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If by magic, only you could see it, would you still buy it? This one question strips away our elaborate justifications and reveals the truth about why we buy things. Much of what we buy (and do) is for others – more than we care to admit. We’re masterful at convincing ourselves otherwise, creating stories that protect our self-image as rational, independent thinkers. But we’re not.…
Sometimes the most profound wisdom comes from the unlikeliest sources. Case in point: the comedy show The Office (US) has given me two pieces of advice I rely on constantly. Don’t be an idiot Michael asks his protégée Dwight what the best piece of advice he ever gave him was. “Don’t be an idiot” he replies without hesitation. “Changed my life”. It’s played…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing. 🏡 Life Update I’ve never had any interest in going to a traditional English afternoon tea. Eating tiny bites with a big price? No thanks. But my Mum loves them. So off we went for Mother’s Day. And to the Savoy Hotel too (the thinking mans Ritz ). It was all perfectly nice, and less stuffy…
I have a goal to write a more. Just a little bit, every day. It’s part of my initiative to take advantage of the mornings more. I’m tired of spending 60–90 minutes upon waking just scrolling on my phone. And whilst I’m not committed to posting something every day, I’m going to try to. However, I struggle with getting a post over the line – getting it from 80% done, to 100%…
In this weeks weeknotes I mentioned how Game of Thrones disappeared from cultural relevance. Now I’m noticing Rick and Morty followed a similar path. During its early seasons, it dominated geek culture and the internet. Today? Almost nothing. For me, the decline began with the McDonalds Szechuan sauce incident . The public suddenly saw the toxic side of the fanbase. Then came allegations of abuse…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. I’m still getting into the swing of writing these weeknotes, so I’ve missed the past two weeks. I’m realising that I shouldn’t wait until the end of the week to write it. I should just add to it each day. Anyway, here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing these part three weeks. 🏡 Life Update My biggest highlight recently…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. My week was pretty quiet (as the short weeknotes will reflect). 🏡 Life Update The theme of this week continues to be me and my girlfriend looking to buy our first home. We’re having to pull out of the one we’ve put an offer accepted for 1 . Our cirumstances have changed and we have fallen in love with a gorgeous cottage. All my life I’ve…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing. 🧠 Things I Learnt I read mostly about Robert Cotton in The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club this week. He was a Member of Parliament, but he’s mostly remembered for his high-quality manuscript 1 collection. Though sadly a lot of his books were lost or damaged in a fire in 1731 . I…
I saw a TikTok where a wife said that when her husband claimed he’d do anything for her, he meant fighting off bears and going into battle. Not putting the washing away. There’s a lesson about life and love in that quip. When we’re young, we imagine life’s defining moments as grand and cinematic – standing firm against formidable foes and making dramatic declarations of…
Wistfulness [noun]: a feeling of sadness because you are thinking about something that is impossible or in the past. @easemyvibes on Threads : No one prepares you for the grief you feel in your 30s. Time suddenly feels like it sped up — you’re grieving the life you thought you’d have by now, you’re seeing your parents get older, you and your loved ones are all experiencing loss…
Reading Henrik Karlsson ° got me thinking about the importance of high quality ‘inputs’. Every day, we wade through dozens of blog posts, when our reading list is full. We browse book reviews, despite having shelves of unread greatness. We scan Rotten Tomatoes, while our watchlist already contains more masterpieces than we could watch in years. Consuming excellence isn’t a search…
I have an extremely strong memory of the first time I tried Dr Pepper. Dawn broke at the scout campsite. With the smell of smoke still softly rising from last nights fires, me and my best friend Sam took a walk. The ground was endlessly dew-covered and we were the only humans awake. Amid the dank trees there was a beacon glowing. A vending machine. I chose a curiously named drink I’d heard…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning, writing and photographing. 🏡 Life Update The theme of the week is that me and my girlfriend have had an offer on a house accepted. But she’s now seen another one that she likes more. I prefer the first one, she prefers the second. So we need to work out what we’re going to do. My plan: let the gods decide.…
