Susanna Codes

The Mockingjay, Part IV New Years Eve, 2023. I feel totally and utterly desperate. I also feel deeply moved - I just watched Peter Jackson's music video for the Beatles' song "Now and Then." It was released this year. I'm not sure if it's an unreleased track or what - oh I looked it up.  It was regarded as the Beatles' last ever song. Now "No Time To Die" has just come on on the TV. I wish I could've watched it from the beginning. The Struggles I am so tempted to give up on my blog, at least of now - or at least, the way I have been writing it in. It is completely unsustainable for me.  At least, I think that it is. Writing out a blog post every single day while sustaining a full-time job as a Trainee Software Engineer, which includes my apprenticeship and writing up work, is a lot. Was a lot. And yet now as I type I am not so sure. In a way typing the blog, I organise my thoughts. I organise my ideas. I make sense of the world again. It make

The Mockingjay, Part III Today is my last day of work before the holidays, and what a year it's been. I would like to reflect on it some more but maybe not today, as I am really super busy at this point. There is a lot going on and in terms of power I would like to think: 1. That I am super focused on my job, on my work with programming in renewable energy tech, and that I am incredibly focused on growing, and on moving forward the best way possible with it. I am doing it for the good of the planet, and I just really hope that this works. 2. On my blog - I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS. I LOVE LOVE LOVE WHAT I DO.  So for focus and for inspiration here's Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the Mockingjay, looking incredibly strong and incredibly focused and incredibly powerful. Because who can do it, if not her. Because if she can do it, then so can I. I am still listening to that song from the 3rd Hunger Games' film's soundtrack ( the Mockingjay)  on repeat. You can go have

You're in the wind, I'm in the water I'm in the office super early today. I got up early and did my Wim Hof Method breathing and it feels so good. I can't even explain how powerful it is to me or how much of my life I feel I am getting back by doing it. And I have discovered the most awesome cover of any song, ever, at least in a long, long while. On the song - you can think you know a song your whole life (well, a year, lol), and then you hear a cover and it brings out dozens of lyrics you've never heard before. This is what happened to me with Hayley Mary, who covered Lana del Rey's "Chemtrails Over The Country Club" for triple j's Like a Version.  Best cover ever. You can watch it here. Hayley Mary singing for Like a Version. What did Michael Faraday do? He did a lot of things of course. He was the Father of electromagnetism. Or whatever it is. I've probably said it wrong. Wikipedia tells: " it was largely due to his efforts that electr

Why am I staying? Why am I staying? Part II "White Mustang" by Lana del Rey - probably one of my favourite songs of all time ever, omg.  On the subject of strength and power - and in the vein of strong and powerful women - Lana in the White Mustang video is pretty much as strong and powerful as it gets. Just a clip of Lana del Rey in the White Mustang video. I like the way that she looks strong and powerful - and believe me, she is, and especially in the rest of the video. She really shows it and portrays it. But I like the way that she is soft and gentle as well. She always manages to be calm somehow and to be modest.  I want to be a bit more like her in my engineering journey. Calm, grounded, down to earth. I've had my first phase of mega super excitement and I still love it. Of course I still love it - I can't love it any less. How could I. But Jack Kornfield wrote a book called: "After the ecstasy, the laundry." Or to misquote my meditation journey: &quo

The Mockingjay, part II Sometimes it can feel really hard to go on. Sometimes I feel like I put so much effort into something and I don't know why I do it and how I keep on going. I mean, you saw my post from last night. I know why I keep on doing what I am doing for the electricity - I mean, I just love electricity. And I love love love renewable energy and I love the renewable energy home transition. I am still listening to "The Mockingjay" by James Newton Howard, from the Hunger Games Mockingjay: Part 1, on repeat. More on this below, and on why I find Katniss so powerful and inspirational, at the end. Because she is a superwoman. She is strong and powerful and she is brave and she believes in herself. And I also want to believe in myself and in my mission - because it is good work that I am doing here, and a good mission, and I have to really believe in it. 💖💖 And I struggle with positivity, and positive self-talk, and self-love - and so maybe this blog is a good pl

The Mockingjay I've been rewatching all the Hunger Games. It's my favourite. It's grown on me - whereas it upset me when it came out I'm on my 3rd rewatch at least and I now LOVE it. I love how strong and powerful Katniss is. She is so beautiful. Jennifer Lawrence is an icon. She is an absolute model for body positivity as well - just a normal, healthy woman in the media. She is so beautiful. I love her. "The Mockingjay" is a track from the movies. It is so beautiful and so, so powerful. I love Peeta Mellark too. What a leading man. I am so happy that she chooses him over Gayle. (Spoilers!). I love Peeta's strength. The Mockingjay "The Mockingjay" is a soundtrack from the 3rd movie. This picture is of the soundtrack from the second movie.  However I loved the picture so so much. And this song is too beautiful not to name this post after. I can't even tell you how I felt when I found out that there was an electricity district in the Hunger Gam

Maybe Love Today's post honours "Maybe Love" by Weyes Blood ('Wise Blood'), whose "Cardamom" I got completely obsessed with in the summer, and even listened to again last night as I walked along the dark beach in Worthing. Being Brave I've been revising a lot lately, but for today I'd like to crack on and make just a tiny bit of progress with this article.  Revising is good and all, but you can do too much of it as well. This is something I learned especially as a software engineer; I sometimes just needed to move on with the new thing and not to keep on going over all the old stuff as well. Over and over, again and again. Challenges to the Grid In a way this is stuff that I all know but it is good and it is helpful for me to go over it anyway. In the article "Energize and Revolutionize: Software sparkes changes in the Power sector" , Cecilia Manduca writes that our grid is "facing its biggest existential challenge yet. (I mean, e

