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Stop the Brain Rot: Train the Brain!

This afternoon our son suggested, kindly, that I might enjoy the challenge of training my brain, and recommended a site he uses called Luminosity. More or less simultaneously I spotted a link – needless to say, on Twitter, to an article by Graham Jones, an ‘Internet Psychologist’ in which he claims, very convincingly that regular use of the Internet affects our intellect and memory.

The bogey used to be too much telly making one fat and passive, now the threat is our intellect and memory shrinking through lack of use: in other words, brain rot, brought on by being locked excessively in an intimate and essentially superficial world of one’s own, shared only with a computer/tablet/smart phone. And we’re still all getting fat because we’re still all sitting all the time. We’ve just swopped one screen for another.

So, I am wondering, should one try to redress the balance, and embark on these brain games? I think yes, ‘if only for the fun of it’, but deep down it feels much more than simply fun. Apparently most people are unaware that they no longer rely on their memory, or their intellect, but rely on the internet to nanny them. We are spoon-fed bulleted facts, reminders, calculations, grammar and punctuation. We have become impatient for results, lazy, with the attention span of a butterfly. None of this is hard to believe.

As an ex-teacher, I cannot help noticing too that we are all tending to adopt a kind of text speak ‘Twitteresque’ style. People tend to write in soundbites, the fairly limited conventional vocabulary is liberally peppered with ‘OMG’, ‘LOL’ ‘Wowees’ etc; they/we are more ’emotional’ and extravagant with praise or criticism, quick to jump to conclusions rather than to take a measured approach. It is all rather superficial. However, it is very easy, very tempting – we don’t have to think too deeply and this all makes life simpler in the short term, and certainly more sociable via the keypad.

Does it make us more sociable in reality? I am always struck by the number of young couples one sees, arm in arm as they walk down the street, each transfixed – not by each other – but by an individual smartphone which holds their entire attention, away from each other. Are they texting one another? Are the sweet nothings coming via the screen? Or are they confiding to their separate friends the fact they’re walking down with the road with each other…? ‘OMG, wowed, I’m sooooooooooo excited…”.

But perhaps one is too harsh. Maybe they are playing brain games. I read encouraging reports from Luminosity readers about improved memory and concentration, becoming more alert, thinking more clearly and I am ressured to read that ‘the brain can reorganize itself when confronted with new challenges, even through adulthood. If you hear nothing more it will be not through modesty, but embarrassment.

Sharing Secret and Other Domestic Tips and Delights

A disclaimer, just in case anyone thinks I have suddenly grown my hair, affected an American accent and become a wonder housewife overnight: the heroine of this secret-revealing video is not me!

Having got that clear, here are one or two little snippets which are probably more momentous this side of the fence than yours…

The first ‘secret’, to fulfil several recent requests – and in fact this might be the best one of all – is to give you the link to our Fake Bakewell Tart recipe, which we are asked for so very very often.

Perhaps we ought to have a video of this wonder housewife/cook making the recipe? (I think not, probably!)

And now for an eBay delight, about dinner plates, no less… It can’t have escaped recent Tom’s Barn guests that there were only 5 dinner plates on the rack, six or more of everything else. Ever since the sixth and last of our supply was withdrawn from active service we have tried, absolutely in vain, to ‘source’ as they say these days, some Wedgwood Garden Maze replacements, even going to the Wedgwood factory shop in Stoke. I scoured sites that stock odd plates, and kept checking on eBay, where one could find everything possible from soup tureens to serving platters but neery a dinner plate.

Last night our daughter Ruthie rang to say she had successfully bid for SIX on eBay!! Can you believe it? So that is one problem off the list. The alternative would have to have been replacing everything. (Five Stars – everything in a set must be matching…).

The next ongoing ‘issue’ has been a debilitating and permanent difficulty we have all shared in the Orchard Farm laundry department over folding fitted sheets so they’re fit to grace a Tom’s or Douglas’s Barn bed which for a Five Star listing has to have immaculately laundered bedlinen.

Imagine my delight, then, to discover on Pinterest this YouTube video showing one how simple it really should be.

Source: thehairpin.com via Ashley on Pinterest

 

Social Media Networking

A Busy Orchard Farm bee

Yesterday at 7.30 am (had to get that in) I was in Chesterfield, 40 minutes’ drive away, to attend a Breakfast Briefing’ on ‘What’s New in Social Media’. It was stimulating, fast moving and very informative, presented by someone whose life-work it is: he really knows and lives for his social media. For those of us who dabble with some enjoyment but no expertise and even less time, the message is daunting.

Using ‘Social Meeja’ is a networking must for individuals and a marketing must for small business and large corporations. The large organisations have huge departments, and budgets; little people like us have nothing to call on but ourselves in a day which doesn’t grow any longer. It is very exciting, but it is also very sobering to think that we are all in thrall to the Microsoft and Google type giants who are continually competing to woo customers to their tills.

