Category Archives: Weekly Posts

No Words

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I didn’t get around to posting yesterday. I’m glad I didn’t, because my original message seems irrelevant now and my thoughts at the start of this week are short but sweet.

On the shuttle bus to work this morning I heard the news. Roughly 22 dead, some of them children.

I must ask to anyone out there that thinks this is OK. What is wrong with you? Is it a mental disability, a misunderstanding on what Islam is about? Do you get thoughts in your head urging you to kill people? If you can answer yes to all or just questions 2 or 3, then get help for your mental health!

By blowing people up you’re not a Muslim savior, you’re not a hero. You’re just a killer.

I stand with you Manchester and my thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected. If you’re missing or unsure of a loved one, contact them now to make sure they are safe or call one of the numbers published across news and social media and on the Greater Manchester police site.

Living in fear will only let the terrorists win, so let’s all try to stay strong, keep calm and carry on.

Mike

Cash? Or Check?

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So, this was a busy week!

A potential move forward on my flat refurbishment (that didn’t happen) after 2 weeks of nothing, a move around of offices and a large scale cyber attack that’s left my local hospitals/places of work in a rather awful state. No rest for the wicked eh? Or is there?

I can’t pretend the NHS was the only place affected by the attacks of Friday, quite far from it actually. But it’s taught us a rather important lesson in security, backups and keeping things up to date.

It’s easier said than done and I’m pretty guilty of forgetting to back things up myself which thanks to the wonders of automation I have less of a worry over.

The thing that bugs me is not only the anonymity of the attack (which I suppose is a given with the vast array of hackers and malicious software writers out there) but also the lack of motive. Considering this was on such an unprecedented scale and given the timing in world events, somebody must be pretty bored or with a sick sadistic mind to think that launching this is okay (and considering they earned more in a day for pressing a button than I do in a year for working hard, somebody pretty greedy too).

My heart goes out to all those affected by the incident and whom now have to work over the weekend through days and nights to fix things and patch up before the potential second attack that security experts think may happen tomorrow.

Take care out there guys and let’s see if the Internet is still alive next week (provided all the servers holding it up are still running).

 

Mike

Prepare, Prioritise and Persevere

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Do you ever get the feeling you’re never quite getting to the end of your work? Or perhaps a task you hoped to start on Monday still feels no closer on Friday on the account of so many other things getting in the way? Yeah, me too.

In my daytime work, there are things that are still bubbling in the way in the background that I’d love to get done but many daily and monthly responsibilities, letdowns by other people you have to rely on (as apparently whilst to get it perfect you have to do it yourself, you also can’t be everywhere at once) and meetings/problems/projects that drop in at the last second, they often get pushed to the wayside for weeks or even several months at a time.

The important things I’ve learned through all this can be taken down to 3 Ps.

The first is Preparation, a term I already try to incorporate into a mantra I call PASTRY (an acronym I hope to later explain in a future post on sister site WAVE Media). You should always be prepared for the unexpected events, even if it seems unlikely they will happen. On top of this you should prepare for what happens when other bumps appear in the world which whilst trivial, can soon add up. If you have a contingency plan though, at least you can rest in the knowledge that you have it under control.

The second is Prioritisation. This one is usually a given, but clients often feel that they’re work is the most important. Being the one doing the work, it’s best to be the one in control (or at least partially) of deciding what is to be done first and then following in an order that allows for minimal disruption. The rule of thumb I’ve learned in this is “Do they need it now?”. If yes, crack on. If not, add it to the queue and be honest with them that it might be a while. Simple as that. At the end of the day, there’s only one you and being only human you can only do so much.

Finally, there’s Perseverance. The world keeps turning each day and people hope their projects they’ve requested will keep up with that. In the relentless run of work, it’s important to keep going as best as you can as failure is only really guaranteed if you don’t try. Your clients will appreciate your perseverance when the going gets tough and you might just surprise yourself. As the anonymous saying goes:

“The moment you’re ready to quit is usually the moment right before a miracle happens. Don’t give up!”

Happy Sunday and go get ’em!

Mike

In the Works

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This week has been one of productivity in many facets. For one it seems my whole flat is undergoing refurbishment, from damp control downstairs and kitchen update, to the workspace upgrade upstairs (that will hopefully keep pace next month). There’s talks going on to refurbish more rooms at the Trust as well as working on next steps for our new staff intake and a wider uptake of people taking responsibility with the Ed Tech resources we have across the sites. And perhaps further goings on to expand more of the stuff I create and the people I work with. More to be revealed in the future.

With all this work going off I’ve often thought it’s worth remembering to keep your bearing when you’re working and keep your eye on the final destination to prevent things from losing track. That said, if a possible diversion comes up, it’s worth looking on the map to see if it serves any benefit. It’s often said that you don’t know what’s around the corner and if you miss a potential turning, you’ll always be wondering or perhaps regretting. This works the other way though too hence why it’s worth considering rather than being hasty. If this sounds a little confusing, take a look at Freeway Theory from How I Met Your Mother.

Here’s to the future and what it may bring through the choices we make.

