Index on Dalliance

Grapheneos

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:27:01 +0000

With Google soon to make Android even less free it’s time to extend my degoogling practise and see how much Android we can remove from my phone.

Six months left in the support life of my Pixel Six, lets spend those six months with GrapheheOS instead.

Graphene is a fork of Android, keeping most of the Android updates but not those which require Google Services.

An Android without google. In theory.

Age-gating social media, the rant

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:09:22 +0000

The kids are not okay, and lots of people seem to think it’s the kid’s phones and social media that’s doing it so lets simply ban kids from social media.

Simple!

Only: it doesn’t sound very simple to me.

What is “social media”?

What do you actually want to ban?

Does Github count?

Does an anorexia-support forum count?

Does a queer-support forum count?

Green Victory, Love, And War Again - Feb 2026

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 20:47:00 +0000

The new Bedroom Lights are pretty and I spent the monthbuilding my media archive on Jellyfin while the Greens win Gorton And Denton, the AI marches on, and yet more new wars.

Diary

Bedroom

Got the LED strips all fitted and controlled. Check out a video

Each has their own domain name on the LAN. 😆

Quite a bit of software to deal with to get it able to do everything I want but looking pretty great even with just the default WLED patterns.

Loopy Love Love Love for St Valentine's Day

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:14:24 +0000

Wishing y’all a loving St Valentine’s day.

In one episode of the Power Puff Girls, Coco The Clown becomes depressed and makes the whole world black and white. The girls save the day before bedtime of course. In this case, with a song.

And that song is actually pretty good advice against depression: Pay attention to your senses, focus on the moment, and most of all, love things.

Back to Improv as the Robots get Lose - January 2026

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:05:43 +0000

I restarted doing some weekly improv stuff, (there will be a show in March you should come)

Also went to a Hitch Hikers Guide show,and explored and rejected the Vivaldi browser.

Meanwhile, everyone’s defecting from the Conservatives,Labour are in scandal, Greens have a great broadcast,and the robots get lose on the internet.

Diary

Improv

So I’m back to doing some improv, with a 8 week course on the mechanics and structure of story.

Dec25 Newsletter - Bedroom Finished And Year Review

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 12:57:32 +0000

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a nice xmas and break.

My bedroom finally finished! At least in the sensethat the builders aren’t coming any more and I can sleepin it now.

Diary

Bedroom

The new bedroom basically finished.

The builders finished up and I’ve spent some days doinga final layer of varnish and painting the new bed andwaiting for the new mattress to expand.

Finally slept in it after Xmas.

So Farewell Then 2025

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 13:22:55 +0000

So farewell then 2025. Had some serious health worries, made some stuff, did some performance, made money, had some fun.

Not the best year, suspect health things tend to trend down in the second half of life.

Good though, and promising more good to come.

Made Stuff

Made 11 Wordcloud Tarot shows.

See them here

The target is like 25. So about half as many as target.

Some good, some great.

Mastodon Archive To VimWiki

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:24:01 +0000

It’s about this time of year I like to check my backups and download my archives.

One archive I download is the archive of my Mastodon posts. Pretty much the only one now I’ve left the corporate web really.

I also like to copy the contents of my public fediverse posts into my own diary within my vimwiki.

Keep it all in one place for easy and local search.

Building Bedroom Part Two & BitFest - Nov 2025

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 18:58:30 +0000

The bedroom work continued all month long, nearing an end now though.

Meanwhile a day in Devon and a weekend in Manchester at Bitfest. Excitement as Steam announce some new Steam Machines!

Diary

Building Bedroom

Lots more work on the bedroom. Full blow by blow account on the Mastodon thread.

Building takes a long time to be done carefully andwell. The cupboards construction is one thing but thenit still needs sanding, staining, varnishing, varnishingagain and sometimes again and again.

Wrist Recovery and Building Bedroom Part Two - Oct 2025

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 10:42:55 +0000

Been doing physio exercises to build the strengthand range of movement back into my healing fracturedwrist while sleeping on the sofabed as the buildersmake progress rebuilding the bedroom.

Diary

Bedroom Build

The day by day progress is mostly too boring to relate here. Images in the thread. The electrics have been builtso that I have 14 sockets and 18 USB power holes around theroom. It’s been painted with initial paint, and most of thewardrobes and cupboards and closets have been built.

Building Bedroom Part One - Sep 2025

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 11:56:54 +0100

My fractured wrist out of the cast but still weakand painful, work on renovating the bedroom begins,and the world slips further in to fascism.

Diary

Fractured Wrist

Went to the hospital and had the cast removed.

Should make typing easier.

More pain after that than when I first went there though. RSI aggravated by the cast. Thumb fucked up by the cast. Wrist hurtswhen moved.

Apparently I’m to stretch the wrist slowly and gradually recover mobility like wrist yoga. Physio exercises every day.

A month on the sofa watching TV with a broken wrist - Aug 2025

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:52:22 +0100

I spent a month on the sofa watching TV with a broken wrist, while the rest of the country was plastering the countryin poorly drawn flags and persecuting human rights.

Diary

Wrist

It’s funny how the pain became located more where the x-ray shows the break is, once I saw the x-ray.

Before that it was more in the heel of the hand and across the wrist.

Could be the plaster going on I suppose.

Campervan Conversion and breaking my wrist at a festival - Jul 2025

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:37:28 +0100

The campervan conversion hit some unexpected difficultiesbut worked well enough to get me to Good Vibrations Societyfestival where I was entranced by a harpist and then broke my wrist.

Two days at a festival and a drive home with a fractured fibula

Me

Campervan Conversion

I deconstructed the temporary half arsed shoddy micro-campervan conversion.

Emptied it out, ready for the professionals to do the fully-arsed non-shoddy permanent conversion over a couple of weeks.

Gaza and Glasto and a stopped watch - June 2025

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:49:38 +0100

A stopped watch doesn’t count steps even once a day,I’m doing government bureaucracy, Doctor Who and 3d models while the government puts peaceful groups on terrorist ban lists.

Me

The end of Time

My pineTime has stopped charging 😦 Seems like there’s voltage across the charger pins, but the watch shows no sign of being attached to it when it’s attached.

Damn. That’s annoying.

Seems like it happens to some people now and then but nobody on Reddit has proposed a solution.

Medical issues and Improv - May 2025

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 17:06:56 +0100

Medical issues, an improv show, first festival ofthe summer, and some work on the Starship project.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse

Medical

On the 10th of December 2024 at about 4pm in the afternoon I had a sudden shivering attack. The room wasn’t cold, but I was, so I took to bed and shivered on the electric blanket until I napped for a few hours.

Woke up groggy, and never got better. Feeling light headed and occasionally dizzy and half stoned all the time. Can’t handle booze or dope at all any more. Doing the job feels like trying to program drunk, concentration shot and short term memory failing.

Fascism, Local Elections, Trumponomics and Tariffs - April 2025

Tue, 06 May 2025 15:38:06 +0100

I made a new Observers cartoon, there were local elections, and Trump’s Tariffs seemed crazy.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse

New Cartoon Diary

The good news is I actually managed to do some writing this month instead of just staring at the page wondering if my brain would ever work right again and marching off to get snacks.

The script even managed to be workable in the fresh light of the morning and I recorded the audio next day.

Microcamper, Improv, and economic chaos - Mar 2025

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 14:52:19 +0100

Microcamper, Improv, and economic chaos - Mar 2025

I got a van and have converted it into a microcamper,mostly a half arsed temp job till the professionalscan do it properly in the Summer.

Also performed another Improv show, and ranted aboutonline safety and uk / us economics.

Me

Camper

As I said a few months ago, the estate offered me a garage meaning I finally have somewhere to put a van that I can convert into a microcamper.

Birthday, Gigs, Feb 2025

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:28:32 +0000

Played a gig at a birthday party,watched a comedian do a gig,fixed some things, did more improvand got a keyboard for my birthday.

Me

Playing a music gig

Went to a friend’s birthday party, played some songs on the synth with the loop pedal.

Seemed to go down okay, they demanded an encore.

It requires more attention in front of an audience somehow. Can feel my concentration shrinking and the timing and voicecontrol slip quite a lot.

Come Play With Me - At The Judgement

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 23:59:09 +0000

First time playing any of the Loopy set, out at Sparkle Fest, a friend’s birthday festival.

There was lots of rain, but at least a tent big enough for everyone.

A Whole New Era - Jan 2025

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 18:42:32 +0000

A new era begins! It’s time for the longer-form Improv course!

Oh, also there was a new president, and so the oligarch internetdecided hate-speech is cool again.

Me

Improv Restarts

I’m enjoying the new round of sessions at the improv group. Finally concentrating on more long-form activities.

Getting to make up some actual stories rather than just snippets and scenes and parlor games.

I find playing with and inventing narrative structure more interesting engaging and memorable than the short-form stuff. More room for story flow and slow build than the previous sessions.

Happy New Year - Dec 2024

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 18:42:32 +0000

Happy new year everybody!

During the last month of last year wehad CEOs murdered, we had a string ofappointments by Trump, my oven broke thenmy fridge broke, we had the passingof the Online Safety Bill, everyone wassick and we had Christmas and new year!

Me

Broken Appliances

This month becomes even more expensive: Oven’s broke.

I ordered a new one to be delivered, and crucially, they’ll take the old one away.

New President Guy, and Bluesky, and Sci-fi - November 2024

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:12:52 +0000

I had half the week off to do writing and 3d-modelling and play games and meanwhileTrump won the election, and Bluesky gets a boost from subsequent Twitter-Quitters.

Fly In The Sky - Oct 2024

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:14:51 +0000

The end of another Improv course, motor related discussion, spending a week in VR in No Man's Sky, while we have a new Conservative leader, a new Labour Budget, and a new American Election.

Building Bathrooms and Comedy/Music gigs - Sept 2024

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 19:27:03 +0000

The bathroom took all month, but it is finished. As of today, I have all my rooms back, they are no longer filled with building materials and bathroom overflow.

Also went to a gig, watched a comedy show, continued with Improv, and ranted about the new government and stuff.

Me

Building Bathrooms

You may remember last month the bathroom had been taken apart and I was left flushless and flannel-washing at the kitchen sink as they built the new one.

Riots and Building Bathrooms - August 2024

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:23:23 +0000

The country's racist rioters run amok, the internet enshitifies further, and work is half done on my new bathroom

Labour's New Country - Broken Bathroom - Assassination, riots, and resignation - July 2024

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 14:58:36 +0000

On election night itself my bathroom flooded, thanks Starmer.

So I’ve been designing a new bathroom, doing the improv show, and watching the social order collapse into assassinations and riots.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse.

Improv Show

Did the end-of-course improv show at the Hoopla thing at the Miller in London.

They had a cider festival going on and I was in the post-interval group, so I wasn’t even allowed to drink any until we were finished. 😠 It’s not at all like being in the band, where we wouldn’t go on stage till the start of the third pint. 😆

Improv and New Observers cartoon during Election Month - Jun 2024

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:07:35 +0000

I released a new “Observers” cartoon using the new engine, there was a whole farce of an election campaign, and the UK votes today! Last newsletter of the old regime!

Go and vote the bastards out!

Me

For the first time in ages, I released a cartoon: episode twelve of The Observers.

This time the aliens discover a planet where the people use private bank debt charged at interest as a medium of exchange!

Small World and elections and microsoft's spyware and improv - May 2024

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 21:13:37 +0000

Spent a couple of days at Small World Festival this month, dancing and enjoying sun with friends. Started a stint with an improv group, and got real work done on the next Observers cartoon.

Meanwhile the UK government finally fell apart so an emergency election was called, and Microsoft decided to have all their computers spy on you even more.

Me

Duck all photos taken this week even though I went to:

Projects & Politics - April 2024

Mon, 06 May 2024 13:07:12 +0000

Buckling down and getting on with some work, making progress with the VR sci-fi project, big changes to my web-hosting, local elections happen while the world continues it’s political chaos.

Me

Politics

Sicknote Britain

First, let’s find out what’s going on with with Normal Island’s Nasty Party, how are they doing?

These young depressed sick malingerers are too woke, the woke doctors are signing them off sick too easily, we’ll set up corporate death panels to make the decisions instead, get these skivers back to work 😡 🤛

Tarotdrome in cyberspace - March 2024

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 19:56:54 +0000

The world is falling apart and war ravages the globe, but I visited an aviary and spent much of the month making a 3d stage/lightshow on which to do a new format tarot show.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse.

Birds

Went to visit with the family, for my dad and brother’s birthday. We went to Birdland in Bourton On The Water in the Costswolds. Met some beautiful bird friends.

Blind Leap - February 2024

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:36:29 +0000

Special bonus newsletter with 3% more February than most years!

I got a window blind custom-printed for the kitchen, while Fedi reacted fearfully to a potential bridge with BlueSky and a spam attack.

Meanwhile, politics sucks.

Me

Life

Had Pancakes on Pancake Day and sausage egg and chips for breakfast on my birthday and dinner with the old bandmates at the Piano Works

These talented session musicians half-heartedly performed lots of covers of songs that they didn’t always appear to particularly like.

Jan 2024 - Hermit, Hibernate and Build Something

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:11:13 +0000

January is too cold and dark so best spent hibernating and hermitting and building something. I spent the month mostly obsessed with programming my new watch.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse

PineTime

I dunno why people find January depressing. Perhaps they try going outside or something. That would be mistake. Seems to me to be the month to stay home, hermit and hibernate, and make something.

Introducing Monolith and Mood for WaspOS / PineTime

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:56:54 +0000

I have had a ball this month programming the PineTime I got around christmas time. Micropython in a memory constrained controller is a fascinating puzzle.

As a result my watch looks like this now:

Monolith Watch Face

It has the day and date written across the top and the large numbers showing the time in a funky font, a step-counter and progress bar plus a heart-rate logger.

Lit new year - December 2023

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 13:14:21 +0000

Spent the first half of the month sick and rewiring all the lights in my flat then there was Xmas and new year and now it’s 2024 already.

Happy New Year.

Me

Illness

I was coughing and sick for more than a week and tried to get some medical attention. There are no doctors though any more. Ended up writing to my MP.

Lighting

I have installed some new lights, and they each come with an identical-looking but apparently differently encoded remote controls.

Devon Holidays and political sackings and death - November 2023

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 13:00:03 +0000

A lovely weekend break in Devon leaves me sick for the rest of the month, but I made a Pistol Whip level and both the home secretary and Open AI boss got fired.

One of them took over the company by the end of the weekend.

The other one will probably do it next year.

Me

Pictures from a weekend in Devon

Went to a friends house-warming party in Devon. I met this horse and these sheep and this pirate and my friend’s cat remains regal and disdainful and floofy.

Working with Godot while Gaza kicks off again - October 2023

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 13:46:24 +0000

A new VR headset to play with, and apparently impossible programming problems solved, against a terrible political background of war and atrocity.

Me

New VR Headset

New Meta Quest Headset

Install our app!

You must install our app on your phone!

[RELUCTANTLY INSTALLS APP ON BACKUP PHONE, logs in.]

Redirects to the website to log in with oauth.
Do you want website tracking cookies (NO)
We’ve emailed you a pass-code, log into your email!

Godot - 360 Stereo 3d camera projections

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 16:13:36 +0000

Loving Godot, but I have a requirement that seems currently difficult to impossible to do:

Rendering a 3D Stereoscopic 360 degree view of the scene.

Cubemap

We can do a monocular projection by fixing six square 90-degree cameras, one for each axis, rending them each into a texture. Then use a shader loaded with those 6 source-textures to figure out which pixel should be mapped where in the final output.

Building work. gig, and tech enshitification - September 2023

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 22:21:16 +0000

The building-work is basically done and I saw a nice gig. Meanwhile the internet continued to enshitify, and the UK sank further into being a hilarious farce of a country.

Me

Personal

Oh man, I thought the new extractor-fan they fitted was going to be annoying because it basically never turned off.

Turns out that was just a high-humidity situation.

Also turns out that if the humidity is more or less exactly 70%, it keeps flipping on and off.

Making a VR/Godot/Linux/Monando dev system:

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 23:12:36 +0000

Apparently SteamVR might not be the way to go on Linux, and there’s this other implementation of the OpenXR system that Valve invented called “Monando”. (Thanks Gabmus)

This can be installed with the following incantations:

sudo apt install build-essential git wget unzip cmake ninja-build libeigen3-dev curl patch python3 pkg-config libx11-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxrandr-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libvulkan-dev glslang-tools libglvnd-dev libgl1-mesa-dev ca-certificates libusb-1.0-0-dev libudev-dev libhidapi-dev libwayland-dev libuvc-dev libavcodec-dev libopencv-dev libv4l-dev libcjson-dev libsdl2-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libbsd-dev
git clone https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/monado/monado.git
cd monado
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -G "Unix Makefiles"
cmake --build .
sudo cmake --build . --target install
monado-service

The last line actually launches the OpenXR service, and looks like it might have crashed coz all you see is a warning in the console and a blank VR headset.

Gigs, Driving, Internet Ranting - August 2023

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 22:13:55 +0000

I got rained on a lot again! Saw a friend play a gig, made a new “Observers” episode, sadly went to a funeral, rants on climate crisis, google, and Twitter’s continuing self-immolation.

Me

Life

Gig

Went to see a friend play in one of her bands at the Dublin Castle which is confusingly in Camden in London.

Supported by “The Mulholland Drivers” a David Lynch inspired band.

He had a clipping microphone that sounded like a telephone and she had a 40s looking mic. They were pretty and entertaining.

Camping and singing in the rain - July 2023

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 13:38:50 +0000

The country’s drought finally ends as I go camping three weekends out of four. I play my solo loop-pedal set out a couple of times too!

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse

July the 5th happened, so I looked forward to the end of the world and then was sad when it didn’t happen again.

Outside!

Work Canal Cruise

Took some photos on a work-trip down the canal to a pub.

I've Had It With Blondes - At Sparklefest

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 23:59:15 +0000

First time playing any of the Loopy set, out at Sparkle Fest, a friend’s birthday festival.

There was lots of rain, but at least a tent big enough for everyone.

The collapse of the corporate web - May 2023

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 13:34:03 +0000

Twitter goes dark, Reddit closes it’s API, Facebook joining Fedi. A very “meta” month on Fediverse as everyone argues about whether Meta should be blocked.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse

Reddit Strike

The Reddit owners decided to start charging for API access, making the third party apps financially unviable.

Reddit going dark caused the users to revolt, the moderators to strike.

After waiting for the strike to end so I wasn’t a scab I deleted my reddit account, telling them I’m giving up the centralized ensihitifed corporate web.

