So that was an interesting half-term break. We were instructed to self-isolate. “The NHS informed us, it is now your legal duty to self-isolate”. We all did so. I could share the details of this, but it’s exhausting and it would not be helpful. So…
Back to life, back to reality… however do you want me…
A month or so ago I went through an exercise to visualise some reasons for my being… What we came up with at that moment was something like this:
“I get up in the morning… to discover and experience commonality and connections so that I can interact with people and the wider world, to help us all feel different…” #workinprogress
As you may know I tend to share stuff I see. I very often find the vibrancy and intensity of the world around me so strong I have to stop and acknowledge it. What a wonderful world…
So after a few weeks of going without, here’s to more of the simple stuff around us!
Below is a random compilation of captures from my Instagram this year – minus the inevitable shots of pets, food & drink of course.
Enjoy…
If you need any imagery or artwork for print – give me a shout.
“Section Breaks, Section Breaks my kingdom for a Section Break…” (or a page break at least)
Perhaps the most underused formatting option in the realm of Microsoft Word*!
In my experience the Layout, Break, Page or Section Break is one of the simplest formatting options that people either don’t know about, or lazily underuse. I reminded a colleague recently and they exclaimed “Wow! It stops everything moving around!”
Two docs, one portrait, and another landscape… One doc is colour and the other needs to print on the back in mono.
Combining Documents…
Instead of keying return return return… to reach the end of a page, you can simply jump to the next page with a section break!
For one, this can solve the problem of ‘everything moving’ when you change an earlier paragraph.
Secondly, in the ‘new section/page’ you can then change your page orientation, margins etc… So we can insert a landscape page after the portrait page.
If you format your articles/chapters etc with Next Page Section Breaks it can all stay organised.
Another underused tip: If you click Show/Hide (Ctrl+Shift+8) you can see your hidden formatting symbols – which can be useful!
So we can add a landscape page (in a new section) after the portrait page.
‘Select All’ (Ctrl A), then copy (Crtl C) the content of our landscape document and paste (Crtl V) the content into the new one.
Colour and Mono in one document!
Often a black & white looking graphic is actually ‘a dark mix’ of colours, and should ideally be converting to proper grayscale!
Hidden colour £0.10p. Grayscale 1p
Hidden colour £0.10p. Grayscale 1p
Converting dirty images to greyscale will save you money – your printer will then charge it as mono and not as a colour page – these costs mount up when you’re printing a whole year group!
In Word, simply double or right click on an image that looks black and white and convert it to true grayscale.
Format Picture – Picture Colour – Grayscale.
(While you are at it you could compress all the pictures in your document and probably half the file size!… Double click and image and compress, selecting ‘all images’…)
*Formatting your documents is a good habit to get into. If you only use one new thing in your next Word doc, make it section breaks… it stops everything moving around!
Many of us have recently been forced to re-evaluate things. The pandemic has forced many to stop, pause, quarantine… find our home. Recently my wife, kids and I were forced to literally ‘go home’ – after one day on the other side of the country on holiday, we returned to the ‘shire and spent the rest of our holy-day at home. Self isolating for 14 days. (hence this crazy post)
A window in Whiteparish – before isolation.
‘if one could only suspend disbelief forever’.
Once again we break routines and re-evaluate things we take for granted, and find ourselves disbelieving the things we believe in. A few years ago, after seeing a play at Leicester’s Curve, I wrote ‘if one could only suspend disbelief forever’. We usually do this daily, we believe the stories that swirl around us. It’s when the competing stories begin to confuse our assumptions that things might start to wobble… but what are these beliefs, the everyday things we trust in?
I have written before how as a student of Art and Performance, we were taught to deconstruct. To help discover the links between the ‘object’, the ‘subject’, and its ‘meanings’. But deconstruction still leaves us with the deconstructed building blocks, the stories, the images, and assumptions.
JPR 1995
JPR Visual Art 1995
We are not these things!
