefully getting a SAS Advanced Programmer certification. After finishing that, I've been thinking about doing some stuff through Coursera or Khan Academy etc.

Until next time!

Update to my printer-friendly Pocketbook report template

Recently, I built a printer-friendly version of Pocketbook’s Analyse feature. It was functional, but not very refined. I have spent a little time polishing it.

The new features are as follows:

• Categories created by users no longer need to be added in manually. If you add new categories using Pocketbook, they will update once you click ‘Refresh PivotTable Data’. 
• Categories can now be shown by both ‘Parent Category’ and ‘Detailed Category’ e.g. ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Entertainment – Drinks’ respectively. The Source Data tab has a function to define the Parent Category by looking at the Detailed Category string.
• Because of this, the Income and Expenses by Category tables can now (and do) show a summary by the Parent Category. 
• The Expenses by Category graph is now beside the ‘Income/Expenses Breakdown’ graph on the Report tab. It also now summarises transactions by the Parent Category and the categories are flipped to show to highest expenditure category at the top of the graph. 
• A breakdown of the detailed categories is now given on the ‘Report p.2’ tab. This allows you to drill down, once you have the overall picture. If need be, you can look at the individual transactions by filtering the ‘Source Table’ worksheet. 
• A new button has been added to the ‘Report’ tab that allows the ‘Transferring Money’ category to be excluded from the PivotTables (it is excluded from the Reconciliation table by default). If you want to put them back, just click ‘Refresh PivotTable Data’ again.

The only thing that needs to be done manually now is to load the latest transaction data from Pocketbook into the ‘Source Table’. Once that is done, just hit ‘Refresh PivotTable Data’ on the Report tab, and watch it work! 

Pocketbook has over 100,000 users now, so again I hope others find this useful. Unfortunately, I’ve only got my own data to test this on, so debugging can be a little difficult. If you have any problems, suggestions, questions or feedback about it, feel free to leave me a comment below.

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE

Chapter II - Command and Control (SW:EotE RPG Fiction)

 The following is a fan-fiction story based on our adventures in the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire roleplaying game. You can read Chapter I here or by, you know, scrolling down to the previous post.

I'm hoping to have the rest of the story written up soon. Writing the narrative version takes a lot longer than I expected!

Chapter II - Command and Control

     Oskara, Lowhhrick and Pash wandered out of the cantina and into the heat of Mos Shuuta. They made their way down the gritty dirt and sandy streets towards Vorn's Junk Shop. As they walked, they passed a stable of dewbacks in an enclosure. The cold-blooded reptiles were clearly unconcerned by the baking heat of the twin suns of Tatooine.

     The narrow alleyway they were walking down opened into a medium-sized, square plaza. Circling the outside of the plaza were a number of small pourstone buildings. Each must have been white originally, but were now discoloured to a pale orange by the constant desert winds over the years. Parts of the buildings had avoided at least some of the discolouration. The domed roofs, for instance, still reflected a slightly brighter white than the walls. Most of the buildings around the plaza had leather or hide awnings stretched out in front of their entrances to provide a skerrick more shade. Townsfolk were clustering around the few stalls that were scattered about the place. The plaza had exits on each of its four corners; one that they had come from, one that led towards the electrogate - the border and exit of the town itself into the rolling deserts of Tatooine - one wide thoroughfare that led towards Teemo the Hutt's Palace, and one that led deeper into Mos Shuuta.

     "I can see the junk shop," Oskara said pointing down the street, "the scrapyard is a dead giveaway."
     "Let's just hope he's still got that part, so we can get off this rock" Pash added.

     Stepping inside the junk shop, Vorn looked up from a low counter covered with disassembled droids and machine parts. He was a hunched, old man, but still reasonably sprightly for someone well past his middle years. Vorn turned to a garbage-can shaped R5 unit by his side, and gave it a swift kick.

     "You're supposed to tell me when I've got customers, you useless bucket of bolts!" he yelled angrily "Now get outside and finish stripping that speeder bike wreck." The R5 droid extended his lead wheel and trundled off with a surly string of beeps. It was probably something like '!@#$ you' in droid parlance.

