Terrific read on the need for self-promotion from Herbert Liu (linked by the always interesting Tim Prebble). I'm squarely in the I shouldn’t have to do this and it sucks and I’m lousy at it anyway camp. I also know full well that I need to get over that. But there’s also a part of me that tacitly thinks along these lines, which Liu quotes from a commenter.

Looking down on people for “shameless self promotion” means that you only want art from people privileged enough to have a job that can support it, or that are passionate enough to make significant sacrifices to their quality of life.

Damn, damn, damn. My PKMS¹ seems to have let me down again. I wanted to retrieve a piece I read recently — within the past 6 weeks? — and was certain I had noted, to the effect that the author had been advised that for any really difficult choice or decision, it makes no difference what you choose...

On a whim, encouraged by having solved a particularly nasty case of cable noise on a new microphone¹, I dusted off an old tube headphone amp. The dust had accumulated over the years since I abandoned the amp because of a nasty, persistent, somewhat high-pitched buzz. Well, blow me if the buzz h...

Robert MacFarlane’s previous book, The Old Ways, I read in partial preparation for a long walk on one of the old ways, which has yet to materialise. Underland, on the other hand, informs me of journeys I will never make. Extreme cold, cramped passageways, far-off places — all of which become, in...

At some point, and past the middle of the month seems way beyond that point, I need to admit to myself that May's monthly report is not going to get written. That isn't because nothing worthwhile happened. On the contrary, the month included a terrific visit to London, which straddled May and June a...