🖋️ LongForm
Want to reduce the noice and just focus on things with a little more meat - the this category is for you. Like so much on this site we have a ‘WIP’ as i take some out - and put some in - but safe for at least starting in 2026.
💬 5 Reminders
It’s Saturday - so just sorting out things that I saved and never did anything with - but these 5 - I dunno - good reminders.
In case anyone is confused …
… or stupid.
A solid reminder that I need from time to time.
The idea behind this one often resurfaces in my mind (not the precise words mind), but I find the essence to be a good reminder of the importance of stepping away. It isn’t really what he is asking about - but still right.
He’s talking about WeWork and Uber.
🎥 Find Me Falling, 2024 - ★★★
Cute - ish … without Harry, wouldn’t have bothered. Been a while since I’d seen him … anywhere. Hallmark anyone?
What Is A High-performing System?
I thought I would ask ChatGPT 4o
A “High-performing System” refers to a well-organized and efficient framework or setup that consistently delivers optimal results. This concept can apply to various contexts, such as organizations, technology infrastructures, or even processes. Key characteristics of a high-performing system include:
- Efficiency: Resources, including time, energy, and materials, are used effectively, minimizing waste and maximizing output.
- Integration: Components or subsystems work together seamlessly, ensuring smooth operations and coordination.
- Reliability: The system consistently performs well under various conditions, maintaining a high standard of quality and dependability.
- Scalability: It can adapt to increasing demands or changing circumstances without a significant drop in performance.
- Innovation: The system incorporates the latest technologies and methodologies, staying ahead of the curve in its field.
- Adaptability: It can respond and adjust to new challenges, changes in the environment, or shifts in requirements quickly and effectively.
- Sustainability: The system maintains its performance over the long term, often incorporating eco-friendly or resource-conscious practices.
In essence, a high-performing system is about creating and maintaining a setup that maximizes productivity, efficiency, and quality, while being adaptable and sustainable.
🎥 2 Guns, 2013 - ★★★½
An older one. Couple o’ great action stars .. one of them a great actor .. but somehow the movie wasn’t great. Not bad, but not great.
You Can't Buy Snow Leopard via Apple.
Spoiler alert - I am talking about the book by Category Pirates, not Apple’s OSX.
I don’t recommend many business books .. in fact I don’t really recommend any, rather I recommend the authors, based on what I know, read and see them talking about. Christopher Lockhead is one such person and last week I recommended him again.
Email received this morning …
I tried buying Snow Leopard on Apple but only the audiobook is available.
I was more than a little surprised, but he’s not wrong. I even thought I’d sorted it ..by visiting the book on the 🔗 Category Pirates web site, see the link to ‘Apple Books’?
Yeah No. Apparently - click on that button and you are taken to Amazon.
Which is a good place to buy the hard copy - but this takes you to Kindle and sorry, no, not going to be doing that.
I wonder why no Apple Books? I was wondering whether it was the name - and its clash with an earlier OSX. But that was FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, and as mentioned above, the audio book is available.
Weird - right?
Fear not - I am on the case and if I get answers I will report back.
By the way - don’t try visiting that book page on a phone, or even the mini iPad - looks like there is something askew with the media settings for the site.
🎵 Nothing Absent At The Supermarket
Twenty Two Years Ago - give or take - my friend Bob told me to take a listen to an album he has just found called ‘In Abstentia’. Still at the top of my memory banks sees me sitting beside him at the back of some grey boring conference room in Sunnyvale listening to somebody droning on as he silently passed me his wired ear buds connected to his new iPod and watched me have my mind blown as I listened to …
🔗🎵 Blackest Eyes - Song by Porcupine Tree - Apple Music
He dropped me the MP3s that evening - and in turn they got moved to my iPod for my listening pleasure. That weekend I was up in San Francisco and did a detour to this store.
Yes ‘that’ specific one - it had served me well thought the 90s and though Amazon was beginning to creep into my world - Tower still held a special place for me - particularly for special music.
… and the rest is history - I have heard it all (ok - not ‘all’ - the dude is prolific), but I do have over FIFTY of his albums in CD format and seen him live in different formats maybe eight times across two continents.
All this as a backdrop to this morning’s trip to the Supermarket.
.. and to say that if anyone spotted me this morning in the Supermarket - smiling, taking my head, bouncing even … this is why. (Jax believes Wilson’s music is sad and makes her sad.) Me? Yes it is sad - but I am with Wilson on this
“I don’t tend to write songs about things that make me happy. I tend to write songs about things that make me angry or melancholic or sad. Those are the things that make me want to express or exercise something through my songwriting. There’s a lot of beauty to be found in sadness and melancholia."
💬 Steven Wilson
In no particular order - other than this is the order the tracks got played .. and Yes … Apple Music - because why wouldn’t you?
🔗🎵 The Watchmaker - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb) - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Permanating (Ewan Pearson Mix) - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Trains - Song by Porcupine Tree - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Sectarian - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Four Chords That Made a Million - Song by Porcupine Tree - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Like Dust I Have Cleared from My Eye - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 The Raven That Refused to Sing - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Grace for Drowning - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Index - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
Belle De Jour - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Postcard - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 PERSONAL SHOPPER - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music - featuring Elton John on ‘Shopping List’.
🔗🎵 Luminol - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🔗🎵 Deform to Form a Star - Song by Steven Wilson - Apple Music
🎥 The Sleepover, 2020 - ★★★
If you have run out of movies from the ‘Spy Kids’ franchise, well now you have one not from the franchise .. but that is pretty much the only reason to watch it .. with your kids/grandkids .. oh … and get ready for the question …
> If mom was a baddy and all her old gang are not in prison .. how did she swing being in Witness Protection?