     "You just can't get good help these days," he said frustratedly, turning towards the entrance "welcome to my shop anyhow".
     "As you can see," he continued, waving his arms toward the racks and shelves and enormous buckets full of scrap metal and parts "I have anything that you could want -". Vorn rubbed his thumb and forefingers together, "- for the right price, of course".
     "We're looking for a hypermatter reactor ignitor," Pash said "you wouldn't have one by any chance?"
     "Well, I did have one," Vorn replied, "but I've already promised it to Captain Trex of the Krayt Fang. He's paying top dollar for it too."
     "Wouldn't you rather sell the part to us than to Trex?" Pash went on, "You know, because we're so likeable and he's a bad man."
     "Fat chance," the old man replied curtly "if you want it so badly, why don't you try to convince me the only way that matters - with credits". Pash moved a little closer toward the shopkeeper and lowered his voice.
     "How about you sell it to us at the same price that Trex is paying you, or I'll get my Wookiee friend here to pull your arms out of your sockets" Pash flashed a glance to Lowhhrick, who grunted approvingly.
     "Alright, alright. No need to get nasty." Vorn walked over to one of the shelves and picked up the small, cylindrical part. "You drive a hard bargain, but you can have it for 500 credits."
     "Have you got anything else? Any weapons or armour?"
"Nothing like that here," Vorn conceded "but I've got a few stimpacks and repair kits lying around".
     "Perfect, we'll take those too."

     Oskara, Lohhrick and Pash pooled their credits and handed over the price Vorn had asked for the items. Pash bundled the hypermatter reactor ignitor into his backpack, and shared the stimpacks and repair kits around. Leaving the shop, Pash said to the others in a soft voice to avoid any prying ears, "I used to fly cargos in and out of this place. When you land, Spaceport Control engages docking clamps on your ship so they can control the arrivals and departures centrally - and to prevent smugglers from getting away easily. We won't get far unless we can disable those docking clamps."
     "What are we waiting for then?" Oskara chimed in, "Let's go get them un-clamped!"
"It's this way" said Pash, gesturing the others to follow him.

     The Spaceport Control facility was a low, squat building which clung to the edge of the rocky cliff-face Mos Shuuta was built upon. Two security droids were posted at the entrance, standing at attention.
     "You guys distract the droids," Oskara said "I'm going to see if there's another way in." Lohhrick gave a small grunt in agreement.
     As Pash and Lohhrick approached the droids, Oskara slipped casually down the alley beside the facility. As she made her way down the street, she could hear the faint sounds of Pash starting up a conversation with the droids.
    "So... er... how about that local sports team?"
Pash was definitely more attuned to charming ladies than to relating to droids.

     At the end of the alley, Oskara found a small, orange, metal door that belonged to a small chamber that jutted out of the side of the Spaceport Control facility. Two thick, but rusted iron rods held the door closed, and a small keypad terminal was attached to the wall beside them.
     "I've found a side entrance," Oskara whispered into her commlink "give me a minute to crack it"
Back with the droids, Pash was having a difficult time coming up with topics of shared interest.
"Umm... Did you hear about Alderaan? Crazy, right?" (Sidenote: In terms of timing, the destructive power of the Death Star had just been tested against Alderaan. Pash narrowly escaped his death by being arrested and transported offworld for grifting the streets of planet's capital city.)

     Oskara plugged her datapad into the terminal and ran a quick codebreak program. Cracking a lock isn't difficult for a seasoned bounty hunter, the trick is being able to crack it without any security system detecting that the code had been cracked. Fortunately, Oskara knows such a trick. Moments later, the door slid open in front of her with a satisfying swish of air.
     "I'm in" she whispered into her commlink.

     The room she entered was a small conference room. It possessed a small table with four high-backed chairs, a dark polished wood sideboard and a low, long grey cabinet. At the other side of the room was the door that led towards the facility's main control room. Moving stealthily, Oskara flattened herself against the wall beside the control room door.
     "What do you see?" Pash asked over the commlink.
"I see what you see human," The security droid responded condescendingly, "they don't give us state-of-the-art ocular receptors for nothing".
     Oskara spoke softly into the commlink.
"It's a large open chamber. Two more security droids on the inside near the hallways that lead toward the front entrance. There's also a woman here who looks to be in charge."

     The woman stood in front of a large holographic display of the local aerospace with her hands behind her back. Attached to her ear was a small blue and silver commlink headset.
"Imperial shuttle Lambda-11238, this is Overseer Brynn of Spaceport Control. You are cleared for landing. Welcome to Mos Shuuta." Half a dozen technicians of different species scurried around her, moving between different consoles and terminals .

     "If you do not have business at Spaceport Control, then move along human" one of the security droids said, as he pointed the pair down the street.
     "Ahh, I'm sick of these droids anyway, come on Lowhhrick" Pash said. Feigning to turn away, he quickly spun back, blaster drawn and fried one security droid at point-blank range. Lowhhrick roared, picking up the other droid and separating its smooth metallic head from its body.

