Plutonic Rainbows

Wednesday 10 January, 2018

January 10, 2018

Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

“But I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing-room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting-room, where the members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles of whose doors perhaps are never turned; no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.”

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton.

Amazon.

A few people have asked about my books since I migrated from Squarespace and lost those landing pages. Squarespace is a great service but too expensive for me. At the moment, I publish on two platforms, Amazon Kindle and Apple Books.

Inexact Shadows

On a remote island, scientists have made a fantastic discovery. A technology thought impossible. Sabotage investigator John Miller is brought in when the labs are destroyed and something stolen. He is joined by Peter Williams, a soon to retire MI5 agent. As part of an unlikely group, together they must solve what has happened. Their discoveries trigger a whole chain of unwelcome events both past and present.

The Wind Took Your Answer Away

A collection of ten short stories. A tour through time and space. Enter a strange past with stories that almost could be or might have been - A post office hides an unwelcome secret; a world where words are cyclical; cherry blossoms that herald something unspeakable and a boy who finds beauty among the tidal pools.

I am currently working on a third book published sometime late 2019 or sometime in 2020.

My Amazon Author page is here.

Nuearz - Funny Bone & Last Straw

January 9, 2018

Two new albums from this Japanese artist whose work has often been released by the Skam record label. His latest works are available now on Bandcamp.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Async - Remodels

January 9, 2018

Long-awaited remix album of last year's Async. Includes reinterpretations by OPN, Andy Stott, Fennesz, Alva Noto and Jóhann Jóhannsson. It arrives on February 22nd.

More info at Bleep.

Ex-Terrestrial - Ex-Terrestrial

January 9, 2018

Woozy, spaced out electronics from this Canadian artist. Surprisingly alluring music. Samples on Boomkat but currently out of stock. You should still be able to find a good retailer somewhere.

Apple investors urge action on smartphone addiction

January 8, 2018

BBC picks up on the story of Apple investors calling for limits on how long children can use their smartphones.

Jana Partners and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) called on Apple to consider the impact excessive use of smartphones had on the mental health of young people. The two are worried that if Apple does not address growing concerns about smartphone use, its stock market value and general reputation could become damaged.

According to a Reuters report, half of US teenagers believe they are addicted to their mobile phones and feel the need to respond immediately to messages.

Writing

January 7, 2018

Spent today writing as I haven't kept up with that this past week. It's pretty sunny outside but the wind is strong.

Saturday 6 January, 2018

January 6, 2018

Today is Epiphany. It also makes me think about this excellent track from the 1991 David Sylvian & Russell Mills collaboration - Ember Glance: The Permanence Of Memory. I particularly have always loved the spoken word samples on this, especially that of Irish Poet, Seamus Heaney, whose words are lifted from A Northern Hoard.

I should to spend some time this weekend going back over the first seven sessions as I find it has become very complex quite quickly - at least for me.

formatter = "%r %r %r %r"

print formatter % (1, 2, 3, 4)
print formatter % ("one", "two", "three", "four")
print formatter % (True, False, False, True)
print formatter % (formatter, formatter, formatter, formatter)
print formatter % (
    "I had this thing.",
    "That you could type up right.",
    "But it didn't sing.",
    "So I said goodnight."
)

Maelstrom

January 5, 2018

Central Processing Unit announced another new album, Alph4 from Maelstrom. It's also available on a limited 12 inch. It comes out on 16th February.

Followed exercise six, creating multiple strings and text in Python.
Two hours of written Japanese

Today I learnt that you need to use single quotes when inserting text (that you have not declared as variables) into strings.

print "Mary had a little lamb.
print "Its fleece was white as %s." % 'snow' (not a variable - so I use single quotes)

Tutorials

January 4, 2018

I tried to follow a tutorial on how to write variables into strings. I also made conversions from imperial to metric values.
Studied Japanese for two hours.
Went walking in the woods.
Some more Japanese for an hour.
Took photos of decorations and the outside lights.

The main thing for today is writing variables to strings.

name = Gail
print "%s is a good girl." % name