This Week with Taylor & Gordon

Unified Calendar

When sharing a calendar with people it gets difficult to manage

When you have group activities there are duplicate entries

Creating a custom calendar that hides duplicate entries

Create different custom calendars as required

Writing notes in events could still be a challenge

Keeping event details in the diary where you would expect to find them

Concept is working – control panel coming

Home Assistant – Busy Bar

Creating notifications on the screen in case I miss the audio announcements

Wr...

Code Workflow

Touching the same files with different agents confuses things

Using worktrees and separate branches

Reviewing code to make sure they are as expected

Too many files to check easily

20 issues can be separate and open a new branch for each one, set up an agent and then merge

Paid vs Free GitHub Account

.env security

Busy Bar – https://busy.app/

Pomodoro Timer with a display

Developer toolkit

Connects to Matter and Wifi

Turn on...

A hot week

End of the school year shows

Zen Browser – https://zen-browser.app/

A calmer internet – reimagined ways to browse the internet

Left sidebar tabs – keeping your browsing area clean

Taylor didn’t like Chromium based browsers and this one uses the Firefox framework

Three different frameworks available – Chromium, Webkit and Mozilla

Browsers adopting newer technologies

Build your website based on the browser that your visitors are likely to be using

Panto auditions – I will be playing the part of Dame in Janu...

Another Hot Week

I created a song about the heat – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f7HVHCe88w&t=13s

Historical Data – backdating data for the new personal website

Finding data from the past – flights for example

Going through emails of the past for flight details

Also, Events, theatre shows, football matches, and other trips

Way Back Machine is good for some of these things

Piecing information together from many sources

Booked Solid – a service built on top of Claude for booking shows

New Tools purchased

Fanttik Slim V8 Apex Car Vacuum – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D8T3LTNN

Great for the car to get down the sides of the seats

Hose attachment great to get into the 3d printer

Can be used for keyboards and electronic devices

Fanttik F2 Master Mini Cordless Rotary Tool – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F3CPRZXW

Lots of attachments for drilling, sanding, polishing etc.

Perfect for post-processing 3d prints

Making what you do even better – improv...

Very hot week

Celebrating 250 episodes of This Week With

Statistics for the podcast

Episode 1, 24th April 2000

Keeping a record of what we have been up to

Total run time

Shortest and Longest episode

Average length, Average time between episodes

Number of episodes per year

We outlived the pandemic which was the reason for starting

Health Kit for the podcast

Transcripts and thanks to the lady behind them – Hayley

Backdating the transcripts to episode 1

Gu...

News – Apple WWDC happened, which means new software beta’s and an insight on new AI features

Learning a New Skill – 3D Modelling

Huge subject to learn

Personal version of Fusion

Metal bathroom holder needing to be modelled and printed in plastic

Simple model, but there were lots of measurements to get right

Didn’t have the bottles to go in, so had no idea if they were going to fit

Took a photo and calibrated it when bringing it into Fusion, scaling correctly

Callip...

New location, Gordon’s Office

We went to Wordcamp Europe in Poland, Krakow

European Wordcamp is the biggest of the conventions

Reasons for going – networking with friends and colleagues

Theme this year seemed to be AI

Connecting WordPress using MCP to Claude

Using AI to build pages, perform WordPress operations, correct grammar, create images, pretty much everything AI is good at

Need to have a good understanding of what is happening so you can check it

Four floors in the convention centre – live transc...

News – AI is created by a machine, so is not owned by anyone!

Archiving Documents – for personal and business purposes

Making searching easy and have it bring up relevant documents

MCP server – to work with Evernote using AI on a CLI

AI will create a context for the document – notes summarising the content

Adding manual tags will work well but adding tags by AI makes things even better

ScanSnap scanner is a hardware scanner and creates pdf files and uploads to Evernote

Trix – Childrens Entertainer’s Convention...

Show week

Sorting out collection of props – old and more recent – some valuable, some not

Spreadsheeting all the boxes

Printing a Book Box with a living hinge for the cast

Running out of filament at one point

Not a great deal done on a show week

Very tiring

Waiting for Ikea to send replacement box lids still

Noted plugin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/noted/

Adding notes that will remind you how to do things in the admin on a website you haven’...