     The sounds of blaster fire from outside whipped Spaceport Control into a frenzy. One of the technicians sounded the alarm, and the two droids guarding the main control room turned and ran towards the main entrance. Pash and Lowhhrick had taken cover behind the pourstone entryway pillars. The droids had them pinned under suppressive fire, but Pash and Lohhrick were serving up a volley of blaster fire in return. A droid landed a piercing shot to Lowhhrick's shoulder, causing the wookiee to howl and cry out in pain. Now he was really angry.

     Overseer Brynn drew a small blaster from a holster on her boot. Seeing a window of opportunity, Oskara dashed out from the conference room. Running with deadly silence and grace, she slid towards Brynn feet first, taking her legs out from under her. Whipping out a set of binders, Oskara cuffed Brynn's hands behind her back. The technicians scattered, making for the street.
     "Now, if you wouldn't mind deactivating those droids?" Oskara said curtly.
"Why should I, bounty hunter?" Brynn spat the words through clenched teeth. Oskara produced her blaster pistol and pointed it towards her.
     "Because I don't want to have to use this." There was a short pause before Brynn spoke defeatedly.
"Push that button there and bring the terminal to me," Brynn nodded toward the console "it's voice-imprinted". Oskara held the terminal up to her.
     "Security. Droid management." Brynn said flatly "Manual override. Remote shutdown. Confirm - shut them down".

     The droids stopped firing suddenly on Pash and Lowhhrick.
"Haha, she did it!" Pash exclaimed to the wookiee. Still in a foul temper and clutching his shoulder, Lowhhrick walked inside. The hair had been deeply seared and singed by the blaster shot. As he moved past the droids, a sudden impulse took him. He swung a giant haymaker at the motionless droid, knocking its head clean off.
"Yeah! Stupid droids! They can't hurt us, right Lowy?" Pash exclaimed. He took Lowhhrick's lead, jumped up and attempted to kick over the still droid he was walking past. Wookie strength and human strength differs greatly. Rather than knocking the droid over, Pash's kick had only succeeded in pushing himself away from the droid in mid-air and landing on the ground in a heap. Getting back on his feet, Pash looked around - nobody had seen, Lowhhrick had already made his way down the corridor to the main control room.

      "We need you to disengage the docking clamps of Landing Bay Aurek" Oskara demanded.
"The Krayt Fang?" Brynn stared at them all in shock "Why? The ship is a hunk of junk -"
     "Hunk of junk or not, it's our ticket off this rock" Pash interrupted.
Brynn spoke into the terminal once more,
"Departures. Docking Bay Aurek. Disengage docking bay clamps. There," she said "You're free to go."
     "But you're not," Oskara said slowly "I'm sorry. Lowhhrick?"
Lowhhrick approached the captive, crouched down to her level, licked her cheek and then summarily broke her neck. Let's just say that Lowhhrick's years of fighting to the death - everyone else's - as a gladiator, coupled with losing his family to Trandoshan hunters, had made the wookiee a prime candidate for post-traumatic stress disorder.

     "You didn't need to do that!" Pash interjected.
"What would you have me do? Let her go free?" Oskara glared at Pash "So she could re-arm the docking clamps on the Krayt Fang after we leave? Or re-activate the security droids, and send more of them after us? Or give our plan away to Teemo? Not a chance. I'm not taking any risks. I mean to be free of that disgusting Hutt, and get back home to protect my sister, whatever the cost."
     "Let's just... let's just have a look around and see if there's anything we can scrounge from around here" Pash responded uneasily. Oskara was right, but it was still difficult to stomach. Oskara retrieved her cuffs from the body, and tossed Brynn's nearby blaster to Pash.
"Here, two might be better than one."

     Searching the nearby office and side rooms, they found a few stimpacks, another set of binders,
and a small, broken pit repair droid.
     "This might come in handy," Oskara said as she put the compact, disc-shaped robot into her backpack "if I can find time to fix it up."

     "We'll have to cover our tracks." Oskara said to the other two as they were preparing to leave. "If we destroy the consoles and terminals here, no-one will be able to find out where we went." The smuggler and the wookiee nodded in agreement.
     "Ready?" she said "Now remember, the trick is to walk slowly and not look at the explosion".

     With sparks flying behind them, the crew sauntered casually down the steps at the entrance of the facility. You can imagine it in slow-motion, with Oskara carrying her heavy blaster rifle hefted over her shoulder and Pash putting on a pair of sunglasses, if you like.