Yesterday we learnt in a fast-moving workshop that Google+ is a must, as is Pinterest, and what about LinkedIn? And Facebook has completely changed all its rules so we must learn them, and Twitter – a mass of hyperlinks and self-promotion perhaps should (or so it seems to me as a Twitter ignoramus). Everything is getting slicker, quicker, different. How quickly things change…

Twelve years ago when Tom’s Barn was first born as a ‘top of the (then) range’ luxury holiday cottage for two, we did not even have a website. At first we used a letting agency, and as one of several thousand properties we featured in their brochure. The whole process of booking was lengthy and time-consuming as all our correspondence was done by post and guests paid by cheque. The agency jealously guarded the rights to ‘their’ property and strongly discouraged returning guests or others from trying to make any independent approaches at all, even when they had not provided a booking for the dates in question.

We quite soon decided to break away from the agency. As we launched out into the scary unknown, we realised there was a price to be paid for exciting independence in terms of cash and hard work and as well as everything else we would have to provide our own publicity. We designed our first, extremely amateur leaflet ourselves (soon replaced by an extremely expensive but much more ‘grownup’ version. Then we commissioned our first website which we thought was wonderfully sophisticated but was actually rather lumbering and cumbersome and we had to rely on the very patient designer man to make every change that was necessary which could mean waiting months.

We were accepted to join Premier Cottages who also had a website, but also cumbersome in current terms. And now we are on our fourth website version, the majority of bookings are done online, all correspondence is done by email. And do we have more time now that everything is so slick? For all sorts of good reasons the answer seems to be less than ever…! The not so good reason is the lure of social networking – enjoying what you can do, and trying to get to grips with what you are still tackling. Facebook is the biggest time-waster, but such fun. I have started with Pinterest and Google+ and am determined to make a go of both, eventually. Of the two Google+ is thought to be potentially very important for all sorts of Google-significant reasons including featuring well on Google searches.

My current dilemma is I can’t seem to find more than about ten of our friends, colleagues and business contacts who use it yet. If any kind soul reads this who can help out, please let us join circles!!! Otherwise, just pity me.

Enjoying the Fun of Facebook

Half the time I really don’t quite know what I’m doing and certainly not what Facebook is doing when I post a photo and it flies off and then back without so much as a by-your-leave John’s recent dragonfly picture which in fact I shall pin up here where I know it won’t fly away) rather appropriately kept flitting off and back onto the page!)

So rather wisely, I arranged for some one-to-one coaching on the art of Facebook – you may remember my mentioning the fact. This I had very recently, from an excellent teacher, Martin Broadhurst, from Status Social, who incidentally, I am more than happy to recommend to anyone who needs professional help to enjoy making the best use of ‘Social Media’ at the right level for one’s own purpose.

Our purpose for our Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn Facebook page first and foremost is a fairly innocuous one – to create a fun, informative, easily accessible meeting place for friends, guests and possible future guests to ‘meet’ and see what is happening, keep up with the news, enjoy John’s photos (mine are pretty workaday but useful sometimes!) and make the odd contribution themselves. We love our web site, and try to keep that up to date and lively; and i really enjoy our blog. To a large extent we have the same aims for that, but inevitably the website and blog is much larger and more cumbersome and people seem strangely unprepared to add comments to blog posts (although the number of times I get emails or remarks in person from people commenting on them are too many to be counted, frustratingly!).

Anyway, back to business…. For business purposes, I learn that one needs even in Facebook to spread the word, although in our case we are not looking for immediate bookings as we are pretty well booked up. And in order to spread the word we need to generate more ‘Likes’. At this point I have said to Martin on more than one occasion, that we are quite content with people liking us only/if they really do but this is being rather precious and very short sighted (my words, Martin is far too polite to put it like that).

How does one get more Likes? Goodness knows without paying for them!! (Which I am told can be done but needless to say we wouldn’t consider that.) Martin has suggested that I post a general statement that we are hoping for more Likes (a bit like begging one’s school friends to be your best friend which is so long ago I can’t remember if I ever did). It will be equally mortifying as for any rejected child to have no takers but we’re adult and won’t the it too personally.

A real case of not practising what we preach.- have you noticed that there is no invitation at the end of a blog post to ‘Like it on Facebook’? I have now sent on SOS to Jeremy-our-wonderful-webman so all being well that will be rectified soon.

Keeping up with Facebook

Percy the Peacock - strutting his stuff

That is a very pretentious title, as we can hardly claim to be anywhere near even understanding what it’s all about, let alone keeping up, despite the fact we (as in I and our barns) have been Facebook users for about four years, passive users for at least 31/2 of those four years, with the dawning realisation that this is the way things are going, fast, for the time being, until the next development comes along.