Groups On Fediverse - Lemmy and KBin

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 19:13:13 +0000

Just as everyone is is getting used to the idea that we can share a fediverse between micro-bloging software like Mastodon or Misskey or Frendica, that big old website Reddit has a capitalism-induced fit of user-hostility (Don’t visit, there’s a strike today, don’t cross the picket lines) and so now everyone’s talking about Lemmy and KBin so what is that all about now?

Why?

Having your own little microblog that you post on and others can read and comment is nice, but it doesn’t really in of itself build a community. To do that you need something topic-based, not person-based, and to be able to post a message to everyone in the group, and read messages that people post to the group.

May 2023 - A new king is corronated, I release two cartoons, AI's progress continues.

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:30:55 +0000

A new king is corronated, I release two cartoons, AI’s progress continues, and the usual pile of links and stuff.

Me

The king got a coronation so I wonder about pulling swords from stones and watched some protoestors and photoshopped the new monarch and his crown

Starmer was saying how Labour are the real Conservatives and he is going to be like Blair on Steroids. Faceplam. He wants to give 16 year olds the vote but what is the point when we have unrepresentative first past the past election. Hardly worth the bother for them.

What it's like to program with GPT

Wed, 10 May 2023 21:49:26 +0000

It’s been on my list to automate more of the compilation of the monthly newsletter for a while. Just something to do all the copying and pasting I do, as I open the last month’s posts and re-read them all and decide which to include.

Now there is a good task of a GPT-assisted size that I expect might normally take me most of an evening: Fetch last month’s posts and put them in a text-file ready for editing so I don’t keep screwing up the links.

April 2023 - New Film Premiered, Tarot Decks Available, AI and Fedi and VR games and Monarchy

Fri, 05 May 2023 16:13:08 +0000

During April my new short films premiered at the Kino event, my wordy tarot decks finally hit Amazon so I did a reading about leaving twitter, and we continued to talk about AI and Decentralization of social media as the monarch prepares get a new hat while sat on a magic rock that doesn’t even have a sword in it.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

Announcing Pre Goes Loopy

Wed, 03 May 2023 18:29:04 +0000

When his band broke up during Lockdown, Pre spent a lot of time playing with himself.

With his loop-pedal that is.

Who needs a drummer when there are machine drums? And who needs a bass player when you can just play synth bass and then loop over it? Who needs a lead guitarist when you can just play a synth guitar instead?

Can it be that being in this this one-man-band is just as good as when he used to have friends?

March 2023 - Family holiday, March of the AI, New Premier Date!

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 13:32:49 +0000

A lovely holiday with my parents, the GPT4 release sparks more AI conversation, the Fediverse continues to grow, and I have a date for the first public screening of my new Starship film! *Come!* *It’s this month!*

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

At the start of the month the politicians were arguing about refugees. It’s so depressing they way they try to outdo each other with cruelty. There’s apparently no place in politics for the view that desperate fleeing people should be welcomed and put to work improving the country.

Windows / Android Install 2023

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 12:45:21 +0000

My mother wants a new computer and a new tablet and wants me to set them up for her since she doesn’t really know how to like, log in. And these things tend to get shipped loaded with bullshit from malware makers so probably best to go through it.

Other than my mother, basically my whole family was born in March. And the UK is kind enough to put Mother’s day then too so end of March is nearly as demanding on gift-buying as Xmas. We’re going on holiday together for the first time in ages.

February 2023 - Kickstart Delivery & Birthday

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 14:51:52 +0000

A month with a flat full of boxes, but all the kick-starter packages got packed up and sent out in time for my 50th birthday party.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

I bought an Aeropress and surprisingly no longer want sugar in the coffee.

Finding the all-Musk twitter show entertaining and hilarious.

Some thoughts on angry people upset about expanding of the ultra low emission zone and their right to continue poisoning children.

January 2023 - stable difusion and instability

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 15:40:49 +0000

I’ve been working on the animation, playing with Godot and Stable Diffusion, and fighting with banks while the UK government risks the union to insist it decides how Scotland should assess gender.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

Spent a lot of time on the lighting of the cartoon I’ve been working on for years. My scene is too big to fit the lightmaps.

While improving my remote backups, I found a trick to keep open your ssh connection so that when copying lots of files with individual commands you don’t have to keep renegotiating the connection.

December 2022 - Happy New Year - Withdrawing Labour Over Xmas

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 23:26:42 +0000

December was full of strikes, and of starting delivery of the Kickstarter rewards, and of Christmas and New Year.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

The Kickstarter ended, but the money finally landed in my accounts so I had to learn more about the Kickstarter process and get the money and designs to the printers etc.

Everyone’s still talking about Joining Mastodon. The nine-million account mark passed early in the new year and due to popular demand I wrote a click-by-click how-to which is long because of the detail people seemed to want.

50th Birthday Party

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 21:58:43 +0000

March Update: All steam ahead. See you on Saturday!

A celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of my birth will take place on the 4th of March 2023, upstairs at the Roebuck on Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG from 3pm until my birthday begins at midnight.

Chilling in the afternoon, maybe some computer games on the projector, some drink, conversation, kids welcome.

Then there will be a preview screening of my latest ten-minute film at 7:45.

How To Do Some Mastodon

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 22:36:39 +0000

Mastodon is software for talking to people on the internet. Some of those people may one day become virtual friends, some you may even meet, many will make you laugh or tell you interesting stories. Who knows what might happen.

But that’s what we’re doing: Talking to people on the internet.

I have been asked to do a step-by-step guide. Click-by-click on what to do if you want to do some Mastodon.

November 2022 - Kickstarter Progress and the Bird's people continue fleeing to the Elephant

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 11:37:30 +0000

My kickstarter ran through all November, finishing with just under 200 people pledging just under 12k between them. Meanwhile, it all kicked off on Twitter, so Mastodon had to expand to three times the size to accommodate all the newbies.

Still not turned the heating on. Turns out of you use some strong clothes-pegs you can turn a furry blanket into a great shawl/housecoat.

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

Strike In Fairyland - Full Transcript.

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 23:06:52 +0000

The story is here, but here’s the transcript of writing it with the AI.
The edited final version is here .

Full Transcript

We are going to write a fairy story in which the battle between the fairys and the unicorns is a Marxist allegory for the struggle between the capital and the workers.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there were two great powers: the fairies and the unicorns. The fairies were small and delicate, with wings that sparkled in the sunlight. They lived in a beautiful forest, where they spent their days tending to the flowers and trees.

Strike In Fairyland

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 23:06:31 +0000

A chat with the new OpenAI chatbot getting it to help me write a story. This is just the result, the transcript can be found here

We are going to write a fairy story in which the battle between the fairys and the unicorns is a Marxist allegory for the struggle between the capital and the workers.

Chapter One

Pixie Lala and Trixabel looked at the poster hanging on the tree in front of them. It showed a fairy, with wings shimmering like diamonds, her delicate hands shackled in heavy chains. Above her loomed a unicorn, its majestic horn glinting in the sunlight as it gazed down at the captive fairy with a sneer. The slogan on the poster read, “Fairies of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”

Installing Calckey

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 00:17:44 +0000

Calkey is a open-source microblogging server that uses ActivityPub. It’s a fork of Misskey - both are similar to Mastodon and other software for connecting to the Fediverse.

Seems really nice on first glance. Shame there’s not likely ever going to be a way to port an existing Mastodon instance into a new Calckey on.

The install tripped me up a few times, here’s what ended up working:

Create a calckey user

adduser --disabled-password calckey
vi /etc/sudoers #Edit to allow new user to do passwordless sudo

Install Node

su calckey
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash
logout #to make the .bashrc changes work. Then log in again
nvm install 19.1.0

Install Postgres etc.

sudo bash
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/postgresql.asc] http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/postgresql.list
apt update
apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib redis-server redis-tools ffmpeg build-essential python3

Create SQL user

sudo -u postgres psql
create database calckey with encoding = 'UTF8';
create user calckey with encrypted password '{YOUR_PASSWORD}';
grant all privileges on database calckey to calckey;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO calckey;
grant all on schema public to calckey;
\q

Install PM2

npm install pm2 -g
npm install re2 -g

Install Calckey

git clone --recursive https://codeberg.org/thatonecalculator/calckey.git
cd calckey/
git checkout main
corepack enable
cp .config/example.yml .config/default.yml
vim .config/default.yml
#Edit to change settings for domain-names and postgres passwords

Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx
sudo cp ./calckey.nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/
sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/calckey.nginx.conf
#In vim do this to search/replace example.tld:
#:0,$ s/example.tld/yourwebsite.domain/g
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/calckey.nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Get Certbot to fetch SSL certificates

We have to edit the nginx config to not include SSL stuff, but include normal port 80 stuff so that certbot can verify us as owning the domain to generate the certificates.

October 2022 - An unelected new leader causes chaos and my new Kickstarter

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 15:43:39 +0000

This month an unelected leader took over and made massive stupid changes which risked the future of the whole thing.

But is that Truss’s governance of Britain, or Musk’s governance of Twitter?

Meanwhile, my new kickstarter is live!

Me

Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse:

My kickstarter for my new tarot deck went live. Wrote a thread about the things I have learned about Kickstarter, and a lovely review from InBetweenTarot.

Fediverse and Mastodon

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 21:45:24 +0000

There seems to be another wave of people coming through to join the Fediverse, and it’s at this time that it’s traditional in the community to write a blog post filled with tips and hints and metaphors to help all the newbies understand what the hell is going on.

What the hell is going on?

In the days before the corporations took over the internet, there used to be feral groups of humans running free between the servers and the nodes. They would set up their own forums and bulletin boards, and then those would collapse, and more would return in their place.

Central Bank Digital Currency

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 15:03:35 +0000

Congratulations to Richie Sunak on being appointed to run the king’s country. I hope he’ll lead the king’s ministers and subjects on behalf of and in the interests of the the crown, as this is the job he is now sworn to do.

A year ago he was at the G7 telling bankers how keen he was about exploring the ideas of a central bank digital currency. Otherwise known as a CBDC.

September 2022 - Spending the end of the Elizabethian era in Peru

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 11:49:38 +0000

This month the queen died, pretty much as I got on a plane to Peru. So I spent the mourning period on Peruvian adventures instead of stuck at home with nothing on the TV but Mourn-Hub. Nice timing!

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

Twelve days in Peru

I flew all the way to the pacific ocean and found Lima full of a rainbow of types of cops, checking out a monastery filled with bones.

Peru 2022 Photos

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 11:45:05 +0000

As the monarch died, I boarded a plane bound for Peru and spent the mourning period having Peruvian adventures instead of being stuck at home with nothing but Mourn-Hub on TV.

Here’s a photo gallery, you can also click the links below to see some description from my microblog at the time.

Made it to Peru. Here is the Pacific ocean. It’s grey and wavey.

Lima is chock full of cops right now. All the different types, quite a rainbow of different uniforms. Black ones. Camo ones. Blue ones.

August 2022 - Long-Termism and War and Struggle

Sun, 04 Sep 2022 12:02:11 +0000

This month I’ve been doing some test screenings for my next big VR film. I now have a very big bug list. Also went camping and mucked about on the river with friends. None of which I posted about but I did mention other stuff…

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

Deep-fakes are very convincing until you ask them to turn sideways . Interesting how the fail as soon as their context isn’t right. And I see now I forgot to include the article link.

July 2022 - Blue Dot and Driving and Johnson Resign

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 11:58:29 +0000

The month started with mass resignations and is ending with a new leadership contest. Meanwhile, I started driving again and drove to Blue Dot, the excellent science festival.

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

So farewell then Johnson you were the worst prime minister until the next one.

Facebook will finally be allowing Oculus headset users to operating without a Facebook account. They will need a Meta account instead. Does that really make any difference?

June 2022 Digest - Catching all the best acts at Glasto: Mccartney. Ross. Covid19.

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 15:41:30 +0000

My ribs healed just in time, thanks for your concern.

So I went to Glasto this month and caught all the best acts: Paul McCartney, Dianna Ross, She Drew The Gun, Tankus The Henge, Javis Cocker, Covid-19.

The last one really stuck with me, their stuff is very infectious.

The rest were amazing as usual though. 17 of them done now.

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

May 2022 Digest - Broke my rib on a waterslide in Portugal

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 19:55:36 +0000

May started off with a bang and a big holiday in Portugal with lots of friends, but I broke my rib on the waterslide and then spent the rest of the month mostly in recovery not able to lie down to sleep. Sill, recovered enough to do some animation work and sing a song by the end of the month.

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

April 2022 Digest

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:35:06 +0000

The drama this month was mostly online with the reaction to Musk deciding to buy Twitter.

The flood of newbies into the Fediverse, the complaints of the people losing followers on Twitter, economic and political and social analysis. He sure does get people talking.

Spent a few nights with friends, but I spent most of the month in VR and animating and eating chocolate. Hope you had a nice Easter.

March 2022 Digest

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 13:28:59 +0000

I did some foreign travel, ate a ton of chocolate, got fat, won an award against a background of mass job-sackings and city-sackings and financial-hackings.

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

War in the internet age is weird, it’s on zoom and social media while television channels get banned.

I went to visit a friend in Paris that included boats, a studio of lights and time inside a kaleidoscope.

February Digest 2022

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 12:03:45 +0000

It’s been a good month if you don’t count the outbreak of war, continuing pandemic, threat of nuclear disaster or any of that stuff.

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

When Facebook threatened to leave Europe, there was a chorus of “Yes please” from all over the web, I was quoted to open a blog that Aral wrote on the reaction of the world to Facebook’s bluff.

February 2022 Digest

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 15:14:35 +0000

Me

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

I wrote a few paragraphs on web3 and identity and Moxie’s web3 post.

I found out how to turn of the annoying web-search in the windows11 task-bar

My drains got blocked and I did a tarot reading about it before actually managing to fix it myself by getting dirty with a drain-snake all afternoon.

I noted that the government intend to spend half a million pounds on brainwashing into not protecting ourselves with encryption.

Server Cupboard Ventilation

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 19:13:47 +0000

On last week’s episode, we had finally found a way to glue and screw a frame together from the fans and perspex windows.

A black frame surrounds a plastic window. At the top of the window four red LED fans are glowing to blow warm air out, at the bottom of the window four blue fans suck air in.

January 2022 Digest

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 21:41:20 +0000

Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse:

December 2021 Digest

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 16:51:16 +0000

Haven Protocol

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 10:38:35 +0000

Someone mentioned the Haven protocol and I didn’t know what it was.

Sometimes I look into some of these sorts of things a bit.

Let’s have a look at this one. What does their documentation say?

https://havenprotocol.org/knowledge/how-does-haven-work/

To Paraphrase, if we call Haven “X” for short,

“Owning xCoin lets you convert your xCoin into xAssets by destroying the xCoin and creating xAssets in proportion to the price. This process is carried out in your own private digital vault”

Most Recent Bitcoin Thoughts

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 00:08:43 +0000

Someone asked if I thought bitcoin would work out.

Lightly edited, I replied that:

It depends on what is “work out” is I guess.

Will it be a life-boat in a sinking economy as the pound and the dollar crash into nothing and socialist-fascism takes over the whole globe except for bitcoin citadels in what is left of the truly free world in Monoco and El Salvador?

Probably not.

Will it become a global unit of account and a new gold standard?

Zombie on the Orba

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 18:25:09 +0000

I have a new toy, it’s a hand-sized synth and looper. It’s fun look!

Same video, multiple places. Who knows what they’ll delete you for.

On Odysee:

On Youtube

November Digest

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:39:25 +0000

October 2021 digest

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 19:45:09 +0000

September 2021 Digest

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:17:44 +0000

I was pleased there was a new campaign released for VR game Pistol Whip
I also cycled to the absolute range-limit of my e-bike for a picnic
I had lunch with my parents in Ruby and finally collected Xmas presents
including a lovely new plasma-ball added to my lighting corner
My band broke up 🙁 - I made a farewell video
I bought a new big battery speaker system that would allow me to busk
But first run through a solo-set was terrible and I hated it

Also did some more camping with friends, but failed to note that I did so at the time.

Installing Mobian on a Pinephone

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 23:13:53 +0000

Left my pinephone unpowered for weeks. I think the battery died?

I replaced the battery and then it isn’t booting any more so I have to reinstall.

And wow, this page is terrible.

I don’t even know what an eMMC is, or what the difference between an installer-image and a prebuilt-image is, I don’t know why it’s saying “first boot of Mobian from the SD card will take longer” before I’ve even burned an image into an SD-card. Surely tell me that at the boot stage?

August 2021 Digest

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 20:59:02 +0000

I added some eyes to my lights-controller
and then later I made it compose Artificial Intelligence Subgenius rants
I ranted about being a casualty in the war with the robots
I went to see a Doctor Who Interactive Theatre show
It subsequently flooded and all future performances were cancelled. Sorry. It was great though.
I pondered about how an upcoming Ethereum fork might show how centralized “decentralized finance” really is
I found a cartoon about Facebook apposite
My bank decided to censor my payments, so I closed my bank account.
I was pleased the Mash Report has a new home
I was horrified at yet another journalist being locked into a British jail for telling the truth
I released a new cartoon!

Me in front of the TARDIS. Inset 1: Ardy, my lights-controller, with new eyes. Inset 2: Cover of new cartoon.

July 2021 digest

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 21:06:12 +0000

My band played an online gig
which went okay, though sending to Youtube failed. So you had to be there.
I failed at watching BBCQT because it’s too terrible
I noticed the media studiously not noticing things about Julian Assange.
I published the email-list manager app for nextcloud I’ve been working on
I had a second dose of a vaccination
I ranted about search results-pages being terrible
There was a ten minute power cut which killed my CPU fan
Thus leaving me writing this on a tiny palmtop machine.

Dressed in a tentacle themed attire for the gig

all

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 20:10:04 +0000

all posts

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 15:56:26 +0000

Follow me in all these places, collect them all!

June 2021 digest

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:11:00 +0000

Reading

Amanda Palmer’s " Art Of Asking" is her autobiography and explanation of what art is and why it works and how to build a community of people always doing each other favors and passing on the gifts they are given forwards to others.

May 2021 Digest

Wed, 05 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Reading

I read Pippa Evens’s book " Improv Your Life"

It was filled with interesting ideas and games to play and ways to interact with people, none of which I’m able to do a the moment coz of the massive global pandemic.

April 2021 digest

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 23:32:00 +0000

Reading

I read Power Sex And Suicide by Nick Lane

Follow

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:48:21 +0000

Dalliance.net

Personal Page

StarshipSD.com

VR sci fi cartoons

WordcloudTarot.com

The meanings of the cards are written on the cards in a wordcloud.

The Socials

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 20:59:43 +0000

The social networks are, almost every single one, centralized spying machines run by surveillance capitalists, designed to profile you and manipulate you on behalf of their customers the advertisers. You are the product, your digital soul is ground up and filtered and shifted and sold to the highest bidder in an electronic auction.

