audiobooks
plenty of good stuff ticking over
13/10/07 05:40 Filed in: Personal
A disconcerting week,
currently slightly pre-occupied, as I lost my pass for the office, and it has failed to turn up. Probably not the end of the world, but having mildly obsessive compulsive tendencies, I really dislike mislaying things, dislike to a disproportionate and illogical extent. Basically I like things to be just so, so losing something is the complete - non just so. As far as I can figure out, I must have lost it on the way home by train. However it may turn up amongst the clutter.
Clearly on a roll, I then mislaid my earphones for my iPod, too early to tell yet, whether I simply left them on my desk at the office, and then buried them in paper.
I must have jiggered my back, because for the first half of the week I had a really stiff and sore back. Hence moving in robotic way, and only able to sleep in two positions, and in order to change position I had to wake up, sit up, and then sit down again. So on top of the sore back, add the perils of not actually getting much sleep.
Despite these misadventures, Friday finally happened along.
Things seem to be falling into place at work, a few pet projects are demonstrating encouraging progress, other folk seem to be picking up on them and running. As ever my role is one amongst many, but hopefully by keeping the process going, when it might otherwise have fallen, and bringing new people on board, the process is facilitated and kept going.
I think that I am really getting the benefit of all my efforts in getting out to meet people, and proactively build up networks of people interested in my area of work. It is time consuming, but this networking has delivered results that I could never have delivered on my own. To be honest I would happily do more networking, but the preparation and follow up is essential to make it worthwhile, and there is always a rising tide of stuff at the desk, emails etc, that won't go away.
I have mainly been listening to bootleg downloads of Mountain Goat concerts, which I would recommend. However part of the appeal of the Mountain Goats is that it is an extensive and inter-related oevre, so the more you get into it, the richer it seems. Accordingly, as I am pretty into the Mountain Goats, I really don't know what someone coming new to them would think.
Checking random blogs with references to the Mountain Goats, this almost obsessive interest is certainly not unique. I read a posting where the poster had become obsessed with the Mountain Goats, but had decided to stop short of checking John Darnielle's Flickr photostream, as it was getting to seem unhealthy. Sentiments I can certainly emphasise with. It is so easy to immerse yourself in another person's life. I suspect that we will get a rash of Fatal Attraction style thrillers in a year or two on the theme, or a Douglas Copland novel. One of those issues that is tempting to prod, but difficult to know what to make of it.
Currently feeling a little direction less, nothing much to do in the garden, not terribly motivated to take on any other projects, keen not to just spend money cos I'm bored. I am increasingly getting picky and avoiding making major investments of time and energy in stuff, unless it excites me. No doubt something will happen along, in any event I am hardly idle at the moment, so the lack of some windmill to tilt at, is no great loss. Plenty of good stuff ticking over.
currently slightly pre-occupied, as I lost my pass for the office, and it has failed to turn up. Probably not the end of the world, but having mildly obsessive compulsive tendencies, I really dislike mislaying things, dislike to a disproportionate and illogical extent. Basically I like things to be just so, so losing something is the complete - non just so. As far as I can figure out, I must have lost it on the way home by train. However it may turn up amongst the clutter.
Clearly on a roll, I then mislaid my earphones for my iPod, too early to tell yet, whether I simply left them on my desk at the office, and then buried them in paper.
I must have jiggered my back, because for the first half of the week I had a really stiff and sore back. Hence moving in robotic way, and only able to sleep in two positions, and in order to change position I had to wake up, sit up, and then sit down again. So on top of the sore back, add the perils of not actually getting much sleep.
Despite these misadventures, Friday finally happened along.
Things seem to be falling into place at work, a few pet projects are demonstrating encouraging progress, other folk seem to be picking up on them and running. As ever my role is one amongst many, but hopefully by keeping the process going, when it might otherwise have fallen, and bringing new people on board, the process is facilitated and kept going.
I think that I am really getting the benefit of all my efforts in getting out to meet people, and proactively build up networks of people interested in my area of work. It is time consuming, but this networking has delivered results that I could never have delivered on my own. To be honest I would happily do more networking, but the preparation and follow up is essential to make it worthwhile, and there is always a rising tide of stuff at the desk, emails etc, that won't go away.
I have mainly been listening to bootleg downloads of Mountain Goat concerts, which I would recommend. However part of the appeal of the Mountain Goats is that it is an extensive and inter-related oevre, so the more you get into it, the richer it seems. Accordingly, as I am pretty into the Mountain Goats, I really don't know what someone coming new to them would think.
