When looking at 2020, I have mixed feelings.
I started January on a high note, I had just been published in Popular Science for my Dancemat project. I'd also been looking at power management in the TMC2300 Stepper Motor driver. And had successfully use UV curing resin for a simple project.
I was also actively searching for a new job and had found a good company to work for, that lead to an interview and offer in February. However in March, just 2 days after I left my previous job the spectre of covid-19 hit and the UK went into a lockdown. As my new role was in retail that meant my new employer put a freeze on all recruitment. I had been invited to showcase my projects at the UAL Creative Computing Institute but that got cancelled too.
So I was locked up at home and out of a job.
Whilst applying for jobs and living off savings and loans from the family I got thinking about what could bring in some money and I looked at becoming a full time maker. So I stepped up writing for my own blog and got a number of sponsored posts, wrote about serial keypads for DIYODE magazine and created some models of stripboard using KiCAD. However, that was never going to pay a London mortgage and as a new starter with no regular income I'd not be able to remortgage for a cheaper place. But as a way to keep me busy it was a useful strategy.
In May I started on a project for the Element14 presents programme, I looked at the FTDI VNC2 chips and the Arduino MKR this was so I could run the system as a USB passthru for a keyboard to analyse the sentiment using machine learning. Optimising ML libraries and models was a significant challenge as was getting the USB HID to behave on the MKR board. There was lot to learn such as the Keras and Tensor Flow libraries, and using Google Colab to train the models. But it paid off and I got my first Element14 Presents video done, the "Anti-Troll Bot"
Throughout lockdown and unemployment the family and I did a bit of thinking about what was important in live. And living in London with a small house and big bills wasn't right for us. So we looked about escaping to a small town. And we were targeting Scotland which meant a change of target for my job search and also I looked into remote only roles. Although I had several interviews and technical tests there were no offers. But the employer who froze me out in March came back, they had restructured and were rapidly growing their online business and wanted me to join. So I accepted a remote role with them.
The next couple of months were making the house look pretty and learning the ropes of the new job. We had a Saturday in July of socially isolated viewing and by Monday had several offers over the asking price. Our house hunt was mostly virtual and we had a shortlist of three, once the travel restricted were lifted we headed North and did some viewing before putting an offer in on the one we loved the most. The Element14 Presents episode was also published.
August was packing up the house, loft and workshop along with dealing with lawyers and removal companies. Then in September we moved.
The end of the year was crazy at work and with the shops being shut on Black Friday meant for a massive amount of sales and that continued through Christmas and the New Year. The house has also provided some challenges such as needing to fit a distribution amplifier for the TV aerial. So I've been a bit quiet on the Element14 community in the latter part of the year.
There's still a little work to do on the workshop but there are benches in place, tools and materials easily reached and plenty of space to work. I've a few projects planned but lets see what the New Year brings as if it is anything like last year we'll all need to be flexible.
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