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Newsletter.009 - November, 2020
First things first, I know, it's not November. If there is one thing I could have gotten right it's putting out November's newsletter in it's eponymous month. Oh what's this in my back pocket? Oh, the pandemic-life-is-chaos wildcard! I'm playing it. So there.

I’ve gotten a couple queries as to just what the hell this newsletter is. I’m about to tell you, so get ready.

I don’t know.

I know you’re worried sick about the point of this. I am as well. Calm down. I know as well you’ve written your MP or Senator already about this, but seriously, it’s fine. We’ll figure it out together.

It’s supposed to be entertaining and a weird sort of way to keep in touch with a bunch of diverse folks. I mean you can count everyone from a dude who makes urns to an investor both of which are named Chris. A glance at the subscribers list found around 40% women, and that’s not even my sister subscribing multiple times to make me feel better. If you have any ideas about how to make this rock better for you just hit that trusty old reply button and give me the lowdown.

As always feel free to unsubscribe, but not before you look at all the previous issues here which will of course change your mind.

Top 10 - November 2020

As with every month, there’s a new Top 10 for November.
  1. Uno – Yup, the game. It’s fun for all ages, drunk, sober, lockdown or not. You don’t have to think a lot, but there’s really minimum attention or strategy possibilities which make it great.
  2. HTML by hand – Recently I’ve decided to kill an iOS app (keep reading and you'll find out more below) and decided to rebuild it entirely by hand in HTML/CSS. I basically made a website by hand it was so damn satisfying to make a thing.
  3. Chuck Johnson “Velvet Arc” – Spooky and atmospheric steel guitar
Read the rest here

Bastion’s Last Stand pt.1

How Not to Develop A New Way of Reading




I promised a couple issues ago, way back in February even, a gripping and poignant tale about my app and service being put to rest. Well I’ve finally gotten around to it and you can just feel the tension and smell the tears in it. Wait, it’s not that bad at all.

How Not to Develop a New Way of Reading

This is an effort to start really talking about failure and what that means and not in some hokey entrepreneurial hero way. But in the human, real life way where you try a thing and it doesn’t happen and you don’t go on to getting your next thing funded and oh look a me, but the fizzle out that happens to most of us.
peration

On a Blockchain and Under her Black Wings



Recently I started drawing/illustrating and had no idea what to do with it once I was done. Oh I know, I’ll do some blockchain stuff. Results? Anticlimactic in general but discovered that NFTs are an actual decent and necessary use of these Distributed Ledger Technology things.

Read about it here

What I’m Trying to Figure Out

 

Paying for things you look at in browsers - Crypto browser wallets like MetaMask allow someone to transfer money digitally native on a decentralised web app. This is great, if you’re one of the three people (proportionally in terms of the Internet) using it. The fact is the overwhelming majority of people aren’t and don’t have the patience for it. If we’re ever going to fix how the things we look at and read in browsers is paid for by exploitation this needs to be solved and damn fast, yet there are so few efforts (kudos to Brave and Unlock) to do this.

Civic Luxury - This is an amazing concept I heard today from the unstoppable Einar Martinussen about this Nordic (of course, who else...) idea of public luxury and, I’m assuming, moving towards a broader and less selfish notion of comfort and beauty and moving luxury to public spaces.

October Self Care Tips


You know what sucked worse than October? How about November? Well besides the fleeting respite of regime change over you know where, it's cold and the numbers are up and not in a good way. What you really need to properly settle into this awful second wave is some delicious, buttered toast and the soothing jazz guitar of  the Kenny Burrell Trio.
peration

The Virus Diaries pt. 4

AKA Visualisation Will Save Us All

It's back! I don't know how or why, but it might have something to do with not having gone outside in two days. Anyhow, here you go.


I'm not exactly sure VH trending is causation (there is immense amounts of power that we're not worthy of generally) or if it's a reaction.


My brain while thinking "Is it a cold or COVID?"


I love an inverse correlation as much as the next guy, but I hate this move so much.

You can see the past issues of The Virus Diaries here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

How to sum up basically any political system according to the age the person was at the time


If you’ve been as unfortunate as I have been to be conscious while having US election coverage beamed into your skull everywhere you turn, you’ll hear a lot of arguments about Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, etc. I live in a formerly sort of Communist country and grew up in what is the epicentre of Capitalism. Here is how you can break them all down in terms of different ages. You’re welcome.

8 years old: “Awesome, best times.”

22 year old: “I don’t know okay I guess, not sure dude. Whatever.”

38 year old: “Not sure I should complain but...”

47 year old: “It’s total bullshit”

Super Serious Forwards


Letter - This feels like what the Internet was before people tried to optimise conversation and just open the floodgates because democracy so screw it. More than anything it feels like a glimpse into the past of how we used to treat conversation and discourse in public and should still to this day. I keep on expecting rants and spats between Newton and Leibniz here. It’s like that.

Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos - As someone with multiple, regretful and permanent markers on my skin of what looks to have been a very misguided youth, this was mind blowing and frankly sad. You don’t necessarily own your own skin anymore.

Un-Office Hours


Along those two sages Matt Webb and Peter Bihr, I’ve decided as well to just have what now looks to be dubbed Un-office Hours. So that’s right, for 30 minutes we just have a chat, you and I, over that wonderful symptom and sign of modern internet-ity, Zoom. Or something better if you got it. I’ll try just about anything when it comes to software.

I’ve done this twice now with the above mentioned giants and humbly and blatantly copying the same. It’s a good idea and I had really good chats doing this. It’s easy!

Book a 30 minute call, it's super easy and fun and I promise to be awake.
This is brought to you by: Rory Scovel, Mastodon, Earthless, Hidden Brain, Disgraceland, taking time with a sketchbook and folding laundry as the only time you have to yourself.

Just remember, I ain’t dead yet, and neither are you, so hang in there.

Thanks, all of you out there. See you next month hopefully.

Ride.
Shoot straight.
Speak the truth.

- Jim
Copyright © 2020 Halfman, All rights reserved.


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