one man blogs

Time to move

2013-02-12T09:11:31Z

I’m slowly starting to consolidate my online outputs, migrating my other blogs to a new place. I’ll put redirects in place soon enough (once I figure out an elegant solution), but for now it’s fair to say that One Man Blogs has had its time in the sun and that it’s time to move on.

Not massively, and for now I’m not quite sure what direction I’m going in to be honest, but I’m changing so my blogs will start to reflect that.

I’m still building but feel free to head to www.gordonmclean.co.uk to see what’s what.

Or not.

As ever, I do this for me. Not you.

February Resolutions

2013-01-28T16:59:09Z

Partly due to circumstance, partly by choice, I tend to let January just ‘happen’ and avoid any specific resolutions if I can. Admittedly, this month I’ve been getting my head into my new job, handing over previous responsibilities and as I spent last week in Sunnyvale working I’ve not had a routine around which to structure anything that requires my resolve.

February rolls around and it’s now that I’m looking at what I will be aiming for this year and, as this year I turn 40, I’m determined to continue the slow progress of last year and continue my weight loss. Hopefully I can get back into jogging, even if my knees complain it’ll give me the push to get them sorted properly, and the bike will make more of an appearance for sure.

I didn’t think I was that bothered about my age but now that it’s approaching, the number 40 is looming large. Add in my new role, which will have me working harder, and getting fit is a must. No more excuses.

I’ve started today if I’m honest, a light lunch and some fruit, and I’ll have some rice and vegetables for dinner, but that’s mostly to counteract last week! I’ve yet to step on the scales this year and I’m preparing for the worst, but I know I can do this, if I can just get into a routine.

Space

2013-01-25T16:18:33Z

I’m sitting in a hotel room, it’s 8am, I’ve had breakfast, and we leave for the office in 20 mins. I have a couple of meetings scheduled, but thankfully I’m not too busy today.

This is not been the story for the rest of this week. Instead we’ve been leaving at 8am and starting full days of meetings and workshops from 8.30 until around 6.30. Then we go out for dinner as a group and get back to the hotel around 10pm. I’d then spend 30 minutes typing up some notes from the day, go to bed and wake around 5am.

I’m not complaining, I enjoy working hard, I enjoy the buzz of bouncing ideas back and forth, the challenges and arguments, and without a doubt this week has been a great success, work-wise.

But it does make me realise how much I need my own space for a few hours. It’s not an every day thing, but other than the flight I’ve not had much more than a few mins in the morning and later at night to gather my thoughts and take a breath.

I always knew I needed a release valve of some sort at times, but this week it’s been brought into sharp focus.

In other news, Sunnyvale is NOT living up to its name! It has been raining for 3 days now.

*disappointedface*

Everything Changes

2013-01-21T16:33:40Z

Everything Changes

A new year, a fresh challenge.

I’ve been working in the Technical Communications field my entire career. From those first days, stumbling my way around FrameMaker 4 with only a vague idea of what I should be doing (and largely using the FrameMaker User Guide as a sample of both approach and layout) to my current incarnation as Product Information Manager which involves running a team of 6 technical writers, looking at what other services we could offer to other parts of the (now) global organisation I’m part of, not to mention running a developer community website and generally advocating a product view wherever possible.

Actually, make that my previous incarnation.

As of today I’m changing roles, with a new job title of Product Operations Manager.

I’ll be working within the Product Management Team dealing with operations issues, planning and so on, and generally helping the Product Managers, and Senior Architects do their day jobs (the phrase ‘herding cats’ has been used on more than one occasion so far).

It’s very exciting, a little bit scary (in a good way), and a big step out of my comfort zone of technical communications. Whilst the principles of managing a team with multiple deliverables and differing focus areas is something I’ve been doing for a while, it’s good to have a new challenge.

The new role will take me away from technical communications, and whilst I’ll still retain a passing interest I know myself well enough that it’s only a matter of time before I lose track of developments and trends altogether. I am a sucker for new things!

I’m not sure what that means for this blog, or my other interactions with the technical communications community, but I’ll figure that out in good time.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a job description, a new boss, new teammates and a whole new world to get my head into and it’s all kicking off this week. Hence why I’m sat in a hotel room in Sunnyvale writing this blog post.

Anyway, first things first.

Breakfast.

Faith less

2013-01-13T20:19:39Z

I can’t get no sleep.

That was pretty much the story of last week, with a million and one thoughts rushing through my head. I’d go to bed, read to relax and drop off, only to awaken a couple of hours later, wide awake. Sometimes I’d get back to sleep after a couple of hours of tossing and turning, sometimes I wouldn’t and so I’d try and be productive, mostly in an effort to empty my head as much as possible.

I hadn’t actually realised that was I suffer from in this instances, for they happen every now and then, is insomnia.

I always thought that was purely for those that couldn’t sleep at all, not for people like me who, now and then, would have periods where they couldn’t stay asleep.

Insomnia, or sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which there is an inability to fall asleep or to stay asleep as long as desired [source]

I’ve had this in the past, but it’s only recently I’ve realised that it usually occurs when there is a lot going on and that it’s partly driven by my fear of forgetting something. My memory is awful at the best of times, so when there are a few things going on I think my brain resorts to keeping me awake to get me to write things down…

Thankfully it’s passed, the last couple of nights have been mostly unbroken. Here’s to a few more as it’s gonna be another busy week.

I’ve just finished doing a couple of hours work today, and that deliverable needs to be ready for Tuesday for a big milestone in our current project. On Wednesday I’m off to Belfast for the day, my first time, although I doubt I’ll get to see much of it as we fly in at 9.20 and leave at 4.30. A few more busy days then on Sunday morning, bright and breezy, I’m off to California for a week, again with work.

No rest for the wicked it seems, quite literally in my case at times!