sethstanley

I went running today at my local park.

It's not my 'most' local park, but with non-essential shops re-opening tomorrow here in the UK, I figured the po-po (little Sally Stanley tells me this is slang for police on the mean streets of Liverpool these days – in my day, I'd have plumped for 'rozzers') would have more significant targets in their sights than Sunday morning joggers a couple of miles away from their homes.

Part of me wishes I had stayed closer to my house, because, for the first time since I was a kid, I fell over.

Phone in hand, earphones in, The Wombats where telling me they were moving to New York cos they had problems with their sleep. I was in the moment for once, focusing on the music, appreciating the perfect running weather and not thinking about anything more than putting one foot in front of the other. My Fitbit watch buzzed to smugly congratulate me that I was halfway through my 5k run.

Next minute, I caught my right foot on a large stone. Poking itself out just enough above the ground to take my foot from under me.

With reflexes I'd had no need to test in years, I threw my hands in front of me, and let out an embarassingly loud 'HUH!' as the air was rudely smacked out of my lungs.

The palms of my hands were smarting but numb. My right knee and shin, grazed and starting to bleed. My middle-aged neck whipped and lashed with the impact. My pride, on show for all to see, battered.

Some folks stopped and turned, but no one said anything. In that split second when I was on the ground, a voice in my head said “Seth – that's your cue to turn it in. Take the short cut through the park, get in the car and go home. Patch yourself up. Come back better next time.”

My aching bones sang in agreement. It's quittin time, Seth. Turn it in.

And for the first time in a long time, I wondered what my dad would say at a time like this. A man, let it be said, before he died in 2009, who was not exactly fond of acting on his own advice! Nevertheless, he would happily tell anyone who would listen what they should have done, and how they should have acted in any given situation.

I heard his voice clearly asking me – “Are you going to let that scratch put you off your stride? Or are you going to get up and finish your run?”

I thought instantly of a time I fell as a child, coming out of school. My dad had picked me up, which was rare and I fell and really hurt my knee. I started to cry.

He pointed out a crack in the pavement near where I fell and said “See that? You caused that crack when you fell. Your knee was strong enough to break the concrete. So why are you crying?”

I instantly stopped, taken in by this age old trick.

I smiled to myself today, thinking about this memory. I picked myself up, pulled some tiny stones out of my knee and carried on running.

As I was picking my run back up after being so rudely interrupted, I started to think about some of the other times I'd fallen over in my life. Metaphorically speaking.

Because it's not always a physical trip or a stumble that lands you on your ass. And it's not always so easy to pick yourself up.

Death, personal loss, financial hardship, global pandemics – these are some of the things that can really start to chip away at your soul. They take character, a positive outlook and support from family and friends to overcome.

Me? I try to be philosophical about things. Whatever life throws at you, whatever highs and lows you experience – you are here, you are alive and this is your opportunity to make the best of things.

We don't all get an equal crack at this. Some people lead blessed lives, with good health. Some people's lives are filled with tragedy and hardship. But whatever our circumstances, this is our shot. Our time.

When life peeks above ground for you to stub your toe on and fall over – reach deep into the memory banks for whatever you have to make you get back up again.

Life has a habit of dealing out lemons. When it does, reach for the salt and grab some tequila. Sometimes lemonade just won't cut it.

I saw this advertised as a 'psychosexual suburban thriller' – normally I couldn't run away fast enough – not my particular brand of cola, at all.

But a recommendation from a friend and hearing that the 2017 Sarah Pinborough novel of the same name was marketed on social media with '#WTFThatEnding' – and I was persuaded to look a little closer.

Like most people, I'm a sucker for a good ending. Preferably a twist I just didn't see coming, and let me tell you, in that respect, this show delivered in spades.

But let's talk a little more about the ending later – no spoilers, I promise – I just want to rewind a little and tell you what it's all about.

It concerns a love triangle that pans out between psychiatrist David Ferguson, his wife Adele, with a history of mental health issues, and Louise – David's secretary.

Louise is placed as the protagonist, she's the character we're rooting for. And when chance meetings with both David and Adele occur, she decides she's going to have her cake and eat it and relationships blossom separately with both of them.

It's a 6-parter and with each passing episode, the veil is lifted and David and Adele's marriage is revealed to be not as perfect as it looks at first glance.

In tandem with this, Louise suffers regular night terrors and confesses this to Adele. A fellow sufferer, she passes Louise a diary/notebook that belonged to Adele's friend Rob, with a promise that it will help to control her bad dreams.

