I’ve been wallowing in nostalgia this week.
It started with a reminder from those Facebook ‘memories’ of my greatest social media moment back when I was at the ONS in 2014. I even got an anonymous mention in a couple of papers off the back of it.
It is funny to look back and remember that there was a time when it was my knowledge of emerging social media trends and cultures that was the focus of my career. This little stunt was the end of that! I totally stand-by it though – it worked. It changed the narrative and the vibe that evening and gave the team doing the hard work the space to fix things.
This also led me to think about my career as a whole (and just the fact I have something that now looks like a career – it never felt very planned at the time!). I put together a new About page – not going to lie some of this was a not so subtle stake in the ground. There is a lot going on at work these days. Mergers, new leadership, different clients. Doesn’t hurt to have somewhere that reminds people you’ve been doing ‘the right thing, right’ for a long time!
On top of all of that today is my three year anniversary with Notbinary/Foundry4. I’m not going to dwell on that here as I’ve already written a thousand plus words on the topic…but I will say it hasn’t always been easy, or a natural fit and I have had a couple of really bad wobbles but despite it all I’m glad I made the decision to join and have learned loads and made some great friends. Can’t ask much more than that.
Paul said something nice related to my anniversary —>
Which is lovely but interesting as I feel less and less like anyones ‘boss’ these days. Joking I said I was more like a ‘village elder’ but now I think there is something in that and I suspect a blogpost is imminent as I explore it in my own head.
The Welsh Gov work is still going well. Though it does mean this old dog is going to have to learn some new tricks. I need to mock up some screens in Figma – which is either going to be fun or break me! Probably is going to mean getting that Mac Mini I’ve had in my ‘basket’ for two weeks as my Macbook is already struggling.
My U-kation plans are firming up for later in the year. Current plan is a 10 week(!) tour. I kind of have my heart set on it now and its nice to have a thing to look forward to.
My relationship with music is a little weird. Back in my commuting/traveling days I always had my headphones on listening to music on Spotify. Now at home if I am not on calls music is playing all day. Never podcasts or audio books. Never the radio. The thing is I almost always just listen to Spotify generated playlists (I have about a dozen on rotation I guess including the ‘personalised’ ones) and I never really take any notice of who is performing the songs so can never really remember songs I liked that broke through into my consciousness.
So I decided in January I’d try and do better and whenever I recognised and tuned into a track I’d jot it down. So here are a few that made the grade.
God Must Be Doing Cocaine – Charlotte Lawrence
All My Girls Like to Fight – Hope Tala
Tights On My Boat – The Chicks
I Can’t Lose – Erik the Architect
Whole House – Lola Wolf
Outside – Westside Boogie & Joey BadA$$
State of the Union – Marlon Craft
Immune – Jensen McRae
I finished another book. Jade City by Fonda Lee. I really enjoyed it – so much so that I have decided to put down the book I started reading after it and jump straight into the sequel this weekend. It is a mix of Hong Kong gangster story and fantasy adventure. The world building is impressive but it is also a great thriller. Big fan.
Got around to reading ‘Reckless’ the new graphic novel by my favourite creator duo Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I’d been saving this one as I knew it would be something special and it really was. A sun drenched, 70’s set, hard-boiled crime comic. That is going to be a series of hard-back graphic novels. Couldn’t be more excited to follow this series.
Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America is a documentary series on BBC4 and it is amazing viewing. Each episode dives into a big track from the history of hip hop but covers much more than that. It delves into the context and the culture and is just fascinating even if – like me – you think you know the stories.
Digital by Default 