Shorter posts, links, or thoughts. No schedule, not heavily considered.
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Bye bye bikes!
I have, technically, four bikes. My wife has, technically, four bikes. I say technically because I only use two of them, and she only uses one, although one of her other two is being kept for the future. We do not use all of these bikes. My bikes: My wife’s bikes are: So today I…
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Crucial Track – 15 August 2026
What’s your favorite song about letting go? For all they have been pilloried, their first album was wonderful. My favourite track leapt out at me on my first listen, although it took a few more listens to figure out why. My first marriage was coming to an end, I think we both had started to…
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Change is a-comin
I’ve written about this before. I like change. I also like routine. That puts next week at odds as, with Becca having started her new job as a teaching assistant and Jack starting school, the timings of my day will be changing. Bar Monday —his first day at school!— I’ll be doing drop offs in…
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Crucial Track – 14 August 2026
What song makes you feel connected to nature? Nature, to me, is something to bask in, something to enjoy. I love spending time in nature, wandering through woods, cycling trails, but my earliest memories of connection to nature were formed in my childhood home. Summer evenings, a rug on the grass, the heat of the…
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A rebuttal to a response on Tech Sucks
This is my rebuttal to a response of my response to a response about a post (Andreas, look what you’ve started!). One thing that the internet never fails to remind me of is that I tend to see the world in broad brush strokes whereas many see it in intricate detail and hold their view…
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Crucial Track – 13 August 2026
What’s a song you’d want to hear on your birthday? I can almost feel my wife rolling her eyes. I am not a fan of my birthday. Not for any age related denial reason, just because I feel long past the need to have any hoopla to celebrate the day —there is likely more deep…
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Kintsugi
When Jack goes to bed, some nights Becca and I find we have some time to chill out together. Right now we are using that time to rewatch Ted Lasso from the start before we start the new season. It’s such a comfort blanket of a show, brings such joy, and I forgot how good…
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Crucial Track – 12 August 2026
What song makes you feel like you’re breaking free? Avoiding the Queen loaded phrasing of the question, I found myself wondering what breaking free actually feels like. As a completely unrepressed white male, the only things I’ve ever really broken free from were of my own making and tend to be accompanied with as much…
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Dense Discovery newsletter
Dense Discovery is, and I’ll quote the lovely website here: One email worth opening, every week Thoughtful links across design, tech, culture and art – hand-picked weekly to inspire reflection, not reaction. And yes, you should go and subscribe right now (I’ll wait). I’ve been a subscriber since February 2023 and the eagle eyed among…
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The future is for everyone (on Meta)
Via Matthew Cassellini as I tend not to follow or read much about Meta these days. Mark Zuckerberg has penned a very long manifesto on the future of AI. I’ve had a skim through it, then got bored and asked AI to generate a summary for me. It gave me this: “It is simultaneously a…
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Crucial Track – 11 August 2026
What’s your favorite song about second chances? As someone who often stares at a blank page, who tends to start new ventures by writing about them, and who has had many second chances throughout his life, I can feel the beginnings of that sense of “ok, let’s go again” in this song. The fact it…
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The Bear
Rewatching the old seasons ahead of the new one. Wow. I forgot how good this was. The way each character develops, the moments of chaos and moments of calm. The way it feels so real, so fucking raw at times. And then there is the Christmas episode which remains a very easy way to get…
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Crucial Track – 10 August 2026
What song makes you want to stay up all night? It’s time to leave. Almost time to leave. But the music is still playing. The floor still pulsing. You aren’t that tired, are you? Maybe one more song. Ohh this is a good one. Right time go… wait, ok after this one! OK, definitely time…
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Recently Read
Over the past week or so I’ve read a few articles, some of them have been interesting, some of them fascinating, and I’ve listed my favourites here:
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Homeward bound
Our week in Nethybridge is at an end, Jack has had an amazing time, and I’ve enjoyed the change of scenery even though I’ve had to work through the week. The immediacy of quiet roads and trails made nipping out on a bike a real pleasure. And the countryside is beautiful too, which makes the…
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Crucial Track – 09 August 2026
What’s a song you associate with your hometown? The town I grew up in, like many a small provincial town, is slowly morphing into yet another satellite town. The pubs are closing, the high street is being dismantled, and soon enough it’ll just be retail parks and houses. The town I grew up in still…
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No notifications
I’m pondering removing badge notifications —those little red numbers if you use iPhone— from all my apps. I already keep my phone on silent and only allow a few core apps to display a notification. I think removing the badges is the next step. I’m try to get to a state of only picking up…
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Crucial Track – 08 August 2026
Tell us about your very favorite holiday / Christmas song. But it’s August! I guess if you buy into it, Christmas can seem like the most wonderful time of the year, and if it’s beginning to look a lot like that time of year, then it’s usually when the same raft of songs appear on…
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Crucial Track – 07 August 2026
Share a song that feels like a prayer. That isn’t by Madonna? Hmmm (I mean like a prayer sure does feel uplifting, right? What a song!) In that case I’ll take a specific version of a song that always makes me feel uplifted and joyous —I don’t pray, is that what it feels like for…
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Crucial Track – 06 August 2026
What song makes you think of your parents? My Dad loved folk music, my Mum loved pop. They had a lot more depth to their musical tastes of course —both enjoyed classical music and sang in choirs— but those are the genres I associate with both. This song instantly takes me to our family home,…