In 2005 I spent some time working in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut in Northern Canada. With its arctic location and remoteness from traditional freight channels, people were different. People help people. A handshake means something, and your word is your bond. Perhaps helping your neighbour was about survival rather than just getting more toys. Still, I've never worked in such a collaborative fashion.
The people of Summerland have much of the same positive attitude, despite the threat of nature. The local Shopkeepers are friendly. Unknown people who are walking in town wave as you drive past. And I find that my new neighbours are extremely friendly.
Read MoreSummerland. With vineyards and orchards. A beautiful lake. And warm, pleasant temperatures ideal for drinking wine in. In my past visits, getting into air conditioning was the main environmental concern. I mean, it says it on the tin, right. Summer-land….Tl;dr: Never believe the label on the tin.
Read MoreWhen one has lived in a metropolitan sprawl for many years, one gets used to certain conveniences. A Starbucks close to one’s house. 24-hour grocery stores (or at least a Wal-Mart with a grocery section). And a choice of restaurants for any civilized hour. In the last year, like many in the world, I've come to rely on fast deliveries of both essentials and random Amazon purchases that I've only bought because of late-night shopping.
Read MoreI made my recent home move backwards. I sold my house and then had to decide where to move and find a place. Which wasn’t easy in the hot seller’s market of 2021!
Read MoreMoving is hard. And not something I like to do. I lived at my last house for 22 years. And, if you stay in a place for that long, you begin to accumulate things. In my case, a lot of stuff! And those things have to be moved.
Read More2020 brought a lot of things, arguably many of them harmful. Working (primarily) from home certainly affected how I felt about where I was living in the suburb of a large metropolitan city. And so, I joined the great migration of 2020/2021 and decided to leave town.
Read MoreIn a weirdly coincidental series of unfortunate events, I ran into problems with both of my Macs this week. The displayed effects didn't show an apparent cause. It was only through a lucky and logical conclusion that I found the problem, which was basically the same on each computer.
Read MoreLast year, 2020, was a horrible year for many. Even for those not sick or losing friends and family, lockdown life often impacted people negatively. One of the brightest spots of the year was an originally little-known streaming series on Apple TV+ called Ted Lasso.
Read MoreMy M1-based MacBook Pro started throwing errors this week. It warned me that I was running out of disk space, and my poor 16GB computer couldn't generate the large swap files it needed. The culprit - heavily edited podcasts were downloading onto my hard drive.
Read MoreI've never seen such a marked example of the difference between an introvert and an extrovert until last night. And it was my dog that showed me!
Read MoreStationery Adjacent is a new weekly podcast hosted by myself and my international colleague Stuart Lennon at the intersection of analog and digital productivity.
Read MoreEverything has an app these days. Some useful. Many distracting. And some are just trying to harvest your data with the promise of a free widget. And occasionally, you'll find an app that is unique and life-changing. Of all the weird uses I've seen, my latest game-changing tool is an app that talks to my water bottle. Preposterous!
Read MoreAs a fan of fruity-labeled technology, HomePod is one of my favourite accessories. Yes, it’s obscenely expensive, and its digital assistant can’t hold a candle to other manufacturers. Still, as a high-end audio speaker, the sound is divine. Apple recently canceled it, and I think that is a bad omen for Apple’s possible direction.
Read MoreCloud-based storage works very well and is extremely convenient. Until it fails and you loose data. This cautionary tale will encourage you to reconsider your back up system.
Read MoreDo you ever find you justify your decision to do something you know you shouldn’t with a qualified answer, rather than a straight yes or no?
The next time you find yourself using a qualified answer to an internal decision - or any answer that is not binary - ask a habit-based question and then ask the question again. I’ll bet the answer is clear and that it is likely the opposite of the qualified answer that your mind was giving you.
Read MoreJohn and Justin discuss the latest releases - featuring a huge dump from Hasegawa, reflect on the recent monthly build day, and introduce a new 2021 build-off based on The Race Of Gentlemen. The jury is still out on whether we qualify!
Read MoreA notebook cover made of wood! I’m intrigued! It’s a cool concept, well executed and I had an excellent use case for it (writing from my couch in this WFH age!). Check out the full review.
Read MoreI don’t usually cross-post my content, but I wanted to share the latest episode of the Model Car Podcast, a podcast where we discuss our hobby.
In this episode, John and Justin discuss all of the latest kit announcements from AMT, Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Aoshima, and then try to close up 2020 by looking at something positive - our favourite kits. And we kind of agree for a change! It must be a Christmas miracle.
Read MoreIf you talk about productivity, you are often speaking to a group of people who are already well versed in the nuances of the productivity space and discussing the nuances of any particular system can feel like cult-like. It can be intimidating for people interested in beginning their journey towards adopting a more productivity-focused mindset and toolbox to discover why or where to begin. The first question I recommend anyone ask is: why should I be interested in productivity systems at all? I answer this in my first of a series of articles written to give an introduction to productivity systems and help anyone develop a system that meets their own needs.
Read MoreIf you follow technology news on Twitter, you have probably heard about Hey.com. If you haven't, it is a new subscription product based on a different way of looking at email. Hey has a great heritage, as it is made by the team that developed Basecamp. Hey is not just a new email client; you can't use an existing email address with the product. Instead, for good or bad, you have to embrace the Hey way of processing and reviewing email. While I disliked it at first, the Hey email way has grown on me. And it's not bad. In fact, it is terrific.
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