Wednesday, August 22

Sunny and dry, but noticeably chillier, I thought, as I cycled in long trousers and a cardigan, the way that I did yesterday. I felt that I may not wear shorts again until we head for Kerala in December.

I spent the morning looking through the notes and examples for last year’s CMS course, with a view to refining them. The course worked reasonably well last year, but some of the less able or more easily distracted students failed to make the necessary leap to working on their own for the final project. Last year I made a WP theme called Stupidly Simple and took them through it. This year I think I might make another theme to take them through the second phase of the course. This will include a grid system inside it: Stupidly Gridly, perhaps.

For the less able students this will provide the foundation for their final project. For the more able it will demonstrate how wpJoints manages to include the Foundation system inside a WP theme, and enable them to use the power of Foundation and jQuery in their final project.

I sketched out how Stupidly Gridly might work, and set aside time tomorrow to actually build it.

At 11:00 I had an online meeting, using open source Jitsi fact fans, with Aga, Ilpo and Oliver. We got a short, punchy description of the Social Tools conference finished and agreed, and Aga set about creating Facebook events. We also agreed to meet online again on Friday. The event has started to feel real.

I decide to go for a walk, and while I walk I decide to go to Suomalainen Kirjakauppa. I do not usually bother going to the one in Arabianranta, since they have decided not to sell any books in English, but I have something I want to buy today. As I walk down Toukolankatu I step into the almost deserted street to walk doen the centre of the little road. It looks so bright that I decide to photograph it, and as I do a cyclist obligingly appears to provide a visual focal point. A car turns out of an alley and heads away from us for contrast.

In the afternoon I will turn my attention to matter of cultural democracy, because a couple of emails from Sophie have brought them to the front of my thoughts, and because we will make an attempt to record a podcast tomorrow and I want to prepare myself.

I will then begin making Stupidly Gridly until I notice I should leave for my 17:00 appointment in Alppikatu with a throat specialist.

The hunt for the source of my cough continues…