2026-04-29 19:54:01
I can be a bit of a curmudgeon and focus on the negatives when I feel the pressure. I know it's not good for me to get into that negativity spiral so reflecting like this is important.
So, without further ado, here are some things I have been enjoying lately.
2026-04-27 02:43:40
There are few things more joyous than a small child's birthday party.
I finally finished the mandatory training module on work's learning platform for "how to write good prompts for AI".
Personally, I didn't feel the course addressed many of the inherent issues with LLMs nor the issues inherent in "prompt engineering" but it was a valiant effort even if it taught me nothing I already knew. I don't mean that to sound arrogant.
It does mean I am now eligible for access to the new proprietary model at work and can benchmark it against the other systems we have access to. Yay, science!
Early morning, golden hour, and the nascent morning sun is evaporating fog off the pond in the bog. There's a solitary Canada Goose backlit on a tuft of turf in the middle like an 80s power ballad singer surrounded by dry ice.
I set up a cron job to rclone some directories around so I had copies on my laptop, server, and cloud drive.
Sadly, I forgot that I'd saved something into one of those folders that wasn't in the others and the destructive nature of my rclone wiped it from my drive never too be seen again! I tried a few things for recovery to no avail.
So, yeah. Clone can be destructive, check your backups, folks.
When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three Tides. This is something that happens only once every eight years.
Susanna Clarke, "Piranesi"
2026-04-26 02:58:29
Reading Matt's post, "Why I Don't Use A Dedicated Music Player", with great interest.
A dedicated Music Player is something I keep coming back to, time and time again but never actually get around to buying. For much the same reason as Matt; in the cold light of day, I can't quite see the point!
I don't listen to a lot of music by myself away from my desk; mostly while running, driving, or occasionally on a commute.
I like to track my music with last.fm and that's difficult with an mp3 player. As some friends on the fediverse suggested, I could buy a cheap Android phone and just install last.fm and a music player but then I'm carrying two phones 🤷
I really shouldn't use an mp3 player while I'm driving. I think it's almost certainly illegal!
I can honestly do without high energy power metal I listen to while running skewing my listening metrics do that's really the only use case. I have my phone with me when I run though so it seems a waste to buy a device specifically for that use.
What do you think? Do you have any advice or persuasive narratives to sway me? Get in touch by email, hit me up on the Socials™, or elsewhere online.
2026-04-20 04:37:28
I always feel like Autumn is my jam because I'm all goth and shit but I do love Spring. I think the shift has happened now I'm back in the countryside; syncing with the rhythms of nature and bonding with the Earth. Or something. Anyway…
The forget-me-nots from the wood have spread into my garden — or I planted them last year, I can't remember. Either way, a gorgeous splash of delicate colour under the dead willow tree that needs removing.
The Acer is in full and glorious red leaf, the rhododendron has begun to flower, and the pear tree I planted is not yet dead.
There are snowdrops and bluebells popping up around the Wendy House. I briefly considered taking photos but didn't because of reasons.
Fun fact; the Wendy House is named after Wendy Darling from "Peter Pan".
We are moving into a delivery phase at work which as pivoted the focus of the workload from Strategy and Design to Data and Technology. It's meant very busy days and nights where I can't quite turn my brain off properly.
When the world has pushed you to your knees, that is when you learn who you really are! That is when you find your true strength!
Tomi Adeyemi, "Children of Anguish and Anarchy"
2026-04-18 14:00:37
In the previous installment of Tomi Adeyemi's West African inspired magical high fantasy, the story ended with a cliff-hanger that cut short a rolling boil. The last book in the trilogy wraps everything up neatly while adding more complexity — a bold move for an Act 3 novel!
Spoilers ahead
There is some discussion of plot points and mention of previous books in the series. If you want to read them completely blind, probably stop reading this review now!
It was genuinely cathartic to see "myself" as the villain — Scandinavian-coded pirates. Not on a romantic Nordic quest but cutting a path of bloodthirsty slaughter and entitlement. High Fantasy has a nasty habit of heroing Caucasians in a noble quest against "savages" but this flips the script without feeling performative.
Fair warning: I read a review of the previous book that mentioned feeling gut-punched and a level of distress at the parallels to the Atlantic Slave trade. I found the scenes uncomfortable; the descriptions of subjugation and torture can be surprisingly graphic for a "Young Adult" novel.
The story galloped along at a fair old clip. Adeyemi packed a lot into her final book. There was enough, honestly, to split this into two books and give the characters some room to develop.
Accusations of queer-baiting in earlier novels had a resolution; kinda sorta. It wasn't explored in any satisfactory depth; more than a Dumbledore might have been gay, you don't know he wasn't
way though.
The introduction of the vine-weavers (who, given their use of Portuguese, feel Amazonian coded) was a lovely addition to the rich cultural patina but I felt it muddied the waters some.
Some threads were tied up a little too neatly at the end; the happily-ever-afters didn't feel earned for some characters.
The Epilogue was really good. Setting the stage for the world after the novel is always tricky and Adeyemi did it justice. A solid book, rewarding for the reader if a little shallow in places — the curse of an ambitious plot!
2026-04-17 21:07:32
There's a music industry trope about the weak second album
that, it must be said, is a cliche for a reason. Musicians spend their lives to date crafting their debut and eighteen months banging out the follow up. Midlands' chanteuse Holly Humberstone is bucking that trend with brand new release, "Cruel World". Album closer "Beauty Pageant" is haunting in a mature torch song kind of way. Touches on early Jillette Johnson at times — which is a good thing.
High Wycombe headbangers As Everything Unfolds have already survived the "Sophomore Slump" with 2025's "Ultraviolet" and are back with their third long play release.
Dealing with grief (the band lost their drummer in August 2024), "Did you ask to be set free?" sees Charlie Rolfe doing double duty as clean and dirty vocals over that kind of produced metalcore like Polaris and Make Them Suffer. The drums crack staccato reminiscent of Pendulum at times under judicious use of synths pushing the sound towards dark synth pop as the distorted guitars drop in the mix for a more polished, accessible sound.
Not a huge departure from their earlier material but a solid entry in the catalogue.
There are few things in life I love more than seeing the word vampire in its most pretentious spelling! Kiwi swamp witch Kiki Rockwell doesn't disappoint with "Vampyr".
The new single twinkles along on a high register piano melody underpinned with rough strings and Rockwell's melancholy contralto husking its way breathily through the middle flirting with a German language middle eight on the way.
As a mediocre bassist who appreciates watching experts in their field do their thing, I watch Davie504 over on the YouTube. He posted a video on the bassline that broke the internet
which led me to Angine de Poitrine.
Micro-tonal mathrock from another galaxy. Extremely technical playing and the layers of sound are incredible for a duo. The use of loops and micro-tonal notes (the notes in between the notes) –on a double-necked guitar/bass hybrid that I've never seen before– creates a sonic wall that is equally Primus and 65daysofstatic.
All this madness is held together by reliable drumming that keeps the whole shebang from straying into noodle-y wigging-out jazz and firmly in the alt-rock camp. "Sarniezz" is a particular delight.