Apps Giving the Bear a hug I've been paying and using Bear for years now. I much prefer the interface design to the default Apple Notes app (plus my pal Vic does all the illustration work for Bear which is class). Though I have been using it, I don't think I'
Photo Journal Titanic Exhibition, Leeds I rarely get sucked into interacting with ads on the likes of Facebook or Instagram but some time last year, I got an ad for the Titanic Exhibition which was going to be at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Our eldest has taken an interest in the Titanic in recent
Social Media What to do about social media? For the last day or so, my feeds have been awash with very valid criticism of the inauguration and that salute. But after leaving Twitter, places like Bluesky felt like a breath of fresh air. People were talking about other stuff again. It wasn't politics every other post.
2024 Reading Challenge December 2024 books I feel like I finished strong in December. Those who've been following all year will know I've had a few months where only 2 or 3 books were read. I feel I should point out that two of these books are very short reads but maybe
Photography First thoughts on the Camp Snap Camera Back in 2023, I came across the Camp Snap Camera and wrote a blog post about whether it'd be a viable alternative to using my iPhone camera all the time. Well, this Christmas I took the plunge and asked for one as a gift so I thought I&
Games Surprisingly poor Nintendo experience... For better or worse, we bit the bullet in 2024 and got our kids each a Nintendo Switch Lite for their birthdays. I have the app on my phone which allows me to set daily time limits, disable capabilities around interacting with people online etc. Those aspects have been working
2024 Reading Challenge November 2024 books Well this fell a little short of my prediction but nevermind. I did read more comics but they were short ones which I don't log in Goodreads so they don't appear here. I'm also reading a bunch of different books at once so progress
Personal Goodbye, Twitter In December 2006, I heard about this new thing called Twitter. I had no idea what it was but all my web designer and developer friends were joining so I created my account and got on with tweeting about what I was eating for lunch. Back then, it really was
Journal Winter is officially here I can't remember the last time we had first frost and first snow happen on the same day, if it's even happened at all in my lifetime.
2024 Reading Challenge October 2024 books I made a bit more of a conscious effort to read a bit more in October. Not exactly challenging reads, most were "read in one sitting" kind of books but there was still a lot to enjoy. I think this might be the first month entirely made up
2024 Reading Challenge September 2024 books Another terrible month for reading. I remarked on my August post that my free time has been taken up with comic work and looking back over the year, that definitely rings true. The first half of the year, my comic work was scatty and inconsistent whereas my reading was very
2024 Reading Challenge August 2024 books I'm getting worse with these updates. My general mood for blogging has waned a bit these last couple of months. The colder, duller weather usually kicks me into a more creative gear so perhaps more posts will come between now and New Year. My reading has been suffering
23 minutes of Charles Schulz This video was shared by Simon Russell on the Awesome Comics Podcast Slack group the other day and I thought I'd just drop it here. I always love watching artists work and enjoy hearing Schulz's thoughts as he's working.
Photo Journal What a bank holiday... We've been looking forward to this weekend for about 6 months. When Blink-182 announced they were headlining Leeds Festival, there was no way I was going to miss it, I'd yet to see them live despite them being my favourite band and since our eldest has
2024 Reading Challenge July 2024 books Just realised I've not yet posted last month's update. Had a lot going on so far this month so there might not even be any finished books in August! Ellerbisms, Marc Ellerby I first came across this book about 5 years ago when my buddy Xander
Digital Minimalism Digital Minimalism (part 3) Another month on since I last wrote about this topic and I think I might have found my overall balance with my digital habits. Last month I removed Instagram completely from my phone and shortly after realised the desktop app is very limited in its functionality so I've
Photo Journal Coffee break (in pictures) Today the Sun is shining properly for the first time in weeks so when it came time for my morning coffee, I took the opportunity to sit in the garden. As soon as I sat down, I heard the squeaking meows of our cat. I looked up and she'
Music Air, 26th June 2024 Towards the back-end of last week, I was somewhat sideswiped by Woody's death on Thursday so I figured I'd wait a full week to put together the following post. The night before Woody passed, we ("we" being myself, Lu, my brother, Jamie, and friend,
Personal Woody, 2009-2024 It was a cold dark evening in early 2010. Lu and I had only been in our first house for a couple of months when we were heading over to Mirfield to look at some kittens. We got there and the living room had a bunch of little furballs prancing
Reading June 2024 books Not sure if it's the heat which (finally) arrived or what but it's been a slow month for finishing books in June, particularly the latter half. I've started a few books this month so I have been reading but they'll creep over
Digital Minimalism Digital Minimalism (part 2) It's been a couple of weeks since I kicked off my Digital Minimalism changes so I thought I'd post a quick update to check-in with where I'm at. Straight out of the gate, I've noticed a reduction (though not a complete eradication,
Music Trail songs Just a quick Friday morning post to share a couple of albums I've been listening to this week. I discovered Cory Wong fairly recently on YouTube with some of his live music and a few days ago I started going back through his discography on Spotify and these
Getting on top of things Over the last year or so, I've been relying less and less on social media as a place where I find stuff to read. I've whittled my sources down to a few places: * RSS with blogs I find interesting * Pocket to "read later" * Substack
Personal 2024 goals - 6 months in... Back in January I wrote down a few goals to hit this year and as we're almost in the middle of June, that's near enough halfway through the year. Goal recap I know I linked to the original post above but if you happened to skip
Personal Digital Minimalism On the day I wrote down my thoughts about maybe ditching social media, I decided to buy a book I'd had on my wishlist for a long time, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. The book arrived the following day and within 24 hours of its arrival, I was