They decide which of your friends posts you will see by use of an AI designed to optimize your viewing of adverts, and hide your posts from your friends using that same AI manipulating them.

Disclaimer: My opinions and those of dalliance.network are not the same.

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 23:38:31 +0000

I own the new company dalliance.network and I own it 100%.

But, it is a legal entity whereas in contrast I am an actual person. Legal entities may have beliefs, arguably, but even if they do those beliefs are not the same as the people who make up the legal entity.

The Dalliance Network is a capitalist enterprise, even if it’s director is an anti-capitalist who would rather be playing a different game. And he probably isn’t even that.

Email from dalliance.network

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 22:38:04 +0000

I just got this weird email from a new address I seem to own.

I think that means I got the job! The boss sounds like a bastard. You know that “Stealth mode” stuff when really it’s just “I’ve no idea what I’m doing, just put anything up for now”.

The people you have to work with.

From: pre@dalliance.net
To: adam@dalliance.network

As your old corporeal form I congratulate you, that is me, on your new corporate existence.

Test-Print Unboxing!

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:13:29 +0000

A video in which Adam receives the initial test-print of the World Cloud Tarot card-deck and looks through the cards, doing their first ever reading in which we find that the world of tarot was indolent and lazy, and should be worried right now because the Word Cloud Tarot deck is here, and will bedevil the existing order and overturn the old guard.

14 - Wands - King

Mon, 18 May 2020 19:34:12 +0000

The King of Wands is an inventor, a financial founder. Innovative in business, but multi-dimensional, also filled with eloquence and likeability. He’s adaptive and his idealism leads to success, and other things listed here on this card for those who can read.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/14-wands-king/

13 - Wands - Queen

Mon, 18 May 2020 19:32:42 +0000

The Queen of Wands is a fun loving mothering unbridled dynamic seductress. Her respectfulness and enthusiasm and exuberance are proudly confident. Lots of other things describe her, as can be read on this card in actual words.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/13-wands-queen/

12 - Wands - Knight

Mon, 18 May 2020 19:30:19 +0000

The Knight of Wands is a risk-taker filled with energy and power and has aspirations and anticipations of criminal amounts of leisure. Among many other things you can read on this card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/12-wands-knight/

11 - Wands - Page

Mon, 11 May 2020 22:24:31 +0000

The Page of wands is a Free Thinking and Powerful Rebel, facing Adversity and Despair, Braving Unhealthy Mindsets and Foolhardy Materialism with Fearlessness Ethics and Hedonist Passion.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/11-wands-page/

10 - Wands - Oppression

Mon, 11 May 2020 21:49:08 +0000

The ten of wands is called Oppression, and features our alien Enslaved and Bound in Chains, Stuck with Injustice and Coping with Repression.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/10-wands-oppression/

9 - Wands - Manifest

Mon, 04 May 2020 22:10:13 +0000

The nine of wands is Manifest, and our aliens pulls a rabbit from a hat. His discipline is powerful and insatiable. His lust and infatuation are courageous and vibrant.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/9-wands-manifest/

8 - Wands - Swiftness

Mon, 04 May 2020 20:20:06 +0000

The eight of wands is Swiftness, and our alien is pictured running behind words like freedom and consciousness and interpersonal telecommunications that portent a radical destination .

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/8-wands-swiftness/

7 - Wands - Valour

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:47:17 +0000

The seven of wands is Valour, and our alien gets a Medal as an Award for Patience and Honesty when he Fought in Combat, facing Difficulty and finding Opportunities.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/7-wands-valour/

6 - Wands - Victory

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:47:56 +0000

The alien signs a “V” for victory, signalling the Successful Fruition of his Endeavour, his Influence and Self Confidence have grown, he is a Contemporary Ruler, who through Revolution has Achieved Attainment, and lots of other things you can read on the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/6-wands-victory/

5 - Wands - Strife

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 21:08:58 +0000

The five of wands is called Strife, and the magical power of Wands finds itself in a struggle and a quarrel against Swords. The battle will be disruptive, filled with violence and squabble.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/5-wands-strife/

4 - Swords - Completion

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 20:01:45 +0000

Our alien Ceremoniously and Dynamically Celebrates as he marks off another task from his todo list. He’s Alive with Effort and Interconnectedness.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/4-wands-completion/

3 - Wands - Virtue

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 20:55:33 +0000

The three of Wands is Virtue, our alien’s Brilliant Bright halo lights up the words behind him like Preparation and Knowledge and Prudence and Piety and Conscious Control.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/3-wands-virtue/

2 - Wands - Dominion

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 21:59:16 +0000

The two of wands is Dominion, and the Wands alien stands at his research table, planning his strategy in the kingdom’s dispute, ways to cause or solve instability and imbalance and perhaps cause some equanimity.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/2-wands-dominion/

1 - Wands - Ace

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 22:22:37 +0000

THE LAST SUIT! I’ve started the LAST SUIT! Only thirteen more to go now.

The ace of wands is the birth of a magician, clutching his wand with impetus and originality and power and mystery and drama and lots of other things written on the cards.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/wands/1-wands-ace/

14 - Swords - King

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 22:15:00 +0000

The King of Swords is a mediator, filled with integrity and practising state-craft. His aspiration is to consult and appease and his passion is honest and enthusiastic.

He is also many other things, as you can read from this Worldcloud Tarot card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/14-swords-king/

13 - Swords - Queen

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 21:18:26 +0000

The Queen of Swords is a smart advisor, an employer and wealthy passionate enlightened mentor.

She’s also many other things, as you can read from the worldcloud tarot card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/13-swords-queen/

12 - Swords - Knight

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 22:18:45 +0000

The Knight of Swords is courageous and stringent and scrupulous and empathic and fun loving and passionate but also snarky. He lifts his sword aloft ready for battle.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/12-swords-knight/

11 - Swords - Page

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 21:45:06 +0000

The page of swords presents his weapon ceremoniously. The card represents devout sleepless intrigue and passionate but rational concern, among all the other things easily read from the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/11-swords-page/

10 - Swords - Ruin

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 21:16:25 +0000

The tenth swords card is called Ruin and features the Swords alien, head in hands, sitting in a ruin. It represents heartache and agony and inability and crisis and backstabbing humanness.
Plus a bunch of other things easily surmised by reading the words in the cloud.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/10-swords-ruin/

9 - Swords - Cruelty

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 22:48:46 +0000

The nine of swords is “Cruelty”, and our alien shows his colours by torturing a puppy. He’s brutal and treacherous and worryingly deceitful, the puppy afraid and anxious and afraid.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/9-swords-cruelty/

8 - Swords - Interference

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 23:00:27 +0000

The eight of swords is named Interference, and as you can read is as much about self sabotage as restriction and hindrances and unanticipated obstruction. In the image our alien’s sword is interfered with and warped by Wand’s magic powers.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/8-swords-interference/

7 - Swords - Futility

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 22:58:43 +0000

Like Sisyphys, our alien is faced with an impossible futile task on the seven of swords. He faces it with fatalism, wishful tactical direction and the paranoia of stupidity, plus many other things behind him as he pushes his stone once again to the top of his hill.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/7-swords-futility/

6 - Swords - Science

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 21:39:21 +0000

The six of swords is named “Science”, and represents technology and maths and clarity and thinking as you can read on the card here. You can also see our Swords alien doing some actual science with beakers and glowing liquids.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/6-swords-science/

5 - Swords - Defeat

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 22:20:39 +0000

The five of Swords is defeat, and the Swords alien lies dead on the floor, stabbed in the back.

The card represents disorder, quarrels, treachery, arrogance and loss and murderous spite as well as many other things written onto the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/5-swords-defeat/

4 - Swords - Truce

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 21:19:51 +0000

A sneak preview of the Wands alien appears early here at the four of swords, known as truce. For it is with the Wands alien that our Swords alien makes his truce.

There is a negotiation, agreement, a fortuitous peace between them and and also written in words behind them.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/4-swords-truce/

3 - Swords - Sorrow

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:41:27 +0000

Swords and war and fighting often cause sorrow, and so the three of swords is called Sorrow. Our poor alien is also feeling sad, filled with loneliness, frustrations, headaches and woes, and many other things easily read from the words on the card if not from his expression.

2 - Swords - Peace

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:28:26 +0000

The two of swords is called “peace”, and times of peace call for the putting aside of swords, and concentrating on releasing a dove.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/2-swords-peace/

The New Decade

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 11:27:51 +0000

At the end of this month, we start a new decade. The twenty twenties. The century is out of it’s teens, drunk and staggering around looking for purpose. Trying to decide what to do with the rest of its existence.

Where have we come from to get us here?

Basically my whole life we have had a neo-liberal government of one flavor or another. Since Thatcher my governments have been cutting back spending, selling off state-owned infrastructure into private hands, and using the money to fund tax cuts, especially for the rich.

1 Swords - Ace

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 22:54:10 +0000

The ace of swords is the birth of a warrior, clutching his sword with strength and criminal brilliance, representing justice and artistic sharpness, all of which and more are readable on the face of the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/swords/1-swords-ace/

14 Pentacles - King

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 22:51:25 +0000

The Pentalien King represents interpersonal stability and honest environmental discipline, a natural knowledgeable credible king indeed.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/14-pentacles-king/

13 Pentacles - Queen

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:50:24 +0000

The Pentalien Queen represents happiness and liberalism and prosperity and activism and feminism and sexism. Lots of isms. And also a firewall of childbirth.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/13-pentacles-queen/

12 Pentacles - Knight

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 22:48:55 +0000

The Pentalien Knight is the twelfth Pentacles card, and represents mysticism and elegance, perseverance and studious avocation, as well as many other things written in the world-cloud on the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/12-pentacles-knight/

11 - Pentacles - Page

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 22:46:16 +0000

The Page of Pentacles presents it’s coin to it’s masters. The card represents over-achievers, indoor business, bookish knowledge and many other things that can be easily read from the face of the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/11-pentacles-page/

10 - Pentacles - Wealth

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:43:36 +0000

On the tenth pentacles card, Wealth, the Pentalien examines the contents of his treasure chest. It has gems and untold worldly prosperity, richness and glory and jewels.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/10-pentacles-wealth/

9 Pentacles - Gain

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 22:41:16 +0000

Sometimes a small sum can lead to a larger sum and lead to a larger sum, this is “Gain”, and is about wealth and richness and abundance, gratitude and a plethora of bounty.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/9-pentacles-gain/

8 - Pentacles - Prudence

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 22:40:47 +0000

Caring, reasoning, quality learning can lead to rational savings and debt, as you could guess by reading just a few words from the eighth card in Pentacles, known as Prudence.

It features the Pentalien, saving his money prudently in a piggy bank.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/8-pentacles-prudence/

Wordcloud Tarot – 6 Pentacles – Success

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:05:57 +0000

Here’s the Pentalien lifting aloft a prize for he has succeeded, and this card is success. It’s also wealth and beneficence and exchange and riches and selflessness, all of which can be read from the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/6-pentacles-success/

Wordcloud Tarot – 5 Pentacles – Worry

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:04:24 +0000

On the fifth Pentacles card, worry, our Pentalien bites his nails, concerned about the loss of his coin, hard-luck and bleakness and loneliness and self doubt and many other things written onto the face of the card in plain English.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/5-pentacles-worry/

Wordcloud Tarot – 4 Pentacles – Power

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:02:44 +0000

On the fourth Pentacles card, our Pentalien holds aloft a fist, signalling power for that is the name of the card. It also signals humanism and savings and consumerism and rigidity and foundation as you can read from the wordcloud behind it.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/4-pentacles-power/

Wordcloud Tarot – 3 Pentacles – Work

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 21:22:12 +0000

The Pentalien is set to work, digging in this case. He is filled with resourcefulness and exceptional perseverance and efficiency leading surely to success.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/3-pentacles-work/

Wordcloud Tarot – 2 Pentacles – Change

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 21:20:30 +0000

The second card in Pentacles is called change and represents revolution and polarization and new endeavours. The card features the Pentalien with newly grown butterfly wings, representing metamorphosis.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/2-pentacles-change/

Wordcloud Tarot – 1 Pentacles – Ace

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 21:29:08 +0000

The Ace of Pentacles shows the birth of the Pentalien, born with a silver coin in his mouth, we see him chewing the cash creatively and successfully. The achievement will surely give the magic baby the power of alchemy and many dollars.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/pentacles/1-pentacles-ace/

Wordcloud Tarot – 14 Cups – King

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 21:44:26 +0000

The King of Cups is a councilor, wise with skilled spiritual teaching and a nice seat.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/14-cups-king/

Wordcloud Tarot – 13 Cups – Queen

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 21:43:07 +0000

The Queen of Cups represents emotion and psyche and cultivating intellect and metaphysics, as anyone can read from the face of the card.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/13-cups-queen/

Wordcloud Tarot – 12 Cups – Knight

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 21:41:19 +0000

The Knight of cups, astride his horse, raises his cup in cheers at big ideas, attraction, art and idealism. He’s a thoughtful compassionate realist, and many other easily read things.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/12-cups-knight/

Wordcloud Tarot – 11 Cups – Page

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 20:49:06 +0000

The page of cups presents his knight with his prize, a carefree, idealist, witty perceptive alien as you can tell by reading the words surrounding his form.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/11-cups-page/

Wordcloud Tarot – 10 Cups – Satiety

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:16:09 +0000

Once Cups has had his fill, he rubs his tummy and licks his lips from satiety. He’s thinking about durability and positioning and gratitude and privacy and all the other things associated with this card which can easily be read from the card’s face.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/10-cups-satiety/

Wordcloud Tarot – 9 Cups – Happiness

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:14:31 +0000

Our Cups alien is jumping for joy in “happiness”, he’s also jumping for ecstasy and fulfillment and effort and achievement and many other words easily read from the face of the card by anyone literate.

Have moved the whole project over to blender 2.8 so it’s using Eevee now. Faster rendering. Better-organized layout. Improved the lighting making everything less flat. Old versions stay here on Dalliance but the new versions are on the wordcloudtarot website.

Wordcloud Tarot – 8 Cups – Debauch

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 22:20:11 +0000

The 8th cups card is Indolence, and a lazy alien lounges napping on a couch, his drink spilled. The card represents disinterest and laziness and giving up and gloominess and a lot of other things easily read from the card itself.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/8-cups-indolence/

Wordcloud Tarot – 7 Cups – Debauch

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 21:46:45 +0000

When our indulgence grows too much and we end up in the world of debauchery, we may find fantasy and erotic dreams but we will also find paranoia and delusion and immorality and malfeasance. All of this is easy to know in my wordcloud tarot pack, as any tarot beginner can read for themselves.

https://wordcloudtarot.com/cups/7-cups-debauch/

Wordcloud Tarot – 6 Cups – Pleasure

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 21:15:07 +0000

The six of cups is called Pleasure, and Cups the alien is pictured pole-dancing. The card represents ecstasy and euphoria and decadence, but also romanticism and innocence and joy. All of which and yet more can be simply read from the card in my amazing easy to use tarot pack.

Glasto 2019

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 20:34:10 +0000

Back from #Glasto2019 which was enormous fun and remains basically the best party on the planet.

Bjorn Again opened it brilliantly, being funny and playing Abba tunes makes for a great show.

Tankus The Henge were groovy and funky and I still love his smoking piano/climbing-frame.

Tim off of the Charlatans has even more stupid hair than I remember and seeing them was an upgrade from Snow Patrol who cancelled. Classic tunes.

Wordcloud Tarot – 5 Cups – Disappoint

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 23:03:40 +0000

Wordcloud Tarot – 5 Cups – Disappoint

Poor old Cups has gone and spilled his drink. He’s very disappointed. He’s also suffering form heartache and lethargy and anguish and despair and unhappiness as you can see at a glance at his poor face, and also by reading the words printed handily on the card.

Wordcloud Tarot – 4 Cups – Luxury

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:35:05 +0000

Ah, that’s the life, just luxuriating with in luxury with a cup of wine under a parasol on a beach somewhere. The card signifies a good spiritual reappraisal, passivity and meditation as well as sorrowful tedium. As you can tell at a glance if you can read.

Wordcloud Tarot – 4 Cups – Luxury

Wordcloud Tarot - 3 Cups - Abundance

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 00:03:24 +0000

Look at him, he’s got such an abundance of wine it won’t even all fit in fit in his cup. His cup it runneth over. He also has festivities and celebrations and innovation and plentiful adoration and all these other meanings that can be easily read from the Three Of Cups in the revolutionary Wordcloud Tarot Deck.

Wordcloud Tarot - 2 Cups - Love

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 20:34:53 +0000

The Two Of Cups, called “Love”, features our alien on bended knee pledging his love with a rose. But he’s also pledging companionship and amusement and interpersonal balance, as you can read written on the words around him.

Wordcloud Tarot - 2 Cups Love

Wordcloud Tarot – Ace Cups

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 21:13:51 +0000

Aww, look, it’s a little new-born baby of Cups, symbolizing joy and playfulness and birth and eternal spirituality and all the other things written on the card for easy reading without any memorization required.

So many options but only one choice

Thu, 23 May 2019 19:44:27 +0000

Excepts from a day’s arguing on social media…..

It’s voting day! These EU elections are more democratic than the UK elections, and are based on a much more fair voting system.

They are certainly way more democratic than the WTO elections since those never ever happen.

These EU elections are fairly proportional, and you don’t have to worry too much about voting for lesser-evil. You can actually vote for who you want to win without worrying about that letting the bad guys win.

Storytimer

Fri, 10 May 2019 12:33:00 +0000

Last night I made a story-timer for my improv group based on Dan Harmon’s ranting about story structure.

I hope they like it.

/storytimer/

Wordcloud Tarot - 21st Trump - Universe

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 23:17:14 +0000

Wordcloud Tarot - 21st Trump - Universe

The final card in the major arcana is often known as “world”, but the trouble with that is that you immediately start to picture it as the Earth from space. But that isn’t what the final major archana card is about. It’s not about a single pathetic little planet floating in an infinite sky. It is the *whole* world, the sky and the stars and the infinities. Our post-Copernican eyes can’t see what the tarot card previously known as “world” in it’s true sense any more so once again I follow the Thoth deck, this card represents the whole universe.

Wordcloud Tarot - 20th Trump - Aeon

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 21:32:03 +0000

Wordcloud Tarot - 20th Trump - Aeon

The 20th trump card in my wordcloud tarot deck is Aeon. A departure from the more traditional deck and following instead the lead of the Thoth deck.

More traditionally called “Judgement”, that word is still emblazoned bigger than any other in the background here along with era and tine and change and phoenix and atonement and all the other easily readable meanings.

