Category Archives: Weekly Posts

Projects of Awesome

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Does it remind you of something?

This last month has been a pretty incredible one for giving.  I know charity events happen all the year round with some occurring monthly,  but there’s something about this time of year that makes it feel really special.  I’m not sure whether it’s just the historical values of events and telethons,  but this year has been really special for it.

For us in the UK,  it was the BBC’s first Children in Need last month  without Terry Wogan and whilst the content and operations  of this year’s show divided opinion online and I’m sure offline too, I won’t deny that the tributes were moving to a man who gave it his all since day 1 and the new award given is a great lasting tribute  in honour and memory of the attitude and drive he gave to the cause. We also had bonfire night in early November with many events around the UK raising money through these events to go to charities too.

In the last month I was fortunate to have time to see the YouTube based  charity  livestream by YouTuber Markiplier and co for the US based support platform Crisis Text Line which raised over US $110k,  as well seeing as a large portion of the network he’s under,  Revelmode, who held a stream including him and fellow network YouTubers Pewdiepie,  Emma Blackery and Jacksepiticeye raising over  $1.3m for the charity (RED) whom are dedicated to funding research in the fight to end AIDS and dropping on when I  could on the massive 48hr livestream by John and Hank Green and co,  better known by their YouTube name ‘vlogbrothers’ and  famous  Project For Awesome, which I had previously heard of years ago,  big only found out what it actually was last year and got the opportunity to catch it a couple of hours in onwards this year.  This project raised over $2m this year (at the time of writing) in its 10th anniversary,  most of which will go to user submitted and voted for charities in grants for the top voted ones (the remainder going to their nominated partners for the year) in the joint fight to help end “World Suck”.

I also know they’ll be many more events coming particularly with many carol services being charity oriented as well as well as the work of organisations such as the Salvation Army amongst many others  giving up their time to help those in need this Christmas not to feel alone or to suffer in silence.
With events like these, it’s hard to ignore in times like these that amongst all the hate and uncertainty many of us are facing there us still humanity out there working hard to keep people alive and either well or on the way to being so and it gives us hope that,  as Albus Dumbledore would put it that,  “Happiness can be found,  even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light”.

Happy Sunday  everyone.
Mike

Offline

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So, for the last two weeks my work life has been pretty hectic in the run up to our annual directorate awards, the contents of which are described in the Friday Mike Project blog published earlier on and will be continued on Wednesday.

After working on each day, I left work still feeling buzzed and ready to continue on (mainly to try and finish the vast workload of the awards, partly slowed with the responsibilities of the rest of my role as well as hoping to try and catch up with the tasks falling behind (2 of which will have to be completed tomorrow or Tuesday). Following the advice of my line manager however I tried to disengage, which was wise as in doing so I realised how tired I felt after a hard day’s work.

This weekend I also tried to take time for myself post awards (which is partly why this post is late as was the FMP one due yesterday) as physically and mentally I crashed around 2am yesterday morning after being on the go for 20 hours and busy all week.

Whilst I really enjoy the events we put on each year, I’ve learned over time how it’s important to take time to take a break. Even if it’s just for a few minutes to a few days depending on how long you’ve been going for it. If you don’t, eventually your body will do it for you (eg: You crash or brownout/burnout) and will remain ‘offline’ until you’re in a position to go for it again.

With good health and well-being you may over time be able to increase your limit, but it’s important to learn where your limit is and despite the warning to not overdo it, I think it’s important for you to do it once in your life (which you inevitably will when you discover said limit) so you learn from it. I wouldn’t recommend doing it deliberately due to what will be an unexpected consequence, but to know when it happens and to look after yourself so you know how to prevent it in the future.

I know it sounds cliché, but my advice this week is the same thing my parents tell me on an annoyingly regular basis – take care of yourself (because then, your body will take care of you).

Have a good week everyone,

Mike

“If I could build, it’d be somthin’ new”

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Cheesy line I know, but after this week’s opportunities and the previous feeling I got building up the Steam Machine mentioned in my Friday blog posts I’ve found a sense of happiness in creating things or building anew again. This week through building this year’s award ceremony for my directorate at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals as well as having a say on the rig for it to be played back on and designing our own local setup for said rig, helping to set up one new Amazon Fire Stick for a friend and troubleshoot another, slowly plan out the future for the network (sorry for some of the random design choices in the process) and come up with new projects for things very close and one smaller and another big project for the future to hopefully be hosted on the site here.

