Welcome
Welcome to issue #18 of my occasional newsletter of things of interest. Typical headings include analog, apple, cool tools, film and TV, in the garden, history, localism, nature, pen and paper, reading and writing, software and technology. And the interplay between them all.
Thanks to everyone’s who been reading, and liking. I hope you enjoy something in this edition which comes out just in time for Christmas.
reading - goodreads
Pretty soon I’ll be compiling my annual “book of the year award”, a tradition that's gone on for over 20 years. I used to give a prize for the best fiction, poetry and non-fiction I’d read that year, but in the last couple of years, as genres seem to have blended and blurred and boundaries rewritten and recast in everything from literature to TV soap, I've given up on those distinctions and just gone for my favourite books of the year. I’ll add that link to a newsletter early next year, Meanwhile, for those interested, here's my list of 2023 favourites.
As I compile my list, again I'll be returning to Goodreads to re-check my annual reading. I've always kept a list of books I've read, in notebooks and paper initially and then into an Excel spreadsheet and then later to Goodreads. Even when Amazon bought it, I stayed with them. I find it particularly handy for putting in what books I want to read next, as well as jogging my memory of just what I read when.
I also like to use GoodReads to set a goal for my reading; in terms of the numbers of books I hope to read in a year. With a few weeks still to go I’m pleased that I’m already over my goal of 40 books this year.
BTW, You can follow my reading journey on Goodreads HERE.
tek: tracking subscription software
One of the things I’ve tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to resist in the world of tek is the rise in subscriptions for software. They got us used to subscribing to multiple streaming services and it’s just grown from there. Nowadays, it seems that almost all IOS software is subscription based (See also ‘enshittification’ below) and I always try and find the direct purchase alternative when the products are comparable.
Needless to say, I still have subscriptions and I find the iPhone app Bobby is a good way to give yourself a good summary of all them. You could also put them into a spreadsheet or even write them on a sheet of paper and you might be surprised/dismayed when you add them all up.
I divide my subscriptions into four categories: Entertainment which includes streaming services like Netflix and things like Apple Music, Technology, which includes things like my Office 365 subscription and iCloud backup, Photography which used to be the whole Adobe Suite thing but is now mainly Flickr and some cameras and finally a small category called Writing, which is mainly my Wordpress sites.
tek - enshittification
For once, I can get behind the word of the year gang from Macquarie dictionary. Last year’s choice ‘cozzie livs’, which apparently is street-speak for cost of living, fell flat as a tack.
But this one worked for me, even though the American Dialect Society got there a year early when they chose ‘enshittification’ as their word of the year in 2023. They wrote:
The term enshittification became popular in 2023 after it was used in a blog post by author Cory Doctorow, who used it to describe how digital platforms can become worse and worse. “Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification,” Doctorow wrote on his Pluralistic blog.
Now the Macquarie Dictionary has got in on the act and it’s their 2024 word of the year. And, I agree. If you’re ever used Instagram you’ll know what the enshittification process looks like: a simple, good idea gets bought out, distorted, enlarged, lumped with video, reels, moments, filled with crud and ads and ends up unrecognisable and virtually unusable.
And, Corey Doctrow, who’s given credit for the term, is worth reading. Pluralistic is daily links from him, and boasts: ‘No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period.’ You can find his many books on Craphound. I can recommend Chokepoint Capitalism where: ‘scholar Rebecca Giblin and writer and activist Cory Doctorow argue we’re in a new era of “chokepoint capitalism,” with exploitative businesses creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others.’
writing - us, falling for it
In 1993 I travelled overseas for the first time with my family, wide-eyed, enthusiastic, open to it all. It was a great trip and I’ll always treasure that time all away together. I wrote lots while I was away, journal entries, of course, and poems too and, when I returned I put together a photocopied collection of the writing for friends and family, a spiral bound ‘limited edition’.
Last year I revisited that collection and that it might be of interest. I make no great claims on this collection; I’ve not attempted to publish individual poems here in any journals or other collections, but I think that, as a whole, it is record of a first overseas adventure and I hope that readers will enjoy that journey.
I put it out as a Kindle edition first, and have now made it available as a paperback via Amazon. I’ve made no changes to the original poems, other than obvious typos that crept into the original photocopied edition, have added one new poem and have restored the original cover designed by Marcus Batt, replacing the rather unsuccessful modernised version I put on the Kindle edition. The included photos are now in colour and I’ve added a new opening poem written this year as I revisited Naxos, in Greece.
The paperback is available on Amazon HERE
xmas and all that …some traditions
I admit I’m a bit of a sucker for Christmas festivities and have somethings that are always signs of Christmas for me.
One is my Christmas pickling: I always try to make some pickles to share as Christmas gifts and enjoy the planning, cooking and decorating involved. I always make ‘Bread and Butter Pickles’, made with cucumbers and great with cheese or left-over roast lamb and in the last couple of year I’ve also made a Christmas Chutney. My go-to chutney recipe is Nigella’s Christmas Chutney. She writes:
Chutney is not the most obviously festive, seasonally indulgent, must-have foodstuff, but it is the cornerstone of my Christmas pantry. I begin to hyperventilate, now as I write, even at the idea of not having a stock of it. Cold cuts and Christmas Day leftovers are impossible to contemplate without chutney (and the Christmas ham first-time-out must have it as well); and since it is easy to prepare a lot at one time, you can get a tidy number of presents seen to out of one under-an-hour stint in the kitchen, too.
Nigella’s Christmas Chutney recipe is online HERE
Another sign of Christmas for me is digging out the Christmas vinyl. It’s alway feels a bit indulgent to buy a record you’ll only play for two weeks a year, but Christmas vinyl can be deliciously daggy and good value. Here’s two that I’ll be spinning up in the next few weeks, both of which you can find for under $10AUD.
Thanks everyone for listening, and responding. Best wishes for the holiday season ahead and a Happy New Year. I’ll have a new issue out in January.
And speaking of listening, here’s a link to an Australian Christmas playlist for your pre-seasons greetings pleasure. An Australian Christmas Mix for Apple Music and for Spotify.
Thanks David. Glad you're enjoying the Leonard Cohen; what a tortured soul!
First, great edition, Wal! Much better than watching the cricket! Second, I loved David Marr's book too, but found it as profoundly disturbing, in the context of the referendum. What became even more disheartening was that so may people have heard - or want to hear - nothing of this "true history". Third, We've been watching the Leonard Cohen series "So Long, Marianne" on SBS, and your recommendation of "Half the Perfect World" is timely, what with Christmas coming up! Which brings me to my final point - Mmmmm! Christmas pickles!