— Another six months, another failed half year of writing. Although I've been writing a lot more over on the zeroheight blog (and learning loads along the way), my home on the web has been sadly neglected. So, in an attempt to start again, I'm giving Weeknoting a go. A weekly collection of things I'm thinking about, doing or worrying about. Will anyone want to read it? Who knows. Will it help? Probably. As with anything in my life, I'm taking the 'let's throw shit at the wall and see if it sticks' approach.
— COVID reared its annoying head again this week, with the boy having to isolate from school because of a positive case in his school. I don't know whether it was the fact that we now live in a place where we each can have our own space, or that he is just getting older and can sort his own shit out, but it was a hell of a lot easier than it has been. I also did my first lateral flow test, which unsurprisingly, is a deeply unpleasant experience. Just thinking about how much it tickles makes me shudder.
— I don't know whether it's the standard 'It's July, so let's light a fire under our arse', but this week has seen a whole bunch of things kick off in unexpected ways. From looking at taking over, or at least getting involved in, multiple design events in London 👀, to talks around formalising Got The Hump Day a bit more, to talking to the ever lovely Stu Robson about sponsoring and getting involved in something tokensy and fun. Next week I'm going to start organising DesignOps Island Discs volume 2 as well, and I've got two offers out for Design Advocates at zeroheight 😱🙃. This week also saw our new Community Manager start, which makes team member number 2 and an awesome addition who is most likely going to kick it in the dick.
— I've been diving into more Los Campesinos! in the last week, hitting Hello Sadness quite hard. Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions) is the ultimate alternative football song without being a football song. I pulled Half Empty by Little Hands of Asphalt again this week as well, which was easily one of the albums of 2020. His voice is like syrup, and his turns of phrase are always like an overexcited cuddle and it's the kind of easy-going indie-pop that lights up summer nights. He's also just released a new emo-adjacent band called Flight Mode, who are like a more recent Death Cab for Cutie or a less country Pinegrove (without the problematic parts).
— Finally started the fourth plate of Food Wars, which continues to be equal parts weird, uncomfortable and amazing. Who knew that a sports-meets-action-meets-ecchi-meets-satire about going to a cooking school would be this addictive. Isshiki is my spirit animal.
