I’m only posting this because it feels so pathetic to break a streak on week three.
Someone (likely many someones, given the timeframe) was cranking these out and had a lot of fun doing it. Big thanks to Kindra Murphy for the collection. This kind of archival work is one of my favourite things to look at on the internet, and it wouldn’t be possible without people like Kindra.
Side note: I’m worried these posts are just going to be things I found on kottke.org
A 1985 talk by Terry Pratchett on the gender divide in magic.
]]>Spotify has helped me discover so much new music, and I appreciate it as a service, but I’m no longer excited to give them money. Between reading Liz Pelley’s Mood Machine, discussions with friends, and buying an MP3 player, it felt like the right time to say goodbye.
The MP3 player itself is one of the best things I bought in 2025, and reuniting with the mp3 collection I’ve cobbled together piecemeal from various sources has been very satisfying.
I’ve never listened to so much whistling in my life, but I can see this whistling-based arrangement working its way into the regular rotation. (cw: mild nudity on album cover)
I love art that breaks out of its medium like this. It reminds me of those flash animations of stick figures breaking out the animation software.
The first time I’ve heard a link page referred to as an “antisearch” page. I agree with the author’s point that if web search is going to get worse, we need to up our game in response. More librarians.
]]>Don’t write cards to people I love. The crappiest stick figure drawing or mangled haiku contains more of me than anything I could ask you to create.
Don’t mimic my communication style so you can imitate me in draft. My voice and writing style, poor as they may be, are my own.
Don’t edit my photos to create a distorted memory of the past. Memories are fragile enough without deliberately sanding down the rough edges.
Don’t help me cheat at the pub quiz. This one is self explanatory.
Don’t create poetry. You have a wonderful way with words, but no heart and no feelings to express.
]]>One of my coworkers suggested this the other day. I’m not sure exactly what it would look like, but I want it.
Reminds me of the locative art from Spook Country.
Luis Mendo’s excellent COVID era cover covers.
Probably the first beat era poem I’ve read all the way through. Feels like rolling waves crashing against the rocks. Reminds me of the Philip K. Dick bit from A Scanner Darkly: “They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed–run over, maimed, destroyed–but they continued to play anyhow.”
Jeremy Bassetti: “It is difficult, if not impossible, for someone to live and work optimally when they have too many inputs.”
I love this sort of thing. It would be fun to take the colour palette and turn it into a CSS theme.
]]>Somewhere around hour two, sitting on your couch, trying to re-pair your earbuds while your watch throws errors and your smart lock has locked you out of your own home, the feeling crystallizes:
I am doing a job.
Just yesterday I was looking at my wristwatch and appreciating the fact that it just sits there, telling me the time.
I can’t articulate the feeling as well as Terry Godier has, so I won’t try.
]]>It turns out what I thought was the story of Dracula was only really the first sliver of the book. A great story with compelling, heart-on-sleeve characters. Enjoyed reading it out loud and doing the voices.
Stephen Donaldson manages to create a sympathetic protagonist out of a man who is not very nice most of the time. Very Lord of the Rings (complimentary). I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
The writing feels a little less crisp than I remember from the Farseer trilogy, but I don’t know if that’s just whiplash from how poetic Stephen Donaldson is. I love Kennit so far, or rather the peeks we get into his inner monologue that show the gulf between his carefully manicured presentation and what a baby he is inside.
An enjoyable trip through a particular era of US cinema, as told by someone who grew up glued to the screen. Tarantino took a (verbal) swing at Paul Dano not long after I finished reading this, so take any opinions with a heap of salt. I love Paul Dano.
Ghost stories in a traditional vein, taken out of a Victorian setting and told in council estates and neglected parts of the city. A fairly breezy read at 13 short stories. Enjoyed them a lot. Keen to read more of his work.
Rest and retreat, in a year where I needed a lot of rest and retreat.
Incredible opening and doesn’t get much worse from there.
A light and entertaining read, as you might expect from the editor of the nation’s premier magazine for loafers.
A great work of poetry as translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Turned onto this by a column in Idler.
Just put it all in the bin, frankly. Facebook, I mean, not this book. The book can go on a shelf, probably. I greatly enjoy the Tech-dumpster-fire genre, and Careless People does not disappoint.
Good art, very gruesome, but I don’t feel incredibly compelled to get the next one. It mainly just made me want to replay Horizon: Zero Dawn.
