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Another lazy January week. Classic false start to the year. A simple goal for February: leave the house more.
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On my writing course this week I read a piece adapted from a blog post I wrote when cycling US, when I reached the headwaters of the Mississippi. I spent Tuesday morning redrafting and embellishing it and giving it more of a beginning / middle / end .
Reading it aloud made me feel vulnerable as most other pieces in the class were about less personal subjects – ranging from climate change to the renaissance in Germany – where as mine was deeply self-reflective. But overall it felt good to open up my head a little for others to peer inside.
three
I watched Reality Bites and despite a decent cast and some good intentions it was almost universally bad – whilst also being a great time capsule of the mid-90s.
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Put a little website live that I had original started working on in 2018 – mapkozelek.com – a map of all the places and locations mentioned in Mark Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon songs.
It has a pretty niche audience (me) but i’ve always attached his music to my own travels, and the geographical reach of the lyrics is pretty fascinating (even if often tiring to listen to). It was inspired by The Tom Waits Map which made the rounds back in 2014.
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Had Sunday lunch at The Approach for the second week in a row – this time with Dan & Kate who I met travelling in Belize in 2016, and hadn’t seen since early 2018. It struck me how long ago 2016 is, and what a simpler time it was.
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Ramped up on a new project at work, working with Instacart. I have a feeling the next 8 weeks will be on the intense side but the work should be good and detailed. Already lots of deep discussion of button corner radii.
seven
It’s Groundhog Day so there’s a good chance i’ll be watching Groundhog Day tonight.
“Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring” — Phil Connors.
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Photo: Early evening ferry crossing to Vancouver Island, October 2019
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