# Happy Monday! It's been a while since I've said (or felt) that. Following on from last week, it feels so freeing to decline and delete whole series of meetings this morning. Friday saw me finally catch up with all messages and emails — the first time in the five weeks I've been … | Continue reading
# Yesterday, I had what I thought was going to be a difficult conversation at work. Since covid, my employer has gradually been increasing the required time in office for staff. This week they announced that everyone under a certain grade will have to start going in three days a … | Continue reading
# I finally charged the watch last night, not because it needed charging, but because I was having a bath and thought it was the ideal opportunity. It still had over 30% battery so would have lasted well into a second month. It's amazing the difference turning off "raise to wake" … | Continue reading
# There's a joke about bloggers building a custom CMS or devs trying to make an RSS reader. It's actually become less of a joke recently. Or, maybe, more of a joke depending on your point of view. Kev, fresh off the back of building Pure Blog, linked to a post from Amit Gawande: … | Continue reading
# The migraine started to ease a bit last night. I managed to put a little bit of work in on of the outstanding tracks after attending the listening party for the excellent Feral Grace by The Black Dog. What an album! Beautifully melancholic, with a more hopeful final track leadi … | Continue reading
# No work today, and most likely tomorrow, due to a bad migraine. I've had a nagging headache all week. It started getting so much worse in the early hours of this morning, forcing me to get up and take some pills. I've been popping them all day. Any further changes to the site … | Continue reading
# I think the standard.site integration is now done! Some tweaks were needed to the additional code to ensure that posts displayed how I wanted and that the publication icon was set correctly. 1 While it would be nice if Bluesky supported text formatting and a longer character co … | Continue reading
# I've been making some changes. I scrapped the front page again a few days ago. I just wasn't feeling it. I'm going to revert some of the page names but I like a few of them as they're quite geeky. Prior to that, I changed the menu to a page on its own, rather than the slide-in … | Continue reading
# Watch update I'm now 16 days in and the watch still has 46% battery left! It was described as lasting 7-10 days but I could get three weeks out of this. Also, once it runs out of battery for the smart features, it will still act as a normal watch for a further two days. Colour … | Continue reading
# RIP Om It was so sad to see yesterday that Om Malik — OG tech blogger, founder of GigaOm, photographer, investor, and all round nice guy — passed away at just 59. I've been reading Om's work for as long as I can remember, but it was the post GigaOm era where I feel he really ca … | Continue reading
# Well, my dalliance with Vivaldi didn't last very long; less than 24 hours, in fact. I had issues with some sites I visit regularly and only turning off Vivaldi's ad blocking fixed it. Not good enough. # In other news, it's now been a week since I started wearing the Sekonda hyb … | Continue reading
# Mobile Browsers I have documented my search for the 'perfect' email client on many occasions. Spoiler alert: I've largely given up. Now, I've returned to mobile browsers. I've tried my fair share over the years. When I used an iPhone there was no real discussion — you used Safa … | Continue reading
# Today marks 23 years since I started blogging! It seems a lifetime ago, but it's less than half my lifetime. I've been struggling to post lately, only getting going again over the past few days, but I've got some ideas about things I want to do to the site. Not necessarily in r … | Continue reading
# Approaching three years since getting the Amazfit GTR 2 watch, battery life has really taken a nosedive. What started out as up to 14 days (generally around 10) has dropped to barely 3. It was time (no pun intended) to think about replacing it. Rather than getting another fully … | Continue reading
# It's the third anniversary of my first Bandcamp release: the acid clan EP. It still annoys me that the production isn't up to scratch, especially on False Pretences where there is some clipping on the claps. I recently remastered Round and Around but's there's only so much you … | Continue reading
# The new randomelements ep "silver machine" is out now! You can read all about it over on the randomelements site. The title track is on YouTube: Can't see the video? Click here to watch... | Continue reading
# Subvert launches today Today's the day... Subvert, the cooperative-owned music marketplace, is officially live today! And yours truly is there as a founding member. I have, so far, uploaded a recent selection of releases with plans to upload most of my tracks. Subvert is diffe … | Continue reading
# It's no secret that I've been struggling to finish tracks lately. I have an idea, create a loop, listen to it excessively, then can't extend it out to a full track. I had three separate tracks at various stages of completion then my brain decided to have yet another idea when i … | Continue reading
# I hadn't looked at /reader (AKA /inbound) for a few days; I can't actually remember how long. There was a lot in there so I hit mark all as read. There was probably stuff in there I might want to have read, but if I hadn't actually sought it out I obviously didn't want to read … | Continue reading
# While I've been off, I've been doing a full rewatch of The Expanse. I watched the first three seasons as they came out, but never got back into it once Amazon rescued it. I've been meaning to pick it back up for a while. I'd forgotten just how good it was. | Continue reading
# No friendsI've written before about friendship and commented on the phenomenon of male loneliness. What really brought it home to me recently was when my wife answered a question in an app about meeting my friends, she just wrote "no friends". Simple and bluntly honest. It's be … | Continue reading
# Now that I have the randomelements site up and running, the best way to keep up with music news is to follow the RSS feed over there. I don't think I'll focus on posting all new release details on the blog. | Continue reading
# In a post on Bluesky, I wrote: Sometimes, I overcomplicate things and lose the vibe. I've decided not to rerecord "After the tears" but use the live jam as the base and just make tweaks. I know a new version just won't sound the same. As with All raw sound and emotion, I want … | Continue reading
# ADHD Me: must work on // finish off the new track. Brain: oooh, let's make glitchy drum sounds with the Syncussion. | Continue reading
# After Wednesday's breakdown, I went back to the doctor's yesterday — a week early. I'm officially off citalopram and have been moved on to fluoxetine. Today was the first dose. Hopefully, this will agree with me more than the citalopram. That won't be hard. | Continue reading
# I think it's safe to say that citalopram is not for me. I'd been feeling progressively worse over the past week until everything culminated in a massive breakdown last night. Feeling very bored and fed up, I went up to the studio with the intention of starting to put things bac … | Continue reading
# The new randomelements site went live yesterday, followed by some immediate bug fixes. 