Month: September 2025

Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_%26_Dixon

Mason & Dixon is a postmodernist novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon, published in 1997. It presents a fictionalized account of the collaboration between Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in the Dutch Cape Colony, Saint Helena, Great Britain and along the Mason-Dixon line in British North America on the eve of the Revolutionary War in the United States.

The novel, written in a style based on late-18th-century English,[2] is a frame narrative told from the focal point of Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke, a clergyman of dubious orthodoxy who, on a cold December evening in 1786,[3] attempts to entertain and divert his extended family (partly for amusement, and partly to keep his coveted status as a guest in the house) by telling a tall tale version of Mason and Dixon’s biographies (claiming to have accompanied Mason and Dixon throughout their journeys).

Mason & Dixon – Wikipedia by Mason & Dixon – Wikipedia

Thomas Pynchon’s novel Mason & Dixon explores ideas of history, space and knowledge through the lives of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. I wrote a longer post here.

Continue reading “đź“š Mason & Dixon (Thomas Pynchon)”

Bookmarked https://code.cog.dog/paywalljumper/ (code.cog.dog)

Do you tire of shared links to articles shared from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, the Bumtown Home News that you cannot read because of their paywall that blocks an article after you bit into a paragraph? This bookmarklet lets you leap over that hurdle, and read content ad/content free via archive.today

Paywall Jumper Bookmarklet by Alan Levine

Bookmarked Sheets Tip 358: What do you think happens with this formula? (ckarchive.com)

So it turns out you can use comparison operators (less than “<” and more than “>”) with text strings!

For example, =”A”<=”B” outputs TRUE because the A is before B in the alphabet.

(One way to understand this is to convert the letters to their decimal unicode characters and determine which is bigger or smaller. The unicode character for “A” is 65 in decimal terms. “B” is 66, etc.)

Source: Sheets Tip #358: Alphabet Comparison Trick by Ben Collins

Another reminder that it is all just 1’s and 0’s. Collins combines it with an IF to demonstrate a variable on the SWITCH formula.

 

Listened https://youtu.be/UCantJzv05k from youtu.be

http://KEXP.ORG presents Tropical Fuck Storm performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded July 11, 2025.

Tropical Fuck Storm – Full Performance (Live on KEXP) – YouTube

What a performance and then the short interview afterwards. Would love to read Gareth Liddiard’s memoir, but I doubt it’d ever get written.

I once had a colleague from Canada who spoke about ice jams, where ice would build up in a river at a particular point, causing the water to build up and flood.

Ice jams occur when the ice that is drifting down-current in a river comes to a stop, for instance, at a river bend, when it contacts the river bed in a shallow area, or against bridge piers. Doing so increases the resistance to flow, thereby inducing an increase in water level upstream of the jam (referred to as backwater). Ice jams are thus a main cause for flooding during the winter. In addition, when the jam is released, depending on the conditions under which this happens, the amount of water that was retained behind the jam can also lead to flooding downstream of where the jam occurred. Ice jam floods are generally less predictable and can also be faster than open-water floods.

Source: Ice Jams (Wikipedia)

I feel like we have the same thing happening at work where we have become single point sensitive and there are a whole lot of tasks building up. Although it is stated “don’t be a blocker”, it is one thing to identify problems and recommend proposals, beyond that it is often beyond control with complex problems. Associated with this, I wonder if in technology too much time is spent focusing on the what not the why, the technology not the habit?

At home, we have again been balancing things. Cooking. Pick-ups. Appointments. Commitments. This was all brought to ahead when there was an issue with the trains that highlighted how fragile everything is.

On other matters, we met our new nephew. Was the first child I have held since my own children. Not sure why, but it felt strange.

With regards to jogging, I am still struggling to get into a rhythm of things. I managed to clock up approximately 50km, but these are not the numbers I was doing at the start of the year. Maybe it is the weather, the fact that we dog sat this month, or my own expectations?

