Every vote counts

Mum always voted. This is her, aged 93, partially blind and a little unsteady on her feet, voting at the local elections in England 18 months before she died. It would have been very easy for us to not bother, but Mum was adamant about voting. So I helped her walk to the polling station and I was permitted to go into the voting booth with her to help her mark her paper as her eyesight was too poor to read the card.

When Mum was born, not all women had the right to vote - equal voting rights didn't happen until 1928 so she didn't take this privilege lightly. She took it very seriously and saw it as her civic responsibility to do so. And if my late Mum at 93 could do it, then so can we all.

I will be voting next week in the local elections. This round of elections is particularly important for many reasons, not least that I do not want to see liars and charlatans get their way. Turnout for local elections is often really low so every vote really does count.

National Kindness Day 2024 is today!

I was reminded about his in my Facebook memories and, I'll be completely honest, it was not on my radar at all until it cropped up in my memories. And that's a shame as the campaign is rather lovely.

Kindness is a simple act and can be something very small but even small acts of kindness can have a great impact on both the giver and receiver. However, these small acts of kindness can be forgotten easily when we're tied up in day to life and its associated busyness. It's also fair to say it's sometimes hard to remember to be kind when faced with unkind behaviour. Remember the saying 'Behaviour breeds behaviour'.

If you need some ideas for how to be more kind today, you'll find them on the official website. The organisation is also running a kindness survey which you can find here.

In the face of autocracy, cost of living crisis, economic uncertainties, climate change and more, let's remember to spread a little more kindness every day. The small things do make a difference.

You are what you eat

This phrase, 'You Are What You Eat', keeps coming back to me. I've been thinking about its wider meaning for more than 20 years when mobile and internet advertising started taking off.

The internet tells me that the phrase is thought to have originated in 1826 by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. He wrote, 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are'. A similar phrase appeared around 1863 when Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach wrote, 'man is what he eats'.

Most read these phrases as relating to the fact that the food one eats affects one's state of mind and health. This is a hot topic right now, and I know from my own experiments with the Zoe way of eating that one of the main changes I see when I stick to the principles is a noticeable improvement in my overall mood. 

For me the phrase goes deeper. I would argue 'man is what he consumes'. By consumes, I mean the people, the words, the images, the inane videos, the links clicked, the posters read, the media presented to you by algorithms, as well as the media you actively choose. It's also the people you surround yourself with and the things you choose to do with your time. It's your education - both what you received at school and self-education. The drama that does or doesn't surround you will also have an impact - sometimes you can't help consuming or absorbing what happens around you.

One could also argue 'garbage in, garbage out'.

So, in light of the riots in the UK, fuelled by misinformation and fear, let's take a moment to consider that we are what we consume and to watch what else we consume, by choice or not. 

Green Man could stay on for longer at pedestrian crossings in England

I'm pleased to see that the length of time given for someone to cross a road at pedestrian crossings in the UK is to be increased. I walk pretty fast most of the time but even I have difficulty completing crossing the road in time in certain places. When my Mum was alive and aging, she had no chance of crossing the road in the time allotted and we had to hope that drivers would be kind and let us pass. That did mean she restricted where she went on her own and the routes she took in order to reduce the number of main roads she needed to cross.

However, there seems to me to be a flaw in the equation. Research shows that the more densely populated a place is, the quicker they tend to walk. Therefore the average walking speed in Worcester will be different from the walking speed in London. Not only that, but some places will have a higher proportion of people in their vicinity who are less mobile due to age or illness. I hope, therefore, that there will be local nuance in the decisions made.

It may seem like very trivial news to some, but it has the potential to make our streets more accessible to those who walk the most.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66292145

Stress and decision paralysis

I think it's fair to say, that most of us have experienced more than our fair share of stress over the last two years. What some of you may not know is the impact that stress can have on your life. It can trigger very physical responses (palpitations, headaches, gut troubles and much more) and mental ones (it can trigger clinical depression and make existing mental health conditions like ADHD, OCD, much worse).

The marketoonist has written about the impact of stress on decision making in a recent post from earlier this week:

"decision paralysis is particularly acute in the face of an uncertain future.  And decision making has been hampered even at the personal level as the pandemic reveals new surprises.