I have always held on to the concept of I AM. Images, which breed assumptions, which create motives. We are these things, but today I had a sudden self-epiphany… In the meta-modern world yes, we are made up of these things, but at heart, at root, at our core, we are not these things!
In a novel recently, I read a passage describing individuals living before our culture took hold…
“It was the huge elemental forces – the open sky, one day azure blue, the next grey, lowering and savage, the ridges that swept endlessly to the horizon like a sea, the whistling breezes and the great silences – it was these things which both frightened him and comforted him as well…”
Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd
To truly deconstruct, perhaps we need to clear the ‘stuff’ off the table, wipe the slate clean and then re-embrace things. Isolation has caused many to go without the things we hold (or that seemed) important.
At our core (or heart) we are so much more than our IAM.
It’s easily said, but not so easily done. However, it can be easily done, and it’s not so easy to say!
While ‘doing’ some Yoga with Adriene today I realised that I AM ‘here’. All I AM is here. The fact that ‘we are here’ is a big deal! Isn’t it!?
Adriene’s yoga has many levels, but for me at the moment, it’s about an awareness of breath, posture, stance, etc – ‘personal presence’ before ego and assumptions cloud the mind. It requires constant attention to ‘notice’. In her Youtube series ‘Home’ ’30 days of yoga’, Adrienne Mishler has a clever casual personal way of repeating words and phrases around the essential principles involved in yoga asanas.
For example, today the simple Anjali Mudra (or prayer hands). It’s a posture of composure, of returning to one’s core/heart. As you bring your hands together at your center line, you can help activate a recognition of re-balance. It leads to a lot more than that, but it’s a good start.
Anjali Mudra
Many of our personal wobbles relate to physical, mental, emotional imbalance, dis-ease, di-stress, instability …
If we can deconstruct and free ourselves from the power of our culture’s images we might notice our presence, seek to rebalance ourselves, and accept the powerful simplicity of life’s energies… then compassionately rebuild.
Personally the theorising and deconstruction only goes so far, the real life changer is to stop, ‘show up’, and breathe…
Slow down… Breathe… Trust… Balance…
Take time for yourself… embrace the moment…
Breathe in through the nose – inhale gratitude, compassion…
Breathe in through the nose – inhale gratitude, compassion…
Exhale out through the mouth… gratitude, compassion…
Stretch, press, draw in the energy…
Head over heart…
Adriene says “Take good care of yourself so you can take good care of others”… Thanks Adriene.
Marcel Proust wrote “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Here’s to knowing ourselves better, so we might take care of others, and garden a few souls if we get the chance.
Do you have info for students to revise or remember?
About 900 words will fit nicely onto this notelet at 10pt typesize. About 750 words at 12pt. This prints 4 up on A3 paper, or you can print it smaller to 4 up A4.
Tuck ‘em in your pocket! Effective economical novel print.
It’s just a thing I put together in lockdown, feel free to download, adapt and share.
Notelets printed – 4 on an A3 sheet,
You can print this on an A3 or A4 paper you’ll achieve four notelets per print.
Yes, this sort of thing should be done using Indesign, Illustrator, or Publisher etc. but the majority of home/office users don’t have this software. So here’s a template in Microsoft Word.
Ick!… Word not nice.
But Yea!… anyone can use it!
The template is set at A3 and includes two pages. Start on page one and the text boxes flow through to the end. The last text box is not linked and becomes the cover of your notelet.
Simply paste your text in, edit and adapt it. Then copy and paste the content in the another three rows.
Happy daze.
Once printed, at A3 or A4 double-sided , simply guillotine the stack into four.
I guess you could just print the first page – ~450 words.
Students can fold their notelet themselves!
Notelets printed 4 on an A3 sheet.
If you print on A4 paper, you may want to increase the type size 2 points – but you’ll then get mini-notelets.
Smaller Notelets printed 4 on an A4 sheet.
