Etcetera #2

Very little in the way of intellectual activity went on this past fortnight. I bought a new bag. I take a bag to work every day as it adds another layer of self-importance to my fragile persona. Occupying the middle ground between receptacle and to-do list, it is home to the likes of an umbrella, iPad, wallet, notebook, discarded receipts, lists, hair ‘products’ of varying vintages, spare headphones, but not a lot else of any import.

Went to see my friends Clint and Heather play a set as their band Toulouse Wolfe. For what is (often accurately) described as a soulless and homogeneous town, Milton Keynes has a reasonable local music scene, and it was the sort of gig where you listen to friends’ excellent music and bump into old faces you haven’t seen since the 1980s. Both of which make me happy.

Read good articles on: the making of a classic Simpsons episode, writing palindromes, the way Google Translate actually works, Noel Gallagher (who I quite enjoy as an interviewee), and yet more literature on the best drink in the world.

I was saddled with the first-world problem of receiving an iPad from work. I toyed with the idea of keeping the one I originally bought at home and the new one at work, but have ultimately decided that with the advent of iCloud and whatnot that is just a waste of the device. Instead, I’ll sell the original and make desperately poor buying decisions with the proceeds.

I’m watching Arrested Development through for the fifth or sixth time, and still marvelling at the intricacy of the writing, particularly the foreshadowing of events to come. The mentions of “dipping into the Kitty”, for example, several episodes before her introduction, or Buster’s declaration that he wouldn’t know what to do if he lost a hand. Of course, the writers could have looked back at previous scripts and decided to develop plot points and characters based on previous dialogue, but I doubt it.

Had my last Dominos pizza for what I hope is a very long time. I’ve resurrected my interest in making what is a fairly authentic dough (well, compared to the steamed bread you get delivered on the back of a motorcycle) and have made a batch that I can keep in the fridge and break lumps off when the desire strikes over the next few days.

Speaking of pizza, I go for a Friday lunch at Pizza Express every so often with some workmates. Yesterday’s choice—Gorgonzola, leeks, artichokes, pancetta, rosemary and chill oil—was great. Called Da Morire, which I suppose means something like ‘to die for’. Here’s a similar pizza (as an Englishman I choose not to use the word ‘pie’) I made tonight.

With the help of Peter Florence (of Hay Festival fame), I’ve semi-unintentionally cemented Cerys Matthews’s place in modern Welsh cultural history. The fact Cerys retweeted my tweets and got her fans to vote means it is essentially a one-horse race. I doubt Robert Owen has enough of a Twitter presence to redress the balance.

Discovered Superchunk.

Enjoyed myself watching The Muppets. A fine story, great cast and some excellent musical numbers, although it feels a bit like Bret McKenzie might have had ‘Are You A Man or A Muppet’ on the shelf for a while—it feels very Flight of the Conchords—rather than it being an original commission for the film. Not that that matters in the slightest though.

Saw Kurt Vile at KOKO. Eschewing the support acts in favour of a few catchup beers with my friend Paul¹, we arrived as Sonic Boom was being booed off stage, which was more than a touch bizarre. While that article paints the crowd in ridiculous terms (‘mostly teenaged trendies’? I’m closer to forty than teenaged, and was far from the only one), booing off an act that had presumably been hand-picked by the guy they’ve paid good money to see comes across as very odd.

I fell asleep on the train on the way back from the gig—thankfully, it was only for a few minutes. The last time I did this I woke in Wolverhampton, a town some 90 miles north of Milton Keynes, with no way of getting home until the next morning. I never again wish to sleep on a metal bench with only Wolverhampton Gazettes as covers.

Found a use for Foursquare! I’m not using it in any social way, instead checking into restaurants, gig venues and the like, and using ifttt to log them to Google Calendar. In theory, the next time I wonder aloud “When was the last time I was in place x?”, I can find the answer, as well as what I saw or ate while I was there.

Realised that the years-old Macbook I’m writing this on is way past its prime. Fortunately, due to my employer, I qualify for Apple’s education discount (around 12%), but it’s still a chunk of change for a new Macbook Pro. That I don’t have enough hard drive space for Apple’s most recent OS X security update is alarming, though.

Had an impromptu evening making Bloody Bronxes in order to use up a batch of blood oranges that had been hanging around for a few days. Delicious.

Now, onto more cocktails.

(See previously).

Etcetera #1

Here’s what I did this past week.

Via Merlin, traced the evolution of John Roderick’s brilliant song Car Parts.

Read the first couple of Richard’s weekly ‘Extra Credit’ emails from his excellent blog The Syllabi. If you haven’t seen it, each blog post is a mixture of short- and longform journalism on a specific topic with easy Instapaper links for saving links to read later. His weekly email for subscribers doesn’t have a specific focus—instead, it gathers everything interesting from the previous week so you don’t have to sift through piles of dross to find the best articles. I’m finding that by subscribing to services like Extra Credit, and following interesting people on Pinboard, I’m able to be much more selective in those who I follow by RSS or on Twitter and Tumblr. Quality, not quantity. It’s an old adage but worth remembering from time to time and filtering your attention accordingly.

Caught up a bit with podcasts. I hope you’ve already heard of Dan Benjamin’s 5by5 network; I’ve always loved several of the shows—particularly The Talk Show with John Gruber and Back to Work with Merlin Mann. However, Hypercritical with John Siracusa is fast becoming my favourite. I’m still catching up after a listening break over Christmas—the episodes can be rather lengthy, so it takes a while to get up to date if you don’t listen for a while—but the run of shows detailing Nintendo’s history and the evolution of console controllers perfectly epitomise the show by taking potentially dry and unexciting topics and dissecting them in such tremendous detail that you can’t help but see things in a new light and learn lots. Highly recommended.

Listened to a lot of Jonathan Wilson and Sleater-Kinney. Every year or so I re-obsess over S-K’s The Hot Rock. It’s one of those records that takes me back immediately to the time and place where I first heard it—for me, I was taking my A Level exams and had a great long summer before heading off to university. I think it’s their best record, and the second half in particular is astonishing. Love it. Memorize Your Lines gets me every time.

Watched Spinal Tap for the first time in ages.

Spent this afternoon with my niece Ivy and nephew Arlo. We played many fun games including Reading and Building A Tent and Who Pooped.

Downloaded Tweetbot for iPad. Oh, my. If you haven’t got it for your iOS devices, you’re missing out.

Read a terrific essay about the good and bad in infographics and data visualisation.

Kept up with my decision to learn more about coding. I’m refreshing some of my old HTML and CSS skills as well as working through Codecademy’s Code Year JavaScript lessons. Plus a smidgen of Ruby, although I’ve not got very far with that at all. Not exactly world-changing stuff—I tend to think anyone who spends a lot of time on the web, particularly for work, should acquaint themselves with the basics of how it is put together—but I’m learning (and re-learning) enough to be useful.

Laughed at one of Matt’s best tweets:

I put the “tiny” in “Is it in yet?”

— matt (@biorhythmist) February 7, 2012

Grouped my iPad apps by intent, using verbs instead of nouns/categories.

Decided to copy Frank’s weekly dispatch format.