The American Psychological Association found that 32% of adults (and 48% of Millennials) are “sometimes so stressed about the coronavirus pandemic that they struggle to make basic decisions, such as what to wear or what to eat.”

The full post is worth a read here.

 

The Poetry Advent Calendar

Historically, I would have described myself as an ambivert - happy at times to be extroverted and just as happy at other times to be entirely introverted spending time in my own company. As I've got older, my introversion is overtaking my extroversion - not helped of course, by time spent in lockdown. It's now the norm for me to stay in and not go out at all, so I often have to be encouraged, or encourage myself, to go outside. And as for social stuff, that's been really very limited for the last two years, and was limited before that due to (willingly) spending most of my time caring for my Mum.

Staying in isn't all bad and it doesn't have to be about being alone. One of the lovely things that happened during lockdown was that my friend, Adrian*, hosted a regular quiz on Zoom. When I started doing the quizzes, I didn't know anyone except Adrian and his family, but soon, as I got put into different teams, I got to meet the other regulars which was a social lifeline to me. And that included the poet, Owen Collins. Sometimes, as part of the quiz interval, Owen would read one of his poems. We haven't done the quiz for some months as restrictions lifted, but we had one last week which was great. And it was during last week's quiz, that I found out Owen does a poetry advent calendar - one poem a day until Christmas Eve. What a great idea! It's rather good and you can find it here. Yesterday's poem alluded to this year's Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square, hence the picture.

I know Zoom fatigue is very real, but Adrian's Zoom quizzes were/are brilliant. They kept me sane during particularly testing times. I look forward to meeting some of the other quizzers in real life at some point too.

* Adrian runs Minimum Ego and also writes and hosts quizzes online and in person for companies and charities. He's one of my Swan Youth Theatre chums from back in the day.

Not much to report, I'm afraid!

 I've not had the urge to write much at all this last few years. That's down to circumstances I guess - being full-time carer to my Mum doesn't lend itself to finding time and topics to write about. But it's been just over a year now since Mum died and maybe it's time to start writing again. I don't really have anything much to say today but I figured that saying something rather than nothing was a start.

One thing I've been mulling over is how to reintegrate into 'normal' life after an intense period of time as a carer to a close family member. There are a lot of services for carers if you have time to find them and the time to participate - which, if you're a carer, is not that likely in a lot of cases. But once you stop caring, you're kinda left to your own devices and seem to be expected to pick up where you left off before you started your caring role. Except, that's not so easy when it's been a few years and we're still in the middle of a pandemic.

Fortunately, as a former carer, I'm still eligible to participate in sessions organised by Carers UK so I'm taking advantage of their current online classes in Pilates and Yoga (which are great). But I think former carers need more than that and I'm putting some thought into what that should look like. If I come up with anything concrete, I'll let you know! 

Meanwhile, I'm (potentially) in the early stages of a project that, if it pans out, should be really interesting and fun to be involved in. It combines two of my favourite sectors - The Arts and Technology. I love it when two very culturally different sectors collide - magic can happen at the intersection. Creating the opportunity for different sectors to collide is one of the reasons I started hosting networking events. I've been collecting interesting people my whole life and I really like them to meet each other. I'm keen to revive my events, but it's still not the right time for me personally for in-person stuff - at least, not at scale. But maybe there's an opportunity to do something smaller, or online... we shall have to see.

Anyway, that's my first blogpost done in over 6 months. Let's see how many more I can write before the end of the year...

It's Mental Health Awareness Week...

A quote from Matt Haig's book, Reasons to Stay Alive

Mental Health Awareness Week. What does that even mean? 'Mental health' is such a broad term and covers so many things that I'm not sure how helpful it is. Mental health is so more than depression but the focus of the week seems to centre on depression, so that's what I'll cover here. (I suppose calling something 'Depression Week' isn't very appealing!) If this post helps even one person, then it's worth it.

In my experience, depression is often a symptom or outward expression of something else that is the root cause or trigger for a depressive episode rather than a disease in and of itself.