The Diary of Anne Frank Tickets for 14, 15, 16th May 2026 – https://www.parlourplayers.co.uk

Sending large files over the internet – 4.8GB

wetransfer.com – maximum of 2GB for free accounts

Blaze Quantum – for larger files – https://blaze.cx/

Purchased on AppSumo many years ago

Keeping track of the software available to us on a spreadsheet

If you forget you have software available to you, it is useless  and a bad investment

Considering building an app for this

Flat Maintenance

Dishwasher not working – talking to su...

Internet went down Thursday Night – and took a week to get back up

Lots of hassle getting it fixed

Cloud smart home devices all stopped working

Reflection – looking at yourself through a friends eyes

One thing they think you do well and one thing they think you could do better at

Would anonymous feedback be better? Does the person who gives you the feedback make a difference?

Likening this to testimonials for your business

We may come back to this to find out the results

Client Handling – Losing a Customer

Delays on both sides

Need all content before we start work on the site

The sitemap grew from 12 pages to 42 pages

Communication with the client was not good

New design requested

When the content is delivered the work then needs scheduling in

The design is being taken on by the client as they liked them

Prices change over time and the contract needs to show deadlines in place

Fixes to put in place – explaining what is incl...

Rehearsing for Anne Frank

Co-Working for half a day a week

Keeping the other person accountable

Using your skills to help the other person

Not wasting time chatting

Progressing projects quicker

Would this work for you?

Time is scheduled every week and kept clear

Considering adding a system to monitor and check progress

Data to see if it is helping or not

Making notes of what you are looking to do on your week

Time to think...

Shows all over Easter

Waited 19 years for this…

I had a call to see if I wanted to upgrade to Fibre

Upgraded my internet to Full Fibre (FTTP) which is now available, last Tuesday

Fused fibre cables together with a £4000 machine

20Mbps (on a good day with ADSL) up to 800Mbps download, and 0.4Mbps to 80Mbps upload

Upgraded network at the same time

New Router and Switch – Unifi Express 7 and USW Flex 8 Switch

Needed the switch to allow me to plug ethernet in to ge...

Last Remaining POP! Jobs

Bubble Convention Videos – post process

All videos complete and uploaded for attendees

Adding a process to the website for video distribution and purchasing

Limits in place for who can view and purchase them

Using Vimeo for protection to keep the value

Re-using a similar system from Snippet Club

Videos ready for members by the end of the week – will leave it til after the Easter break

Content value is similar to the price of attending on purpose

Slow...

Didn’t manage an episode last week

Pop! Bubble Convention – filming all sessions, talks and demonstrations

4 rooms to cover over all 3 days, 3 sessions happening at the same time

Collate video and audio, edit them and upload before the next session finishes

3 cameras needed, DSL, DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and iPhone 16 Pro

Audio was really important for the speakers

Theatre show had two cameras for a Multicam edit

Strange Apple keyboard issue

Made new friends – thanks to Harvey for all his help

Thank you al...

Convention for Professional Bubble Artists – AOIBA

Filming lectures and shows

People attending get access to the videos

Capture, edit and upload as we go, so I don’t have a ton of work to do when I return home

DJI Mics for speakers

Cameras for each room

Planning and equipment takes time

CinemaSync web app

Deciding what to watch at the cinema each week

Review timeline, compare films

Comparing films, times, screen types etc.

Making life easier

Ambient Dashboard – Magic Mirror…

An interactive display showing whatever is important to you

Running on a Fire TV stick in kiosk mode

Showing upcoming meetings, sports events, time to leave with traffic taken into account

Heating, Home Automation stats etc.

Turns off when Taylor leaves the flat

Up-to-date white board

Building it from scratch allows any tools to be added – more flexibility

Multiple pages if needed

Touchscreen in the future maybe?

Blackpool Magic Convention last week

Breakfast – lectures...