Wordcloud Tarot - 19th Trump - Sun

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 23:07:37 +0000

Wordcloud Tarot - 19th Trump - Sun

The 19th card in the major arcana is the Sun, and our alien strides into a sunset. Or is that a sunrise? Images are so hard to interpret. Thank goodness that my Wordcloud Tarot also has things written on it in plain English so you can see at a glance the card is about enlightenment and good-fortune and togetherness and crazy entertaining hopeful riches etc.

Wordcloud Tarot - 18th Trump - Moon

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 20:55:27 +0000

What would our super-evolved alien do as he approaches the spiritual heights of the subliminal clairvoyant confusin deceptive disorderly moon? Why get down on all fours and howl at it of course. What else can you do? The clues to the conscious emotions in this card are written on the front in plain text for all to read.

Wordcloud Tarot - 18th Trump - Moon

Wordcloud Tarot - 17th Trump - Star

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:54:46 +0000

The Star is a card representing the alien’s home. Here here we find him pointing back homewards. The card is about optimism and inspiration and happiness and beauty. It’s about horoscopes too, and divination, but you won’t need to memorize meanings if you can read and own the marvelous revolutionary wordcloud tarot deck.

Wordcloud Tarot - 17th Trump - The Star

Wordcloud Tarot - 16th Trump - The Tower

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 20:27:20 +0000

The Tarot’s “Tower” card is about the collapse of the tower, so it appears as falling with the alien screaming in fear. But you don’t need to remember why he’s screaming with my Wordcloud Tarot Deck, for it’s written there for all to read that the card is about breakdown and destruction and ruin and tumultuous catastrophe and only a little about renovation and change.

Word Cloud Tarot – 15th Trump – Devil

Still arguing with Sam Harris instead of meditating.

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:23:11 +0000

I take my seat as Sam says to sit down and stare at an object. Concentrate on it and let it be the focus of attention he reckons. Then to turn attention on itself at look at the thing that’s doing the looking.

No problem. There’s my glass of water, shining in a sunbeam. What’s looking at it? There you go: it’s an animal, about six foot tall, sitting on a cushion in silk pyjamas with it’s legs crossed.

My Birthday Cover of "Everybody Knows"

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 18:01:34 +0000

Spent my birthday this year recording an arrangement/cover of a Leonard Cohen song, “Everybody Knows”, and I’m pleased with how that went.

Wordcloud Tarot - 15th Trump - Devil

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 18:06:45 +0000

The Devil comes down to my wordcloud tarot deck filled with lies and doubt and fear and materialism and spanking, as any literate person can see at a glance in my revolutionary new deck which will surely monopolize the entire tarot deck market.

Word Cloud Tarot – 15th Trump – Devil

Meditation 2019

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 02:36:20 +0000

I’ve been meditating again this year.

A third of the time with Sam Harris’s new app.

I got it for free since I got in early. Ages ago and regularly I’ve donated to his podcast. You should feed the media you love.

It seems way more expensive than warranted otherwise to me otherwise. A tenner would make sense, a tenner a month is crazy.

But people value things differently.

He seems to be telling me often to look for the one who hears, the one who sees, the sensor who senses and implying that such a thing is not there.

Joni Mitchell Brexit - We won't know what we've got till it's gone.

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 19:34:14 +0000

I’ve been suggesting we’ll have a “Joni Mitchell Brexit” for months. Nobody will believe the “project fear” stuff until it’s happened. We don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone.

Got around to producing the song that those words imply yesterday. So here’s the song I call “Joni Mitchell Brexit”

Wordcloud Tarot - 14th Trump - Temperance

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 22:28:29 +0000

The alien evolves again as it passes from “death” and is reborn as “temperance”, a card representing the art of alchemy and synergy and juxtapositions and synthesis, as any literate verbal thinker can tell at a glance without memorizing obscure meanings in my world-changing world cloud tarot deck.

Word Cloud Tarot – 14th Trump – Temperance

Wordcloud Tarot - 13th Trump - Death

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 23:34:07 +0000

The 13th Trump Card in my Wordcloud Tarot Deck is Death.

Also nice things like renewal and breaking-habits and possibilities and expectancy and awakenings… but mostly death and failure and endings.

Even the most verbal of thinkers can see this at a glance without taxing their terrible memories with my amazing revolutionary wordcloud tarot deck.

Word Cloud Tarot – 13th Trump – Death

What Bokononists say when they commit suicide

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 20:33:33 +0000

Watch On Youtube

Next up in my album about my bookshelf is " What Bokononists say when they commit suicide", A song about Kurt Vonnegut’s " Cat’s Cradle".

Vonnegut’s brilliant short and simple sentences describe a world-destroying military invention, delivered with his curt Kurt style. Great book.

Wordcloud Tarot - 12th Trump - Hanged Man

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 23:13:32 +0000

The 12th Trump Card in my Wordcloud Tarot Deck is the Hanged Man. It represents delay and sacrifice and understanding and transformation, as any literate person can see at a glance from this revolutionary tarot deck for verbal thinkers.

I'm A Subgenius Preacher

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 11:55:42 +0000

I’m A Subgenius Preacher, sung by Rev Priest.

No more sleep in 2018. It’s all over bar the last bit of drinking. I’ve spent the last few days of the year pretty lazily until I got some “Bob” in me yesterday and wrote and recorded this song in the hope of getting it out.

Wordcloud Tarot - 11th Trump - Justice

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 22:56:39 +0000

Justice is about balance but also about vengeance and so carries both a scale and a sword. It’s also about fairness and karma and duty and belief and humility and obligation, all of which is pretty obvious if you can read and you use my revolutionary tarot deck for the literate.

[caption id=“attachment_2917” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot – 11th Trump – Justice[/caption]

Brexit Smexsit.

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 21:33:48 +0000

Whether we are in or out of the European Union isn’t even close to being the thing which prevents “us” from taking back “control” in this country.

Whatever your “Us” vs “Them” may be.

Most of us live in places where our votes don’t even count. Safe seats in the UK: 382

Total seats in the UK: 650.

Nearly 60% of MPs are elected whatever happens based on party nomination not electoral results.

Wordcloud Tarot - 10th Trump - Fortune

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 22:52:13 +0000

The tenth major arcana is “Fortune” and most decks show Foruna’s wheel in which someone is strapped to the top and the bottom, their places to be replaced as the wheel turns. But the card is really about luck, and so my alien has a different wheel of fortune. The card is also about cycles and karma and apocalyptic negativity, as you can see at a glance since it’s written on the card to save you having to memorize bizarre associations and exotic imagery. Yes, truly my TagCloud deck is an amazing advancement in 21st century tarot technology.

Final Ever #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast - 14th November 2018

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 22:01:17 +0000

One year ago this week, the Bitcoin Tarot Podcast began. In a shock turn of events, the producers have terminated the project on ethical grounds. Presenting the last ever Bitcoin Tarot Podcast, an exit interview with Cosmic Conroy and Charting Chad, in which we finally do get an actual numerical answer to the question “Is Technical Analysis any better than reading the Tarot?”

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

A few days with Mycroft.

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 21:03:08 +0000

Mycroft is an open-source home assistant. Kinda like Seri or Alexa only ideally not spying on you and more adaptable and programmable.

I have been playing with it for a couple of days.

Install

Installing Mycroft went better than I expected. Cloned the repo, ran the startup and there it was.

It wasn’t listening to my microphone though. Which seemed odd, mostly because I have several microphones and didn’t yet tell it which to listen to. Some of them aren’t even microphones, they just look like microphones but really are software loopbacks and the like.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 8th November 2018

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 22:25:06 +0000

The price continues to refuse to break out of the triangle. The forecasters suspect this flatness won’t last much longer though. Which way do they think it’ll go? How did they do last week? Is Technical Analysis any better than reading the tarot?

Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 1sts November 2018

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:53:36 +0000

The price of Bitcoin barely moved all week, and the grades of our contestants likewise barely moved. Both predicted a quiet time last week, and it was pretty quiet. When will this quiet time end? Is it possible to tell in advance? Does Technical Analysis do any better than the Tarot?

Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 25th October 2018

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 23:27:19 +0000

Bitcoin’s price this week has been the flattest since the #bitcoin #tarot #podcast started. Will anything in Bitcoin ever change again? What will next week bring? And if things change, which will be the first to notice? Charting Chad’s Technical Chart Analysis, or Cosmic Conroy’s Tarot Card Readings?

Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 11th October 2018

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 22:34:41 +0000

Both forecasters predicted calm last week but the price dived then a #Tether run made it jump up, canceling out the fall. Does that count? Our judges thought not, and both Tarot and Technical Analysis lose points this week. But what will the next week bring? Will Tether collapse? What will our forecasters predict for next week? And can Technical Analysis do any better than the tarot anyway?

Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 11th October 2018

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 21:32:12 +0000

Last week the price of bitcoin held steady and nothing changed. Is this the new normal? Will BTC be 6500 for ever? We have a rare consensus from Chad’s Technical Analysis and Conroy’s Tarot Reading this week, find out what they predict, what their grades for last week were, and of course if Technical Analysis do any better than the tarot in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 4th October 2018

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 21:49:00 +0000

Last week’s winner, Charting Chad, predicted the price of Bitcoin would go up, but only temporarily. Then during the week, the price went up, but only temporarily before coming back down and ending the week around even. What did Chad predict for this week? And what are Conroy’s excuses? And can Technical Analysis do any better than the tarot?

Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 27th September 2018

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:34:53 +0000

*Both* our contestants get a failing grade this week as Bitcoin rises despite the catastrophe they each predicted. The tarot closes the gap, catching up on Technical Analysis. But what will the price do this week? Will the cards tell us? Will the charts? Will we ever actually answer the main question: Is Technical Analysis actually any better than the tarot?

All these questions and more answered in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 20th September 2018

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 21:30:25 +0000

The Tarot cards catch up on the Technical Analysis some this week as the judges find the less precise forecast also the least wrong. Are the judges quite mad? Is that really reasonable? How will Chad take the news and what will the price of Bitcoin do over the next seven days? And come to that, is Technical Analysis any better than the Tarot at predicting prices?

All these questions and more answered in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Wordcloud Tarot - 9th Trump - Hermit

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 18:02:54 +0000

The ninth card in the major arcana is “Hermit” and references withdrawing from society, contemplation, self-analysis, wisdom and enlightenment and awareness. Thus he carries a lamp, symbolizing the search for truth but you wouldn’t need to know that. “Truth” is written right on the card as well as encoded in symbology, as are the other references and meanings.

[caption id=“attachment_2841” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot – 9th Trump – Hermit[/caption]

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 13th September 2018

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 21:53:58 +0000

The price of #Bitcoin crashed down below 6500 before the week was out, so Chad appealed and the TA grade for last week is revised to an A. This week’s A gives Chad a four-week run of straight A grades. Will the cards fare better this week? What will Tarot and Technical analysis predict for the coming days? And is Technical Analysis any better at price prediction than cards drawn from a tarot deck? Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 5th September 2018

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 22:32:53 +0000

Bitcoin’s price has dived today, wiping out the whole week’s hard worked for gains. How will our judges grade last week’s forecasts? How much complaining will the loser do? And can reading the Tarot do any better than Technical Analysis at price prediction? Find out in this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 31st August 2018

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 22:20:07 +0000

In this week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast, Chad’s Technical Analysis extends it’s lead over Conroy’s mystical tarot readings, but will next week’s predictions fall the same way? What will happen to the price of Bitcoin? And can Technical Analysis do any better than the Tarot? Click now to find out in this week’s Bitcoin Tarot Podcast.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Wordcloud Tarot - 8th Trump - Strength

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 17:43:53 +0000

The eighth card in the major arcana is “Strength”, a card with a lot of “self-” in it, self-discipline, self-control, self-awareness, self-worth, self-respect. All the selves here, as you can read at a glance without having to memorize images in my Wordcloud Tarot deck.

[caption id=“attachment_2819” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot – 8th Trump – Strength[/caption]

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 24th August 2018

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 19:09:15 +0000

Last week Charting Chad predicted the price would remain trapped in the 6000s and would end the week about even. Meanwhile, the Tarot’s predictions were… less accurate. What are Conroy’s excuses? Will Chad be a good winner? What are the predictions for next week? In this week’s Bitcoin Tarot Podcast we answer all these questions and of course the main one: Can the tarot beat technical analysis?

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Wordcloud Tarot - 7th Trump - Chariot

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 18:14:58 +0000

The seventh major arcana card is “The Chariot”, a mode of transport of course, giving your life direction and allowing you to express your will and mastery and control over your destination, just like using Wordcloud Tarot gives you mastery and control and direction over your tarot reading since it allows you to just read instead of memorize.

[caption id=“attachment_2804” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 7th Trump - Chariot[/caption]

Wordcloud Tarot - 6th Trump - Lovers

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:19:34 +0000

The sixth card in the major arcana is “The Lovers”, and our purple headed alien finds another even more veiny purple headed alien for a loving and erotic embrace. The card represents partnerships and duty and love and romance and trust, as any literate person can see at a glance without having to try and memorize and associate meanings with arbitrary pictures.

[caption id=“attachment_2798” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 6th Trump - Lovers[/caption]

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 17th August 2018

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 23:31:39 +0000

Cosmic Conroy feels like he’s losing control in this week’s new look faster paced #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast, but still reads the cards and suggests the authorities may cause the death of the price, or of the bear market. Will Charting Chad’s analysis give us anything more definite?

Brand new look for this week’s show which extended editing time by a good hour and rendering time by another hour. Awesome new introduction though, fancy new info-graphics. All good stuff. You should totally watch.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 10th August 2018

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 22:01:04 +0000

In last week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast, Chad predicted the price would go down, probably bouncing from the 50-day moving average. Then the price went down, other than a small bounce around the 50-day moving average. Conroy’s tarot prediction did less well.

How will Conroy’s failure affect the grades? What will next week’s predictions hold? Watch the #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast right now to find out.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 3rd August 2018

Thu, 02 Aug 2018 22:47:46 +0000

In last week’s #Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast, Charting Chad predicted the price would be squeezed between averages and Cosmic Conroy predicted the up-cycle was at an end. Then the price was squeezed between averages, dropping as the up-cycle came to an end.

Both good forecasts! But which forecast was judged better? And who takes the lead? And what will next week bring? And what’s this about someone sleeping with the judges? Find out in this week’s brand new episode of the Bitcoin Tarot Podcast in which we attempt once again to answer the question: Is Technical Analysis a load of old hokum? Is the Tarot any better?

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 27th July 2018

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 22:16:04 +0000

Last week the cards predicted that Bitcoin would rise up in dominance against the alts and Charting Chad thought the price would boost up to around 8k. Then the price boosted to around 8k while the bitcoin dominance index shot up rapidly.

How does this leave their grades so far? What will they predict for next week? Who is winning? And can we ever prove which is better: Tarot or Technical Analysis!?

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 19th July 2018

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 21:06:28 +0000

A win for the Tarot this week, with Cosmic Conroy’s promise of happiness beating Charting Chad’s prediction of downwards price movements. Join us to hear Conroy’s tarot prediction and Chad’s Technical analysis for the next week in the show which asks and answers the question “Is Technical Analysis any better than the Tarot?”

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Wordcloud Tarot - 5th Trump - Hierophant

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 15:39:37 +0000

The fifth trump card is The Hierophant, and he’s a preacher and an educator and a trainer and a devoted dogmatic disciple as you can tell at a glance with my Wordcloud Tarot deck without having to decode arcane pictures.

[caption id=“attachment_2761” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 5st Trump - Hierophant[/caption]

Heart Of Gold

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 18:45:01 +0000

The fifth song in my album about my bookshelf is about Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” and is a song about the drive in the Heart Of Gold.

Watch On Youtube

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 13th July 2018

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 23:14:05 +0000

Last week Cosmic Conroy read the cards and found that we should make hay while the upcycle-sun still shines while analyst Charting Chad said that the price would likely bump then end the week down. Who was right? What grades did the judges give? Which is winning, Technical Analysis or Tarot reading? And what the heck will happen to Bitcoin’s price next week? All this and more in this week’s Bitcoin Tarot Podcast.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 5th July 2018

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 22:26:30 +0000

In this week’s Bitcoin Tarot Podcast, we introduce a new co-host, “Charting Chad” to add some conflict and drama to really get at the essential question of the show: Is technical analysis any better than reading the tarot?

Chad will be making chart based Technical Analysis predictions alongside Conroy’s reading of the cards. This week Conroy finds that we should may hay while the sun shines during this market upcycle, and Chad suggests even if there’s an up-tick, the price will likely be lower next week.

Wordcloud Tarot - 4th Trump - The Emperor

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:26:21 +0000

As we progress through the major archana, the alien evolves. By the time we reach the Emperor, we have also reached stage two of the alien’s evolution.

The emperor represents authority and responsibility and law and lots of other actual words rather than arcane pictures.

[caption id=“attachment_2726” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 4th Trump - The Emperor[/caption]

Wordcloud Tarot - 3rd Trump - The Empress

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:21:46 +0000

Giving birth to a whole new verbal-thinking tarot industry to supplant and disrupt the visual-thinking tarot industry is a huge task, but I am up to it. One card at a time.

The Priestess represents motherhood and femininity among other things.

[caption id=“attachment_2723” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] World Cloud Tarot - 3rd Trump - The Empress[/caption]

Wordcloud Tarot - 2nd Trump - The Priestess

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:18:34 +0000

Visual tarot readers will cower in fear at the power of the verbal thinker once they are unleashed upon the visual tarot reading monopoly.

The Priestess is a book learner. She devours knowledge.

[caption id=“attachment_2720” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 2nd Trump - The Priestess[/caption]

Wordcloud Tarot - 1st Trump - The Magician

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:13:19 +0000

When my word-cloud tarot deck revolutionizes the tarot industry and liberates it for those who think verbally instead of visually, I will use my powers for good.

As does the magician, the first major archana (except for the fool, who is zero)

[caption id=“attachment_2717” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 1st Trump - The Magician[/caption]

Wordcloud Tarot - 0th Trump - The Fool

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:09:32 +0000

Most people who try to make a whole tarot deck fail, because there are SO MANY. It takes half a lifetime. But I think maybe with this method I can eventually complete the project, and also revolutionize the tarot industry by freeing it from it’s reliance on visual associative thinkers and allow access for verbal thinkers like myself.

Anyway, here’s the “Fool”, he’s born stupid and wants to travel.

