Tag: musings

Sunday musings

Hello gang. Sunday evening, the week is nearly over. Must be time for some sunday musings.

If this is really going to be A Thing, it needs a better name. Suggestions onna postcard.

I’ve set up a thing to ping favourited tweets to Evernote for this post. It seems to work quite well. I do like IFTTT for doing Clever Things With The Internet.  You should try it.

What’s on the list this week?

Author, rapper and all round top bloke Rob Boffard has a new book coming out in his Outer Earth series. Cue much excitement. It’s called Echoes: Stories from Outer Earth, and costs 99p. GO GO GO.

I won a thing from Scrawlrbox, an art supplies subscription service. I’ve had one of their boxes before, and they’re full of lovely, lovely art stuff. If you like lovely, lovely art stuff, you should check them out.

The ever-interesting Christian Payne (@documentally) shows us what the magnetic field looks like on the side of an iPad. Now I want some magnetic field viewing paper.

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Off to NUX5 and Thinking Digital in Manchester in the next couple of weeks. Both look interesting, in different ways. I’ve been to quite a few NUX events, but this will be my first time at TDMCR. Much excitement.

It’s October, and therefore Halloween is on the way, with its attendant trick or treating. Some years ago I bought a skull mask from Wintercroft masks. This year I might get round to making it.

Speaking of making things, I’ve just realised that I’ve missed the first two days of Inktober, a month-long challenge to do an ink drawing every day. Ah well. Maybe I’ll start tomorrow.

Inktober was set up by Jake Parker. I do so love his art.

I was supposed to go to a Thing on Thursday at Waterstones – Faber Books were running a crime thing, taking three authors on tour. I’d booked the ticket in advance to see Rod Reynolds (author of the rather splendid Black Night Falling. Sadly, due to lack of numbers it was cancelled. Waterstones tweeted the bad news, but said that you could get a refund on your ticket. I rock up to the main desk at Waterstones clutching the aforementioned ticket.

Me: “Hi, I’ve got a ticket for the crime thing that got cancelled”
Waterstones Dude: “Ah, yeah. Shame about that, it looked great.”
Me: “I know. Can I get a refund?”
WD: “Sure. Have you got your receipt?”
Me: “Err, no. I’ve got my ticket though”
WD: “ah, you need the receipt.”
Me: “I don’t remember getting one. But look, my ticket!”
WD: “You’d definitely have got one with your ticket.”
Me: “Ah. Possibly. But I probably chucked it, on account of having the ticket.”
WD: “You need the receipt to get a refund. I can do you a gift card for the amount though.”
Me: *sigh* “Oh, go on then”
WD: “You bothered which one?”
Me: “Nah, you pick.”
WD: “Winnie the Witch?”
Me: “Awesome!”

So now I’ve got a gift card with £3 on it. Which I’m forced to spend on books.

OH, THE HARDSHIP. 🙂

Right, that’s about enough for now.

Would love to know what you think of the Sunday Musings. Good? Interesting? Not? Would you rather see individual posts? Or do you like this format? Thoughts, comments and suggestions on a postcard to the usual address.

See you next week, you lovely people you.

Sunday musings

This was never meant to turn into a book review blog. I just sort of… fell into it. And over the past couple of years, it’s developed to the point where it’s taken over.

I’m not entirely sure what to do. I do love reading and reviewing books, but I’d like to be able to have a space for more random musings.

The other week I pulled together a post about things I’d found online during the week. I quite like that idea. I’ve also been inspired and impressed by email newsletters such as those by Christian Payne from Documentally and Warren Ellis’ Orbital Operations.

You should check them out.

So. What to do? Do I set up a new blog for the more random stuff? Keep the random stuff I’ve found here but in a separate section? Set up my own email newsletter?

Thoughts, ideas and suggestions welcome. Especially what to call it.

In the meantime, here are this week’s musings.

Ever wondered what the auctioneer is saying when they’re trying to sell things? (via Kottke.org)

Photographer Toru Akai uncovers the Invisible Machinery that defines modern life (via www.itsnicethat.com

Anyone got a spare grand? Casey Neistat plays with the new GoPro Karma

I do like Casey’s vlog.

I’ve been musing about starting a YouTube channel myself, but never quite know how to get started. Maybe I’ll do it one day. Would anyone watch? There seem to be a lot of savvy young folk on there – you should check out Sara Dietschy’s channel – hers and Casey’s channels are entertaining, as is the Shaytards vlog.

Is there room for a mid-forties bloke who lives in Yorkshire, reads lots of books, drinks coffee and goes out on his bike a bit? Guess there’s only one way to find out.

I’m also tempted by The InkTober Initiative, set up by Jake Parker in 2009 to challenge artists around the world to do a new ink drawing every day in October and post the results. Last year I decided I was going to learn how to draw, but that sort of fizzled along. I did some stuff I quite liked but then got distracted by shiny things on the internet.

Then it’ll soon be November and NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. It’s been five years since I last seriously attempted NaNo and I still have the 50,000 words sat in a file on my computer, gathering virtual dust. Maybe it’s time for another go.

Right. That feels like enough for now. It’s nearly midnight on Sunday, which means another week is just around the corner.

In the words of Bill & Ted, be excellent to each other, folks. Catch you next week.

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