Feeling uplifted and inspired after a day exploring adjacent possibilities around the web and technology at Material 2018. Just what the doctor ordered.
Notes
🚨 I’ve redesigned my website! Highlights include use of CSS Grid and Custom Properties, support for dark colour schemes and a service worker for offline reading. @eleven_ty powered and @netlify hosted. And so much more. Phew!
I’m a huge fan of Inside No. 9, but just watched the ‘live’ episode on iPlayer and feeling underwhelmed. It all seemed a bit obvious, with the story spoon fed to the audience and relying too heavily on pre-recorded material. Maybe it worked better on the night?
Last week: food poisoning/flu/virus.
This week: toothache and a root canal.
Eating a jacket potato, which given the last few bedridden days, is quite an achievement.
The Good Place is a quirky comedy that continually reinvents itself while keeping ethics and moral philosophy at its heart. It’s worth your time… although perhaps not an entire Sunday.
In what has become something of a tradition, preparing myself for re-entry into Britain with a final taste of Europe: a Belgian waffle and a can of Jupiler.
Channel 4’s The Circle has been my guilty pleasure over the last three weeks. Finally, a reality show with funny, genuine and endearing contestants. Hard pressed to pick a favourite from the final four. #FactsAreFacts
Have only spent part of the morning exploring its center and still have so much to see, but Hamburg ist sehr schön! This is absolutely my kinda city.
Travels between Germany and Denmark have seen me spend an inordinate amount of time on DSB’s IC3/IR4, a train that combines the comfort of British Rail’s Class 442 ‘Wessex Electrics’ with the aesthetic of Star Trek and the absurdity of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
At #confront18, @p_p_hamilton is speaking my language: about resisting the cult of the individual and building products that reflect the hero’s journey to the exclusion of others, and about having a point of view that challenges Californian ideas about society and technology. 👍🏻💯
On a train. On a ferry. 🚅⛴
And so ends two-weeks of exploration in Berlin. My thanks goes to @sjors, @mryash, @klick_ass, @paulozoom, @thismortalmagic and many others for making me feel so welcome, and giving me the lowdown on the city. Next stop: Malmö!
If nothing else, this evening has served as a welcome reminder that it pays to be outgoing and friendly, and that I can thrive whenever pushed to be so. To hell with comfort zones!
Heading to Berlin. See you there?
I rarely have anything good to say about Uber, but thanks to this uncharacteristically restrained work from Wolff Olins, I have to admit that I find their latest rebrand to be damn near perfect. Perhaps finally there are some adults in the room.
So happy to see @loobylu's Small Batch List make its way into my inbox again after a prolonged hiatus.
A familiar story: England take an early lead only to eventually lose. Heightened expectations following this summer’s World Cup campaign now restored to more realistic levels.
On the occasion of my brother’s wedding anniversary, wishing my eldest niece Maria a happy 8th birthday, and welcoming to the world my fourth niece (fourth!), Emily. Phew!
Google decries URLs as being confusing and untrustworthy. Meanwhile, Google obfuscates URLs via AMP, and appends them with UTM codes for tracking. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Visiting Brixton has been a revelation! Thanks go to @aajhiggs for introducing me to its many gastronomic delights.
It’s mid-afternoon, and yet only now do I realise that today is in fact Thursday, not Friday. 😳