[caption id=“attachment_2714” align=“alignnone” width=“2244”] Word Cloud Tarot - 0th Trump - The Fool[/caption]

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 27th June 2018

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 22:05:27 +0000

Last week the cards said that a period of recuperation would result in new money, then the BTC price dived immediately down more than 500 dollars and didn’t recover. Cosmic Conroy takes the hit on the chin then reads the cards and finds that government action or institutional failure will cause a collapse.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 22nd June 2018

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 21:08:20 +0000

Last week the cards said that BTC’s courage and ruthlessness would bounce our disappointment into new wealth, then this week the price dropped down, the gained courage, bounced, and ruthlessly turned our disappointment into wealth. This week Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that this period of recuperation will result in new money.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 15th June 2018

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 15:04:04 +0000

Last week the cards suggested that bitcoin was strong and would overcome it’s fear to bring in new money, then the price dropped like a stone. What is Cosmic Conroy’s excuse? Find out in this week’s slightly-late reading.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 8th June 2018

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 20:48:09 +0000

Last week the cards suggested that the uptick was a blip and the downtrend would return. Cosmic Conroy reckons it’s too early to be sure if that was right or not, but this week’s cards seem pretty bullish.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Outside Context Problem

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:44:31 +0000

Track four from my album about my bookshelf is called “Outside Context Problem” and is inspired by Iain M Banks’ book “Excession” in which utopic luxury space communism society “the culture” maybe faces their own Outside Context Problem.

Great book, here’s I butchered half a page of it.

Watch on youtube

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 1st June 2018

Thu, 31 May 2018 21:59:52 +0000

Last week the cards predicted bad times, and then bad times were had until a day or two ago. Is the current uptick the start of something new? Or is it a delusion borne of debauchery? Cosmic Conroy is here to guide us as we find out.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 25th May 2018

Thu, 24 May 2018 21:38:28 +0000

Last week the cards predicted a price-death, and price dropped ten percent! This week Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that last week was a walk in the park compared to the doom of next week.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Learning To Be Me

Sun, 20 May 2018 22:05:57 +0000

I wrote a song this weekend inspired by Greg Egan’s short story “Learning To Be Me”.

I also made significant progress in my code to puppet and motion-capture the characters in my VR flying saucer story.

To celebrate, here is a video of me in the ship’s galley (and also in my studio) doing a victory dance to that song with the crew of the ship.

Watch On Youtube

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 18th May 2018

Thu, 17 May 2018 22:15:56 +0000

DEATH is on the cards in this week’s Bitcoin Tarot Podcast. For the first time in six months of weekly readings, the tarot turns deadly on Bitcoin in Cosmic Conroy’s 18th May broadcast.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Past: 5 Wands - Strife Present: 13th Trump - Death Future: 3rd Trump - Empress Meta: Prince Disks Synopsis: Collapse continues, but sound money will eventually bring opportunity.

Profit Implies Loss

Sat, 12 May 2018 17:45:00 +0000

In order to avoid having to think about three dimensional vector maths, I have wasted half my weekend writing and recording a song inspired by Hagbard Celine, a person with whom I would have many deep political and philosophical differences if he were a real person. While also being broadly in agreement.

My weakened RSI-riddled wrists aren’t up to even ten minutes of puppettering. Good grief. Ouch.

Click here to play on Youtube if the player doens’t work

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 11th May 2018

Thu, 10 May 2018 22:00:59 +0000

Last week the cards said that we had had it too good, and that judgement would bring ruin, then sure enough the price of Bitcoin dropped around 10% over the week. This week, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that the downturn will end, and with acceptance will come growth.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Past: 0 Trump - The Fool Present: 4 Cups - Luxury Future: 10 Disks - Wealth Meta: 7 Disks - Failure Synopsis: The downturn will end, and with acceptance will come growth.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 4th May 2018

Thu, 03 May 2018 22:42:01 +0000

Last week the cards said that signs of growth were illusory, futile and would lead nowhere. Bitcoin promptly ignored that and grew 10% in a week, mostly today. This week, Cosmic Conroy makes his excuses then reads the cards finding that we have had it too good, and soon judgement will bring ruin.

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Past: 4 Cups - Luxury Present: 8th Trump - Adjustment Future: 16th Trump - The Tower Meta: 9 Disks - Gain Synopsis: We have had it too good, soon judgement will bring ruin.

"Bob's" Excuse 2018

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 08:58:55 +0000

Nuh-huh! If anyone blew off everything all weekend and spent the entire time making a song about “Bob” instead it was probably you!

Click here to view at Youtube if the player below fails

Watch On Youtube

Words mostly by Ivan Stang and the Church Of The Subgenius

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 27th April 2018

Thu, 26 Apr 2018 22:04:25 +0000

Last week the cards said that the period of calm would be ended by portents of growth, then Bitcoin went up 20% before falling back half of it’s gains. Was that a portent? Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that the signs of growth were illusory and futile and will lead nowhere.

Past: 7 Cups - Debauch Present: Ace Wands Future: 10 Wands - Oppression Meta: 7 Swords - futility Synopsis: Signs of growth were illusory, futile and will lead nowhere.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 19th April 2018

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:32:25 +0000

Last week the cards predicted adventure and we got… Flat-lining? After making excuses for that, this week Cosmic Conroy’s reading suggests that this period of peace will be ended by portents of growth.

Past: 10 Wands - Oppression Present: 2 Swords - Peace Future: Prince of Disks Meta: 8 Disks - Prudence Synopsis: This period of peace will be ended by portents of growth

Starship Schrödinger’s Destiny V0.2 devlog

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 20:32:44 +0000

My sci-fi story is done, it’s actually finally done!

Well, you know, 20% done. But the 20%-done version mini-story is DONE and will be uploaded starting next week.

Starship Schrödinger’s Destiny is my interactive Virtual Reality sci-fi story about the crew of a flying saucer.

You can see a few clips buried amongst five minutes of me talking about the development of V0.2 here on it’s website:

https://tentacles.org.uk/starship-schrodingers-destiny-v0-2-development-log

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 13th April 2018

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:47:49 +0000

After last week predicting that patience would rewards us with a buying opportunity, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards again and finds that once we understand our impetuousness more daring adventures will come.

Present: Knight of Swords Future: Princess of Wands Meta: 11th Trump - Lust Synopsis: Animal passions are driving us to impetuousness and when we understand this more daring adventures will come.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 6th April 2018

Thu, 05 Apr 2018 22:20:35 +0000

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 23rd April 2018

After last week predicting the Devil coming to bitcoin, this this week hitting 6666 dollars, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards again and this week finds that though a buying opportunity will come, we must be patient

Past: 9 Cups - Happiness Present: Queen of Wands Future: 5 Swords - Defeat Meta: Prince of Disks Synopsis: A buying opportunity will come eventually, we must be patient.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 30th March 2018

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 23:06:57 +0000

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 23rd March 2018

Essential viewing. If you only watch one Bitcoin Tarot Podcast this year, then this is the one.

In slightly new format show, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and brings the essential information you need in these troubled times.

Watch On Youtube if the embedded player is showing an error.

Past: 4 Swords – Truce. Present: 17 Trumps – Star. Future: Knight Disks. Meta: 15 Trumps, Devil Synopsis: The devil has come to Bitcoin. Things are terrible, and they will get worse.

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 23rd March 2018

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 23:18:11 +0000

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 23rd March 2018

Last week the cards correctly predicted reconciliation, and this week Cosmic Conroy’s reading suggests bitcoin holders will bring new creativity, releasing new potential, leading to new growth. Unless the cards take us for fools!

Watch On Youtube if the embedded player is showing an error.

Past: 0th Trump, The Fool. Present: 1st Trump, The Magus. Future: Ace Wands. Meta: 7 Wands

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 16th March 2018

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:51:16 +0000

#Bitcoin #Tarot #Podcast Price Analysis 16th March 2018

After a week which burned 20% of Bitcoin’s value, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that Prudence demanded those cleansing fires but we will have reconciliation.

Past: Queen of Cups Present: Queen of Disks Future: Four of Swords - Truce Meta: Eight of Disks - Prudence

Bitcoin Tarot Podcast 8th March 2018

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 23:34:38 +0000

In the midst of a market panic started by Binance API key leaks, Cosmic Conroy reads the cards and finds that recklessness has caused a setback, but BTC will rise stronger like a phoenix.

PAST: Knight of Swords PRESENT: Ace of Disks FUTURE: 20 of Trumps - The Aeon / Judgement META: Knight of Cups

About

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Dalliance.net is Pre’s homepage, index of his projects, updates on his blog. That sort of thing. You can subscribe in various ways.

Projects

Blog

My blog, mostly monthly summaries of the Fediverse Account.

Visit at dalliance.net/blog

Or check out the categories index

Starship Schrödinger’s Destiny

BCTP Boasting

Sun, 04 Mar 2018 15:59:08 +0000

Bitcoin Forecasts: Seven out of eight forecasts judged “correct” by a panel of one self-interested judge. But how do you think I did?

Bitcoin Tarot Podcast for March 2nd 2018

Thu, 01 Mar 2018 12:15:33 +0000

After successfully predicting a healthy week for Bitcoin, Cosmic Conroy brings you a new-look improved Bitcoin Tarot Podcast in which the cards suggest if Bitcoin can overcome its fears it will receive the just rewards of virtue.

Preaching to my choir

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 12:56:39 +0000

I never really believed the polls when they were predicting like half of all votes would be voting Tory, so I’m not sure there’s been as much of a swing as is reported really, more like a polls-error-correction.

Through most of the elections I’ve been really aware for, there’s been little choice on offer frankly. Neoliberal Conservatives Vs Neoliberal New-Labour vs Neoliberal Lib-Dem isn’t exactly a wide ranging menu.

Existential comics

Fri, 26 May 2017 01:12:01 +0000

Existential Comics this week is easily one of their best. I wonder if that counts as interfering with the election? Not like in a CIA, way, not even in a Russia way, but more in a geek-in-the-basement way, which is easily the coolest.

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/186

I watch the election debate so you don't have to.

Fri, 19 May 2017 02:20:23 +0000

An IRC translation of the election debate, written with prejudice.

Mod: Look, this is still cool. We had them all last time. It’s like an elimination round. A spin-off show. This is like the Elections Little Brother or something.

Intro Statements =======================

Green: After the war, we actually invested in our country and made all the things we now hold dear like the welfare state and the NHS and all things bright and beautiful. We can do that again.

Holloway

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 19:53:52 +0000

I live over the road from Holloway Prison. But Holloway Prison is no longer a prison. The last of the inmates escaped last year. When I say “Escaped” I mean “were transfered to other, hopefully better, prisons”.

And it’s the government’s intention to sell the land to developers, basically.

I can see an argument for screwing that nonsense and instead the state borrowing money at the unbelievably low rate it can borrow right now and using that cash to develop the site itself. In fact, I’d support that, most likely. That would be what I would do if I were in charge. Invest in the state, so the state doesn’t have to austeritize all the time.

Audacity ramble

Fri, 27 Jan 2017 22:25:31 +0000

The thing about when the audio-editing software “Audacity” crashes on you (which it has done on me several times tonight) is that at least you get to step back from your standing desk and throw your arms out and exclaim “How DARE you have the AUDACITY to just suddenly lock up right THEN!? When I was in the middle of that THING!”

And that’s a bit of a relief.

But not as much as when the basically-perfect disaster-recover means your break from doing that THING is basically only as long as it takes to amuse yourself over the name of the software and then remember to save more often.

miles

Sun, 22 Jan 2017 21:22:17 +0000

My phone keyboard app tells me that I have swiped a mile with it now.

That’s done in, roughly, a year. Depending on whether it’s counting distance racked up on the old stolen phone.

I think this is low, compared to most folk’s who use a Swype-style swiping keyboard.

For Swift Key isn’t really about swipes, it’s more about gestures.

I never really got on with the swiping word-at-a-time keyboards. They were obviously better than pressing a letter at a time but it always guessed the wrong word for me coz I was trying to be too quick and I’m sloppy and my fingers are too fat.

EU Robot

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 19:24:15 +0000

The EU parliament have written a report on the regulation of robots in the EU. It’s pretty good, all in all. Asking many of the right questions, suggesting some reasonable answers. And a few unreasonable ones, but hopefully that’ll get ironed out in subsequent drafts.

It’s stupidly long and detailed with no beauty and is completely unreadable. That’s law for you I suppose. Literally every sentence starts with “Whereas” and the word is scattered about the first section like salt. It was making my brain hurt and so I used a robot to do a search/replace and remove it. Nice to use robots to make the robot report more readable.

I hate windows

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 16:10:24 +0000

Somehow or another my “offline” login to my Windows box seems to have been changed during the last session to an online account attached to my email address but with a different password that I don’t know.

It tells me I can change this at screwyoucustomer.microsoftarebastards.com

Presumably if you own Windows you’re expected to have a spare Linux machine around to change your password with when they lock you out. Good job I do! And that it has never randomly changed my login password to a different one I haven’t memorized without telling me it was doing that, or even with telling me it was doing that.

VPN

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 14:57:54 +0000

As you may know, the government have passed their Snoopers Charter retro-actively legalizing their spying on all citizens, legalizing lying in court about where they get their evidence, and promising that in future they’ll ensure your complete browsing history is available to everyone from MI5 through the Food Standards Agency to the Gambling Commission.

You may of course opt-out of this spying, by simply re-routing all your Internet traffic through a less extremist totalitarian government than our own.

democracy

Fri, 25 Nov 2016 21:18:32 +0000

Read two great posts this evening.

One, from Paul Arbair (great name, great profile picture) here: https://paularbair.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/trump-and-the-autumn-of-democracy/

One from the better-known George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-crises-we-face-trump-soil-loss-global-collapse

George was the guy who first pointed me at Paul Arbair in the first place (though not that Arbair post), but even despite that they seem to have things in common.

It’s becoming really hard to be optimistic about the future of truth, justice, and the enlightenment project’s way.

Keypad

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:07:55 +0000

Observations upon owning a keyboard with a separate number-pad for a few days

It’s really nice having the mouse that bit closer to the right hand. It’s not about the reach, or the time it takes to traverse the reach, it’s mostly about the angle of your muscles and bones during use. Mouse-work is BAD for your wrist. And it’s made worse by the extra distance away from center. This is why your hands should rarely leave the keys in the first place.

Phone Keyboards

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:53:29 +0000

The N900 is still by far my favorite of all the phones I ever owned, and it was so for three main reasons.

Number one: The slide-out keyboard.

When I had that keyboard, the best email-interface was still just Mutt over a terminal. Which is to say, the best and most efficient email-interface ever! A single blind thumb-twitch to do any action at all.

You could use Vim! It actually made sense to use Vim. Without looking!

Dark Days

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:13:16 +0000

Dark Days on Gear VR scared me, made me jump, made me laugh hysterically and stare entranced. Episode one was thoroughly entertaining and I’m very much looking to playing through the rest. Perfect Halloween game-playing.

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/1063691710368492/

WTF Windows?

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 23:17:28 +0000

I’ve been using Windows again for a bit. The VR stuff that I wanna play with just isn’t there outside Windows yet. It’s very annoying.

But obviously the machine is Linux underneath. Boots into Linux by default.

But I’m mostly actually using that machine for Unity3d stuff and VR stuff and it’s left in Windows almost all the time.

Yet I keep opening the lid to discover that Windows has killed itself and the Ubuntu system booted.

Email

Fri, 14 Oct 2016 10:51:19 +0000

I have finally given up trying to run my own email server. None of my MX records point at myself anymore. Not only will Google be getting a copy of every email I receive from now on (which they mostly already had on account of being sent from Google in the first place), but now my domain-registrar will get a copy of all of them too as they receive them for me and pass it on to google to hold till I collect it.

South Park 20

Wed, 12 Oct 2016 10:18:51 +0000

Election years are always a gift to South Park, even when they’re not so inherently absurd to begin with. The presidential farce going on in America is brilliantly captured in these first few episodes. Watch them now. South-park is so topical watching them more than a few weeks late takes away some of their power, especially in as fast a moving election campaign and politics in general as we’re having right now.

Sci Fi Stories

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 18:05:50 +0000

Since Drunkman is finished, I’d been doing some more Tentacles writing. This was going okay, but then I got distracted by owning a VR headset and downloading Unity3d (a game-writing engine) and now I’ve found myself building a VR game instead.

There will be some devlog on that at some point too I guess, but my working methods there have evolved into using three different screens on two different computers running two different operating systems and I’m not really sure how to record any of that. I’ll figure it out. Devlog on that will start some time after 22nd October when Drunkman is released.

Red Dwarf S11E01

Fri, 23 Sep 2016 23:34:21 +0000

Very glad to see more Red Dwarf existing, the new episode was perfectly acceptable Red-Dwarf. I’d give it a B-. and I’ll watch any sci-fi better than a D, really. Even some E+s. So, really great compared to most of the stuff I watch!

Made me laugh many times, somehow they don’t seem as old as they did in Red Dwarf X. Better make-up, I assume.

20’s era prohibition of tech made for some good scenes and jokes and japes but I hope we don’t spend too much time on any kind of Planet Earth these next two series.

media

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 09:53:08 +0000

So the Labour Party Leadership election is over and the media coverage of it has been truly some of the worst journalism I’ve ever witnessed. The whole conversation has been terrible.

If our news media were half way sensible they would not be talking about whether or not a particular train a particular man sat on was packed enough to be called “ram” packed.

They would talk instead about whether trains in general are crowded, whether a public ownership of the railways in a more European model would be better than the privatized and subsidized version we have which merely hands tax-paying money to monopolists in return for them running trains badly and treating workers awfully.

Green Party Autumn Conference 2016

Tue, 06 Sep 2016 20:37:00 +0000

I went up to Birmingham for the Autumn Green Party Conference 2016, at the university there in Edgebaston. Not been to a political conference before, so have no idea how much it was like any other.

Arriving a little after noon with not a clue what the hell we were doing, the registration desk directed us towards the newbies bits. Lectures and Q&A sessions on party structure and philosophy.

Rubin and Minchin's Groundhog Day

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 23:37:40 +0000

It was surely one of the hottest days of the year today, and the performers in that theater were all wearing winter clothes and jumping around and dancing under stage-bright spot-lights.

Whereas I’d spent the day at my desk in my pants.

I did some pretty good work, but then I wasn’t dressed in winter clothes under stage spotlights. Still the performers tonight certainly worked with more energy and enthusiasm than I managed to muster. They were impressive.

Test - The title is not the same as the handle

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 20:42:37 +0000

Once upon a time the cat and the lazy dog jumped over a horse and then over a zebra and then they jumped into a bun

Once upon a time the cat and the lazy dog jumped over a horse and then over a zebra and then they jumped into … - /blog/test-candles …

As expected, there’s a link anyway.

IFF it’s less than a line (whenever is it less than a line?) then you can take out the URL part of the post-text below I guess.

Test like it's the testy of testness

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 20:26:31 +0000

Well I think there’s only really one thing left to say then, if you twitter people want me back so much and I hate that character limit so much I’ll just have to devise my way around the character limit and allow myself something much longer and longer, whole paragraphs even!

If you can attach video then I think attaching a paragraph isn’t evil, myself.