Checking random blogs with references to the Mountain Goats, this almost obsessive interest is certainly not unique. I read a posting where the poster had become obsessed with the Mountain Goats, but had decided to stop short of checking John Darnielle's Flickr photostream, as it was getting to seem unhealthy. Sentiments I can certainly emphasise with. It is so easy to immerse yourself in another person's life. I suspect that we will get a rash of Fatal Attraction style thrillers in a year or two on the theme, or a Douglas Copland novel. One of those issues that is tempting to prod, but difficult to know what to make of it.
Currently feeling a little direction less, nothing much to do in the garden, not terribly motivated to take on any other projects, keen not to just spend money cos I'm bored. I am increasingly getting picky and avoiding making major investments of time and energy in stuff, unless it excites me. No doubt something will happen along, in any event I am hardly idle at the moment, so the lack of some windmill to tilt at, is no great loss. Plenty of good stuff ticking over.
I should really be writing up minutes and cleaning the toilet ...
09/09/07 06:49 Filed in: Personal
I should be knuckling down to write up the minutes
from yesterday's meeting, but playing with my blog
instead. I should also be far more upto date with the
usual dull chores, as I even had a day off this week,
but knocked a bit sideways with a bit of a headcold,
so taking it easy, and not being too bothered about
it.
Pleasant enough day off, doing heavy work in the garden, getting rid of the sweetpeas, which were still thriving, and full of flowers, but I needed to make room for the planters that I was putting in.
This year I have grown,
teasel and wormwood from seed, and chamomile from little shoots. I did try feverfew, but it never sprouted. I do however already have plenty in the garden, so it is not a tragedy of the first magnitude.
Anyway, the chamomile and wormwood, were getting a bit unhappy in their pots, so having turfed out the sweetpeas, I put in some large plastic planters, filled them with soil, and put the chamomile in the outside two, and the wormwood in the middle. The wormwood is supposed to like rocky soil, so I topped off the planter with some rocks and grit, and it does look quite atmospheric.
Some other work in the garden, and spent a fair bit of time doing the watering, as it is all so parched. Concerned to find that I might be losing a blueberry to the dreaded dog pee.
After a week of all meetings, last week was a bit quieter, but it will take more than a relatively quiet week to put that particular world to rights. There is a vast amount to do, I probably need to plan more and delegate more. Just being very busy is not the answer. Also having to revisit decisions that were made before I took over, which is taking time, and will hopefully be for the best in the long run.
I am enjoying various forums on the internet, particularly now that I am setting them to log in automatically, and putting the links on my toolbar. With broadband they seem to load pretty fast, and a lively forum is the quickest way to find out stuff. Also intrigued by the ecosystem that is developing on-line. For example with RapidWeaver, the web design software, you can get software for layout - Blocks, by another developer, but even on top of this, you can get an enhancement to that add-on by yet another developer. So you have layers upon layers of independent development. There has probably been shareware as long as there have been PC's but now that e-commerce is so easy, you can buy and sell software without a lot of hassle. So for low volumes it is now worth the trouble. Accordingly, I don't imagine that many of these developers are making a huge living from this, but presumably it is worth their while. Another aspect of how this is an ecosystem, in addition of the interdependence of various developers, is the inter-relationship between developers and customers. Many will have a sustained relationship with their customers, via forums and blogs. That way they can draw upon the experience of customers to improve their products, and hopefully purchase up-grades over time. When you are talking about software costing a tenner here, a fiver there, then it does get to be a bit of an impulse purchase.
I am surprised now, by just how much of my spending is shifting to on line. In addition to the usual iTunes, there has been RapidWeaver, a growing collection of add-ons for that, as well as Amazon, and the Apple Store. A lot of the impulse purchasing is shifting onto the internet, and I do tend to use the internet as a first port of call for researching larger purchases too.
Just yesterday, I added QuickTimePro and some fonts to my wishlist, though not sure that I can justify the expense of any of them.
Pleasant enough day off, doing heavy work in the garden, getting rid of the sweetpeas, which were still thriving, and full of flowers, but I needed to make room for the planters that I was putting in.
This year I have grown,
teasel and wormwood from seed, and chamomile from little shoots. I did try feverfew, but it never sprouted. I do however already have plenty in the garden, so it is not a tragedy of the first magnitude.
Anyway, the chamomile and wormwood, were getting a bit unhappy in their pots, so having turfed out the sweetpeas, I put in some large plastic planters, filled them with soil, and put the chamomile in the outside two, and the wormwood in the middle. The wormwood is supposed to like rocky soil, so I topped off the planter with some rocks and grit, and it does look quite atmospheric.
