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Weekly Notes #6
For the week ending 22nd of May, 2011
This Weekly Note will be short and sweet; this week has been about exploration.
Achieved on AYMP this week
Vision written: Last week I wrote out my vision for AYMP, and this week I have “visualised” the thinking in a presentation. Next step is to “film” it and post it up.
Technical meetings: I’ve had meetings with some technical people to talk about expanding AYMP beyond just a blog. The meetings have gone well, and I’ll write more about this in the weeks to come.
Something that inspired me this week
Two things inspired me this week.
The first is that CeCe and I booked a trip to Vietnam later this summer. Vietnam is where we chose to go on our honeymoon, and we cannot wait to return there again and be inspired all over again.
A photo from our honeymoon in Vietnam
The second thing that inspired me this week was an article (with videos) on Famous Creators on the Fear of Failure: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/05/12/fear-of-failure
Still on the to do list
Explore external partnerships to hold larger events.
Think about what Event 6 could be.
Until next week…
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This post is part of Weekly Notes.
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Weekly Notes #5
For the week ending 15th of May, 2011
First 5-day work week in nearly a month, and time flew! I was busy at work and busy at home doing DIY, but I did manage to crack one major piece of AYMP business on my list this week.
Achieved on AYMP this week
Vision written : I’ve written out my big vision for this site, who it’s for, a phased growth plan and how I hope to make it happen. But I want to “visualise” the thinking into something presentable (instead of just writing it out), so that is on the list for next week. I was partially inspired to visualise what’s in my head by:
Something that inspired me this week
Some of Kim's inspiring art and positive messages to all commuters on the London Underground
A few weeks back I noticed and blogged about some amazing “Underground art” that inspired me as I headed out to an event. This week my bike was in the shop, and I dreaded taking the tube to work in rush hour. However, when I went to the tube station I noticed even more amazing art by Kim (London Underground staff) who uses just markers and “bad news boards” to create her inspiring work and positive messages.
I snapped a few of Kim’s pieces on my iphone, but also did some research to find out more about her:
Article 1 (Islington Gazette)
Article 2 (This Is London)
Kim inspires me to believe that one’s outlook on life starts in your head, not on a crowded journey to work. What is more, she also demonstrates that you don’t need fancy or expensive tools to make a positive difference to many people’s day.
More of Kim's inspiring work and positive messages
Still on the to do list
Explore external partnerships to hold larger events.
Make the AYMP vision into a presentation that is more visual.
Think about what Event 6 could be.
Until next week…
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This post is part of Weekly Notes.
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Event 3.2 – Sunday stroll [REPORT]
It was a glorious day on the London Sunday Stroll skate
A textbook perfect day; glorious weather, lots of able-bodied people, good times, good food, good laughs.
Given that the London skate is an event that is weather reliant (and let’s face it, we just never know in London – it even rained Sunday morning only to turn sunny later) it could only really go up on AYMP last minute. I called it Event “3.2” for two reasons; firstly, it was impromptu, and secondly this is the third instalment of us joining the London skate, an event I maintain is one of the best networking events around.
On this occasion around 200 people were in attendance and the day was sunny and bright. The music bike pumped out the beats as we skated and weaved through London’s streets to our halfway point at Battersea Park (click here to see the route)
Pic-nique and volleyball in the park after the skate
When the skate wrapped up back in Hyde Park, the energy level was high as a few dozen of us skated down the Serpentine and setup camp on a big grassy area for a pic-nique and some volleyball. It was picturesque – sun, sand, grass and glimmering water. And that’s when it happened…
While I was playing volleyball I jumped up to block a shot… and heard a loud tearing sound. When I landed felt a draft downstairs. My shorts had ripped right down the seam – back to front. I heard giggles and smirks. Yep, I had ripped my pants. All good: I hung my t-shirt off the back like a big diaper and got back in play. The show must go on!
As the afternoon weaned we relaxed and took in the sites: A distinguished and decorated Jamaican Rasta skater groovin’, a bunch of disco skaters dancing, and a bounding dog being cheered by everyone in the park as he tried to catch and kill a very fast and cheeky remote-controlled Monster truck.
Even as the sun faded, the energy a day in the sun was still high, so a half dozen of us went back to my place to have a BBQ in the back yard; more good times, laughs and char-broiled steaks. Like I said, textbook perfect summer day.
The day ended with a BBQ at my place
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the London skate is an amazing way to meet people. It’s a free, active day out with a friendly crowd who are always up for follow-on adventure. Indeed at best you might meet someone amazing, and at worse you’ll make lifelong friends. Win-win.
Sunday is the Stroll (nice and easy pace), but now that summer is here there are three skates a week with varying levels of pace.
Photos from the day:
Having trouble viewing this Flickr slide show? Click here.
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This post is part of Event 3.2. |
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Weekly notes #4
For the week ending 8th of May, 2011
What a massive week! The royals are fresh off getting married, Osama Bin Laden was “compromised” and here in the UK we had another a 4-day work week on the back of a 3-day week (next week we’re back to 5-day week at work – lament!). So a lot of behind the scenes things happened – both in the world at large and on this site.
