March 20, 2020

Music Ideas

I keep returning to the idea of music. Namely wanting to learn to play it, rather than passively absorbing it.

I used to play guitar, first classical, and then various styles of rhythm. However I don’t want to pickup a guitar again particularly. While it’s a popular instrument, for many good reasons, I fear I’d avoid getting a teacher and get stuck in the same not playing rut. I’ve contemplated trombone, but given my lips are frequently dry and chapped and the difficulty of noise levels that never progressed. Similarly double bass has come up. Not easy, and has limited scope away from groups. While I would want to play with others, double bass feels a little harder to not have to.

Piano is what I keep returning to. When we’ve got some more space to have one (we’re planning a move soon) I think I’ll be looking for a teacher and start that journey. Like guitar, the piano has the advantage, and disadvantage, of breadth of style. I’m not sure I have a definitive direction to go in. Most likely a mix of jazz, classical, and general tunes. I think the jazz end is what interests me most, so I’ll aim to find a teacher that can go in that direction, although I imagine the start will be more the other styles.

Music

March 13, 2020

Photo Klassik International: Issue 2019.IV

I’d forgotten this was due, and had a rather pleasant surprise when it turned up. It has, however, taken me a long while to get through it. No reason other than too many alternatives to read. That makes the review a little tricky, I’ve tried to take a run back through and work out what I most enjoyed at the time, what stuck in my mind, but it will be a very short affair.

• Bruce Barnbaum’s article on “Understanding Light” is as fascinating and enlightening as his previous essays. So far everything of his has been well worth reading.
• The article on Ilford’s recent growth by Christopher Osborne was a fascinating view of the company, and how it’s coped with the changing market place.
• Christopher Schmidtke’s view on “Collecting Photobooks and the Art of Storytelling” chimed with my views that I need to spend less on gear and more on photobooks and film, and work out how to tell stories.

I look forward to the next one (I’ll have to check if I need to renew or not), and will try to read it a little quicker.

Photography Books Magazines Review

March 6, 2020

Factfulness (short review)

I’ve just finished Factfulness. In short, it was excellent, informative and thought provoking.

It made me question assumptions and seek the fact based truth more. In future I’ll be trying to reject the gut instinct and wait for proof. The world seems to be moving away from the rationality of actually basing things on reality (“post-truth” and “anti-expert” stylings). I think this book proves why we shouldn’t descend into that madness of trusting our prejudices rather than the facts.

I’m pretty much thinking this book should be mandatory reading for everyone. Something I like that is related and gives a regular dose of optimism is Beautiful News, I’d recommend checking it out (and subscribing to it). I view it as a way to develop better assumptions about the world.

Book Review

February 28, 2020

Juggling

Someone in work brought in some juggling balls and left them in the kitchen, as they wanted to learn to juggle. This prompted me to spend all my tea brewing time for the past few weeks learning/remember how to juggle. I’ve just about got to a 3-ball cascade with some reliability.

There’s a similar satisfaction to the Rubik’s Cube in this, something physical that requires concentration. The evidential improvement is also satisfying.

Having learnt a basic cascade I’m not sure what the next step is in the complexity scale. Some simple over-the-top / juggling tennis type things by the looks of it. However I suspect to start with just getting better at the basics is sensible. This is inspiring me to buy some balls for home as well, and carry on learning there, as well as the office.

I’m definitely enjoying the physical skills I’ve been pursuing of late. I suspect it’s something that has been lacking for me (and many others) in recent times. I’m not sure how this will develop, but I suspect I’ll be contemplating more of these, and less of the sitting, thinking, computer based activities.

Juggling

February 21, 2020

Rubik’s cube

Inspired by Austin Kleon I’ve been learning to solve a rubik cube. So far I’ve progressed from nothing to 3–4 minutes in a week or so of effort. It’s very enjoyable, and as the post says, it is nice to have a solvable problem, moreover one involving mechanical manipulation.

I followed The Wired guide to solving (also on Youtube) to learn to solve the cube. I’ve found the early stages of a solve fairly straightforward. However I still forget the algorithms for the later steps, swapping L and L’ etc, fairly often. That means restarting, but when I get it right it’s very satisfying.

No doubt there’s a rabbit hole of methods and speed solving I could go down. But until the method I know is embedded, and I’ve got the time down, that’s not in my thoughts.

I’d recommend it to everyone. Not least as I’m finding solvable problems are good for my brain state. There’s something satisfying of turning randomness into order, and knowing at the start it is possible.

Rubik's Cube Problem Solving

February 14, 2020

Culinary Repertoire Update (2)

I thought it was time for another update (following Culinary Repertoire and Culinary Repertoire Update).

I was planning to spend some time developing Panna Cotta and Pyttipanna. I’ve made the first a few times, with some success. It’s sort of a tricky one to make, the first time was a rather runny disaster, better gelatin made later attempts work. With that sorted it’s really a quite a tasty and easy dessert. I managed Pyttipanna maybe once, but it’s something I’ve done before, not a huge success on developing it though.

Next couple of dishes I think I’m going to try and work on are:

• A simple & quick pasta dish (possibly including home-made pasta)
• A fish dish of some form.

These are even looser than previously, as I think the general areas with some exploration mean I’m more likely to explore.

Cooking