Posts tagged with "aside"

Life is funny. 11 years ago I posted this: “A single file queue that hugs the road to avoid blocking the pavement? That is a damn nice queue.” And 10 years on I literally work in the building you can just about see on the left.

Seeing as this blog is essentially my own little Twitter, it seems fitting that I’ve imported all of my tweets into it. 3122 tweets imported – dating back to 2008.

‘Fight between bald eagle and Canada goose in Burlington bay ‘very symbolic,’ says photographer’ – CBC

Sat in the bath listening to “Music for Airports” by Brian Eno. I remain convinced that it’s one of the best albums to start your day with. It makes me feel focused, relaxed and that the world is a pleasant place.

‘Instagram is now a (photo) information network’ – Om Malik Photos and videos are increasingly used for informational reasons rather than just for pure aesthetic and artistic purposes. You can do a much better job of selling yourself with images and videos. I mean, coffee looks more enticing when being made and showcased on video. The same goes for liquid nitrogen being poured over some deconstructed fish or whatever. Everyone is advertising everything. Read more →

I’m trying to implement a new rule: I’m not allowed to save any articles to read-later on a Saturday/Sunday morning. If I’m not willing to read it on a weekend morning – when I’ve got a hot coffee and bucketloads of time – then I’m never going to read it.

‘Toxic preconditions’ – Oliver Burkeman (The Inperfectionist) Another great article from Burkeman. This time on how we let fear hold us back. It can be so powerfully liberating – and action-triggering – to understand that the uncertainty and insecurity you imagine you’re avoiding is in fact how things already are for you. As the great Elizabeth Gilbert puts it: “You are afraid of surrender because you don’t want to lose control. Read more →

‘Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino’ – John Gruber (Daring Fireball) Gruber talks about how the release date for the headline features of Apple Intelligence have been pushed back, and aren’t due to be released any time soon. What Apple showed regarding the upcoming “personalized Siri” at WWDC was not a demo. It was a concept video. Concept videos are bullshit, and a sign of a company in disarray, if not crisis. Read more →

I saw ‘turkey teeth’ in person for the first time today. It was quite a shock. They look awful. Those things will not age well. You shouldn’t get teeth based on a fashion.

“I know I’m talking to myself, but I would like some response from you.” - my girlfriend

There’s few things worse than hearing a criticism that’s forever going to change how you see yourself.

Staying at a hotel for a few days. It has a whiff of Hogwarts 🏰

“Global Fur Production in Drastic Decline” “Fur farming has been identified as an industry in crisis”. This is good news. Look at the decline of mink and fox in the last 10 years: Note: as is always the case when I talk about animal cruelty on an industrial scale, I feel like a hypocrite. Because I’m a meat eater. In my rules for life I say it’s clearly immoral. And it is. Read more →

“Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it.” I haven’t thought about Silvio Berlusconi for a while. Francis Fukuyama: When historians 50 or 100 years from now investigate how and why Western civilization collapsed, they would point to Silvio Berlusconi as the chief villain. The former Italian Prime Minister was the inventor of the modern form of oligarchy, in which a rich individual uses his money to buy his way into political office through the purchase of media properties, and then uses his political office to protect his business interests. Read more →

Fish & Chips is one of the most overrated takeaways. Pricey. Nothing is ever ready, despite the menu only having 12 items. And man oh man is it bad for you – the number of calories is insane.

Just bought a VPS from Contabo. And I’ve discovered I have to wait several hours for it to be spun up – I presumed it would be instant. Anything longer than 5-10 minutes is a no-go in 2025.

I currently have three dogs in my eye line. I like this pub.

Something I like about 4K BluRays is that old films are being ‘rereleased’ on them. It’s a great way to discover films you might not have seen before. In May, a film I very much have seen before arrives on BluRay: A Knight’s Tale. It’s a film I love. Looking forward to watching it on 4K.

A thread on reddit’s /r/AskOldPeople: Does anyone else feel like f-it, I’m going to quit going to the doctor? I’m not anti-doctor, and certainly not anti-science. The improvements in medicine and medical care is one of the big reasons I’m happy to be alive in 2025 instead of 1725.1 However, I’ve had largely poor results from visiting doctors and tend to avoid going to them.2 I just know they’re not going to do much for me and it feels like a wasted trip. Read more →

“21 Things I Wish I Knew in My Twenties” I always enjoy lists like this.

Has a main character on a TV show ever actually died by drowning? It’s always just a cliffhanger.

Experimented with using different fonts on elliot.my. In the end I’ve actually just stuck with San Francisco, Helvetica, Ariel, etc. I have to say, I do like San Francisco. More than Helvetica – which is saying something. Also, I’m very keen on this blog being lightweight. Using default fonts saves quite a few KB.

I use Arq to backup files on my MacBook Pro. But it can feel a bit ‘heavy’ and slow at times. So I looked for other options for my Mac mini and I went with restic. It uses the CLI – unlike Arq with its GUI. But to be honest, the GUI of Arq doesn’t do the main thing I want anyway: quickly preview different versions of a file to work out which is the one that I want to restore. Read more →

Food labelling around how the animals were treated before they were murdered really needs to be changed. Maybe I’m just thick, but it’s all so vague and I’m not sure exactly what they mean. “Organic” and “Higher Welfare” are meaningless to me. At least “Free to Roam” is somewhat descriptive. But I think most of the UK public is in a similar boat to me.

Food labelling around how the animals were treated before they were murdered really needs to be changed. Maybe I’m just thick, but it’s all so vague and I’m not sure exactly what they mean. “Organic” and “Higher Welfare” are meaningless to me. At least “Free to Roam” is somewhat descriptive. But I think most of the UK public is in a similar boat to me.

US Oscars TV viewership: 2014 — 43.7M 2015 — 37.3M 2016 — 34.4M 2017 — 32.9M 2018 — 26.5M 2019 — 29.6M 2020 — 23.6M 2021 — 10.4M 2022 — 16.6M 2023 — 18.7M 2024 — 19.5M 2025 — 19.7M I’m not quite sure why it’s halved over the last decade. I suspect there’s less of a celebrity culture – with many celebrities being TikTok stars these days, not film stars. Read more →

“At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” — George Orwell

“Having experienced both, I am not sure which is worse: intense feeling or the absence of it.” — Margaret Atwood

If a food product says it’s a “source of fibre” it essentially means there’s hardly any fibre in it – just more than zero. Fibre is still very under thought of. Even the most health-conscious people often don’t track their intake, nor care.

Current obsession: Millions Cola flavour. Firm and delicious.