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Had a lovely, and mostly offline, trip across the pond back to the old country. There's just something special about England in the summertime that I really miss. We picked quite the time to visit. The first week we were there had the hottest temps recorded, it was absolutely brutal. Now, Phoenix is much hotter in the summer. But the old adage is true, it's a dry heat. The humidity in England just sucks the very soul out of your body. The lack of air conditioning anywhere meant no relief in the…
Star City is really really good.
Apps that refresh your place within the same session because engagement are a fucking blight on humanity. Good morning everyone.
Kinda liked how the sunset lit up the window of the building across the way. Phoenix, 2026.
If only there was a way to give Elon Musk more money.
Things that would have been tweets back in the olden times. • Spotify have reverted back to their original app icon. I know the reason for the disco ball one, but it was just awful. • Short notice plans are afoot for summer trip back across the pond to the old country. I miss summers in England. • Reading about the Siri AI improvements this week and realizing I shall have none of that because iPhone 14 Pro Max
Summer approaches this desert southwest. Three signs you cannot ignore. Cold water, what even is that? You turn the tap on, and it's warm. Warm, warmer, and hot are what's available until November. Out of town mountain trail hiker rescue. Look at those pretty helicopters save the silly afternoon mid-westerners with their half bottle of water. The palm tree snowfall. All blossom, everywhere. You can see it falling through the air, in the pool, on the roof. It's also everywhere.
Out at Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, May 2026.
There aren't many days I don't think about my Dad. He would have turned 80 this week. I miss him. Last night my brother in law had a heart attack. He's still in the ICU. Was stubborn enough to not pay attention to chest pains at the weekend. Things happen that make you think about life. It's short. It goes by so fast. Listen to your body, spend time with your family, your loved ones. Focus on the things that matter.
Never saw this one coming. After being acquired by CBS in 2007, Last.fm is now back to being independent again. I've used Last.fm almost every day since 2006. Those early social features were genuinely ahead of their time. The shoutbox, the neighbors concept (people with similar taste whose listening you could browse), the recommendation engine. I made some real friends there, some of whom I eventually met in person. CBS mostly left it alone over the years, which is a polite way of saying they…
A shout out to Neil Turner. Please get well soon.
I've never sent, nor found, a message in a bottle. Living in a land-locked State is going to make this particular life goal a bit difficult I feel.
I'll be patiently waiting for the dust to settle on WordPress 7.0 before installing it. Not immediately interested with the AI layer added to the core (via jwz). A new AI Client in Core lets WordPress communicate with generative AI models, while connections are easily managed from a single hub in the dashboard. The AI Client combined with the Abilities API makes a fiery duo that introduces new functionality, workflow automation, and creation tools to your website I dunno, for what I need this…
So a good 14 years after everyone else, I decided to start using letterboxd to track movies I watch.
What things have been in my earholes and eyeballs since the last time I did one of these? • Front 242. Another band with difficult licensing, some of their good albums are on streaming, some are not. Those missing albums I added manually and Bob's your Uncle. • Blade Runner. What happened was, I listened to a podcast where they discussed the Blade Runner movies. So of course I had to watch it again. Every re-watch makes me think oh yeah, this is a bloody great movie. Still holds up. • Blade…
There are still a few artists from my youth I've never seen live. Enter one Gary Numan. I remember hearing Are Friends Electric in the car as a child while we were on holiday at some seaside or other. Too young to have a "this changed everything" moment, but I can't help but think it shaped what I liked as a teenager. So maybe it did change everything? As I got older and started buying records, I found the Living Ornaments double vinyl box set. To this day, the first record of the set, Living…
From the 2025 vault, walking around Cambridge.
What happened was, after 10+ years of not exercising, I started running again for real in 2025. I've been tracking progress in my head, in text files, a spreadsheet. Madness. The next logical step is tracking it in a web app. Ok, any sane person at this point would throw money at the problem and buy a smart watch. But where's the fun in that? So I wrote a little thing. Run…Forrest. I'm tracking my runs here.
Anil Dash's post on why the Artemis II photos are on Flickr is excellent. I'm Flickr school of 2004, so his post warms my heart. I still post daily well, almost daily.
While getting caught up on my feed again this evening, I read Chad Comello's don't read the book before the movie post. To which I agree with wholeheartedly. Well, unless there isn't a movie yet. I'm not saying don't ever read a book just in case they make a movie out of it. But don't read the book just before watching the movie, which totally already exists, is sound advice. Ahem. I find sometimes it works even better for TV shows. Over the years I've posted about my love of The Expanse. It's…
I'm not really in the market for "The Ferrari of Digital Tape Recorders". But my goodness, look at that. That spinny wheel in the center is gorgeous. Fuck it, I would like one anyway. Dear Santa…
I'm the worst at opening my feed reader. Tonight is catch up night. You lot are rather prolific, I must say.
It's not often I hear music so incredibly different, unique, and so far out of the comfort zone of what I usually listen to. Enter Angine de Poitrine, a band from Quebec, who managed to blow my mind. The look. The name. The brilliance of the guitarist creating loops with an intricate pedal setup he navigates with his bare feet. This is incredibly clever stuff.
Except for when you do? I'm trying to take the 7D Mark II out more. It's big and heavy, but I still love it.
If you're in an appropriate timezone, Nine Inch Noize are on stage RIGHT NOW.
The Nine Inch Noize (NIN + Boys Noize collaboration) Coachella set yesterday is a bit good. If you like that kind of thing, which I do, and you should too. Two bonuses (1) Trent's wife Mariqueen on stage for vocals (2) the Nine Inch Noize album comes out IN FIVE DAYS.
From the vault, the Phoenix Art Museum. This place is a photography mecca if you're ever in town and fancy a visit.
From the vault, a fine afternoon.
What things have been in my earholes and eyeballs since the last time I did one of these, you didn't ask. • Artemis II launch. Historic mission marking our return to the moon after 50 years. This made me incredibly happy while watching. Albeit a little nerve wracking as any child of the 80s will […]
Watching NASA's Artemis II launch is a reminder that humans can be amazing. Godspeed to the Moon.