Some other work in the garden, and spent a fair bit of time doing the watering, as it is all so parched. Concerned to find that I might be losing a blueberry to the dreaded dog pee.
After a week of all meetings, last week was a bit quieter, but it will take more than a relatively quiet week to put that particular world to rights. There is a vast amount to do, I probably need to plan more and delegate more. Just being very busy is not the answer. Also having to revisit decisions that were made before I took over, which is taking time, and will hopefully be for the best in the long run.
I am enjoying various forums on the internet, particularly now that I am setting them to log in automatically, and putting the links on my toolbar. With broadband they seem to load pretty fast, and a lively forum is the quickest way to find out stuff. Also intrigued by the ecosystem that is developing on-line. For example with RapidWeaver, the web design software, you can get software for layout - Blocks, by another developer, but even on top of this, you can get an enhancement to that add-on by yet another developer. So you have layers upon layers of independent development. There has probably been shareware as long as there have been PC's but now that e-commerce is so easy, you can buy and sell software without a lot of hassle. So for low volumes it is now worth the trouble. Accordingly, I don't imagine that many of these developers are making a huge living from this, but presumably it is worth their while. Another aspect of how this is an ecosystem, in addition of the interdependence of various developers, is the inter-relationship between developers and customers. Many will have a sustained relationship with their customers, via forums and blogs. That way they can draw upon the experience of customers to improve their products, and hopefully purchase up-grades over time. When you are talking about software costing a tenner here, a fiver there, then it does get to be a bit of an impulse purchase.
I am surprised now, by just how much of my spending is shifting to on line. In addition to the usual iTunes, there has been RapidWeaver, a growing collection of add-ons for that, as well as Amazon, and the Apple Store. A lot of the impulse purchasing is shifting onto the internet, and I do tend to use the internet as a first port of call for researching larger purchases too.
Just yesterday, I added QuickTimePro and some fonts to my wishlist, though not sure that I can justify the expense of any of them.
newly on RapidWeaver
30/06/07 07:14 Filed in: Personal
Actually quite an eventful week, so I will need to be
careful not to ramble on unduly. Topics as follows ;
1 Audiobooks and Scott Sigler
2 Re doing my webpage
3 Internet access
and anything else that occurs to me.
Audiobooks,
we are now operating in a totally different world. With technologies like podcasting, there are very few barriers to entry for people that want to create content. Rather than struggling away trying to even get your work read by a publisher or agent, when minor celebrities can attract a huge advance and have their ghostwritten books remaindered a few months later, you can simply make your work available to the world via the internet.
For the old music publishers, a major technology shift is nothing but good news. Suddenly, all these people who stopped buying music years ago, go out again, to buy the same old albums again, but just in a new format. That is why they loved CD, but worried about downloads. They wanted the free hit, of lots of additional revenue, coming off of the same old back catalogue. But the real opportunity lies with the Long Tail phenomenon, where we can now access material that is really specialist with complete ease. For print media there are the same challenges, the old print publishers are simply trying to get more money out of their existing, pile them high, sell them cheap, back catalogue. But do we really just want to read/listen to the same old stuff, in a new format. I would prefer to read/listen to new stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts, often lectures from universities, etc, and if I really like the speaker, then I just add their book to my Amazon wishlist, and that way I am never short of thought provoking stuff to read. I can read stuff that I find well written and thought provoking, from anywhere in the world.
Another paradigm shift is the degree of closeness between those who produce material, and those who consume it, I can put a comment on my blog about the audiobook I have just read, the author can pick this up on technorati, or google alerts, and drop me a note. Authors are vastly more accessible, and this creates a degree of loyalty. Even just a small degree of contact, increases your overall impression of a producer, and your loyalty to them. Now you can buy material by people you have corresponded with.
I am really impressed with what Scott Sigler has done with his audiobooks, like google and amazon he has clearly decided that the more traffic and awareness he can generate, the better he will do. He is producing a professional quality product, and despite setbacks, has just used the new possibilities to reach and create an audience. Clearly we don't know what the future looks like, but I think it looks a lot more like what Scott is doing, than what it does now. This has to be a good thing.
Re doing my webpage -
I have finally found some software that I like, and can afford, so I have started to update my webpage. Currently running the old site and the new site, in the same directory, with the new going by index.html, and the old by index.htm, so it is probably pot luck which site you will get. However putting together a site with RapidWeaver is hugely easy, so I don't think it will take too long to put most of my content onto the new site, and then delete the old one. I cannot really be bothered archiving the thing, because I would need to rewrite all the links to the homepage. The bulk of the site was coded using a text editor, which means that all the coding was done by hand. It is a pretty good way of getting to know html, and actually quite fun, in a puzzle sort of way, but now that blogging is so easy, who has the time.
Anyway, I absolutely love Rapidweaver, and the revised website is coming together pretty quickly.
Internet access -
listening to a podcast from the iTunes University, someone was explaining how the current internet capacity was built up, and from his explanation it sounds as if the current reliability and resilience of the internet may come to be seen as the exception, rather than the rule. We are currently enjoying a massive overcapacity in the network, largely built from people building capacity, going broke, and their assets being bought out by others very cheaply. Clearly not a model for building major infrastructure that is likely to work twice!
And finally,
I really don't get the iTunes University, why don't they just podcast like everyone else, why does the content need to be badged over at some virtual university, when they could simply set up podcasts that people subscribe to, great idea, but a complication too far for many I suspect.
1 Audiobooks and Scott Sigler
2 Re doing my webpage
3 Internet access
and anything else that occurs to me.
Audiobooks,
we are now operating in a totally different world. With technologies like podcasting, there are very few barriers to entry for people that want to create content. Rather than struggling away trying to even get your work read by a publisher or agent, when minor celebrities can attract a huge advance and have their ghostwritten books remaindered a few months later, you can simply make your work available to the world via the internet.
For the old music publishers, a major technology shift is nothing but good news. Suddenly, all these people who stopped buying music years ago, go out again, to buy the same old albums again, but just in a new format. That is why they loved CD, but worried about downloads. They wanted the free hit, of lots of additional revenue, coming off of the same old back catalogue. But the real opportunity lies with the Long Tail phenomenon, where we can now access material that is really specialist with complete ease. For print media there are the same challenges, the old print publishers are simply trying to get more money out of their existing, pile them high, sell them cheap, back catalogue. But do we really just want to read/listen to the same old stuff, in a new format. I would prefer to read/listen to new stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts, often lectures from universities, etc, and if I really like the speaker, then I just add their book to my Amazon wishlist, and that way I am never short of thought provoking stuff to read. I can read stuff that I find well written and thought provoking, from anywhere in the world.
Another paradigm shift is the degree of closeness between those who produce material, and those who consume it, I can put a comment on my blog about the audiobook I have just read, the author can pick this up on technorati, or google alerts, and drop me a note. Authors are vastly more accessible, and this creates a degree of loyalty. Even just a small degree of contact, increases your overall impression of a producer, and your loyalty to them. Now you can buy material by people you have corresponded with.
I am really impressed with what Scott Sigler has done with his audiobooks, like google and amazon he has clearly decided that the more traffic and awareness he can generate, the better he will do. He is producing a professional quality product, and despite setbacks, has just used the new possibilities to reach and create an audience. Clearly we don't know what the future looks like, but I think it looks a lot more like what Scott is doing, than what it does now. This has to be a good thing.
Re doing my webpage -
I have finally found some software that I like, and can afford, so I have started to update my webpage. Currently running the old site and the new site, in the same directory, with the new going by index.html, and the old by index.htm, so it is probably pot luck which site you will get. However putting together a site with RapidWeaver is hugely easy, so I don't think it will take too long to put most of my content onto the new site, and then delete the old one. I cannot really be bothered archiving the thing, because I would need to rewrite all the links to the homepage. The bulk of the site was coded using a text editor, which means that all the coding was done by hand. It is a pretty good way of getting to know html, and actually quite fun, in a puzzle sort of way, but now that blogging is so easy, who has the time.
Anyway, I absolutely love Rapidweaver, and the revised website is coming together pretty quickly.
Internet access -
listening to a podcast from the iTunes University, someone was explaining how the current internet capacity was built up, and from his explanation it sounds as if the current reliability and resilience of the internet may come to be seen as the exception, rather than the rule. We are currently enjoying a massive overcapacity in the network, largely built from people building capacity, going broke, and their assets being bought out by others very cheaply. Clearly not a model for building major infrastructure that is likely to work twice!
And finally,
I really don't get the iTunes University, why don't they just podcast like everyone else, why does the content need to be badged over at some virtual university, when they could simply set up podcasts that people subscribe to, great idea, but a complication too far for many I suspect.
Japanese bowls
24/06/07 11:34 Filed in: Personal
Write about TwentyFourBlog here.
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.
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.