Recently updated blogs

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day… but then they decided to do something about it and attack the umpire. Extremely loose adaptation of the famous poem. Home Media Availability: Stream courtesy of the Library of Congress. The Strike Out Casey at the Bat doesn’t need an introduction to most American readers, […]

My English pronunciation can be improved — a lot. But now I can use Microsoft’s Reading Coach. This is a new AI tool for practicing reading (in English). It’s still in preview, but I gave it a quick try and I like the idea. The AI generates a story and then you have to read it out loud and the tool evaluates your pronunciation and shows you words to improve …

Your browser does not support the audio element. Recording from a performance at Fruityspace venue in Beijing. Sun Yizhou: hard drives, mechanical devices. Axel Powrie: bass guitar, amplifier, ground loop. mixed and mastered by Sun Yizhou

Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Snow-flakes” (1863) Yesterday … Continue reading →

I have been behind on documenting my sculpture work. Here are the latest.

What? Another excursion into cinema? Afraid so. Once again I take a look at 30YW set motion pictures."Alatriste" is a Spanish language epic, starring that well known Spanish actor Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen plays the eponymous hero, Captain Alatriste, a C17th Spanish Sharpe type character.The film condenses a number of novels into just one story. It starts during the Dutch Revolt, returns to the Netherlands for the Siege of Breda, terminating …

Have you ever come across or even said one or both of these two quotes? It’s a marathon, not a sprint! and I’m juggling so many different things at the moment! I have heard these over and over again and I’m pretty sure there were a few occasions, especially in a professional context, we’re I’ve uttered them myself without really thinking about it. I think it’s interesting which phrases make …

A few years back I shared the Universal NPC Roleplaying Template that I’d developed for recording NPCs in my campaign in a way that both (a) focused prep on the essential elements for running a great character and (b) organized that information into a format that makes it easy to pick up the NPC during a session and play them with confidence. (And also to rapidly swap between multiple NPCs …

The picture that inspired my blog header. AGU has announced that it will be sunsetting the AGU Blogosphere. So, I am here to say goodbye – and to thank AGU for years of hosting my blog. I started blogging for the AGU Blogosphere in 2011, when I was in graduate school. I’ve enjoyed my time blogging here over the years, particularly my “What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas” and …

Prospect Park, 12 January and 17 & 18 February 2024

Image from hereAt the Bavard Bar in St Leonard's a few months ago, a Bavardier asked me if I'd noticed the difference between the US and UK meanings of second-guess. I hadn't! She felt that the US meaning was overtaking the UK meaning, but whose meaning is really whose? Here's what Oxford Languages says: But more than the one meaning is North American. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it, in …

omg, this article (external link) makes so much sense. A few weeks ago, my local supermarket converted to a “Woolworths Metro” store, and I had no idea what the implications of that were, except that they stopped stocking some stuff I actually want and need (cooking ingredients, mainly) in favour of expanding their range of potato chips. Now I see why they’ve done this: [W]hile Woolworths supermarkets are subject to …

I’m Design Director in a digital transformation consultancy after having worked as a consultant for 10+ years and in-house since 2018. Being a designer in a consulting environment is pretty unique so I thought I’d try to describe it for others who are interested in moving into that industry. Sometimes, the user is your client. The main difference between working as a designer in-house and giving your opinion in a …

Should we tip machines for the work they do for us? Does that question even make sense? What follows is a reflection on metaphors, technology, deceptive design, AI and more… Read on. Metaphors and more In her book God, Human, Animal, Machine, Meghan O’Gieblyn discusses how we use metaphors when talking about technology. She argues […]

Jekyll is a static site generator built in Ruby. It’s been powering this site since 2012 but I’m worried that might not be true for much longer. I’m a bit torn on how to feel about this. First, a bit on static site generators (SSGs). Serving only static content is fast. With an SSG, you’re effectively “pre-compiling” all server-side elements of a site at build time. Once you send the …