A Novel Approach to Music
I learn today of an interesting collaboration between Polly Samson and her husband, David Gilmour a former member of Pink Floyd, on an audiobook version of her novel A Theatre For Dreamers.
I learn today of an interesting collaboration between Polly Samson and her husband, David Gilmour a former member of Pink Floyd, on an audiobook version of her novel A Theatre For Dreamers.
It has been an incredibly frustrating few days. This is the result of pursuing my dream to have a beautifully coded, bespoke, lean, privacy respecting website which can be a fully featured platform for for my scribblings and also a digital home for my online life. Ooh... and did I mention I am trying to achieve this on a shoestring budget, am not a professional programmer nor inclined to spend the weeks, months or perhaps years needed to learn the various programming languages to accomplish the task. This means I have to stand on the shoulders of giants or, more specifically, tinker with the work of others to accomplish the end result desired. So far, as my opening sentenced perhaps indicated, with little success.
Where have all the good conversations gone?
Perhaps it is mere delusion, but I seem to recall a time when life was filled with good conversation. The kind of talks in which minutes melted into hours and each comment brought forth an unending flow of interesting ideas. Now, I mostly can't wait for the talking to end and for the echo of the words to melt into silence.
Today has been a day of little musing and much coding. I began with a new site build for a work project and this evening I have been feverishly working under the hood of my trial service on the Ghost platform. It has all been very enjoyable, but also slow going. I find the initial steps of a new build are always like this. As the saying goes, 'God is in the detail' and only by finessing the little things does the overall project take on a majestic form.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh climbed into his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, and accelerated down a 5,000 foot mud soaked runway. The plane was fully loaded with aviation fuel and there was some concern he might not get it airborne. His plane reached V1 speed, when takeoff could no longer be aborted, it was the point of no return. Fortunately for Lindbergh, he got airborne and lived to tell the tale.
Hello, my name is Robert and I am a platform hopper.
I know, I know, not the sort of thing most people confess to in polite society, but this is a circle of safety and it is time I confess to you all.
In the not so distant past, I have run Windows, Mac OS, Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Kali, Mint, OpenSEUSE and currently Pop! OS). I have hand-held iOS, then Android, back to iOS, back to Android and now back to iOS again. I've been pro-Google, anti-Google, de-Googled, re-Googled and lately back to de-Googling again. My software has been FOSS, proprietary and back to FOSS (with a sprinkling of proprietary tools).
I have been thinking on the myriad problems of several current movements (mostly the failures of logic being used by the adherents). Though it will take more research and thought before I am willing to publish something meaningful, I came across a kernel today which succinctly addresses one of the key problems:
Many years ago I was introduced to one of the most helpful rules of logic: to never say or write anything the opposite of which would only be uttered by a madman. So for instance, if you are an aspiring politician do not say “We must go forwards into a new bright future” because no sane person would publicly declare “We must go backwards into a dark past”. – Douglas Murray
Yesterday I wrote about the challenge of mental indigestion, but today I am vexed by that other perennial spectre of blogging everyday: topic.
This is not to say there is any dearth of ideas. So far, today alone, I have pondered writing about policing of people, policing of bookcases, freedom of speech, shoulder taps on social media, online censorship, fair market value, Mosasaur eggs and great pizza shops near Vatican City. Each pondered and rejected in turn as the research involved exceeds the allotted time for this daily challenge.
On the upside, I have a growing list for my blog long term (if there is any topic on which you would be interested in my writing, please drop me a line). When I have the luxury of spending several hours to research each article, I will start making my way through the list. But until then...
It's day forty-six of the #100DaysToOffload challenge and a difficulty that has ever stalked me since day one bodies forth: that of mental indigestion. Much akin to stomach indigestion in which you can't face another morsel of food, mental indigestion leaves you unable to face another thought.
Though the works of René Descartes are seldom read, his phrase 'cogito, ergo sum' has entered popular culture to the extent it is known even beyond those with little Latin and less Greek. Part of the reason for this is that Descartes was attuned to the realisation that Latin had a more limited audience than the vernacular and originally published his sentiment in French: 'je pense, donc je suis.' But be it Latin, French or the current lingua franca of English, 'I think, therefore I am' has achieved something akin to universal understanding.