The root cause of depression can be nothing at all, just the way your brain happens to be working right now. It could also be triggered by the situation or circumstances you're in; a hormone imbalance (PMT and its more serious sister, PMDD, perimenopause, menopause, post-menopause or postnatal depression where our hormones are just out of kilter), an underlying condition such as ASD or ADHD (which may or may not be diagnosed), financial worries, experience of trauma, bereavement, miscarriage, ill health, burnout, poor diet, vitamin deficiencies, pollution, allergies, relationship breakdown, substance or alcohol abuse, being bullied, work worries, stress, overwhelm, a chemical imbalance or even phobia. And I'm quite sure there are more. 

This means depression is often a complex picture and can be difficult to untangle. Our GPs, although well-meaning, are not always equipped with the right tools, knowledge or experience to fully support a depressed patient. GPs mostly offer basic CBT (cognitive-based therapy) or anti-depressants. The addition of social prescribing to the mix is a step forward, but it's only a small step forward. 

Where there is an underlying cause, you need to get to the bottom of it and treat the cause otherwise, the patient may relapse. CBT and anti-depressants may not be effective. Some depression lifts without intervention, it just needs time. Other bouts of depression need a different approach. 

This is why I'm not that keen on the perceived wisdom that you should 'reach out' and 'seek professional help'. It's not that straightforward. If you really are in the depths of despair, 'reaching out' is just about the last thing you're capable of doing. If you can do it, that's a fantastic achievement in itself. The onus is on others to reach out to you or to make it really, really easy for you to make that call or send that message to let someone know you're struggling. 

As for getting professional help... Hmmm. Waiting lists are long. Availability of treatment beyond anti-depressants and CBT is patchy. Counselling, CBT or coaching is not going to work if you have underlying undiagnosed ADHD and/or ASD. Hormone tests for women to check for imbalances during perimenopause are only possible if you're going for IVF treatment (well that's what I was told). And if you've been through the system before, then you know that the GP will likely offer you CBT or anti-depressants. And if that doesn't work for you, then what do you do and where do you go? Sure, you can go privately, but how do you know where best to spend your money? How do you know what kind of therapy or counselling you need? And you're trying to make these decisions in the midst of despair? Oof. It's hard and needs a lot of improvement. 

Even so, the GP is still the right starting point, particularly if you have a sympathetic GP. But you're probably going to have to do your own research to complement what your GP can offer. Everyone is different and you know your situation better than your GP. 

If you're reading this and you are feeling low, then keep it simple. Focus on the basics first: water, light, nutrition and fresh air. After that, maybe some gentle exercise. A walk to the end of the block and back is a good enough start. When you're up to it, I recommend reading Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive. He's been through all of this and written a book based on his experience that is an easy, thoughtful and uplifting read.

Do talk to your friends about how you feel too. They won't all be able to help, nor will they all understand but someone will and they do care. Keep trying. And put a reminder in your diary to call your GP the next morning at 8am, or whatever ungodly time you have to make that call to get an appointment. Start the journey. Get advice. And take it gently, step by step, hour by hour and day by day. The chances are your road into depression has been a long one so the journey to recovery may take some time. 

There's no doubt that a better understanding of depression and ways of tackling it will be helpful to all of us. I hope that by raising awareness of these things as well as sharing insights and experience will lead to better services and treatments. Time will tell. In the meantime, hang in there. Your future self will thank you for it.

Captain Tom 100 Challenge completed!

Well, ladies and gentlemen of the internet, I am delighted to tell you that I completed my Captain Tom 100 challenge over the bank holiday weekend of sewing 100 items. It was a bigger challenge than I was expecting. Speed sewing is not my natural way of sewing, neither is sewing to order, but I had to do both in order to finish in the 4 days allotted.  Also, I had to deal with daily life and a new medical challenge but I did it! 

I made 101 things in the end by hand and on my trusty vintage sewing machine, Elsie:

14 shopping bags from an old, clean but slightly damaged double duvet cover of my Mum's

20 washable and reusable makeup pads from an old, but clean towel and 100% cotton poplin from my stash

7 embroideries on denim from my stash

10 hair bows made from 100% cotton poplin

26 mug rugs (fabric coasters) using three different fabrics from my stash

24 lavender bags made from a remnant of pure cotton alphabet fabric and home-grown lavender from the garden.

