Been playing Chess and doing Sudoku again. It’s the dark nights.

It’s back #DoddieAid 2025 - the cold and snow kept me on Zwift today.

Take part by signing up and doing some exercise!

Or donate to Team Scotland to help cure Motor Neuron Disease.

Or both. It’s good for you.

Happy New Year!

Completed the final 10k of the year. That’s at least one a month for a year. 395km distance covered over the year - the furthest so far.

All thanks to parkrun giving me some focus 18 months ago, and friends/family for company through all weathers.

2025 target: a half marathon, hopefully in April.

“Don’t criticise my jet interior. That hurts.”

— Siobhan ‘Shiv’ Roy, S4E6, Succession

📺 Succession

The protagonists in this ‘corporate family drama’ are uniformly unlikeable, both visceral and human - expertly written, cast, directed, and acted. Their stories set in an intimate, beautiful aesthetic; with the most exquisite pacing and accompanied by a sublime soundtrack.

Recommended.

Three bridges, from the train to Edinburgh

In selected cinemas…

NT Live: Vanya 🎬🎭

Incredible. Andrew Scott’s performance is sublime. Thank you, Uncle Vanya.

The titular uncle has regrets. If I have any it is that I did not see this in person.

Can’t help but be intrigued by what Humane and others are doing in trying to refine personal computing. Of course, Humane might not succeed with their science fiction inspired ai pin, or at all, but I see more companies embracing the ethos of their mission:

We believe in building innovative technology that feels familiar, natural, and human.

But for me, today, a more compelling, evolutionary product in this space is the Rabbit R1. With natural language processing and Playdate-esque whimsy in their hardware design. I just hope it’s as functional as it is cute.

Micro.blog bookshelves, but for music. With Discogs integration.

No idea what the Discogs API/restrictions look like - but would be interesting to see something in this space.

There is never enough time. The art is in the choices we make about how to spend whatever we have.

Live well. Make good choices.

Tuesday tunes: Freak Out! by The Mothers Of Invention 🎵

I am so far the only person I know that is not one extreme or the other when it comes to Frank Zappa. People tend to be zealots or indifferent. Me, I rock the middle ground. Freak Out! remains a favourite, however. Both of and before its time.

More human than human. Slàinte mhath!

Under electric skies

Apple’s iOS 17 Preview:

The new Journal app looks interesting, but from the limited demo it seems entirely local, with no sharing - unless I’ve missed something?

No one but you can access your journal.

With the integration with Shortcuts, and the potential for third party apps to contribute via the Journaling Suggestions API, all it needs is a little love for ActivityPub and it would be a powerful source for (micro-)blogging platforms like micro.blog.

When implementing humane gun laws is beyond your society’s ken, I suppose you can always try the Winnie the Pooh gambit. But maybe, just maybe, try a bit harder on the gun laws?

“Danger is scary, but our legendary friends Pooh and his crew are here to help us through,” reads one page.

— Winnie-the-Pooh book teaches kids to ‘run, hide, fight’ in a shooting, Washington Post

Scone Palace

Today I ate a scone in Scone.

Travel notes:

• jam first, then cream
• the use of both ‘sandwich’ and ‘palace’ demonstrate a degree of hubris
• lovely peacocks and grounds
• never realised how much I didn’t know about Douglas firs
• yet more evidence that Queen Victoria fair got about

Moot Hill, Scone Palace

Two theatre visits in one week:

• And by Charlotte Mclean
• Ane City

When will this extravagance end? Now. It will end now.

Once more unto the breach… I wonder if the Dundee Repertory Theatre offers a loyalty scheme?

Two nights at the theatre in one week, two young women from the eastern coast of Scotland telling their personal stories in ways that only they can. While And is intimate and minimalist, Ane City is loud and luscious. Though I wonder if both had attended each other’s performances if they might not have spotted a kinship.

Ane City is a coming of age story set against a backdrop of the hometown that protagonist Tay (Taylor Dyson) has so desperately tried to escape. Tay confronts her family, friends, and past - and a local taxi driver - through monologue, poetry, and song. With cameo appearances from poetic royalty and royal royalty.

Her feelings are complex, much like her Dundee home - simultaneously infamous for the depravation-driven high rates of teenage pregnancy and drug deaths, and yet appearing in Lonely Planet’s Best in Europe top 10 places to visit in 2018 with significant recent inward investment from the likes of the V&A and Eden Project. Seemingly contradictory sides of ane city.

Verdict?

Gloriously funny. Bluntly introspective. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

More info: Ane City by Elfie Picket Theatre