Complimentary Webzine? | Weeknotes

In the last 6 moths or so, I’ve found that I no longer think of individual blogs as atomised single bits of content here on my blog – a weeknote, a podcast, or whatever. They are all just entries in to different blog categories. I know have over 500+ posts on here, and the organisation of it all is something that is front of mind.

Archives here growing here week by week, and with by current blog theme abandoned by its creator, my thoughts are turning towards a big blog redesign. WordPress 6.2 is out soon and it’s going to be a total game change for home gamers and amateur web designers. I can see a lot of wordpress agencies out there… shitting themselves. I can also see a lot of people moving away from Squarespace and wix – which will be a major win for open source web.

This webdomain already celebrated it’s 10th birthday back in 2019. Thinking about a redesign means thinking about what should thejaymo.net could or should be.

Ultimately, I’m a child of Geocities and this site is my homepage on the Internet. But given the diversity of topics, my interest and types of things I post here … perhaps I should start thinking of my blog not as a digital garden, or a newsletter with missives but as a kind magazine? A web zine?

Maybe I’m a one person media node – as the greatest TV show character of all time once said.

If this site is in fact a webzine, then I’ll need to lean in to post categorisation and would need a design that displays and surfaces everything I’ve written ‘upon a theme’ nicely. It’s not just a single blogpost that should be of interest but everything that i’ve written on the subject. All my posts sit inside a web of self referential links. A webzine would compliment my podcast, my *actual zine*, my other podcast and other things I want to do around here.

I’m going to put some thought into over the next month or so. Actually doing the design is going to be a *nightmare* however. LOL

---

There’ll be no weeknotes next week as I’m going on holiday. There may or may not be a podcast either – we’ll see – I have a draft but don’t have that much time to edit and record it.

---

Permanently Moved

---

Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Been working on a proposal / presentation with some folks
• Recorded another episode of my new podcast!
• Found a whole bunch of notes I’d forgotten I’d written during lockdown – very useful
• Working on my book pitch (finally)
• Prepping for holiday(!) next week

Terminal Access

Huw Lemmy published an absolutely incredible essay this week. A public, yet introspective ‘coming to terms’, written alone on a hike after a psychotherapeutic MDMA session with his therapist.

Wayne recently flew to New Zealand and buried himself alive in a suit of armour owned by Richard Taylor – the founder of the Wētā Workshop – and wrote about it. Why? You’ll have to read his blog post.

I really enjoyed this weeks episode of Near Future Laboratory podcast with Will Richardson. They discussed The Big Questions Institute, and the ebook he and his co-founder created called ‘One Foot In The Future‘. (I was on NFL podcast a while back)

Dipping the Stacks

New Lives in the City: How Taleban have experienced life in Kabul – Afghanistan Analysts Network

In our ministry, there’s little work for me to do. Therefore, I spend most of my time on Twitter. We’re connected to speedy Wi-Fi and internet. Many mujahedin, including me, are addicted to the internet, especially Twitter.

The Case For Digital Minimalism – by Talia Barnes

Overcoming Bias : Why Is Everyone So Boring?

I see roughly three typical public stances: boring, lively, or outraged. Either you act boring, so the bandits will ignore you, you act lively, and invite bandit attacks, or you act outraged, and play a bandit yourself.

Don’t Let Disney Monopolize A.I.-Generated Art

The indie artists suing Stable Diffusion may not realize it, but they’re doing the Mouse’s dirty work.

I’m Leaving Twitter | Xenodike

I don’t have anything to say; social media fandom is so fucking boring

Reading

I finished reading Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities, by John Warner a fascinating book about the contemporary education system and the problems of ‘legibility’. In particular enjoyed the chapters on the writing exercise he’s developed for students.

I also *finally* finished reading How to Read a Book by M. J. Adler what a classic. inspired actually

I listened to Khârn: Eater of Worlds by Anthony Reynolds. Another 40k audiobook I’ve inhaled in a matter of days. It was a good character portrait of one settings most famous characters.

I finally finished The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer by Jane Smiley. I think thats it for me now on history of computing books. At least for a while.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Meditations on Crime – Meditations on Crime

I’ve been listening to Meditations on Crime this week. I’m in two minds about it. As a project lead by Paul Simon’s son – Harper Simon. This breaks Foster’s law: ‘Unless you’re Jesus – If I’ve heard of your da I don’t need to hear from you’.

The album has 38 collaborators on it and is a sort of 60’s revival psych project mixed with post punk. All the tracks are very political and many of the compositions come alive when you follow the lyrics.

Remember Kids: