Quiet week after the madness of London. Mostly work during the week, including a trip up to Blairgowrie (which I’ll repeat on Monday as well), which means a night in Vera by myself which then means some time to watch a movie (see below!).
This blog has gotten a polish, a new front page and typography. Did you notice?
Speaking of Vera, I was finally getting around to T-cutting the scuff marks inflicted on her by an unknown vehicle a few months back, when I got mansplained. Some random guy wander over to tell me that vinegar and bicarbonate of soda would do the job, and it’s dirt cheap, he told as he watched me pour T-cut on a cloth and clear off the marks easily…
Clocks changed, which made little difference to me as I woke up at 4am…. 5am… and couldn’t get back to sleep.
And this morning Jack and I went to the Model Railway Exhibition. We went a couple of years ago, and Jack loves watching all the trains, especially when Thomas, Percy, and Gordon appear! Nice gentle way to spend a couple of hours (although a little troubling to see the ‘types’ attending – either parents with kids or suspiciously single looking men..)
📚 Read
Beloved by Toni Morrison – No wonder this one awards, what an encapsulating story, with each scene leaping off the page. Set during the Reconstruction era (1865 onwards), it highlights many race issues born from slavery that still can be seen today. The lessening of a human, and how far it pushes the main character, Seethe, is all the more horrifying as it unfolds. Yet so much love and humanity exists in this novel, it’s hard not to leave it feeling conflicted, but glad to have lived with it.
📰 Considered
Tinderbox City – 8 March saw another big fire in Glasgow city centre, Audrey Gillan writes about the historical tendency that seems to impact Glasgow more than other cities.
Hollow Body – if this article does nothing but make you consider doing something, ANYTHING, that isn’t related to a computer or AI, then it’s been worth sharing. I, for one, need to set up my piano keyboard.
Sinophobic Sinophilia – a long reflective piece on the fall and fall of America and how it could make peace with a new place in the world order. As interesting as it is a little unsettling.
My Sweet, Smart Boyfriend Got Sucked into the Manosphere – I’ve still to watch the Louis Theroux Manosphere doc, but these first hand accounts of ‘normal’ men getting sucked in is giving me pause. How do we help Jack avoid this?
META fined for misleading users over child safety – leading on from the above, this plus the current Government experiments with reducing/removing social media for under 16s has me thinking a LOT about all of this. How do we prepare our son for the world he will live in?
Greyhound – Tom Hanks being Tom Hanks, but that just means it’s a dependable set of hands in this fairly simple, if terrifying, movie about the Atlantic crossings during WW2, running the gauntlet of the U-boats. Starts tense, and only gets worse/better.
🎧 Listened
Getting Killed by Geese – thanks to Murray Easton and his excellent Everything Flows blog for this find. Funky rock n’ roll, very catchy and I can only imagine hearing this live. Worth checking out.
Ö by Fcukers – stripped back beats to dance to? What’s not love! With, as NME put it, “that James Murphy-esque sense of somebody showing off the stylistic breadth of their record collection”, this might already be my summer album of choice!
🩻 Health
Current Weight: 112.3kg. Basically no change despite eating out for 4 days in a row in London (I guess walking 10k+ each day helps!). Still, needs to start going DOWN.
Avg. Sleep: 6hrs 52mins – one not great night and being awake very early didn’t help. More data now means, month on month, I can see that I get around 7 hrs of sleep minimum each night.
👨💻 Tech
Is a new clock ‘tech’? I had a radio controlled clock (it was my Dads) in my home office but the mechanism failed so I looked around for a replacement and stumbled across this beauty (which matches my favourite watch!). Just love the timelessness of the design, more Braun needed in my life!
StopTheMadness a paid for Safari extension that turns off a lot of the most annoying website traits – pop-ups, video auto-play – the list is long and comprehensive. I’m still tweaking things but even out of the box the difference is notable.
🗓️ Next Week
Back to Blairgowrie for the day on Monday, and then back to the gym to get back in the habit. I’m a sucker for a routine and mine has been outta whack for a couple of weeks now.
What are your thoughts?