Female programming dream that’s gone off the Rails

I've been meaning to blog this for a while but needed to let my feelings settle down a bit…

BBC MicrocomputerThe first bit of code I ever wrote was a simple program in Basic on a BBC Microcomputer back in 1984 in the tiny school computer room next to the tuck shop. It did very little but ask me questions in a never-ending loop about my answer strings but I did think: ‘Blimey, that’s pretty cool. I got a machine to talk to me!’

I was rarely out of the computer room after that and told everyone I was going to be a computer programmer – and more likely a systems analyst! – when I grew up. (Pretentious, moi?)

However, my gender got in the way of such ambitious plans.

Continue reading "Female programming dream that’s gone off the Rails"

Engagement

Exclamation mark!So this happened… out of the blue on April 13, Pete said: “Will you marry me?” And I said are you serious!? And he said yes and I found myself saying yes back and promptly fell into the wall during the ring bit – but that's another story. It's discombobulating but in a lovely way. See Pete's post for more articulate words. I expect he will produce a scribbled whiteboard brainstorm on how to nail this thing in June. I'm on honeymoon duty, naturally. 🙂

Coworking spaces London #1: Google Campus review

Google Campus notice board titled Collaboration

I'm spending January in London for work. But my Fridays are free for random work, meetings and hopefully a bit of Friday School. So today, on Stef's recommendation, I tried out Google Campus and met with Andy Bull, author of Multimedia Journalism to chat about brand journalism training.

My one line review of the free basement cafe of Google Campus as a coworking space is: busy Shoreditch hipsterish beardy semi-friendly MacBook hangout with good coffee, lack of food (only two ham croissants left at noon) and superfast wifi but crap phone reception.

Here are a few pics…

Continue reading "Coworking spaces London #1: Google Campus review"

2012 in review: volcanoes, photos and a few personal firsts

steampunk_binoculars

So that was 2012: work was good, travel was good and life was good. That's 2013 jinxed then. Here's what went on in 2012 in the form of a quick(ish) roundup…

January

New Year opened with me standing agog at my first sight of a horse and hound (non-fox) hunt in the North Cotswolds. Two weeks later, I was on a train headed to the Cantal in France to snowshoe Europe's largest volcano. The month ended with the inaugural Friday School – my invention of a weekly freelance training programme involving a moveable cake-fuelled feast of learning.

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Five tips for journalists trying to make the digital transition

NUJ panel_view from the stageToday was a first for me – being a speaker on the social media panel at the NUJ's one-day conference on the enjoyably menacingly titled New Ways to Make Journalism Pay II. I'd originally signed up to attend the event before I realised I probably had something to pass on from my own experience of shifting from print to online, hence ending up on the stage with this view of a packed room.

Our session took a purely Q&A format but, as prep, I'd put together the five things that have helped me get to grips with digital content work. Here they are… Continue reading "Five tips for journalists trying to make the digital transition"

RebelMouse 'social front page' on test

Okay, so I've tried ScoopIt, Bundlr and Storify but not Pinterest. Let's see how the curation element of new RebelMouse works, which is similar to Pinterest. So here's my social media splash page, which pulls in my blog feeds, selected tweets and clipped content, and which I've customised. It looks ok and took about 30 minutes to set up and sort, but there were some glitches and hitches…

Plus points…

Ein! Zwei! Drei! Vierrrrrr!

I don't know what I can tell you about Birmingham Opera Company's latest – Stockhausen's six-hour avant garde epic Mittwoch Aus Licht aka "Wednesday from Light". It was an experience that was not wholly enjoyable and yet at the same time it was pretty darn great. I'll let this video and these photos do the talking because I'm all out of words. Continue reading "Ein! Zwei! Drei! Vierrrrrr!"