I previously read his book How To Live, and I enjoy Derek Sivers’ brief, thought-provoking books. Both books are less about giving you answers and more about helping you ask good questions. https://sive.rs/u
Packed with the character development and engaging character arcs that I’ve come to love from Robin Hobb.
I knew almost nothing about the history of India going into this, and learned so much.
Pulpy, trashy, a lot of fun.
A real page turner. It’s got boats, it’s got mutinies, it’s got drama, it’s got everything.
A masterful expansion on the fine-art edition. Struggled with the B&W photos when reading in a dimly lit room.
Started off eldritch horror, finished a bit Jeeves & Wooster.
I spent most of the time kind of annoyed by the dorky protagonist, but it was a fun mystery adventure. One of the key takeaways is that being a Ruby programmer is an attractive trait, so… I’ll take it.
I love a walking memoir, and this is the second Robert Twigger book I’ve read since *Angry White Pyjamas.
A lot of focus on brands, colours, design. Gibson apparently said his main interest is fashion, and he the novels are primarily a vessel for that.
A book of poetry, mostly about their friend’s suicide at 17 and their relationship with faith.
I really enjoyed this read. Very interesting, very inspiring.
A summary of Joan’s meetings with her therapist, mainly regarding Quintana’s alcoholism, written as a series of letters to her husband John. Knowing how things would unfold (The Year of Magical Thinking, Blue Nights) made this a tough read.
I was (am) a big Blink fan, so it was cool getting the behind-the-scenes.
]]>Do you feel overwhelmed by RSS?
No, for I have given up. I subscribe to:
There’s no getting through it, and it would be very easy to let the little unread badge on my various apps become a source of stress.
But somehow, I don’t.
When I think about the things sitting in my read-later list, it’s hard not to also think about the thousands of worthwhile books, movies, songs, blog posts, etc. that I never heard about. Compared to that, the small number of neglected feeds in my reader pale into insignificance.
In other words, the battle against the onslaught of media is well and truly lost. We never had a chance. There’s no point worrying about it.
I do a few things to try to make the best of what little time I have:
Umberto Eco has a good bit about books, which I’ll include here:
It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.
There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion.
If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the 'medicine closet' and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice!
Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity.
I try to apply this to media across the board. Not “how am I going to get through all this?” but “thank goodness, I’ll always have something to read.”
]]>if your chat friends ask for a pic of your legs be careful. its probably a trick to examine the bg of the pic for a strange tv/desk setup or poor cable management. they dont actually want to see your legs
I love getting to be nosy with people’s workspaces. Sadly for me, a lot of workspace photos (look at the front page of r/battlestations and you’ll see what I mean) are beautiful but… sanitary. They’re clean. They’re extremely tidy. They’re Instagram Perfect. They appear untouched by human hands. This is fair. They’re being posted online, and the dangers of leaving a visible photo with a scrap of home address are real.
What I love, though, is a photo that gives a sense of the person whose space it is. Something that goes beyond their taste in RGB lighting and generous keyboard budget1 and instead reveals the texture of their days. The towering stacks of papers. The cup of coffee they made because they forgot they already had one. The DIY they had to do to make the space work at all. The books they refer to while they’re working and the books they want people to think they refer to while working. Bud Smith’s truck desk has texture.
Every now and then I’m lucky enough to get desk shots from work, a group chat, or smaller forum where people feel like they can be a bit more candid, and boy oh boy do I zoom in.
The state of some of these cables, honestly.
Though I absolutely do want to see your expensive keyboard. ↩
We live in a globally connected world, in which many of our labours are separated from the turning of the soil and the seasons.
In the middle ages, you could hardly move for Saint’s days and feast days. We still have the biggies, of course, but previously the year was punctuated with observances to a much greater degree than we’re used to now. Now, I don’t even notice when the clocks change. Our phones update silently while we snooze, and two nights out of the year, we wake up inexplicably grouchy or well-rested.
So, for the past few years I’ve peppered my calendar with observances to give me little somethings to celebrate throughout the year.
Some are seasonal, like full moons and solstices. Some are global observances, like the anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes (this Sunday just gone), Bat Appreciation Day (today, April 17) or any of the dates in my (always in-progress) Year in Movies page.
Happy Bat Appreciation Day to those that celebrate. 🦇
]]>