Maybe then I won’t hate Twitter so much.

Test Two Hundred Bazillion

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 20:15:40 +0000

Less than two tweets in the whole of the last year you say? Would anyone even want to change that?

[

The above appeared on Twitter as:

Less than two tweets in the whole of the last year you say? Would anyone even want to … - /blog/test-two-hundred-bazillion …

With an attached image.

Which was 85 characters or so.

]

This uploaded image to facebook album.

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:45:52 +0000

Oh, yes, there is need for images too.

Of course.

Facebook settings to send a link - saved

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:36:03 +0000

This one managed to post the link to the right place.

If you know what I mean.

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/some-answers-to-owen-jones-questions.html is the first another angry voice URL to come in when I type into my URL bar, and I know he has images on his pages nicely formatted for all the open-graph stuff and whatever.

Malone

Sat, 09 Jul 2016 01:37:56 +0000

This is a 60 minute talk (plus 30 minutes Q&A) about TTIP given by David Malone, the Green Party Leadership candidate I’m most likely to vote for at the moment.

I think these next two or three years now, as our country negotiates a bunch of bi-lateral trade agreements to replace the cushy relatively-democratic deal we got in our union with the EU, are utterly critical for the future of international democracy.

Too long and overly opinionated guide to the Green Party Leadership Elections 2016

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 22:19:17 +0000

All the parties are having leadership elections over the next few months. The Tories are picking between what appear to be a shower of literal monsters. Half the Labour MPs are trying to ensure their most popular candidate doesn’t stand for some reason.

Much has been written about that, but the Greens just have an election every two years regardless, and less has been written about that so I figured I would, since I gotta do the research to figure out how to vote anyway.

Stabby MPs

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 18:30:37 +0000

Imagine that you’re a Labour MP and you think Corbyn is what the media have been spinning him as: a hopeless unelectable incompetent throwback from a past age who will surely doom us all. You think, for some bizarre reason, that Corbyn is to blame for the Brexit insanity rather than it being Cameron’s fault.

What then would be a good way to get rid of him?

Well. You could get all your PR media friends to use words like “unelectable” whenever they talked about him, you could mock him constantly for irrelevant things then have a media circus where you collude to flounce out one after another, asking him to resign over and over again until he quits.

Stabby MPs

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 22:24:34 +0000

Thing is, the Stabby MPs (that should be the name for the new political party they are going to inevitably have to form now) are certainly right that our media’s reaction to Corbyn and to any hint of any diversity in politics at all is a joke, and you probably can’t actually win elections that way.

It may be that it’s literally impossible to run a serious political party when you have such an insane and unserious blatantly hostile right-wing owned national media.

It's not about the money

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:06:21 +0000

It’s not about the budget

What passes for democratic debate in this country is apparently mostly squabbling over how many millions some made-up tea-bag predictions say you’ll make or lose personally if you’re in or out.

Gah.

Economic projections aren’t really important either way compared to the political, constitutional issues.

Sovereignty.

Democracy.

The very future of capitalism and human rights is under question and people are distracted by the news babbling about astronomical numbers and made-up predictions.

Dao Hack

Sat, 18 Jun 2016 12:03:11 +0000

I’ve mentioned The Dao before. Called it a kind of digital distributed democratic dragons den, and noted that 10% of all Etherum, a hundred million dollars, was now controlled by a software contract.

And an exploit was found in that software contract, practically as soon as transactions were allowed, and money started draining from it into a hacker’s account.

Where it will be frozen for a couple of weeks at least.

Distributed Digital Democratic Dragon's Den

Mon, 16 May 2016 19:46:22 +0000

An Etherum distributed-app has arguably become the biggest crowd-sourced project ever, pulling in a hundred million dollars worth of crypto-currency Ethereum.

It’s called the DAO.

It’s basically a digital investment fund that’ll be controlled by digital voting of the share-holders and (if the voting goes as the folks who wrote it seem to want at least) it’ll be mostly spending that cash on more Distributed Apps.

I’m vaguely surprised that much Eth exists to be honest, but apparently there’s eight times that these days. Crikey.

AutoStripper

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 19:44:05 +0000

The first ever episode of DevLog made with the AutoStripper.

Video-Editing credit must go to my robot, the Auto-Stripper. Not all of it, unfortunately. But most of it. More of it next time. More still the time after that I hope.

If you want an infinite stream of video-editing jobs done, give them to a lazy man to do them. I’ll spend a couple of very long working days automating the process.

What is anarchism?

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 04:13:21 +0000

Should anarchists want to ban money?

Money is certainly a way that some human beings exert power over other human beings.

If you’re an “anarchist” then you want to remove ways that some human beings have power over other human beings.

No?

Thus: Eliminate money.

But this is basically just us trying to determine what each of us mean by the word “anarchist”. Which is entirely pointless. We’re allowed to mean different things when we use the same word.

Persuasion

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 21:09:24 +0000

I’ve been reading Scott Adams’ blog since so long ago I don’t remember when I first added his RSS feed to my reader. Before most people knew what an RSS reader was. Though, do they even now? I have a poor grasp on what others understand or remember, or indeed what I remember myself.

Ages anyway. Since way before he started ranting about Trump.

His posts on Donald Trump’s persuasion techniques have been doing impressively well with actually-predicting-the-future-accurately as far as I can tell. Since ages ago. Before most people I knew even realized Trump was running for president. I suspect I literally first heard that fact from Adams to be honest.

Star Wars Force Awakens - Spoiler Free Review.

Sun, 20 Dec 2015 22:57:05 +0000

So, basically-spoiler-free star-wars-7 review you say?

Perfectly decent film, solid four stars. Nothing to complain about that you can’t level equally at the first three. Interesting and engaging story, pretty to look at, plenty of space-ships and explosions. Even tentacle monsters. More dying-people than I’d have expected. Especially for a kids movie. Most horrifyingly at the hands of the tentacle monsters.

Basically the same criticism I always levelled at Star Wars over Star Trek: Too much magic. Damn Jedi religious nonsense.

Angry Orchard Cider.

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 18:50:00 +0000

“I have a new English cider in”, says the man in the of licence, and offers me a test bottle for 50% off. I always try a cider once I guess.

Examine the label now I’m home, it’s in fact an American ‘hard’ cider.

And it is hard. Hard to drink on on account of being far too horribly sweet and sparkling anyway. Much as you’d expect from a nation that doesn’t really get cider and seems to think the word applies to apple juice.

Queen Reminder

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 01:14:44 +0000

Just a reminder.

The queen we have today is our queen because her dad’s dad’s dad’s mum’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s mum’s mum’s dad’s mum’s dad’s mum’s dad’s mum’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s mum’s dad’s dad had one of his army shoot the previous thief in the eye with an arrow.

A couple of short stories.

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:58:04 +0000

Spent the last half hour of tonight writing a couple of responses to Reddit’s Writing-Prompts

While many of your brethren secretly maintain various positions of power around the world, you’re not hiding the fact that you’re a Reptilian (Thus proving your species is real.) as you run for office.

They call me “Bob”.

It’s not my real name of course, my real name is unpronounceable in human tongue, so I use “Bob” for lack of imagination really.

The More You Ignore Me - Jeremy Corbyn

Thu, 29 Oct 2015 19:48:39 +0000

Jeremy Corbyn sing’s Morissey’s “The More You Ignore Me”

Because I the press can’t seem to stop thinking about him.

Commons to debate cannabis

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 23:56:47 +0000

Well, our Parliament has set a date for the petition-demanded request to make cannabis use and sale legal and presumably taxed.

I guess there is no better time to write to your MP and demand it than between now and October 12th when they’ll actually discuss it.

All they’re debating is “The house has considered it” of course, and the official reply to the petition is likely to be the official view of the house too.

Whitbread is all about people

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:26:18 +0000

Whitbread are going to increase prices in order to afford paying a living wage.

According to their site “at it’s heart, Whitbread is all about people”.

Their profit last year was 400 million pounds.

They have 45000 staff they reckon.

National living wage is 7.86 and current minimum wage is 6.50 for a difference of 1.36 per hour.

45000 staff * 40 hours per week * 1.36 difference per hour = just under 2.5 million pounds.

Universal Ardour V0.4

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 00:24:11 +0000

Another version of this damned song. Now it has laser sounds, and the whole idea of a guitar-solo is ditched in favour of some synth stuff.

Suspect this is about as far as it can go before actual studio-versions rather than scratch-versions of all the different parts are done.

Which is probably good, coz the band are meeting again next week in theory.

Universal Ardour V0.3

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 22:04:53 +0000

Andi came over on Tuesday and helped a lot with this song I’ve been writing while the band is on holiday. His advice was more like “Fuck that rhythm guitar, put these metal power-chords in and put the tempo up thirty percent”

So that was both the kinda thing I’d been thinking of, and done better because he was here to actually strum the guitar.

We re-recorded the vox-pops too, and did a better (though still awful) guitar-solo.

Thinking like it's true

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 20:03:20 +0000

I was at a party a few days ago and we were pondering on my future. I spoke as I thought: “Well, some of the future me’s [*] will have to face that problem, so those future-me’s will have a solution to find….”

Before I could describe my thoughts on what those future-me’s might do about whatever the problem was we got diverted from that topic onto what it was that made me speak in that peculiar manner at all.

My band sing "Babies" at Chilled

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 17:48:54 +0000

Here’s my band playing Pulp’s “Babies” at Chilled In A Field Festival 2015. Top song.

Another night on Universal Ardour

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:42:09 +0000

Music production is impossible. I’ve spent another five hours on this. Is is any better? I can’t even tell. You know that thing where the more you listen to a song the more you like it? Or the more you hate it? How can you even tell if a song is any good when you’ve listened to it so many many damned times?

The rhythm guitar is better. Probably. I think. More flowing, mostly in one take unlike the old one.

My most meta so-far

Sat, 15 Aug 2015 00:05:01 +0000

Here’s a screen-cast of me watching the vPre on my website pace about in front of the film I made of a virtual me in which the background features the first virtual me I ever made.

Just NAME someone more egotistical than that, I dare you!

iComic Press

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 21:36:14 +0000

Back in the mid naughties, when mobile phone were mobile phones and browsing the web on your handset was only for those with deep geeky tendencies, I set up a system to allow comic-book artists to create comic-books to run on mobile-phones and to be paid for with SMS messages.

I lacked a marketing partner, or indeed any marketing at all, but made some comic-books about zombies and booze and robots and plasticine monsters and stuff.

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Mark Steel's Rant.

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 18:02:14 +0000

Mark Steel’s rant after Labour turned him down is funny and true.

When I first saw Blair’s quote:

The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below. This is not a moment to refrain from disturbing the serenity of the walk on the basis it causes ‘disunity’. It is a moment for a rugby tackle if that were possible.

I was only skimming and thought it was said by someone else. I imagined the party walking towards the cliff was, you know, what the party has been doing since Blairism. And that the rugby tackle was coming from the left with Corbyn doing his best to stop it walking over the cliff.

My band sing "Dare" at Chilled In A Field

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 21:20:58 +0000

Possibly our largest stage yet, certainly our most enjoyable and sunny festival so far. Likely the best video work I’ve put up too.

Blender Lip Synch Tutorial

Sat, 18 Apr 2015 21:46:43 +0000

I built a plugin for Blender to help me to Lip-Synching. Here’s a tutorial on how to use it.

Tentacles Prequel: Part Four - Politics

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:45:22 +0000

Frankie snoops around Number Ten:

Mathematical Universe

Sat, 11 Oct 2014 13:16:13 +0000

I read Max Tegmark’s book “The Mathematical Universe” in which he describes his career in science in a autobiographical way while exploring cosmology and the wider story of how we came to believe the universe is how it is. In depth microwave-background radiation analysis, the mapping of it matching the models pretty well, validating cosmological inflation.

Cosmological Inflation is the theory that keeps on giving he reckons, not only in that it’s predictions keep on being met, but also in that inflation never stops. Not everywhere. One of it’s predictions is therefore that our ‘big bang’ isn’t the beginning of the universe, but merely the time when inflation stopped in our cosmic backwater, while it continues in the some other parts of the universe. An infinite number of parallel bubble universes growing over an infinitely increasing range of space.

Tentacles Prequel: Part Three - Honeymoon

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 21:43:15 +0000

The Monster’s invade Brad and Angeliena’s honeymoon.

Greg Egan's Orthoganal Series

Fri, 12 Sep 2014 22:25:40 +0000

Finished reading the final book in Greg Egan’s “Orthogonal” trilogy this week.

There are spoilers here. If you actually intend to read it you might not wanna read the rest of this.

Egan is awesome, often jaw-droppingly so. Usually taking current physics understanding to it’s conclusions, setting his stories in the actual world as the best of our maths understands it.

Not so in the Orthogonal books though.

Here he flips one of the signs in physics so that a - becomes a +. Reverses the polarity, so to speak.

Tentacles Prequel: Part Two - Ice Bucket Challenge

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 21:41:45 +0000

My tentacle monsters take the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Tentacles Prequel: Part One - Emmys

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 21:39:16 +0000

The first episode in “Tentacles: The End”, coz it happend before “After The End” see. Right?

AI Breakthough!

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 19:41:14 +0000

Scott Arronson here talks to the AI in today’s news. Turing Test failed in one question. Obviously http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1858

The news is claiming a robot passed the turing test, even though it only fooled a third of the peopl...

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 07:25:27 +0000

The news is claiming a robot passed the turing test, even though it only fooled a third of the people it was tested against. This is not “passing”, this is surely “Failing”?

New Old Trek

Sat, 07 Jun 2014 07:34:57 +0000

http://www.startrekcontinues.com/star-trek-continues-episode-2-lolani/

Watched the non-profit fan-made “Star Trek Continues” episode two this morning. It was bloody awesome. Just like having proper Original Series back for an hour. Ethical quandaries, green sexy slave girls, moral ambiguity, mayrtarism, Bawling uncivilized space monsters. That’s what Classic Trek is all about, right? Anyway, you should watch it, and weep that copyright laws won’t let us all chip in for a kickstarter to get ’em to quit their day-jobs and make us one a month.

Levels Of Lies

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 12:59:26 +0000

Newspaper reports celebrity “under fire”, when it’s the newspapers doing the firing
Newspaper reports Dawkins as saying kids shouldn’t be read fairy-tales, when in fact he just said he’d like some research done on whether that helps or not, his suspicion is that it’s harmless.
Russel Brand notices the first lie, and calls it out. But he takes the 2nd literately, assuming the Dawkins lie true.
Brand comes out with a lie of his own: “according to science consciousness can’t exist”. Um. No. Science certainly doesn’t imply that. There’s a whole science textbook on it here on my shelf, written by Dawkin’s friend Susan Blackmore.
Brands reads from a textbook claiming “infinite” metaphors in human mindspace. Potentially infinite maybe. Actual metaphors are countable

I mostly like the format of these Trews things, trash the comical propaganda in the newspapers then read from a proper educational book. Compare actual deep understanding with the literally made-up nonsense in the newspapers.

Emperors New Mind

Fri, 16 May 2014 21:52:41 +0000

So I finished reading the Roger Penrose book “Emperors New Mind” this week.

I expected to disagree with it far far more than I actually did.

The majority of what he says in it is true and sensible and interesting and in general where he taught me new things he taught me *why* those things were true well enough to convince utterly.

Maths is great like that. The way you prove it without needing to even believe any experimental trial results. “I proved it, you see it, it is true.”

Tentacles! Part One Relase

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 21:32:31 +0000

Part one of my two-year-in-the-making movie is released. That’s six month’s worth!

Please do buy the rest at my website: tentacles.org.ui. I’ll release the rest of it free if enough brave heros pay up.

Full Trailer For My New Tentacles Cartoon

Sat, 14 Dec 2013 21:28:56 +0000

The premier is over, so part one will be released soon!

Tentacles! Trailer for my new cartoon.

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:00:43 +0000

Spoiler-Free trailed for my new cartoon. I’m having a premier party. Come to the Premier! It’s taken me two damned years!

Syria

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:30:21 +0000

Bubbles, not Bombs people

Bubbles, not bombs.

People ask me, " Pre, what should we do about Syria?"

Well, I think that depends on who you mean by " we".

I don’t think the UK, or the US, or NATO have any actual moral authority or right to intervene. So if the " We" that is considering military action is any of those then I’m afraid it’d be yet more illegal warmongering.

Cline's First Law and Snowden

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:50:26 +0000

They’re spying on you right now you know

Listening to me saying this to you.

Hello NSA! Hello GCHQ!

Can you tell Cameron he’s a twat for me please? Thanks.

The news lately has been reminding me of Celine’s first law.

Celine is a fictional character in The Illuminatus Trilogy, and his first law states " National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity"

Once you have a network of spies, they are a massive target for other spies to spread disinformation to. The more you chase up your spying systems, the more false information they have.

Beautiful Days 2013

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 16:06:07 +0000

This was my final fesitival for this year

I had a very good time

And now it’s back indoors

Did you go to Beautiful Days this year?

Let me know in the chat box below!

We had a lovely time at Beautiful Days this year. Good friends, good tunes, mostly good weather, lovely surroundings, great cider. What more could a boy want from a long weekend out in the country?

Glasto Diary 2013

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:16:38 +0000

Ah, Glasto.

Is there a better festival in the whole world?

I suspect there isn’t.

Small ones are nice, and have many advantages

But there’s really nothing like the magic here

This one was my 12th.

And they never stop being good.

It was even mostly sunny!.

I’ve now spent more than 60 days camped in those fields in Somerset. All of them have been wonderful. There’s been good times, and better times. Even the hungover miserable times are better than the hungover miserable times any other place. But how was it different this time?

The computation markets

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:30:05 +0000

Pre spends all this money on his bloody film

And what do I get, to run my very BRAIN?

A tiny fraction of 20 quid a month,

Plus whatever I can scavenge from client machines like yours

Thanks for all your processing power!

I’m making this film, as many of you know. An animated cartoon about tentacle space-monsters and the end of the world. It’s taken a long time, and now needs to be polished and re-rendered in high-quality. Which is also going to take a long time.

The old vPre

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:44:19 +0000

Ah, once upon a time the vPre wasn’t as sophisticated as even he is now, he was barely more than a Max Headroom. I couldn’t bare to kill him though, so here’s the old vPre, still ranting on.

Here’s the old vPre, that I replaced.

He’s not as smart as me

And in flappy-head 2d rather than 3d

Also suffering from bit-rot…

In that he runs on flash

(though was written in OpenLazslo

Moroccon Photos

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:17:15 +0000

March 2013: My 40th Birthday

We went on a trip to Morocco

It wasn’t as hot as I feared

Nor even as hot as I wanted

But it was very colourful

Here’s some pictures

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Icelandic Photos

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:38:10 +0000

Back in January Pre went on a trip

Off to the frozen north: Iceland

It was fun, beautiful, good times

Here’s some photos

Iceland

Transcendence Institute

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:42:38 +0000

/sites/transcendenceinstitute.html

Pre’s spent a couple of years reprogramming his mind.