Lots of small tasks completed this week

Two 6 hour coding sessions for Taylor

Blackpool Magic Convention is happening next week

Longing this year by 1 day or 33%

Worlds biggest Magic Convention

Catching up with friends you don’t see very often

Very tiring but also very rewarding

Friend’s Meetings

Making time for friends and family – scheduling them like a meeting

Cinema and Tennis as examples

Giving your sole attention to other people so you don’t push them away

Ma...

Herman Miller Chair – https://ukstore.hermanmiller.com/collections/seating/

Fully Adjustable – very high quality chair

Expensive but very good.

Purchased second hand one on Facebook Marketplace, 1 hour away

Built June 2025, so very new

No headrest – but one has been purchased and will be delivered

Researching and purchasing the best we can afford

Tax Bill paid

Keeping track of your energy usage

Fuel company supplied In Home Display

SMET2 compatible power monitoring

Bright App – https://glowmarkt.com/bright

Gl...

What Makes Today a Success – web app

myThreeTasks – currently in beta

Gamifying Productivity

Lots of ideas to improve the app

For streaks, only working days count

Invite only – great marketing

User gets to choose what their tasks are – big or small

Frustrations this week

Video issues for the Panto video – corruption is to blame

The next step when the video is complete is to find the root cause and fix it

Big video job coming up so this is important<...

Helpful Triggers

Create triggers to give you good habits

Obligation is a good trigger

Rewarding yourself for doing tasks that maybe you don’t enjoy doing

Putting the Kindle in the right place to make picking it up easy

Put things by your car keys to remember to take them with you

Wednesday… working on Panto DVDs

Problems with recording hardware

Errors in the Bambu AMS – Automatic Material System, and having to take it apart to clear the broken filament

Tiny magnet...

New Season, New Colour

Pantomime week

Filming shows, taking photos, rehearsing and performing

Next job is editing

System created a couple of years ago to allow for streaming

Doesn’t really make a profit – but I do it for my own reasons, and is very rewarding

Taylor is 3rd Generation for these shows

Widow Twanky in Aladdin

Time Logging – Tallyho – https://tallyho.app/

Toggl is great but has more features than needed

Tallyho is minimal and does what it does rea...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Visit the website: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk

Drayson Design Website – https://www.draysondesign.com
The Creative Tinker Website – https://www.thecreativetinker.com

Facebook: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/facebook
Youtube: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/youtube

* Full transcript will be available on the website. We may receive a referral fee from any of our links which help towards the costs involved in creating this content for you.

Busy performing for Christmas

New 3d printer delivered, which was better than my last delivery

Tracking information wasn’t great but the delivery was fine

44kg in weight – need to make sure I was in

Heavy even after packing taken off

Taylor helped me carry it upstairs and checked that it worked

Bambu H2C – 2 print heads and 7 nozzles

Scraper was the first print, followed by a poop chute (which was a great design)

Third print was an accessories box, which I am really...

Another new location – which do you prefer?

Discovering an empty room, since Taylor moved out

Best use of the new room

Upgraded guest room to a larger room and a double bed

Removed single bed and put up shelving to make a storage room

Solid surface needed for new 3D printer, along with places for filament

Visit to Ikea – asked Taylor to help in return for helping him

Lots of other house upgrades

Robovac and mop – new front door

Knock on effect...

Busy season – lots of projects to finish

The Budget was this week

Managing expectations – Yodel delivery company

Two different delivery times on two different days missed – not even attempted

They hung up on me when I called them

Web chat was as useful as a chocolate spanner

Knock on effect for expectations

Looking at if I am not setting correct expectations in my company

Amazon are very good at failed deliveries

In the future I will probably pay slightly more to choose...

Back at Gordon’s Home

New Bambu Lab 3d Printer

Talking about the H range of 3d printers

How to deal with filament purging

H2C introduced to combat this

Purge towers and induction heating

Duel heads, 6 swappable nozzles

Automatic Material System (AMS) requirements

Nozzle sizes

Pricing and features

Ordered TPU for the first time

Taylors first weeks living alone

New responsibilities, cooking, cleaning, washing, budgeting

Unexpected purchases

Saving goals

...

A week off due to Taylor moving into his first flat.

Taylor bought his own flat after a six-month process and had to purchase and assemble nearly all new furniture.

