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Might be at a turning point in my career. A lot of my friends are expressing similar feelings. I think it has something to do with having been out of education for nearly 10 years and wanting to solidify things a bit.

This frame of mind has made me really interested in manifestos. Not necessarily anything strident, but purpose-driven lists that can help guide everyday decision-making. Here are a few manifesto-y links I’ve really identified with recently.

  • These things I believe from “Not the user’s fault”. I think this is Jono Xia’s blog from when he was part of the Mozilla Labs team. I’ve tried to find him elsewhere on the web but haven’t found him anywhere so far. He raises some really good points about software design and development.
  • The Recurse Center’s Social Rules. Such a good, concise set of guidelines for public discourse. “No well-actually’s, no feigned surprise, no backseat driving, no subtle -isms”.
  • Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules. Also available as a free tear-away poster at the Corita Kent: Power Up exhibition (8 Feb – 12 May 2019) at the House of Illustration.
  • GitLab’s Remote Manifesto. SB and I try to implement a lot of this, though we’re definitely not strict enough about it! We also strive to work this way with clients and collaborators, even those that live in London. Face-to-face IRL meetings are great, but it can be tough to squeeze them in when it takes an hour to get anywhere in this city.
  • Daniel Eatock’s manifesto, particularly “propose honesty as a solution”. See also the Scratching the Surface episode with Daniel Eatock from last September. Off the back of the Corita Kent exhibition, SB and I were talking about the lack of irony and cynicism in her work, about how refreshing that feels even though a lot of it is from over 50 years ago. He mentioned this podcast episode, that Eatock touches on this topic in relation to his kids, how kids just don’t perceive irony. I need to have a listen.

I’ll try to add more here as I come across them. Who knows, maybe I’ll add my own some day.

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I’ve been spending a bunch of time on the Host site recently and just wrote up some thoughts about working with Netlify CMS and GitHub Pages on SB-PH’s tucked-away blog.

TL;DR
Though it’s an unusual setup for a client site, I like the stack and would consider using it again for a similar project.

Read post ↗

Edit 23 Jan 2019
I just deployed some small fixes (force curly quotes via the smartify filter, prevent Cards from showing if no image), but the site doesn’t seem to be updating. It’s updated if I navigate to https://hostofleyton.com/index.html but not https://hostofleyton.com. Kind of weird. This StackOverflow thread seems useful, as does GitHub’s own troubleshooting page.

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Surfing with coffee #5. Order of exploration:

A
Noticed that HB starred Samiz-Dat on GitHub (↓B)(↓C)(↓D)

B
Hyperreadings (↓G)

C
Distributed, a book from OPEN Editions that “focusses attention on the act of distribution as a subject for serious creative consideration and one of great social and economic importance”. (↓D)

D
bradhaylock.com (↓E)(↓F)

E
Searched for Brad Haylock on Twitter. (↓L)

F
Surpllus (↓H)

G
Kenneth Goldsmith reflecting on the current state and possible future of UbuWeb after 15 years. Also relevant to the Whyspace event last Wednesday. “For the moment, we have no competition, a fact we’re not happy about. We’re distressed that there is only one UbuWeb: why aren’t there dozens like it?” (↓I)

H
Searched for Surpllus on Twitter. (↓L)

I
UbuWeb Twitter feed (↓J)(↓L)

J
RIP Filmstruck (↓K)

K
A wild, multi-armed internet search for an independent video rental hole-in-the-wall I went to probably around 5-6 years ago. Spent 20 minutes searching and couldn’t find it. Asked SB and he figured it out in about 30 seconds, see The Film Shop in Stoke Newington. Looks like it has probably gone the way of most other video shops though. :(

L
Hate how heavily I rely on Twitter to keep up with interesting peoples’ activity, especially after this past Saturday. Look in to alternative methods of creating/curating feeds outside of the social media rat race. (↓M)(↓N)(↓O)

M
Hardly Everything, “your feed with a cadence”.

N
Reeder for iOS and Mac (I think this is what SB uses).

O
Search for self-hosted RSS, came across Awesome self-hosted repo. See Feed Readers section specifically.

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Close up of weathered boards and tarring in Dungeness, UK

Just learned about Keith Collins and his relationship with Derek Jarman via Collins’s obituary in the Guardian. What an interesting life. This “how we met” interview with the two of them (The Independent, 1993) is worth reading, and there are some lovely photos around.

SB and I went to Rye with some friends in May 2017 and took a bus out to Dungeness. We just wanted to experience that strange landscape but came across Prospect Cottage as well. It’s all on it’s own, pretty far from much. No plaque or barriers or anything.

It’s a wonder that Collins maintained it for all those years after Jarman’s death. Who is maintaining it now?

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Songs I’ll learn when I get a piano:

  • Chopin, Nocturne en bi bémol majeur opus 9 no2: Ballade en Sol Mineur No.1
  • Tom Waits, I’m Still Here
  • Chilly Gonzales, Armellodie
  • Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou, The Song of the Sea

Some of these are almost certainly wishful thinking, it’s been a while. Reach for the moon… 💫

Tips for buying a secondhand piano (focus on uprights):

Want to moonlight as a piano tuner someday, but looks like it might be difficult to find any courses… Supposedly there’s only one left in the UK. Maybe it’s this one? Pretty formal though.

Time to turn to the #1 self-teaching resource, the WORLD WIDE WEB. Have quickly discovered some circa-2000 diamonds in the rough. Sometimes the writing is a little salty, and it always has a pointed perspective, but pretty useful and fun. Need more room for tools.

And a few books: