Category: insights

New Mac, Old Workflows | What I Use

For those who are interested in how I set up my new laptop (Mac).

FREE

Appcleaner: enables me to ensure anything I download in terms of trials will also be deleted way into the file system of the OS.

Blue Snooze: Sleeping Mac = Bluetooth off, a specific problem which I’ve been having with my Mac solved with this open source app.

Brave: a privacy based browser for when a client needs me to use Zoom or another flaky platform.

Clop: incredible and fast media optimiser for an assortment of purposes.

Maccy (was Clipy): amazing little time-saver, set up to save my last 40 ‘copy’ actions (you can set the number) ready for pasting with shortcut enabled so can bring it up via Option+Command+V.

Firefox: an alternative browser for other things.

F.lux: (in terms of colour management for eye stress) warms up your screen and cools it down depending on the time of day. UPDATE: friend told me this is already in the new OS under Displays>NightShift so now uninstalling this app.

FuzzyTime: a way to add a ‘human’ touch to telling the time, now if Apple would allow us to remove the time icon from the menu-bar…

Hidden Bar: such a clever little thing to hide away all your menu bar items (I just have time and battery showing with control center and analogue clock fixed due to OS constraints). Not working on latest Mac OS so now using the open source alternative, Thaw.

Hidden Me: tidies up your desktop so it looks neat and tidy when presenting.

OBS: open source software for video recording and live streaming to impress folks when I’m teaching them how to present engagingly online.

Stream Deck: the accompanying app to control the hardware for fancy presentations and other funky app related shortcuts.

PAID

Audio Hijack: for recording audio from multiple sources.

ExpressVPN: for securing website traffic and online activities from the marketeers and advertisers.

Obsidian: go to text and notes app with the added bonus of building out my digital Zettlekasten (I’m still learning).

Proton VPN: to keep my browsing private and away from prying eyes / data scalpers.

Reeder: RSS still rocks and I love that I choose my media menu with this one app.

Sync: a more ethical and secure version of Dropbox, now using filen.io as Sync went downhill fast on customer service and doesn’t making everything downloadable for users (have to do it one folder at a time).

1Password: I use version 6 which I bought the license for a few years ago and don’t need the bells and whistles of the newer ones. Now on Bitwarden although be careful as lacks a lot of subtle design integrations and expected functions like other more mature apps in market.

OTHER TWEAKS

A nice Terminal-level workaround for applications hiding under the MacBook Pro notch.

I remove everything from the ‘dock’ and have it disappear from use unless I hover over. I open apps from activating the Spotlight search with the shortcut Command+Space.

I set up four ‘spaces‘ (essentially to mimic three screens on one laptop). I also add in the Keyboard shortcut settings utilising Apple+Cursor(right / left) to jump between them (there already is a trackpad action to move between them as standard by using three fingers and swiping left / right but I like this added keyboard functionality also).

Everything else like email, social media, blog writing etc is accessed via a browser to enable a ‘lighter’ memory footprint on my Mac.

Let me know if I’m missing anything obvious, think I should be exploring alternatives or know how to get rid of those unwanted menu bar items.

Published

Exploring My Playful Innocence | Creativity Webinar

Honoured to be invited to participate in a hosted by Groov (a mental health and well-being platform for the workplace plus past client).

Drawing from my varied time and experience across multiple domains, plus doing my best to be honest and vulnerable, the webinar starts with a very personal narrative exploring why I do what I do (and why it means so much to me). You’ll also hear me advocate for the creative process being one of ‘not knowing’ and playful discovery, concepts which aren’t new although I rarely see / hear when exploring this in organisations / company settings.

Hope you get something from the watch and thanks to Kim, Simone and Fiona for each being part of making this happen.

Hit us up in the comments or via the contact form if you have any further thoughts / ideas / questions.

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Leaving To Return / Returning To Leave | My Recent Europe Adventure

Captured in one of the many churches explored in Brussels.

“Eang yw’r byd i bawb.” / “The world is wide to everyone.”

A few days ago I came back from a 10 week trip in Europe. It was my first international travel in 3 years and the main aim was to reconnect with family, friends, the fatherland plus reignite my wanderlust which has been dormant since Covid and other confidence-damaging events.

I didn’t have a return flight booked but had a couple of gigs already booked in beginning of November to provide a backstop.

I spent the majority of time in the valleys of Wales as well as side trips / escapades to Scotland (Glasgow and all over Isle of Skye), Ireland (Dublin and Tramore), England (London), Germany (Munich), Switzerland (Winterthur—see Time With Rilke | A Rhapsodic Swiss Side Quest—Raron, and Basel), France (Lille and Basel), plus Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp, and Bruges):

When you’re away for 2.5 months things change. Buildings and roadways which were once familiar are different. Vistas which are known have a fresh look. My flat seems bigger. The world feels smaller.

I’m brimming with gratitude, energy and hope from the experience.

Am tired but hungry to build / collaborate.

I yearn for stability although am looking for new streets to wander for the first time, again, already.

I’ve changed and I guess that’s the lesson: when you leave, the return creates just another opportunity to depart, again.

Whilst away was very lucky to continue working fulfilling several opportunities whilst on this trip, which included my online ‘Presenting Engagingly Online’ talk / demo to NZTA, ACC, MinterEllison, Sports Wales, Liverpool Port City Innovation Centre Accelerator.

For my lovely ongoing client of Teulo got to MC the August monthly event (took a break for September) as well as a couple of sessions for a group of speakers they are sponsoring for the upcoming ArchiPro event in Auckland next month.

As mentioned, delivered two masterclasses for Accenture global R&D department at The Dock. Also delivered an in-person ‘Purposeful Storytelling’ talk for the start-ups of FinTech Wales and spent two afternoon consults / ideation sessions with friends businesses.

Published

#45 August & September 2022 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

A bunch of things (which I tweeted) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on.

READ

Even though Facebook tried to brand its way out of its trouble: Meta is being sued for allegedly creating a tool for US hospitals which disclosed private patient information back to Facebook or Meta having to pay walkie-talkie app $174 million for infringing on its patents or Meta facing a new class action lawsuit that accuses it of tracking and collecting the personal data of iPhone users, despite features and policies made by Apple which are meant to stop that same type of tracking.

10 reasons why Brexit has been a pile of wank for the UK.

Why you should be worried about Amazon’s ‘surveillance purchase’ in buying Roomba.

How Tesla is also getting in on the ‘surveillance’ market when you own one of their cars.

Here’s the UN (two years ago) calling NZ’s housing conditions a “human rights crisis” (total agree, it’s a disgrace here and none of the local / national politicians do anything about it).

A tough read from a psychologist in the field who pulls apart their profession and their approaches.

Why a broken heart is the same as clinical pain.

How 100,000gk was removed from the great Pacific Garbage Patch “comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island.”

About those doofuses who enabled Bitcoin to have a climate impact greater than gold mining.

WATCH

EXPLORE

This House Does Not Exist, an AI powered website that generates a beautiful new house every time which is not real.

Some rail announcements in Scotland plus some ambient tunes.

52 places you can visit and be part of the solution.

Vector Express to convert your vector files for free.

Palette, a vibrant AI colorizer (free online) app.

Nightdrive, trust me.

Image credit: A Small Fiction.
All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #6 | Painting, Hearings & Sampling

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

This ninety minute video is both short stories of experience from a specific art school whilst also creating a hyper-realistic portion of an oil painting. It’s an odd but compelling and complimentary way . Scott’s candor and humility is evident as he navigates the boundaries of truth and compassion to those he’s sharing stories about, as well as his insane talent as he casually build out a portion of his painting.

Full of emotion and measured sentiment, situated in a political arena and specific to a cause, this is immense. It’s a poignantly delivered demonstration of how to both ask for something (health coverage for the first responders of the 9/11 attack) in a way which also illustrates the incredulous system for health care in the US (the bill did finally get passed for the workers to access to the coverage they needed).

A visual illustration of how the electronic duo Daft Punk snips samples from other songs to make up their own tunes. Offered without narration, this is another example of how showing rather than telling works so much better. It will also make you smile at how some of those well known tunes came into being. Clever stuff from Tracklib, an online record store for sampling.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.

Image credit.
Published

Time With Rilke | A Rhapsodic Swiss Side Quest

Rilke bronze bust at Kunst Museum Winterthur
Rilke bronze bust at Kunst Museum Winterthur.

Figuratively and literally.

A few days ago, on a wonderfully fresh summers morning, I entered the Kunst Museum Winterthur in Northern Switzerland (twenty minutes outside of Zurich) for a private viewing of the Fritz Huf bronze head sculpture of poet Rainer Maria Rilke (see above). On the same day I traveled the two and a half hours into the Swiss Alps and to a tiny municipality called Raron (population nearly two thousand), to visit the grave of Rilke (see below):

Rilke's grave in Raron.
Rilke’s grave in Raron.

This story started in November 2018 when I came across this web article featuring the sculpture. It moved me deeply and after some research I found the museum which housed the piece and reached out to inquire as to its status. It was held in the archive and not currently shown.

The wonderful staff there sent me some information on it and also shared it was owned by a small Swiss municipality (on the Italian border), Commune di Collina d’oro (whom I tried to contact to no avail).

Apparently, the artist Huf had met Rilke in 1915 and the next day a portrait session occurred, although he went on to complete the work from memory. And what a sensitive and attentive creation it is. Small but bold, it evokes so much of the character of the subject through the slightly embellished elements of the features: from the gentle amplification of the brow, the plumpness of the round closed eyes, to the withdrawn cheeks to reveal the cheek bones and the fullness of the lips under the sweeping moustache.

So from first discovering this artistic impression of a poet who has spoken to me for so long, here I am, nearly four years later, spending over an hour in its company. It was very hard to leave:

There you are. In repose. Tenderly positioned, offering yourself to the darkness, again. A vulnerable attempt of being. Be careful what you find, please. But thank you for taking the plunge into the depths of the emotional landscape; a journey as an attempt to create connections between the worlds. A dimensional shift in experiencing the slavering potential of the soul.
Did it spare your spirit? How enriching to your present state was it? Where did the dangerous adventures finally exact its toll?
For such quests of longing and braveness means risking yourself for what: words? Ideas? Metaphor?
You will never know the admiration. The gratefulness of others. How impressive you are to us. Then again would you care? It would probably arrest you for the briefest of time until you again hear the call of the black, sweet space between here and the deeper realms. And you would close your eyes, once more, and retreat into your melancholic kingdom.

What followed was an equally arresting afternoon trip and experience of visiting Rilke’s final resting place. Through and into the Swiss Alps via two train stops, just a short walk from the Raron’s train station I found myself at the foot of the rock spur which aloft sits the 16th Century St. Romanus Church and the aforementioned grave. At the foot is also the St. Michael rock church, which was created by carving out 6000 m3 of rock and opened in 1974 with a capacity for 500 people.

To get to the grave is a steep climb upwards and around the hill which whacks the breathe out of you⁠—although what a reward!

Apart from the small but impressive church and the grave of the poet, it’s the view out from where Rilke lays which is heavy in beauty (so much so i nearly missed my connecting train back out of the valley, so lost was I in the present vista):

The view of Raron from Rilke's grave
The view of Raron from Rilke’s grave

Of course you would be buried in such a luscious place like this.
Away from us all, elevated, remote, surrounded by splendid scenes to excite and overwhelm.
Teaching us still, that at the end of any challenging journey there’s potential for peace.

After reading so much of the mans words over the past twenty years and tweeting far too many of his lines (neatly curated here if you care), this has been an adventure in coming closer to a poet who’s work is soaked in over-thoughts and drenched in metaphor.

For those who are a fan if his work and find themselves in this part of Europe I urge you to explore the above locations as I guarantee it will be fuel for the soul which will echo deep within. As the man wrote:

Like someone on the final hill, which one more time shows him his entire valley, who turns, pauses, lingers—and so we live, constantly saying farewell.
Rainer Maria Rilke

The deepest of thanks to Angelika for making the bust available to view at the fantastic Kunst Museum Winterthur.
Published

#44 July 2022 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

A bunch of things (which I tweeted) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on.

READ

What happens when someone looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects.

Amazing new apartment building in Amsterdam is new housing for wildlife, not just humans (easy to mandate for courageous councils / governments) plus Toronto has booted the silly data-grabbing Sidewalks Labs city concept to the curb for a more human-centred approach (tip: it’s not ‘smart’ to suck up peoples data and make money from it without them knowing or having the ability to opt out no matter what context).

Beta (ex-BookFace) is on the offensive again quoting studies to back it’s claims it doesn’t / didn’t have a negative effect on democracy although some journalists are having none of it.

Wonderfully presented and written piece about the rise of AI Created Fiction.

Great decision by Minecraft to not allow NFTs on its gaming platform.

There’s this “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Beyond the Hype” white paper from the World Economic Forum (check out the strengths / weaknesses table as it’s a great summariser).