A new game (Star Wars: Edge of the Empire) and a new story

Recently I bought Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - a properly nerdy pen and paper role playing game - and sat down with some friends and played through the beginner adventure included with the box. It was a hell of a lot of fun, but I thought it would be cool to write up what happened in our version of the adventure. I thought it might make an interesting running series, not to mention content for the blog.

Anyone who has played the Beginner Game will recognise the characters and the events that occur - they would have gone through the same adventure - however, what I think will make this interesting is the different choices that my friends made (they're a strange lot), and eventually when we break free of the opening adventure, it will be a chronicle of how events unfolded in one Edge of the Empire universe. Comments on the writing and story telling are welcomed. I've had to take a fair bit of poetic licence with the dialogue, but what unfolds is all in there unadulterated.

We're due to play again on Monday, so stick around if you're interested! Another chapter will be up later today!

Cast

Stuart Bell - Game Master (Guides the narrative, controls characters the players interact with etc)

Ryan Jackson - Oskara (Twi'lek - Former bounty hunter for Teemo the Hutt. Recently teamed up with Teemo's favourite gladiator, Lowhhrick, and pilot, Pash to flee Teemo's service after discovering his plans to seize a spice mine on her home planet which would put her sister in grave danger)

Ryan Davey - Lowhhrick (Wookie - Offered to help Oskara escape Teemo's servitude, under the condition that she take him with her)

Sam Broadbent - Pash (Human - Smuggler, conman, rogue... scoundrel. And an excellent pilot. Until recently, he had been flying cargos for Teemo in and out of Mos Shuuta - that is, until his last mission where the ship he had been flying (owned by Teemo) had been damaged beyond repair. He didn't stick around to see how Teemo reacted to this news)

                                                                                                                                                                   

Kudos to Kevin Lambert who made an opening sequence for this very adventure. Watch the below to get yourself in the right mindset, and to set the scene:

Chapter I - On the run from a gang of Gamorreans

     Oskara, Pash and Lowhhrick ran down a short flight of stairs into the cantina's shadowy common room. The cool air was a blessed relief from the scorching Tatooine heat. The Devaronian bartender paused in his chores to stare at the motley crew, his devilish features intimidating in the dim light. On a stage in the corner, a Twi'lek woman danced along to recorded music. Private booths lined the walls and chairs and tables scattered the cantina floor. Oskara's eyes darted around the room, looking for exits and places to hide. Storage closet, doorway behind the dancer, thick struts around the roof. Without a moment to lose, Oskara ran to the Twi'lek dancer.

     "Quick! You must help me," she spoke hurriedly in Twi'lekian, "there are Gamorrean thugs right behind us. I need to hide, please let me behind the stage". The dancer stopped in her routine, and suddenly looked afraid.
     "Come! You must hurry!" she speaks in a low whisper, as she ushers Oskara into the backstage dressing room. The dancer closed the door behind Oskara and returned to the stage, picking up her routine where she left off.

     As Oskara made her way to the dancer, Lowhhrick moved toward one of the booths, hoping to blend in with the cantina crowd. On his way, he attempted to take a drink from a nearby patron, to make it look as though he had been there all along. Unfortunately, the glass fumbled in his big, hairy Wookie hands, smashing it on the floor. The patron got up from his chair and began to shout at Lowhhrick.

     As the Wookie moved into the cantina, Pash decided to hideout behind the bar. Running quickly towards it, he put a hand on the bar to vault over it. Without noticing, he put his hand in a puddle from a spilt drink that had yet to be cleaned up by the Devaronian bartender. As he was mid-way through the vault, Pash's hand slipped out from underneath him, smashing a bunch of empty glasses and leaving him lying in a prone position atop the bar.

     At that moment, the three Gamorrean thugs burst into the cantina. They were pale-green, pig-featured beasts, and they were carrying heavy wooden cudgels. Pash drew his blaster pistol and let a shot fly, hitting one of the Gamorreans directly in the neck, killing him instantly. The patrons of the bar scattered; some hiding under the tables in the booths, others making for the door. The bartender took cover, crouching behind the bar, The remaining two thugs split up and quickly covered the distance to Lowhhrick and Pash. The one facing Lowhhrick dealt him a swift blow with his cudgel, while the one who ran to Pash swung the cudgel high and aimed for a crushing hit. Pash just managed to roll off the bar as the cudgel struck where his head would have been.

