“But if there is no risk in my writing, no fear, there is no pleasure. I have to make myself fed uncomfortable, take chances in the way a mountaineer does calculating and recalculating, pitching their frail body against the wind. In risk, we feel most alive.”
— from A Line Above the Sky by Helen Mort 📚
Currently reading: A Line Above the Sky by Helen Mort 📚
Never really got into Picard Series 1 & 2, but I have loved every moment of series 3. My Friday evenings won’t be quite the same.
Earning some Dad points for myself by installing Minecraft Legends on the Xbox, ready for post-school play tomorrow.
Some notes on Substack Notes.

I’ve been called “Tim” twice in emails already today, and it’s not even 10am on Monday.
Why?
Do I seem like a “Tim” so much it overrides my actual name?
I’m beginning to get the hang of keeping my Mastodon instance updated. Not as easy as, say, Ghost. But not as bad as I feared.
An awful lot of people on the internet seem to be under the illusion that being nasty to people online makes them a better person. Being nasty does more harm to you than the person you’re targeting, online or offline.
Feeling slightly guilty about how much time importing my huge Twitter archive into micro.blog is taking…
Verily, the bard hath used the roll of Rick.
Probably of marginal interest to the folks here, but I wrote a little about how journalists should be thinking about Mastodon right now.
Substack Notes: first impressions
Substack Notes is in a really weird place at the moment. It’s basically just a bunch of newsletter writers trying to persuade each other to subscribe to their newsletters.
It’s a bit like being in an auction house where the buyers and the sellers are all the same people.
They need some stronger incentives for the readers to come over there - but that’s down to the writers. They need to come up with value for their readers - and just endlessly pumping their newsletter is not that.
Early days.
“Dad, I forgot to add Frozen songs to my playlist. Can I have more iPad time to sort it?”
“Hazel, that idea? Let it go.”
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! Worst Dad joke ever.”
“Thank you.”