Keeping on sewing was quite hard at times. And I'm unable to do very detailed sewing work as the daylight wanes. Electric light isn't particularly comfortable to work in for sewing. Or at least, not the electric lights I have available to me at the moment. So I had to manage my time effectively. And I was more reliant than I was expecting on friends and neighbours engaging with me by donating and offering moral support. Each donation and comment really did spur me on that little bit more and really lifted my spirits when I was flagging.

Planning and cutting things out takes at least as long as sewing the item in question. It's hard to predict how long it takes for that so inevitably, it takes longer than you'd like. And my trusty sewing machine is certainly trusty, but it takes time to wind bobbins, get the tension right, thread and rethread it and coax the presser foot over thick layers of fabric and wadding. I certainly got to know her very well that weekend and she worked really hard and really consistently.

Raising money for charity is hard. There are constant demands for our hard-earned cash, and my campaign was yet another one. Getting my donations in relied heavily on my personal network chipping in and me taking the time to keep people up to date with my progress. As I shared my progress and results, more people engaged. I think all but one or two of the donations were from people I knew personally. To get bigger money, you need to get beyond that and I didn't manage that this time and you need to start earlier to build up the momentum and enthusiasm to get the donations in. 

It was also really good to get such positive support from the charity I was fundraising for - Magic Me. I got daily morning emails with words of support and PR support too. that was really helpful for me and a good way to start each day knowing that what I was doing was appreciated and that the money raised would be very useful. They also managed to get me in the local news which was a bonus.

I also learned things about myself during the challenge. It's a long time since I've done anything remotely like this. Committing to and completing the challenge gave me a big boost of self-confidence. My natural state in the past has been commitment-phobic and a starter-upper rather than a completer-finisher. (There's good reason for that which I may write about another time.) Regardless, this time, I was able to counter that tendency and that felt really good. 

At the time of writing, my campaign has just got over the £500 mark. That's £200 more than my goal so it's fantastic! My friends and neighbours have been very generous. The campaign is still open, so if you'd like to donate, you can do that here. 

So thank you Captain Tom for being you and inspiring me to take on this challenge! Rest in peace good Sir. 

Captain Tom 100 Challenge Accepted!

I don't know about you, but I was very moved by Captain Tom's story last year. Whilst in lockdown, news of his exploits and the money raised for NHS charities was a beacon of hope in dark times. And I was very sad when I heard he had died. But oh, what a life he lived!   

 In honour of him, ordinary people have been asked to do 100 of something to raise money for charity. My friend Deborah is doing 100 portraits this weekend. I am in awe of her ability and her commitment. And then I got to thinking what I could do. Since sewing is my thing, I'm going to make 100 things out of fabric over the next few days. 

Obviously, time is tight as these things need to be done over the next few days and sewing things takes longer than it looks, so these things are likely to be mostly small items, but I'm going to do my best to make a variety of things by hand and by machine using what materials and threads I have to hand and see what comes out of it. I imagine there will be a bit of embroidery, some eco makeup wipes, a few shopping bags and cushion covers - that kind of thing.

If you'd like to sponsor me, you can do that here. I'm raising money for MagicMe who do fantastic work connecting the young and the old through art in London's East End. I think it's a worthy cause and I hope you do too. If you sponsor me and would like one of the items I make, please message me so I can organise getting it to you. Otherwise, the 100 things I make (provided they're good enough to use or sell!) will be donated to a local charity shop.

Please do consider donating and thanks in advance!

I'll post some of my creations over the weekend on Twitter and Instagram so you can follow how I'm doing. And if you want to see what other people are up to, check out the campaign hashtag #CaptainTom100 

So much this

 Is this just a British thing? 

Via Facebook.

International Day of Happiness

I didn't actually know there was an International Day of Happiness until this morning. Apparently, it's today. It's a United Nations thing and started in 2012. "It's an annual celebration of happiness as a fundamental human right and goal for all of humanity. This year's theme, #TenBillionHappy, sets our sites (sic) on the year 2050, when it is projected that 10 Billion people will inhabit the Earth. Our goal is to inspire, develop and promote initiatives with global citizens, governments, nonprofits, NGOs, and the private sector, to secure Happiness for All™ by 2050." You can find out more on the official website.

I'm all for creating more happiness where possible and there are some really simple steps you can take. This graphic from Sylvia Duckworth sums it up a treat.