Through reading Rob's notebook, Louise learns more and more about Adele and Rob's past, becoming friends in an institution. Adele is getting over her parents dying in a fire at her home, while Rob is attempting to get over his heroin addiction.

Despite not making a bee-line for stuff like this previously, I have to say – I found it really enjoyable. The cast was great, and the story moved quickly, with enough new information revealed in each episode to eagerly anticipate the next one.

As you begin to spend more time in the company of each character, you can see their motivations and you start to piece together what you think happened between the gaps of what you think you know.

Because while we see the story from Louise's perspective, there are other viewpoints and varying levels of reliability at play – you're never entirely sure whether you can absorb what you're watching into what you know about the characters.

As for #ThatEnding – it didn't even bother me that I knew to expect a twist. Sometimes that's the worst thing – when someone tells you there's a twist – you spend every moment watching for a clue in the dialogue, or a glance between characters that might tell you what it is. Trust me, you can look all you want. You won't see this coming.

There's a film I had in my head up until episode 5 I think. I thought the twist might appear to be something similar to that, but it wasn't. Which is a great testament to the writing that you think you're watching something you're not.

I think the ending will really split Behind Her Eyes' audience. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can see how it might annoy a lot of folks too.

When you deconstruct it, you might think there are some unusual views at play here – and I'm assuming that there could be a second series on the way, because NO drama EVER ends like this anymore! It's dark, it's messed up and the implications for what happens after the credits roll just don't bear thinking about.

If you've seen this and you want to discuss, or want to know more about it – come and talk to me on Twitter. I wonder if you had the same film in your head as me, until the rug was pulled from under you in the most un-guessable way!

Interested to hear what you think when you've seen it!

I actually watched Soul a couple of days after it was released over the Christmas holidays last year on Disney +. I intended to review it soon after – but hey, life finds a way to de-rail you somehow, doesn't it? So here I am, 5 or 6 weeks later, to tell you what I thought. And I'm glad I waited to post – it's given me some time to digest and play back the message of the film. Lucky you!

The plot

Soul centres around Joe (Jamie Foxx), a wannabe pro jazz pianist, who dreams of tinkling the ivories for an appreciative crowd, rather than teaching an out-of-tune high school band.

https://media.giphy.com/media/4A1ySuQE9tfFIv2bEY/giphy.gif

High as a kite after passing an audition to play with a world class jazz saxophonist, Joe fails to see an open manhole cover – and soon finds himself in The Great Before, a kind-of holding zone for the soon to be dead.

In an effort to get back to Earth and play the gig of his life – he agrees to mentor an unborn-soul by the name of 22 (Tina Fey), to help her find her 'thing'. The big skill or interest she'll have which will help to shape her personality on Earth.

22 has done the 'training' a lot of times. She hasn't seen anything that would inspire her to take the jump and live a life on Earth, but after some body-swap comedy hi-jinx, that all changes!

https://media.giphy.com/media/lTGwuAKn5NVHSyFnHE/giphy.gif

22 ends up in Joe's comatose body, while Joe ends up in the therapy cat that's been assigned to him. This helps them both to come to terms with what's really important to them.

The verdict

Soul looks beautiful – visually it's a treat and everything you expect from Pixar. But beyond that, I felt something was missing.

Pixar have packed some heavy emotional punches in the past – is there a stronger piece of narrative story-telling than the first ten minutes of Up? No, I won't wait. There's no point.

https://media.giphy.com/media/TW2PwQBksQgk8/giphy.gif

So there's a lot to live up to, admittedly. Soul definitely reaches for the stars, but ultimately it falls short. Its attempts to be profound didn't land well for me.

Seize the day!

The film's message – that life IS the gig – live it large and stop waiting for something better to come along – is a powerful one, but it feels that thematically we're on similar ground to Up and Inside Out (to which Soul feels like a familiar cousin, in so many ways).

Also – the pseudo-existentialist waffle to set up the thrust of the film left me cold. So many movies and tv series have attempted to push their version of an afterlife on me, and it's often left me cold – this was one of them.

https://media.giphy.com/media/awlmkbY6COwa1Mvko7/giphy.gif

I hope I haven't been too down on the film though, there's a lot to like here.

Foxx and Fey's voice work is lovely – adding real characterisation, and anything that manages to wedge in the unique stylings of Richard Ayoade (Jerry) always gets my attention.

