David Hughes

Notes From Afar

Tag: Writing (page 2 of 7)

20 January 2021

Owning My Own Content

A small fir tree covered in frost Last weekend I was about to post some photos from a frosty forest walk onto Instagram and paused as I was pondering the best tags to add to ‘drive engagement’.

I remembered a commitment I’d made to myself over Christmas – to consume mindfully, to create more and to own the content I create. I stopped uploading the pictures and removed Instagram from my phone once again.

I’ve often spoken about missing the heyday of personal blogs, before social media became peoples primary outlet online. I’ve been meaning to dust of this blog for months and was genuinely surprised to see my last post was published 9 months ago.

I’ve been inspired to do so but what feels like a mini blogging renaissance amongst my friends with veritable flood of posts from Al, Andrew and Christian.

I’m looking forward to once again sharing thoughts, photos and ‘found things’ via my personal site. Good to see you again.

19 June 2019

35 Years Of Progress?

Ian Bogost’s Atlantic article I Wrote This on a 30-Year-Old Computer was written entirely on an 30 year old Macintosh SE and makes for a fascinating trip down memory lane and back to the future.

There’s much to think about in the article, but one line really stood out to me:

Computing was an accompaniment to life, rather than the sieve through which all ideas and activities must filter.

‘The sieve through which all ideas and activities must filter’ – what a phrase and what a thought.

Within my online ‘bubble’ there seems to be a growing movement away from social media and being ‘always on’ and towards Digital Minimalism – a phrase coined by Cal Newport in his latest book.

I wonder if we’ve made as much progress as we think we have over the last 35 years, or have we become shackled and beholden to the devices and services we’ve created?

23 April 2017

Ernest Hemingway “Write With a Pencil”

Ernest Hemingway editing his writing with a pencil

If you write with a pencil, you get three different sights at it to see if the reader is getting what you want him to. First when you read it over; then when it is typed you get another chance to improve it, and again in the proof. Writing it first in pencil gives you one-third more chance to improve it. That is .333, which is a damned good average for a hitter.

— Ernest Hemingway

21 July 2015

Happy Birthday Hemingway

hemingway writing

“It was a pleasant café, warm clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a café au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write. ”

— Ernest Hemingway

21 December 2014

Black Mirror White Christmas

black mirror white christmas still

Black Mirror White Christmas is the latest drama in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series, and it’s superb. Charlie Brooker is possibly most famous for his acerbic comedy shows such as Screen Wipe, but Black Mirror shows he is a great science fiction writer.

Brooker has a brilliant view of the possible near/alternate future and it’s technology, with ideas and concepts worthy of Gibson, Dick and even Clarke.

Without wishing to give too much away (possible spoiler) the exploration of a truly sentient cloned artificial intelligence and its breaking and slavery was incredible.

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