Not a good week. Mainly in a trough, with the odd, brief moment of joy & excitement.
ℹ NOTE: Links in this post marked † or †† are affiliate links. See corresponding notes at the end of the relevent section.
On the plus side, my copy of Pitch† arrived. I was beyond excited to receive this and have been looking forward to its arrival. So far, it’s not let me down. Danny’s writing is ace and the content more so. I'm looking forward to building my confidence in interviews, public speaking and, well, pitching.
As Danny says:
“If you interact with another human, and have some small desire to persuade, impress or entertain, you are pitching.” Danny Fontaine, “Pitch”
The major downer this week came late on - my son's car has been written off, after a coach went into the side of it late Saturday night. Luckily no-one on the coach or in the car suffered any injuries, but my son was pretty shaken up. Sunday was spent on insurance, photos, form-filling.
† Affiliate link: Amazon UK. For bookshop.org.uk, use this link.
Learnings
Created some AirTable automations for the first time. It looks to be quite comprehensive, and the automations I set up, although quite ‘simple’ highlight the possibilities to do a lot more. However, the UX is not great, IMHO; I found myself having to stop and think a lot, and backtrack in a couple of cases, in order to eventually go in the right direction. Maybe I’m a bit harsh on it, because I barely looked at the documentation.
Writing
Two LinkedIn posts.
One post on The Ode Map, about how I use AI to support my creative writing.
Worked some more on the draft of my poem 'Remembrance' - now in final draft.
Work(-ish)
Applied for 1 role.
More work on the content management system in AirTable, which I’m now going to call a ‘Subject Matter Management System’.
Managed to attend the weekly GovCamp Cymru campmakers’ call, after a couple of weeks being ill or otherwise unavailable.
Also happy to spend some time online with a fellow Generalist World member, running through one of the tools I use to make my life a little easier.
Interesting elsewhere
Tried to ring North Somerset Council to pay my council tax (as the online payment failed yet again), but it was impossible. The virtual chatbot didn't understand me when I said, "Yes", FFS, let alone when I read out my mobile number. When it finally asked me if I wanted to be put through to an actual person, I said yes and it told me that the helpline wasn't working. Effin' PITA.
Watched: “The Cobbler” (Amazon Prime). Throwaway fantasy. But Dustin Hoffman is in it, so +1 for that.
Listened: The always interesting “Add to Playlist” (BBC)
Read: Various books in a state of not-finishedness, that remain unfinished (only less so) - “The Darkest Evening”, by Ann Cleeves; “Paint my Name in Black & Gold”, by Mark Andrews; the aforementioned “Pitch”, by Danny Fontaine
In Pictures
A slow week, so not a lot to show for it, picture-wise. No country walks or away days.
Danny's book
Son's car