😅 Isn't it always the way, you only notice stuff after the event. It's only a simple three pager (home, updates, about) but I really like the look and feel. I'll probably expand it in … | Continue reading
# Work continues on the randomelements site; it's almost ready to go. Aside from the home page, it's based on my Hyblog hybrid blog project, but you wouldn't know it at first glance. The sliding menu tray is gone. Comments on the blog have been stripped out. Everything has been … | Continue reading
# With things the way they are, I went back to the doctor this morning. It was earlier than planned, being only three weeks into taking citalopram, but I couldn't continue like this. I'm going to be staying on them for now (at least another two weeks) but have been signed off fro … | Continue reading
# As is the way when I can't concentrate on anything else, I've been making further tweaks to the site. It's something I can do without too much thought. It's not anything major, just better integrating the new look across the rest of the site. I suppose it's cathartic, starting … | Continue reading
# StrugglingThe Thursday before Easter (2nd April) was my two-week meds review. The sertraline would have been out of my system, but the citalopram wouldn't be at full efficacy. It certainly felt that way. The few days before had been increasingly difficult with low moods and fee … | Continue reading
# Now that I have a couple of new synth stands 1 I need to reorganise everything. Again. It all feels a bit cramped and claustrophobic. Also, I need to significantly improve the power management. I've seen some reasonably priced, rack mounted power conditioners which I will consi … | Continue reading
# I've been going to town with more thematic changes: about >> ident hello >> EHLO colophon >> specs reader >> inbound follow >> tune in The URL structure is all staying the same — things like /about, /hello, and /feeds are well established — but it's fun to have a play with t … | Continue reading
# Home is where the start is The new site homepage is now live! It takes a few cues from the old version, but introduces a new aesthetic that I have carried over to the rest of the site. I may do more once things are settled and I've ensured there are no glitches. I was strugglin … | Continue reading
# The new homepage is just about done — I'll probably make it live tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm making a lot of changes to the main site theme so that it better matches. Light mode should be just about done (there's always a chance I've missed something) but dark mode is curren … | Continue reading
# I'm working on a new homepage for the blog; something more modular that acts as a springboard. I've been wanting to do something new for a while, though not known which way I wanted to take it. Say what you will about GenAI, I asked ChatGPT for some ideas out of left field, and … | Continue reading
# Time to refresh the phone home screen. | Continue reading
# There I was, bemoaning constant tweaks to the site, and I made some more. 😆 I've enhanced swipe to navigate. Can't see the video? Click here to watch... Can't see the video? Click here to watch... | Continue reading
# On this day ten years ago, I returned to the blog after a two-and-a-half-year break and set myself on the path that would ultimately lead to where I am today. It was a true landmark moment. I hadn't been happy with what I was doing, so stepped away to explore other things. A ye … | Continue reading
# Colin Devroe pointed out that a detail in his kanban app Signboard: as you drag a card it begins to slightly tilt in the direction that you’re dragging This is exactly the kind of minutiae I love and get lost in. I recently added CSS to fade, blur, resize, and tilt elements a … | Continue reading
# Don't you just hate it when things suddenly stop working, seemingly for no reason, with no changes being made? When I switched from the live feed to the daily feed, it wasn't using RSSCloud to push updates. I added the required elements but it wasn't working. I jumped into Code … | Continue reading
# Made a small change so that short posts don't get a full link card when sent to Bluesky, only a simple link. The card was overkill if the full text was included. | Continue reading
# Dave Winer blogged a response to Colin Devroe's post on Mastodon. Colin stated: I wouldn’t hold our breath that Bluesky will ever make the tech decisions we would want Amongst Dave's points was this: Maybe they can come up with something better organized and with more consis … | Continue reading
# Today is the first day on the new meds. While there are some possible similar side effects, I'm hoping for a more positive result; that my body doesn't reject them as it seemed to be doing with the sertraline. Citalopram has a higher bioavailability, so needs a smaller dose com … | Continue reading
# Had my doctor's appointment this morning to discuss the side effects I've been getting with my current meds. It was agreed that having them start at this stage was not a good indication (especially as they don't seem to be as effective now) and that I should come off them. The … | Continue reading
# Last month, I mentioned that I wasn't sure how to feel about having no compulsion to return to World of Warcraft despite the next expansion 1 being imminent. It still feels strange. Not just not playing, but that I have no desire to play. Not even the curiousity to see what's c … | Continue reading
# On Sunday, I went back to testing ideas in software rather than jumping straight on the machines. It definitely paid dividends. Now I don't know if I should continue solely in software, use the patterns to control hardware via MIDI, or move everything out of the box. | Continue reading