The Times : Creative control of the James Bond film franchise is to become an all-American affair after long-time rights holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson announced they were stepping down and handing the reins to Amazon MGM Studios. I think this is bad news, despite them remaining ‘co-owners’ of the franchise. It always seemed that ‘Bond’ as a franchise and all it represents was largely…
Raising a glass of Wild Turkey to Hunter S. Thompson , who died 20 years ago today. The father of Gonzo journalism, he was a rebel, trailblazer, and master of chaos. (1937-2005) 🦇 If you’re unfamiliar with this work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell’s Angels are good places to start. And I have a particular soft spot for his novel The Rum Diary – it’s a great holiday…
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been up to. 📘 General notes I had a cold I picked up a cold two weeks ago and it took me 10 days just to feel vaguely normal. It really did beat me up. It also made me oddly sad/depressed, which I haven’t experienced before via a cold. Very odd. One thing I hate about being unwell is how my brain doesn’t work and I…
Public Domain Image Archive from the Public Domain Review : Explore our hand-picked collection of 10,046 out-of-copyright works, free for all to browse, download, and reuse. This is a living database with new images added every week. Permalink: https://blot.blog/2025/01/21/10046-out-of-copyright-works-free-for-all-to-browse-download-and-reuse/
I expected historian Andrew Roberts to make me feel bad about my diary habits when he spoke about it on the Tim Ferriss Show ° ( .mp3 ). I imagined: lengthy nightly sessions, perfect consistency, deep reflection. Instead, Roberts: Writes in the morning (he drinks at night) Only writes when something interesting happens Keeps entries around 500 words This was refreshing to hear. I’ve been…
Listen to this post . My instinct is to ramble when I write. And whilst my final ruthlessly edited drafts are fairly compact, could I go further, into minimalist territory? As a blogger, what style and length should your writing be? Short and punchy? Or longer and more in-depth, with plenty of details and examples? I have a “Essays & Long-form” folder in my RSS reader, full of great…
I have ADHD. Yet I often act as if I don’t. Things I expect, yet can’t achieve: Cook homemade meals every night Follow verbal instructions flawlessly Stick religiously to routines Avoid impulse purchases entirely Completely resist binge eating Remember much of what I read Excel at laundry management It’s time I face facts: these traits aren’t vanishing. They’re part…
10 Things You Think You Need to Organize, But Should Minimize Instead ° The list has things like toiletries, tupperware, towels, kitchen gadgets, clothing and shoes. All things that I spend a lot of time organising when I should probably be minimising . My ADHD complicates and makes things worse. Every item has an oversized effect. The burden of storing it, cleaning it, and organising it is…
In Parks and Recreation’s third season there’s a moment that perfectly captures the introvert’s dilemma. Ron, a man who guards his privacy and peace fiercely, dreads Leslie’s notorious penchant for over-the-top celebrations. As the day approaches, his anxiety builds. But when the moment arrives, he’s met with an unexpected gift - solitude. Leslie has arranged for him…
Research psychologist Robert Epstein argues that our understanding of the human brain is being held back by the persuasive ’the brain is like a computer’ metaphor. I especially like this passage showing that our knowledge of ourselves has always been influenced by the technology of the time. We’re just too complicated, so we shoehorn in mechanical parallels: In his book In Our…
I’m currently reading “ English Food: A People’s History ” by Diane Purkiss. I thought this passage on Virginia Woolf’s depression treatment interesting: Virginia Woolf , on the other hand, was in the 1920s treated, if that is the right word, by the then recommended regime of complete rest – not even books were allowed, lest they excite the brain – milk, weight gain, fresh air and early…
I’m currently reading “ English Food: A People’s History ” by Diane Purkiss. There’s a section on the hardships of people during the Great Depression. And after a sad, brief mention of a woman named Annie Weaving who died aged 37 ° potentially due to not being able to feed both herself and her family there’s a reference to something called “protective foods”. I’d never heard the term. I…