Just don't expect it to as life-changing or as soulful as perhaps it should have been.

Thanks for reading! If you've seen Soul, come and talk to me on Twitter and let me know what you thought!

I don't really talk a great deal about crypto on here. I think there are far better, more experienced people in the space already doing that – and also – I have to admit – I don't always fully 'get' it. I don't always fully understand the purpose and value of a coin.

I just wanted to buy some invisible magic internet beans, leave them to grow, and come back when they'd become a very real money tree so tall that planes had to navigate around it.

https://media.giphy.com/media/5Yl9jArDeVlttTd2x6/giphy.gif

Until I joined Coil, and tried to do something to actively participate in the Internet of Value, I was the very definition of a retail investor. I'd watched Bitcoin take off in 2017 in a huge way, after being aware of it in 2012, and totally pass me by. I wasn't going to let that happen again.

I don't know why, but XRP called to me in a way that Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin never did. I never had much time, or resources to invest further – so a little went to KIN(!), and some to CasinoCoin(!) – both looking worlds away from making any serious return – but otherwise I was totally sold on XRP. An XRP maxi (but without crapping on other people's crypto choices). This is not a zero sum game.

I bought all of Ripple's patter – we're working with regulators and banks blah blah blah. And it made sense to me that if you want to make changes to a financial system and its processes etc – you do that from within.

To effect change, you bring people with you. You do it in partnership with them. You don't do change to them.

So, a cryptocurrency that banks will use – that's going to make good money, right?

https://media.giphy.com/media/I4Jmrcjnr8Zfq/giphy.gif

Like I said, time and resources are precious – and crypto Twitter isn't always the most helpful of shortcuts.

While some people throw shade on each other's coin of choice, and pimp their own, others smugly screenshot the gains from the latest pump they've latched onto.

If you haven't bought into $RKD, are you even in crypto? This is the last time you'll see it under $15. I bought
88, 268, 523 at $12. I'm well on my way to financial freedom!

https://media.giphy.com/media/wOzfGOVG5oapW/giphy.gif

It's impossible to keep track of all the projects, white papers, chart movements and daily news headlines, but it is easy to buy into the general gist of your Twitter timeline, that everyone is making money except you. Everyone was smarter than you, made the right choices at the right time and it's working out just great.

I don't know enough to be a trader – I might as well be betting on red or black.

I also fear that the instant I convert XRP to something else is the moment the SEC lawsuit is settled and I'm left banging on the rocketship door, my face melting in the take-off, and I miss my opportunity again.

https://media.giphy.com/media/f1TFEUu52Ntp6/giphy.gif

I am happy to HODL my XRP. If it makes money, fantastic! If it goes to zero, I get to dream a little less about what I could do with it, but my family won't be out on the street. I refuse (for now at least) to be parted from it! I still truly believe it has an excellent future ahead of it, bringing true value and utility to the world.

It feels like a noble choice – as much for the technology as for the retail investment opportunity I believe it brings.

As tied as I am to it – I felt like I could put it to better use than let it sit in a wallet, looking longingly at all of these other high-performing cryptos. So let me tell you what I did with it, and maybe if you feel like me, it'll help you too.

Celsius

Late to the party as usual -I was seeing an increased amount of talk of Celsius Wallet on my Twitter timeline. So I investigated further, and saw it had a nice feature that really caught my eye.

It's a regular kind of wallet app, that you can add all kinds of different crypto into.

Celsius seem incredibly transparent about how they operate, and give back 80% of their revenue to Celsians by way of weekly interest payments.

Instinct in this space is to shout SCAM at anything that looks of benefit. I haven't done lots of research admittedly, but from what I've seen and the people who are behind it etc – it looks a decent bet to me until there are more opportunities to use XRP in different ways.

So you can add BTC, XRP, ETH – whatever – into the wallet, leave it for a week, and then at some time on a Monday, you'll see the interest appear. You can have it paid in kind, in the coin itself – or you can get greater interest paid back in the app's native coin – CEL.

https://media.giphy.com/media/jrutBd1N7ZhsINAPzs/giphy.gif

If you haven't heard of CEL or looked at it closely, I'd urge you to look at its performance over the last 12 months. It's really pulled up some trees. Coupled with a compound interest avalanche, it could really put your crypto to good use and help you to earn passive income.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZTjQgJGDiuJZS/giphy.gif

Until you learn how to make money while you sleep, you'll work until you die – this rings loud in my ears on a regular basis.