It’s quite motivating from seeing the success of my friends lately, such as (to name but a few)  the premier of a recent composition by a dear former coursemate and housemate from university, Mr Ben Fowler (MA), being diffused in the newly refurbished Middleton Hall at the University of Hull, the TV spot of another School friend, Mr Lamar Francois, on local station Notts TV and the release of his latest calender with a selection of his own work on each month and the front cover, The not so, but recent enough announcement that my other old coursemate and housemate, Mr Tom Wright, will be working on the sequel to the first game he got to work on, No More Room in Hell 2 and the brother of one (for there are many) of my oldest friends from years I’m scared to count making it big playing stadiums across the country and the continent on tour with Rationale, the unbelievably talented Mr Dino Franchi.

With these successes, it’s given me a sense of real drive, to go beyond the wild thoughts in my head and to climb out of the pit I entered in 2014 of not pushing myself anymore to focus on my former partner’s dreams and the inevitable rut I then went into after we parted ways, despite having the opportunity to seize the day there and then.

So expect big things coming this way soon, once I’ve gotten over the insanity of the never ending high capacity workload that’s currently consuming all my energy in my day role.

Happy Sunday all and I wish you a productive week!

Mike

(Many) Holidays Are Coming

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As we reach the end of the year, many national and international holidays alike for people are coming. With the launch of the many retail adverts (in the UK we had the Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, ASDA and Aldi ones hitting YouTube and TV screens nationwide) and the famous Coca Cola adverts (normally the year’s rendition of  ‘Holidays are Coming’ being the biggest one), it’s no secret that Christmas is on it’s way (though I think it’s still too early for decorations!!) as well as Hannukah for the Jewish also approaching. Following this there’s Hogmany for the Scottish and New Year to come. Previous to all of this too, there’s Thanksgiving this Thursday for the USA and Black Friday following for both us and the Americans. Finally, between all this there’s the Christian (but not public holiday) Observance December 8th for Canada for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Prophet’s Birthday for Muslims on the 12th.

So that’s plenty for the world to look forward to and it’s no wonder that this time of year is focused on family and friends.

I hope everyone that’s reading has some great plans to get together this year. I know it’s cliché to say, but let’s also spare some thoughts for those whom it might not be an easy option. Two years ago, I experienced what it was like to experience Christmas on my own due to a series of complex communications and bad timings. Albeit my experience was under completely different circumstances (I had food, presents and some contact with both parents and limited contact with my former partner – I won’t lie that it did get lonely through the day and I can’t even begin to imagine what those in far worse circumstances will be going through. So if you have time, do something special for those who may be facing struggle this season.

Be it inviting someone you know over for the celebrations to spend time with you, volunteering at kitchens for the homeless and less fortunate, saying prayers to your respective God(s) or giving to charities such as the Salvation Army who will be out supporting those in Need this December, any help will both be good for you and will really make someone’s Christmas this season (whether they meet you or it’s more of a Secret Santa). Just the same way Christians believe we were given the gift of God’s son over 2,000 years ago, we as people should extend the hand of family and friendship out to as many people as we can – especially to those whom 2016 hasn’t been their greatest year, just in the same way you surely hope you’ll be treated this season (no matter how selfless we all try to be!), whatever you celebrate.

Hope you all have a wonderful week, Happy Thanksgiving to you in the USA and be careful out there on Black Friday! (I’ll be sticking to the Internet personally).

 

Mike

 

 

Just A Thought

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This week has been one of remembrance for many. For Americans a historic period came to an end on the 9th November and Veterans Day took place on the 11th. On the same day in Britain and the commonwealth Armistice Day occurred with Remembrance Sunday following today. At the time of writing, I’ve also heard that New Zealand has had a powerful earthquake with a Tsunami to follow.

Based on the theme of ‘Rethink Remembrance’ by the Royal British Legion this year, here are some thoughts for this week.

In today’s busy world it’s easy to pass things by that are happening around us, only to stop and remember when big events happen. It’s interesting though that as the years go on it’s easier for many people to ‘forget’ or to not understand the importance of stopping and taking time to think. It’s easy to think disasters happen all the time and to remember everybody’s incidents would mean stopping everyday. That may be the case in a multicultural society with different historical disasters both national and close to home, but does size matter?

Before you answer, take time to think on what I mean by size – it could be a family member that went to war. It wasn’t a world war, but fighting nonetheless and they never made it back. If that was your family member, it would be a huge deal to you so take that time to remember. For others it may have been a different war than battles and conflict and may be a loved one fighting for their life over disease. Whatever the case when it’s close to home it definitely hurts more.