     Angered by the cudgel blow, Lowhhrick roared as he picked up the Gamorrean by his throat. Holding him high above the ground, Lowhhrick shook and choked the Gamorrean until he no longer moved. At that moment, Oskara ducked out from behind the stage, drew her blaster rifle, aimed and delivered a burst of laser fire to the thug standing over Pash, who had been ready to crack his skull open like a melon. The thug dropped to his knees, and then toppled over.

     There was silence in the cantina. Slow and unamused applause began to break it. The noise of conversation started back up, and patrons turned back to what they were doing; watching the Twi'lek dance or drowning their sorrows with a variety of beverages. The Devronian bartender stood up from behind the bar and peered over at Pash. He laughed a bitter, brittle laugh.

     "You look like folks who need to get off this planet in a hurry." he spoke. He wasn't concerned for their health and wellbeing - cantina brawls are a regular occurance in Mos Shuuta, the second-most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy - but more with the air of someone who doesn't want more trouble to befall his cantina. Lowhhrick and Oskara had moved to the bar, and helped to put Pash back on his feet.

     "Well there's good news and there's bad news," the bartender continued, "and then there's some more bad news. The good news is that there's a freighter docked in Landing Bay Aurek right now. The bad news is that it's captain, a Trandoshan-"

     Lowhhrick bared his teeth and growled at the mention of this. Trandoshans were the reason Lowhhrick had ended up working for Teemo the Hutt. On his home planet of Kashyyyk, Trandoshan raiding parties often hunt Wookiees for sport. One such raid had killed his sister and nephew. Lowhhrick had vowed to hunt down those responsible, but was captured and forced to fight for the amusement of others. Having made a name for himself in the ring, his contract had been acquired by Teemo.

     "-Trex is his name," the Devronian went on, eyeing the Wookie cautiously, "he's an associate of the Hutt's and he's not just going to welcome you on board. The other bad news is that the reason it's still in the landing bay is 'cause it's got a broken hypermatter reactor igniter. It won't be going anywhere until it gets a new one installed. Vorn over at the junk shop probably has one-". The bartender swept his arm up, pointing towards the door.

     "Now get out of my cantina! Haven't you caused enough trouble here?". Pash flipped the Devronian a credit chip.
     "Sorry about the mess." he added nonchalantly.

Book Review: Eric by Terry Pratchett

Eric

Image Credit: Amazon, available in numerous formats.

So this one didn't take me long. It was much shorter than most of the others I've read in the Discworld series, but no less funny. This novel introduces the demons of Discworld, which haven't made an appearance until now (as far as I recall anyway), but they must have always been there given the number of gods present on the Disc. Pratchett's vision of Hell is particularly interesting.

Eric is a young demonologist who, while trying to summon a demon to grant him three wishes, ends up with Rincewind and what he asked for but not what he wanted. Contains Rincewind's return and subsequently running away from all danger, attempted human sacrifice, references to Greek mythology, and the creation of the universe. Another enjoyable read.

Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and one minor resolution completed!

Done! Finished my twelfth book for the year!

Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

Image Credit: Amazon

Guards! Guards! centres around Anhk-Morpork's Night Watchmen, or the Watch. Schemes are afoot as a secret society plans to summon a dragon to overthrow the city's Patrician. When a number of people and shops are destroyed by a precise fire, the Watch is tasked with the job of getting to the bottom of it.

This has been one of the most entertaining books I've read in the Discworld series so far. I thought it would do really well as a graphic novel - and I've just had a look into it, and they have. I might have to buy that at some stage.

Resolutions update

Major resolutions

1. Go to the gym three times a week - was going well, then not so well leading up to the move. I've started riding my bike to work in Newcastle, but it has been raining a lot lately, so it hasn't really been an option.

2. Drink less alcohol - Was going pretty well, then not so well leading up to the move. Now a little better.

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June - Was going pretty well, then not so well leading up to the move. Should be on track to easily finish before the end of the year.

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge - A little behind on this one; see above.

5. Practice mindfulness - Tracking very well, I've started using Headspace and have completed Take 10, Take 15, Take 20 and the Discovery series. I'm now onto the Mind series.

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life - Generally going pretty well; Jess always helps me to remember people's birthdays (I'm crap with dates), I've been keeping a list of potential presents for others, and I've been trying to be less grumpy about social activity.

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band! - Well, the recording studio set up hasn't got far. I've dabbled in ProTools, but haven't got my head around it quite yet. But the band is going well; we've scored a few support slots this year for international acts, including Coroner, Carcass, and Sinister, and we're in the process of recording a new EP.