One of the things I don’t like about certain religious groups and people is their love of round numbers. Or more specifically round years. Every new century, half-century or decade they claim something miraculous and/or terrible is going to happen 1 To me it’s just lazy, easy prophesying. And I find it rather silly. If religion is fantasy then these predictions are high fantasy. They’re always the…
I recently started reading " Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire " by Roger Crowley. While I’ve only highlighted two passages so far, both of them contained incorrect information. The first passage: The Romans knew of the Canary Islands, a smattering of rocks off the coast of Morocco, which they called the Fortunate Islands and from which they measured longitude. After…
Neuroscience News ° : Staying up late harms mental health regardless of one’s natural sleep preference. Surveying nearly 75,000 adults, researchers discovered that both morning and night types who stayed up late had higher rates of mental disorders. Surprisingly, aligning with one’s chronotype didn’t matter—early bedtimes benefited everyone. The study suggests lights out by 1 a.m. for better…
Last week the clothing company Asket removed all images for their products. I would be curious to know how much their sales dropped during that week. Well, I’m guessing they dropped. Who knows, maybe the publicity outweighed the loss of sales. Hey, I’m talking about it. So the marketing has worked. Aside : I always mix up Asket and Arket . They have similar names and they both sell…
Want to be known as dependable and great at your job? Focus on the big and the small tasks. People notice when that critical project is struggling. They also notice when you promise a small favour but take forever to deliver. It’s tempting to tackle the medium tasks first. The small ones can wait until later. But suddenly it’s the end of the day and they’re not done. And the big…
Venkatesh Rao (Ribbon Farm) ° : One of the biggest changes in my personality with middle age is that I no longer really enjoy travel beyond local weekend getaways. Almost no destination has a pain/novelty ratio that makes it worth it… Even though travel has gotten way more convenient overall (smartphones, eSIM cards, cashless payments, Uber, Google Translate — though at the expense of…
I love discovering a wonderful new homepage or blog. Especially on the weekend when I have time to gently sip away at its content. This time it’s Arun and their website arun.is . It’s a technology-focused blog that’s simply, but sensationally, designed. There’s quite the archive, so I haven’t read all their stuff, but here’s some of my favourites: The Art of the…
I’m a big fan of Guy Ritchie’s films. His first two, “ Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ” and “ Snatch ”, are the business. Even as he’s gone more Hollywood over the years, his work always maintains that unique Ritchie touch – the clever dialogue, the inventive filming style. His Sherlock Holmes felt fresh and modern, despite the period setting. And…
April 12, 1835. London. The weekly Friday lottery draw is about to take place and a young woman clutches her ticket with desperate hope as she speeds up Denmark Hill. A ticket is difficult to get as it all but guarantees that you’ll see a favourable outcome in the draw. So every morning for the past three days the woman visited various wealthy homes, begging the servant who answered the door…
Ash from ajkprojects.com ° : You aren’t famous. Anything you do or create will probably receive little to no attention, so stop optimizing for a non-existent audience and instead focus on what makes you enjoy the activity. I’m an overthinker and overworrier. This article didn’t cure that. But it’s important for me to regularly read content like this to try and keep myself…
Ever feel like you’re hurtling through life, desperately trying to cram everything in before it’s too late? Oliver Burkeman’s book “ Four Thousand Weeks ” aims to help you (4000 weeks is 80 years, the average human lifespan). But it’s not your typical time management book. It’s a philosophical and practical look at why you’re stuck in the hamster…
Hi all 👋 Long time no see. Hope you’re having a good Sunday. I’m back with the eighth instalment of Little Links & Notes . Enjoy, and have a good week. “How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day” ( Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association – Rachel Aaron ° ). You don’t have to be a writer to enjoy this article on how this person used a…
blot.blog is powered by Hugo , which is static site generator. So basically my blog is a bunch of Markdown and other files that then gets ‘built’ into HTML, CSS, etc. files and then uploaded to the web. But the thing is, this all has to be done manually by command in the Terminal. It’s a pain and adds an extra layer of friction when it comes to blogging. And it also means…