With the bigger events, to some it might on face value not seem as big a deal if they weren’t directly affected (e.g: If their family wasn’t in service or part of an incident, or if they were it was several generations up). However these are just the same as if you lost your loved one, for many people across the world, or may still be alive and struggling now – be it in action or in hospital or even after a situation and feeling the after effects of disease, service or a disaster.

Whatever the situation, use this Sunday to respect those that have fought well, to protect themselves, to protect us and to protect each other, much in same way you might hope be remembered for safeguarding your own future.

For Brits, whether you’re a supporter of our current defence force activities or not, these men and women gave their lives for us in both world wars and in more recent conflicts to help keep us safe and to keep us where we are today both in other countries and close to home. So whether you took your 2 minutes on the 11th (which I sadly missed in resolving an incident), today at 11 (which I didn’t) or both, or even in your own time – remember those who were there for us long before we even knew it.

In addition to remembering, where you can, reach out to those in need either through donation, though physical or verbal support or to just let them know that you’re there.

For those outside of Britain with your own days of memorial and honour, remember those that have kept you and are keeping you here today and spare just a thought and rethink remembrance for those in conflict or struggle right now or grieving battles of all shapes and sizes from the past and present when you see them and you’ll soon find that all of our battles matter just as much.

Happy Sunday all and Never Forget.

'Remembrance Day' by Petr Kratochvil. Used under Public Domain

‘Remembrance Day’ by Petr Kratochvil. Used under Public Domain

Mike

The Conveyor Belt

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One week on from blogtober and a short break from blogging whilst I assemble a proper schedule, you’d think I’d be well rested and have stockpiled millions of posts and with a smaller schedule take a more relaxed view to writing to you all.

No.

It’s been busy. Very busy. I was lucky enough to have a week’s annual leave towards the end of October which allowed me to start planning on this new venture, but of course I was stillwriting each day and planning for the next. On Halloween, I was back at work and glad I started the draft of the announcement earlier in the week as ir wasn’t a particularly quiet day. The next one got even busier, keeping me past my normal finishing time with extra work added on. The next day was just as jam-packed running our major annual symposium for the RCPE with no real time to stop over the 9 hours so we worked for. The final two days were down with trying to catch up with where I was before my leave began and the evenings and the weekend were time to just unwind so I could rest for the next day ahead.

Without meaning to sound like I’m compalining it’s quite scary at how quickly our work escalated after summer (considering summer was a continuation of the spring and was meant to be a quiet period), but our workload now feels a lot like the classic comedy factory conveyor belt sketch that apparently was made famous by the I Love Lucy show version, but there are many varients out there including the original from the film Modern Times (TV Tropes explains here the mechanics for those that aren’t sure what I mean) and right now we’ve reached the “speed it up a little!” stage.

With this in mind, blogging won’t be as frequent I’m afraid to save things going into a constant stream of “overdrive” (and possibly becoming a “new normal”) – not through laziness but as a fellow human being I do need to eat, shower and unwind so that I can sleep in time for the next day (which is really important or the next day will be even more stressful). I’ll still post here weekly though and ensure you get at least one post a week on each blog (except for Friday which is still fortnightly).

I hope you will all understand and hopefully over time things will be able to become more frequent again as demand changes, or at least becomes more managable.

Hope you all have a great week and nobody feels too overloaded

Mike

Listen

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In the last week as I was rearranging my bedroom to better accomodate new new working space and future furninture I plan to bring up here, I came across an old refill pad that’s mostly unused save for the first few pages (I had an awfully bad habit of doing that when travelling between home and uni between semesters, visits and term years). This particular one had the front cover missing and the writing on it caught my eye. After reading it through as probably a long since archived (circa 2011) and subsequently expired idea for an old website post, I feel it’s a thought worth showing the light of day, especially after studying sound and learning of the world becoming R. Murray Schafer’s idea of Soundscape hell (a saturated environment of artificial sounds drowning out the ornaments of ‘pure’ sounds within the environment heard), even though ironically my advice kind of goes against his (link here if you’re interested in what any of the last sentence meant).

So here is one of my musings of 2011, reshared for this week and typed exactly as was handwritten (graphical errors and all):

I was taught one life lesson in Acoustic Ecology. Don’t just filter out the “everday” sounds and listen to what you deem to be “important”, because some of the most interesting sounds are best heard when you let them speak. So go somewhere quiet, stick on your headphones, get out your recorder and listen carefully to the world around you, and record it if possible.

