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OK, I'm not going to pretend I've been sprinting this whole time. As I've stated before, my intention with 'living' agile for a year was to help me to find new ways of organising my time so that I could get the most out of life. I wanted to keep learning, keep developing my career and be better at meeting up with friends and organising fun events. And although I don't have sprint burndowns to show for it, I have  achieved all of that. I've found it incredibly useful to have my "to do list" (if that's what it's called) broken down into bitesized, achievable chunks. Just these last two weeks, I've started to process of editing a podcast together and have organised trips to Edinburgh, Yorkshire and Wilthsire (for fun, for a funeral and for a wedding in that order). I've started using Trello, and honestly it's so easy to use - much better than my hobbled together spreadsheet. I can move 'tickets' through from 'Plan...

It's been a while. A large part of that, I think is because I haven't felt I needed to get anything done. I had put a lot of low priority tasks in my backlog basically just to keep me busy. But as summer approaches, there seems to be more planning to keep on top of. Friends are getting married and holidays need booking. So I've set up my sprints again! Over the next two weeks, I intend to transcribe a couple of interviews for my podcast and will book travel and accommodation for the first of this year's weddings.

I had fun playing a massive board game last night. Today, I nerded out and wrote a match report of the game. I hope you enjoy it... Dear Members of the Galactic Historical Society, Let me share with you events which occurred one Earth year ago in our galaxy which was once controlled by the civilisation known as the Lazax. The power vacuum created when the Lazax left filled our five civilisations with the desire to expand towards the hub of Lazax culture - the planet known as Mecatol Rex. My friends, a peaceful race of scientists based on the planets of Jol and Nar, found themselves - due to massive blunders by The Creator - surrounded on one side by the diplomatic 'Space Turtles' of the Xxcha and on the other side, a race of opportunistic 'Golems' known as the Yssaril. Sitting the other side of the galaxy were the Naalu collective, those speedy serpents, hard to get a grip on. Next to them, a band of pirates known as the Mentak coalition. The first couple...

A bit delayed with this post, but that's because I've been busy this week. I've been busy with personal development, busy seeing friends (I weird way or wording it, I know - it's not a chore, it's a good thing) and busy singing in a choir! Here's one of the songs we sing... So, I don't think it's a problem that I haven't kept up with process. The whole reason for me living 2017 in a series of sprints was so I could try new stuff and better myself. I feel that I am still doing so. Sprint review It's the same old pattern, I seem to do a lot during the weekend, and forget about my sprints during the week. Again, I feel a lot of this is down to being busy, bettering myself during the week. But a lot of it is also due to being exhausted after a day's work. I wonder if adding smaller tasks (but more of them) to my list will help me spread out the work across the whole two weeks. I will try this with the next sprint. I've do...

The further into the year I get, the slower my sprint velocity is becoming.  I'm worried that the excitement and inspiration that comes at the end of a round of A uld Lang Syne  has melted into Playstation and television. So I'll make a real effort on the next sprint in the hope that I just need to get into the groove again.  Excuses follow... It's been a busy couple of weeks in work. We've had an exciting restructure of the digital team and the first week of my sprint saw me attending interviews for one of the new roles - Digital Content Producer. Week two was packed with brand and tone of voice training, along with ways of working meeting. On one hand, I really like that we've been given the chance to feed into the digital strategy, but on the other, it's been very time consuming and stressful.  Funnily enough, after spending a long time worrying about how sprints work in the office, I haven't felt the desire to work on my own sprint. I ...

Back in 2013 I spoke to some friends about their embarrassing or erotic, first or last, hilarious or heartfelt kisses. Oh and I recorded the conversations and turned them into a short series of podcasts called Kiss&Tell . These were a fun way to talk to friends about embarrassing or erotic, first or last, hilarious or heartfelt kisses. Oh and I recorded the conversations and turned them into a podcast. I never expected them to be widely shared as I produced them for fun and to practice telling audio stories. I'd like to start telling audio stories again and I'd like your help to do it. I have a great idea along similar lines to Kiss&Tell  and I would love to hear your relationship stories. Do you want to share? People who contributed to Kiss&Tell  said that it was great fun to make and that they felt good for sharing their story. As with Kiss&Tell , I will not mention anyone's name so you can remain anonymous (to all who don't recognise your ...

