A substitute muse [295]

Greetings from the shed...

Aug 27, 2021

Shall we step out of our filter bubble for a moment?

#TheAction

How are you?

Seems like a while since I wrote one of these. In reality it’s only been 10 days as in the interim I posted five of nine journal entries detailing my bike ride from London to Edinburgh raising money for the charity Choose Love. So far, thanks to you, I’ve raised £2420.

The campaign is still in full swing though with others out there peddling like mad for this great cause. So if you are in a position to donate there is still time to round that number up to £2500. I’ll try to get the remaining journal posts out over the next week. Please become a full subscriber to support this dispatch and get all the content in this feed.

Recovery from the ride has been slow as I returned to a delivery of 13 tons of slate that needed shovelling down to the back of the garden. I now have Cambridgeshire’s largest pétanque terrain. But it will probably end up as a giant litter tray for the massive wood pigeon population that resides at the bottom of the garden.

So my hand is still a little incapacitated but I did manage getting back out on the bike this week. I’m quietly looking forward to the kids going back to school so I can return to some kind of cycling routine.

Anyway, when not shovelling, catching up with the local Ham Radio club, or entertaining the kids I’ve been cherry picking things from the web and playing catch-up with my bookmarks. [See below.]

#ThePictures

Lovely little portrait of the worlds strongest brothers. Tom in the video is now the world’s strongest man.

This is pretty mad. So many possibilities. That are not advertising.

Here is how it’s done.

Thanks to Brian Jones for sending me this video.

Love the concept behind this short film.

#TheWords

Reading The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay. A gift from @TontoWilliams.

It’s not a recent publication. It was first published in 2000 and got the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2001. But based in New York during the second world war it’s not going to age.

It’s also a thicker book than I would normally tackle. Well over 600 pages. I normally go for quicker reads but I’m chipping away at this and loving every minute. Comic books, mysticism and escapology. It’s a great adventure story that I look forward to dipping into every night.

I can do a lot of ‘bike shedding’ when compiling this dispatch. Here are 5 commonly used idioms in the tech industry.

#TheSound

Not seen much of my Italian cousins over the last couple of years. So when I texted one this week to wish them happy birthday I was surprised to hear he’d recently released his debut album. I think it’s great ambient electronica.

If you feel the same please let him know.

A fascinating look at how the OODA Loop played a key role in Brexit.

How to find silence in a noisy world.

Neutrino Watch is a generative semi fictional podcast where each episode changes daily. It’s bloody clever. Subscribe and listen, then delete the episodes to have the feed repopulated by newly generated episodes every day. There are lots of algorithms at play here. Much of the music is also algorithmically generated.

#TheConsumed

Took delivery of a box of healthy stuff from Healthy Supplies.

It wasn’t cheap but buying bulk is certainly cheaper than supermarket prices. Spelt and quinoa flakes, chia seeds, wholemeal couscous and brazil nuts.

As the kids have been having a lie in most days I soaked the spelt and quinoa flakes with goji berries in oat milk and added chopped brazil nuts, chopped dried figs, pine nuts and a drizzle of honey topped with some chopped banana and homemade yogurt.

It tasted as extravagant as it sounds and although I’d bought the spelt to make bread, I think i’ll mix up a batch of this stuff for a quicker easier to assemble muesli. Or perhaps an overnight porridge. The kids loved it.

Uncovering the medieval identity of the drink Bochet.

Despite not looking like actual bacon, my kids were momentarily fooled by the B.L.T’s I made with this fake bacon.

How do you like your stem cells, rare, medium rare or 3D printed?

#TheThings

I used to really want a Freewrite. But the $600 price, reading about all the ‘quirks’ and things it won’t easily do has me pleased I never stumped up the cash. I enjoy writing on my 12” MacBook and sometimes wonder why I bought the new Mac Air. Yes it’s great for video editing but that’s once in a blue moon. Rather than look for an e-ink writing option I might just try to declutter the MacBook and simplify more.

This was my gift to myself on completing my cycle tour.

I spotted my first ever one of these in the wild on my last day as I rode into Edinburgh. I then found this online. It’s metal, about the size of a bike wheel and bloody heavy. I couldn’t get clearance to hang it on the outside of the house so planned to fix it on the garden bar. But after it was appreciated in the flesh I now appear to have permission to hang it inside, pride of place on the chimney breast! I just need some hefty bolts.

#TheThanks

This newsletter is 25% funded. And for that I must thank those paying subscribers that pay $5/month to get all the content I share into this feed.

If you are able, please upgrade to become a paid supporter.

#TheWeb

When Banksy goes on holiday.
Got a problem with murder hornets? This might help.
New evidence shows this uranium cube is likely relic of Nazi A-bomb program.
Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?
Please stop adding more lanes to busy highways it doesn’t help.
Block email trackers with a forwarding address. An interesting new service from DuckDuckGo.
Are you ready to pay for your photo sharing app? I must admit. There is something enticing about starting afresh.
Some interesting new battery tech using alkali metal-chlorine batteries.

#TheEnd

Thanks for reading.

I’m hoping to get to Mildenhall Cycling Festival this weekend. And Monday there is a local radio rally in St Neots. The next few emails will be journal extracts. Thanks to those who have read them so far and sent lovely emails. And to those not knowing they are being posted after the event and offering me assistance or places to stay. That’s still very kind of you.

Have a great weekend!

“We are alienated by not being the author of our own lives. Our sense of ‘unalienation’ can only emerge if we are able to integrate and transform what is given to us by the world. We need to be able to take what we need, reject what we don’t want and be able to freely express ourself.” ~ Gia Milinovich

Muse.

See you out there.

Over…

Documentally