When you start playing with MS Word then you really must be in some form of lockdown mode! 🙂
So an update on the post in January: ‘Airless Tyres‘
Back in Feb 2011 I said ‘Never in a month of Sundays…’ but now on 2020, it’s my 10th year ‘commuting by bike’, or rather simply riding a bike to and from work daily.
Thankfully there’s still a few LBS around as you’ll need the tyres fitted properly. I use the bike daily for work in all weathers and I was looking to reduce the worry of potential punctures and tyre pressure maintenance etc. It’s just a commute; I am not trying to break records or burn off the beer; I ride in a relatively relaxed manner and have found ‘the ride’ with these Tannus adaptions great.
Initially it was a firm (as good traditional tyres), I did not notice any difference in 35mm pumped, and 40mm airless.
After 1200 miles of wear the ride is still good, but the airless tyres are noticeable as you can see above. They now feel softer and have flattened – but, for my needs, the ride is still good. We’ll see what another 1000 miles does. Tannus say they are good for 5000 miles! But I fear they are not familiar with Leicester’s ‘bike routes‘.
The front wheel’s Tannus Armour under Marathon Plus tyres are much less of a concern, and perhaps the combo of Marathon’s 5mm thick puncture guard PLUS Armour’s 15mm foam protection to the centre (and 2mm to the sidewall), is ultimate winner? Do I go for this on the back…?
They are not for everyone, but for now I am enjoying the puncture free worries.
Reprography: the art or process of creating, printing and reproducing documents and graphic material.
The school Reprographics Department I facilitate supports teaching and learning through the timely provision of a variety of printed resources and graphic design.
High volume colour & mono printing, on A4, A5 and A3 paper and card. Integral folding and stapling of worksheets, booklets, pamphlets etc. Creation and production of labels, stickers, postcards, flyers, certificates, posters.
Teaching and learning time is valuable, teachers and support staff at the frontline of secondary school education are well aware that their own time is also valuable. Our department is here to create and produce requested printed resources, making more preparation and teaching time for staff.
Mindful of good service, a timely response to print requests is just part of the value we provide. As a reprographics service, we aim to turnaround print requests from all staff, within hours. Juggling numerous requests from multiple staff can be exacting, but scheduling work so we meet required deadlines is an essential part of the service provided.
Requests may be for a few dozen worksheets, a few 1000 booklets, through to a varied mix of classroom material; reward cards, certificates, posters, notices, incentives etc. The quality and broad range of items possible is notable. Work may be single-color, full-colour, stitched, folded, hope-punched, laminated, bound… all on a variety of stock materials and finishes.
From scheduled test material and syllabus resources to items designed for more kinesthetic, tactile and visual learning, our daily output is significant and varied.
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In an age of digital information,printed visual material is still important in our education system. Printed material can beused in classrooms to encourage students’ learning process and make it easier and interesting. Quality printed graphic material can be a great tool, helping make teaching and the dissemination of knowledge more effective and more successful.
In a similar vein to my Sign Language project: Sign Language, today our walk by the river (although it was a trial, trailing reluctant attitude-ridden teenagers) the reflections made the river an otherworldly place. The light and reflections caused you to look twice.
It’s good to look twice. Or even thrice perhaps…
On the back of this, I’m reminded of Martyn Joseph’s song… ‘god’s aspirin to my soul’.
