Inside View

The Power of Nomads #RemoteWorking

THE MOST POWERFUL community dynamic I have enjoyed in Ireland stemmed from monthly Open Coffee Meetups in Limerick. I want to rekindle that energy by layering the Open Coffee dynamic inside the Grow Remote movement and I think I will try to do this in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland in 2019.

DJI Motor Overload During Zombie Walk

See video.

DURING A BREAK from light rain showers, I launched my DJI Phantom 3 Pro drone for a series of camera moves next to part of the old town walls of Clonmel. During the third short flight, I got a "motor overload" message that caused the drone to automatically land.

DJI Motor Overload

Another Bluetooth Thing with a second life

USING A LAZY RAINY DAY as an imperative to poke around in some boxes, I'm proud to say I discovered a five year old Logitech Keys-to-Go (for iPad) and it effortlessly connected to my Android phone. So I'm a happy bunny since I have nearly everything I need to cycle with work without a laptop burden.

Paging Back Through October Bank Holidays

Photo by @topgold in South Tipperary Arts Centre.

IT IS A QUIET (and frosty) October Bank Holiday in Ireland and we're getting ready for the Clonmel Zombie Walk by painting a few props, carving a few pumpkins, and double-checking the batteries in Mia's fat suit costume.

During this quiet time, I noticed a few people landing on my blog and then reading pieces I wrote more than a decade ago when we lived in Kilkenny. [1] I wondered what other sorts of things I might have written during the same quiet periods throughout the past decade.

Let's Connect Over a Meal

TEN AND A HALF YEARS AGO, Ewan McIntosh visited County Tipperary to share his perspective on education. As expected, we learned a lot. And as many thoughtful people know, breaking bread is one of the most effective ways of fostering a collaborative connection. R. Wolf Shipon makes this same point in an open letter he wrote to fellow psychologists immediately after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. I'm sharing Wolf's comments from his Facebook post.

Gen Z Arrival Day

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I saw Derek Baird happily announce the publication date of The Gen Z Frequency and today I got my copy! It's published by Kogan Page.

Facing Down Screen Abolitionists

EVERY TIME WE MEET the grandparents, the sniping starts against touchscreen devices. Whenever I hear the sniping start--and it does every time we meet--I simply bite my tongue and then let the kids tap and explore. But I limit their online forays to specific periods of the day.

Every time I skim through my newsfeeds, I spot chatter about pre-teens and screens  [1] but I think most of the noise I hear comes from privileged technologists who seek retro activities for their families. I also hear from physicians and education experts. But you know what? I have far more time for experts who have studied the sociology of our online world or psychologists who can document exactly what happens when people behave as though they cannot live without primary contact with electronic devices. I need to seek out more of those sorts of learned voices because I want to face down touchscreen abolitionists.

Stories from Artefacts

WE HAVE STARTED collecting stories about family artefacts, listening to young students in the Clonmel Presentation School offer snippets of oral family history. The project will feature in an exhibition mounted by the Tipperary Museum in November 2018.

Two Thumbs Up for Rev.com

I AM A BIG FAN of audio transcription services and the combination of machine learning and human curation inside Rev.com is so very helpful.