Thursday, 23rd November 2023

LXI’ve always known that the JFK/Doctor Who 60th anniversaries would mark the 13-month countdown to my own encounter with 2x2x3x5. But it really started last Christmas when I was in the midst of whatever non-Covid knock-out virus that had entered me and I shuddered as I turned 58. 59 was a year a way and … Continue reading Thursday, 23rd November 2023 →

LX
I’ve always known that the JFK/Doctor Who 60th anniversaries would mark the 13-month countdown to my own encounter with 2x2x3x5. But it really started last Christmas when I was in the midst of whatever non-Covid knock-out virus that had entered me and I shuddered as I turned 58. 59 was a year a way and then… For now, I’ll settle for 58 and 11/12ths and forget about what’s to come. My daughter is also celebrating her half-birthday for the first time, now that she’s in her thirties, I think it’s a good habit to encourage. #

Our back garden for the time being. The chain is rattling, we could exchange anytime and maybe complete by… (no don’t tempt fate!)

Wisteria is hanging on tight to her leaves. She doesn’t believe that it’s the end of November, either. The creeper has given up. Olive appreciated getting a bit of a trim a few weeks ago. Rosemary is as persistently mad as ever. We’ll leave the leaves for now. #

Ripples
I listened to a writer last night talking about his preferred narrative structure being an exploration of the ripples that spread out after an event. Basically taking a seemingly simple (if odd) event and noticing the huge but not obviously connected consequences. I think his point is what complexity people refer to as non-linearity, ie that complex outcomes can arise from the simplest stimuli.

The examples he gave were negative – ie seriously bad things happening as a result of smaller bad things. The problem I have with it is that it’s a creativity killer. For some people, thinking like this has to mean STOP! don’t make this thing, don’t make anything, because you can’t control the unintended consequences. But that can’t be right – if it were then the only people left making art would be people who have no problem with or remorse for doing bad things. Oh… wait…!

When I speak about the ripple effect, I prefer to dwell on the positive version. That small incremental improvements in how we are with ourselves and others can spread out and touch people far away, even people we don’t know. That me taking care of myself means there’s one less angry person on the tube train adding to the madness, one more person ready to smile and help someone who’s lost and afraid and alone. #

I updated my BlueSky profile to say:

You may know me from such hashtags as #tuttle #wewillgather #c4cc #PLATE and #blackelephant
Sings with a non-hashtagged ukulele.
Blog (like this only bigger chunks) at perfectpath.co.uk

You might not be on BlueSky, but you can infer that it’s like this, only in *smaller* chunks. I don’t know how much longer it’s going to be invite-only, but if you’re interested and impatient, I won’t dissuade you – I have invite codes for those who ask. #

Anchor Links
I’m also experimenting with anchor links so that I can more easily link to any of the abovementioned “chunks” – that’s what those hashes represent at the end of each section – if you click on one it should open a new tab with the “cursor” at the top of that section. (Maybe not) obviously, they’re there for you (or me) to easily link to a bit, rather than to be clicked on while reading… or has this sentence made it more confusing? Anyway, if you’re confused, ignore them. If you understand, just nod to yourself. Grand. I’ll probably forget all about it after a while. #

Small talk kills me. I think it’s an attention thing. On my way home from another thing last night, I was having some regret about going, but then I realised that the people weren’t a problem and the majority of the content wasn’t a problem, it’s that it got to a point where we were left to do even more small talk (having already had an introductory bit and a break in the middle) and I don’t like to just rush off immediately, and I also did enjoy talking to all the people that I talked to, it’s just that it drains me completely and leaves me thinking I’ve made a mistake in coming out at all. It doesn’t matter how many interesting things I have to talk about or lovely people there are in the room, I will gravitate to an internal state of thinking I’m boring and surrounded by people who are disappointed to have ended up next to me because they only came over for another of those samosas. It’s not you, it’s me… and small talk. #