Recently updated blogs

My teenage years played a show at New York’s Pier 17.

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Weeknotes, a stream-of-consciousness post about life, work, media and everything in between. Here’s what I’ve been up to: Life I have very little to report when it comes to my life at the moment. Other than passing my driving test, I’ve mainly just been catching up with friends and family before we scoot off to Mexico in a few weeks. I always feel …

My fairly banal, basic, but beautiful command line setup

There is a positive feedback loop that happens when you make a tool for people, how people that use it inform what you build, and in turn what you build informs their creative decisions. We will talk about how building these alternatives helps to create a better overall culture where everyone can participate. Let's leave behind monopolies, enshitification, and present tech controversies to discuss building better avenues of participation with …

First record we have is circa 1815, William Haddon was the victular. John Briggs, circa 1827 – 1846. The Bulls Head was up for auction in 1842, whilst John Briggs was in occupation. Thomas Sarson, circa 1846 – 1867, Susanna Sarson, Thomas’ wife would die there aged 63 in 1863. Thomas Wade circa, 1867 – 1869. Amos Wall circa 1869 -1874. George Lawrence, 1874 -1877. Anne Bent in 1977. The …

A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici Gabriel Josipovici has said that as a critic he is conservative but as a novelist he is radical. The second claim may not be controversial but the first will come as a surprise to those who remember what he said about the big-name contemporary novelists in What Ever Happened to Modernism?. This novel and non-fiction combination offers an …

I have Google Takeout setup to periodically export to GDrive as a series of 10Gb .zip files. I’ve been meaning to get these over to S3 for a bit in part for backup purposes, and in part because I wanted to futz with the photos. I’m quite confident I’m not the first person to want to do something like this. But we’ve reached an awkward and unfortunate moment in the …

It’s time for my annual update on crime statistics, following the September release of 2023 numbers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). We also have preliminary numbers on homicides in 2023 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data sources are listed at the end of this post along with my comments on data quality; see …

This is a guest post by David Quantick. Covers of the first U.S. editions of Daisy Ashford’s The Young Visiters and Ring Lardner’s The Young Immigrunts. “My parents are both married and ½ of them are very good looking.” This is the story of two very different writers, one an American comic writer of genius, playwright and sportswriter, the other a young English girl with terrible spelling. The American was …

A print from my generative series Astronomic Comics has been chosen to be in the Austin People’s Gallery! It is on display at City Hall until April of next year! I am honored have my work shown at a prestigious event like this. You can read more about The People’s Gallery here.

It is becoming harder and harder to tell whether information on the internet is created by humans or by computers. As more money and time is funnelled into new generative AI models, their output becomes better at blending in.Some words I associate with human works are: create, imagine, think, dream, inspire, connect, heart, brain, soul, love.I believe that computers cannot do or have any of those things. Computers are the …

Two of my favorite children's book authors have started a Substack called, aptly enough, Looking at Picture Books. Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett will be exploring how picture books work. This is a total dream collab for anyone interested in kids books. Fangirling hard on this one. Their first study is on Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Subscribe and do not miss! (You can follow me over there, too. …

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a federal court complaint against Adobe and two of its executives. The complaint alleges violations of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. These accusations stem from Adobe’s “annual paid monthly” subscription plan. The FTC argues Adobe traps customers with hidden fees and a difficult cancellation process. “Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and many cancellation hurdles,” said Samuel Levine, …

i leaped, feeling the rush of wind against my bare back as i slid cleanly into the pool. another perfect dive. i let my head gently ease above the water, resting for a moment. then, suddenly, the water gripped my leg and yanked me down. i thrashed in the water, opening my eyes. all i could see was choppy waves and unrelentless ocean, pushing me with its full force. my …

I've a written a new book. It's a children's book and it's called A Riddle for a King. It's suitable for those aged between about eight and twelve, although it has been rigorously tested on children from six to thirteen (I test all my products on children and animals). The six-year-old had to have it read to him, but he loved it. The story is about a boy called Philo, …