Monthly Archive

I’m a big fan of mind mapping apps: probably because I have a mind that often needs quite a bit of organising. While I was working on my thesis, I always had a copy of Mind Manager close at hand. It was invaluable as it allowed me to make sense of large amounts of research, organising it into useful categories quickly and efficiently. Now that I have since moved on into a new job, I don’t have it any more and I have felt slightly bereft, having to make do for the time being with Microsoft’s One Note.

Mind Manager is an excellent application, particularly if you have presentations or project plans to write on the fly. However, it’s a bit pricey, so the alternative is a free application on the web.

Mind42 allows you to write, save and publish your maps on the web. You can also collaborate with other users, co-writing or reviewing a map as part of a virtual brainstorming session. The mapping tools are rudimentary but nevertheless easy to use and more than adequate for the majority of mapping tasks.

I tried to publish the above mind-map to my blog using the publishing tools, but unfortunately the code provided does not work on WordPress.

Some of you are aware that, these last few weeks, I have been going through a health-crisis that had the potential to change my life dramatically. One minute everything was plain sailing, the next minute I was plunged into a world of anxiety, where control over my future had been placed, quite literally, into the hands of other people.

I’m glad to report that I was given some good news over the weekend. Hopefully now, I can put these events behind me, even if it means that I need to face the future somewhat more tentatively than I did in the past.

I have been overwhelmed by the goodness in people who heard about what I was going through. Friends, family members, colleagues and Internet friends all conveyed their concern in different ways. Many people, I know, felt more worried than I did myself. They reacted to my news in a way that often surprised me. I could see in their faces, their tone of voice and the words they used, that it affected them on an emotional level that I haven’t quite managed to reach myself.

How did I get through it? Simple really. I didn’t get a chance to think about it. It all happened far too quickly. Over the coming days and weeks, maybe I’ll have more time on my hands to consider how this little soupçon of mortality has affected me. I’m beginning to appreciate that my time on this incredible planet, with all its fascinating fellow travellers and its sights, sounds and stories, is very brief indeed.

One of the funnier things about blogging on WordPress.com is looking at the search terms people use to find my blog. So, in the spirit of public-mindedness, here are some of the best search terms and my earnest answers to their questions..

“ships budding”: Interesting concept. Lots of water and sun and you never know.

“bog smokers”: This is Ireland. That sort of stuff is banned here.

“what Ruairi did on September 19th”. Went to the shop. Bought a bar of chocolate. Got kicked in the shin by a 5 year old.

“findus och pettson”, “pancake man nordqvist”. Now HOW did my blog get hit by these search terms?

“hate spells” / “HATE SPELLS”. Try “anger management techniques”.

“SPELLS FOR MOTHER IN LAW”. Ah…, The mystery is uncovered..

“west coast of claire”. Clare is a county in Ireland. Claire is a girl’s name. Saying that a girl has a coast is not the best chat-up line in the book..

“man bog take” - man have smelly house, so.

This is going to be a crazy week.

I am back in work in Dublin today, trying to compress a full week’s work into one day. Then I have an internal training conference to attend on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday I have to be down in Cork to meet my doctor (and hopefully get the thumbs up), and then I scoot back up to Dublin so that I can attend my graduation ceremony!

And all this could change in an instant..