The answer?
Don’t be persnickety .. it’s a movie.
🎥 The Foreigner, 2017 - ★★★½
On the whole, when I eventually get to them (7 years in this case) I do enjoy Jackie Chan movies. This was no exception. If you aren’t into Jackie Chan movies, this won’t change your mind.
🎈182/366 The Monkees Predicting ATS software THIRTY YEARS before it appeared.
A friend on LinkedIN recently made a comment and referenced a video clip in support of his argument, which truth be told, I can’t recall - but it definitely wasn’t about ‘ATS’.
🔗 📼 This is the video clip .. it’s a scene from the Monkees TV show - this particular one directed by Bob Rafelson, written by David Panich - who I had never heard of - but given the subject matter of the clip, was intrigued enough to look him up .. IMHO - serious writing chops.
All this to say that if you have EVER been on the wrong side of one of those bloody ‘ATS’ machines that sift resumes before any human gets to it - this clip will resonate. It is from 1966 Series 1, Episode 3. The reality of ATS in business kicked off THIRTY YEARS LATER.
🎥 The Bricklayer, 2023 - ★★★
Netflix doesn’t do the best movies .. but it they do seem to have a knack of pushing out better than average. Like this one.
🎈176/366 AGE - It Catches Up On You.
I read this today
in 🔗 Austin Kleon’s Newsletter.
Now let me be clear - I am not so old that I ever used one, BUT
I do know what it is and where it was used … and sadly I am old enough to have had a boss who did have such a thing on his desk.
I just looked up Austin on Wikipedia - we aren’t that many years apart … FTW.
LATER THOUGHT - In my younger years I was in the U.K. and Austin will have been in the U.S.A. (Clutching at Straws?)
Is This How You Get 'Silenced'?
Over in a more ‘private’ group there was a side discussion on Music … specifically .. ‘Country’ and someone had brought up Beyonce .. and well, time to throw in a comment …
Beyoncé does ‘Country’ and not one word about ‘cultural appropriation’ 🤪 no comment from this section of the Peanut Gallery … even Tay Tay had to break out of that genre. I will look up Garth’s contribution to the Muppets Multiverse.
Feeling that my strategically placed emoji was sufficient to indicate that there was a certain amount of playful humor going on. (Or so I thought.)
It took a few days for this reply (my bold)
I understand you were just making a comment, but I feel it is important to check your facts before making claims about cultural appropriation that may just be fuel for a false fire. ….
… and the writer went on about the contribution of black musicians to the genre " who have been unheard and unacknowledged, and who have contributed so much in largely unrecognized ways." .. etc etc, stuff anybody with a pulse would know .. and then went on about what they have done in ‘Country’.
… and .. what facts?
I resisted responding how the Beatles at the beginning and the Stones - almost forever - did exactly the same thing, as did Led Zeppelin - oh and Elvis. I KNOW - well documented ….
I elected not to respond at all. And instead became decidedly less vocal in there at least 😵💫)
Curious that back in April 🖇️ I had cause to write this. I didn’t highlight it at the time - but I wrote it in response to a different thread in this exact same group where I was accused of using tired and well worj sterotypes and tropes.
My approach is not to respond and ignore. Easy.
But - is there something else going on?
Thoughts?
Prompted to write all this because - well this reminded me …
🎥 Lift, 2024 - ★★★
Not totally bad .. but confused .. and definitely below expectations. Vincent was great. The rest .. meh.
🎈168/366 Guestbooks, Blogrolls, Reciprocity and Paying It Forward
Trying to tie it all together for the occasional visitor.
It all started with Guestbooks. ( 🖇️ I have one ) and yesterday I caught up on reciprocating and getting ahead of the curve. ✅
I then created a new page that is connected to and referenced from my guest book page - so that there is a quick check for those I have visited. 🖇️ You can find that here. - and anyone signing mine can move on to the next …
And then I added a new blogroll. If I sign your guestbook, I add your feed to my NetNewsWire and from there it appears on my 🖇️ ’Guestbook Blogroll’
Enjoy.
Image courtesy of ChatGPT 4o - prompt - “Guestbooks, Blogrolls, Reciprocity and Paying It Forward”
🎥 Safe House, 2012 - ★★★½
Somehow missed this in 2012 .. good cast, good director, good film .. and what a YOUNG Ryan’s Reynolds … it was only 12 years ago.
Worth a watch - though a relatively predictable story arc.
🎈165/366 🎵 Memories Moving To The Future
A Musical Box - no, not 🔗 🎵 that one - though in itself well worth a watch - Gabriel at his theatrical finest in 1974.
I happened to drift around some music videos on YouTube last night - and well - some of them just needed to be shared …
Starting with a couple from Robert Plant with the Shape Shifters
🔗 🎵 1 - Robert Plant at Austin City Limits
🔗 🎵 2 - Robert Plant at Austin City Limits
And Then …
Moving on to why Music has a problem. 9 minutes from Rick Beato - listen.
🔗 🎵 Rick Beato on Music created by AI - All AI generated tracks come from 🔗 Udio
Lets see how long it takes AI to do this …
All is not lost - except it might be because we have seen time and time again how the extraordinary is not always understood and often ignored.
🔗 🎵 Guthrie playing .. in The Hans Zimmer Show … just watch Zimmer’s face during this 2 minute solo …
Who the hell is Guthrie (apart from the finest living exponent of the guitar you will ever hear.)
🎥 Hit Man, 2023 - ★★★½
Not bad, not bad at all. Knew nothing about it going in, but all added up to a nice delivery beyond my expectations.