Weeknote 38/2023
Latent in every man is a venom of amazing bitterness, a black resentment; something that curses and loathes life, a feeling of being trapped, of having trusted and been fooled, of being helpless prey to impotent rage, blind surrender, the victim of a savage, ruthless power that gives and takes away, enlists a man, drops him, promises and betrays, and -crowning injury- inflicts on him the humiliation of feeling sorry for himself.
Paul Valéry
It’s 21:30 as I sit down to write this after a curtailed PS5 gaming session. I was tired, we were losing at Rocket League, and I realised I hadn’t written this weeknote.
A lot has happened this week. Given that this time of the year is always brutal on me from a mental health point of view, this is not to be encouraged. I’m afraid, therefore, it’s going to have to be bullet points, because I want to be showered and tucked-up by 22:00.
This week I’ve been:
- Completing a short course — I booked a one-day course on Systems Thinking through UCL a while ago. I enjoyed the experience on Wednesday, and have decided to register for an MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice, which I’ll do part-time through the Open University over the next few years.
- Doing more business development — things are a bit quieter on the work front than they should be at this time of year. We’ve got some irons in the fire, so hopefully things will be confirmed next week.
- Deciding to rent — after viewing more houses, we’ve decided to rent for a bit and should be putting down the deposit on a house tomorrow. It’s not ideal, especially as we can’t port the mortgage we’d locked in at a low interest rate last year, but that’s life.
- Getting a delivery date — the Polestar 2 I ordered as a business lease arrives next Thursday. I’m very much looking forward to driving it, and have already bought a bunch of accessories.
- Listing our car — our trusty 10 year-old Volvo V60 has been listed via Motorway. It was a very straightforward process, so I’m hoping we get a good price for it and a dealer can take it away this week.
- Watching football matches — I went with my wife and daughter to the England Lionesses game on Friday at the Stadium of Light and saw them beat Scotland 2-1. I was back today to see Sunderland lose to Cardiff 1-0.
- Switching to Substack — from next week I’ll be sending out the Thought Shrapnel newsletter via Substack, as I explained in this post. The last one to go out via old method hit inboxes this morning and can be viewed online here.
- Publishing a blog post — over and above my Thought Shrapnel and social media posts, I published one entitled The Value of Credentials Endorsement. This includes a YouTube video of a webcast I recorded for Digital Badge Academy.
- Recording podcast interviews — I’m not sure we’ve written about it anywhere, but Season 8 of The Tao of WAO will be part of a submission to the Winter 2023 Special Edition of The Journal of Media Literacy. We recorded some interviews this week, and then I edited some audio.
- Getting my flu jab — always an important thing to do, especially as I’m asthmatic. I’m also booked in for a Covid booster next month.
- Doing client work — this was mainly planning and meetings this week. I want to get my teeth into more strategy work, and start applying some of that systems thinking stuff.
Laura is now away for three weeks’ holiday, but Anne is tag-teaming now she’s back after finishing her degree. I guess we’ve got to get things signed and booked and organised. Life admin as an adult sucks.
Photo of fireworks and flags taken before the England Lionesses match at the Stadium of Light on Friday night. It was a sell-out crowd, and it was a great atmosphere.
