Weeknote 01/2018
So here we are! The first weeknote of 2018. You know the drill.
This week I’ve been:
- Celebrating the New Year. I spent Christmas at home with just my wife and children, but we went down to Devon to the in-laws for New Year and had a great time.
- Redesigning Thought Shrapnel, which is now not only a weekly newsletter, but also a blog! I think you’ll agree that Bryan Mathers did a great job with the logo. Read more about that here. You can become a supporter to show your appreciation for this work, and to ensure it continues!
- Returning to life as an employee! As I mentioned before Christmas, I’m leading a new innovation project for Moodle. This involves working for them four days per week, and I can do so from home (with a bit of travel). So in a sense, lots has changed, and nothing at all. Note I’m still doing some consultancy, mostly through We Are Open co-op.
- Meeting with Moodle colleague Tom Murdock about various things.
- Introducing myself on the forum for the upcoming Learn Moodle Basics course. It’s been a few years since I used Moodle, so I thought I’d get back up-to-speed along with Mary Cooch and the community!
- Working a short week due to New Year’s Day on Monday. My ‘Doug day’ (or, more likely, ‘consultancy / admin / catch-up-with-all-the-things day’) is likely to be Fridays, most weeks. This time around it was full of admin and my children begging me to play with them instead, — as they don’t go back to school until next week.
- Sorting out various things as Secretary of the Executive Committee for 6th Morpeth Scouts. I’m trying to streamline some stuff around meetings, calendaring, etc.
- Facepalming at Dell, who want to charge me over £900 to fix a my less than one-year old XPS 13 laptop which has a threaded screw in the base. This is causing it come apart near the screen. As a result of their greed and poor customer service, I’ve used duct tape to patch it up as best I can, and bought a £60 battery to resurrect my Lenovo X220. I prefer the keyboard on the latter anyway, and in fact I’m using it to type this!
- Writing:
Next week I’m at home all week, and celebrating my daughter’s birthday towards the end of it. I’ll be in London twice this month, the week after next for a co-op meetup, and then the week after that, I’ll be at BETT on the Friday.
Photo taken by me on New Years’ Day at Branscombe beach, Devon.
