Jonathan Beckett

The system that never existed

Have you ever invented something without inventing it? Have you ever designed a hugely complex solution to something, without designing a huge complicated solution for something? I have. I did it last night. And I can't remember anything about it. All I remember about the dream was unfolding a schematic

The end of Twitter

You might think a social network acquired by an egomaniac billionaire that has become unsustainable after advertisers collectively ditched it would be playing nicely with others in the hope of repairing its utterly destroyed reputation. You would be wrong. Elon has now banned most journalists writing for major platforms that

Sideways

In the normal scheme of things, if you place one foot in front of the other and keep doing it you tend to move forwards. The normal scheme of things doesn’t seem to apply at the moment. Forwards has become sideways. I meant to write some Christmas cards on

Brave New World

It turns out I can sit on my hands for roughly 48 hours. That’s how long it took the thought of building a better blogging castle to ferment, and grow into a crusade of sorts. Probably more escapade than crusade, but crusade sounds more lofty, noble, and suitably eccentric.

Sitting on my hands

Over the last few years I’ve walked away from one blogging platform after another - leaving Wordpress, Medium, Tumblr, and Blogger along the way. Somehow or other I ended up at Substack, which did less to annoy me than any of the other platforms. I’m still not happy

The strangest experience of my life

On Wednesday I travelled to a restaurant for the work Christmas meal. A relaxed lunch with co-workers I rarely see. It was quite the experience. After arriving a little early, a few of us wandered around in the street outside a closed wooden door with no sign - wondering if

A Quiet Dream

I had one long, continuous dream last night. When I woke this morning I played through it in my head - recounting the various twists and turns of the story my brain conjured up. For once it all made sense - there was no crazy - no disjointed plot twists,

The Internet Sausage Machine

I cancelled my subscription to the Medium partner programme a few days ago. I suppose it says something about the power of suggestion, and my own suggestability that I re-joined in the first place. I’ve always loved writing, and after sharing some technical notes in recent months, thought “why

The Imaginary Astronaut Escapade

I threw some photos of myself at an “artificially intelligent” application earlier today, and it resulted in the most surreal few minutes of my life - as I watched all manner of scenes that never happened arrive in my mobile phone. I showed the above photo to my daughter, and

The Christmas Market

The annual “Christmas Market” arrived in town this evening. The main route through town was closed off to all traffic, and the road filled with stalls serving hot chocolate, mulled wine, beer, and just about every popular street food imaginable. After both myself and my better half ended up working

Coffee O'Clock

It’s been a day - and that’s all I want to say about that. The washing machine has done several loads, the kitchen has been turned into a laundromat, and work is as crazy as you might imagine while trying to work on multiple projects simultaneously. Working from

Treat Yo Self

For the last several years I have been soldiering on with a little Amazon “Fire Tablet”. It’s been my go-to device for reading in bed and watching movies and TV shows when the rest of the family are hogging the television in the living room. It’s travelled all

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

The most beautiful sound I ever heard

After battling my way to the end of an unexpectedly lengthy day at work, my other half wandered into the dark of the junk room and suggested “shall we go out for dinner? I have a voucher for the pub…” Twenty minutes later we were all walking into town together.

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Slow Sundays Rule

After a slow start this morning, I wandered into town with my eldest daughter. After quite some deliberation, we ended up at Starbucks. Armed with a cappuccino and a huge chocolate coin each, we found a quiet spot in the back of the café and enjoyed our drinks in silence

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

We were invited by friends to a charity fund-raiser quiz-night at the local football club last night. We met them under a street lamp at the end of the road, and felt like teenagers while waiting. The quiz night was great fun – with some very dubious answers that caused howls

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

One blog to rule them all

After drinking the kool-aid, and spending several weeks trying to convince myself that running my own blogging castle on my own blogging island was a great idea, I’ve retreated back to the relative safety of substack (again). Have no illusions. This is all about laziness. Substack does great email

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

The Slippery Slope

I have become my own worst enemy, but at least I’ve caught myself while sliding into the abyss. I should probably explain. I’ve been tinkering with a Youtube channel for a little while now – recording content, and sharing it with the wider world (or rather, a niche interest

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

There's always something

Over the next few days I’m going to find myself in a curious state of limbo with work – as one project comes to an end, and the next ramps up. Only it won’t be one project – the next few months are going to be… interesting. One of the

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Rubbish at Drinking

That’s it. I’ve had it with drinking. Or at least, I’ve had it with alcohol – until I forget how rubbish I’ve become at dealing with it. While watching the “Rings of Power” on TV last night I had a couple of glasses of wine. You would

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Mastodon Emerges

Watching the slow exodus of users bleed away from Twitter over the last several days has been interesting. Who would have thought that an eccentric billionaire hijacking one of the great tent-pole social internet platforms would cause such visceral reactions? Perhaps the greatest positive to take away from the unfolding

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Monday

I almost overslept this morning. I’m going to blame the strangest dream I’ve had in quite some time. None of it made any sense, but it stuck in my head all day. Somebody I know was in it – I’ll have to tell them about it. I wonder

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Adventures with Hugo

Sunday morning is rapidly vanishing in a storm of washing up, clothes washing, tidying up, and avoiding block-printing mayhem in the lounge (our youngest daughter has something of a cottage industry going). It’s already half eleven. The washing machine is already on it’s third load – the kitchen looks

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Thursday Night and Friday Morning

I’m not entirely sure where the last few days have gone. The word “relentless” comes to mind – both to describe the working day, and the evenings. I cooked dinner this evening – a hastily prepared spaghetti bolognese. My youngest daughter offered to help, but given that I can make it

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

Swimming Against the Tide

The sky fell this morning. Cats and dogs. Curtain rods. It fell last night too. I will admit to feeling sorry for the young children “trick or treating” for Halloween – not so sorry for the teenagers trying to blag candy based on little or no effort. I ended up in

Import 2022-12-12 18:45

So near and yet so far

While tinkering with this and that this morning, I stumbled upon the blog of an old friend. Somebody I really shouldn’t have lost touch with, but somehow had. One click led to another, and before I knew it I had spent the better part of an hour reading about