Dragon Lake Books

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Back to school

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“In the morning they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school…” So begins Lee Child’s latest novel: Night School.

In Scotland, in North Lanarkshire at least, kids are going back to school today. Thursday seems like a very strange day to be going back. It used to be Wednesday after a couple of teacher “in service” days when my kids were younger. I’m sure I went back on a Monday, back in the day.

Every year I think that I really need to go back to school myself. There’s only so long I can work before my skills become out of date. The main problem I have is what to study. Every project I see advertised has a different skill set required. Oracle database, SQL Server database, MS Access database… SSRS, SSIS, Oracle BIEE, SAP Business Objects… Excel VBA, Power BI, Qlik, Tableau…

Yet, if I take the time to study one of these, I know it will come in useful, either in a contract or to show I’m committed to personal development.

Thinking about going back to work is bringing this question back into focus.

I quite enjoyed Night School, by the way. More than some of Lee Child’s more recent novels. He seemed to capture some of the originality that has been lacking.

I doubt I’ll ever be able to “attend” the same sort of “school” as Reacher (chance would be a fine thing), but it is interesting that most of us are in the enviable position of being able to decide we can gain new skills or refresh older ones, and that we can decide which skills to try and gain.

It allows us to direct our lives rather than simply being ordered one way or another.

Back to work?

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I’ve been in the fortunate position this summer of being able to stop looking for work, to spend more time with my family and also work on my next novel.

I knew I only had a limited time, but am now wondering if that time needs to come to and end sooner than expected.

I had two phone calls yesterday, both asking if I was interested in contracts. One was only a short job – a couple of days working for an organisation to modify an application I developed. The other role could go up until March next year. There’s no guarantee I would get that role if I went for it, but I’m also very aware that there is no guarantee another role will become available.

If I start work in the next week or so, it will take me longer to finish the sequel to Fallen Warriors. That might not be a bad thing. I have been wondering if I need more time for research.

I’ll need to make a decision today whether to apply for the second role or not…

All that we can achieve

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I was pulled up short this morning. I’ve continued reading past the two books of Samuel and am now half way through the first book of Kings.

The last few chapters have been quite a slog, king after king who did evil in the eyes of the Lord, each one failing to learn from the mistakes of those who went before them. Israel divided in two and for a time it seems like the new nations of Israel and Judah are being led by leaders who are as evil as each other.

Then I read this: “As for the other events of Baasha’s reign, what he did and his achievements…” 1 Kings 16 v 5

I generally consider achievements to be a positive. I have 100 goals and as I make progress towards achieving them I feel good about that. Yet if I gained the whole world and lost my soul…

All we can achieve may be worth recording in a book some day, may be worth people remembering, but if those achievements are side by side with a legacy of disobedience to God, of a life spent following whatever evil our hearts find to do, then what ultimately was the point?