I've taken it a bit easier this sprint - and I think this is something I need to bear in mind with future sprints. It's all very well completing lots of stories each sprint, but I think I need to be a bit braver with the tasks that I assign to myself. I also need to give myself more specific tasks. The whole reason I want to live 2017 through a series of sprints is that I want to build new stuff, without the anxiety that comes when faced with a task that on the face of it looks impossible. Take a look at the backlog for my second sprint. There are three items on there that are too vague. Phrases like "figure out purpose" and "brainstorm" are too easy for me to claim that I've done something. I can easily pretend that I've 'figured out the purpose' of my CV website after I've thought about it a bit and drawn a couple of wireframes in my notebook. Instead I should have worded the task in a way that helped me to understand what a co...

So, I'm living agile for a year . It started as a joke to myself but now that I've completed my first 'sprint', I can see the benefit in doing this. It sounds sad, but I have genuinely been more sociable (as in, I've planned  meet ups with friends, rather than just gone along). I've also got more life admin - lifemin  - done, and I've got a better idea of the sorts of tasks I'd like to do in the next couple of weeks. At the end of each sprint, I will write a brief summary. I don't expect people really to read these posts, they're more for my benefit, allowing me to look back over the year to see what I did as the months pass by. I will also write more generally about things I have learned along the way, and will probably share these posts to a wider audience. So without further ado... At the end of Sprint 1, I have: Added an introductory blog post explaining what I'm trying to do this year. This got quite a nice uptake, with over...

"So this is New Year. And what have you done?" I found myself asking this during the long train journey between the capital cities of Scotland and England on Monday 2 January 2017. "Well. I don't know really," I answered. 2016 2016 was a bad year for musicians, actors and global politics, but it was a pretty good year for me. I got myself settled into a new job at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity . I rode a bike ride to Paris ! There was fun (and board games), I was on TV and I visited 10 Downing Street. 2016. A bad year for global politics, but a pretty good year for me. ...and there was Scrum. I am a man with half a hip, so I'm not talking about Rugby, but instead a "15-minute, timeboxed meeting that allows a sprint team to provide updates and share solutions to problems". Since attending Scrum Master training I've described myself as an "Agile nerd*". I really like that Agile project management a...

I remember reading an essay - I think it was by Paul Feyerabend - that argued against holding science in a higher esteem that other methods of reasoning. I was angry with the article at the time. To me, a recent science graduate, it was as if he was kicking the world I knew from under my feet. He seemed to argue that science isn't important. It's taken me a couple of years to get, but I think I understand a bit what he was on about. I vaguely remember the phrase scientism  being bandied about in the article. As I remember, scientism is essentially the belief that science holds all of the answers. Thinking about it now, Mr Feyerabend was not arguing against science but against scientism. And this is something I think I understand now. Cryptic research notes A project at work There's an ongoing project at work with the goal of making our website easier for the people who use it to find the information they are looking for. Technically this is a really easy projec...

I think it's about time to get some more posts on this blog. There's this great subreddit. /r/writingprompts does exactly what it says on the tin, someone posts a theme and others write a short story based on the theme. I have decided that I will write something from this as often as possible (once a week to begin with). So without further ado.... The secret to immortality is found! It's not worth it.   I think back to my own birth. Waking up in a warm tank – an adolescent body, young and strong and fit. I still remembered my previous lives and I was, of course, much more mature (about two centuries more mature) than most other teenagers.  I remember the hunt as I searched the city for my old self, following a blip, using satellites to find myself. I remember the old, crumbling apartment – similar to the one I now find myself in – where my old self had gone to... What? To die or to hide? It doesn't matter any more, he died. I shot him.  I felt disgust and ...

A spare corner room. One bed and en-suite bathroom. Previous owners. Disinfectant. Smells. Those of urine and hand gel. Squeaky, lino floor. A beeping next door. People coming to and fro, But not this room here. This room eats people. It swallows them whole, I've heard. And spits out fam'ly. Other rooms. More light. People go, able to fight. Happier places. Here's just an ending. A locked door hides suffering. Others, ignorant.

There are times when it flows. Carving curves into the tarmac track, mirroring the trails of planes as they streak the sky. Banking left through Battersea Park. Emptied of the day-trippers, the joggers, the dogs and filled with the breeze, the quiet, the dark. Street lamps shape the runway ahead. Inviting and free and mine for a while. I switch up gears and I fly.

