Categories

Personal
- It was 20 years ago today
  Just over twenty years ago, I published my first ever blog post. It was short, self-absorbed, and served little purpose beyond a "Hello world!" introduction, but it kickstarted a semi-regular writing habit that I have maintained, on and off, ever since.
- 40 years of gaming
  I've been playing video games of one kind or another for more than forty years now.
- 2023 retrospective / 2024 resolutions
  Happy New Year!
- 2023: My year in books, film, and music
  For the seventeenth year in a row – probably the longest I've stuck at any habit, although the fact that I only have to do this once a year does make it slightly easier to sustain – it's time to collate and rate my media consumption during the last twelve months.
- To riff or not to riff
  I'm still struggling to figure out exactly what sort of music I want to make.
- Ghost, Node 18, and ECONNREFUSED ::1:3306
  An appropriately spooky ghost-related update, since we've just had Halloween; when I tried to update the Ghost installation that this blog runs on, I ran into a succession of problems.
- Learning Z80 assembly is hard
  When I set out to write something I could play on my ZX Spectrum, I was fairly confident in my abilities. Sure, it's been a while since I really did any programming, I'm pretty sure I can understand something that is by its very nature far simpler. I mean how hard could it possibly be?
- Music making
  Recently I've been making a concerted effort to get back into making music – and a few recent purchases have helped.
- On reading
  Last week, motivational writer and bookshop owner Ryan Holiday published a post on his blog titled These 38 Reading Rules Changed My Life. I read it, and several of the points he made definitely chimed with my own observations after forty-odd years as an avid reader.
- Zenit EM
  On a whim I recently bought myself a new toy. The Zenit EM is a 35mm SLR, manufactured in the Soviet Union for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. And, after almost 20 years using a smartphone, it's been a bit of a steep learning curve.
- Writing ZX BASIC on your PC
  One of the projects I'm slowly chipping away at in my spare time is a game for the ZX Spectrum. I really don't want to type it in using my actual Spectrum, so I started looking for a method that would let me write BASIC on my PC using a comfortable, familiar IDE.
- My favourite authors
  Now that the office bookshelves were ostensibly mine and mine alone, I decided that I would rearrange them in order to gather together the works of my favourite authors.
- Meditation
  I find meditation to be similar to exercising or writing: you never really want to do it, but you always feel better after you have.
- My 2022 in books, films and music
  Year sixteen of sitting myself down in front of the computer on New Year's Eve and totting up (almost) everything I read, watched or listened to over the previous twelve months. I'm not even sure whether I enjoy this exercise any more, but it's been a thing for too long to give it up now.
- How I became a web designer
  As I grow older, I increasingly often find myself indulging in nostalgic reminiscences, reliving periods of my life and reflecting on the multitude of decisions that led me to my present situation. One such recent reflection struck me as sufficiently interesting to share.
Life
- 40 years of gaming
  I've been playing video games of one kind or another for more than forty years now.
- 2023 retrospective / 2024 resolutions
  Happy New Year!
- Nostalgia
  Increasingly frequently, I find myself submerged in overwhelming nostalgia. My YouTube feed is full of reviews of ZX Spectrum games, people painting Warhammer miniatures, obscure histories of comic books, retrospectives of musicians and genres that haven't been big in the last three decades or more. I re-read books
- Meditation
  I find meditation to be similar to exercising or writing: you never really want to do it, but you always feel better after you have.
- How I Get Things Done
  Over the years, I’ve experimented with many different techniques for time- and task-management; here’s how I do it, 2018 edition.
- How I became a web designer
  As I grow older, I increasingly often find myself indulging in nostalgic reminiscences, reliving periods of my life and reflecting on the multitude of decisions that led me to my present situation. One such recent reflection struck me as sufficiently interesting to share.
Music
- 2023: My year in books, film, and music
  For the seventeenth year in a row – probably the longest I've stuck at any habit, although the fact that I only have to do this once a year does make it slightly easier to sustain – it's time to collate and rate my media consumption during the last twelve months.
- To riff or not to riff
  I'm still struggling to figure out exactly what sort of music I want to make.
- Music making
  Recently I've been making a concerted effort to get back into making music – and a few recent purchases have helped.
- Metric @ The Roundhouse, Feb 1st 2023
  If you're a fan of Metric, it's a little surprising to come across them playing in such a relatively intimate venue. The multiple Juno winners seem like they should be selling out stadiums. Perhaps back home in Canada they are – but here in Europe the stops are decidedly on the smaller side.
