He hardly realised that he was going down, falling, the green water rocking him and the sharp edges of the rocks had already torn him apart. Fossil lances.
I AM THE BROTHER OF XX, Fleur Jaeggy trans. Gini Alhadeff
I wasted an hour last night trying to recreate a simple tool I once used for Twitter, that I wanted to apply to WordPress. I used to be able to press a single button on my phone, and it would automatically post to Twitter an image, a bottled message, the time and the local weather forecast. It was a really easy way to signal that I was awake and the phone was on. This was in the days of a chronological feed, of course – even if I still used Twitter, it would be useless. So I thought I’d try and adapt the idea for this place. IFTTT appears to have given up on WordPress – also WTF is a ShareUrl? Defining the image as a “ShareURL,” a function that appears to no longer exist, means I can’t plug an image URL into it. So I looked at Shortcuts on the iPhone, which remains arcane and frequently non-functional – what’s the point of giving me the option of loading an image or album if I can’t select the image or album? I am somehow still amazed at how personal publishing has been deprecated across the board.
I’m in a mood today.
ON DECK: Two scripts. My back feels a bit tweaked today, so I won’t be able to put the securing screws in the garden shredder and I may not be able to spend all day at the desk. INBOX: 74. LISTENING:New Music Show READING: finished I AM THE BROTHER OF XX last night. LAST WATCHED: Alan Yentob talking to Marina Abramovic, which I need to watch again – I only had half an eye on it and then some arresting images appeared. SLEEP: 8hrs 58mins, apparently, and a readiness score of 28. Which isn’t the worst I’ve ever had. OUTSIDE: and apparently the WGA negotiating committee has agreed to some version of what AMPTP described as their “best and final” offer, so I’ll be interested to see what shakes out there.
SHIPPING FORECAST: Not sure. I’d like to re-establish a pulse here, but I didn’t wake up with any of the energy I went to bed with, if that makes sense.
I stopped “advertising” this site on social media years ago. Even disabled the machine that syndicated posts out to social – I imagine that doesn’t even work any more anyway, with all the changes in social media over the last year. I was reading a piece on thejaymo earlier that confirmed what I’d been hearing – that social media doesn’t create “growth” any more. Discovery is broken, largely by design. On the newsletter a few weeks back, I called it “social media winter.” The piece I read suggested that someone with two million followers on TikTok could only lure 400 of them to their long form YouTube channel. That’s a crazy level of broken machinery. I said in the newsletter that if you use social to keep up with your friends, then get them to move to new channels with you and keep them close. For the rest of us: well, we are all digital notebooks now. Writing just for ourselves and whoever finds their way to our caves to look over our shoulders as we scribble thoughts down in public and daub pictures on the walls.
This is not, I think, a bad thing. Shit might get weird and experimental out here in the Isles of Blogging again. I’ve lived through all the different versions of digital publishing, and none of them are coming back. But maybe there’s still space to do something new out here, in the places where no-one is looking.
This isn’t it, of course. Blogging about blogging used to be a Crime – although Robin Sloan has recently pointed out that it was also super generative. Perhaps talking about it again will get people thinking about it again, and that’s a good (re)start.
(I wrote this in IA Writer, something else that seems to play poorly with WordPress after all)
Cleared this bed and took off the buddleia hanging over it, half-mulched it before my back started twingeing, so I’ll mulch the other half tomorrow and get some vegetables sown. I’ve got to cover that bed, and the old hose I found in the back garden doesn’t have enough strength to make into hoops to suspend netting from.
The other point of today’s posting has been – the iOS WordPress app is not what it was. Image uploading and publishing seems to be hit and miss, and getting podcast details from Downcast into WP is annoying. I also suspect I’m bumping up against some issues in my WordPress theme, Alia.
Making notes in a notebook should be a function, not a chore. Not something that requires extra processes and jobs. It should be pretty much as easy as picking up a pen and writing in a straight line. (Some days that too is a challenge!) This is why we all loved tumblelogs, back in the day – clean and easy.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Solon, who was elected archon or chief magistrate of Athens in 594 BC: some see him as the father of Athenian democracy. In the first years of the 6th century BC, the city state of Athens was in crisis. The lower orders of society were ravaged by debt, to the point where some were being forced into slavery. An oppressive law code mandated the death penalty for everything from murder to petty theft. There was a real danger that the city could fall into either tyranny or civil war. Solon instituted a programme of reforms that transformed Athens’ political and legal systems, its society and economy, so that later generations referred to him as Solon the Lawgiver. With Melissa Lane Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University Hans van Wees Grote Professor of Ancient History at University College London and William Allan Professor of Greek and McConnell Laing Tutorial Fellow in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature at University College, University of Oxford Producer Luke Mulhall
This autumn is getting off to a strange start, as here in the Mojave High Desert there are carpets of little yellow wildflowers thanks to the hurricane, old Hurricane Hilary which soaked us all pretty good a month ago. Never seen so many weeds in late September. Happy Equinox from Desert Oracle Radio, celebrating 200 episodes with tonight’s show. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“This year, I thought I’d see if they will grow more productively in a container if sown close together, and then ‘thinned’ (the small ones picked out) as they grow. The first few pickings looked and tasted a bit like chives. We added these to salads and they were delicious. Then came small, tender spring onions, and finally a steady supply of full sized spring onions.”
— Read on www.verticalveg.org.uk/multiple-spring-onions-scallions-from-one-pot/
Testing posting from Chrome on iOS directly into WordPress by selecting text and pressing the WordPress button in Share. Not impressed. But now I won’t lose the article!
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy
