I'm typing this on my laptop in the lounge. It's half-time during Everton vs Sunderland and, when I turn the sound off while the adverts are on, I can hear a singer mangling otherwise-recognisable hit songs. Our next door neighbour, who says hello to us and that's about it, is evidently having some kind of celebration.
After my
Stage 3 Overtraining Syndrome diagnosis earlier this year, I'm taking things much easier. I'd like to be running more. I'd like to be in the gym more. But there we are.
Writing & Creating
Here, I published:
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Over at
Thought Shrapnel, I published:
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Reading, Listening, and Watching
I finished
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy last night, which I think was a rare case of a book being improved by watching the film beforehand. Next, I'm going to read
The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucketby Edgar Allan Poe.
[PODCASTS]
Working
It was a four-day week due to the Early May Bank Holiday. I'm now working on five projects:
- DCC – I had a chat with Kerri Lemoie on Tuesday about the work I'm doing for her on Wallet Attached Storage. I then starting using the design system I created using Claude Design and worked on the text-based elements of the project.
- INASP – I spent time working on drafting tender documents for their procurement process for their Rising Scholars and main website projects. The Dovetail how to guides were useful for this.
- SDS – An oversight on my part meant that participants in the Digital Badges Proof of Concept workshop a week last Friday weren't able to create badges Nate sorted that out for me this week, and then ensured that any created badges end up in the DCC sandbox registry, meaning they show up as 'verified'.
- TechFreedom – On Friday, Tom and I met up in person to finish planning the third workshop for members of the pilot cohort. We've also started to plan our session for TechNExt, had a chat about putting in a session for MozFest, and talked tentatively about setting up a lab/studio together.
- CW-PUB-001 – I'm creating my first zine, which will be a limited run of 50 physical copies, with no digital version released. Coming Q3 2026.
I contributed to a
Responsible AI UK Education white paper workshop on Tuesday, a Mozilla Alumni digital legacy workshop with
Ian Forrester on Wednesday, caught up with
Angela Gunder and
Annalise Lewis, had an introductory chat with
Gavin van Lelyveld, and discussed a potential collaboration with
Ariam Mogos from Stanford d.school.
Other than that, I've made a lot of progress on
ProjectDial (the sister to
TaskDial) which I'll share publicly soon. It wouldn't have existed without the insistence of
Stephen Lockyer that it would be a good idea! I've even started using it myself, adding in a basic
Toggl Track integration.
We did such a great job
winding down WAO that we've already paid out the money that was left in the pot, and our accountant now just has to file the relevant paper to
liquidate it. Onwards.
Personal
On Friday afternoon, after meeting with Tom, I went for a walk with my son, Ben. He's in the midst of his first year exams, but (a) they're multiple-choice as he's doing Sport, and (b) he's switching to Geography next year anyway.
We went on a lovely walk along
Hadrian's Wall starting from
The Sill. It was a lot more relaxing than
my 2022 effort, and we had such a great chat that I forgot to take any photos!
My daughter, Grace, hasn't been playing much football – partly due to the time of the season, and partly due to recovering from injury. She should be OK for her County Cup Final on Wednesday night, though, which (helpfully for her) was rearranged from last weekend.
She's going with my wife,
Hannah, to the
Gothia Cup with Northumberland FA in July, so today I've booked for Ben and I to go to Lisbon for a few days during the same week. Last time I was in Lisbon,
Laura suggested that I stay near
LX Factory, which turned out to be fantastic advice. So I've booked an apartment for us near there again.
Next week
I'm starting the week with a two-hour 'Personal Mythologies' coaching session, before catching up with
Bryan Mathers. I've got work to do on all of the projects mentioned earlier, which I'll fit around running the third TechFreedom workshop on Wednesday, and attending the
Thinking Digital conference on Thursday.
I want to take a bit of time off the week after next as it's half-term for my daughter. So I'll be looking to get a couple of things wrapped up before then.
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Open Thinkering
Notes on how we live, learn, and work with technology
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