Why climate damage caused by growing space tourism needs urgent mitigation.

Earlier this year, NASA announced the discovery of the most Earth-sized planets (SEVEN) found in the habitable zone of a single star, called TRAPPIST-1.

WATCH

EXPLORE

Pixabay’s audio section for thousands of music and audio tracks, free for commercial and non-commercial use.

iColor Palette generates a color palette / swatches from image or image url.

Turn audio into amazing videos Astrofox.

All the ships in the sea.

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
Published

People, Time, Place | The Erratic Elements Of Life

The people / time / place coefficient.

Sometimes, the people are right, it’s just the wrong time and place.

On other occasions, the chances time-out but the people and place still fit.

Then there’s the opportunity syncing with the place, however, those who are around don’t match.

Sometimes, all the elements are there and make total sense, it’s just not what was expected and / or wanted.

The varied pathways which form our possible lives are multitudinous beyond belief due to their ever shifting elemental permutations and fluctuations⁠—it’s amazing how anything ever happens intentionally.

And yet here we are, expending so much energy to make ‘it happen’ (because consciously or not, we know every chance-possibility might be nudged in our favour due to the effort).

Attempting with wild abandon to make things fit (because of previous failings still stinging the spirit into action).

Throwing ourselves in with all our might to align all the jumbled elements available (because it’s our nature).

No wonder we’re exhausted!

I wish for you the right people, at the right time, together, in the right place.

*the above is an actual recent Wordle experience I had which sparked this brain-fart of a blog post.

Published

Returning To The Fatherland | Dod yn ôl at fy nghoed

It’s been 3 years since I was last in the company of family and friends there⁠—feels more like a decade.

I’ll be back in Wales from next month and the plan is to linger (with a few side adventures into Europe), reconnect with humans, the land, plus explore creative collaborations / opportunities.

“Dod yn ôl at fy nghoed / To return to my trees, to relax and unwind, to calm your mind.”

I already have a few bookings in place for my ‘Purposeful Storytelling’ public speaking masterclasses which is a bonus and open to more (these are half-day sessions for leaders and I have a ‘beginners’ plus ‘advanced’ offer, let me know if you need further info, I also do 1-2-1 speaker coaching also plus happy to speak / consult with groups on other aspects of ‘crafting delicious learning experiences’ and storytelling).

Like many of you I would imagine, the past couple of years has been about challenges and consolidation. Judging by the response I got from this LinkedIn post, the experience is not unique and it filled my spirit how many kindly reached out to share their experiences and / or left a lovely comment (even though it was a quick post and nothing I thought too deeply about as the intention was to celebrate the ‘lightness’ I was feeling). So this feels like a signifying expedition.

If you’re in what’s left of the ‘United Kingdom’, please check your diaries then let me know what your plans are from mid August onwards as would love to reconnect / spend time together (albeit socially distanced and probably outdoors). See you then / there!

Published

#43 June 2022 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

The Remarkables / Kawarau (from this weeks trip)

A bunch of things (which I tweeted) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on.

READ

Did you know it takes ‘11,000 litres of water to make one litre of milk‘ in NZ and how it’s just not sustainable.

Read and listen to Yma o Hyd (the defiant Welsh folk song that’s been 1,600 years in the making).

Sheryl Sandberg has retired from BookFace (now meatr), what an awful legacy she has to take with her (like this: they banned accounts promoting disinformation, spam, or propaganda—and kept the money it made from ads).

The crypto industry is spending more on lobbying than the entire United States defense sector combined, don’t get involved in this corrupt space (if you do just be a watcher of the “hollow abstractions” from crypto advocates).

A cybersecurity researchers’ take on how Web3, NFTs, and cryptocurrency are dangerous to society and the planet.

In the USA, the federal government buys our cell phone location data, this is how.

In the UK here’s an overview of what’s happened in the six years since Brexit (spoiler: all bad).

An interesting take on the ‘pandemic’s social death‘ as it’s all become a little too quiet (as all the numbers keep climbing).

WATCH

EXPLORE

Open Source Alternative to… are 300+ popular open source alternatives to your proprietary software.

Switching to Firefox as they recently rolled out ‘Total Cookie Protection’ by default to all users worldwide.

Go full screen (trust me) and spend time with the top 100 Hubble images.

The economic state of every OECD country (here’s Aotearoa / New Zealand).

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
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