Mike

Spin Cycle

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It’s been quite the week. On Monday I attended the funeral of my late almost step-grandad (not legally, but the family is close enough to be family), on Wednesday I went had a crazy day at work and learned a few lessons, On Thursday/Friday I threw caution to the wind and began stage 2 of my home workspace and Thursday/today thanks to having a little sun I managed to process more laundry in 2 days than I can usually get done in 2 weeks over the cold winter period in a Victorian building.

Through all this I’ve learned an important lesson and see in it action. At the funeral we were reminded of how Angelo was a hard working man, that started here with very little and worked hard to achieved what he had and from all our knowledge, he was about the family and was always caring to everyone that he got to know. Whilst this isn’t a ‘life changing’ message to me it has encouraged me to try and take more control of what’s happening around me. Take up the leadership side to my new role rather than waiting on the thumbs up to do something, to go ahead as soon as it’s possible rather than thinkning “meh, I’ll wait until I can afford the lot” and being brave and stepping out when opportunities arise for you to do so.

Ironically, due to the weight of the week and all that’s happened, I sadly failed you in delivering a post on Wednesday. The post from Tuesday was mostly prewritten so I was able to have that out just in time, but Wednesday sadly wasn’t. Rest assured you’ll have one this week and business should be as usual with hopefully a couple more exciting things along the way!

It’s an age old lesson but it’s surprising how well it hits you when you realise the world around you is always changing. We don’t always notice it day to day as the world spins at over a thousand of miles an hour (1,040pmh/1675 km/h to be exact), but when life goes into a spin cycle you need to put your best foot forward and make your choice before it gets too late and the world has moved on without you.

As I wrote in lyrics of “The Middle of the Day” (yes, it’s a demo recorded for a uni assignment!), when you come to a crossroads, whilst everything is a choice it’s often wise to pick a direction rather than pacing around and letting the day pass you by. So grab your guide (if you need one) and get walking down your path this week or be brave and seek into uncharted. You never know what’s around the corner until you take your first step and after time, you should be able to look back and see just how much you’ve acheived along the way and potentially paved the way for future people hoping to travel down the same route.

Happy Sunday

Mike

Our Mum

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Happy Sunday to mother’s everywhere today. To celebrate (in a probably than likely artistically cheesy way), here’s some rhyme to give out my message this year to all the mums around the world:

Those that carried us from the start and carried on since then.

Those that fed us and kept us clean, changed, rearranged and many things unseen.

Those that paid out and others made to ensure we had what we needed over the decades.

Those that helped us walk, speak and play both physically and socially for the everday.

Those that bailed us out or listened to what we had to say.

Those that looked after our friends in sometimes when told “Muuum, go away”, but carried on all the same and let us have our way.

Those that may sometimes boss us around and tell us about our wrongs and how to come around.

Those who helped to pave our way and those who support us even when things fray.

And for those that maybe don’t get to say this to your mums all of the time, use today to celebrate be it in gifts or actions or rhyme.

Because whether she’s in the next room or looking down from ‘out there’, no matter your age, your place, your time, your mother will love you and always be there.

Hope you have a wonderful and blessed day wherever you and you children may be and remember that one wouldn’t be without your other.

 

Mike

Compressors, Gates & Filters

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So as a follow up in some degree of my musings a few weeks ago in  “Dear World…”, something has been stirring in the various universes of Social Media again. It’s always been there, but many people don’t usually notice it. Now people do know about it though, it’s interesting to see the exposure of people covering stuff up recently. What I’m talking in relation to is the discrimination of people based on race, religion and sexuality.

Politically, it’s hard to ignore the way the American border is under question with the Trump administration threatening to close it off to anyone whom happens to be from a certain country with a certain faith. It’s happening the other way too, particularly with every other conflict mentioned in the middle east at the moment being based around faith. And I can’t fail the mention the controversy on both sides surrounding the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.

Entertainment and the media (our supposed means of escaping our current world) aren’t safe either. The recent exposure of YouTube with it’s ‘Restricted’ content filter removing a lot of LGBTQ+ content has hit blogs and social media around the web recently and for film, music and book buffs in the last couple of years, it’s noticeable that artists of these fields are seen to be really pushing their inclusion of diversity to noticeable levels (often counteracting the point) such as pointing out characters as homosexual or a specific gender in films or overdoing/poorly planning characters in books and films. Now, whilst it’s great that people are being more inclusive with their work, it’s not something to stick a neon sign on as if you deserve a reward for doing it. The whole idea around diversity settling issues with gender, race and religious equality is that it is just that, equal. Holding up metaphorical neon signs to go “Look, my film has all female main characters!” or saying things like “in my adaption, I made sure that X was bisexual and reinterpreted Y as an Asian person” isn’t really going to do anything other than shine a light on them because of the features and barriers you were apparently trying to remove and provoking the argument back again for your audience.

Everyone is entitled and everyone has the right to an opinion, even if you don’t agree with it. But if you differ, it doesn’t give you the right to go forcing yours upon them. Many people believe that by enforcing their broad opinion, they’re doing good in the world (such as blocking Muslims from entering your country, banning sexuality because you thought it wrong or persecuting your own people for not following your particular strain of the religion). Let me ask you this honestly, just how is that benefiting? How does that solve the problem you think you’re having.

