This Is The Week That Will Be

Morning all,

Just a diary entry, this one.

Supply teaching still looks to be a bit thin on the ground, so I’m going to focus on getting my agencies to get me more work by hassling them.

Today, as it looks like I’m not going to be in schools, I’m going to pick up my mates’ scooter from town. He crashed it and broke his hand a week ago, and the scooter is sitting in a car park in Paddington. Pity its raining.

Also, some editing of the script for the first DVD might be in order, as well as a brief script for a ‘how to..’ video for sharpening a chisel. this one is interesting as i’m just trying out the short format video, as a sort of taster.

All that will go on the Mr Watson blog that i will be starting today. hopefully I’ll also be able to transfer both blogs to their websites, rather than have them here on wordpress.com. That is quite techy so fingers crossed. If i manage it, it means that I can have stuff like videos automatically posted ont he blogs, which I think will be  a nice touch.

Chasing a couple of inventions as well – an idea for eco toys and the back support. Just emails, keeping conversations going, you know.

Later on a friend of ours is opening her play, for which she has done the set design, so I’m looking forward to that, too.

All in all a busy day!

Cheers,

Philip

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Mr Watson DVDs and more

After much searching on the internet i have settled on using DVDs as the plural of DVD.

Great! So what?

What that means is that I can now confidently start writing about the project I am engaged in at the moment – the Mr Watson DVDs project! Hooray!

The project is picking up momentum now, so I am considering whether to start a separate blog on the Mr Watson website. This needs a new look, its true, so perhaps I will take care of that first.

Which of the following three headers would you recommend I use?

At present I’m leaning more towards the middle one. Who knows!

Anyhoo, There’s this private view at the Barbican tonight, which is going to be tricky, as the wife and I have decided to try giving up booze for lent! What can I say, other than its good to challenge yourself…

So, until next time – arrivederci 🙂

Cheers,

Philip

Status Update

Hi there blog,

There’s a lot going on at the moment, so I thought I’d get it all out of my head and put in the compost bin to stew.

Projects-wise, we have the following:

• The DVD project – I’m in the middle of making a DVD for GCSE Design & Technology. This is probably the most fun and interesting thing that I’m doing now, and has some real long-term potential. The script is at the second draft stage, and just needs to be gone over with a fine comb to ensure it is free of nits, with a glossy coat.
• Tying up the ends of a website I’m doing for North Farm Cottages, I’m just waiting for better pictures of the cottages, then I can hand it over. Please – no-one make a booking, as it all comes to me at the moment!
• The Barbican’s Ron Arad exhibition opens on Wednesday, so the wife and I will be going to the private view. The first workshop that I’m doing isn’t for a month yet, so I have a few days to finish off the deliverables for that.
• The back support that I’m working on with a client has stalled a bot, so we need to get that ‘back’ on the go. [That was horrible, sorry]. Next step, I reckon, is to go speak to a lawyer about securing some IP. That’s a long road, but we need to get started.
• Tutoring is ticking along nicely, no problems there.
• Supply teaching has stalled completely – obviously, as its half term! Still waiting for a couple of CRB checks before I can start working for more than one agency, but they should come through soon, and then this’ll pick up a great deal.
• I really fancy making a set of bookends and putting them on Etsy. I don’t put a lot of time into this area, but perhaps I should… One of those things, I guess.
• I also want to continue updating the website, especially thinking about the ‘about me’ page. I just did this quickly when I first put this site up, and, also, I think that I was a bot ‘ooh, it’s a bit egoistic to write about yourself’, but my mind has changed on that one. It’s okay to just tell people who you are.
• A mate of mine spectacularly crashed his scooter last week, breaking three bones in his right hand, so I’m going to go and pick that up for him at some point. Probably not today, though. It’s pissing it down.
• And we need some shopping.
• And I just got a new computer (very nice) and it came with a load of software that i don’t know how to use. I should probably leave them alone, as it will just waste time, but I can’t help feeling that if I just spent time learning to use them, they could be really useful and save me time in the future… I don’t know!
• Oh, and I need to do the filing.

So what to do first? Well, I think this morning could productively be spent making some phone calls – lawyers, clients, collaborators. I’ll then have a coffee and proceed to stare at the script for the DVDs [should that be DVD’s or DVDs?] to see what falls out. A spot of lunch (we’ll be having pancakes later!), and I might have a look at that page on my website. Or maybe I’ll go to the shed and make some bookends. Or maybe i’ll go to lynda.com to learn how to use all that software. We’ll see!

Hope everyone has a good day, despite the rain!

Cheers,

Philip

The Unnanointed Brother

Click the image for a closer look

Commuter Impersonator

This morning I was ready to jump out of bed and rush to whatever school needed me.

As a home worker, my routine usually runs to sitting in bed drinking coffee until 9, (don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same!). But not this morning, oh no. this morning I would be the dynamic, assertive go-getting supply teacher that you don’t see in the movies [note to self: could be a new project in that?]

Sadly, the call did not come. Never mind. I was dressed, watered and ready to go. Thing was, the only place I had to go to was my spare room/office.

This was not good enough! Where was the dynamism? Where was the cold air on my face? Where was the struggle of humanity between the opposing forces of financial security on the one hand and the primeveal drive to stay in bed on a flippin cold morning like this?!?

Where was my commute?!?

My course of action was clear – I was going to have that commute whether it got me anywhere or not!

Togged up, I set off amongst the other commuters, winding their way towards the station. What bliss! What solidarity! We were here, we were cold, and we wished we were in bed! Again I felt as part of a group, part of the industrial work ethic, part of trekking through the bleeding frost to get to somewhere you’d rather not be!

But my enjoyment was short lived. After a street or two, I realised that, yes, actually, it is quite cold and that no, really, I did not have any idea what I was doing or where I was going.

My house lies equidistant between two train stations. I considered walking to one and catching the train to the other. This may legitimise my pointless wanderings, or so I thought.

Then the whole pathos of the thing struck me. What was i doing?!I was mocking these people, turning their daily run to the office into some sort of sadistic little smug-fest of my own.

Pausing at the corner, I turned to make my way home. I imagined my follow commuters glancing at me, jeering. “Home-worker” they would say. But it would be true.

hooray for the post!

A nice thing happened this morning – i recieved the design registration for a little toy of mine!

Always nice to get a certificate through the post 🙂

You can see the game in this video:

Now i just have to decide what to do with it!