You’ll be amazed at the little things that present themselves to you. I feel this concept applies to life too. So take time, shut out the hustle and bustle of life. Sit down, relax and listen to your head and heart, instead of just what your mate says or your family tell you. Listen to the thoughts and face the issues that you pretend aren’t there or that you haven’t got the time for. You never know you might just solve it. And record it somewhere: Phone, Portable Recorder, Laptop, Diary, Note Pad – whatever. So in case you feel bogged down about stuff, you know you still can be and what you value and believe in. Whatever you believe, you’ve only got one life as the person you are on this planet and you should value every second of it you’ve got, so that at the end of it all you may have a few wrongs but you can still smile and know that you haven’t wasted the time you have and fulfilled your thoughts.

You know, it still stand by and believe in this musing to this day (proving that, although ery meta, it does work) and I with us all having a note taking device in our pockets or bags these days (unless it’s a Galaxy Note 7, in which case don’t keep it there!) high tech or low. So if in doubt, write/speak/record it out. You never know when it might come in handy again.

Happy Sunday everyone (or whatever the day future Mike or anyone else reads this).

(Present) Mike

5 Years From Now

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That’s a popular question for some. Mostly it’s in interviews asked in the hope you have ambitions for the future. But when you get to that stage, it’s worth stopping to reflect on what you said and if you managed to achieve any of it, or perhaps changed direction.

I’ll admit every year seems to be a different adventure for me.

Looking back at both my social media history (except for the lost stories of Bebo) and indeed old memories, I’ve at least managed to trace back to this day up to 7 years ago, but for the sake of the title, I’ll stick to only mentioning the 5 🙂

In 2011, I was in my first year of my MRes in Scarborough (Hull University) with the prospects that it might help me with a career in the music production industry and making my way into younger adult life with my coursemates that I’d gotten to know a couple of years prior and started my second attempt at running a WordPress site.

In 2012 I was still working on the MRes and just getting into the everyday swing and regular tasks of being a residential warden for my fresher family in Scarborough at the almighty Crawford House and trying to sort out the imfamous boiler system that was attached to it, during this year was when I first experimented with running multiple blogs and also did some work with the healthcare organisaation Nuexcom. In 2013, now redrafting my MRes with another approach, I had moved to Attenborough House (still in Scarborough) whilst trying to make things work with my former partner, part way through this year I restructured all of my sites into ‘The Porto Flynn Network’ and added extra blogs for Katherine’s photography portfolio and our adventures together in helping her complete the football touring challenge known as ‘The 92’. In 2014 I was in Bolton living with said partner and had just completed my first month at Lancashire Teaching hospitals, a bit of an interesting start to my career and now paying off expenses in anticipation of my MRes being marked. Last year I had got my MRes back and was redoing it again after many corrections to the writeup and things had unfortunately changed in my partner moving out and into her new house and I…wasn’t. However one year on, the transfer of the contents of ‘The Porto Flynn Network’ were complete and the site was wound down a few months ago. I’m quite happy in the career I’m in and may continue to keep it this way for the forseeable future.

Looking at all of that, I must admit I never imagined life turning out this way. But do I regret not being the friendliest, yet got things done warden, that partnership didn’t last, or that my career veered from Computers to Music to Music Technology to Technology in Education? Not at all. They may have all been different adventures, but they all helped me get to where I am today and if time travel was possible, I would only revisit it all for the memories, not to change a thing.

So I guess the next question is, where will I be in 5 years time? The answer is, who knows? All I wish for is that whatever I’m doing, whoever I’m with (myself, friends, family or another half), I’m still here sharing it with you all and that I’m happy and I hope you will all feel the same.

 

So if you’re reading this, try it for yourself. Where were you 5 years ago? Would you change it if you could? Where do you think you’ll be 5 years from now? You don’t have to share it, but feel free to discuss below if you so wish.

Happy Sunday and I wish you all a wonderful future week, because you never know, it might set you on a path to make you who you are in 5 years.

 

Mike

Communicate

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This is an interesting topic that’s been on my mind a lot, but particularly in the last two weeks. Whilst this isn’t a formal blog per-se, I will try my best not to let it become a rant (as I’m sure my colleagues, family and friends will agree has happened before).

So a big problem I’ve seen recently seen and heard about in projects and in work (not just corporate business, this can apply anywhere from community organisations and volunteer groups all the way up to military operations)  recently is people either failing to communicate or people not taking in communication.

