Scraps

My virtual commonplace book & cabinet of curiosities.

Or, if you prefer, a microblog.

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Vintage bar border with curved detail at the center

  • The wild rabbit that lives under my art studio, which is called The Rabbit Hole, and was named before this beauty moved in.

    Music from the 1985 Alice in Wonderland miniseries.

    Read more: untitled post 156078939

  • “In my experience, there is no such thing as “clerical work” in writing: the donkey work is crucial to the process, as is having to sort through the mess of the draft — that’s the art of self-editing, and it’s the art of finding what you didn’t know you were looking for.”

    Austin Kleon on AI

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  • Mood board including maps, trees, spirals, artifacts, hag stones, reflections, yggdrasil, angel oak, and bowl of water. Woven across the image with thread and objects tucked in - a key, a root, a branch of yellow leaves. A photograph printed on cloth shows my grandmother holding my mum as a baby.

    I finally finished the physical mood board for my work in progress.

    Here’s a timelapse.

    You can see earlier timelapse videos here.

    Read more: untitled post 156078890

  • “The simple act [of crafting] seemed to push back the gloom. There had been a shadow [on them] lately. As if he couldn’t stand in the Light no matter how he tried. He woke each morning feeling as if someone he loved had died the day before… it could crush you, that despair. But the act of creating something, anything, fought back. That was one way to challenge him. The one none of them spoke of.”

    A Memory of Light, The Wheel of Time

    via Mel

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  • A fig tree freshly planted in our backyard.

    Meet our new tree, Loial.

    I was unmoored after the last episode and wandered around the garden centers until I came home with this fig tree. We planted it in honor of Brother Book.

    Your name sings in our ears @hammedhamz. Thank you for bringing this beloved character to life. His spirit will live on in our garden and perhaps one day bear figs. 🍃

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  • “What are we doing with all these links, anyway? We’re weaving the web tighter. Making introductions. Maintaining provenance. It’s meaningful, especially now, as AI systems work in the opposite direction: denaturing the links, melting down the chains of connection.”

    Robin Sloan

    Read more: untitled post 156078702

  • A Gmail Alternative

    I’ve been using Gmail for 20 years, but with their recent launch of AI and recent political leanings I am disentangling from Google products and creating a new digital ecosystem.

    This will take time, but every shift I make gives them less data to mine and less power.

    Open airmail envelope with blue and green stripes

    Fastmail

    This January I switched from Google to Fastmail and I haven’t looked back.

    It’s not free, but this is because they aren’t data mining your email. You pay a reasonable price and they provide a good service.

    Fastmail is $5 a month.

    That price includes using your own domain name (if you have a website) and you can set up multiple email alias.

    For exmaple:

    • lists@yourdomain.com for newsletters
    • admin@yourdomain.com for admin
    • and a private email for friends & family

    I’ve set up alias that are automatically sorted into folders and I am loving it.

    Changing your email address is also a chance to start fresh and only subscribe to what you truly want to read. Leave those spam emails behind!

    I’m an affiliate so if you sign up here a percentage of what you pay will come to me. (As thanks for referring you.)

    If you have any questions drop me a line and let me know!

    Read more: A Gmail Alternative

  • “No matter your gender identity, friends, I invite you to put on a pair of wraparound goggles and keep noticing how gender limits or privileges you.”

    Keith Aron via A. Wilder

    Read more: untitled post 156078861
  • Drawing of witch grass with runner root offshoots from the book Gardening without work by Ruth Stout

    Gardening Without Work: for the aging, the busy and the indolent by Ruth Stout

    (Read for free on Internet Archive)

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  • A little rearrange brought my heirloom rocker out to the studio. Mom and I recovered this in William Morris’ Strawberry Thief when I was expecting.

    Read more: untitled post 156078884