THE PARTLY WEATHER POST

Shwmae from the banks of the river Lleidi!

Storm Jorge has struck and once again Welsh communities are dealing with continued flooding as well as the potential risk of coal tips. So I’m again linking to Michael Sheen’s Go Fund Me which is raising money for those affected by the flooding. Please consider donating if you can.

Understandably the weather has featured in a lot of conversations this last week and almost every boomer I’ve talked to has mentioned dredging canals as a solution to the flooding. Now, obviously I am not an expert but I’ve called bollocks on this for three – I feel – painstakingly obvious reasons: the first – when the flooding is as severe as it has been then dredging is only going to mitigate the situation by a few inches. Which would mean nothing to the people worst affected. The second – dredging just makes it easier for the water to flow so all it will do is make things worse for whichever community is unfortunate enough to live further down. And the third – dredging is just going to lead to erosion of the banks, which I assume, would just make flooding worse. There are probably more reasons, but like I said I’m not an expert. My part solution (which has upset every boomer I’ve suggested it to) would be to look at the worst affected canals, fill them in and plant a load of trees on top. It’s not going to stop flooding overall but it would mitigate far more in certain areas than dredging would. So yeah, plant more fucking trees.

Sticking with the outdoors theme, I was – for about two hours – able to get out into the garden and start painting the veg beds.

Didn’t get to finish before the sun disappeared and the wind picked up. It’ll need finishing and a second coat but is going to look cool paired with the red bench I built.

My aim is that by summer the garden will be a riot of colour… or just a riot as I fend of vegetable thieves in the post-brexit coronavirus apocalypse world.

Speaking of coronavirus and the apocalypse, I have to admit that I do suffer from a slight case of doom prep anxiety. It’s a weird affliction to deal with. I think though it’s because I’ve never lived with any circumstances that have required emergency preparedness. I read tweets of people living in California who are prepped for wild fires, people that live in Northern countries that regularly deal with heavy snow and even people here in Wales that have to prepare for floods. They live with the need to be prepared. Plus I don’t think it helps when most of the people in my social circle don’t pay much attention to these kinds of goings on in the world so I kind of feel like Chicken Little declaring that the sky is falling when I mention considering how to be prepared for an emergency. Anyway, I’ll be building a bunker under garden as soon as it stops raining.

Backtracking, I put out a Tumblr post looking for Welsh Solarpunks and I think the majority of people that engaged with the post just liked the flag I put together.

To be fair, any flag with a dragon on is bound to be awesome. *cough* The Welsh flag is best *cough*

Speaking of amazing creatures, this is a very cool exploration of the ocean, all the way down to the very bottom. And I love how simple it is, just scroll.

Continuing with interesting things to look at, these two films from over a hundred years ago have been restored to 4K resolution at 60fps by a neural network AI. It’s really fascinating and I’d love to see the same process applied to more black and white movies.

Staying with tech developments, this is a teeny bit of a concern and it just reinforces why I wanted to start this blog. If I had the resources and ability I’d copy Robin Sloan and build my own social network something like Twitter but just for fifty people, no more. That fifty would likely be able to generate a large deal of information so I’d probably wipe all the posts every year and have a clean slate. I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes more of a reality in future. Just like back in the day when creating your own message board was the thing, being able to create a small scale social network will be a thing, if it isn’t already.

So I’ve mentioned previously about creating a project that works with non-profits to develop their digital skills. I’ve been thinking a lot this week about approaches to R&D and project prototyping that would be useful for a non-profit.   Most don’t do any R&D which is really surprising, when I worked for a non-profit I spent just an hour a week researching other organisations and projects and writing short outlines of how they would work with our organisation. Then I’d pass these on to my manager and there would always be some sort of shock or confusion about why I was doing it. I always had to explain that it seemed an obvious part of my job.

Design Sprint

So I’ve also been looking at Design Sprints; thinking about how particularly in organisations with volunteers who are passionate about a cause, you could in theory design sprint a project again with little to no cost to an organisation. It’s still all gestating in my head and every day I read something new that radically morphs how I think about all this. One of the interesting things to me is that the charity sector seems to be in a similar place to where the film industry was about twelve years ago. When you think about how franchises, particularly superhero franchises, have evolved to develop an audience and keep them interested in between films. The charity sector is now at this point where it’s figuring out how to build an audience, keep them interested in their work and when needed encourage donations. It’s fascinating but also a bit depressing seeing the lack lustre attempts to address it. But it’s been fun to research and work the problems into something that could – I hope – be useful. Honestly, if you’re a creative looking to do something different or more socially conscious, there is a creative deficit in the charity sector that is a smorgasbord of interesting challenges.