Here is a list of books that I read this month:

  • The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: This novel is a gripping tale of espionage, anarchism, and political intrigue set in London in 1886.
  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – Bilbo Baggins quest to reclaim the treasure from the dragon Smaug read by Andy Serkis.
  • This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Beginning of the 21st Century by Steve Hyden – Explores Radiohead’s album Kid A and the legacy it has had.
  • Fatherhood by William McInnes: An insightful and humorous collection of stories and reflections on the challenges and joys of being a father.
  • Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Fredric Jameson: A seminal work of literary criticism that analyzes postmodernism as the cultural dominant of late capitalism.
  • Fredric Jameson: Live Theory by Ian Buchanan – An exploration of the concepts of Fredric Jameson and how they all operate.
  • Vineland by Thomas Pynchon – A sprawling, comedic novel set in 1980s California that delves into the counterculture of the 1960s and the political paranoia of the Reagan era.
  • Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, read by Benedict Cumberbatch: A surreal and unsettling novella about a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect.
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen – A classic novel of manners that contrasts the emotional and rational sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, as they navigate love and society in 19th-century England.
  • Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things by Jessica Seaborn – A contemporary novel that dives into the world of Charlie, who is balancing work, family and friendship.
  • The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon – A paranoid and complex novel following Oedipa Maas as she uncovers a secret, centuries-old postal conspiracy while settling a former lover’s estate.
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac – A roman Ă  clef accounting a series of journeys through America and through life.
  • _Taming Toxic People_ by David Gillespie – A practical self-help guide offering strategies and insights for dealing with difficult individuals in life.

I saw Arseless Chaps (Damian Cowell and Tony Martin) and Twinkle Digitz at the John Curtain Hotel. I also made a few digital purcheses on Bandcamp Friday:

As well as, re-subscribed to RRR after many years absence. It occurred to me that community radio surely is doing more to support artists than platforms such as Spotify.

Going beyond the town square, Pelly suggests that Spotify is best considered as another part of the social media shopping mall where you never quite know what is you and what is the algorithm.

Source: REVIEW: Mood Machine – The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist (Liz Pelly) by Aaron Davis

With regards to my writing, I wrote the following:

Podcasts that stood out this month:

Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism,_or,_the_Cultural_Logic_of_Late_Capitalism

Jameson defines postmodernism as the cultural system of a global, financialized stage of capitalist society. Jameson argues that postmodernism is characterized by a “crisis of historicity”, a “waning of affect”, and a prevalence of pastiche. He traces these characteristics of postmodernism across a variety of fields and media, including film, television, literature, economics, architecture, and philosophy. In one of his most prominent examples, he draws out the differences between modernism and postmodernism by comparing Van Gogh’s “Peasant Shoes” with Andy Warhol’s “Diamond Dust Shoes”. For Jameson, postmodernism, as a form of mass-culture driven by capitalism, pervades every aspect of our daily lives.

Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism – Wikipedia

In Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson provides a map of the new (old now?) cultural dominant. I have written a longer post here, while I also bookmarked Ian Buchanan’s introduction to Jameson here.

Continue reading “đź“š Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Fredric Jameson)”

Read https://www.hachette.com.au/steven-hyden/this-isnt-happening-radioheads-kid-a-and-the-beginning-of-the-21st-century

In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in rock, a rarefied status granting them the time, money, and space to make a masterpiece. But Radiohead didn’t want to make another rock record. Instead, they set out to create the future.

For more than a year, they battled writer’s block, intra-band disagreements, and crippling self-doubt. In the end, however, they produced an album that was not only a complete departure from their prior guitar-based rock sound, it was the sound of a new era-and it embodied widespread changes catalyzed by emerging technologies just beginning to take hold of the culture. What they created was Kid A.

Upon its release in 2000, Radiohead’s fourth album divided critics. Some called it an instant classic; others, such as the UK music magazine Melody Maker, deemed it “tubby, ostentatious, self-congratulatory… whiny old rubbish.” But two decades later, Kid A sounds like nothing less than an overture for the chaos and confusion of the twenty-first century.

Acclaimed rock critic Steven Hyden digs deep into the songs, history, legacy, and mystique of Kid A, outlining the album’s pervasive influence and impact on culture in time for its twentieth anniversary in 2020. Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic, alluring LP and investigates the many ways in which Kid A shaped and foreshadowed our world.

This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ and the Beginning of the 21st Century by Steven Hyden – Books – Hachette Australia

With This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Beginning of the 21st Century, Steve Hyden explores Radiohead’s album Kid A and the legacy it has had. I wrote a longer response here.

Continue reading “đź“š This Isn’t Happening (Steve Hyden)”