2026-06-11 04:32:45
Via Alexandra Dishing It Up ..., I'm answering Davey’s Dish Podcast Quick Fire Quiz; ten easy questions about delicious food!
With my mouth? Poached is probably top of the list; too fiddly to rustle up every day so a rare and delicious treat.
It's difficult to answer this as I consider most food to be a sandwich. Cheese ranks highly, as does falafel.
There isn't a way to cook potatoes that makes them bad. Chips most often, roasties as a treat.
Butter. "Toast", for me, is so lightly done as to be "warm bread" and then scrape a tablespoon of butter across it immediately so it soaks in 🤤
Does black pepper count? The king of spices. It goes in and on basically everything I eat.
That depends on the sauce, obviously. Rigatoni, tortellini, and lasagne are probably top three. Tricolour fusilli is most eaten because of reasons.
I have an ancient wooden spoon that's likely more wand than utensil. Has seen countless curries and batters.
I only eat condiment flavoured crisps. Salt and vinegar, worcester sauce, and paprika.
I don't eat that much chocolate. I'd like to think I'm an artisanal fair trade small batch local chocolatier kinda guy but it's usually a family bar of Dairy Milk Caramel. But kept in the fridge.
Never really been a fan of the Sunday roast; a childhood of veg boiled until it's grey and all tastes the same. Being vegetarian excludes many traditional items too. Quorn Roast is pretty decent but I usually plump for a steakless steak pie from Pukka when we're home and the ubiquitous nut roast down the pub.
Now it's your turn! Get in touch by email, hit me up on the Socials™ or elsewhere online, or –better yet– write your own blog post and send me the link — I'd love to read it!
2026-06-11 03:36:23
Inspired, as so many are, by Robert, I'm going to attempt #Junited2026 — sharing one link to another blogger every day to celebrate some of the excellent writing out there.
I may not make it but we can but try.
We are, after all, authors on a quest, world building our own habitat in the ether between the ones and zeros, looking to connect with other like minded people.
Be Authentic by Wry Writer
After mentioning this idea of somehow being able to authenticate the source of a photo, I’ve implemented and tested the idea. Here is an update on the project.
Photography Chain of Custody Experiment #2 by cedric at Photoni.st
The characters were three dimensional – all with hopes met or dashed, and their flaws brutally exposed.
Funny, sad, tense, depressing, exciting, and satisfying. Also v long.
Middlemarch by George Eliot by felix.gripe
I started to notice how there’s an awful lot of near-future brand names and corporations and such like. Snacks like AnooYoo bars. Walk-in cosmetic surgery SnipNFix and NooSkins. Ersatz beverages like Happicuppa. Big pharma corporations like HelthWyzer. Takeaway treats like SoyOBoy Burgers. GMO fast foods like ChickiNobs Bucket O’Nubbins.
A Wombat’s Anus by futuromaniac
I watched a video review of Dirty Dancing yesterday that talked about how well it’s held up. They pointed out how the film values abortion as healthcare, that it doesn’t vilify Penny’s decision and also doesn’t vilify sex (it’s a pretty sex-positive movie), and that the class commentary is insightful and sensitive.
Dirty Dancing is still a great movie by Hollie
The physical act of framing and taking images with a phone just does not feel right. I know I am in a dwindling minority here. Humanity loves taking photos like this. But I don’t.
On Using a Proper Camera by Florian Ziegler
Sighted people have a casual, almost dismissive, relationship with the weather; they glance out the window or check an app. The weather is a visual fact; a piece of data. For me the weather isn't data — it's a symphony…
The Acoustic Signature of Weather by Robert Kingett
There was a couple of buskers, one guy with a guitar doing pop covers and my favourite busker, the Pan Pipe player from Ecuador. It's always a pleasure to hear music from the Andes Mountains of South America in Wigan. Wigan might be an old mining town, but the place is quite cosmopolitan at times.
