Week 20 of 2020 (all the twenties!) brings iMac repairs, pesky mice, cycling, Stephen Turvey-Wright, Glitterbox Accapellas, video calls, energy disrupters, Shapeshifters, Brassic 2 and Dead To Me.

This week, I’m going to try something a bit more short-hand than long wordy versions – let’s see how it goes…

  • Lockdown continues despite a questionable curve in numbers and confusing messages from our ever-reassuring government. 10 weeks working from home now and no sign of returning yet. #work #covid19
  • Gran reminded me of my “political career” – I really should revive that push. I did miss two online Green Party meetings though so not a great start. #work #greenparty
  • Mini DIY jobs around the house including downstairs shower replacement, pool cue holder in the games room and failed attempt to replace hard-drive in my old 2011 iMac. #tech
  • We did find some little visitors 🐁 in the house last week so pest control came out dropping traps around the place. It’s forced the dog to stay next door as she can’t be trusted with the poison.
  • Bought a set of dynamic mics for some fun karaoke time with the family. Works great with my old mixer but the kids need convincing – plus adults need more alcohol.
  • Hit some PB’s on a run this week; longest distance, fastest mile and half mile and others. Frustratingly duplicated the recording though as I started Strava on Watch first then accepted Apple’s prompt on detecting movement.
  • Lots of cycling with the kids this week, one with each to find their range and pace then another together to encourage sibling bonding.
  • Caught up with old ASOS chum Stephen Turvey-Wright for this week’s Make Life Work. Wonderful to have a chat with someone familiar and he seemed to really enjoy it. Don’t use Zoom though as the quality is not great and it’s only single track. #sides #makelifework
  • Started dabbling in a few iPad apps to make some music using Glitterbox Accapellas and Purple Disco Machine samples. GarageBand is the obvious choice but the UX is far from obvious to my mind. I do wish Ableton ported Live over to the mobile stack! #sides
  • Discovered “Hide self view” in Zoom, a great little feature to make sure you concentrate on your peers rather than your background – something I’ve noticed myself doing time-to-time, especially as I read about “Zoom fatigue” #mrvain #tech
  • Tried to find a Donut equivalent for Teams as a tool for Microsoft houses (schools) to randomly pair people together through lockdown – no joy but maybe there’s a chance in the market #tech #sides
  • After ongoing troubles with our electricity provider, I started looking around for alternatives. A Twitter poll suggested Bulb is the most popular disruptor so will shift to them soon. #tech
  • Glitterbox’s Virtual Festival returned this week bringing many of my favourite DJ’s and artists including Shapeshifters & Michael Gray. Friday evenings are my new favourite time of the week!
  • Brassic 2 on Sky Atlantic and Dead To Me on Netflix have been this week’s TV highlights; both fantastic dark comedies, just with completely different tones and angles.

I quite like how much easier that was – more condensed, succinct and some flexibility on how to take it forward. Plus it took about half hour rather than the usual hour. I’d love feedback from anyone who reads it and can compare.