Now

this page is inspired by derek sivers' /now.

last updated 1 week, 3 days ago

(right here, right) now

• keeping up the newsletter, i was thinking of cranking up to twice a month but not entirely sure why, so gonna stick to monthly for a bit longer!
• steamed past 100 days of journaling on 750 words!!!!!! i've been journaling on and off since 2012 so this is monumental for me. i put it down to not forcing myself to pick a firm slot, as firm slots can be missed and forgotten! i do write it before midnight each day but that's the only official constraint; i also try to not get distracted and to write it as quick as possible (sub 20 minutes).
• i am feeling different (better!) about writing in general doing the journaling. i think i need to make a daily time goal for interacting with my notes, novel idea or youtube scripts, and it's definitely OR not AND, get behind me satan.
• making community building moves in my city, trying to do more face to face things and see how i feel!
• working on recording youtube videos now that the watch time hours requirement for monetisation is going up to 8000 hours on 1st february 2027! getting my skates on to see if i can beat the deadline!
• reading a bunch, wondering if i should put some books thoughts on this blog?

previously...

june and july 2026

• posted my first newsletter using the melonland post office. gonna try and stick to monthly and not put too much pressure on it, lol.
• still struggling with blogging but now i have my personal curriculum set out i'm hoping to post some related blog posts each month!
• been diary-journaling (as opposed to planning-journaling, which i do in capacities) with 750 words and up to 40 days if i complete today which feels wild! i also am still enjoying it; last time i had a long-ish streak was a few years ago and i feel like i am much more chill about it this go round. i'm also traditionally not a streak girly, but 750 words lets you make up a streak if you write double the day after a missed day, so it feels a lot more mentally gentle to me!
• i did an "ask me anything" thing on social media recently and someone asked if i would do any workshops about coming off big tech, and i have a lot of feelings about it AND think it would be best served by an ongoing group, so feel free to reach out if that kind of thing sounds of interest to you.

april and may 2026

• lol, still off substack and using the melonland post office whenever i get my act together, back onto trying to make Youtube videos. taking it all much less seriously. if i'm having fun and/or making stuff i think is valuable that's what matters, and i should stop tying myself in knots about.
• i'm struggling a bit with blogging at the minute. i have been busy a few weeks in a row on sundays for [weeknotes](/weeknotes archive) but gonna try and do today's (25/04/2026) and see if i can get back into a rhythm with it. bearblog, the blogging platform i use, is considering wikilinks and if that happens I'll mash my notes usage into here and probably write a load more. suits my brain better. fingers crossed!
• doing a whole load of offline stuff at the moment i don't really want to talk about but is fun and good!
• am doing a lot of planning-type journalling and really enjoying it in capacities.
• still toying with ways of supporting people to support themselves with web stuff. maybe a thing to write about eventually!
• getting into ukulele without expectations of getting better is going well.
• i have coding project ideas: harpy, a reminders PWA, and a period tracking app using automerge android bindings (automerge is a CRDT/local-first sync engine).

february and march 2026

• it feels vaguely hypocritical to make tech content on the corporate web to me, so i have given up on the idea of a youtube channel again. i'm moving my newsletter to melonland and hope that this will all mean i feel less conflicted and write more? we shall see.
• i finally posted my longform thoughts about social media/what i thought about my "digital detox" as a blog post instead of making a video!
• i think i'll try and do a chunky blog post like that once a month?
• really enjoying writing more now I'm not in the confines of script world but I think I will try harder to think about Structure and Images and Headings as its probably a lot to navigate.
• i might make sewing videos, inspired by you, me and margot on youtube i realise you don't have to show in progress shots just because everyone else does! i also might do this on instagram, i could make a new blog but i haven't seen a sewing blog that wasn't on substack for a very long time, encourage me if you have one!
• thinking a lot about masters and PhDs and stuff again!
• thinking about writing books! and zines!
• on writing code, as i often say i need a project! i might reach out to some local community groups who might need website help?
• web doula-ing is still interesting to me, and i'm trying out some stuff with projects i have on the go.
• still reading a lot, and resolving to only talk about books when they're done being read on this blog!
• started using my notes site again!

December 2025 and January 2026

• finished alphabet superset!
• thinking about my creative outlets for next year. got two video essays I'm working on, have the interview/podcast idea, might go crawling back to substack (edit: i did), and will try and keep up regular blogging here. it's a lot but I'm trying to be gentle with myself in my goals.
• doing a digital detox for December (disconnect December? don't log in December?). as of 12th December I'm starting to find low brain juice moments and small shitty bits of time (waiting for something! on a bus!) the hardest to find something else to do with besides staring into space. maybe that's fine but it feels very boring in a non-generative way. I don't really believe in the power of boredom, I've been bored enough in my life.
• in terms of outside of work coding I'm wondering about formalising my 'web doula' idea; helping people birth their websites themselves is maybe a dramatic way to put it lol but I think it's a similar deal. if you've done anything similar I'd love to hear about it.
• might be time to crack on with the home gym! I will be so excited if this happens. for the gains!
• reading so much (for me) I might do a roundup at some point.

October & November 2025

• nearing the end of alphabet superset at long last! gearing up to write v at time of updating this page! will be really nice to write about anything i feel like, hopefully i don't immediately fall off!
• moved cities! ups and downs but feels like a good decision so far.
• changed video idea and still very slowly plugging away. this video is about wikipedia...
• sewing slowly.
• currently reading the undersea network.
• trying out qobuz for music streaming, it's missing some songs but like so? i need to check out its ethical credentials but glad to not be on youtube music.
• trying to be more social online and off, as ever my inbox/comments/guestbook/DMs are open.

