It’s autumn and I have a lot to blog about. I haven’t yet published my usual mid-year look back at the posts I have published so far this year. Instead, I’m keen to chart what’s on my mind to blog about.
Some of these might find their way into a post, some might not. The purpose of this post is to record my thoughts, empty my mental list of topics and enjoy the process of blogging.
Here goes:
- Evergreen posts: I am NOT a fan of not including dates on posts, and yet more and more themes automatically omit this information. Partly, apparently, to make readers feel that posts remain current and also to aid a clean, minimalist look, but I imagine mostly for other reasons. I have lot of thoughts on this in terms of open knowledge sharing, accountability, being able to reference posts and so forth.
- Reading adventures: My love for reading is constant, but my habits do change and this year what I’ve been reading has shifted thanks to joining a local book club which only reads Welsh authors/stories. That in turn has inspired me to revisit books I read when I was younger and re-read them to see how they land with me now. I have a few authors in particular in mind, including Stefan Zweig, Jospeh Mitchell, Flannery O’Connor and Mary Oliver.
- Georgia Ruth: A few weeks ago I went to a very unique musical event with Georgia Ruth, a Welsh artist whose music and book I really, really like. It was a local venue, a converted church that featured not only a graveyard but also a pizza oven (my ideal combination!) and Georgia Ruth performed solo with her harp.
- 3 years at Reclaim: Thanks to Slack I realised it’s been three years since I first started working as a consultant with Jim and the team at Reclaim, and it’s been such a joy to me to have not only such lovely people to work with, but also many different projects, from podcasts to productivity tools, and from conference organisation to industry case studies. I was a big fan before we started working together and I am still a big fan now.
- Reclaim case studies: I also want to blog about working on two case studies over the summer, based on interviews with the teams behind two stunning projects, which inspired me greatly and which show so clearly how open web projects can not only survive but thrive in our age of automation.
- Ascilite conference prep: I’ve started to prepare for my keynote in Brisbane next month (and I can’t quite believe I am REALLY going) and it’s made me look back at just how long Ascilite has been part of my professional life. I think it’s been about 20 years, and maybe an open journal project I worked on for ALT back when I first started.
- Music is hope: I love Ted Lasso, and inspired by the “Football is Life” I want to blog about how listening to new music gives me hope about the world. I used to listen to my favourite music and albums over and over again, and even with the advent of playlists I never used to stray far from my favourite decade(s). This changed when I married a man who not only loves music but also collects vinyl. He inspired me to listen to new artists and discover bands and records I love, and who are creating new music now. It REALLY means a lot to me that artists are making albums now that I love as deeply as I loved records when I was 17. Music is hope.
- Autobiography project: I am thinking about writing down what I can remember of my first decade in the UK. I have hardly any photos of that time, 1997-2007, and I am curious what I can recall and piece together. I am not envisaging that to be a public undertaking, but it could be a fun personal project for next year.
- My dad. He turns 85 later this year and I have blogged about his legacy and influence on my life before, and I have more I want to reflect on.
Ooooooops. That’s turned into a longer list than I had expected. Clearly I have more to blog about than I had thought. Must get to it 🙂
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