Weeknotes 1462

Hi folks!

Weeknotes

• First week back in the blogging groove, and it's fun rediscovering the rhythm of regular writing.
• I'm trying to do 6 days a week—Monday-Friday will be normal posts, Saturday I write the weeknotes which are posted on Sunday, when I rest.
• The weeknotes are also the thing that I'll be sending to everyone on the mailing list—everyone getting this now has been grandfathered in from my last email venture, and up until today people weren't able to sign up because I insisted on making this a self-serve Ghost installation and aparently Digital Ocean has issues with SMTP, or something. Either way, it should all be working now.
• This week has been a good one, albeit very busy. Work stuff is going great guns, I've got new people asking me to work with them, people I already work with asking me to do more work for them; I'm mostly worried about finding the time to make the things I'm trying to make!
• After my birthday I found myself really feeling older in a strange way. I said that I'm not longer even plausibly mid-20s but it really hit me that I'm on That Side Of My 20s. I'm Old now.
• My old boss took me to lunch on Monday at Lewes' delightful Pestle and Mortar and I had an absolutely cracking massaman curry which I wouldn't stop going on about, so CM and I tried to replicate using this recipe and its suggestion of crispy baked peanut tofu—it came out extremely well, can recommend!
• Tuesday I went along to my first virtual UTAW meeting—a really good vibe, an encouraging environment, and very nice to be in a union meeting where people were talking about the kind of work I do :)
• Took CM for her second vaccine on Thursday (Pfizer—v jealous, I got AstraZeneca). Seems the side-effects the second time are far worse (projectile vomiting!), and given how thoroughly the first time knocked me out I'm not looking forward to my own second dose. It seemed to pass quickly, though, thankfully!
• Ever since I divested myself of social media, there are a fair few folk I've missed, so I've been slowly contacting people, asking for their email and getting in touch. It's been really pleasant communicating in whole paragraphs at a time :)
• Josef started a Minecraft server sometime early on in lockdown and bunch of us have been doing stuff in there. Because I'm terminally Tired and Busy I've not been able to build half as much as everyone else—I very slowly built a church in the main town, and I was happy with that. Since it looks like things are finally unlocking in a manner that's actually safe, we decided to 'complete the game' and kill the dragon at the end. I wouldn't describe it as a satisfying conclusion to our time on the server, but I was satisfied to have a conclusion. Those end credits are certainly something.

Posts

This week's posts were about personal and creative change (or the lack of it), technological credulity, the condition of the extremely middle class, viewing politics as narrative and perennial fave Dominic Cummings.

Links

I put links I find interesting on my Pinboard; here are the highlights.

• A very absorbing time-lapse video of wind turbines being constructed off the coast of Scotland.
• Via the lovely Robin Sloan: a piano that will play forever, if you let it.
• Via Josef: A great day out—TELFORD!
• The largest fandoms on fanfiction website AO3 plotted over time. It's really wild to see some of the things that were able to break the top 25 early on. Blake's 7?
• Chris D:

It has long puzzled me that when I write about cognitive biases in stock markets I’m seen as an intelligent technocrat but when I discuss the same ones in politics I become a loony Marxist drivelling about false consciousness.

• Certified Banger Of The Week: BUZZCUT by BROCKHAMPTON
• Lofi Corner: Chanson by damaa.beats & Keymer
• via Hazel: TIM IT WAS JUST PICTIONARY
• Finally, via the returning Web Curios, an absolutely bonkers site for a family office. Is the real reason Archegos went under that they spent all the money on something like this?

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Back next week. Look after yourselves. Over and out.