Recently updated blogs

#1 Nota di Viaggio (Rites de Passage) The opening is pure Italian apothecary chic – a veritable cacophony of brackish herbs, aged citrus, and homemade toothpaste underscored by a streak of medicated foot powder and ye olde throat pastilles. Not unpleasant per se, but a jumbled up wall of smell that I associate with many of the openings of Italian artisanal perfumery, like Mem and Noun from Bogue, Lafeogrigio or …

Here’s a round-up of some activities from a busy August. Building noiseboxes At the beginning of the August, a friend asked if I would build them a noisebox for an upcoming film project they were composing for. Whilst I was aware of these instruments, I had never attempted to build one before, so I was honoured to have my friend’s faith placed in my ability to produce something that might …

I recently read an article by Samantha Edmonds, The Shattered Novel: Rules of Fragmented Fiction. I’ve always been tantalised by the idea of writing a novel made of fragments, something that might even accrete from the sort of microfictions I write. For me, fragmented fiction does a better job of describing the world that we live in than the traditional novel. Social media is the most popular form of narrative …

♫ G Song, Terry Riley

Every year on the 24th October I've written a reflection on the last year of my independent consulting. This would have been my 10th issue, but is instead a special issue, for reasons that will become apparent.

Paul Graham’s Founder Mode essay, based on a recent talk from AirBnB founder Brian Chesky, has been getting quite a lot of attention over the past few days. It has prompted many a quote tweet, and founders, such as Bryan Cantrill of Oxide Computer, have started contributing their own thoughts to what founder mode means to them. Having held positions of influence at a few companies, but never having been …

I found myself in great agreement with the advice in this crisp essay on why you should quit your job, particularly a good job, and encourage productive leisure. Quit Your Job

I figured out this pattern today for testing an HTML table dynamically added to a page by JavaScript, using Playwright Python: table_js = """ function tableToJson() { return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("table")).map((table) => { return { headers: Array.from(table.querySelectorAll("th")).map((th) => th.textContent.trim(), ), rows: Array.from(table.querySelectorAll("tr")) .slice(1) .map((tr) => { return Array.from(tr.querySelectorAll("td")).map((cell) => cell.textContent.trim(), ); }), }; }); } """ def test_search(ds_server, page): page.goto(ds_server + "/-/search?q=cleo") # Should show search results, after fetching them page.wait_for_selector("table") tables …

August was the final month of summer break, so I managed to sneak a couple books in before school started up. North! Or Be Eaten - Andrew Peterson Book two in the Wingfeather Saga, I read this aloud over several weeks to the middle girls before bed. The Wingfeather family is on the run from the Fangs and have to make their way through Dugtown, which is full of more …

I have a new piece out on Gandhi for Aeon. It’s free to read here:https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-varna-system-gandhis-plan-to-empower-the-workers

This is a big quote from the book A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I thought it was interesting so I’m saving it here. Context: A long time before, robots gained consciousness and wanted to live on their own. So humans and robots parted ways, and humans promised to leave the robots alone. Robots also chose to let themselves die (break down) instead of repairing themselves. Dex is …

I screened this documentary out of a misplaced sense of duty. After all, the filmmaking team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory made a number of exceptional films over many years’ time, and Ivory is still going strong at age 95. Attention must be paid, and good work celebrated. Stephen Soucy has done just that, but he’s given us a good deal more. Only an insider would be able to …

Exciting news on the Dirtbag journey! Mr. Dirtbag Daoist and I bought 5 acres of vacant land on the Western Slope of Colorado!If the regular American dream is a house with a white picket fence, the American vehicle nomad dream is to buy a plot of empty land to park your rig on. This is easier said than done, as the US has many regulations that govern what you can …

My family loves jam—Dave's homemade sourdough toasted in our old-school two-slice toaster is most of the reason—so this time of year I make a lot of it. And I'm talking about gallons of the stuff, enough to last us until the fruit ripens again next summer. So far this summer alone I've made raspberry, marionberry, strawberry, blackberry and two kinds of plum jam, with Dave's special citrus marmalade rounding out …

Wow. I guess this “covid” thing is real. I’m “recovered” now but really– so much B.S. has been spilt over this it just boggles the mind. Almost as much as the evil Chinese bio-weapon itself. Having gone through a bout of Corona Virus I now know what it means to peer into the abyss. You don’t want to catch this, but I’m inclined to think that there are few real …