Here's hoping you have a lovely day.

It's predictions season... Here are GP Bullhound's Top 10 for 2018

GP Bullhound, a leading technology advisory and investment firm, has released its 2018 Technology Predictions Report. Their Top Technology Predictions for 2018 include (comments are mine):

1. Tech giants face political scrutiny 
Inevitable I think. It's not just political scrutiny, I think tech giants will be under greater scrutiny from their customers and users, especially around ethics and security issues (see next point).

2. Consumer cyber security becomes a number one issue
About time - our digital lives feel so precarious when so many companies and organisations are getting hacked for personal details.

3. Mobile usage will exceed TV in China 
I haven't followed the Chinese market much to date but this is certainly interesting if China is one of your (potential) markets.

4. Language recognition and translation becomes everyday 
Hmm, I've never really thought about this much, but I do like the automatic translations of Facebook posts. Some of the translations are pretty good.

5. The death of email 
I've seen this prediction in the past, but it never seems to happen. Email is still very effective when it comes to marketing, I can't see it dying in 2018. I think we're reducing reliance on it, but death is probably too strong a word.

6. International labour arbitrage flourishes
This is interesting. As cost of living increases, small tech companies move to cheaper tech hubs. This bodes well for UK cities like Leeds and Manchester and European hubs like Berlin and Barcelona. This kind of activity has been touted for a year or two now but I see no sign of tech start-up activity decreasing in London. If anything, it's still growing.

7. Organic expansion and consolidation of software sector 
The return of SAAS. If SAAS is your thing, then I highly recommend Mark Littlewood's Business of Software conferences in the US and Europe.

8. Industry 4.0
The digital transformation and manufacturing i.e. the next industrial revolution. Not my area of expertise but feels kind of inevitable. The rise of the robots and AI etc.

9. The rise of Blockchain and ICOs 
No big surprise there base on activity in the last month alone. ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering (Wikipedia definition here) and is the crypto currency equivalent of IPO. Blockchain and crypto currency are topics I plan to learn more about and cover more in 2018.

10. Augmented reality breaks through 
I think this will happen. Arguably, it's already happened as the little dot on Google Maps that moves according to our position is Augmented Reality. It's so pervasive, we hardly notice it. Note that AR is not VR. They are similar but different.

The report is well researched and each point is examined in some detail so I think it's well worth a read. They also review their predictions from last year and they weren't far off... You can download the report for free from the following link in exchange for your contact details.
https://www.gpbullhound.com/news/gp-bullhound-releases-2018-technology-predictions-report/

Day 22/25 Blogmas

Bloggers' Perks - going to a fashion showcase

Occasionally I get invited to interesting events on the back of having a blog. One of these instances happened almost a month ago when I was invited to the JD Williams and SimplyBe showcase of the upcoming fashion stories for Spring Summer 2018. It's not normally the kind of stuff I cover here on my blog but as I was in the West End that day anyway, I thought I'd pop over and see what they had on offer.

My first career was in fashion retail. I spent the best part of 10 years in a management role in both standalone stores in Worcester, Birmingham and London and in concessions within Selfridges and House of Fraser. An even before that, I has more than a healthy interest in fashion and clothing as I started making my own clothes at the tender age of 10. I still love textiles and the craft of making things, although I don't have as much time to devote to it these days as I'd like.

It's more than 20 years since I last worked on the shop floor but it's ingrained in me. One of those formative experiences that shapes who you are without you realising it. One of the assistants showed me around the different collections and explained how the pieces sat together and then left me to have a browse. And I was taken back to the early 1990s and working on the fashion floors of various London department stores. And just like I did back then, I spent quite a bit of my time people-watching. That was possibly the best bit. Oh and the gorgeous lavender lemonade.

I don't really go clothes shopping any more. I spent so long working in fashion that I accumulated a large wardrobe and stopped enjoying shopping for clothes as a pastime. It's fun to do occasionally, but it's certainly not how I want to spend my weekends any more. Plus, I still have way too many clothes due to a love of bargain hunting for interesting fashion pieces on eBay. So this made a welcome change.

For the ladies reading this, and those buying for the ladies in their lives, here's what's in for next season according to JD Williams and SimplyBe. 