August & September 2025

• feeling a lot better about writing at the exact moment of writing this, let's see if it lasts! the notes blog rides again, this time in append-mostly so i'm not futzing around moving stuff and worrying about where things should go. gonna try and write my newsletter on a fortnightly cadence, and hoping to finish alphabet superset by the end of the year. i believe in me!
• gearing up for my move of cities! probably in late august or early september.
• still working on the video about whether social media has to be shit, hopefully i will post it by the end of august, but we'll see, i'd honestly be happy if i released it by the end of the year 😭
• content crit discord is still around if anyone is interested! contact me

May, June, July 2025

• trying to trust the process and write more for its own sake. struggling with it a bit. still working on my talk for front end north 2025, newsletter eventually i guess, the technopaganism post(s), the video on leaving social media, and thinking of 'words that start with m' for the next alphabet superset post. suggestions please, preferably ones that aren't to do with machine learning.
• dropped the notes blog. better to have something in draft form or in finished for. the in-between is really confusing to navigate and leads to a lot of broken links.
• started working on a personal project in vue (i might swap to react still, but we'll see).
• need to finish things, get back to weeknotes and centre myself a bit.

February, March and April 2025 (oops)

• i've started a discord for content crit/feedback for things people are posting online; most of the people are techies so far, if you're interested in joining hmu?
• this blog, my works-in-progress/working with the garage door up/digital garden space and now newsletter are my focus!
• still working on the technopagan blog post series
• a bit stuck on my "recreational" coding focus; i have lost interest in the digital estates project a bit, might just be documentation or write a post about it. i'd like to contribute to ongoing projects too so will scout about and find some, hopefully.
• my next longform video is going to be about the social media exodus and what we do about it
• trying to read a bunch more this month and this year. love suggestions!
• also on the look out for more speaking and writing gigs, do be in touch

January 2025

• committing to this bear blog for the foreseeable and experimenting with collaborative other blogs elsewhere! i'll let you know when these efforts bear fruit :)
• working on a project about digital estates/death and dying online
• working on a post about how my technopagan beliefs/technomancy manifests itself, and somehow reading a bunch of books about atheist and spiritual ritual and tech as religion. might take a while
• still on going through the same courses as last month
• deciding what my first four short videos of the year will be about
• deciding what my first long video in ages will be about
• experimenting with video editing and desktop recording on mac

December 2024

• still writing, still researching, still unsure where to put these things now substack is dark sided, and also unsure i want a newsletter? slowly working it out
• going through 0de5, complete css, and an experimental async rust thing that is probably too hard for me.
• gonna create at least one thing of any size online a week for all of 2025.
• working on my 25 wishes for 2025
• trying to read more and consume more content in general (gasps from the audience) that actually feels fun, useful or fulfilling

November 2024

• still writing and researching for talks!
• still slowly going through 0de5
• daily single tarot draws to learn my deck
• learning design (would love suggestions here, I've heard of hack design though!) and getting really good at CSS for that end
• looking for origami courses and apps
• carrying on with alphabet superset and hopefully finishing by the end of the year!

September 2024

• writing talks about building better webs!!
• going through 0de5
• doing an iteration of active hope training
• writing a /ideas page 'cos of about ideas now
• learning sewing, origami and tarot
• writing about technopaganism

August 2024

• Focusing more on shorts video wise, since I'm trying to get outside of my current longform (writing) audience with this practice of making video. Hopefully any and all camera exposure will help me with shyness and editing!
• Started going through 0de5 as it felt very serendipitous that as soon as I was thinking about levelling up again I came across it!
• Started my digital garden but do need to actually tend it.
• Still thinking a lot about community and what the other options are besides closed/private communities (Discords, Slacks, Zulips) where people would feel free to say what they feel like and mean. Maybe private is the way to go but I worry about siloing information!

June & July 2024 (oops!)

• Hoping I'll finish my first YouTube video since my long break by the end of June. Hold me to it!
• Thinking a lot about community and what I want out of my online life. Read a great piece from Maggie Appleton and was reminded of old advice to start small when it comes to huge projects. Need to test my ideas. Hoping to put on some kind of event eventually but need to think more.
• I'm learning to embrace my feelings about research, writing and implementing. I want to get better at all of it, but I definitely go through phases where one is all I want to do, and I think that's okay.
• Looking forward to songwriting lessons that start soon, very exciting.
• Chess is going super slowly, I've been going to a chess club but really want to start dedicating a lot more time to it.
• Still working on my next integrity report, and deciding if I want to start a digital garden. I've been leaning into Capacities and wonder if me working with the garage door up would even be interesting to people. Let me know if it would!

May 2024

• Obsessively listening to my 'On Repeat' from Spotify (it's mostly Hozier) and wondering about competing streaming services, Bandcamp and all that's changed about it and whether we'll have an alternative that's good for artists any time in the near future (at least in terms of pay).
• Trying to create more; in video for Youtube, with words for this blog/substack (“I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.” A quote from Maya Angelou, the hope and the dream), with needle and thread for my body/people's eyes (I guess?), music with ukulele + voice and webby things with code!
• Reviewing my values with a Integrity Report at some point in the near future. My values at the minute are sustainability, joy, justice, experimentation, courage and rapport. Checking those are still my values basically, and if/how I've been adhering to them.
• Slowly trying to get back into exercise, mostly dumbbell exercises cos my gym is slightly too far away.
• Learning computer science stuff, we'll see how I go!
• Oh yeah; chessmaxxing is in full swing. I am not good yet.

Feel free to reach out!