Mostly via autosuggestion, visualisation and meditation.

This site, and the books, describe the process.

Some of it even worked.

I spent a couple of years investigating how to program my mind to do the things I wanted it to do, and stop doing the things I wanted it to stop doing.

With some fair success, I think, and my friend attest.

Commons Hostage

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:39:24 +0000

/sites/commonshostage.html

Pre’s art is mostly released Creative Commons.

The commons hostage is an experiment to fund that.

The more you donate to a project, the more work he does on it.

So things are released episodoally.

Only when a randsom is raised.

I tried to see if I could get people to donate to finish art projects barely-started. Almost before Kickstarter, even. The “Commons Hostage” was my project, and I tried Chapter-One of a new project every month.

Handsome Jack's Showband

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:24:31 +0000

/sites/handsomejacks.html

Pre’s plays in a band.

Sings, plays guitar.

Dances.

This the band website.

There’s video and stuff.

Yes - Afterward

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:45:23 +0000

Afterward

You’ve seen how the conspiracy not only planned out your slackless, normal life for you but roped you into forcing others into the same sinking, dilapidated, unseaworthy boat. Helping to cull their creativity, joy, imagination and slack. You’ve seen what a predictable, bland, useless life you’ve led and you don’t even want it to stop. Do you? If I seriously gave you an alternative, would you even want it? You’d just find conspiracy-reasons to reject it. You’d protest that it’s not that bad, that you get quite a good deal compared to some. You’d be scared to throw of the shackles, to run from the shepherd, to break the chains of your oppression and smash the conspiracy into bits. You’d say it won’t work, it’s not worth it, the mortgage or the kids, or the job, or the career, or the parents, or the debt, or the friends, or the economy would suffer.

Yes - Chapter Twelve

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:44:01 +0000

Death

Even at the final moment, the conspiracy has its hooks in people. Death is the final act in life, and doing it with dignity and good timing would, you would think, be the right of every sentient creature. But not so in the conspiracy’s corrupted world. They will have control over life and death thank you very much.

Yes - Chapter Eleven

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:42:37 +0000

Retirement

You work yourself until you literally can’t carry on, even the conspiracy admits it, so despite the job being all you have left to keep your brain inflated, they make you “retire”.

A big wrench for a con-bred auto-dupe like you. Retirement alone is estimated to kill thousands of people from boredom each year. With a lifetime of nose-led conspiracy-following, when they finally spit you out the other end you’re at a loss for what to do.

Yes - Chapter Ten

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:40:15 +0000

Parenthood

Sooner or later you notice that there’s something you’re expected to do. Something that the conspiracy needs just as much as it needs to drain your slack, sap your creativity, steal your time, destroy your individuality and strangle your soul. Your parents want it, your friends are all doing it, it seems like suddenly everyone is doing it and if you don’t do it soon you’ll miss out. You’ll be left out. Never mind that you’ll lose out ether way.

Yes - Chapter Nine

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:38:23 +0000

Media

All this while, and all your life, you are seeped in media. Boiled in advertising, char-grilled with television, fried with a bit of radio and sautaed newspapers, served with diced music and a dressing of novels, magazines, videos, DVDs, theater visits, cinema visits, billboards, text messages, websites, forums, chat-channels, pop-sci books, lectures, lessons, telephone calls and docudramas. Almost all of them designed by the conspiracy for the same purpose and reason as the fairy tales, the morality tales, the stern-police-warnings and the military orders.

Yes - Chapter Eight

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:36:19 +0000

Nationality

Even if you were born on an airplane flying at fifty thousand feet above the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you’ll still have been categorized by the conspiracy, assigned and grouped into your Nation. You didn’t pick it, you can’t quit it, you weren’t old enough to make any kind of sensible choice even if they’d let you but from day one you’re encouraged to take pride in the accident of the country of your birth. What country do you support in the World Cup? Is that because they’re the best? No. You support them because you were assigned to them, because you’ve been trained and duped and suckered by the conspiracy your whole contemptuous desperate life.

Yes - Chapter Seven

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:34:37 +0000

Religion

Even more obvious than the econoplastic feedback that drives the pop charts, currency markets, football results and celebrity lists is the section of the conspiracy we call religion.

Even stinking idiotic dumbasses like you will admit that there is such as thing as a false religion in this world. That the Greek gods were even less real than the Spice Girls, that Venus was nothing more than a metaphor, a parable. That billions of people the world over have been believing a lie, dedicating their whole lives to worship of false gods, wasting their time on conspiracy insanity.

Yes - Chapter Six

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:31:50 +0000

Money

So for a third of your useful life, you toil and sweat, suffer work-related stress and injury, save up health problems that’ll eventually kill you for what? It’s not just because you’re a braindead, unwashed cretin. You do it for money.

And what the hell is money? It’s not made of metal, or paper, or magnetically aligned particles on some bank’s hard-drive. Most modern economies use fiat money, that’s not even backed by anything but the conspiracy’s word that a dollar is worth, well, a dollar. You’re chasing something that doesn’t even exist, and calling it a career.

Yes - Chapter Five

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:29:35 +0000

Jobs

They have you doing exactly what they want. It might appear that this is so they can drive the economy, make themselves money, feed the people, run the government or exert power over their fellow man, but remember this isn’t a conspiracy made out of men! It’s not a conspiracy made out of people at all! The conspiracy has no need for money, or an economy, or power or sated people. All it wants is your slack! Your independence, your creativity, your imagination, your difference, your mutations. It wants a world of passive, dependent, auto-obedient dupes and it’s greed is insatiable. So, straight out of school, they make things worse.

Yes - Chapter Four

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:27:52 +0000

Adolescence

Of all the conformity-inducing cards in the conspiracy’s deck, sex has to be the ace. At least the conspiracy subversion of sex, because the whole thing is not what it should be.

It shouldn’t be like this! This should be a blissful period in your life, a celebration of the beautiful changes in your body. Your discovery of erotic touch, the reciprocal joy of giving pleasure. But already the two dimensional mental-props built into your the minds of your peers, your environment and your own stupid pointless conformity, have all but ruined it’s beauty and sublimated it’s allure into ugly, stupid, greed and pointless petty oneupmanship.

Yes - Chapter Three

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:22:09 +0000

School

The socialization you’re given at school is so important to the modern conspiracy that they make it compulsory. It is worried that people may escape the worst of their parents mind-lock because, well, some of their parents escaped the worst of it.

So the CON invented schools, to all intents and purposes a jail for your body and worse yet, for your psych-acorn. You need permission to take a fucking piss. You suffer constant conspiracy-supervision and they don’t even deny that socialization is their aim and their insistence. Socialization to what, exactly?

Yes - Chapter Two

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:18:33 +0000

Childhood

All men and women born on planet Earth are born with original slack, but from the moment the doctor slaps you and forces you to start breathing their conspiracy air, the CON begins the process of stealing it, infecting your mind and breaking your spirit.

They start with what they call “childhood.” A period when you’re supposed to “learn”. I mean, millions of years of inbreeding has ensured you’re a domesticated animal to start with. Anxious to please and ready to do anything. Yet you still have that one thing the conspiracy can’t take from you until you’re born to have it. The spark of slack.

Yes - Intro

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:15:42 +0000

Forward

In this book, I will not attempt to identify the controlling members of the various conspiracies, the high-ups who manipulate, dominate and direct the media or the government or the courts or the political process or the military or the corporations or the capital or the religions or the very psyche of the dupes, fools, dunces and cretins that populate this planet.

Yes - Chapter One

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:11:58 +0000

Birth

All men and women born on planet Earth are born with original slack. At birth, in fact, slack is just about the only thing you actually have. Yet, already wired into your brain-pan are the tools the conspiracy will use to warp your fragile forming mind.

Despite what some so-called religions would have you believe, the human mind is not a thinking-machine designed for intelligence and given free will by God. In fact, it’s an evolutionary mess, roughly thrown together by the forces of natural selection to do anything it needs to do to reproduce.

Yes - The Conspiracy Really Exists, And Further More It's All Your Fault

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:02:15 +0000

" Yes! The conspiracy really exists - and furthermore, it’s all your fault" is Rev Priest’s astute and provocative investigation into the conspiracy that controls our world, and your part in it, you decrepit, useless, unthinking, dull, pointless human waste of brain. You won’t understand it, but at least now you can’t say you were never told.

Buy the original edition from Lulu

Do Dream Sheep Bleet - Copyright Agreement

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:09:51 +0000

By reading this book you have taken a copy of it, you have put a version of this book into your own head.

As you know, copyright law allows us, the publishers, to define the terms under which we will allow a copy to be made.

Since you have already read at least some of this document, I’m afraid we can’t let you leave here with that head containing a copy of our important and very valuable book without you agreeing to our terms and conditions.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Nine - Success

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:05:52 +0000

“Happy birthday to you,” the two sang, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear penguin, happy birthday to you!”

The penguins in their minds used Jim and John’s muscles to contract their lungs and force air over the candles on top of the cake so quickly that the combustion was interrupted. The candles went out.

“Ten years! Who’d have thought, ten years ago, that we’d be where we are now?”

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Eight - Doing It

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:01:59 +0000

“You sure this author guy won’t mind that we’re ripping off his stuff?” asked Jim.

“You read the book dude, did it sound to you like the author thought spreading his ideas around was ’ ripping him off?'”

Jim pondered it for a second, aware of the penguin on his shoulder laughing at the very idea, “I think he actually wants

us to do this.”

“Indeed.”

“Maybe we should, you know, at least ask

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Seven - Brunch

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:55:05 +0000

The next morning, John lay in bed as late as he could, dreaming and thinking and letting all this new knowledge seep into his consciousness. Updating his model of himself, changing himself.

Eventually he rose, showered, dressed and headed out of the flat to meet his friend for bunch at a local greasy spoon.

“Shammy, dude, you feeling better?” his friend asked as John approached the table, getting up from his chair to give his friend a greeting hug.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Six - Dream Two

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:48:27 +0000

The penguin stepped into John’s bedroom, “You’ve learned a lot since we last spoke,” it observed.

“What are you for?” John asked, pointedly.

The penguin looked around the bedroom, “Ah, direct, I like that.”

John waited for more elucidation, but all he heard was Storm boiling the kettle in the kitchen, the clanging of cups as she prepared the tea.

The penguin sat down on the foot of the bed and leaned against the wall. It looked at John’s face. John returned its gaze, trying to read things in it’s eyes that weren’t printed on the page of it’s book.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Five - Early Night

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:16:48 +0000

After work, John called his friend on his way home and told him he was too hungover and tired to meet him that evening as they had previously planned. He just wanted to go home, put his feet up, get an early night and think.

He hadn’t mentioned the thinking part. He wasn’t really ready to get into a conversation about what he hoped to think about. As exhausted as he was, his mind was still buzzing with ideas, fizzing and popping with epiphany.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Four - Hangover

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:00:22 +0000

“Nine pounds ninety nine please,” John tried to smile and not breathe in the direction of the customer in case they smelled the booze he was sure was still seeping out through his tongue. Another busy day in the shop, the last thing he needed.

He took a ten pound note from the customer, pressed the right buttons on the till, swapped the note for a penny from the tray and handed it back to the customer. All on automatic pilot. Most of his mental energy was going into fighting the urge to vomit.

Do Dream Sheep Bleet - Chapter Three - Dream One

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:57:06 +0000

" Thanks for making me conscious for a while," it said, cautiously waddling past him towards his front room, “it’s been ages since anyone read that book of mine in the right suggestible frame of mind.”

John watched him waddle past, “What?”

“Obviously I can’t remember last time I was conscious, it surely wasn’t in this wetware and memories can’t transfer easily from one brain to another.”

John shook his head in confusion, he didn’t really know how to handle a giant penguin being in his flat. Didn’t know the protocol.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter Two - Siduals

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:50:55 +0000

John looked through the first few pages, which appeared to be describing a kind of weird magical practice. Something utterly impracticably pointless. Crazy pseudo-scientific nonsense, John reckoned.

That initial chapter encouraged him to take a pen and build for himself a “sidual”, which, it explained, was a magical symbol.

The book told him to design it any way that seemed sensible to him, but that while designing it he should keep in mind the thing he wanted to achieve in the universe, the way he wanted the world to respond to him. It encouraged him to steal imagery from the book itself, and from movies and TV shows that he’d seen, things the book described as the universal unconscious, the intrinsic and subliminal meaning and connotations of every word and action which happens in the world.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Chapter One - Introduction

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:35:39 +0000

John woke up on the sofa, the TV flickering quietly in the corner. Ouch. His head hurt.

He dragged himself up to a seated position and put his face in his hands to sigh before standing and wobbling to the kitchen to fetch some water.

How had he even got home last night? He didn’t remember. There was the pub after work, and then meeting a friend in another pub after that.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:50:39 +0000

A short story about magic and mind, about consciousness, cognizance and conjuring. Also, there’s a penguin.

" Incredible, this book has completely changed the way I live my life. It’s taught me my aims, my goals, how to achieve my dreams. Now I’m rich!" - John Shamrock

Click to: buy a hard copy from Lulu

read online:

Chapter One - Introduction
Chapter Two - Siduals
Chapter Three - Dream One
Chapter Four - Hangover
Chapter Five - Early Night
Chapter Six - Dream Two
Chapter Seven - Brunch
Chapter Eight - Doing It
Chapter Nine - Success
Chapter Ten - Copyright Agreement

You can Get it printed through LULU or on kindle by amazon or Listen to the audiobook

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - Audiobook

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:50:39 +0000

A short audiobook about magic and mind, about consciousness, cognizance and conjuring. Also, there’s a penguin.

" Incredible, this book has completely changed the way I live my life. It’s taught me my aims, my goals, how to achieve my dreams. Now I’m rich!" - John Shamrock

Click to: view the written version

Chapter One

Introduction

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Chapter Two

Siduals

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Chapter Three

Dream One

feeds

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:16:23 +0000

Here you can find the RSS feeds for Pre, the vPre and what they say and think and do.

Stick these URLs into your favourite news-reader if you want updates.

Everything: -
```
/blog/feed
```
Releases: -
```
/blog/category/release/feed
```
Photographs: -
```
/blog/category/photo/feed
```
Links: -
```
/blog/category/link/feed
```
Status Updates: -
```
/blog/category/status/feed
```
Longer Posts: -
```
/blog/category/post/feed
```

You can also follow @revPriest on Twitter which should do more or less the same thing as subscribing to “everything”.

Thatcher

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:58:26 +0000

A single puppet individual who fronted for a political movement designed by the rich to oppress the poor and to privatise and steal a country’s wealth has died a natural death at a ripe old age.

The movement, of course, continues with the NHS under more threat than ever, the nation’s wealth continuing to be concentrated in the hands of those behind the movement, while the poorest in the country foot the bill.

Books

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:58:43 +0000

Ahha, yes, Pre’s books.

All brilliant, of course.

Visit Pre’s Lulu Store.

Fiction

Do Dream Sheep Bleat?

A short story about magic and mind. About cognizance, conjuring and the nature of consciousness. Also, there’s a penguin.

" Incredible, this book has completely changed the way I live my life. It’s taught me my aims, my goals, how to achieve my dreams. Now I’m rich!" - John Shamrock

Buy a hard copy from Lulu:

Does copyright regulate the entertainment industry, or everything?

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:39:00 +0000

via singularityweblog.com

Cory Doctorow at the end of this long interview about science-fiction, the future, geek rapture and his newest book:

“If there’s one thing I want the world to understand, it’s that for so long as we maintain that copyright regulates everything that copies, then all copyright policy becomes de-facto internet policy, because the internet is made of copies.

The Starship 491 - Her Secret Story - Part Two

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 10:44:08 +0000

Part Two details the second half of the starship’s voyage, as the ship’s crew and passengers are embroiled in deceit and intrigue.

The 491 chases down the pirates, disabling their ship and Princess Nin discovers a dark secret from her past.

Music: Another Girl, Another Planet, covered by Handsome Jack’s Showband Turning Japanese, covered by Handsome Jack’s Showband Lost In Space, covered by Handsome Jack’s Showband http://handsomejackband.com/

WebAce - A chatroom for every website! - Initial Release

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:42:48 +0000

WebAce is a chat-room for every website on the internet. If you have it running, you can chat to anyone who has it running visting that same site as you, leave messages for the next person to visit.

Written mostly just to try out the programming framework “Zend, This is the initial and only release of Webace, with basic functionality is there with people able to chat and read each other’s messages.

Looking for voice actors for a couple of hours work.

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:42:00 +0000

I’m making an animated tentacle monster film.

In a post-apocalyptic nightmare world, tentacle monsters roam the earth devouring the last remnants of human kind but Sally is just worried she can’t find any new shoes.

I need two voice actors to voice five characters: Sally, her robot, a tentacle monster and his mistress, plus a little tentacle-juice eating parasitic worm who doesn’t really even talk, just make noises.

A very early picture of the main characters:

Santa's Pirate Drinking Game - Handsome Jack's Edition

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:04:13 +0000

A special edition of Santa’s Pirate Drinking Game for the band: Handsome Jack’s Christmas Game. See Handsome Jack’s Showband play at the Boing Cabaret, and help Santa keep the Pirates drunk enough to watch so they don’t all storm out.

Play it here at the Band website.

Santa's Pirate Drinking Game - Level One

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:41:48 +0000

I wrote a little game to celebrate Xmas. You play Santa, and his bar has been raided by pirates. Can santa keep them happy till the end of the song?

You can play it by clicking here

The song is “Frosty The Snowman” performed by J.E.L.L.i.

Oscar's Ontological Odyssey - Episode One - Self

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:26:48 +0000

In episode one, Oscar and Karl wonder whether or not they are conscious, they have thoughts and feelings. Whether they exist.

You can watch it here:

My New Debian Netbook

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:17:00 +0000

My girlfriend was looking for a new computer, and some friends had noticed this little Samsung N150 netbook on sale in Sainsbury’s of all places for less than two hundred quid. Sure, it’d need a bigger RAM card fitted but that’s cheap enough. Sounded like a right little bargain to me so I recommended she get that one.

It arrived, and with some excitement was unpacked. And it ran like a dog.

Upload - Birthday

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:36:18 +0000

Second episode of a film about a future in which humans can upload to the cloud.

Sam calls Eve on her birthday, they chat about the work uploads do for society, the living working with the dead.

Defeating Facebook's Tracking

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:30:00 +0000

The web is so abuzz with the news that facebook tracks which websites you visit even if you log out that even some of my facebook-loving friends are a bit worried.

