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Greetings from the shed...

Hello. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Yesterday I was in Amsterdam and tomorrow i’ll be in the US, so this will be shorter than usual.

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#TheAction

Amsterdam was a blast. When I finally got there. But as I left home I was painfully aware that somewhere in the house was a leak. So as I travelled I was also attempting to summon a plumber. And the ambient chaos began to grow.

I was scheduled to leave from Stansted but just as I got there my flight was cancelled and no other flights were available locally. So from a choice of London City, Luton, Heathrow and Birmingham I made the executive decision to hightail across to Birmingham International Airport.

I had been hired by Equal Experts and one of their staff Sara coordinated with me over the phone. Somehow in the [undisclosed amount of time] it took me to do the 118 miles, she had sorted me nearby parking and got me a new ticket. Sadly though check in had already closed. I’d got some good momentum though and figured I’d still give it a go. With my backpack lurching from side to side, I sprinted round trollies and leapt over hand luggage arriving at an empty Easy Jet desk. Well it looked empty, but popping up from behind it was a lady grabbing her bag before heading off.

Clammy and pleading I retold my mad dash and spoke all the words I thought that might help me have this kind looking person pull out some stops. And she did. She logged back in to her terminal and printed me a weird strip of paper that looked nothing like a boarding card.

Birmingham Airport is perfect for this kind of ‘against all odds’ challenge. It was only a short run to an empty security area kitted the latest scanners. I was carrying all my normal tech, clothes, some radios, a scintillation counter and a harmonica that routinely shows up on X-rays as the clip from a 9mm handgun. But it all cruised through, with mine being the only eyebrows raised.

It was then another short jog to the gate and thanks to the curse of budget airline queues, I joined one at the end as it was snaking its way to the plane. I was the sweatiest, happiest passenger aboard.

I arrived at my hotel for midnight and crashed out.

The following morning I was able to have a walk around the Westerpark area before a meeting at midday.

My job for EqualExperts who was working with ETLS was to grab some photos, audio and video at a ‘watch party’. Something I’d not heard of before.

The venue was a cafe/bar with great food and drink attached to a cinema. That’s where the attendees would be watching a virtual event streaming from The States. It was geared towards technology leaders and covered a variety of topics, especially AI.

There was a Slack channel streaming alongside the video feed and I was reminded of all the times we’d see a live Twitter feed alongside a live conference. Back in the day I felt this was a distraction. Not just for the speaker but also for the attendees. But in this context, alongside a virtual event, it was perfect. It really added to the shared experience and anything on point, funny or even a little snarky really brought the room together alongside the wider network of viewers.

My job was to capture the sentiment from the attendees. After grabbing a few photos to set the scene, I used my phone with a little LED light and a Senheiser Handmic Digital to grab a few comments. A hand held mic is much quicker than clipping something on people.

Some attendees were not keen, but after a chat and showing them something I’d already grabbed on my phone, they were often fine. On one occasion audio was preferred to video and I had one of my favourite conversations of the night.

I learn’t a lot. I also got to meet some great people and am pleased that organisations are creating these shared experiences in meat space for professionals that mostly work from home.

Plus the trip back was a breeze. Also more relaxing as the plumber finally turned up. As my family managed to hold the fort, a plumber was digging a hole in the kitchen floor. Yes the leak turned out to be coming from a pipe below two layers of tiles and some dubious looking concrete.

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#ThePictures

Last week while in London I got to have a drink with Supertanskiii. One of the more interesting political commentators in my network.

supertanskiii

A post shared by @supertanskiii

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I’ve not yet seen the documentary Intercepted but it is very much on my radar. It’s an experimental war doc made with 90 minutes of phone calls from Russian soldiers calling home to their families.

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#TheWords

I un-subscribed from a newsletter this week as the author wrote the post using AI. They had explained the process and were happy with the final outcome, but for me something was missing. If they hadn’t told me, I might not have known. I might have just skimmed though it and thought it a bit shit. It used to be obvious but it might now have gotten to the hard-to-tell phase'. The statement of intent was honest but the piece insincere. After I unsubscribed I wondered how many others had done the same. I should have stayed, subscribed and dropped into the comments to see if others felt the same way. But i’ll never know.