• Acid brights with denim and white. Lots of embroidery and folk styles. Hippy style blouses and tops. Embellished jeans with embroidery or chunky laces on the outer seams. Lace edges and braid trims.
• Neutrals. Classic tones in beige, pale grey, cream and off white in silky fabrics. Simple, elegant styling that are easy to wear and easy to mix and match. Fantasy tweed in white with flecks is in and I spotted a lovely fantasy tweed handbag in a Chanel style but not at Chanel prices. Also I saw duster coats and long line jackets - the kind of which I haven't seen since the 1990s.
• Florals of all kinds in blouses, dresses and the pyjama style unstructured suit is still a thing. 
• Denim everything. Double denim, even triple denim. Pale and dark denim. I saw denim shirts, jeans, shirt dresses, jackets - jeans jacket style and also a quilted and embroidered bomber jacket in denim. My favourite denim piece was a trench style coat.
• Cashmere and silk casual wear in grey, black and cream. My favourite was a cashmere mix two piece of knitted culottes and loose v-neck sweater. There were also some lovely ponchos and loose knits that looked both stylish and cosy to wear.
• Summer sequins for day wear. Lots of them in both neutrals and acid brights. These were seen on tops and dresses in both the JD Williams and the SimplyBe collections. 

What I liked about the clothes I saw was that they were wearable, reasonably priced and didn't scream 'fashion trend' at you. What the fit or comfort levels are like, I don't know as these were all samples and not available to try on. The finish quality looked good though, especially for the price tags.

I didn't take many photos, but the few I did take are in the collection below. Click on the image to see them. The non-fashion images are of the art and lighting in the foyer of the building. Most impressive.

Thank you to JD Williams and SimplyBe for having me.

Day 17/25 Blogmas

Have you been Wham'd?

It's Whamageddon time. Are you playing? I'm a bit late to this as it's been going since 1st December but since I haven't yet been Wham'd, I'm still in the game.



I have a soft spot for this Christmas song as it played a big part of my teenagehood and forms the soundtrack to many happy memories so I don't mind hearing it. It's also by George Michael and with him passing earlier this year, it's a reminder of his contribution to our musical history (arguably, he wrote better songs than this, but this one is possibly the most pervasive).

Have you been Wham'd?

Day 14/25 Blogmas

Less can be more

It's very easy to get carried away at Christmas and buy huge amounts of gifts for your nearest and dearest. Sometimes the pressure to get a present means you end up buying things the recipient neither needs nor wants, but it fulfils your self-imposed obligation of buying a gift. It's also tempting at this time to buy gifts for yourself as you're out shopping with the intention of buying for others, especially when there are sales on and discounts in so many of our High Street stores. I'm not sure that online shopping makes that any better.

A friend just shared this quote about toddlers being happier with fewer toys. I think it's particularly pertinent at this time of year. Gift giving is lovely and arguably gives as much, if not more pleasure to the gift giver than the recipient, especially when you get the gift 'just right'. I'm not suggesting you stop buying anything or stop buying gifts at all, but maybe take a little more care over what you're buying and why and consider what one Mum shared about her experience of living with less.

"'When I took away most of my children’s toys, I gave them the gift of imagination. When I let go of all the extra sets of dishes, I gave my kids the gift of an extra hour with them at the end of the day that would otherwise be spent rinsing plates. When I simplified their wardrobes, I gave them back the focus of a mother no longer drowning in laundry cycles. When I cleaned out our family room and turned off the TV, I gave them time to connect with me and one another. All the choices I made, everything I removed from our space, it all gave my children more minutes with their mama.'

Now science proves it: Kids are happier with fewer toys. And you probably will be, too."

 Via Motherly

Day 13/25 Blogmas

Sunday Snippets

It's Sunday and I have snippets to share:

Want to speak at a conference? Then check out Mark Littlewood's top tips for a successful speaking application.

Google is on a mission to rid the web of annoying ads. They have a division called 'Sustainable Ads' and have put this post together to inform journalists of what's happening.

LinkedIn has a feature to allow bosses to spy on employees. You can read about that here.. I can't say I'm surprised but it does raise questions around privacy, especially when someone is looking to change jobs or is going through a difficult personal issues.