The more CEL you have, the higher interest rates you can unlock. Or you can take out loans against your crypto and the more CEL you have, you can unlock lower interest rates.

It's simple to use – apps like this will really help mass adoption of cryptocurrency.

And if you add $200 of crypto to the app and use my referral code – we both get $20 of BTC. Everyone's a winner!

Seriously – if you appreciate any of the work I've done on this blog or elsewhere, this would be a terrific way to show it!

https://media.giphy.com/media/eKOceBw88ToYRYgjN1/giphy.gif

My Celsius referral link

You can download the app to try it out here:

https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/11286393f9

There are some good people to follow on Twitter – here's a few for starters:

Alex Mashinsky

Spyros

Plan C

Jeff's C

Celsius Cultist

Bull Run Blackmore

Rhyse Hardy

and some screenshots from my personal version of the app so you can see what I've earned recently while I've been trying to diversify and wring more value out of my XRP, without actually converting it or cashing it in.

I'm excited about what I've earned in the first month of using it, and I can definitely see the potential for how the compound interest will help me to earn more as I go. I can't wait to reflect on where I'm up to in a year's time – particularly if XRP finds its feet in the meantime.

Usual disclaimers here folks – not financial advice, do your own research etc. I'm not saying definitely do this – I'm saying take a look and see if it works for you. If it does, remember who sent ya – let's make some money together while we're waiting for XRP to find its true price!

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3V0B6ICVWbg8Xi5q/giphy.gif

Outside of the UK, people may not be familiar with Frank Sidebottom. A powerhouse comedy legend of Northern England, particularly the Timperley area of Manchester, he hit the heights of his fame in the 1980's and 90's.

But Frank Sidebottom wasn't real.

It's not the most straightforward of tales to tell, but bear with me.

He was a character created and played by a chap called Chris Sievey. If you didn't know Frank's name, you knew him by appearance, as he was never ever pictured without his instanly recognisable papier-mache head.

Only a select group of family, friends and colleagues knew that it was Chris Sievey under the head. It was kept a closely guarded secret until after his death in 2010.

As someone who tries to maintain a reasonably distinct online identity myself, I was intrigued by how Frank Sidebottom became a person in his own right, and how his and Sievey's lives were woven together.

I have grown up with memories of Frank Sidebottom on TV, wedging himself into everything from local news reports (as a bona fide reporter) to kids Saturday morning shows like Motor Mouth – where his anarchic brand of humour found its audience with delighted pre-teens and hungover students.

I was never a huge fan, I just didn't find him particularly funny. I didn't really get the joke.

However, recently, I had the good fortune of watching Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story – a 2018 film about their lives. Now I have a new love for Frank Sidebottom and a huge respect for Sievey – a multi-hyphenate, with fingers in a number of creative pies.

Creatively, Sievey was an absolute tour-de-force. Initially he pursued a career in music, writing and recording songs as lead singer and guitarist of The Freshies – with some minor successes.

Their popularity was so localised, Sievey would produce bootleg cassette copies of their music to order, often personalising the copies with a recorded message specifically for the recipients.

Ahead of his time, he knew the value of cultivating and engaging with a small but loyal audience.

A lesson in world-building

He created Frank Sidebottom initially to be a fake fan of The Freshies – using him for promotional activities to shine a light on the band. He also used him in a computer game he created for the ZX Spectrum called The Biz.

Frank's popularity soared beyond The Freshies, and Sievey started to devote more time to being Frank – doing family-friendly stand-up comedy with lots of audience interaction and recording comedy records.

But Sievey opened Frank's world up beyond the stage. He would widely publicise his real home phone number and answer phone calls from fans in character. He'd write responses to fan mail, including detailed drawings of Frank and poetry he'd written.

He even created a smaller puppet version of himself with a cardboard body called Little Frank, and Little Frank's girlfriend, Denise.

When Denise's head went missing after a show in London, Sievey continued to perform with Little Frank and Denise – using just the headless body! It seemed exactly the type of eccentric move that Chris Sievey would pull, and befitting of Frank Sidebottom's surreal sense of humour.

He hooked up with Oink – an edgy UK children's comic that was worlds away from the more wholesome reading of the Dandy and Beano. Oink's anarchic brand of humour was a perfect match for Frank Sidebottom.

Originally asked for just a few lines or jokes to give to Oink's illustrators, Chris Sievey took the time to hand-draw and felt-pen all Frank Sidebottom strips himself, spending hours on each one.