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My Byline Times arrived today.

Getting this kind of in-depth summary of current affairs come through the door means I can doomscroll less. There is some great journalism inside.

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I got invited to a storytelling night in Amsterdam this week. If i’m ever back in the city I think i’ll go check it out.

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#TheSound

I do record video but I much prefer making audio.

Sadly in order to compete for attention we are always thinking video first. The platforms have evolved to demand it from us and reward those that comply. I’d much rather collate conversations for a podcast or grab a relaxed conversation in audio then, if I have to, add a photo to make it into a video. I feel audio gets the best from people.

The up and downside is that as it’s easier to grab audio, you can end up with hours of it. Not a bad thing until it comes to editing. For every hour of audio you might take two or three reviewing, editing and finishing.

Apparently in the UK, the average time we spend looking at a screen has gone down to four hours a day. Although I bet there’s a few of you out there that can do that before lunch. ;-)

I’ve listened to three hours of audio today, most of it while out and about doing other things. But only podcasts an hour or less in length. Anything longer than that can feel like a chore.

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I recommended the first series here and now The Coming Storm series two is out. Get stuck in!

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I think you know the answer to this question posed by The Artificial Human podcast. Can we keep AI out of human only spaces? another fascinating discussion well worth your time.

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#TheConsumed

This is where I look back through my phone to see what kind of consumption has happened this week. I’ll leave out the booze as not all of you drink and as I was in a Dutch bar recently there was a bit of that….

Mustard is luxury worth spending money on. You can never have too many condiments. Unless they go out of date and you are having to throw them away. Then you have too much. But these three mustards will not last long.

And if you would like to know what mustard might go best with what food here is a handy paring guide.

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I had a cereal breakfast in my hotel on the first day. Then as I headed out I saw some of the things the chef was making for other people. I had some serious FOMO. So yesterday I had him make me a shakshuka with feta & avocado salad.

No photo i’m afraid. Some things are too sacred to photograph. (Ok I forgot)

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#TheThings

I’ve been wondering what I can do with my old Twitter and Gowalla t-shirts that have been worn so much over the last 15-ish years that they are full of holes and falling apart. I know… I should just throw them away. But my brain doesn’t work that way. If they cannot be recycled into something or used in some kind of farewell ceremony I don’t think I’m giving them the send off they deserve.

So I have bought one of these to see if I can at least save/frame the logos.

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#TheThanks

Thank you to all the paying subscribers that support my time here. I am almost certain that you are all real human beings. You like and leave comments here, as well as chat with me on the discord.

As for everyone else, who knows? One day soon there will be more bots and AI generated profiles on the web than humans. Let us make sure we can find each other. If not here, then in the back channels.

Please consider showing your humanity and upgrading to become a visible human supporter. You can also tip or PayAsYouGo via Ko-Fi, PayPal and Monzo.

Either way… Thank you for being real. If you are.

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#TheWeb

• The Artificial Human podcast linked above mentioned Dead Internet Theory.

• Thanks to the Documentally community map I’ve spotted that I might be within walking distance of Jeff Bundi aka Bundini next week.

• Have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.

• What is human energy?

• Some of my other places include Letterboxd, Discogs, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, my audio RSS feed, Swarm, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Birdsite, Bluesky or foto.

• Contemplating Imperial vs Metric.

• Quick quiz: How many times does the letter “r” appear in the word “strawberry” Please answer in the comments below.

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#TheEnd

I always type and in some cases voice dictate this dispatch. I write all the words unless quoted and curate the links from the wider web. As far as I can tell everything I’ve shared is written and made by humans.

Tomorrow I’ll be on a plane to the USA.

Comment, like and connect. Show yourself. I’ll speak to some of you next week.

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“The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.” - George Orwell

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Join in.

See you out there.

Over…

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.