I know what I did this summer
I’m just easing back into #weeknotes mode after taking the summer off — this is just a bit of a teaser / montage of what has happened during the shows hiatus 🙂
Here is a quick list of the clients (well their codenames) that were featured in season four and where are they now:
- Scuffletown: hit a stumbling block when my ill health meant an important meeting had to be canceled and it hasn’t ever really recovered. Ongoing status unknown at the moment.
- Golden Pond: this is moving towards completion and I’ll be helping them move to a new supplier. They might feature early in the season as a recurring character but no hope of a regular role.
- Red River Landing: what at times felt like the Never Ending Story finally finished a few weeks ago. It was awkward until the end but it is a lovely site and they are really nice clients so we wish them well.
- Blue Heron: every chance this might emerge as a major story arc this year. It is a potential project I am passionate about and have high hopes for — however the stars have to align for it to really work out so fingers crossed.
- Hinkletown: this one has risen from the ashes in recent days and looks like it will be a solid recurring character throughout season five. It has the potential to add some drama and a little international flavour to proceedings.
- Hindostan Falls: think this is going to be a solid ‘B’ storyline this season — over the summer it has already had some ups and downs and led to a couple of notable moments. I reckon this will simmer in the background and occasionally bubble over.
- Kickapoo: in many ways the Big Bad of season four and the residual effects are still being felt. It will likely make the odd appearance early on in season five just for the sake of continuity but then it will be locked away and forgotten!
- Blooming Rose: this will be challenging Blue Heron for the prize of being the lead storyline — certainly in the first half of the season. After months of negotiations and discussions this project is now on the move and its success has real ramifications for everything else.
- Monark Springs: has launched, is out there and is going ok but not entirely without some teething issues. This is the first totally used in anger instance of our main commercial product and it was a big moment when it got rolled out more broadly.
- Gainesville: this one is unlikely to feature in season five. It is one of those plot lines that just hangs unresolved and is eventually forgotten.
There are a number of new projects (and subsequent codenames) that will emerge in the weeks to come — including a bit of a reboot for the show in general in search of an audience.
In recent months the group of people writing #weeknotes has slightly exploded — which is wonderful (though I wish they were not ALL better than mine!). As such I decided that it was misleading to have them all collated on my personal blog and instead I have bought the domain weeknot.es which I will set up as a Medium publication this weekend and from next week onwards that will be the home for any weeknoters who want to join in. I’ll also make everyone ‘editors’ so it will be a true group undertaking. Jeanette from PDS has kindly offered to do a bit of a logo for the site as well which I have decided to also turn into stickers for all of Team Weeknote 🙂
Speaking of Team Weeknote it was brilliant to catch up with a bunch of my fellow bloggers in London this week and have a really interesting and fun chat. It was great to meet everyone — many for the first time in person and just immediately feel like I knew everyone and could just get on with things without any weird ice-breakers or forced ‘networking’. The power of #weeknotes once again.
I loved the opportunity just to chat about blogging and writing. It felt lovely and old school some how.
One of the big things that happened during hiatus was my (never great) health took a dive and I have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I’m basically an overweight, lazy, geek stereotype at this point but I am trying to turn things around. There are consequences to this though — the main one being I am having to cut back hard on my extra curriculars — no more spin off shows for me. Unfortunately this means my passion project, ‘The Web of Words’ blogging conference, is the first to fall as events are hard and despite all the offers of help I know I’d get carried away. I think Carrie, Dan et al from PDS might take it forward but I am out. On the 10th anniversary of the first blog network I launched — and thus a decade since I started blogging in earnest this makes me sad.
#weightnotes
So I said I would be transparent about my mission to improve my health so here we are. Since I blogged about it on the 10th August I have lost 8lbs and I am averaging 8,953 steps per day. Which apparently is 20% up on my average this year. I have had zero cans of real Coke (or other sugary fizzy drinks), no chocolate or sweets, no takeaways and no booze. I am probably still having too many carbohydrates and I find shopping entirely anxiety inducing now but all in all it is OK.
I’m also taking Metformin now as well — side effects haven’t been too bad so far so fingers crossed.
#no-life
Listening:
I am devouring the West Wing Weekly podcast. It is one of my favourite shows and I have recently watched it through again. I’ve never been keen on podcasts — I don’t like radio and have never really found them engaging but I can’t get enough of this show.
Also I’m re-listening to Jay Z’s 4:44. I really disliked it on first (and second) listen but I was convinced to try again and am starting to understand what other people see in it.
Reading:
The Upstarts: we’ll see if I manage to finish this. It is primarily a view of the world according to the current generation of Silicon Valley ‘successes’ — many of which I find morally dubious at best!
I also read The Force by Don Winslow. After ‘The Power of of the Dog’ and ‘The Cartel’ this was a cliche ridden disappointment. It moves along at a brisk pace and is an easy read but doesn’t really have anything to say.
Watching:
The Defenders — the culmination of the first ‘phase’ of the Marvel Netflix shows was hugely anticipated by your writer so the sense of missed opportunity hit hard. As usual with these shows the pacing was horrible — four episodes (of only eight) spent scene setting and then a scramble to the finale. There were a bunch of quieter character beats I really enjoyed — at times the brewing bromance between Danny and Luke almost saved Danny from being a total disaster as a character. The sparks between Luke and Jessica provide hope for the future. Claire Temple was the glue once again and I really enjoyed the portrayal of Elektra.
Pretty much everything else just annoyed me though. Fingers crossed for Punish and JJ2.0.
Right that’ll do — guess I’m back. See you next week at weeknot.es
Digital by Default 