There is something fitting about Stu McLoughlin finding himself wrestling publicly with artistic self-doubt in a show inspired by Hamlet. For years, Living Spit have occupied a unique position within the South West’s theatre ecology, creating joyfully anarchic productions that combine sharp musicianship, historical irreverence and an almost supernatural ability to extract comedy from things that really shouldn’t be funny. Whether tackling Tudor monarchs, Greek mythology or French fairy tales,…

I have this sense that we've passed the point where "vibe coding" is a derogatory term. I have no empirical evidence for this; it's more a feeling that those weaponising the term have now accepted the inevitability and are just getting with the program. Or they've reskilled into other industries because, let's face it: you can't be a productive, competitive developer today without AI. I saw this comment from Linus Torvalds today which I thought really nailed it: ‼️ Linus Torvalds called rules…

Attempting to conjure good properties. Ever since I learned about property-based testing, I've been fascinated by it. The notion of test data generators seem superior to Test Data Builders: Both require some degree of test-specific boilerplate code, but you get more bang for your bob with test data generators. Instead of hard-coding some (often arbitrary) constant value in a Test Data Builder, you define a range of values that, one hopes, belong to the same equivalence class. Getting started…

Last week-or-so, I mentioned that the Polish Ambassador to Ireland had been cutting a ribbon in Glenties Co Donegal. I was on account of a) the commemoree was born in what's now Poland b) for the second half of 2026, during Ireland's Presidency of the EU, each Irish County has been paired with one of the members states of the EU But wait and, like, whoa! are there not 26 counties but 27 members of the EU. That was my gotcha and I had to download the two lists and cross reference to see which EU…

And that skill is BRUSH MAPPING... I'm extremely bad at it... In these last few pictures, you might see that I am currently trying to make one of those converted industrial spaces you see on the west side of LA, and it's not going well... Some shapes are just pretty unfriendly for patches I guess... I need to get stronger... I'm using Dark Radiant, the same tool that my husband uses on Blendo games. I am learning this partially for my own amusement but also partially to have basic ability to…

The issue Nearly every director now uses AI for board work, and an obvious use, having a model digest the pack, hands over the one task Australian law says a director must do personally. Why it persists A digest looks like preparation and shows no trace of what it left out, so the cost stays invisible until a figure that mattered turns out to have sat in the pages nobody read. What to do Read the pack first and question the model second, about what you missed; if the pack is too long to read,…

Daily Drawing 1023

Towns hold what people were, and when a town lets things go, the signs are physical. Those I can photograph. When I do it well, the viewer may feel a blissful melancholy. I drive to Denton, Texas, often. I go to some area I’ve walked a hundred times and try to find something new. It’s a good game. In the end, I pick up fajitas at Ambro’s Taqueria and come home with one or two keepers. This rent house near Texas Woman’s University says a lot, and yet... that pink rake has probably been put away…

Don‘t expect any fast email reply this week. Am in the mountains. ☺️ Reply via Email

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When I try to feed my crows and the gulls muscle in they swallow whatever it is faster than I can imagine. The fur on this squirrel likely slowed this guy down. The squirrel was most likely road kill.

Hello, my friends! Welcome to a new blog post. Yes, as you can see, I’m still writing. Old habits die hard, but all kidding a side salad, I enjoy the challenge of attempting to write less (and shut the fuck up and be less of an online blowhard) with, well, a desire to share a life in menswear. After all, I still want to do my part in showing that one can indeed make “menswear content” that isn’t just reccos, PR, or some form of “founder marketing”. After all, I just tend to have a lot of…

Shortly after booting my new IBM ThinkCenter S50 with the SuSE Linux Professional DVD in its tray, I noticed that like Windows XP, it too didn’t accept my USB mouse. Using the keyboard to advance to the screen to select a pointing device, all I saw were PS/2 and serial port mice. So, I turned to Vintage Computer Components and bought a Fujitsu Siemens mouse in the same colour scheme as my keyboard. My new Fujitsu Siemens mouse They send it my way the day after I ordered it and one day later I…

A song from the last gig you went to. I waited a long long time to see this artist live. Her Jagged Little Pill album was my era, the songs remain sharp, vivid, and bold. She set a trend that said “women can rock too” and opened doors for many current artists who now, too, headline stadiums. And that voice. Ohh my God that voice, so strong, so alive, it was such a treat of a gig. The warmup acts of Skunk Anansie and Wet Leg got things going but Bellahouston Park erupted when god* arrived on the…

Perfume PosseA Bit More Communing with Uncle Serge Had a vaguely irritating trip into town for ortho appointment last week that included catching an earring in a favourite scarf, which now requires darning. Yet again, my ortho appointment was midday, when the teenage lemmings were … being lemmings… Continue Reading → Perfume PosseA Bit More Communing with Uncle Serge

Cool, creamy, and utterly indulgent, this Mocha Chocolate Caramel Swirl-A-Chino blends coffee, chocolate, and caramel into the ultimate homemade coffeehouse treat. Perfect for mocha lovers!Perfect serve cold, or hot. Whenever you are craving a sweet pick-me-up, this easy homemade mocha caramel drink is both decadent and refreshing. One sip and you'll understand why this irresistible blend is impossible to put down or resist! Eileen hasn't been able to go to Tim Hortons these past couple of…

