1 First of all a few words about the images that I am posting with each blog
2 Then a few musings on audiobooks
3 Then some thoughts on how I am getting on at work, and where I was on Friday night,
4 Then maybe some thoughts on why project management does not really work for policy work.
plus anything else that occurs to me
First of all a few words about the images that I am posting with each blog
I have decided to set a new desktop image each week, both on my PC in the office, and my iMac at home. So far they have been a mixture, some from Flickr that caught my eye, the image of a cranberry harvest came from wikipedia, and was there because I have been researching cranberrys and had put in the smallest of cranberry bogs in my garden. Clearly I will not be rivalling Ocean Spray anytime soon, but I would like to squeeze as many edible plants into my suburban garden as I can. Last weeks funky turtel was drawn by my daughter as a Father's day present, using ArtRage software. This week is simply some japanese bowls, each with something arty in them, sitting on my laminate floor, lit from above with an anglepoise lamp. My digital camera is the cheapest one that I could buy in Argos, so I simply go on the principle of taking lots of shots, and the lighting and focal length is bound to be right in one of them. The japanese bowls will be my desktop image this week.
Then a few musings on audiobooks
I got a free audiobook on the MacFormat disk, Ancestor by Scott Sigler, and being extremely cautious, tried it out before I lashed out any real money to buy an audiobook. The Scott Sigler was pretty good in an airport fiction sort of way, and he deserves his success. Having established, that I do actually like listening to an audiobook, I then went and bought one that I had to pay for, The Big Moo by Seth Godin et al. Seth being something of a self made legend on the internet. Actually a pretty good too listen, and something I will definitely hang onto and listen to again.
I am a bit disconcerted about having to pay more for an audiobook than for an actual dead tree book, logically the cost of selling one more audiobook is pretty much nil, so you would have thought more competitive pricing would be in order. However I do spend a lot of time with my iPod, between commuting and walking my dog, so it is nice to have some decent content to listen to. I suppose that the content has to be pretty linear, not the sort of thing that you need to jump back a chapter to check things, and anything visual would need to be embedded, so no tables, but the odd images would certainly be technically possible. Not much use for reference, who wants an audiobook dictionary, but good for stuff that would work well as a lecture.
I could see myself building up a pretty extensive library of audiobooks, but at the price they are charging currently, I think I will need to stick to podcasts mainly, with the odd audiobook as a treat. No doubt the groaning floor of my loft will appreciate this, I am currently filing a small but constantly growing library up there.
Then some thoughts on how I am getting on at work, and where I was on Friday nights,
Things seem to be going pretty well at work, folk seem happy enough with what I am doing, and relaxed enough about what I am not managing to do. It seems to be largely an issue of perspective, I am expected to sort out the big things, and as much of the rest as I can. To be honest I am enjoying it, I am getting slightly more money, though hardly enough to notice, but the pleasure is really being able to tackle things as I see most appropriate. I meet up with my line manager once a week, so hopefully I am not likely to go too far off target. Elsewhere folk seem happy enough with what I am doing too, which is always gratifying. Getting out meeting people, talking to them, and more importantly listening to what they have to say is proving absolutely vital, it is where all 'my' best ideas come from.
The downside, of course, is that it is pretty exhausting trying to run everything all the time. My new member of staff starts shortly, and of course that will help too. However there is also the requirement to be able to step back far enough from what I am doing, to be able to see the priorities in proper perspective, rather than just chasing about being busy all the time.
One thought that has occurred to me, if there is a perfect job for me, then it has to be one that I am actually capable of doing and enjoying, if the job is so exhausting it wears me out, then clearly it is not the right one for me.
Anyway, a wonderful evening on Friday, as per
http://jessinacastle.livejournal.com/
attended the celebration for Jess, chatting with lots of her friends, some of whom I knew, some I didn't. I suppose the best thing that you could say of the celebration is that Jess would have loved it. The whole thing was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful woman, as if there was nothing negative in the world, and we were filled with memories of a remarkable woman.
Then maybe some thoughts on why project management does not really work for policy work.
I do quite like the project management methodology, but it simply does not work for the kind of policy work that I do for a day job. Project management works on the basis that you can agree a specification for what you want to do, and then work to deliver that specification. With policy work you decide on an overall policy direction, then you carry out research and engagement work, then you decide on what you are going to do, then you move forward a bit more. The work can be usefully broken down into chunks, and project management can be used for bits of it, but by and large it is a process of keeping to a vision, communicating your vision, and trying to move it forward, while being attentive to the feedback and changing environment around you.
and while I think about it, why iTunes is starting to annoy me
reason one - they always seem to funnel you back to the same stuff, I buy pretty obscure alternative music, and rather than suggesting, other similarly left field music, they invariably try and get me to buy whatever it is that has the A&R muscle behind it this week
reason two - partial albums, what is it with all these partial albums, which generally cost as much as the actual CD, but have half the tracks missing, who exactly is in the market for them, need to buy an Ivor Cutler album in a hurry, too lazy to go to Fopp to buy it, simply download a partial album for extra cash, but without some tracks.
reason three - you would need a screen the size of a wall to fit the entire homescreen on it, it is like trying to watch a movie through a letter box, if apple are responsible for all the individual elements, can't they at least look a bit slicker
reason four - audiobooks that cost more than the book, with an audiobook there is none of that tedious dead tree stuff, precious little marketting, no shop to run, the customer simply downloads the thing at their own expense and then cannot pass it on to their mates. Surely an audiobook should be a lot cheaper than the paper book, not selling at a premium.
reason five - where is the customer support, it is being run as a cash cow, precious little sign of any responsiveness or willingness to engage with customers.
and while I think about it, maybe I should be writing more
someone mentioned how well written something I had done was, just a little thing, but other people have commented on my writing before too. Lately I have been feeling that I want to do more creative stuff, and I am dabbling a bit with photos and sketches, really just for fun, because I know that there are people far better at those than I will ever be. But when it comes to writing, I really am pretty good, so maybe I should be finding the time to write something that I really believe in, and think is important. I don't want to write airport bestsellers, but there are the odd books that have inspired me, I am not getting any younger, so maybe I need to get started on something. A book of ideas, something challenging, but ultimately positive.
and while I think about it, I really like Stewart Brand's website
http://sb.longnow.org/Home.html
I mentioned a while back that I did not know how to brand my website, as it was not about anything in particular, but I rather like Stewart Brand's as like many of the people I really admire, he is not about anything in particular, but uses this as a strength, rather than a weakness.
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