August 2019
August has flown by! I think it’s because I had something on for the first three weekends of the month, so didn’t have any down-time to let my mind wander!
The first weekend I had a McHale family gathering in Stirling. The second, off to Belfast for a lovely wedding reception.
One of my resolutions over the last couple of years is to make more of an effort to see friends and family. I made this resolution after reading “The Tail End” blog post on the number of times you do something that remain in your life.
A decade (and a half?) ago almost all of my friends were living in the same city, and it was easy to see people. Times change, and with work, families and people being distributed over the country and the world it’s easier to fall out of touch. Making the effort to see people over the past few years has been really rewarding, and I’m always grateful for when friends invite me to visit and celebrate their life events (Happy Wedding Caoimhe and Allan!). More of this over the coming years I hope!
Belfast was a fun city to visit (albeit briefly). I managed a 16km run with Gordon to keep the legs warmed up ready for the Coll Half.
Here is a quick video of the Belfast run:
The Coll Half Marathon was the following weekend. It was lovely to visit the island. I blogged about the trip with some photos.
Reading
- All That Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black.
- Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young. Scott has some interesting videos on his challenges page.
- The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah. I listened to Kwame talk about “Pictures of the World” on the Conversations with Tyler Podcast, so picked up this book. It a tour of different ways people define their identity on attributes, creed and culture. Interesting for the times we live in.
- The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age by Astra Taylor. A re-read, in light of her podcast episode on The Ezra Klein Show, “Astra Taylor will change how you think about democracy. A recommended listen.
Links
Some links that I found interesting this month:
- Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
- Reading and rabbit holes - related to learning, which I have read a fair amount about this month
- Upgrade your cargo cult for the win
- Video: Sönke Ahrens - How to take smart notes - Zettlekasten, and building a note system
Next month
A cycling trip, client work and running. Starting to think ahead to the end of the year and my two month trip to New Zealand. I’ll also be adding more content to Solo Mental Health, a site on which I gather resources for freelancers who want to build healthy habits.