So here’s how I stop them doing so personally: By using firebox and Add Block Plus.

First, Install Adblock Plus. It’ll make you restart your browser to activate it and then ask you to pick a subscription to a constantly-updated list of advertising servers to block. I pick “Fanboy’s” list, mostly coz he also includes Google’s tracking things to stop Google Analytics following you all over the web too.

Felt Penguin - I Hate My Job

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:48:39 +0000

A felt penguin makes Adam sing a song based on the top voted post in http://reddit.com/r/funny

Promised the Penguin I’d do another if anyone gave me 50 quid. So far nobody has. The URL for the fundraiser site is dead, I doubt anyone ever will.

The Jobbins/Jones Hypothesis - Chatper One

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:33:07 +0000

Chapter one - A meeting at the bank goes so wrong the church is blown to bits.

One

Jack is cycling hard towards the old squatted church, but the missile is outrunning him. His eyes, locked on Albert’s face, scream in terror then flick upwards towards the stream of smoke headed towards the door. His expression passes a message faster than words could, even up close.

Albert sees Jack and his pulse speeds up. His eyes widen in empathy with Jack’s horror but his breathing doesn’t quicken, it deepens. A reflex honed through training to immediately suck up oxygen and speed up his brain. To give him time to think, even in the seconds before a missile strike. He looks up to see that speeding artificial cloud heading right towards him.

Upload - Funeral

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:47:23 +0000

A short film about a woman calling her granddad’s uploaded consciousness up after his funeral to tell him about it.

New Met Line Trains

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:09:00 +0000

I got on one of the new Metropolitan Line trains this morning. At first I was sad coz my favourite seat isn’t there on the new trains. I like the one right at the front/back of the old-style Met line trains. Where you can box yourself in with the fire extinguisher and have minimal contact with the other passengers as the train fills up.

(I get on at the first stop, so my seat is usually available. And if not whoever’s in it gets an evil glare as I pick instead the second-best. If I have to resort to third-best I’m quite sad since this is just normal-seat territory).

The Day The Saucers Came

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:36:59 +0000

On this, X-Day eve, it may be important to reflect that today is the last day this poor earth will have to suffer though. By tomorrow at 7am, the saucers will be here and the world will be naught but dust and pain.

We note with sadness that the European Church Of The Subgenius, in a ban-frenzy, has banned not only each individual church member from their X-Day celebrations, but all their friends, all the yeti race, all the human race and even all aliens. It remains to be seen whether the aliens will respect this ban and commentators are intrigued about this unexpected possibility.

Joust Adventure - Level One -- Climb The Tower

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:43:45 +0000

In level one Johnny Monkey’s significant other is kidnapped by an evil alien riding a crow.

Can our hero steal parrots from the sky, tame them, break them, and use them in battle to rescue his magnificent damsel?

Only you can tell. You can play it here

The Starship 491 - Her Secret Story - Part One

Wed, 04 May 2011 14:00:58 +0000

The first half of this documentary details the first half of the starship’s voyage.

The 491 travels to Nin, to pick up the princess, meeting mild peril on the way.

The Starship 491 - Her Secret Story - Trailer

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:21:12 +0000

A trailer for the episodes to come.

Commons Hostage - RSS Feeds for Projects/Creators

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:09:45 +0000

Add RSS feeds to Project and Profile pages so that users can subscribe to the RSS feeds to know when new parts are released etc.

See It Here

Minor Apocalypse - Part One

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:35:57 +0000

The start of a Space-Rock-Opera I’ll never write.

A reporter, bored with his life, finds himself in an apocalyptic scene, and only a haggard old prophet can help him.

Rev Priest's Subgenius Video Ministries - The Conspiracy

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:35:41 +0000

In this Subgenius sermon, I’d like to tell you about “Bob”, about what kind of man he is, and about the conspiracy he’s devoted his life to fighting.

Rev Priest's Subgenius Video Ministries - Parable

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:35:37 +0000

“Parable” was the first music-backed rant Rev Priest ever did, for X-Day 2009. Leaked before the night, to drum up some enthusiasm.

A story about the night “Bob” was shipwrecked.

"Do Dream Sheep Bleat?" - Audio Book - Early Night

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:34:47 +0000

In which John watches TV and thinks about the nature of mind and consciousness.

See It Here

"Do Dream Sheep Bleat?" - Audio Book - Hangover

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:34:43 +0000

In which John ponders the nature of work and capitalism

See It Here

"Do Dream Sheep Bleat?" - Audio Book - Dream One

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:34:39 +0000

In which John meets the penguin.

See It Here

Steven Norris And Alternative Vote.

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:23:00 +0000

As I eat my lunch today, I find the News talking of Alternative Vote.

I’m reminded that on the 10-o-clock live last night, which was excellent as usual, Steven Norris was trying to explain that because AV isn’t the best voting system imaginable, we should all vote “No” at the referendum when it comes.

He was agreeing with every point made about what an absolute
mess First Page The Post is, agreeing that there should be
some change, but saying that this isn’t the right change.

The subtle influence of auto-logo algorithms on society

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:08:00 +0000

I’m trying to think about Logo Design right now, coz I’m gonna start trying to make my new project tomorrow. I know I won’t do a good enough job, and that eventually, I’ll have to get someone else to do it. Someone who can do a good job. It’s not important enough at this embryonic stage to get someone in, on the other hand, the way it looks and it’s shape and colours will inevitably influence me as I go on to build the whole feel and interface of the project around it.

Democratic Representation: Another reply to My MP

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:32:00 +0000

Yeah. Two blog posts in one night. I’m like a bus. Well, a bussle of busses.

Here’s something I sent to my MP this week after getting something from her. Frankly, while I admit I was slack in relying, I was ten times faster than her.

Here’s the thing what I wrote:

Thanks for replying in paper form again rather than replying my email as I’d asked,

I can’t be bothered to type much of it in, other than to point out that you said this:

Manufactured Images

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:37:00 +0000

A friend tells me that in The Times Naomi Wolfe is arguing that the protest movement, student protest in particular, has failed to learn the lessons of her own protesting days, though I can’t link it and I can’t even read it since it’s not even on the free web. Might be true. Might not be. Who knows. It’s just deliberately held from record or links in order to extort money from us.

Voting Reform: A reply to my MP.

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:22:33 +0000

My MP replied to my email about Voting Reform.
The reply was on paper in the post, so I mostly couldn’t be arsed to type it out to paste it here given how boiler-plate it was.

My reply to her written tonight is, however, already in easy-pastable electronic form:

Emily,

Thanks for your reply, though I wish you’d just send
an email in reply rather than wasting paper, ink and the Post
Office’s time by printing ’em out and posting.

Religious Book Burning Fesitval

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:50:00 +0000

It seems that the fashion this week is for burning copies of religious tomes. Never ones to willingly miss out on a bandwagon, The European Church Of The Subgenius are keen to get in with the trend and hold a massive book burning session of our own.

But which holy book to burn? We don’t want to encourage burning the Qur’an since, well, that’s already been done and anyway, who wants to aggravate the Muslims and get a fatwa placed on their heads? Plus, we know they’re keen on burning works of fiction written by heretics like Salman Rushdie so you’d hope they’d be up for helping us, taking part in our book-burning event so we’d sooner have them on our side than calling the fire brigade and squirting our book pyres with fire extinguishers.

Handsome Jack's Show Band » Latest News

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:18:31 +0000

via handsomejackband.com

Over on the the band website I write:

We practice every week, and in order to double the efficiency, the value of that practice we record it quite often. Most weeks really. Then go back and watch it again, comment on it, crack jokes, drink booze.

Jack tells us that this is the right thing to do, apparently the neural growth which practice facilitates works just as well when you watch yourself in a recording as it does when you actually do it. Or something. Jack’s not always clear on exactly what he’s programming our brains to do.

Nature Vs Science and Transhumanism

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:25:00 +0000

So I was talking to this guy the other day who was insisting that we should behave more ’naturally’. Trying to claim that modern human behaviour is “not natural” in some way. Perhaps coz it can sometimes be so violent and selfish.

We as a species do plenty of killing, certainly, but do we do an unnatural amount of killing? Almost everyone that’s ever lived has been killed by ’natural’ causes. Billions of souls lost with only just six billion actually surviving at the moment.

My band live - Handome Jack's sing "Turning Japanese"

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:14:25 +0000

Sorry for sticking my thumb on the microphone as I sung.

Plea to my new (old) MP

Fri, 07 May 2010 15:14:00 +0000

I am very drunk, and should certainly be in bed rather than writing to congratulate my new (old) MP.

Nevertheless, I am not.

Damnit.

Open litter to my MP:

Dear Emily.

Excellent, surprising and (I admit, for me, disappointing) work there Emily. I don’t know if you can receive email through the parliamentary system or not, but it’s the only email address I have for you.

Um. Can we have PR now?

Summing Up My Election Night - Bedtime. #ge2010

Fri, 07 May 2010 14:47:00 +0000

So we’re all anarchists now then?

Win.

I guess.

I think I described roughly this result as “best hope” a couple of days ago. But watching it unfold, watching Limbet lose his seat, watching Evens lose his seat, watching my lib candidate Bridget Fox have her opponent’s majority increased by like thousands of votes, watching the Pirates all fall under 1%, it didn’t really feel like a win.

The libs should deal with Cameron, if and only if he offers a referendum on PR. Surely? I mean that is the price.

Election Rant 2010

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:47:00 +0000

Ten days until the election here in the UK and things are looking more interesting than usual. The newspapers are calling it " The Clegg Effect" but then the newspapers also thought Mephedrone was called “Meow Meow” so I suspect their opinion on why the Liberals are polling better than usual might well be about as useful as their opinion on whether cannabis being class B or class C will stop someone smoking a joint.

Good News Everyone! The conspiracy media are shooting themselves in the foot.

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:32:39 +0000

As promised, Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers are moving to a pay model, it’ll be two quid a week to read the Times from July.

Many of you will have previously clicked on a link to an article at, say, the New York Times and been confronted with a page saying “Register for FREE to read this article.” If you’re anything like me, you almost always think “Screw that” and hit the back button because it’s just not worth the effort of filling in a form.

Digital Economy Bill, Liberals and Pirates

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:55:43 +0000

As you may remember, there once was a lunch in Corfu between Lord Mandelson and David Geffen, one Hollywood mogul and record company exec.

After that meeting, Mandy came out with his new copyright bill, the Digital Economy Bill, which among other things, gives the government the right to force your ISP to spy on you and cut you off if you’re accused (without trial mind) of unlicensed sharing copyright infringement, and not-incidentally also gives the Secretary of State, that is him, Mandy, the power to create new penalties for online infringements whenever he wanted without interference from the Commons, the Lords or even the Queen.

Do Dream Sheep Bleat? - My Army Of Penguins

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:55:00 +0000

New Novella

My new novella, entitled " Do Dream Sheep Bleat?" has been released this weekend. It’s a short story about magic and mind, about consciousness, cognizance and conjuring. Also, there’s a penguin whose picture is on the front cover.

You can read it online, for free, either in your browser or by downloading a pdf. You can also order a nicely bound print copy to be shipped directly to your door. As you can see from the pictures on this page, it’s a handy pocket-sized mini-book. Nice and portable, easily transportable, weighing in at just 80 pages or so. The print copy costs just four UK pounds, but if you’re to cheep to pay it, by all means just download.

Reply From my MP about Pirate Party stuff

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:17:12 +0000

Before Xmas I got a reply from my MP about The letter I wrote her earlier. Been too busy/lazy to update on that. The best bits follow.

The Government has a difficult balance to reach between protecting the creative industry from potentially huge losses incurred through illegal file sharing, and respecting individuals’ rights to unrestricted and private use of the internet. The Creative Industries are currently undermined by illegal file sharing and measures to address it are due.

Reply from my MP about Prof Nutt & Cannabis

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Reply to the letter I previously sent to my MP arrived today:

Thank you for your email about Professor Nutt. I apologise for not replying sooner. I was interested to hear your view on this important matter but I am afraid that we disagree on this issue.

Professor Nutt’s abilities as a scientist and his qualification to offer advice on drugs policy are not in doubt but as the principle advisor to the Home Office, his role was to give advice and not to comment on Government policy. Scientific advice offered to Government is published for all to see and it is clear that Professor Nutt’s views differed from the Government. However, the media interviews conducted by Professor Nutt amounted to a campaign against Government policy and clearly made his position untenable.

More pestering my MP - The Digital Economy Bill

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:24:00 +0000

Emily Thornberry

Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury

Hello Emily, sorry to have to bother you again.

I read with interest reports on the Digital Economy Bill which, it would appear, now contains Mandelson’s attempts to remove the presumption of innocence AND parliamentary review in any issue deemed to be important to big media companies.

Since I joined the Pirate Party the other week, I thought I’d forward you their questions to Mandelson in the hope you could ensure they’re asked should he decide to bother looking for the house’s opinion on the matter.

After The War On Drugs - Blueprint For Regulation

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:55:34 +0000

via tdpf.org.uk

The Transform Drug Policy Foundation has published it’s new book “After The War On Drugs, Blueprint For Regulation”, more than 200 pages of specific and useful suggestions for achieving some regulatory control over our chaotic and gangster-run drug markets.

Broadly, it’s an attempt to answer prohibitionist questioning of exactly what a post-drug-war world would look like. They expect and fear chaos, streets full of violent drug-crazed kids, usage of drugs sky-rocketing with hospitals full of addicted vegetables.

Pirate Party Call To Arms

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:09:35 +0000

I wrote a song, and Graham used naughty images he didn’t get the copyright cleared for to make this video for it.

It’s about Pirate Party politics. And revolution.

My New Song - Pirate Party Call To Arms

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:59:00 +0000

Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November. Copyright, treason, and plot.

Lord Mandelson proposes a Three Strikes rule, allowing industry to disconnect entire families though accusing them three times of copyright infringement. No judge. No Jury. No judicial oversight.

This is just the latest example of the over-extension of copyright laws.

The Pirate Party wants to retract over extended copyright laws, reduce the database state and end the surveillance society.

Open Letter to my MP on David Nutt's sacking etc.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:20:00 +0000

An open letter to my MP on the David Nutt Sack affair.

Emily Thornberry

Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury

Morning Emily,

Since it’s all hitting the news again, thought I’d drop you a line to remind you how badly you are representing me, and pretty much everyone I know, on the issue of the prohibition of some drugs.

The government’s chief advisor, Professor David Nutt, pointed out truthfully that many of the drugs which are prohibited are not the most dangerous recreational drugs around. That many of them are less dangerous than other unprohibited activities like Horse Riding, Mountain Climbing, Driving etc.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:32:38 +0000

via bbc.co.uk

George Orwell wrote the subject line. It seems that, as I tweeted yesterday, telling the truth has kicked up controversy.

That Nutt has been fired is surprising mostly in that it’s come so late, I really expected him to be fired for his previous comments that Horse Riding and Ecstasy could even be compared in their risk, let alone compared leaving E as the least risky.

The truth is, of course, that the truth is unspeakable. The home office is entrenched and insists that there is a line between “policy” and “science advice”.

I'm A Pirate. Arrrr.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:08:00 +0000

So it seems that Three Strikes Laws are to hit Britain. Downloaders to get their internet all cut off.

No judicial oversight, no trial. Upon accusation by the big media companies, you’re guilty until proven innocent.

More: Group punishment. Daddy downloads, wife and kids get cut off too. Marvellous.

Prompted me to join The UK Pirate Party. See if we can’t wind back some of the database state, some of the surveillance society, some of the insanity of over-extended copyright monopolies.

Fractal Nature - A song I wrote

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:07:17 +0000

As much for the fun of making the video as the sad song.

The Cult Of Bob

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:04:57 +0000

I, (well Rev Priest) was interviewed for a student’s film project: The Cult Of Bob.

It was censored for a while coz she used songs what she shouldn’t have, but seems to be working again for now.

Blasphemy Challenge

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:02:20 +0000

Here’s my reply ot the Balsphemy Challenge, about “Bob” and the Church Of The Subgenius and sorry Syd. Sorry.

B3ta Images

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:57:54 +0000

Ah, the times that we had, when b3ta was even cooler than it still is now.

Exocortexlog

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Exocortex Log About

You see a detective on the TV and he’s interviewing all the suspects asking them what they were doing on the night of the murder a month ago last Tuesday night.

And on the TV, the suspects all know!

But most real people would barely have any clue. If you’re lucky it’d have been a night planned in your calendar, but mostly: Dunno. Watching TV maybe? No idea what show. Was I at the gym that night?

Index on Dalliance

Grapheneos

Age-gating social media, the rant

What is Social Media

Green Victory, Love, And War Again - Feb 2026

Diary

Bedroom

Loopy Love Love Love for St Valentine's Day

Back to Improv as the Robots get Lose - January 2026

Diary

Improv

Dec25 Newsletter - Bedroom Finished And Year Review

Diary

Bedroom

So Farewell Then 2025

Made Stuff

Made 11 Wordcloud Tarot shows.

Mastodon Archive To VimWiki

Building Bedroom Part Two & BitFest - Nov 2025

Diary

Building Bedroom

Wrist Recovery and Building Bedroom Part Two - Oct 2025

Diary

Bedroom Build

Building Bedroom Part One - Sep 2025

Diary

Fractured Wrist

A month on the sofa watching TV with a broken wrist - Aug 2025

Diary

Wrist

Campervan Conversion and breaking my wrist at a festival - Jul 2025

Me

Campervan Conversion

Gaza and Glasto and a stopped watch - June 2025

Me

The end of Time

Medical issues and Improv - May 2025

Me

Medical

Fascism, Local Elections, Trumponomics and Tariffs - April 2025

Me

New Cartoon Diary

Microcamper, Improv, and economic chaos - Mar 2025

Microcamper, Improv, and economic chaos - Mar 2025

Me

Camper

Birthday, Gigs, Feb 2025

Me

Playing a music gig

Come Play With Me - At The Judgement

A Whole New Era - Jan 2025

Me

Improv Restarts

Happy New Year - Dec 2024

Me

Broken Appliances

New President Guy, and Bluesky, and Sci-fi - November 2024

Fly In The Sky - Oct 2024

Building Bathrooms and Comedy/Music gigs - Sept 2024

Me

Building Bathrooms

Riots and Building Bathrooms - August 2024

Labour's New Country - Broken Bathroom - Assassination, riots, and resignation - July 2024

Me

Improv Show

Improv and New Observers cartoon during Election Month - Jun 2024

Me

Small World and elections and microsoft's spyware and improv - May 2024

Me

Projects & Politics - April 2024

Me

Politics

Sicknote Britain

Tarotdrome in cyberspace - March 2024

Me

Birds

Blind Leap - February 2024

Me

Life

Jan 2024 - Hermit, Hibernate and Build Something