As part of this long lockdown I’ve been tracking my health through the app developed by the Covid Sympton Study I try and go in and record symptons (or lack of them) daily. During the nearly 2 months I’ve been doing this (I think it’s 2 months, time gets a bit concatenated) I’ve had 2 sets of not quite right; the first in the middle of March with a heavy chest and breathing, the second this last week with itchy, weeping eyes and again a heavy chest. No other symptons apart from those – which could be a chest infection…

Doing the second day of my weekend was spent in Gloucester, with the Soldiers of Gloucester museum, the cathedral and the British Waterways museum. Here’s the write up of the Gloucester visit Nothing much the rest of the week, except a lot of work Reading Another book read, a quite a few more articles. This is how fast America changes its mind. Interesting look at how legislation can change and how there is a trigger point from when it becomes inevitable, looking at marriage (interracial and same sex), prohibition and ahead to marijuana. How to Survive the Looming Tech Bubble:…

Having thought about this, read the articles, looked at my previous plans, I’ve decided I’m just going to make a list that includes things that are already on progress or has been booked and add more things over the year. So I’ve made a page for this – my Things to Do in 2015 – and will be tracking progress there as well as adding new things. So always open to suggestions!

Thought it was time to give an update on where I am with the eye The headline – it’s getting better! I spent 7 days days doing nothing but lying on my side to keep the gas bubble in the right place, to keep the retina pressed on the back of the eye and give it a chance to heal. I went back to my own place the following week and still spent a lot of time horizontal, but was moving about more and more. A check-up on the Thursday confirmed that everything was healing to plan, although there was…

That’s it. The year is done, 2013 is over, 364 and a half days have been experienced. So that means it’s time to look back on my ambitions for 2013 and see if I achieved them! The framework was Change, Connect and Challenge, a way of structuring my thoughts for the year. Practically, I split these into 4 areas – physical, relationships, career, and experiences. Physical This was me in November. This is me on Nov 2011 (I actually can’t find one from 2012) I said that I was going to change physically, that I was going to get thinner…

Reading Charlotte Church – How women are routinely demoralized by the music industry. A look at her history in the industry and perspectives on sex, sex as art and sex as exploitation. Should also be read in conjuction with the series of Lily Allen interviews that are current. Catching a Blighty – Charles Stross. A rant abut war and Cameron’s call to commemorate the start of WW1 as we did the Diamond Jubiliee. An economic cancer on our cities – Salon. A look at the economics of out of town development vs city center regeneration. A US analysis, but just…

Week 44, the last week of October as the year slowly slips away Reading Thinking about 2014 social strategy, Paul Fabretti . Devices and audiences, key areas to understand. Ender’s Game, its controversial author, and a very personal history By Rany Jazayerli. Should you boycott the film given the book author’s personal views? Doing Friends and I had one of our irregular Chinese Buffet dinners. Best described as cheap and cheerful from a food perspective, you always know what you are getting as the menu does not change. It’s always good to catch up with friends and hear all the…

If you want to protest against the Flickr changes, it appears the best way to do so is to KEEP PAYING THE SUBSCRIPTION! Somewhere in Yahoo!, there’s a spreadsheet. On it, there’s a financial model for Flickr. Bought by Yahoo all those years ago, left in a corner with only the occasional bit of love, Flickr was one of the originals, one of the few where you could pay for a service. But it was never really upgraded. Until now. Now, someone has tweaked the model, looked at the projected lines and decided something. They’ve decided the subscription service is…

Mar 9th through to Mar 15th Behind, behind, behind. I do so much typing at work I get home and I do nothing but read. Input vs output. What is best. So what was I reading? Reading Social Media Sustainability Index – a look at how big companies are using their social media presence to communicate their sustainability credentials. The challenge is how you communicate a complex and intertwined set of initiatives using platforms that are, by the nature, usually a place for short attention spans Engagement Rate – a metric you can count on.. An argument from Social Bakers,…

Where’s it going. the diary clicks forward day by day and the year creeps forward. Week 6, that’s over 10% gone already. Reading A Primer on the US TV business. A great rundown on all the different players in the US TV market. Even if you don’t agree, what they are doing impacts the rest of the world. Miller Lite, NASCAR and Brad Keselowski – how a off-hand tweet from a car led to a focus on social media for the brand and increased access for the fans. Hashtags and the Superbowl. Did Twitter win the Superbowl marketing, or was…

So that’s one month down, 11 to go. January, the month of resolutions and changes; a month of waiting for payday as Christmas and a usual early December payday take their toll. How was it for you? Reading Article from the New York times on quiet coaches. Totally agree with this, that it is a last bastion of quiet. And people just don’t get it! In this Forbes article, transmedia storytelling is “a larger universe of characters and settings that keep the fantasy consistent across multiple forms of media, including comic books, websites and videogames” and the work includes spendign…

Reading A list of the 33 most creative women in advertising. (Why 33, no idea!). I’ve worked with one (Colleen DeCourcy) and have loved the work of the others. Women make up only 3% of creative directors in this male-dominated industry, but there are slow moves to change this The US PGA enforcing bans on reporters using social media on the course – at a time when they are expanding their usage. Confusing messages for fans of a sport Coke’s view of mobile. Some great learning here. Somethings I’m continuously saying to the teams at work – everything has to…

In September 2012, my bother-in-law Paul flew out with 2 friends to tackle the challenge of Mont Ventoux – climbing the mountain 3 times on 3 different routes in 1 day. The night they arrived, off out for a ride, he got knocked off his bike by a truck. He was airlifted off out, with a blood-clot on the brain that left him in a coma for 3 days. Worse, it completely destroyed his shoulder – even after operations, nerve transplants and reconstructive surgery, he still has no use of the arm. But he’s not letting that stop him finish…

Makes console games for a living. Talking about making new things. The trials and tribulations. Why do we make new things? How do we choose what we like and where does that come from. Our taste develops though life. Things that were big when younger may not be stuff you like now. But they helped form you. We make games because we get inspired, we want people to experience what we have made and be touched them. Every game made by someone who has set out a creative goal at some point. At Molecule, we make creative games. That is…

My second session at Social Media Week London was organised by Unilever and took a look at their work in using a social to employee engagement. There were 4 separate sections to this; a look at employee feedback mechanisms, recruitment, graduate recruitment and flexible working. Each was presented by a different set. A social approach to employee surveys – Michael Silverman Usually, providing feedback is boring. there’s too many numbers, not enough open questions. It’s a corporate black hole – where does the information go? To activate the ‘wisdom of crowds’ – which is sort of what employee feedback is…