The move temporarily reduced Taylor’s work output as he prioritised making the flat livable.

Taylor is debating whether to keep his office space versus working from home, balancing cost and social benefits.

Working at the David Lloyd gym has become harder for deep work due to social distractions.

Living alone adds responsibilities like cooking, cleaning, and maintenance that br...

Most episode in this season so far?

Wispr Flow – speech transcription – https://wisprflow.ai

Easier to speak than to type – works better than Siri

Removes Ums and Ahhs, and is context aware

Smart by including people that have been mentioned (in Slack for example)

Apple Intelligence should be at this point by now, but isn’t

Microphone from the laptop doesn’t work when in clamshell mode, need an external mic

Elgato Wave Link – https://www.elgato.com/uk/en/s/wave-link

Wispr Flow has a f...

Putting Your Life on Hold

When other things happen

Shut down for a week long show

Resting for months at a time due to health issues

Income Protection and Critical Cover

Insurance for Income if you are unable to work

Cover for customers

We are able to take over each others customers if needed

Plan ahead if you know you have a break coming up

Plan ahead for unexpected breaks

Statamic CMS – built on Laravel

Scope of a...

Only Newcomer’s Award at the local magic club

3D printed plate stand for Taylor Squash Plate award

SEO and the changes that are happening

A brief history of how SEO has worked in the past

Search engine results are now showing an AI summary first in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages)

Learning how to optimise for the AI is something to learn right now

Jump ahead of your competitors

Indexing all the content on your website and used as an answer in the AI...

Origins of our podcast

Home Assistant – https://www.home-assistant.io/

Using recent experience to make the experience better

Creating a universal notification hub

Using ChatGPT to create automations

Creating a list of entities for use with AI

AI can then use the correct entities in scripts and automations

Creating another list so AI can suggest automations

Creating a list and alerts to let me know when batteries need changing or recharging

Short term gratification is what everyone wants when they first st...

Project design signed off after lots of work

Revisiting – organising and hosting our local community day

QR code would show them a live schedule, which could be changed on the day

Software that powers it has changed since last year and isn’t as user-friendly as it could be

Previously used https://Frontly.ai

Revisit software you don’t use very often and see what has changed and added

Update apps on your computer, especially ones you don’t use very often

Updating apps as a develo...

Perspective

Training plan at the gym – restarting

Giving yourself a forfeit if you fail

Give yourself a motivation

“I only have an hour and a half”, or “I have an hour and a half”

Looking at the situation with a different perspective

Forfeit instead of reward

The monetary amount of the forfeit is all relative

Updating Software

iPhone OS updates are likely to work with all apps that are current

Backup first

Have enough free space on your devic...

Another week has passed

Stingers – after credits on a film

Wednesday night cinema trip

Automating the timings for leaving, travel, time to eat and then time to enter the screen to miss the adverts

Bonus extra content during and after credits – https://aftercredits.com

No API available but it does run on WordPress

That means there is a REST API

The request returns the information and that is then added to the automation calendar content so we know whether to wait at the end of the...

Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Stop saying yes to please people

Setting core values to allow you to make decisions

Do you have the bandwidth to do things?

Declutter projects

Delete projects, no archiving

Saying yes to help people

Doing things you want, and enjoy doing

Family and Friends are possible exceptions

If you say no, then offer some alternatives – someone else for example

Admin – a tedious and boring job

Not the things you got into busine...

Back from holidays

Renovating my Gordon’s Magic box of tricks

Jezo Bond took on the project, vinyl graphics printed by Rob Gaffney

Went to see Jezo perform at a holiday park in front of a real audience

Can be a difficult audience, need to grab their attention

When collecting, the box was amazing

Brand new rubber wheels, with locks on the back ones

Painted, sanded, painted and repeat

Felt fabled on the inside of the box as well as on the top

Last episode before holiday

How Gordon research’s

Look at what I use a product for and what I want to use one for in the lifetime of a future upgraded version

What is the product capable of, what do competitors versions have, what features are the most important to me.

Mid range is normally a good place to start

YouTube is a great way to research, brands and models

Reviews are also useful from people you trust

Learning everything you can about your new pr...