Categories
#OddsAndEnds #thinkery

Be more Bob…

It’s only in my later years that I’ve gone deep with Bob Dylan – in particular the early stuff, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, The Times They are A-Changin’… It seems to me that the stuff Dylan was calling out then is still so relevant now. I recently tripped over this interview that he gave in 1965 in San Fransisco and was amazed at some of the answers Bob gave, especially when he talks about how he sees himself and what he does. There’s lots to be learned here…

Categories
#OddsAndEnds #thinkery

The Unsharpener

I asked my son to draw me what he wanted for Christmas. Here are the suggestions I got back.

Luckily, I had most of them wrapped and under the tree already…

Categories
#coop #covid2019

Digital Transformation

For the last few months, our co-operative We Are Open has been helping a number of organisations with digital transformation in a time of crisis.

You can read more about the work we’ve done with Action West London as they respond to their charity’s new circumstances.

Categories
#covid2019 #privacy

Skills for the New Normal

I know, I know – a million Zoom meetings draining the marrow out of life, right?

Anyway, here’s a free & open email course crafted by the We Are Open Co-op to teach you things you already know (or do you?) about successful online video meetings:

7 Habits of Highly Successful Virtual Meetings

Categories
#OddsAndEnds #stickers

Marmalabels

My eldest son is at it again.

This time it’s funky labels for his mother’s freshly made Orange Marmalade. We keep this stuff in our cellar, so when we send one of the minions down for another jar (height restrictions mean it’s a yogic experience for the taller man…) there’s a collective marvelling at the loveliness of the label, long since forgotten by even the creator themselves.

It’s a bit like those photo memories your phone pops up – only much stickier…

Categories
#learning #lockdown

Pax Calendar

“Suddenly liberated by this new knowledge of old patterns, an unmissable opportunity presented itself to change the world forever. For surely, only a 9-year-old in Lockdown has the keen sense of awareness to set in store a brave new order of time itself.

Having an appreciation of patterns and order, my young apprentice immediately adopted a 28-day month consisting of 4 weeks of 7 days (power to the workers!) 13×28 = 364, with the 13th month incorporating one or two extra days (holidays for the workers!) to make up 365/366.

And with the help of Google Translate, to each month he gave a Latin name, inspired by the current school curricular focus on the Romans (thumbs down to the Romans, thumbs up to the Celts!), which provided a layer of abstraction and an air of irrefutability…”

Taken from the current issue of the Visual Thinker. You can subscribe here.

Categories
#learning #lockdown #maker

Rabbit Hole Learning

“As it turns out, the answer is not that simple. You see, Sir Professor Isaac of Newton was so clever, he was born in BOTH 1642 and 1643…”

Taken from the current issue of the Visual Thinker. You can subscribe here.

Categories
#lockdown

A Fool Moon Photo

Like a fool, I was up late the other night taking a photo of the moon with an old DSLR camera with a big lens. I was poised with a tripod on the very edge of a spikey bush as the moon finally shifted itself between the trees, and the clouds kept a bay long enough for me to take this shot. This article made me do it, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I do these days, because life is too short.

Of course I had to tinker with the photo once I had it…

Categories
#OddsAndEnds

Is it too early?

Is it too early to complain,

about the recent lack of rain?

My spuds need liquid love.

Categories
#covid2019

Bob…

It is quite possible that the next ten illustrations posted on this visual blog could hold the title the new normal. Yet not even I (!) can tell you what the new normal looks like. Video meeting participants talking enthusiastically whilst on mute is definitely nothing new, there’s just a whole bunch more people at it.

So if you find yourself in a pointless meeting this week, I fully encourage you to put yourself on mute, and then talk in an animated fashion for as long as you possibly can. Then when finally you’re forced by others to unmute, simply say – “Oh – I was just saying that I agree…”

Created for issue #2 of The Visual Thinker.