It was method-acting in its highest form. Chris Sievey was a master of keeping himself and Frank so separate that they were viewed as two different people.

Ultimately, he made it his life's mission to preserve the myth he'd created, while battling against his alter ego. He was happy about the limited fame that Frank Sidebottom had generated, but always felt he was somehow worth more, and had more to give to the world as Chris Sievey.

I feel like he was frustrated that his fame came as an entertainer with a papier mache head, rather than as himself.

Being Frank

Sievey died in 2010, from cancer, leaving behind a wealth of content in various formats for film-maker Steve Sullivan to wade through.

Audio and video tapes of Frank, with hand-drawn, coloured-in covers, poems and illustrations – Chris Sievey's creativity really knew no bounds. He'd perfectly crafted a crazy, surreal world for Frank Sidebottom to exist in.

He also left a huge digital footprint across the internet – maintaining various websites and producing the Radio Timperley podcast.

As I was watching Being Frank – I drew a lot of parallels between what Chris Sievey did and the current Coil community. The level of localised support and personalised engagement he had with fans really resonated with me.

The poet John Cooper Clarke quotes Salvador Dali in Being Frank:

“To be universal, one must first become ultra-local”

My next big question for myself – and more widely for the community – is one that I come back to continually. I just haven't cracked this one yet. How do we broaden out? How do we capture a new audience beyond Coil creators and the XRP community?

It's so difficult to tell how well we're doing this at the moment with no on-platform comments or analytics to see where visitors are coming from.

But regardless of getting bogged down in metrics to understand how we can get better at this craft, and see who we're talking to out there, let me leave you with a lovely inspirational message from Chris Sievey himself.

“Now let me know what you would like to do and give me just one good reason why you can't.”

- Chris Sievey

Finally, here's a picture I drew of Frank Sidebottom after watching Being Frank.

Here's a YouTube clip of Frank's Magical Timperley Tour so you can see an example of his surreal humour.

Franktastic! You know he was, he really was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6oT1YgAqsM

I've just handed my notice in at my job. Am I nuts?

In 4 weeks time, I'll intentionally leave a job without another one to go to, for the first time since I was 19 years old.

I intend to take some time off and recharge the old batteries.

Write. Draw. Create. Without stuffing it into the tiny timeslots that appear sporadically in my life.

For the past 6 months, I've been a content designer in UK government. I've delivered the content for a new web service. People seem happy with my work.

I'm happy with my work, and that I've remained reasonably productive during these crazy times. But – it's done.

People will tinker, and ask for countless amends, but the bulk of the work is finished.

It's like when I decorate – I'm the one with the roller, pleased at seeing mass coverage of paint slapping up and down the walls. My wife is the one with the tiny brush, doing the intricate cutting-in, detailing the edges. For that, I have zero patience.

Which is really odd, because I always consider myself someone who's big on details, kind of a perfectionist. Maybe I'm not? Or not as much as I think? I digress...

Basically, I'm bored, and just like with the pandemic, I couldn't see an end – or even so much as a waypoint, to indicate I was making progress in the role. And I need to be able to see an end to things.

So starting in January 2021, I'm going to start freelancing as an independent contractor specialising in digital content/user experience/copywriting for short-term contracts.

I've already had my forever job for 12 years. I loved it. I lived and breathed it. Some days I still miss it. But I need to move forward and this seems like it will fit the bill.

Here's why I think this is a low-risk move for me, even in the middle of a global pandemic with mass unemployment.

1. Digital is still a massive growth area. I've been at this for a long time, and I think my content game is strong. I have a marketable skill that is hugely in-demand right now. Writing user-focused content with clarity has never been more important.
2. I can work remotely – meaning I'm not restricted to taking jobs in my local area. I can take something in London or Birmingham or Bristol without moving from my spot at the kitchen table.
3. I'm in a fortunate position whereby I can afford not to work for a while. If it takes a little time to find the lay of the land, I can get by for a while.

So, a new venture where I’m my own boss, in control of my own destiny, doing the work I want to do, when I want to do it. I’ll be director of my own company, with no need to ingratiate myself with organisational hierarchy in order to progress.

No need to worry about promotion, just bouncing from gig to gig, doing interesting work, with, hopefully, plenty of time to create.

So what do you think? Is it a genius move or a stupid one? I guess I’ll know the real answer in the next year or two, but in the meantime, hit me up on Twitter to let me know what you think are the pros and cons of doing this during these strange times.