Through a transport and communication mishap, a couple accidentally spend Christmas at the others’ family home. One family is cold but rich. The other warm but less rich. That’s the premise. I was annoyed at first when the couple got ‘split up’. How can you have a romantic comedy without them being together‽ But I got over that and I warmed to this film. It took quite a…
“The Pogues were once described as a tight, professional bunch of musicians fronted by a total shambles.” Shane MacGowen, frontman of The Pogues , has died aged 65. A decent innings in some ways, considering his lifestyle. I haven’t listened to pretty much anything of The Pogues and the limited knowledge I have of MacGowen is just of his hellraising. But there is one song of the…
Recipe timings before the invention of clocks ( Making Darkness Light: The Lives and Times of John Milton ). Recipe books, if they needed to tell their readers how long to undertake a given action, would often say things like: ‘Let it remain boiling, while your pulse beateth two hundred strokes’ or The water is to remain upon it, no longer than whiles you can say the Miserere psalm very…
‘A new ‘miracle’ weight-loss drug really works — raising huge questions’ ( Financial Times ° ). It’s pretty pricey right now. Costing $1,350/mo in the US. Something interesting about being obese: Once it becomes obese, the human body tends to push itself to rebound to its previous highest weight. Scientists don’t fully understand why, or how to stop it. The 100 best TV shows of…
My watch stopped recently. I like my watch. It is (usually) reliable and has been a loyal friend for many years. And I must glance at it dozens of times a day. But suddenly it stopped. At first I would instinctively continue to check it, only to be reminded – after a beat or two – that the time it was showing was a lie. Despite all those thousands of instances down the years where I’d…
It’s early summer and a veteran of the First World War is walking hand-in-hand with his young son through the lush English countryside. His lungs have never fully recovered from the gas attacks he endured in the trenches, so it’s only a short stroll – just a gentle morning meander really. After pointing out a rummaging squirrel and a rounded robin to his child he momentarily shuts his…
‘When Coal First Arrived, Americans Said ‘No Thanks’’ ( Smithsonian ; ° But convincing Americans to use the new fuel proved tricky… Many people hated the aesthetics of stoves because they were enclosed, and you couldn’t see the flames within as you could in a traditional fireplace. In articles and speeches, prominent citizens protested, denouncing stoves as,…
On realising that friends often talk about you behind your back and that they don’t always give you the benefit of the doubt ( New York Times ° , from 2013). Hearing other people’s uncensored opinions of you is an unpleasant reminder that you’re just another person in the world, and everyone else does not always view you in the forgiving light that you hope they do, making all allowances,…
Get Ready for the Forever Plague ( The Tyee / Andrew Nikiforuk ° ). ‘Public health officials’ COVID complacency has opened the door to new illnesses and devastating long-term damage.’ This article is scary in its to-the-pointness. There’s a lot of bold, worrying claims within it. Some of which don’t have any links to papers to back them up. But either way, the gist of the…
(Lots of money talk in the UK today as the Chancellor of the Exchequer ° has released his ‘ spring statement ’ ° ). The Telegraph ° : ….surging inflation will [cause] the biggest fall in living standards in any single financial year since records began in 1956. An anecdotal tweet coming from a Daily Mail journalist ° isn’t the most trustworthy combination. But still, this…
Darcy Moore ° looks at the surprising similarities between George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien . And I really like these two quotes by them: “Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening, especially vegetable gardening. I like English cookery and English beer, French red wines, Spanish white wines, Indian tea, strong tobacco, coal fires, candle light and comfortable chairs.” —…
Good afternoon everyone. It’s a beautifully mild and spotlessly sunny lunchtime in southern England right now and here I am with this instalment of Little Links & Notes . A few long reads this time – but as always, they’re there because they’re worth your bandwidth. Enjoy them and your evening. – elliot ‘How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London’ ( The New Yorker / Patrick…