Graham Chastney

Finally decided to do something about the Windows Live Writer Dictionary myself. As I suspected the dictionary is just a text file that is available in other applications. So I found somewhere where I could download the British Dictionary and replaced the file.

The replaced file is ssceam.clx in c:\program files\windows live writer\dictionaries

Sorted.

No I can write colour and prioritise, honour and saviour without having to remember which is the right one.

Following on from my previous post “My working day & my blogging day” I thought I would tell you how I actually write a blog these days. I say “these days” because I am constantly looking to define my method so that it focusses the maximum amount of time on the post itself and the minimum amount of time on actually posting stuff.

It’s also fitting because the tool I use (Windows Live Writer) has just been updated.

I am currently using Windows Live Writer, I have previously used BlogJet but the process is similar in both. This blog is hosted on Typepad and Windows Live Writer has a configuration for my two blogs on there. I also have third configuration at the moment because I am working on the set-up of a wordpress blog for someone else.

So this is how I do it:

1. When it comes to be time to write a blog I look in my hand written list of tasks for some of the blog ideas that I have written down.
2. Mull over whether any of the ideas has reached a sufficient level of maturity for me to write it.
3. Start Windows Live Writer
4. Check that I am using the correct account for the post I am writing.
5. Write the blog body. I sometimes include the links as I go along, but other times I find this distracting so do them at the end. Most posts include an emoticon or two for which I use a Writer plugin. I normally read each post through a couple of times.
6. Create trackbacks. I always do trackbacks at the end.
7. Select categories for the blog.
8. Give the post a title.
9. Create some Technorati tags. I used to use a plugin for this, but the new tag capabilities built into Writer do as good a job.
10. Insert a Flickr image. I use the Flickr4Writer tool. When I upload images to flickr I give them all a tag “noblog”, when I use them in a blog I remove this tag. This lets me search for the images that I haven’t used in a blog yet. 
11. Click on publish.
12. When the browser window with the published post comes up I click on the permalink link. I then copy the post’s URL and click on the Flickr image. I then put the post’s URL into the image’s description in flickr. This helps me know where I’ve used the image.

That’s it done, just like that. I try to spend most of my time on post creation, but some posts just don’t work out that way .

The new version of writer is a good step forward; I liked the previous version so perhaps I’m biased. It’s still lacking a proper English dictionary which I think is my only gripe at the moment, oh yes and the spell checker still doesn’t understand ‘words marked in single quotes’. I’d like it to highlight my spelling a grammar issues in the same way as Word does, but you can’t have everything for free.

 (I’ve just noticed that Flickr4Writer has been updated since I last used it).

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” – T.S. Eliot

I like to think about how I can make the most of my time. This means that I regularly question why I do things in the order I do them to try and get more out of the time I have.

When I am working from home (which is most of the time at the moment) I find it’s vital to have something approaching a routine. The routine enables me to be focused, but I’m not so embedded in my routine that I can’t be flexible with it.

I thought others might be interested in my routine, so here it is:

• Breakfast
• Walk – I find that a walk in the morning wakes me up. It’s good for my brain and also good for my posture which isn’t great after 20 years sat in front of a computer.
• Quiet time – I listen to quiet music, read and relax. There is a sofa in my study which I use. I read from books during this time because the great thing about a reading a book is that you can’t flick to some other application while you are doing it. If I have thoughts about things I need to do during the day I will write them down so I don’t forget them, but I won’t do anything about them now.
• Blog reading – The tablet sits within reach of the sofa. While still sitting on the sofa I start FeedDemon and go through the blogs that have been written overnight. Because I live in the UK there are a load of blogs to catch up on. I sort of follow a GTD method for blog reading. I will scan read all of the blogs. Those that I think I might read later get flagged within FeedDemon, those that I think I will reference at some point in the future get posted to del.icio.us. Everything gets marked as read. I will make a note of things I am going to blog about if anything.
• Diary check – I check today and a few days further forward so I know what I need to get done.
• Check email – My role means that I get email all through the day and night. I don’t read email outside my working day so there are always ones to catch up on in the morning. Again, I follow a GTD type approach with anything being scan read. Everything that needs an action gets flagged and everything gets marked as read.
• Write task list – I write my task list out on a piece of paper. Physically writing each one makes me think about each one and how I am going to tackle it. The ones that I am going to do today get a star.
• Tasks and meetings – Having planned my day I will then on with tasks and meetings.
• 50 minute sit, 10 minute move – The day is split into chunks of work which involve sitting at a desk and others that involve moving around. This means that I don’t stiffen up too much, but it’s also good for my brain and makes me more alert when I am moving and also when a return from movement.

