Weeknote 27/2022
I took three Covid tests this week. All of them were negative, but can you really, truly trust a lateral flow test? I’ve felt run-down but still able to work. Not as bad as when I know that I had Covid back in January, but still bad enough to not exercise for three days.
Now, nobody likes a whinger, but this is my blog so I’ll do what I like. The particular problem I have, as someone who suffers from migraines, is that I have to balance my life just so in order not to get them regularly. Some of that balance involves diet, some the amount of time I spend on screens, but a major part is doing exercise every day. So when I can’t exercise for two or more days as I’m feeling run-down, I get migraines. FML, as they say.
What I’ve learned over my 41 years on this earth is that when I feel weaker physically, I feel weaker psychologically. And vice-versa. This link is usually enough to keep me on the straight-and-narrow, but when things out of my control affect that, it can throw me for a bit of a loop. So I’ve also felt a bit useless this week in a wondering-what-I’m-doing-with-my-life sense. It will pass.
I worked fewer hours this week, partly due to the above, but partly because I took time off to go away to York last Sunday night with my wife, Hannah. It was fantastic. There’s something magical about going away on a train for 24 hours and cramming in wonderful food and experiences. Also, York is a wonderful place with beautiful buildings and lots of history.
It’s only three weeks until I go to the US for the Badge Summit, so I made sure I got my ESTA. I can remember the very first time I went there in 2010 and immigration asked me to place my fingerprints on the scanner. I was so shocked that I almost turned around and went home. These days, we use fingerprints to unlock our smartphones. Times change.
I’m still working on the same four projects that I’ve been working on for the past few weeks, and I think we’ll have some capacity to fit in more / different work from September. I’m no longer using LinkedIn, which is usually where I’d “provide the market with signals” (as it were) so feel free to share my availability and link to the WAO website.
Talking of the website, this week I hit publish on a page advertising a course we’ll start creating soon called How to Unf*ck Your Organisation. The title is deliberately provocative, although if it proves to be too much, we might resort to something along the lines of ‘untangling spaghetti’. That’s less punchy, though. I’ve been working on an updated, slimmed-down version of our What We Talk About When We Talk About Open course for Sport England organisations this week. I’ve also given Anne feedback on her ‘Feminist Pedagogy for Educators’ course that will be going on the site soon!
Over at Thought Shrapnel I posted:
- Ian Bogost on hybrid work
- Steaming open the institutional creases
- Life cannot be organised
- This bus ain’t growing wings
- The Digital Dark Ages
- Criticism vs praise
- Is our society structured in a way which encourages people to make less than the greatest contribution they could?
Like everyone else in the UK, I followed the ‘clownfall’ of Boris Johnson over the course of the week. I’m just pleased that we’re rid of him. Let’s get rid of the whole Tory government next, please.
Next week: more of the same, although Hannah’s down in London for three days for work and then do the Mighty Hike for which she’s been preparing. So I’ll be working, keeping the lights on, and getting that kitchen radiator painted that I’ve neglected for too long…
Photo of the roof of York train station taken by me on Monday.
