My fourth Career move

Its that time of my life when I suddenly realise its all over, 50 years working and I am seriously considering that final move to retirement. I had dinner with a friend last night and although he retired 20 years ago, he is busier than ever.

Will that be for me, I wonder. I take a look at what's available, I could go as a consultant and earn a little, but that means forming a company again, accounts and insurance, and that is just not appealing. No that's not the right route for me. Can I start writing, Mmmmm now this seems to be more like what I want, a little writing each morning sound good, but what do I write about, old work-related subjects or something completely new, or perhaps a side of my business life that I have never delved into?

This last thought has me thinking, and the more I dwell on the subject the more I think, this just might be for me. I have my Scays web site and I wonder if this is the tool for expanding this new area.

Scays.co.uk, was and still is my site for my lectures, this might prove a basis for all I want to do, expand my thoughts out of the normal lectures into something a little bit more out of the box, so to speak.

Scays has for the last few years been a place where students, ex and present, can find the slides I use at my University lectures on construction, themed around the role of the Architectural Technologist.

Expanding it into this new area is beginning to excite me, and might just be the fourth career move I have been looking for.

So where to start, well this blog seems the right beginning, a place where I can explore my thoughts, develop themes and work up ideas, that I can migrate over to scays.

In recent years I have developed an interest in photography, mostly about the places I have travelled to, but a little on photos to back up my slides, I have placed some of these on Flickr, so search scays to see my collection, or follow the link. I intend to enhance the collection with more from my Google Photo repository.

So here it is, retirement and my fourth career, oh did I mention travel, part of my writing will be travel, and yes I intend to travel widely. Mostly by trains, and including cruising. But some airlines will be inevitable.

Today's photo is of the monolith in Hudson Yard, it's not just the buildings or the truly stunning Architecture, but the construction itself being situated over the station and railway tracks. More on this later, but for now just one of my many photos of the complex.

2017 awaits - what will it bring

As I write this first blog for 2017, I am suffering, all self inflicted I might add, they say never mix your drinks, I didn't, all were consumed separately, beer first, then red wine, followed by a small night cap to welcome the new year in.

I have so many projects building up in my head, some are just floating, some are a little more than this, I need to expand my notes and see if they might be viable, some are, so the notes I have made need to be expanded, and things put in place, to trial them. I never have had a problem with failure, without it  i just don't learn, but it would be nice to get one or two paying wins !.

I can see that 2017 is going to be a busy year, its going to involve travelling a lot, something I enjoy enormously, so the Mac is going to get a new bag, my trusty Kensington is showing signs of wear, to the point of failure. So I an looking, as yet nothing stands out, but I can't delay to long.

My Mac is still ok, its not due for replacement just yet, although I am reviewing what I need to make it work better when traveling, spare cables, a new power cable and spair video dongle and mouse, plus travelling keyboard, I like to sit back from the screen and type.

For so long, I have used Dropbox as my main storage in the cloud, thats not changing, but I am separating my private life away from business, and all my personal files have been moved to Apples iCloud, it works and its as safe as anywhere, perhaps a little safer. I made several different dropbox accounts to do this, but seeing them all at the same time evades me, so Apple iCloud wins. I tried Google Drive, and again it works, but as most of my files are Apple, it kind of needed more time to convert than I wanted to give.

Evernote still remains my archive library, it works so well, and although I tried out the others, it still remains the best.

My photo's are still in Apple iPhoto, its so good, although for sharing I tend to allow Google Photo to take a copy, and its here I let people share sets I have made, I an using Pinterest, don't ask why, it's just easy to use and it has a lot of really interesting users.

Apple pages is not the best writing program, but it works for me, so most of my papers, articles and general writing start here, ok I often export to word, simply because its the medium most other are using. Google Docs just keeps being there, is easy to use and if I asm writing lectures then this is what I prefer to use, my personal lectures I use to consult with remain as Apple, but the University lectures remain Google Slides.

Whilst I talk Apple, my iPhone is definitely up for renewal, I have an iPhone 5s, but articles on the new iPhone for 2017 sound so good, I'll wait.

Vectorwork is, and will remain, my CAD package, this year I will get to grips with 3D, I use it, but not in anger, so my next job no matter what size, will be 3D. with all the bells and stuff of BIM. I need to get to grips with Revit, but I feel a conflict might arise with Vectorworks, i'ts one or the other, and Vectorworks will probably win.

I have a huge list of academic papers I want to write, so head down. I want to complete at least two before the spring, plus get my book into shape.

Thats it, no great revelations, just getting things in order and making a few plans

Related articles

• A New Mac but Dropbox saves the day
• Office Storage
• Cite This For Me, Chrome App
• Data, Data & more Data
• Free academic papers to all
• Academic Papers
• Summer Study