Weeknotes 44 and 45/2015
These past couple of weeks I’ve been:
- On holiday. It was so good to get some sun at this particular time of the year. Gozo is amazing. Team Belshaw was away from Tuesday to Tuesday, so I worked from home on Wednesday.
- In London. I spent Thursday and Friday working for City & Guilds. While I was down there I collaborated as usual with Bryan Mathers, and also caught up with Sam Dyson and Greg McVerry (in town for MozFest).
- Talking with Paul Miller from a Newcastle University spin-out, VEO. It’s a video-capture app for iPads that allows for CPD conversations, etc. He’s interested in using Open Badges with the platform behind the app.
- Getting my phone (Sony Xperia Z3 Compact) repaired after the rear screen broke. I also managed to pick up a Lenovo Yoga 2 and a Sony Xperia Tablet Z (4G) really cheaply on eBay to mess about with.
- Scheduling my monthly Dynamic Skillset newsletter for the end of October. It gives a summary of what I’ve been up to, what I’m planning, and some links people may have missed.
- Listening to Oliver Quinlan kindly step in as guest co-host for me in the latest episode of the TIDE podcast. He and Dai Barnes put together a really interesting episode entitled Corrupted Development. The week before, Dai had been away so Oliver and I recorded an eposide entitled (somewhat predictably) Quinovation.
- Getting back into the swing of things after avoiding email and social media for a week.
- Meeting (virtually) with Dom Murphy, Managing Director of Geek Talent. He talked me through what they’re up to and what they’re planning with ‘Career Hacker’, which is launching in January.
- Enjoying finishing the latest Jack Reacher novel (although the end was very dark), reading some Simone de Beauvoir writing about the ethics of ambiguity, and diving into some of the recent Bond novels (i.e. post-Ian Fleming).
- Going through slides and logistics with representatives of Dynamo North East. I’m going into a school next week to talk to pupils who have just started their GCSEs about the various careers that are possible in IT-related industries.
- Attending my children’s parents evenings. It’s great to hear they’re excelling academically, but I had to push for information beyond the core subjects.
- Putting together a slidedeck for a City & Guilds governance board meeting next week. That’s been made easier by having some great input by some awesome people opting-in to completing tasks on a dedicated Trello board.
- Sitting down with my wife, Hannah, to go through my calendar for the next few weeks. As happens every November, I’m busy!
- Discussing my involvement at BETT 2016 in January. This may be in a City & Guilds capacity.
- Reading Kerri Lemoie’s post Mozilla is Doing a Hack Job on Open Badges and discussing it with former colleagues. We’ve all wanted to write something similar, but didn’t want to harm the movement as it takes flight. I appreciate Kerri’s candour, and hope that it leads to constructive dialogue rather than fear-mongering.
- Taking a shower for the first time in the wonderful en-suite to our newly-finished loft conversion. I can’t wait to get it all painted and carpeted so we can move up there properly!
- Writing:
Next week I’m not really having a ‘Doug day’ as such. But, as I’m only doing a couple of client-related things on Tuesday, I’m sure I’ll manage to fit some intellectually-indulgent stuff around it!