Frugal Film Project 2026 - Compact - May by Jim Graves
Then there's AI. Sigh. I'm currently on a job hunt and I considered this time to be perfect to get a better grip on vibe-coding, vibe-designing, vibe-everything—the things that my future job will expect me to be good at. But at the mere thought of the "new way of doing things", I recoil. I've been having my objections with big tech for years—that's just who I am: looking for software alternatives, swimming against the stream, thinking maybe a little too much about how we use software in general. I haven't found a way to fit AI into my way of being a user.
Drowning in the City by niqwithq
The idea that a great photograph is created in a single, perfectly-timed instant is both deeply appealing and fundamentally wrong. Stepping into the world and courting serendipity may yield a beautiful accident, but pressing the shutter is only the beginning. The real work begins later, when those frames return from the field to the sorting table, where photography becomes art.
The Myth of Intent in Photography by David M. M. Taffet
2026-06-08 03:25:36
The cabbage tree in the garden has begun to flower; the bees are beyond excited. I am grateful for the rain because it dampens the powerful stench of cat piss emanating from the tree. I don't know how Aotearoans cope!
A solitary wren was sat on the floor of the utility room. Must have flown in while I was letting the dog out. I gently ushered it back outside. No harm done.
Two days later, woke to a dead bird on the patio. Had to keep the dog locked away while I bagged it and binned it. When I returned with a bag it had gone! I saw the neighbourhood top cat swaggering around on our driveway later so I think he's to blame.
Back in work this week, including the first time in office for about a month. Nothing of note to report really. The site deployment went without any major hitches in my absence. Which is how it should be. Actually enjoyed the commute though; got steps in, fresh air. Lovely. Not a huge fan of having to run across town to catch the train and arriving, sweaty and panting, as the train rolls out of the station on time. I was 15 seconds late.
For these last years in Erhenrang I had fine all to grease and luxury and had lost my wind for walking
Ursula K LeGuin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"
2026-06-05 22:07:39
Following on from the enigmatic "Tape 05" earlier this year, Scottish electronica legends, Boards of Canada, have dropped a whole new album, "Inferno", which is –in a word– "lush". Sticking to their classic formula of chopped up spoken word over wash synths, the whole album seeps into your mind leaving you feeling unsettled. This is a good thing. At times channelling Nine Inch Nails, others Aphex Twin, this is a darker –bassier– album than their previous output. I like it a lot.
I've seen a few people chatting about Bulgarian Cartrader so I thought I'd check them out. Not least because of the "genre defying" tag that accompanied some of the recommendations. I was not as impressed as other listeners. Album opener, "LAB" gives you a good idea of what to expect. Props due to Daniel Stoyanov for, in another life, writing songs for both Peter Fox and Seeed.
Remember Them Crooked Vultures? Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl's supergroup? They wanted to be called "Caligula" but the name was already taken by 1990's Australian greebo outfit, Caligula. Their 1994 debut "Rubenesque" takes less than an hour to rattle through 15 tracks of fuzzy guitars, crickly drums, and slightly nasal singing vacillating 'twixt Clint Mansell and the quieter parts of "Pretty Hate Machine" era Trent Reznor. All topped off with an unpretentious cover of The Miracles' "Tears of a Clown". I can see why they toured with Ned's Atomic Dustbin and PWEI; similar "breakbeat plus fuzzbox" vibes — "Checkpoint" is pure Poppies. Immense!
2026-06-02 23:13:22
There's something prehistoric about the trees round here. They mark out boundaries of farming land but it's impossible to tell whether the trees or the farms came first. In all honesty, probably a bit of both; land will likely have been originally earmarked by natural landmarks such as this ancient tree before, much later, hedges and fences were erected to make those boundaries inarguable.
2026-06-02 06:04:27
Happy New "Love Island" Day!
Here are a few photos from my phone from the last month with neither rhyme nor reason to the theme.
