Music
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May 25 Round-up
This month I finished my first novel, a psychological horror, which came in around 70,000 words. I’ve sent it off to a few agents, but I expect it’ll be a case of self-publishing in Kindle. I’ll talk more about that in later posts, but it’s been a very enjoyable process. I don’t know if it’s any good, but it is there – the first step in writing a good novel is to write a novel. I was struck by the phrase Alison Light used to refer to the Golden Age of detective fiction as the “literature of convalescence“. She was arguing that after the horrors of the First World War,…
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May vinyl challenge and the importance of communities
It is Mental Health Awareness week this week, and this year they have the theme of community. As the Mental Health Foundation states: “Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with other people and supportive communities that remind us, we are not alone. Communities can provide a sense of belonging, safety, support in hard times, and give us a sense purpose.” Which got me thinking about a current activity I’m engaged in over on Instagram. I run a vinyl account there (I know, male mid-life crisis alert!), and every year there is a May Vinyl Challenge, where…
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April 25 Round-Up
(Teilo and Posey have been enjoying wild garlic season) Bit late this month, I’ve been writing goddammit! I’ve blogged a few times about my post-OU reinvention, and this month I’ve been trying on the “I’m a writer” hat. By which I mean I’ve been approaching fiction writing more as a job, writing every day, as opposed to one thing I’m trying amongst a few others. I’ve appreciated the structure and the reduction in cognitive effort where I have to decide “what am I doing today?” every morning. Books I’ve been digging into music biographies quite a bit this month. David Byrne’s How Music Works, which is sometimes fascinating as Byrne…
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Monthly round-up March 25
(Teilo was my writing buddy this month) I’ll say this for Trump and Musk – when they make things go to shit, they make things go to shit fast. It seems strange to think of the world order back in January, that seems like the 1970s now. Like many people I’ve been divesting myself of support for American billionaires. On a regular basis we already have a network of independent local providers for a lot of products and services. But I’m a lazy consumer often, I admit, and Amazon had become the default for miscellaneous products. Now that I’m eschewing it, I’m reminded of when the web was still relatively…
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Feb 25 round up
(With Maren Deepwell and Tom Farrelly at the Education After the Algorithm seminar at DCU) As I mentioned in a couple of posts, I gave a keynote in Dublin this month. I was also the examiner on an excellent PhD about the impact of the VLE on mental wellbeing. So, I’ve been keeping my academic hand in. It’s an odd time to be an academic. Mind you, it’s an odd time to be anyone. Part of what you do as an academic is attempt to find the truth. I’m aware that often there is not one single truth, and conclusions can vary depending on context, but in general, research, writing,…
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Van Morrison and the Cashback opener
In a desperate bid to outfox AI I am endeavouring to create links between seemingly disparate topics, just for the sake of it. Today, the completely obvious connection between the opening tracks on Van Morrison’s albums of the 70s and learning design. Buckle up. Van’s Cashback Openers I’ve been listening to a LOT of Van Morrison recently. I’m not sure what started it, but I’ve been down that rabbit hole for a while now. Van is both an incredible musical genius and an incredible misanthrope. It is one of the perpetual gifts and mysteries of the creative act that great art can come forth from people who you wouldn’t want…
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January 25 Round-up
After 3 long years, January has finally ended. On the personal front it’s been going well. Now that I don’t have as many meetings, I decided to shift the ‘vibe’ of my room from ‘home office’ to ‘vinyl lounge’. This involved the inevitable trip to Ikea, and purchase of the favourite of vinyl collectors, the Kallax unit. It’s interesting to note the manner in which the change in the physical set-up alters your behaviour. We used to have our records split across three rooms, but now they are all gathered in The Vinyl Lounge (please say this in an appropriately sonorous tone), I find myself playing a lot of different…
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Vinyl of the year
It’s been a very good year for vinyl, with lots of top-of-their-game releases from favourite artists and a few new ones I’ve discovered. I’m stealing Pitchfork’s use of RIYL (Recommended If You Like) this year, so here are ten of the new releases I’ve enjoyed the most this year: Bill Ryder-Jones – Iechyd Da. RIYL: sitting on the sofa wearing a hoodie and eating cheese puffs while watching epic movies in the afternoon; finding patterns of beauty in smoke eddies. Brittany Howard – What Now. RIYL: Microdosing at a barbecue; nu-retro vintage clothing. Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past is Still Alive. RIYL: Reading Cannery Row on an…
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Monthly round-up October 24
We went on holiday to Crete this month, and hired a car to do some trips including to the ex-leper colony of Spinalonga, (pictured) and inland villages. I already miss the sunshine and the food. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been doing actual work this month, writing a report. It’s involved, inevitably, researching AI in education. With all the hype it was interesting to find lots of thought pieces about potential uses, reviews of how students are using it, but very few actual case studies of it being applied in education. And often it was an extension of existing practice, such as learning analytics, with a layer…
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6 Things on My Mind
When I was planning to leave the OU, I began planning lots of mini-projects for myself. This was driven partly by an anxiety that without the structure of work I’d find myself watching Facebook reels for hours, or rearranging my sock drawer on a daily basis. As I don’t play golf m(and have no desire to do so, or own a motorbike, I needed to fill the time I reasoned. But I quickly found myself with a list of twenty or so activities I wanted to undertake, from becoming a coffee nerd to starting a newsletter on Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels. I still might do these, but I then began…