The gender gap rumbles on with women in IT being paid 15% less than their male counterparts according to a new diversity report from BCS and this article from Digit. You can download the report here (PDF).

Algorithms aren't going away soon and something I've been thinking about is the impact they have on our lives - often unwittingly. I wrote last month about what you do when your boss is an algorithm. This week, I came across an article reminding us that biased algorithms are everywhere and no-one seems to care.

And if you're doing the table planning for your Christmas party, you may want to take this into consideration. It's 21st Century dining etiquette!



Day 10/25 Blogmas

A nice sit down and a think

From 'Memorial Bench' blog

The internet can be an amazing place sometimes. The time and energy that goes into crowdsourced information is fantastic. Until recently, I had no idea that people were making maps of public benches so you can find a place to sit down and have a think when on your travels whether that's in the town or the countryside. And it's not just about the benches, it's also about who the bench is dedicated to. So many of our benches have a dedication, especially on benches where there is a particularly good view that meant something to the deceased.

There are a few online resources out there...

A Nice Sit Down is on a mission to get photographs and location of all the public benches out there. It's a bit bonkers, but each bench gets their own page and you can add a bit of blurb to your entry if you wish. There aren't that many benches on the site but you might find one local to you or you can add one that's near you.

Open Street Map (a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers) has a list of some of the benches in the world. It's not comprehensive unfortunately. I did a check on a couple of locations I know very well, and the benches I know about weren't listed. It's also safe to say that I found Open Street Maps a bit tricky to work out how to use it. It's a long time since I've had to read a map that's not a street map so I'm rusty on the protocol and on top of that, Open Street Maps seems to be very geeky so may put off the less geeky among us.

In Memory of is a blog about memorial bench dedications and the views from those benches. The author, George, claims to have always had a morbid fascination with reading the dedications on memorial benches and after a chance conversation with a fellow fan, she started the blog. She adds photos of memorial benches and the views from them on an ad hoc basis. She also accepts submissions from others.

The newest resource on the block comes from my friends Terence and Elizabeth and it's called Open Benches. They've put this together following on from their interest in blue plaques and the wonderful Open Plaques site. Blue plaques commemorate the famous and influential figures from the past and the open plaques site document those plaques and some of the history behind the figures.

For the rest of us, there are memorial benches. Open Benches is dedicated to those benches and they're asking people to take a photo of a bench's plaque and upload it to the site and it will then automatically be added to the map.

So the next time you're on a walk and rest on a public bench, why not take a photo of it and the memorial plaque on it and share it with the world via Open Benches? Not only will you be honouring those who've gone before us, but you'll also be sharing a valuable resource for those who are less able to walk or stand and need to sit down to rest and recuperate.

Day 4/25 Blogmas

I'm not giving up on the daily blogging thing yet!

I got a lot out of last month's daily blogging challenge, so I'm back at it for #Blogmas. The idea is to write something daily, for 25 days straight, in the run up to Christmas and for it to have some kind of Christmas theme. A sort of advent calender for bloggers.

It's fair to say, I may have to stretch that a bit as there's only so much one can write about technology, or even life, and relate it directly to Christmas, and Christmas isn't to everyone's taste either. And it gets overdone too.

So although some of my posts may have a Yuletide theme, and I do love me a bit of Kirstie's Homemade Christmas (and there's a new series starting next week, UK viewers), they won't all have jingle bells on.

I may however share some of my crafting successes (or failures) as well as some commentary on mobile technology, AI and robots, retail, mobile advertising, mobile marketing, theatre and life in general. I do hope you'll join me for the ride.

And if you have ever written a blog, how about reviving it? And if you've ever thought about writing a blog, how about starting one? It's really very straight forward and you could join #Blogmas too to kickstart it.

Day 1/25 Blogmas

NaBloPoMo 2017 - The Round Up

I can hardly believe that a month has gone by and I have completed the challenge I set myself with this NaBloPoMo thing. And thank you if you've made it this far on my journey this month. There were a couple of hiccups along the way when I got behind and had to play catch-up, or I've had to schedule my blog posts as I was going away for a few days. Mostly though, I've written and published on the day itself.

