Recently updated blogs

I recently went on on a trip from Cape Town to Washington, D.C., Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Seattle again, Denver, D.C. again, and then back home to Cape Town, all in three weeks. It was wonderful, but it was too much: too many airports, too many suitcases, too many weird bathroom setups. (Well, two, but that was two too many.) I kept saying to myself, “I’ll be so happy …

After 18 months, I finally took the hint that my walking partner has moved on (I’m not bitter) and replaced him. With somebody reliable, who will walk with me whenever I want and enjoy it too. Demmy loves walking and is already in my house! She’s perfect. A visit from my Dad, who looks down on almost everything I enjoy doing except walking, seemed like a good time to resume …

New language change added: Range over func, and more!.

Almost hypnotic…I think I fell into a trance watching this!The post making of yakibuta cup ramen first appeared on ramen! ramen! ramen!.

Like the internet or a magical sidekick, chatbots are reorganizing knowledge to be more interactive and more accessible.

On a bus to Redmond, a passenger found a wallet and returned it to the driver. Shortly after, the owner joyfully reclaimed it at the next stop. The unexpected reunion brought a sense of wonder and positivity, showing the beauty of chance and kindness.

You probably have to be Jewish to appreciate the full and bitter irony of this sentence: Nearly 11 months into a devastating war, a serious new challenge has emerged in Gaza: polio. Growing up, there were two uncontested heroes in the Jewish-American pantheon: Sandy Koufax and Jonas Salk. If you were really in the know, you’d add a third: Albert Sabin. Salk invented the polio vaccine, Sabin invented the oral …

She said, I don’t think I can do this anymore. I love you but I can’t do this. I said, But if you love me, why can’t you try? She said, It’s over. I said, I know we aren’t perfect, but who is? She said, It’s over. I said it’s over. I said nothing. But later I thought about what I should have said. I should have said, But we …

(for an Italian publication, 2009) The Eyes -- "When the Night Falls" The Beatles -- "Strawberry Fields Forever" John's Children -- "A Midsummer Night's Scene" We The People -- "You Burn Me Up and Down" The Byrds -- "Everybody's Been Burned" Pink Floyd -- "Paintbox" The Doors - "The Soft Parade" Love -- "You Set The Scene" The Stooges - "Ann" Scott Walker -- "Boy Child" Miles Davis -- "Bitches …

I have 4 (rounded up) beefs with language-y AI bots that have resulted in me sort of avoiding them altogether: They have the personality of a middle manager who writes Google Docs all day that nobody wants to read They’re reallllly good at guessing but not actually that smart, which leads to very convincing lies (see: the “how many Rs in strawberry?” saga). If I had the inclination to double …

Recently I took a trip down memory lane and explored my logo design archives from the ‘90s. I’ve been designing logos since then—almost 30 years ago, before the internet was even a thing. In this article, I’ve gathered some of those early logo designs, along with background information from the client projects I’ve worked on over the past three decades. Finding inspiration was perhaps more challenging then, but there was …

Today the postman surprised me with a card-backed envelope which contained a true ‘blast from the past’. The message came from a kind lady in Riegate, Surrey and contained a publicity leaflet of an advertisement in The Essex Countryside magazine from 1991. Sarah Ballingal wrote “My mother used to live in Walton-on-the-Naze and we have come across this article amongst my late sister’s belongings.” I remember the leaflet well and …

When it comes to interim stages of game dev, I am a bit of a packrat. I have paper maps from when I was doing Ultima Online, and UI sketches for Star Wars Galaxies… of course, for my current thing, Stars Reach, I have a whole pile of images and videos going back to the very earliest days of the project. I mention this because we just posted up a …

I covered Showtime’s marvelous film noir series, Fallen Angels, in my second volume. This anthology show delivered six episodes in the summer of 1993, followed by another nine in the autumn of 1995. Each playlet was adapted from a story by a famed noir author, and was blessed with a phenomenal attention to detail appropriate to post-World War II Los Angeles: a heavily stylized depiction of the city populated by …

I’ve tried Notion, Obsidian, Things, Apple Reminders, Apple Notes, Jotter and endless other tools to keep me organised and sure, Notion has stuck around the most because we use it for client stuff, but for todo lists, all of the above are way too complicated. I’ve given up this week and gone back to paper and a pencil and I feel unbelievably organised and flexible, day-to-day. It’s because it’s simple. …