I'd been looking forward to the new Palm Reader record, Sleepless for what seems like ages. They have a great blend of aggression, melody, and emotional intensity that hits a real sweet spot for me, musically. It's quite unusual to get all three in a band. The track, False Thirst, in particular is one of my favourite songs of the year so far.
Biting off more than you can chew
We give Sudo toilet roll tubes to carry round. No idea why he likes them so much but he seems to! Someone gave him this today and I think he thought he'd died.
Modding Game Boy Color
There's a time and a place for ROMs. With original hardware and software getting more and more expensive, they're the only reasonable option for most people. But part of the fun for me is in messing about with stuff!
Can't beat the classics
Sea was wild today. And then it rained forever and we watched movies and ate curry and I had caffeine too late and now I'm wide awake at 1am.
On a call today, we were asked to complete a survey afterwards, and give a rating out of 7. Seven. I would like the opportunity to rate that rating scale.
Two Weeks
It's a phone dump! Been using the iPhone 12 Pro. Camera's very good actually. Been leaving my SLR at home.
Chilli Harvest
Charlotte's been growing chillis. The stupid scotches are taking ages to ripen. They tastes really good though. And made for a heck of a leftovers pizza.
LEGO Technic Tenting
It's become something of an obsession: trying to make my desk cool. I grabbed my monitor and chair from the office about six months too late and now it's such a good space
We signed up for YouTube Premium because the ads are irritating. To be honest, I miss skipping them. Timing that skip click perfectly so you don't see a second more than you need to is really the last act of rebellion I had in my life, and I've paid to remove it. What have I done?!
Now I want a BMX
We took Tabitha to the pump track at Newhaven skatepark. It's super nice; seems to be very well looked-after. It took her a little while to get going, but then once she got it, she didn't want to leave. I'd love to come back and have a go with a BMX there - it's not a place for a road bike.
I heard someone pronounce "ASCII" "A-S-C 2" instead of "ASKEY" and I think the last time I was this angry was when someone tried to convince us that "GIF" is pronounced "JIF"
Two ideas for annoying things today. Neither will ever be made (by me), but it's fun to think about them occasionally:
- A website which is super SEO-friendly, but completely unusable
- A dictionary where all the definitions are accurate, but unclear (this comes from the dictionary definition of "sycophantic", which is "to behave in an obsequious manner". If I'm trying to explain "sycophantic" to a seven-year-old, don't then make me explain "obsequious")
As an aside, when you have a child, you realise just how many words you use on a daily basis with no problem, that you cannot clearly define. It's a lot. I look up words quite frequently at the moment.
In software development, the only thing worse than "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!" is "WHY IS THIS WORKING?!"
Finding it very difficult to summon the energy to get excited about anything at the moment. I have to buy myself something to achieve it, which is so unsustainable it's not even funny
Park
I feel really bad for Tabitha that we haven't been doing Fun Kid Stuff. This morning we went for a walk (it was freezing) to a good park and she slid and climbed and swung and monkey-bars'd
Pulling me back in
Damn it, Animal Crossing, with your cute pumpkins and halloween decorations! Fine I'll play some more.
A couple of weeks of food, bikes and keyboards
The last few weeks has not been the most fun. I can't find time to take pictures, so here's a montage.
I'm finding myself increasingly irritated by how bad the internet is becoming.
Remember when we thought popups were annoying so we blocked them, and what followed has been the systematic dismantling of any and all pleasure that could be derived from the internet. Now we have constant popups, overlays, cookie warnings, ads that you can't differentiate from content, services that try (and succeed) to build a map of your entire life online that they can keep and know for themselves, then attempt to make you feel guilty for blocking it!
And it seems to be getting worse. I'm finding myself needing to enable stripped-back reader views on every site I visit, just so I can actually parse the content I arrived for. I know some websites are trying to make money, but doing it by annoying everyone in the process doesn't feel like a super sustainable business model.
Walk
This week felt like it lasted forever. Work has seemed never-ending, evenings have been hollow respite where I have no motivation to do anything
We're watching classic Mr Bean from the 90s and Tabitha hasn't stopped laughing her head off since it started. I never liked this show when I was younger but it's hard to argue with its effect on her!