The Kiss&Tell podcast ( Episode 1 , Episode 2 , Episode 3 , Episode 4 ) was a lot of fun to make! And now I want to set up another fun podcast. This time I want others to help make it. In fact, they wouldn't even be helping me  make it – they would be planning, recording and producing their very own podcast themselves. Get ready to record the world! "What is this grand scheme of yours, Andy?" I hear you asking. A themed, monthly series of podcasts! The plan is to set up a blog that allows a group to post their productions based on the theme from that month. This is a lot like the BBC's ' We set the theme, you take the pictures '. Basically, we will pick some topics for podcasts – with a different topic each month. Whoever wants to do a podcast on that subject can then do what ever they want. Literally, what ever they want . It could be a radio drama, a documentary, a comedy, some vox pops, an interview, a monologue, a poem, a pane...

See this post and more on my chondrosarcoma blog -  http://ihavechondrosarcoma.blogspot.co.uk/   I was back in that familiar hallway. Vintage posters advertising 'Imperial Airways' flights to the colonies lining the otherwise bare, beige walls. Macmillan brochures adorning seat-side tables. The toilet to be used "only by those who have taken radioisotope". I have been here many times before, I'm used to the procedure. In about 10 minutes, I'll be called in and will lie down on a table that will slide into a big, doughnut-shaped thing. I will be told to lie perfectly still while water molecules in my body are aligned with and against a magnetic field in order to image my hip and femur. It's nothing dramatic and nothing to worry about. Mainly it's really boring. I hear another patient – the one wheeled in on a chair and wearing a hospital gown – talking to their anaesthetist. I know you shouldn't listen in to what other patients say, bu...

See this post and more on my chondrosarcoma blog -  http://ihavechondrosarcoma.blogspot.co.uk/   I always assumed that a cancer diagnosis meant certain treatment – whether surgical, chemical or radiological. But it seems that I am pretty lucky and don't even need treatment. My chondrosarcoma prognosis looks pretty good! I have had a few scans (and a biospy) since my last post . Obviously these were worrying – the whole reason the doctors did these tests was to 'stage' my cancer, which essentially means 'check how serious it is'. I actually enjoyed the biopsy the second time (general anaesthetic is a lot  of fun) but I was worried when my parents and I rocked up to the hospital about a month ago. It was time for my follow up and I knew that they had spotted a third chondrosarcoma at the bottom of my shin (because I saw it on the full body scan). The news started bad – I do indeed have three chondrosarcomas (perhaps four). My hip, femur, shin and maybe ...

See this post and more on my chondrosarcoma blog -  http://ihavechondrosarcoma.blogspot.co.uk/   The only thing I could think, as the Consultant told me the news, was that I should be a little bit more sad and a lot more shocked. That's what people are supposed to feel when they're diagnosed with cancer. The stories are always about people who are 'devastated' while their worlds are 'turned upside down'. Honestly, I was sort of relieved. I think the worst thing about my experience so far is the waiting. Narratives focus on moments - the moment a lump is noticed jumps to the moment a lump is tested jumps to the diagnosis. But these narratives miss the weeks - and often months - in between. Minutes, hours and days in which you notice every single imperfection in your biological material - has that knee always been sore? why have I gone to the toilet seven times today? is this a normal acne spot? That is why I felt relieved when the doctor told me I h...

This is a rude one. And not necessarily in the way that you might expect. Many of us have been there. Sat in a room, next to someone we like, watching TV and pretending not to be worrying about whether they want to kiss you back. A first kiss with someone can be really awkward at the best of times - but sometimes biology makes it even worse! Music: The Fray - How To Save A Life MimiCof – ReckTon (via Soundcloud) Image: Toilet humour – KayVee.INC (via Flickr)

It's happened to us all. There's been someone we've liked who only likes someone else.KIssing that person would make everything better... right? Music is: Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know Eric Jackson – Now and Then (Jenova Remix) CΛNS – Foolish CYAN MUSIC – Smooth – Nachtwerk Image credit: 'love triangle' by Un Un (Flickr) As always, I am looking for people to contribute. If you have a story about a kiss - no matter how embarrassing or boring or naughty you think it is - please get in touch . 

This story shows that not all puns are bad – some can work out really well... Music: RataxesUK – "Smile For Me (No Vocal Edit)" Image credit: "chemistry bottles with liquid inside" by zhouxuan12345678 (Flickr) If you would like to be on a future episode, please email me .