When I started taking photography seriously, I was taking single photos. At most, I’d go back to the same place over and over again (e.g. Aberdeen beach) but each visit would be separate from the previous ones. It worked for me because I was interested in making pretty pictures, and they don’t need to tell a story. After a while, it started to feel like they were falling short of something. A sandy beach by itself is nothing. Add a wreck, then a man with a dog, and it starts to say something. A…

“Would you agree that human translators are becoming less important as technology evolves?” The man asking the question was wearing what seemed to be his only expression: blank, emotionless curiosity. Boone didn’t like him very much, nor did he particularly like the woman who sat to the man’s left, but Boone kept a faint smile on his face. It was a job interview, after all, and he needed the work. Their initial approach to him had been conventional enough, via an email reply to the ad that…

Preorder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster! The eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master haven't changed for me over the past eight years and I've used them hundreds of times to prep my games with several different systems. What I do in each step has changed, however. Often I expanded each step and even moved some steps around to better fit my prep, my materials, and the games I run. One big change was moving the Strong Start into my Scenes step. The strong start is still a separate step –…

Trump Waives Sanctions on Russia It now looks that Donald Trump has picked sides in the war between Russia and Ukraine: He is for Russia and against Ukraine. He wants Russia to win. Maybe then Russian President Vladimir Putin will let Trump build Trump Tower Moscow, the tallest building in Europe, with a golden penthouse at the top gifted to Putin. When questioned about whether he asked Elon Musk to reduce Ukraine's ability to use his satellite system, Starshield—something critical to Ukraine's…

Hope you had blessed Sunday! ✝️🙏 Time for another Catholic Meme Monday. The post Catholic Meme Monday— Issue 247 first appeared on The Simple Catholic. The post Catholic Meme Monday— Issue 247 appeared first on The Simple Catholic.

Different trips, different stoves, and different tools for different jobs. An updated look at the backpacking stoves in our quiver. Read More ... Continue reading The Quiver: Our Backpacking Stoves in 2026 at PMags.com.

I received these questions from a fellow writer in response to my morning's blog post titled The Enduring Imaginative Life. He writes: “Interesting. So, for you, does the story emerge fully formed, from beginning to end? Or is it more of a sketch, an idea that then develops through the act of writing? Are you ever surprised yourself? Does the story ever take an unexpected turn?” I see many possibilities in answering this. The stories that reside in my head often do emerge fully formed, after…

A few years back, Ahmed Naji (author of ROTTEN EVIDENCE), asked me to provide an illustration for an awesome short speculative satire he wrote for Art of the Working Class. Titled THE TANTA MUSEUM OF WHITE HISTORY, it is both funny and piercingly perceptive, and he just made it available on his substack. Highly recommended reading. #work

Recently I woke from a dream adapted from Nostromo and directed by Joseph Conrad. Something about Martin Decoud in the lifeboat, weighted down with silver ingots. The dream, typically, was fragmentary and out of focus. This is only the second time I can remember having a dream lifted from a work of fiction. The other involved Leopold Bloom embracing Rudy, his dead infant son. Do I find profound significance in these nighttime theatricals? That both involve death? Not really. They tell me that…

Ironically, via Twitter/X: This is what billionaire ownership of the media means: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta shut down the No Kings account for hours during the height of their protests. Meta suppressed accounts supporting Brazil President Lula da Silva in the recent election. Larry Ellison’s TikTok blocked advertising for a documentary criticizing Elon Musk. Fight back. Defeat oligarchy. Preserve democracy. This is why I remain a believer in indieweb principles. I quibble, and often, with my…

Last night I updated all my Apple devices to MacOS 27. So far so good. Going through my phone settings I noticed that the 'Siri and Apple Intelligence' is now just named 'Siri'. Before I had opted out of the Apple Intelligence part. Now there is not that option, so I just turned off Siri as I never use it. Connecting my iPhone to my Kia Soul I am now met with this message. CarPlay Not Available. To use CarPlay, enable Siri in the Settings app on your iPhone. I play podcasts, stream downloaded…

“I don’t know what planet they’re on, but I know about the earrings!” We’ve got a very unusual space opera to read through this time around, one that takes questions of empire and identity to interesting places; critic and editor Alexandra Pierce joins to discuss. Credits: Guest: Alexandra Pierce Title: Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee Host: Jake Casella Brookins Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork by Rob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough References: 2026 Le Guin…

STUFF I'VE WRITTENYou already had them. Three decisions that look unrelated, and the one thing underneath all of them.Also this week: Who is the machine working for?. My review of Cory Doctorow's new book, and the one question I now ask before handing anything to AI.From the Archive: How to make good decisions. Start by building a good toolkit.. A toolkit for deciding well. Worth rereading once you know what you are deciding against.STUFF I'M READINGA little thank you can go a long way. Leaders…

…or, strange things I've found on fleabay.Jings & crivens! A bonus post with limited reach, I'd imagine. But for those of us in the know... genius.Whenever I'm really fed up, or ill (I'm talking poorly-blanket™ level of illness) I scour a certain online auction site for obscure photographic items. Just a challenge.One such occasion, afforded by a broken rib and prescription strength pain killers, saw me embarking upon the challenge. Armed with a late 1970s/early 1980s Pentax catalogue a hunt…

Warning I am not a medical professional. These notes are based on personal research and personal experience. They are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. I suffer from nocturnal bruxism. That is, at night, I excessively clench my jaw and grind my teeth. Humans have an average bite force of 830-1100 kPA, and people with bruxism often build these muscles and will exert that force directly into their teeth, gums, bones, and jaw. In 2026, my bruxism has…