Neutralisation follows a number of definitions. The greatest one though, means nobody against anybody, rather than merely eliminating those who might compete with your interests.

But that’s just my opinion and if you have a differing one, that’s totally fine. Just don’t force me to change mine is all I ask as I would say not to take my post as fact either.

Whatever you think, just sort yourselves out world. I’m tired about hearing all this globally childish playground bullying in my news online, on TV and on radio (so much so ironically I’m almost relying exclusively on my curated RSS feeds in feedly to let me know the going ons in the world). Get your *ahem* selves together, grow a pair of your respective genitalia (whatever you identify yourself as) and keep the concept of Compressors, Filters and Gates in mediums such as video and audio production for processing data rather than trying to use those tactics in the real world and learn to negotiate rather than dictating who you think is right (because who in reality can moderate the moderators?)

I’ll let you figure that out.

 

Mike

Head Desk 

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That’s not much to say this week since Technology seems to have formed an alliance of gathered again me,  from my desktop environment flipping or and wiping the equivalent of a start menu on me,  to trying to reinstall and the getting corrupted,  to the new OS installing but won’t boot,  to the boot repair fixing the startup but again corrupting an important role that caused the new OS not to boot and also how ignore the USB drive I need to ‘rescue’  the system and the raspberry pi u have upstairs for backup refusing to install extra software that might help make aforementioned USB force the laptop to boot it  on account of an ‘unknown error’.

So this week I’m writing this on the WordPress app (which only just runs ad my running low on memory due to LG and Android’s bloat ware hogging about 65% of capacity after updates).

That’s probably the most extreme thing that’s happened,  but it’s situations like this  you just want a hand grenade to throw  arms walk away slowly with a fresh start. 
Who knows, the week might pick up if I commit enough good in the world. Maybe. 

Happy Sunday. 

Mike  

Suspend

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As humans, we all need a break sometimes. I don’t like to admit it sometimes, which can only be backed by the terms often used to describe me: dedicated, a workaholic, a machine, sad or passionate. As much as it’s great to keep churning though, it’s good to know when to stop before you body decides to do it for you and after a week of battering followed by an amazing leaving do for my good friend and former colleague (in the same place of work that is) on top of working on my hobby of these blogs as well as doing the everyday tasks of looking after myself and my flat (which when you live alone you realise how much you’re responsible for).

Given I had a pretty busy Thursday and a long Friday, plus the outing and my body now had the fun job of picking up the pieces, I was quickly put into Maintenance mode for the day and whilst this hampered many efforts for what I wanted to achieve for the weekend and went against my former uni self’s prophecy that “sleep is for the weak” and that lazy days were a waste of time, I certainly feel a lot better for it and if anything have more drive to achieve what I want to achieve this week and further forward!

So, I know it’s a little short this week, but if I have any advice to anyone who’s reading this week, it’s if you feel great, keep going and if you’re feeling tired, take a break. It doesn’t feel like it at first but you’re body will thank you when you’re raring to go again. And for those outstaying their welcome in chillandia, get back to it! There is such thing as too much of a good thing and if you overdo the relaxation, you won’t appreciate it as much anymore and if anything it may start to undo your motivation to keep moving forward!

Happy Sunday all of you and once you’ve had some time to reflect, go get em for next week, even if it’s just a single step!

Mike

A Single Step

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We’re all on a journey somewhere in our lives. We all have hopes, dream, aspirations. But getting out there and achieving them? That often seems to be for a select few. They call them the inspired and the motivated.

Now I’ll be the first to raise my hand and say I struggle with motivation sometimes (considering writing a 2,500 word essay with references was a common challenge at uni, you can imagine having the drive to do 2k a week for you guys doesn’t always come on tap).

If you feel the same and you need a boost, a video I watched 4 years ago to the day (according to the Facebook Application) was this wonderful video by code.org encouraging people to learn to code:

 

Or, if you’re more of a sports fan, how about something along the lines of BBC Get Inspired? And I shouldn’t need to mention a certain bearded man with a motivation speech that I’m surprised that Nike haven’t sued him for yet…

Whatever your passion, there’s always someone or something out there to get your head out of the sand and your backside off that lazy chair!

Usually the biggest problem is wondering “what if?” or questioning the value of it. That’s okay, if it’s a mere doubt, don’t let it sit and fester (as that only drives you further into doubt), address it and talk through it with your friends. Often hearing their answers can inspire you to get back on your feet. If your doubts are too many to mention or you can’t see the way out, ask yourself – “is this what I want to do?”. If you can’t say yes, use that to ironically drive yourself away from it and go and do something new you feel passionate about.

Whilst it’s quite the cliché, it is true that they say we’re “not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time”, and this applies to your work and your hobbies too. If there’s an opportunity out there to do what you enjoy, why not do it? Just a thought…

If there’s not, is there perhaps a way you could influence these opportunities (a change of scenery or lifestyle or social circles?)

The journey to next Sunday may feel a thousand miles away, but as the old Chinese proverb still states, we’ll only get there if we’re willing to start with a single step.

Happy Sunday guys, go get em!

Mike