Like Mushrooms After Rain

7 minutes
thejaymo.net Blog header post 161

This required attending to the moment “Now’, reminding me how much we live not present, here, but absent, lost in past or future – thought, desires and fear. But isn’t that reality? We need to look and see.

Mystic Approaches, John Butler, 2012

Bringing the quote’s back at the beginning of the weeknotes. Haven’t been doing them for about a year. On reflection thats a great shame. For various reasons I was going though tags on the blog and found the quotes really interesting to see what I posted on what week, in the context of what was going on in my life at the time.


This Is the End of Something But It’s Not the End of You.

Moving my workflow from writing essays and notes to myself (an audience of one) into the blog still continues to pay dividends. There are a lot of things in the drafts right now, each one moving though versions and revisions. It feels very different writing into the blog with a mind to publish, rather than dump brain to page in a google doc and ‘having thoughts’.

Looking back though and reading some of the old posts I was reflecting on how these weeknotes have become a public/personal journal of sorts. Very different in tone from what I write in my diary. I’m glad I started writing them after I left he hell job. They have become an important part of my creative life. As I start doing more and posting more, the Saturday weeknotes will be the stong beat in the week things orbit around.

Chatting this week Gordon White told me to “Go and fly your full freak flaf”. (Typo deliberately left in because its funny)

TBH this is something he’s been telling me since I got absolutely shitfaced with him in Fitzrovia the day we first met and I ‘won’ my interview at hell job I mention leaving above. It’s basically a perennial topic of conversation when ever we meet. On the farm last year, and earlier this year. It’s probably time I did. The years of ‘having thoughts’ means theres .. a lot .. of material that could potentially get surfaced from historical Jaymo.


The blogging resurgence seems to be continuing at speed. Old blogs in my RSS reader have sprung back to life this summer, I’ve found new ones and long dormant newsletters seem to be rebooting inside gated platforms like mushrooms after rain.

Given the state of the world, having a blog seems more sensible than ever. Not only to haul those important thoughts out of the private social seas on to dry land of your own Blogging Island. Safe. Permanent. Secure. But also as a space to express your thoughts in more than 240 characters as the bombs begin to rain down around us.

One of my favourite musicians Adam Gnade has a book title This Is the End of Something But It’s Not the End of You.

The title absolutely nails our current moment. Heres some praise for the book if your interested:

“Adam Gnade saves lives. His books are life preservers, letters from future selves that tell you, it’ll be okay, I promise. In This Is the End of Something But It’s Not the End of You, Gnade tunnels through spitfire stories of his hometowns, of friends lost in the headlights of trucks, of fever dreams written in missives on the backs of postcards. This is reportage from a hot-headed angel holding on for dear life to the remote islands that sustain him, those echoes of voices inside his gut that relentlessly holler hope over the waves.” —Jasmine Dreame Wagner, author of On a Clear Day

You may remember me mentioning that I’m in a band. Lockdown disrupted the EP recording for obvious reasons. Instead, we are currently writing and recording new material from home indiependently, working in google drive and email. We should have a couple of tracks out in October. I’m recording the first bass line sketch for a song tonight.

Permanently Moved

Captain Swing

Mechanical Threshing Machines, Poor Harvests, The July Revolution, Captain Swing’s Letters, The Poor Law, And A Disaster For The Working Class.

I haven’t made OTD/History episode for a while. They were a staple of the show as I was finding my feet back in season 1. This episode was made in 3hrs. I probably could have made it in 1h as usual, but I think it’s better for the extra editing passes that it received.

Update From The Island

I haven’t played Animal Crossing at all this week. The only time I logged in, I did a bit of fishing and then hung out with Louie whilst he was working out in his pinny at home. lol

I might re-name this section to ‘Playing’ or something like it. I just bought both Metro 20xx games on Switch. I am looking forward to diving in. In addition, Wasteland 3 just came out on PC yesterday and I’m entering the wasteland tonight!

I also have Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr to play. I bought it at the beginning of lockdown and never booted it up.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

Got an announcement to post next week!

With your support I upgraded my blog to managed hosting and spent Thursday and Friday updating the blogs theme to use one thats ‘block editor first’. Theres quite a bit of weirdness on display if you are reading this on the site right now, images not fitting in boxes etc. I’m also having cacheing issues which I’ve resolved by removing WP-Rocket for the time being. This also has the knock on effect of not having any Idea until I post this how the videos will display for email subscribers. Cest La vie

I’m recording the pilot episode of a new webshow next week. Looking forward to that! lol

I have a post I want to publish next week, but I’m going to be referencing my own work, so I’m going to be posting transcripts to two or three old episodes tomorrow.
Apologies upfront for the spam.

Dipping the Stacks

A lot of great dips this week. Bumper crop:

NuScale Power Makes History as the First Ever Small Modular Reactor to Receive U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Design Approval | NuScale Power

The Gamification of Games — Real Life

The Case for New Green Energy Units – Bloomberg

If Privacy Dies in VR, It Dies in Real Life | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Why Can’t You Listen to Aaliyah? Ask Her Uncle | Complex

The Grand Old Meltdown – POLITICO

Where Do Viruses Come From? — DEMYSTIFYING SCIENCE

“Hannity Has Said to Me More Than Once, ‘He’s Crazy’”: Fox News Staffers Feel Trapped in the Trump Cult | Vanity Fair

Reading

I almost bought an Interlinear Bible last night that was 100 quid. 0_____o
Glad I didn’t. Might ask for it for Christmas.

I ordered this book early into lockdown and it only arrived today. I can’t wait to read it!

I discovered John Butler via Huw Lemmey, who sent me one of his Youtube videos. He is a remarkable man. Future Jay Goals.

John Butler – How to meditate [16.7k Views]

Speaking of future Jay. I’m not sure when he’s going to be able to read all the books he’s got. I keep buying them. I keep getting sent them. Other people buy them for me. SO MANY. I’m aware this is an extremely privileged position / problem to be having.

*umberto eco gif* Everybody know, you can’t read all da books

Music

The new Sevdaliza album is transcendent (full album embedded below). I’ve listened to it 3 times already today. I’m thinking of starting a book/music review podcast with your support. This is one for that list once I’ve digested it a bit more. Might be the tentative album of the year?

Remember Kids:


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  1. […] more for me than for you. Blogs are the perfect pace to express your thoughts in more than 240 characters as the bombs begin to rain…. In a few years I’ll presumably look at this post and think ‘what was I […]

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