Last week AYMP got a facelift, but this week was all about “platform upgrade” to make a stronger, more scalable foundation for AYMP’s technical future. Now that this week is over and “the plumbing is optimised” (as one fellow geek put it), next week I’m hoping to focus on some more heart of house goals.
Achieved on AYMP this week
Move to a better home: Totally geeky, but totally necessary: AYMP was migrated from a creaky, slow, cumbersome server to a new, faster, better hosting environment. This was not without issues and the site did go down temporarily, but we made it and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Charles who assisted from the other side of the Atlantic.
Shorter name: The (long) www.AreYouMyPartner.com has been updated to the (short) www.aymp.com – so everything is sleeker. I’m still dealing with a number of technical issues (do the words propagation, MX records and redirection mean anything to you?), but hopefully all bugs should be ironed out by next week.
Example of a testimonial quote box
- Allan
Testify: A new Testimonials section has been published to showcase what people are saying about the AYMP events they attend. You will also find snippets of testimony sprinkled around the site in key places.
We’re Wheelin’ again: Although planning for Event 6 is still on the horizon, I was inspired by weather reports to put up an impromptu event today (Event 3.2 – London skate and day in Hyde park) based on the success of the past two times we joined the Skate.
Something that inspired me this week
Image by Images.com/Corbis
As AYMP grows and more people get involved, protecting people’s privacy (of paramount importance to me) and safety while balancing good publicity, fun and opportunities for participants to Meet, Play and Love(?) is always going to be a balancing act. Does technology help or hinder finding love and adventure? That is obviously one big theme I’m exploring on this site.
Two articles caught my attention on the matter; the first pronounced that our personal privacy is over, regardless if we like it or not. By contrast, the other article showcased a family who temporarily “un-plugged” themselves from all things technical to live less distracted (and potentially more fulfilling) lives. You can those article here:
Personal privacy is a thing of the past, so you’d better get used to it
What’s on next week
A simple strategy and plan for AYMP has been formalised, I just need to make a presentation about it. Feeling like a video is coming!
Think about what Event 6 could be.
Other stuff on the list (on-going)
Explore external partnerships to hold larger events.
Until next week…
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This post is part of Weekly Notes. |
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Event 3.2 – Sunday stroll [EVENT DETAILS]
The weather is looking gorgeous this weekend, so I’ll be joining the London Sunday Stroll, and then after we will relax in Hyde Park, have a pic-nique and perhaps play some volleyball or other park games. AreYouMyPartner has joined the London Sunday Stroll and London Friday Night skate before (Event 3), and it’s an amazing day out and a great way to meet adventurous, like-minded people so we’re doing it again.
See you there!
Event details
Starts: Sunday, May 8th 2011 @ 1:45 PM
Location: Hyde Park Corner. Click here for map.
Cost: FREE (but you need to bring skates and any safety gear you like wearing. If you don’t have any skates or gear, you can rent the whole kit for the day for £10 from here: Club Blue Room, near Marble Arch)
Who can come: Anyone can come – you can be a novice skater on the Sunday Stroll. All you need to know how to do is stop. You will be in a large, protected crowd of people. It’s very safe, and very fun!
If you don’t want to skate, but still want to participate in this event, you have two other choices to come out on that day;
1) You can bike, but bikers hang at the back of the crowd
2) You skip the skate but join us after the event at 4pm for some drinks – call me at 4pm to find out where we’ll be
Weather warning: In the event of bad weather, this event will be cancelled. The “go” or “no-go” information can be found here on the day: www.lfns.co.uk.
Contact:
Email: ideas@areyoumypartner.com
Telephone: On the day you can reach me on this mobile number if you need to: 07528 282 570 (PLEASE NOTE: that number is only active that day, so don’t call it before or after.)
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This post is part of Event 3.2. |
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Weekly Notes #3
For the week ending 1st of May, 2011
Well, the whole world knows all know what happened this week;
Painted on a wall in Islington: the royals ahead of the wedding
And the Lancaster and two Spitfires that did the Fly over Buckingham Palace then flew right over our backyard. We got “buzzed”!
Photo from Google images
Achieved this week
The AYMP site got a facelift to make it cleaner, but also in preparation to scale up some activities. The background is a photo I took in Devon the week previous – a place very special to CeCe and I as it is where we started dating. It also has a deeper meaning which I will explore in the coming weeks. So this is what AYMP looked before last week, and with the changes made this week:
Something that inspired me this week
Aside from the Royal wedding? Well there was this tweet that made me smile:
“Facebook is like jail, you sit around and waste time, you write on walls and you get poked by people you don’t know.” — RT @WilIFerrell
What’s on next week
Formalise a simple strategy and plan for AYMP and critical path so we can map the progress of goals and objectives.
Think about what Event 6 could be.
Other stuff on the list (on-going)
I own the domains www.aymp.com and blog.aymp.com. I might switch a bunch of things over to the shorter domain name.
Explore external partnerships to hold larger events.
Until next week…
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This post is part of Weekly Notes. |
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