Weeknotes 1513
weeks and weeks
- It's been a while. Things have been busy and stressful and tiring but ultimately quite good?
- I ran a 10k. Obligatory picture of me with a foil blanket:
- One thing I've been trying to do is make more of an active effort to keep up with people, so I've been going for lots of midweek lunches. If your friends live in close geographical proximity and you can make the time in your workday, I highly recommend it—I think I've been averaging 1-2 a week and they're always a highlight of my week. We also went to a party for a friend's birthday, the first I've been to since 2020, and if you're comfortable doing that, I'd encourage you to have a party again! They're still fun.
- Speaking of speaking to people, one of my new year's resolutions was to try and talk more to people whose work I like. This has been a bit difficult for me but in the last few weeks I awkwardly said hi to Jeremy Keith at an Irish folk night, joined a small discord with Tom Critchlow, Johannes Kleske, Robin Sloan and Patrick Tanguay and had a call with Jay Springett, all of which were wonderful in different ways. If there's one thing I'm going to try and do more of, it's this. Watch out, Bloggers I Read.
- I cleared out the ~1000 things in my Pocket. Didn't read all of them (and honestly, skipping over things in there felt gooood), but my Pocket is now, as it should be, getting cleared on a weekly basis. I didn't realise how much of a weight off my mind that would feel, but it does; it's unblocked a bunch of other things for me as well. I'm really hoping Readwise pull their finger out and get their read-it-later app going because it sounds very much like it would be an ideal all-in-one solution for the way I read stuff.
- I went to a Catherine Project seminar which was quite good, though I had to leave early and I felt somewhat hamstrung by the virtual communication aspect. It made me think that while I would like to do something like this, doing it remotely is a real drag, so I had a chat to a few people and we set up BHGBRG, which will hopefully help us do that kind of thing, but in real life.
- The Brighton Seagull continues to grow; we're doing more original reporting and a couple of weeks ago published honestly one of my favourite pieces, about how Brighton and Hove Albion fans helped Wrexham fans stave off the unscrupulous attempts of their owner to sell their ground. We've been speaking to various folk; we're going to have a chat with some of the Bristol Cable folk who have been doing this kind of thing for years and really know their stuff. We've also got people joining the team to do some of the stuff we don't currently have the time or the focus for, which is very exciting.
- The last year of work for me has mostly been on a by-day basis; working for client x two days a week, client y one day, client z another etc. I'm now moving to being hour-based, which might introduce some issues, but I'm hoping will mean I can spread my work better, let me be more flexible about how I spend my time (e.g. working for a few hours from when I wake up, as that's when I can focus best, going to the gym mid-morning to avoid the rush, doing some Seagull stuff during the day, etc) and also will help me with my current focus for work, bringing someone else on. They're a friend looking to switch careers, and I thought maybe I could help them in a slightly more substantial way than just CV feedback. I'm very excited; we'll see how it goes!
- Now that several of the things I do are involving more people, I've been forced to organise stuff a bit better. I still use Obsidian (formerly Roam but I've migrated for the everything-being-text-files-ness) for my notes and bits like that, but I like Notion as a more permanent repository for things. The variety of ways information can be presented ("spreadbase") is really helpful for organising stuff. CM and I have moved our shared Roam board over to it and our recipe collection is already looking nicer :)
- It's Easter weekend! We've had a really good string of services at the Chapel Royal, and today's was particularly good. As I've got older I've really felt the "emotional journey" Easter takes you on; this weekend was one where I really felt it all.
- I've also finally reached the end of my Lenten avoidance of processed sugar, which I think (bar eating my easter egg today) I will try to continue as best I can. I don't think it's a coincidence that the last month or so has been the time I've been slimming down a bit.
- A lot of other bits and pieces happened behind the scenes, some good, some bad. Generally positive, though! Over and out.