When you start a project with somebody, communication is such a fundamentally important principle. If you don’t establish your aims and goals and expectations clearly from the start, you’re setting the stage for something to go wrong immediately. I’ve seen this happen so many times and in the advisory role, experienced it myself making the mistake of not asking enough. I’m not saying we can’t trust anyone and must be brutally anal about every hair on every brass tack, but hidden surprises can be dropped on anyone, any time and often the blame will be shifted to you because “you never said we couldn’t/shouldn’t or I didn’t know we couldn’t/shouldn’t”.

Likewise, it’s important to engage in listening to each other’s side of the conversation and if you’re unsure about something, ask. As the proverb heard through pop culture says assumption “makes an ass of u and me”, this is often the case between a service provider and the client when the service user suddenly has more pressure put on to pick up the pieces.

Once you’ve established this pact for communication, stick to it and update each other regularly and make sure you keep this going all the way up to your go live date. Once you’re past this, comes a really really crucial part that most people overlook. Make sure you have a post-live support plan of sorts. If this is a product, make sure there’s a service level agreement to make sure end users and clients aren’t abandoned and make sure this is clear from the beginning of the project (not just tacked on at the end by needy clients or an afterthought by the service provider).

Now to the other side of communication. If you’re a comms. provider (published or broadcast media, PR, social media, promotion & marketing etc), clarity is beyond required, it’s the very foundation to the trust you will try to build with your audience. It’s always best to be honest with your audience and if something cannot yet be said or at all, explain that to people that ask questions (this is particularly important with confidential information, product releases, trade secrets etc). If you hide it or fabricate the information and you’re found out you might lose the trust of your audience and it may take a long time to rebuild that trust again. If something can be said though, shout about it, represent the brand you’re working for and keep reminding people why you are awesome and people should be subscribed to your content (even in a human sense if you’re not a place or entity that provides a subscription service).

At the end of the day, as good as we are at listening and interpreting, non of us have yet developed a natural ability to read minds (voodoo, magic or technological methods are a different story), so if we don’t communicate our intentions in one form or another, then things may not turn out the way you expect or sometimes the right people may not always get the right message.

Have a great week everyone.

Mike

Find Your Community

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So recently after settling into a new place I’ve been thinking about getting out and meeting some of the locals (whom I don’t already know through work). After uni I only really had my previous partner and her family to converse with locally with my other lifelong friends being in my hometown back in the East Midlands and my uni friends spread all across the country and internationally. Once we went our separate ways and I moved out I needed to find other people to talk to. Sadly in my temporary housing this wasn’t the most successful endeavour (although that said I got on with my housemate really well when we did see each other.

After being where I’m now based for a couple of months I’ve met a few people here and there and got to see a few of my colleagues from work let their hair down and it’s been good fun and the social circle of the outside world slowly continues to grow (it grew today in fact when I was drafting this post in The Ferret just outside of Preston City Centre and got to chat to the bar staff for a bit – seriously, if you’re ever in the area and you want a really good burger or sandwich and/or you like an unapologetically good gig night, give them a go!).

Whilst I was worrying previously after nearly 11 month whether I was being too introverted, I’ve come to realise the community I have both online with old friends and family coupled with the amazing people I know both in Blended Learning and the wider Health Academy and the few people I’m getting to know here and there are my little community.

So, for those who are feeling lonely or feel thrown into the lurch of not knowing anybody (be you a student starting in University, somebody that’s just moved to the UK or just people starting out somewhere else in general), don’t panic about meeting hundreds of people at once. Even at university it took time for me to meet the large circle of friends I had in halls and over the year that only grew and grew.

If you feel you’re not meeting the people in your local proximity, the Internet also provides a wealth of different places to meet new people and build your own circle of friends. You could sign up to a set of forums where people share common interests, or maybe start playing your favourite game online to meet like-minded players. This option often opens up the whole world to you, allowing you to meet people everywhere.

If you fancy getting to know these people further there are both dating based sites out there and well as the idea of Pen-friends in both the traditional and newer electronic form  that allow you to talk to people all over the world either by email or, as you get to know them, sending letters through ‘snail mail’. Two I have discovered are PenPal World and Interpals, but I’d do your homework on search engines to find the right site for you.

Whatever path you’re coming from and whatever you choose to go forward, take time to find your community and don’t force it! You never know who you’ll meet around the corner. But equally don’t let the opportunity pass when it comes to say hello (Unless it’s night time and they’re dressed in something a little clown like – in which case you may want to walk in the other direction!) or you may wind up wondering if it ever could have been.

Take Care and Be Safe.

 

Mike