It is amazing how things have changed in such a reactively short time, especially now with so many people using smart phones which are more or less portable mini computers providing instant personal access to the internet and social networking sites.

Many companies employ several people to do nothing else but ‘work’ their Social Networking connections as a marketing tool but of course, one-off small businesses, like us and so many other holiday cottage owners, have no one to fall back on and it is one more thing to add to the daily agenda. However, as someone who loves people, talking and writing, I am finding i really rather enjoy it and the danger is the risk of spending too much enjoyable but entirely unproductive time as far as social marketing goes. I like the communication, am much less happy abut the marketing/selling which actually, with only two cottages already with a big loyal following, hardly seems an urgent priority. Also, quite significantly, there is for John and me the now rather old-fashioned but nevertheless deep mistrust boasting, bragging, swanking, showing off, call it what you will.

However, we are always aware of the danger of getting left behind, admiring what laurels one can muster or being hindered by outmoded inhibition, so in an attempt to smarten up the act I have enrolled for some Social Media training and through unfortunate management have two sessions this coming week, one day after the other. In the preliminary chat with one trainer, he expressed shock that our Tom’s and Douglas’s Barn page only had 73 ‘Likes’ and was unimpressed when I said that they were practically all genuine ‘Likes’ from guests and friends. The point is that if one’s page is too tiny one can get completely lost in the rankings, and nobody much gets the chance to read one’s news, or to see John’s photos as we sink into social oblivion.

So that is the first challenge, to extend our network by getting more people to like us… You can see why one cringes! But in case you genuinely would like to like us, and are on Facebook yourself, please do so and preferably before Wednesday so I can hold my head a little higher when I meet this trainer on Wednesday.

Thank you!

Using my iPhone to write a post

This is a rather alarming experiment (I know many of you will wonder what the fuss is all about but I am equally sure many of you will sympathise).

So, one finger tapping away. I won’t consider adding a photo -keep that excitement for next time! This is all I am going to say. I’m feeling fairly worn out with the tension. Will it appear?

Facing up to Facebook

I am rather proud of the fact that despite advancing years and general lack of ‘coolness’ we have been on Facebook for over three years. What isn’t quite so impressive is that in those 3 plus years I have done very, very little and have tended only to respond to others rather than initiate anything positive (rather the way I am with LinkedIn now, but I keep meaning to get to grips with that, too).

The pressure is now on. With apparently half the population of Great Britain on Facebook alone, never mind Twitter and all the others, one just has to accept that social networking is part of life already, just as email has become, and mobile phones and whatever else is in store for the future. We have been waking up to this in our little part of the world, helped enormousy by wonderfully inspirational training provided, free at the moment (thanks to European funding) by the ebusiness club which is run mainly I think by the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce for all small/medium sized businesses in the East Midlands.

Not surprisingly, the funding situation is becoming very insecure so we all tend to go to as many relevant sessions as possible while the going is good! The workshops and seminars are all designed to help what may be fairly isolated small businesses keeping up with website design and optimisation, online marketing, social media, wireless and mobile working etc. Most of the Peak District Premier Cottages owners have made full use of all that’s on offer and we have all benefitted enormously.

The emphasis on social marketing has struck home and as a group we have decided all to develop a Facebook page for our own properties, but we also have started our own Peak District Premier Cottages page which is building up slowly. Do please have a look! And while you are on Facebook, please have a look at our Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn one as well and if you are that way inclined, please do ‘Like’ us as well.

Our terrific webman Jeremy Blough has worked hard in not very much time to design our Welcome page which is meant to reflect the feel of our website… Any comments, suggestions and (gently worded) citicisms will be gratefully accepted. We know we have a lot to learn.

Tom’s Barn Blog – Spare Our Blushes!

Bird's-eye view of Tom's and Douglas's Barns

Tom's & Douglas's Barns and our guests - the heart of it all

There I was early this morning at Derby’s Pride Park stadium overlooking the football pitch, all ears, concentrating intently. No, I wasn’t watching a football match although one day I perhaps should; rather, I was hoping fervently to pick up some tips from Liam Lally, today’s E-Business club trainer at their Breakfast Briefing for today, ‘Blogging for Business’.

The briefing was as predictably helpful and stimulating as these seminars always are and I did indeed pick up many tips (and many ‘don’t dos’) which I won’t list here but would happily share with any colleagues or friends interested. One warning though was to avoid wriitng a blog if one didn’t like writing and didn’t feel a ‘passion’ for the subject. I came away realising how lucky I am: I have always enjoyed writing so that is no problem and I can take no credit for it, and John and I absolutely love our ‘job’ running Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns, and all the happy links and memories with our guests and friends that we have been privileged to enjoy over the years. You seem to love coming here, and we love having you. So writing as it were to all of you on the blog has always felt very natural and right, rather like an extended correspondence with a really good friend, about simply anything that comes to mind that might just conceivably interest them but loosely at the heart of it all, is the shared link with Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns.

