Adrian Faulkner's Blog, page 135

Caching The Nene Valley

Friday saw me in the Nene Valley near Kettering. Having finished my course in Birmingham earlier that day and due in Cambridge on Saturday it made sense to travel direct and stop off along the way to do some Geocaching.

This part of the world is a bit of a caching hotspot and I like coming here: the ground is fairly flat and open, the caches are densely packed, designed to be quickly found and the views are stunning.

Because I didn’t have a full day and because there was rain forecast at 7pm, I...

The Four Realms Location Map

Today I launch a bonus feature for readers of The Four Realms – the location map. I’ll admit to stealing this idea from Ben Aaronovitch who does the same for his truly excellent Peter Grant books. It’s a google map with all the locations, both real and imaginary, from The Four Realms. Obviously when I say ‘all’ I mean the Realm of Men(i.e. our world) as I don’t think Google has got around to doing satellite photography or Street View of Venefasia yet.

Hopefully this will be a treat for fans of...

A Week In Birmingham

Over the years I have worked for a number of companies that say they offer training and then in reality never do. So when the day job offered to send me to Birmingham for the week, I jumped at the chance. Whereas for most people a week away, stuck in a hotel, sounds like hell, for me it’s perfect.

I train during the day, get to geocache in a new area in the evening and then write when it gets dark. For me that’s pretty close to perfection.

The only big downside was food. As I’ve previously ment...

Part 2 Of My Fantasy Faction Article On Writing Groups

http://fantasy-faction.com/2013/writing-groups-part-two

Continuing from my article last month, I look at another two writing groups, this time with the aid of writers Anne Lyle and Francis Knight. Be sure to check it out when you get time.

Packing My Bags

Just a quick note to say that the blog could be a little quiet for a couple of weeks. I’m off on a week long training course for the day job followed immediately by a couple of weeks holiday. As a result I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for blogging. I’m not going away for the entire time and will be contactable. Play safe and I’ll see you all when I return!

The Trusted System

So day 1 of my productivity drive didn’t go too well and it was purely down to my ‘trusted system’. What’s a trusted system? Well it’s just a fancy way of saying ToDo list. Actually calling it a ToDo list is a little unfair. A traditional ToDo list is just that, a list. It’s two dimensional – words go across, items go down. What a trusted system is, and what will supposedly turn you into a productivity ninja (because these days they seem to have moved from the world of assassination and espio...

Lifehacking

There have been times in the past when I’ve felt busy but this is the first time I can think of where my personal life seems more frantic & cluttered than my working life. Not only are there a lot of demands on my time for my recovery but there are a bunch of creative projects I’m working on as well as a growing pile little things waiting to be done. Over the past month or so, the thought has entered my head that I need to work smarter. For example, I need to walk regularly to exercise the le...

A Short Note About ‘Success’

You might be surprised to learn that failure isn’t the biggest enemy of success. In fact, failure is very much a part of success, they are like two squabbling siblings who would defend each other against the world. No, the biggest enemies of success are apathy and negativity.

It’s all too easy to come up with reasons something might not work: it’s too much, there’s too little time, it won’t be fun, it needs more thought, it’s the wrong time, it may go wrong, we may look stupid, we may fail. Ma...

Doing The Impossible

I know there will be those that say that doing the impossible no longer makes it impossible. Likewise there will be those that say that my leg obviously can’t be that bad if I managed what I did on Monday. The truth is that for all my careful planning, all my insight, all my knowing of the secret limits of my body, I was so unsure whether I’d be able to complete this that I only told a couple of close friends where I was going, and only then so they knew which canal to dredge for my body shou...

New GPSTracklog Article On EarthCaches

http://gpstracklog.com/2013/08/earthcaches.html

My latest article for GPSTracklog went live over the Bank Holiday weekend. This month I take a look at a special type of virtual geocache called the EarthCache that not only gives you another count in your total finds tally, but also teaches you something about geology in the process. Please check it out.