So it goes

These are the things I frequently am and/or hope to be when riding my bicycle.

Winter is here, so I’m having no trouble meeting the “wet” condition. It’s been raining all week. The only energy my bike requires is the additional bananas I eat after riding to school. That, and the battery-sipping lights I have to use now that it’s dark all the time. But while I wear a helmet, bright colours and reflectors, and though I try to ride defensively, safety still seems difficult to guarantee. continue reading »

Here’s another quick Flip video of an event we had earlier this month.

After an introduction to entrepreneurship support at Edinburgh, six teams of students each came up with a new business idea and pitched it to the audience.

The ideas all fit into one of the six categories for the Business Idea Competition we’re running. This year, students will be awarded specific prizes for arts and culture businesses, social enterprises, e-commerce sites, product design, science or technology-based businesses (including software), and new ideas in retail. I’ve put up a page on LAUNCH.ed with all the details about the competition. continue reading »

Today we carved a pumpkin!

Apparently, this is quite an American tradition, but Phil took part anyway. He even turned our pumpkin guts into crunchy biscotti, and roasted the seeds in the oven.

Anyway, here’s our jack-o in development, before his final, ravishing smile.

I had to do some photoshopping for work. This banner and the following “hot desk” button are some of the results. I think they add a little something to the homepage: www.launch.ed.ac.uk. continue reading »

Tonight we had our second event with iCUE, an entrepreneurship society on campus. This one was an Idea Generation Workshop, led by one of the guys at SIE’s head office (Anthony Ives).

Anthony raised some interesting points, and clued us all in to some current trends in product design. Anthony’s lessons: continue reading »

The New York Times was chock-a-block full of fascinating one-liners about people today. Some sound like total characters. Others have amazing jobs. If you’re looking for a change, try being one of these folks, or doing what they do:

“Mr. Brewer, 40, an easygoing state pool champion with an earring high in his left ear.”

“Deborah Anderson, 62, a professional test-driver for Ford with the style of a no-nonsense grandmother.” continue reading »

Here’s the prezi I made for this week’s iCUE event, Edinburgh Enterprise 101. It’s a mind map of the resources available to student-entrepreneurs at Edinburgh.

You can click on “more” to view the presentation in full screen. I’ve also enabled free exploration of the presentation, so you should be able to fly anywhere you like and click on any of the links to find out more. continue reading »

It took a while, but I finally thought of something I’d like Preston to do. Basically, I’d like him to absolve a little of my guilt about never having introduced myself to my neighbours.

If you missed it, here’s Preston’s original YouTube request, complete with my video response.

If you don’t want to post a video response (mine took me ages—I guess I’m just webcam-shy!), post some suggestions for Preston in the comments under the video!

This week marks the first week of treadmill running and the first week of real speed. On Sunday, I ran four miles in 25 minutes. On Tuesday, four miles in 24 minutes.

I’ve heard people complain about how boring treadmill running is, but it certainly makes me faster. Watching the distance slowly tick by is a real incentive, and being forced to keep a steady pace prevents too much gasping for breath.

The treadmill does nothing to limit how much I sweat, which means that gym-running is restricted to weekends or the late afternoon (it’s not nice to go to your lectures drenched and stinky). And despite several minutes of “cool-down” after my run, I still hop off the treadmill and feel the floor swimming under my feet.

Anyway, it’s back to the gym today to see if I can keep it up.