The Final Stage of Energy Distribution The LV grid or the low-voltage grid is know as "the final stage of energy distribution." This is also what is commonly known as the grid edge. The final stage of energy distribution...  How lucky I am to have friends who are such incredible photographers! Photo taken by my friend Alex Atwater, of www.alexanderatwater.com , of an incredible pylon in South Africa. I was so happy and grateful when he sent it to me - you can check him out on Instagram at @alex_atwater_  PRO-sumers The way we consume electricity is changing. As a result of this, we need real-time monitoring the maintain the quality and the reliability of the grid. We need to monitor and manage the grid edge in real time. Or as the DI article says: "'there is a need for visibility and control at the grid edge because of the evolving sophistication of how consumers are using electricity.'"  And the man quoted says that "that's [what's] lacking

Gold Today's blog post is a tribute to "Gold" by Chet Faker. Extremely powerful music video, extremely powerful song, extremely powerful music. "You gotta know, I'm feeling love..." Album Cover for Chet Faker's "Built on Glass". Focus Focus, focus, focus. I have found a new focus. And this time I think that it may be the one.  I think it's time to enter phase 4, the 4th and final phase in this blog.  And that is... software engineering... and the smart grid... and the GRID EDGE... and the LV grid (low-voltage, that is). And DER's. DER's! DER's. Smart home energy management systems. Smart home energy management systems. Take me, and put me at the heart of the renewable energy transition, and leave me there. Leave me there. Leave me there. For there I must stay... Revising over the grid edge and edge management one more time 💚 So the most important thing to remember on the grid, and on the grid edge, of all, is: the way that we c

Leaves of Yggdrasil, Part II I never imagined the 7 am train would be so packed but it is Christmas party season. Lots of people wearing Christmas jumpers - okay I lied. Mostly just me and one other guy. Mine is pretty garish. I love it. It's awful. It's so long it's like a dress and it has a giant Rudolph on it. PERFECT. I just wanted to use this post to revise really.  I have a busy day ahead of me and I wanted to keep up the streak of writing as many blog posts as possible.  Leaves of Yggdrasil by Myrkur music video. Revising Edge Management, Asset Management, and How This All Fits In With Distributed Intelligence (DI) Once and for all, and first and foremost, and for all of time: the way that consumers are using electricity is changing.  It is getting more and more complex. We no longer just turn the lights on any more. We no longer just have a washing machine and a fridge and an oven. We don't even just have mobile devices and TV's and laptops that we need to c

Tattoo "Take me, and put me at the heart of the renewable energy transition, and leave me there. Take me, and put me at the heart of the renewable energy transition, and leave me there. For there I must stay." For There I must stay My good friend Sheena gave me a notebook and it was a really tiny one and she told me to really think about what I put in it. To really think before I write.  And so I did. I really thought about it. It was an extra-tiny notebook you see, and so there was not much space, and so I really had to think. And then the words came, they came spilling out of my heart, again and again. Take me. And put me at the heart of the renewable energy transition. And leave me there. For there I must stay. Tattoo Tattoo is a song by Loreen and it won Eurovision this year. I love it because it's about saying - I don't care what other people think. I am doing this out of love. And that is exactly how I feel about the renewable energy transition. At the Heart of

Leaves of Yggdrasil "Under the shady green, Leaves of Yggdrasil, Three Norns spin a thread so coarse, Fate of man and Gods they weave." A clip from the music video. I love how the song is fairytale-like but the video has electro vibes. "And then daylight binds her heart..." Today's blog post is named after a song I love from the wonderful and beautiful Danish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Myrkur. She has a wonderful folk album called Folkesange  and it has a beautiful fairytale vibe - but this song the most of all. In fact If somebody had to embody fairy and folk tales in a song this may well be it. It takes me back 2 years.  My first Christmas alone. My first Christmas in the UK.Working as an "Energy Specialist", discovering these folk songs, exploring by the sea in Brighton and Portslade especially.  My first year of my career and the challenges that come with that. The challenges that that brings. Going to Chichester for th

Never Leave Me, Walk Close Beside Me Today's post is named after one of my favourite songs of all time's opening lyrics. "Dry and Dusty" by Fever Ray. "Never leave me, walk close beside me. Your hand, my hand, fits so easy. No tomorrow, let us stop here, We did some great things, oh, didn't we?" I love it's quiet intensity and focus.  I love it's focus. I love its focus. I love its focus. This photo is from a fan video of Dry and Dusty. Have a look at this amazing fan video if you want to. It's absolutely amazing. I love this video so so much and that's mainly because it's got pylons. Lots and lots of pylons here. Just a tiny tiny bit on Edge Management I have been looking at the Schneider Electric web page and looking at what their offering is on Edge Management Solutions - link here. As always as a software engineer this is to try and better understand what can be built. Today's Plan - A cross comparison between Schneider Elect

Surge, part II  What an amazing song, and I have found an amazing remix of it. I also have a super cool picture I might be able to share but let me see how it goes tomorrow :D  So for today what I wanted to do is I wanted to start by going over my blog post from yesterday.  I don't know if that will be the only thing I do - I have a lot of coding to do as well! And also, and more importantly because my work is always the priority anyway, I don't want to move too fast - I don't want to learn too much, and then forget it - I don't want to overwhelm myself. But what if... I may have a quick look at the article and at what comes next anyway because you never know...  I'll see which one I do first anyway. I'll see which one I do first and then I will either way pause at some stage to assimilate to and process stuff - if it feels right.  Starting off with revising From both my blog post and the article "Utilities need to manage their existing infrastructure more