Reflecting on “How to Do Nothing”

I recently finished reading "How to Do Nothing" by Jenny Odell. It's a great, thought-provoking read. Despite the title the book isn't a treatise on disconnecting or a guide to mindfulness. It's an exploration of attention: what is it? how do we direct it? can it be trained? And how is it hijacked by social … Continue reading Reflecting on “How to Do Nothing” →

Remembering INPUT magazine

In 1984 a new magazine hit the racks in W. H Smiths: INPUT. It offered to help you to "Learn programming for fun and the future" via a weekly course in programming and computing. It ran for a total of 52 issues. I was 12 when it came out. And I collected every issue. INPUT … Continue reading Remembering INPUT magazine →

The Doom Pyramid

There's a lot going at the minute. Both in general and personally. I've been trying to think through the way I feel about it all. To reflect on what helps me deal with the anxiety of These Times. As well as what doesn't. Today it clicked and I tweeted it. This is post just expands … Continue reading The Doom Pyramid →

Obsessed by bees

I've become a bit obsessed by bees. In a good way. Earlier in the year whilst I was quietly reading a very large, very black bee fell out of chimney. We were both stunned. After a moment to see if I was about to be engulfed in a swarm of bees (BEES!!!) I escorted the … Continue reading Obsessed by bees →

TTRPGs and Me

In January I tweeted this: https://twitter.com/ldodds/status/1351293034093285382 Six months later and I'm now in two weekly TTRPG sessions. And I'm thoroughly enjoying it. For a long period TTRPGs were a big part of my life. Like many people of my age, my introduction to TTRPGs was through the D&D "red box" set. When I got my … Continue reading TTRPGs and Me →

Garden Retro 2020

I've been growing vegetables in our garden for years now. I usually end up putting the garden "to bed" for the winter towards the end of September. Harvesting the last bits of produce, weeding out the vegetable patches and covering up the earth until the Spring. I thought I'd also do a bit of a … Continue reading Garden Retro 2020 →

I miss being able to look people in the eye

"What even is time, anymore?" I've seen and made many variations of this joke across Slack, twitter and meetings this week. Remote working and social isolation has disrupted all of our routines and left us feeling adrift. But, for those of us lucky enough to have good connectivity, we're certainly not talking or seeing each … Continue reading I miss being able to look people in the eye →

Long live RSS! How I manage my reading

"LONG LIVE RSS!" I shout these words from my bedroom window every morning. Reaffirming my love for this century's most criminally neglected data standard. If you've either forgotten, or never enjoyed, the ease of managing your information consumption via the magic of RSS and a feed reader, then you're missing out mate. Struggling with the … Continue reading Long live RSS! How I manage my reading →

Under construction

It's been a while since I posted a more personal update here. But, as I announced this morning, I've got a new job! I thought I'd write a quick overview of what I'll be doing and what I hope to achieve. I've been considering giving up freelancing for a while now. I've been doing it on … Continue reading Under construction →

Experiences with the Freestyle Libre

https://twitter.com/ldodds/status/730807390367547393 We've been using the Freestyle Libre for just over a year now to help my daughter manage her Type-1 diabetes. I wanted to share a few thoughts about how well it's been working for us. I had lots of questions at the start, so I wanted to help capture what we've learned in case its … Continue reading Experiences with the Freestyle Libre →