When we find ourselves blinded by electric light, or in my case looking up out of a deep dark well, a heavy cloud, a rage of fear or loss… where do we look for assurance? (‘Let it out’ Christ Wells) What might we hold onto, where can we find a hand hold, a rock to stand on, to grasp out of our unknowing… Words, give shape to ideas…
For an interview, I recently found myself needing to justify my existence with someone. What could I say? In preparation, I found it hard to find real genuine moments of worth, without using imagined exaggeration and hyperbole. So, before the meeting, I turned to speaking to the void… Might we all say a little prayer, when faced by an oncoming struggle… strapped to a boat in the strengthening waves, with rain pounding and squall lashing the rigging… many of us might say… god help me through this… please… Do we revert back to a petition, to that thing beyond of us, that intangible strength inside of us? That thing that’s deeper than our understanding, higher than our constructed self, wiser than our cleverness, bigger than what we comprehend… Without choice words, seeing beyond our ‘self’ can be hard to do. Our cultures have constructed rituals and mantras, but unless we really need and genuinely mean them, words can become a meaningless dirge or perhaps a disenchantment. As mentioned, I recently found myself needing to justify my existence. I came up with a few reasons but in retrospect found then desperately faulty and wanting. I found myself appealing to the void… please help me be genuine, true, and to see what’s real, right and helpful… But how to appeal outside of our faulty self illusion… I’ve got a lot recently for hatha yoga and meditation, linked with this is the idea of mantra and chant to verbalise that which is outside of our self comprehension. In this moment of need, I fell back to what I was repetitively taught as a child. The Lord’s Prayer I guess the familiar words might mean…
To those learned elders who’ve been before us,
now at peace over the world, appeal to you..
You know what’s right and just, and I ask that your insight and strength be present and peacefully here and now.
Help us realise what we need and be thankful.
Forgive us for our wrongdoing, and help us to understand the similar failings of others.
Help us to recognise unhealthy ways and to choose more wholesome routes forward.
The world is and will always be greater than I can comprehend, I am thankful to be part of this magnificent creation.
Forever and ever…
So be it.
Perhaps just the enchantment of ritual words outside of our whirling tangled self illusion might help us get through and grow… Perhaps Christ taught his disciples a prayer not to teach them to be pious and obedient but to help people everywhere to live well and flourish. Traditio
nally…
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen
Of course words alone can be disenchanting… Yazoo, In My Room:
The Coronavirus restrictions and the media storms that have accompanied them have coerced us to all become more like islands, but ‘we are involved in humanity’…
Like many I guess, my mind has found itself not in a great place recently (relatively).
Struggles with our responsibilities, worries for our kids, relationship insecurities, finance struggles… The disruption in life’s comforting routines…
Everything feels very fragile at the moment.
If you have life sorted then I am happy for you, but I still seek a few answers.
When Bono wrote that he hadn’t found what he was looking for, did he know what he was looking for? I am not sure what we all need? If anything. Or, what we-all might benefit from?
After John Donne’sNo person is an island…”, in her Gift From the Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, “I feel we are all islands – in a common sea.”
I think some form of commune-ity is a big essential requirement.
Why gather together? Why seek a form of communal-hope (church)?
Is it important to have, people dedicated to a greater good (ekklēsia)?
Is it important to have a hope-filled (worshiping) community…
Why is it important to have a common hope (faith) at the route of an endeavour, why not just genuine, good, disciplined, intention? It’s been suggested that hope or faith is what fuels good intentions. Where does ‘love’ come in?
Then again, what is it we want to achieve with our ‘love’ and our hope-filled good intentions?
“What’s more important,” asked Big Panda, “the journey or the destination?” “The company,” said Tiny Dragon.
Wallace Stevens discussed the idea that the interaction between things is what makes them live. Indeed!
What might we achieve through; arts (worship), interaction (outreach) & soulfulness (spirituality)?
Our state of mind defines every relationship in our life. Some Good News is, we can change our state of mind.
Perhaps we can start with a regular ’practice’, of being present to the now, present to our surroundings, our community, and being genuine with ourselves and others.
I have found recently that through routine practicing intentional stillness, guided movement, and contemplation we might find an opportunity to notice and grow… …simply ‘showing up’ to connect and recognize what ‘being here’ feels like each day. Waking up to your own experience, daily. If we can realise how it truly feels to breathe and be alive, perhaps we can start to notice how to be genuine.
A lot can rest, a lot can be created from noticing ourselves in the present moment. When this is practiced regularly, it might be easier to be genuinely present with yourself… for others.
Despite good intentions – without community and the fuel to mend stuff, I regularly fail.
Back in 
In January’s ‘
The front wheel’s 
Jules P Richards 