It's been tricky getting time to read without a commute, but this was something I was contending with when, back in October, I was able to start a job for the first time in my 26 year career that involved but a walk from my house. The irony that that office has been closed to … Continue reading Summer Reading 2020
This week I have learned: whilst there is obviously no causal relationship between me buying a device to open up the skylight in my office, and it raining consistently ever since, it does feel like there is.Teddington Lock last Friday night was like Sodom and Gomorrah. Goodness only knows what the pubs reopening is going … Continue reading Weeknote 491: raining
There was a full-blooded attack on poor customer service experience yesterday evening on the BBC's One Show Watchdog concession. The gist of the episode was that many organisations seem to be remarkably unwilling to allow customers to use email as a channel with which to communicate, and this results in people having to spend interminable … Continue reading The trouble with being email
Roots Manuva was the first time that I heard an authentically British hip hop voice. Something that made sense... Lyrics like "Taskmaster burst the bionic zit-splitterBreakneck speeds we down ten pints of bitter" are not the sort of things that come out of New York rapper. It's a bit like how all American films seem … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2001
And so we enter my fourth millennium and one of the few guitar-based albums to enter my noggin in my mid twenties and thirties. Badly Drawn Boy’s The Hour of Bewilderbeast is touching, sweet, whimsical. Almost folk music. And it captures a feel of my time back then. It’s only now though that I’ve realised … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2000
This week I have learned: It's time to get a specialist stick to open the office VeluxIt's also time for a Wardley MapShould we stop talking about the future of work, and instead just focus on the future of meetings? That seems to be where most of the problems lie.Sometimes you need to be brave … Continue reading Weeknote 490: melting
It's hard to remember that 21 years ago the run up to the end of the millennium was a Really Big Thing (even if there was mathematical dispute about whether December 31st 1999 actually was the end of the millennium or not). Prince had told us that it was time to party like it was … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1999
This week I've learned: do I spend too much energy trying to make other people happy?we really should have turned the WB-40 Donate Page on earlier.the relentless tide of meetings is starting to get to all of us.football eh? Ask me again after the 12.30 kickoff on Saturday.being asked by someone to mentor them is … Continue reading Weeknote 489: bolt upright
Making Bones is an album I'd completely forgotten about until making this list, and more is the pity. A mix of hip hop, drum and bass and a heavy side helping of jazz. Pretty much perfectly sums up my listening in the late 90s. https://open.spotify.com/album/43T9blwnSifY6kro3uZUFe?si=9VtBsZpHSse4FVRqY3YEHw You can see the #51for50 project to date here: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/51-for-50/
This week I have learned: I think my core purpose in life is bringing communities of people together. I certainly get an immense sense of pride from doing it.That 29 years after I founded the Student Radio Association with a bunch of other folk in a draughty lecture hall at Loughborough University, the organisation is … Continue reading Weeknote 488: rock turning
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