I’m not declaring any times because that’s my business and not yours , you can be sure that everyone gets what they are paying for.

 tags: GTD, FeedDemon, del.icio.us, blog

I use two different site meters on this site:

• Statcounter
• Google Analytics

I thought I would try them out and eventually pick one, but actually they both do different things.

Statcounter (for free) is limited to the details of the last 100 hits. This can be limiting, but the details are first rate.

Google Analytics keeps the details for far longer (don’t think I’ve found a limit), but is less appealing at the detailed level. The graphs and trends are far more useful because of the amount of data being retained.

Google Analytics maps use a flash map which when you zoom in, to see enough of the UK for it to be useful, also scales the font. This means that you can’t read what is in the text box. It’s quite interesting that the Statcounter details are far better, perhaps it’s because they use the Google maps API .

Keeping with Google Analytics, the ability to adjust the date range is great. It would be really nice if it remembered your last date range though.

Statcounter doesn’t have an ability to tell you absolute unique visitors in the same way as Google Analytics does. Nor does it have the ability to drill into the numbers.

I like both of them, and will keep both of them because they do different things.

tags: Statcounter, analytics, statistics

My Brain Age according to Dr Kamashima at lunch time today is 34 – which is less than my actually age .

For those of you who don’t know whether this is a good thing or not: In Dr Kamashima you are aiming for a brain age of 20, that’s the optimum.

My Brain Age according to Dr Kamashima at lunch time today is 38 – the same as my age .

One of the questions I’ve been trying to answer on the subject of ‘my brain’ has been – can a brain get ‘better’?

I’m not really sure what I mean by ‘better’, but I have in mind something akin to a mussle becoming stronger.

Steve lent me a copy of Making a Good Brain Great by Daniel Amen. The title would suggest that he believes that a brain can be improved.

Having got to chapter 8 – ‘Yes, you can change your brain and change your life’ I’m starting to get the impression that Daniel believes that change is not only possible but also advantageous . The title of the chapter pretty much summarizes what it is saying.

Chapter 8 is only part way through the book and already I’ve picked up on things that I could make my brain better and that a number of things that I am doing are not good for my brain. One change has been to increase the amount of cardio-vascular exercise that I do. I’ve also switched to decaff as my primary coffee.

I can’t say that I’ve noticed any significant difference yet apart from sleeping better.

There’s a questionnaire at the beginning of the book which I only skimmed my way through, but having got this far I think I will get a couple of people to complete it for me and do it myself.

tags: brain, amen

I went to an excellent breakfast over the weekend where the speaker was Paul McGee – The SUMO Guy. Paul is a great speaker. There was 50 of us and he had us entranced, which is no easy task at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.

Paul was talking about using the S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On) principles when trying to deal with burn-out.

Paul’s primary message was that most events don’t lead directly to an outcome. It’s the event + our reaction to it that normally creates the outcome.

He had a set of questions to ask yourself before reacting to a situation. All this week one of those questions has been ringing in my ears and I share it here:

Where is this issue on a scale of 1-10? (If 10 is death)

This week I have found myself in a number of situations where my reaction was going to be a 7 or 8, but having assessed them they were nothing more than a 2 and in most instance they were a .5 .

If you are interested in the other questions follow the link to a download of the cartoon:

You could even buy Paul’s book .

I think we’ll be inviting Paul back.

tags: SUMO, Paul+McGee, Burn-Out, Breakfast

Yesterday I wrote about the fun of learning the times-tables, and how important I believe fun is.

The sad part of this story is that Emily didn’t do great in her time-tables at school.

She did worse than she was doing at home.

Why?

Because being tested wasn’t fun. Being tested was stressful.

None of us, especially children, perform well when we are stressed.

So why do we test our children so much?

Does someone think it’s good for them?

Why can’t we make the testing part of the fun?

This year is going to be an especially test ridden one because it’s SATS. Having seen one child through it already it would appear, from a parents perspective, that for this whole year education is set aside so that the children can learn how to pass a test. The doubly-sad thing is that this test is all about the school looking good in league tables and has absolutely no value to the child.

The SATS themselves are only supposed to take a few hours, but that doesn’t stop them dominating the whole year.

tags: SATS, learning