Middlefocus

This past few weeks I've been challenging myself to lose a few kilos, get a little fitter and consume more wisely.  It's a sort of advance New Year's resolution and maybe by getting ahead of time there is a chance of avoiding the over indulgence that seems to go hand to mouth with the festive season.  Along with the physical challenges, I've been keen to exercise my brain more in a bid to get sharper on that front too. One of the ways I've been doing that is through word puzzles. We're keen fans of crosswords in our house and, although we sometimes share answers to clues, each of us likes to treat the crossword as a personal challenge. Respecting that individual approach we've even taken to photocopying the crossword so that we can each have a clean copy. Over the past weeks of this fitness regime I've begun to notice that the solutions are coming much more quickly and so I've started to keep a record of how long each puzzle has taken to com...

What has happened to the tasks and dares that used to be printed on Starburst Wrappers? They weren't included in two recent purchases. As explained in this earlier post  I use the sweets in icebreaker sessions for meetings I facilitate. The tasks are fun and lift energy in the room. Hope they are brought back, meantime: Mental note to call their marketing team!

They've gone, what a pity! It has been great working these past two days with student teachers from Stranmillis and St Mary's University Colleges.  Memories of my own student days came flooding back, especially so today as I had some time by myself to wander around my old College of Education and see rooms used for new purposes. Technology is an obvious difference although alongside the electronic whiteboard in the lecture room was an overhead projector.  I was a big fan of the OHP and still think its a useful tool even though it isn't much used these days. Much was familiar and it was surprising to recall faces and events from over 40 years ago.  I well remember those aims and objectives, the lesson plans and visual aids - collages of magazine cut-outs pasted onto sheets of coloured manilla card. I reflected on the hopes, dreams and ambitions of the class of '73. Many of us, intent on changing the world, have now retired after lifetimes dedicated to the service o...

You know how it is, new technology comes along and replaces the older stuff. Problem is that the old stuff was once new and even though its operating system cannot be upgraded or it doesn't have the new bells and whistles, it still works. So what to do with the previous generations of stuff? What I've done is added a selection of driving tunes to the little shuffle. An audio lead connects with the car's radio and there you go a playlist for the road. The shuffle is tiny so can be left in the glove box. The old nano is set up to hold podcasts of favourite shows and sits in the study/office close to a supply of pens and paper. That way any useful snippets, quotes, suggestions or links can be jotted down and filed for future reference. Then there's the trusty iPod Touch. That got so much use in the past but the collection of music eventually exceeded capacity and these days it serves as a repository for audiobooks. Yes it sometimes travels in the car, especially for l...

All these books on the go at the same time?  Yes and many more too. At first glance it hardly seems to be a productive way to approach the matter of reading.... but if you can watch many different tv series over a week or a month - you can have several books on the go at the same time... Can't you? That all depends on our purpose for reading.  I read for pleasure, information, ideas and inspiration and reading for these purposes necessarily means having several books on the go at the same time. Take The Goldfinch there for example.  Now that's a BIG read and naturally involves a good investment of time.  I've cheated a bit with this one though to create room for others.  I've done that by downloading the Audible version as well. The "talking book" recording lasts a total of nearly 32 and a half hours! The audio version means that I can keep the book on the go while driving or doing other things and can resume the pleasure of reading again when I get th...

Planning out this post in my Moleskin Notebook At a recent exhibition, hosted in the Queen's University Belfast Naughton Gallery, I was taken by the inclusion of the notebook pictured below in one of the gallery bookcases. It was one of 47 kept by the engineer Peter Rice (1935-1992). The exhibition, entitled Traces of Peter Rice, included dozens of photographs and models of many of the projects worked on by this gifted and talented creative.  I needed to know more and purchased the accompanying book,  Traces of Peter Rice ,  Barry, K. (ed) Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2012. Towards the end of the text J. Philip O'Kane has provided an essay, On first looking into Rice's engineering notebooks.  It's a fascinating read that has preserved in my mind's eye an enduring image of a simple, black, A4 notebook. Notebook belonging to Peter Rice, engineer On the pages selected for display there are preparatory notes for a video-recorded lecture given to young ...

The automatic thermostat for our electric frying pan is labelled self control. If that could be plugged into our behaviours in the workplace, I wonder how often it would need to self adjust. What behaviours in office life raise the heat ? Setting deadlines? Not getting recognition? Unreasonable expectations or demands? Dealing with difficult colleagues? Abrasive management style? What cools things down ? Feeling appreciated? Getting recognition? Being kept informed? Getting meaningful feedback? What raises your self control setting to red? And what ensures an optimum position for effective working? You know that setting don't you? It's the one that's neither in the frying pan nor in the fire. Continued success!     Posted with Blogsy

It has been fun going through old digital photos, retrieved from the hard disk of a previous computer. They are now transferred to my laptop, curated through Picasa and backed up to Google+. Many of the photos belong to 2 ongoing album collections that from time to time I share on Facebook. The largest is called "Closed Openings" - some of my favourite pictures of closed windows, doors, gates and other openings.  The other is called "Postbox Read", a collection of the various pillar and wall postal boxes that are so common place we sometimes miss the fact that many date from the time of Victoria. Other photos were taken for use in some presentation or other. Pictures are worth a thousand words and a well chosen image can make a presentation by reinforcing a point.  Same goes for blogposts and articles.  Just check how many writers use visuals from professional picture galleries. Using attributes of one thing to describe an unrelated something else is the bu...

Years ago one of my cousins who had worked in the United States brought back an idea called the "brown bag" lunch.  Essentially in a busy workplace with inherent difficulties of finding time for meetings and updates, his colleagues met over lunchtime to share learnings from work they were engaged in or industry conferences and seminars they had attended.  It was workplace learning shared by and for professionals. I suppose a more recent development is the growth of "meet-ups" where other professionals organise activity or learning sessions online, agree on topics and speakers and then meet at a convenient venue to share expertise. A quick look at the  meet-up website  shows that there is plenty going on around Belfast. Isn't it interesting how some people extend their professionalism to learn more about the things that interest them?  It reminds me of way back in my career when I was seconded as an assistant organiser to a Teachers' Centre. In those h...