Minor resolutions

Music Tuesday and rudiments practice - Was going pretty well, then kind of dropped off. I've been starting to get back into it since the move back to Newcastle.

Mind expansion Sunday - Lasted a little while, but I haven't really picked it back up again.

Writing this blog - Overall, not going too badly. This will be my 32nd post for this year, and Excel informs me that this is the 35th week of the year, so I'm not overly far behind where I need to be.

Spring cleaning the house - Yeah, this one didn't last long. Moving house compressed a lot of this, we threw out or donated loads of stuff that we don't use or need any more.

Read 12 books this year - Done!

Data on my day off: A printer-friendly Pocketbook report

Update: I have now refined some of the features of this report - you can download the new version of the template here.

It's no secret that I love Pocketbook. Hell, I even wrote a blog post way back in February about it. I love how it syncs with my bank accounts so that I don't have to manually enter every single thing I spend money on. I love how it automatically categorises transactions for me. And I love that it gives you the ability to analyse your transactions using the web app.

One thing that had bothered me though was the lack of a 'printer-friendly' option for the Analysis reports. I've even emailed Pocketbook to ask them to put such a feature in - they did get back to me and said they would look into it, but as of yet this functionality hasn't been added. So I've made one myself in Excel. It uses the fact that you can export your transaction history from Pocketbook, and then uses a Macro-enabled Excel workbook to populate a printable report. I'll step you through how it works and how to use it, and if you want to download it - I've made a template version that you can customise yourself. With more than 50,000 people using Pocketbook now, there must be others in the same boat as me. You can click on any of the images below to enlarge them.

1.   Get your transaction history from Pocketbook by logging in to getpocketbook.com, going to Transactions, selecting 'All time' from the Date Range drop down and clicking Export (CSV).

2.   Open the Pocketbook Report Template Excel Workbook. Click 'Enable Content', this enables the macros that are embedded in this workbook to be able to run. These macros are purely to refresh the PivotTables later on, and are completely safe - promise!

Copy and paste all your transactions data into the Excel worksheet named 'Source Table'.

Note: Unfortunately, the 'Source Table' does not automatically update. You will need to do this manually each time you want to run a new set of reports with the latest data included. This is not an issue for me, as I do these once per month, so it's not a big task to do manually.

3.   Go to the 'Source Data' worksheet tab. Here I have listed all of the default categories as set by Pocketbook. If you have any custom categories that you've created, you will need to add these to this list manually. It's probably easiest to add rows in the middle of this, so that the formulas fill automatically afterwards. Just make sure you spell your category names correctly!

This tab is probably the most important, as it puts the data in a format that can be used more easily for the report. It splits up the 'Amount' column from the Source Table (which lists expenses as negative and income as positive) into two columns and turns expenses into a positive number by taking its absolute value. It simultaneously collects all of the transactions listed under each category, within the particular date range that you'll specify later.

Note: For this to work correctly, all of your transactions need to be categorised. Missing categories in the 'Source Table' show a blank, and blanks aren't picked up by the formulas used in this sheet.

4.   The Date Ranges tab is another lookup table which the report uses to determine which transactions you are interested in from your Source Table. You don't need to change anything on this tab - all of the dates are data driven; they use the =today() and other built-in Excel functions to update automatically.

5.   The 'Report' tab is sort of like the dashboard. It's the basic overview of your finances, listing your Total Income and Expenses by Category and your Net Income for the period. The 'Report 2' tab is a bar chart of the Expense categories for the period you select.

But first, go back to the 'Report' tab and select a time period by clicking on the cell H1. A small drop-down arrow appears to the right - click this and you can select any of the periods, just the same as the Pocketbook web app allows. Selecting this tells the 'Source Data' tab the date range you are interested in. If you want a custom date range, firstly enter the 'date from' and 'date to' (inclusive) in the Custom Date Range box in K9 and K10. After this, go to the drop-down and select 'Custom Date Range' at the bottom of the list.

Now for the piece de resistance - click the 'Refresh PivotTable Data'. This runs the macro we talked about earlier. Essentially it refreshes the data source that the PivotTables are based on, giving the PivotTables the most up-to-date data based on your date range selection. It then unfilters the PivotTable (allowing everything to be populated) and then filters out any categories that have a zero total value.

All of the graphs are PivotCharts based on the PivotTables, and automatically populate after you click the 'Refresh PivotTable Data' button.

From there, you can easily print your report. I hope other Pocketbook users find this useful.

 Feedback? Questions? Got an improvement you'd like to suggest? Let me know in the comments!