scruffian

Today I wrote my 3000th haiku. (I also did posts for 2000 and 1000). This means I have been doing this daily haiku thing for getting on for 10 years.

Sometimes I wonder if I should stop posting haiku. Why follow such a strict form? Why not focus on something more long form? Should I place more emphasis on quality rather than forcing something every day?

One of the lessons I have learnt by writing a haiku every day is that, even if it seems incredibly difficult to say anything, there are always words if you let them come. The important thing is to keep on creating, regardless of how you’re feeling and whether you even like the things you make. The act of creation is it’s own reward.

The discipline to post something every day has given me the confidence to keep creating even when it seems hard to go on. This has lead me recently to start posting a song I am practicing every day.

I think I’ll keep going with the haiku for now, while I still can.

Does your team have documented team values?

Someone asked me this question and my immediate thought was “blah that sounds boring”. After bouncing some ideas around with some friends, we came up with a way of making it more fun.

The idea was to use Dixit cards to help us. We played two different games:

Game 1

Lay out 9 cards. Everyone decides in their head which card they think best represents the team and the team’s values. When everyone has decided we share together which cards we chose and why. I wrote down the reason for everyone’s choice.

Game 2

Give everyone 9 cards each. Each person takes some time to secretly choose which card best represents the team and the team’s values. Once they have chosen they lay out their nine cards and everyone else tries to guess the card the person selected and the reason behind their choice. Again I wrote down the reasons for each choice.

Compiling the list

This exercise gave us a list of about 20-30 values that we see within the team.

From this we combined and simplified the list into the following items

• Shipping things now, while building for the future
• Being open with each other and supporting each other with kindness
• Everyone brings their own skills and perspective, stronger together
• Role models in the community, leading by example
• We value simple elegant solutions

I hope this was a bit more of a fun activity than having to sit and think without the prompts.

I have been working on a straw bale studio for almost four years now! I thought it was time to share the work I have done and my updates in a more organised way so I created a new blog to collect everything together:

http://strawdio.wordpress.com

I am a big fan of woodcut (and linocut) printing – I think they look amazing. Something about the imperfections in the printing process really appeals to me. I particularly like the work of Lou Tonkin and Nick Hayes. The latter designed the Right To Roam website, which looks amazing.

I thought it would be interesting to try to create a WordPress theme that emulates that effect without having to go to the effort of creating wood/lino cuts! Of course it will never look as good as the real thing, but the effect is quite interesting I think:

This is a Block theme, which means it takes advanatage of a lot of the latest Gutenberg features – you will need to be using the latest Gutenberg plugin if you want it to look at its best (or wait for WordPress 6.1!).

This theme ships with an inverted style variation, so you can make it dark. I may add more style variations in the future if there is interest.

The theme is also designed to make it very easy to customize – for example it’s trivial to make the left column a different color, or to make the whole site a different color. If you’re interested in Block theme development I encourage you to have a look at the code.

Woodcut is available on the WordPress.org directory and on GitHub.

Yes, I know that’s not correct grammar. I made a video with my colleague Dave about what we’ve been up to at work recently.

New song about mountains. I had to buy a pump organ for this one. Also available on Spotify:

On Saturday we raised the roof of the building that will become my studio. Because of the pandemic this happened about a year later than planned, but at least that made the timbers lighter. Thanks to everyone who helped, this couldn’t have happened without you all.

This was also a great way to celebrate Birch’s fourth birthday!

It is well documented that being outside, taking exercise and enjoying nature are helpful to combat depression. Speaking personally, I know that getting outside makes me feel better about life. Seeing the world outside the four walls of my room puts my own problems in perspective. Doing exercise gives makes me a sense of achievement, which can often be the first step in achieving more.

When we are given medicine for a health condition we are suffering from, it is important to take our medicine so that we can recover from the illness.

I have found it helpful to think about daily exercise like a daily dose of medicine. I don’t always want to take it, but I know if I do I will end up feeling better. In the same way that taking that medicine from the doctor is a priority, so is getting outside.

I am by no means suggesting the exercise is a cure for mental health issues, simply that it can help to lift your mood and sense of well being, for anyone.

If you’re feeling down ask yourself, have I had my medicine?