Notes for January 5th 2024

Song of the week:

• Today, the day I post this at least, is my birthday. I'm 39 years old. I tend not to reflect much on my birthday since, as my wife puts it, I've been 40 for 20 years. So I feel very much so like my age is growing into me. But several glasses of wine into a conversation with my wife over the weekend, we reflected on how lucky we are. Both of our parents are the parents that came from working class backgrounds (lower middle class, really) which gave us an amazing platform that we've really latched onto and done well with. And as a result, our kids will be tee'd up really well. And we don't live in a hyper-wealthy part of Dublin, so they'll get the benefit of not just being wealthy on an island of wealth. Balance, is what it's all about.
• My mental health took an absolute kicking last week. I'm very introverted (but can switch it on when needed) and while you'd never say I had ASD or anything, I am on that end of the scale. Last week involved a 14-person Christmas (I enjoyed cooking, though; it's a stress reliever and a break for my mind, even if there's pressure... actually maybe because there's pressure), followed by a different house visitor (my wife's friend), followed by our annual pilgrimage to Cork to visit family and parade the kids around. Followed by my niece's birthday. It was too much. Too many people. No breaks. I'm tired, a bit weary and now wishing I took time off work like half of my colleagues apparently did.
• I'm coming into 2024 feeling hopeful but not optimistic at the macro environment. I think Ukraine will hit a deeply troubling turning point, which will impact Europe. All while Palestinians are massacred. And the threat of global climate catastrophe looming gets even more real. Personally, things will be good and I'm excited for what the year will bring. But it's hard to be macro optimistic.
• To kick the year off and get intot he swing of new projects, I decided to spend all of my money on two things: a Fuji X-T5 & an OP-1 Field. My first new camera in many years. My X-T2 served me very well and is currently serving me well as a ridiculously high quality webcam (sorry to the engineers who worked on the tech that I am now so flagrantly insulting). I love photography, and always have. I have some very good lenses so only needed the body and my god, it's like stepping into a new dimension given how big an upgrade it is for me.
  • I bought a Teenage Engineering OP-1 synth/DAWless instrument last year and loved it so much I've decided to get a Field; basically the same idea but a newer, upgraded, meatier version. My goal is to do 1 song per week. I might not necessarily share that tune because I'm bad and feel bad. But that's not the point. I'll also do, and possibly even share, 1 photo per week too.

• A year ago (almost to the day) I began blogging again on this domain. I committed to a simple format, bullet points with thoughts on one hand, and 'tabs' (interesting links) on the other. No, I didn't explain that. No, I didn't introduce it. I just started. And somehow, it's landed nicely. I get a decent following as far as I can see, but really, I get immense pleasure personally from jotting my thoughts down and just having it out there, on record. Little bits and pieces of this has evolved over the year, but primarily this is a simple, nice format that I can get behind. And I don't care if anyone reads it or not.
  • Interestingly, a year ago I noted about work, cycling and a new mechanical keyboard. This year I will avoid work because there's a lot coming up later this month, I wax lyrical on deaddinosaurs.com about cycling and I'm awaiting a new mechanical keyboard case!

• This week I booked my travel for Cannes Lions; the predominantly advertising and tech focused festival in the actually-quite-mundane French town. We do it as a small crew of 3 annually, and do it cheap. We stay off-piste in a town a few stops up the road on the train called Antibes. And we divide-and-conquer a lot of the strip with partners we have in $job. Mostly this happens with WPP, AWS and bits-n-bobs around them. I'm hoping this year I manage to snag a 15min speaking slot because it's good brand awareness and gives me something to aim for this year.
• Booking Cannes made me realise that Body&Soul festival 2024 is just unlikely to happen this year. Which is a shame. I went to my first one last year and it was an amazing experience. My wife & I came out of it feeling like new people. We managed to offload the kids for a full weekend and just get into the vibe. Seeing that they've not sold tickets or announced acts in January makes it very unlikely that this years' solstice will be celebrated in a wooded field in the midlands this year. Crying shame. The idea of attending an arts festival, camping and seeing weird and wonderful music is so appealing.
  • Cannes reminded me of this because Body&Soul happens the weekend before Cannes kicks off. Which brought about travel nightmares for me last year!
• Today I receive my OP-1 Field. A frivolous but enjoyable spendy gift to myself during the stress of Christmas. Which means I'm selling my Op-1. If you're interested in it, I've listed it on adverts but ping me directly for mates rates :)
• I had a wonderful conversation with a STEAM (Science, Tech, Eng, Arts, Maths) service in Ireland that provides resources, materials and - importantly - mentorship to kids who need it across the country. They have ambitious goals and so do I. I plan on getting folks in $job to become mentors to kids or teams dreaming of ideas in 2024. And I've joined the board of a local Youth Reach centre to help steer them. One comment I made that had an impact was that the kids can have a huge impact on each other, but society is setting them up wrong.
  • First, we over-emphasise academic endeavours. Where are the important trades and labouring training centres? We need to follow the German system in this regard and get the economy working. It's ok to not work in a bloody tech company, lads.
  • Then, we have a huge issue with housing affordability. It sets a social framework of the haves and have-nots. But I also think transport is a big part of this. It makes absolutely no sense that I can rent a car and drive to Cork for the same, if not less time than getting a train. And that it would be more economical to do so. It takes 2 hours by a shitty commuter train to get from Waterford to Dublin. It should be 45mins!
  • Finally, there are some grim realities we do not face up to. For example, we spotted childrens soothers were in those security boxes in Tesco last week. How grim is it that something as important as a soother is being robbed? It's not the parents fault, here.
• Final note here today is just to say thank you. This is not a huge blog with massive readership but it has a weirdly nice following, probably mostly via RSS feeds. But I'm delighted I'm still motivated to post weekly, even if some posts are short and sweet, or just lack any meaningful content. I appreciate the emails, Toots and DMs I've gotten over the past year. Thank you.