- My 2022 in books, films and music
  Year sixteen of sitting myself down in front of the computer on New Year's Eve and totting up (almost) everything I read, watched or listened to over the previous twelve months. I'm not even sure whether I enjoy this exercise any more, but it's been a thing for too long to give it up now.
Books
- 2023: My year in books, film, and music
  For the seventeenth year in a row – probably the longest I've stuck at any habit, although the fact that I only have to do this once a year does make it slightly easier to sustain – it's time to collate and rate my media consumption during the last twelve months.
- On reading
  Last week, motivational writer and bookshop owner Ryan Holiday published a post on his blog titled These 38 Reading Rules Changed My Life. I read it, and several of the points he made definitely chimed with my own observations after forty-odd years as an avid reader.
- My favourite authors
  Now that the office bookshelves were ostensibly mine and mine alone, I decided that I would rearrange them in order to gather together the works of my favourite authors.
- My 2022 in books, films and music
  Year sixteen of sitting myself down in front of the computer on New Year's Eve and totting up (almost) everything I read, watched or listened to over the previous twelve months. I'm not even sure whether I enjoy this exercise any more, but it's been a thing for too long to give it up now.
Film
- 2023: My year in books, film, and music
  For the seventeenth year in a row – probably the longest I've stuck at any habit, although the fact that I only have to do this once a year does make it slightly easier to sustain – it's time to collate and rate my media consumption during the last twelve months.
- John Waters
  Two pieces of John Waters-related media showed up in my feeds this week, and it got me thinking about my own 25-year fascination with the filmmaker.
- My 2022 in books, films and music
  Year sixteen of sitting myself down in front of the computer on New Year's Eve and totting up (almost) everything I read, watched or listened to over the previous twelve months. I'm not even sure whether I enjoy this exercise any more, but it's been a thing for too long to give it up now.
Retro
- Learning Z80 assembly is hard
  When I set out to write something I could play on my ZX Spectrum, I was fairly confident in my abilities. Sure, it's been a while since I really did any programming, I'm pretty sure I can understand something that is by its very nature far simpler. I mean how hard could it possibly be?
- Zenit EM
  On a whim I recently bought myself a new toy. The Zenit EM is a 35mm SLR, manufactured in the Soviet Union for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. And, after almost 20 years using a smartphone, it's been a bit of a steep learning curve.
- Writing ZX BASIC on your PC
  One of the projects I'm slowly chipping away at in my spare time is a game for the ZX Spectrum. I really don't want to type it in using my actual Spectrum, so I started looking for a method that would let me write BASIC on my PC using a comfortable, familiar IDE.
Gaming
- 40 years of gaming
  I've been playing video games of one kind or another for more than forty years now.
- Learning Z80 assembly is hard
  When I set out to write something I could play on my ZX Spectrum, I was fairly confident in my abilities. Sure, it's been a while since I really did any programming, I'm pretty sure I can understand something that is by its very nature far simpler. I mean how hard could it possibly be?
- Writing ZX BASIC on your PC
  One of the projects I'm slowly chipping away at in my spare time is a game for the ZX Spectrum. I really don't want to type it in using my actual Spectrum, so I started looking for a method that would let me write BASIC on my PC using a comfortable, familiar IDE.
Productivity
- How I Get Things Done
  Over the years, I’ve experimented with many different techniques for time- and task-management; here’s how I do it, 2018 edition.
- Personal Productivity Hacking
  When I look back over the last year, one area in particular stands out as needing improvement. Towards the end of the year, I resolved to address this petering out of productivity.
Writing
- Some Observations On Visiting Edinburgh, By A Visitor From The Low Countries
  When one arrives into Edinburgh from the west, the city slowly grows out of the ground before you. Squat houses with flat roofs cluster in ones and twos along the roadway, numbers nailed to their lintels, as if they aspire to one day grow taller.
- The End of the World As We Know It
  It started with an earthquake.
Review
- Metric @ The Roundhouse, Feb 1st 2023
  If you're a fan of Metric, it's a little surprising to come across them playing in such a relatively intimate venue. The multiple Juno winners seem like they should be selling out stadiums. Perhaps back home in Canada they are – but here in Europe the stops are decidedly on the smaller side.
Photography
- Zenit EM
  On a whim I recently bought myself a new toy. The Zenit EM is a 35mm SLR, manufactured in the Soviet Union for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. And, after almost 20 years using a smartphone, it's been a bit of a steep learning curve.
Site
- Ghost, Node 18, and ECONNREFUSED ::1:3306
  An appropriately spooky ghost-related update, since we've just had Halloween; when I tried to update the Ghost installation that this blog runs on, I ran into a succession of problems.