At that rate, we are doing extremely well, but we would appreciate more responses, so please start commenting even more!

There is a problem though. One hopes the friend would reply, occasionally, and occasionally and rewardingly the friend does but as I confided to Liam afterwards when I went up to reveal my identity (the blushes had started subsiding by then, keep reading…) that not as often as we had hoped. I did feel reassured when he told me that if one wrote one blog post a day for 365 days one could expect one comment a year! So there’s a challenge…

But before we get bogged down with challenges – why the blush? And if Jeremy Brough our wonderful web guru/friend had been there he should have taken nearly all the credit when what should appear on the screen as the last slide of the morning but the front page of our Tom’s Barn Blog!!! Liam presented it as a good example of a local blog. It came so totally out of the blue I felt very startled and really did find myself going a deep purple to the consternation of some of the people on my table who had absolutely no idea why. I was so overcome I don’t even remember all that he said, except that it did seem to be quite complimentary.

Keeping Up With Technology

We have been so lucky in the Peak District in Derbyshire to be able to take advantage of some wonderful and completely free training that is provided for small to medium businesses many of whom operate in very rural areas, bringing employment and money into what are often deprived – if very beautiful – parts of the county.

Having taught for a lot of my adult life, I am an absolute glutton now for being on the other side of the fence, for learning rather than imparting; since John retired he has started coming to many of the sessions as well, all of which are to do with running a small business as well as possible and using all the technology available to help.  On Wednesday I went hotfoot to Buxton – on my own this time – to a workshop on ‘Social Media for Business’. As we are struggling to make something of our new Facebook Business presence this couldn’t have come at a better time. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… we have been dabbling half-heartedly on the edges of all these for a while, Facebook for nearly 4 years now, but all rather – actually very – half-heartedly.

But now we are assured, and actually are well aware ourselves,  that this is the way things are going so there is no point in being half-hearted. We are trying to be more grownup and positive, and have decided to try seriously to develop our Social Media presence as well as we can. It is all fun and actually I am finding it very exciting but of course there are only a few hours in every day, and one thing we have discovered, you are never ever finished. In the old days one could tackle a task, identify when it was achieved and settle back with a sigh of satisfaction. Twitter and Facebook etc are never finished. They are alive! One has to be very disciplined to hold back – new messages and comments keep pinging in…

In an obscure way, it is almost like having a second website but one based on communication rather than explanation. Because of the instant communication, it is a constantly changing scene, with the ‘owner’ having much less control. To my surprise, I find I am beginning almost hooked. Our Facebook page is becoming more interesting to us and hopefully it will soon be  a bit more interesting to others. We are hoping to be able to cheer things up a bit; at the moment everything all looks a bit dull and unexciting, but we have hopes….

Dullness notwithstanding, , please have a look at – and if you would care to like – the Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn page, we would still be pathetically grateful! And if you have any suggestions about what might be useful, essential or just entertaining and fun, please let us know… We are on new ground here and eager or any tips we can get!

Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn Facebook Page

Ideas, please! What can you suggest for our Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn Facebook page to make it fun, interesting and useful for friends, holiday cottage guests and family?

Our holiday cottages in the Peak DistrictWe’re so new, there aren’t too many friends of our site yet to let us know, but hope somebody will!

Some of you may vaguely remember a blog post in February bewailing a) my general ignorance and b) despite this ignorance the fact I had  the last two or three years rather neglectfully run a total of three Facebook sites! Needless to say all three are the wrong sort of page for a business which our two family run romantic cottages for two in the Peak District technically are and sooner or later I will have to close down the two barns-based ones, Tom’s Barn and Holiday Cottages in the Peak District.

I had been lazily hoping for the problem to disappear but since the launch of the Peak District Premier Cottages page, and an inspirational  Facebook workshop run last week by our friend and colleague, Martin Hofman of Wheeldon Trees Farm Holiday Cottages, we have taken the plunge!  ‘We’ actually means me: John is more than happy to hand-hold and keep us supplied with lovely photos but is less inclined to launch into the Facebook world himself (which you have to do before becoming an administrator of a business page). Other members of the family have happily agreed to step into the breach.

Still floundering but rather less so since the workshop, ‘we’ are now anxious to make it a genuinely useful site, not just for chit chat or thinly disguised sales pitches… And we have no intention of neglecting the blog but hopefully making the two work together usefully in an as yet not totally clear way!

Please have a look at our page and let us know what is missing, wrong, could be done better and or more attractively. I am sure the scope is endless, even if one’s time isn’t.


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