Some observations about the experience are that some days it's very hard to write anything at all and other days, the words just flow. There's no particular rhyme or reason to that. It helps to feel inspired to write. And I really need to be interested in the topic to write about it. Regurgitating press releases are definitely not my thing.

I've enjoyed the experience a lot more than I thought I would and it's reminded me of some of the reasons why I started blogging in the first place and reminded me of what I used to enjoy about blogging regularly. It's also challenged me to stick to a routine, it's made me more aware of what a month is and what can be achieved in a month (and also what can't). I think (hope) my writing skills have improved. And I've read more widely this month whilst finding inspiration for things to write about. That's also meant I've ventured over to Twitter again on a more regular basis.

The downside of this challenge is that things ain't what they used to be. The traffic isn't here or at least, it doesn't feel like it. And that's because there isn't nearly the same engagement as I might get on Facebook or LinkedIn if I post something there. And if there's no engagement, it's hard to imagine that anyone is reading or is interested in what I have to say. That's my vanity coming through. I write for myself first - this is my personal archive, and you, the reader, come second. I think that's the right way around for a blogger. I don't think it would feel nearly as authentic if I tried to write in a particular way for a particular audience. Or maybe that's the difference between a hobbyist and a pro?

Another thing I'm missing is meeting new people via their blogs. In the early days of blogging, I met many people by commenting on their blogs and getting into conversation with them. I'm still in touch with a lot of those people. Reading someone's blog was a useful way of quickly working out what they were about and where your common interests may lie. Those conversations have now moved to other social media. We all know that. I miss that element of blogging, nevertheless. Maybe as I continue to write, that interaction will start to happen again. And maybe in some small way, I can encourage others to pick up on their blogs again.

And finally, I miss the easy ways there used to be of reading blogs. I used to check in on my RSS feeds most days and catch up with what friends and people I followed were saying. I haven't found a replacement for Bloglines. I probably need to look a bit harder. And I also need to accept my own media habits have changed over the years I've been actively blogging. Something to ponder for another day.

I will continue to write and I plan to write more frequently again. I hope you'll keep reading too.

In case you missed any of my posts this month and fancy catching up, these are the posts in order.

Day 0. Why I decided to do NaBloPoMo and what it is 

Day 1. Swedish Beers (Not Tears) - a shameless promotion for my event on 21st November in memory of Carlo Longino

Day 2. Rodelinda, a Tale of Obsession, a review of the ENO production - it was brilliant!

Day 3. Security, The Internet of Things and The Future of Humanity

Day 4. Two posts today that are connected:
Here are some easy Christmas Presents to sew (as written by an AI)

The Future of Blogging and Communications - some thoughts after the #blogclub panel session

Day 5. Big questions for Big Tech

Day 6. Maps, open data and the call for cleaner air 

Day 7. Children, their mobile habits and the Monqi phone

Day 8. Showing up. Some thoughts on advertising

Day 9. The 25 Most High Tech Cities in the World

Day 10. Tis the Season. A round-up of this year's Christmas TV adverts

Day 11. Are Smart Meters as Smart as they like to think they are.

Day 12. Complex Writing is Good for You

Day 13. On this Day. A look back at Carnival of The Mobilists over the years

Day 14. Mobile Ad Campaign Best Practices

Day 15. Love Theatre Day is Today

Day 16. Thursday Thoughts. Some links I thought worth sharing

Day 17. Bose, Indiegogo and the Noise-Masking Sleepbuds 

Day 18. Is Technology Impacting on Human Joy? 

Day 19. Two posts today

Online Privacy, a Battle that Can't be Won? and
Demystifying Data Analysis

Day 20. What do you do when your boss is an alogorithm?

Day 21. A reminder about Swedish Beers

Day 22. WIP's 5th Annual Developer Relations Survey

Day 23. Watching Good Theatre is Good for your Heart

Day 24. IoT - The Internet of Textiles?

Day 25. What Three things should we teach in school?

Day 26.Will we be experiencing theatre via VR in the future? 

Day 27. Walking is good for you. A round up of my walking weekend in Yorkshire with the Glamoraks

Day 28. On Setting Goals.

Day 29. I'd love to know more about your air travel habits

Day 30. Well, you're reading it!

Day 30/30 NaBloPoMo