Okay I think I’m going to wrap this up, I’m writing this on Sunday night, I’ve just watched Doctor Who and all I will say it that was not good television, which is a shame because Jodie Whittaker is a brilliant Doctor. 

And lastly my newsletter count now down to: 175.

Brave heart, dear friends and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

THE SLIGHTLY LISTICLE POST:

Shwmae from the banks of River Lleidi!

Well, February is here and with it the quick march towards spring has begun. And also the UK begins life outside of the EU. Hopefully by the time this post goes live the sovereignty will be surging but at the time of writing (1^st Feb) it ain’t feeling like it. And while I am certain brexit will be a slow drawn out air leaking out of a balloon like catastrophe, I am somewhat hopeful. I’m hopeful that this is the darkness before the dawn. I’m hopeful that from this trash heap either Wales & Scotland will regain their independence while Ireland reunifies or, at the very least, the UK becomes more equal and representative of the nations that make it up. I’m hopeful things will change if only because the majority of brexiters are politically disinterested and nostalgic for a version of the world that has never existed (in Welsh we call this Hiraeth). They don't want to have to think about politics and brexit every hour of every day. But they’ll have to. They're now going to have to justify brexit every single day; every day Britain isn't the land of milk and honey, every day the NHS is under-funded they’ll have to defend this folly. They're going to have to justify every job lost and every unfavourable trade deal we get lumbered with. It's all on them. They’ll hate winning far more than they ever hated idea of losing. While the remainer side seems far less apathetic and more willing to get engaged with politics as well as being demographically more progressive and outward looking. Which over the next ten years I think will lead to something better.

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. – Rabbi Tarfon

Speaking of cons, I’ve been looking for any nearby Volunteer comms jobs. I figure it’ll be a good experience while I job hunt. Recently came across one that while only being a few hours a week had a full time Comms Manager job spec that also required over ten years’ experience. Which is insane. Anyone with that much experience ain’t doing that much work for free. Which is a shame because it was a worthy sounding charity.

Sticking with the marketing theme, I completed the Google Digital Marketing course, sat the final exam… and failed! The section that flummoxed me was the analytics section; I got some jargon mixed up. So now I have to wait ten hours before I can re-sit the exam. It’s only 40 questions of multiple choice but exams are my kryptonite. UPDATE: Just prior to posting this I re-sat the exam AND PASSED WITH 87%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A brief update: The tax fraud shenanigans are slowly moving forward in a positive direction. I think. Again, when it’s all resolved I will write it all up here but, oh boy the end to this cannot arrive fast enough.

While we’re on the subject of law and order, it was all go in my street recently.

Police closing off the street, armed response officer taking up positions. For a few hours it was all very exciting.

While not quite as exciting, the first week of introducing weights into my gym routine went well. I mean the first two days involved me being unable to use my arms in any way other than to impersonate a T-Rex. But that passed pretty quickly thankfully, I think because I’ve been using plant protein powder. Not that I’m looking to bulk up; last year I saw a dietitian and they said I actually wasn’t eating enough and that I needed more protein in my diet. So here we are. Every morning I am like an alchemist just to get it to taste palatable. My current concoction is:

•           350ml water.
•           1 tblspn powdered plant protein.
•           1 tspn cacao powder.
•           2 stevia sweetener tablets.
•           1 tblspn caramel coffee syrup.

That last ingredient may seem like a cheat but it adds just enough flavour to make the whole thing drinkable. This week the plan is to up the kg’s I lift so we’ll see if it really is making a difference.

Random side story: Made brownies for a friend. Only because they mentioned a café in town having great brownies when they’d never tried mine. My recipe and technique are a closely guarded secret and this photo reveals far too much information but I trust you.

My brownies are quite possibly the greatest in the world and the idea of my friend eating what may as well be actual faeces makes me sad. I’ve witnessed grown humans have actual arguments over my brownies and it sort of amuses me that in eating mine, all other brownies become trash. Life is about the little joys. HAHA!

Speaking of satisfying victories, this week’s progress on Duolingo has seen me move up to the Emerald league. I managed to crawl into the top ten in the final moments, forcing some poor sod to spend another week in the Ruby league.

 

Sticking with the Welsh language, The Guardian can get in the sea! I like reading their stuff when it concerns politics but pretty much every time they write about Wales it’s like reading dispatches from an early 19^th Century Ex-pat writing from some remote corner of the empire about how the place is both backwards and savage but oh so beautiful.  Eww.

When I started outlining this post I wasn’t sure I’d have enough to write about and was planning to do a listicle type post but this is clocking in at over 900 words so I’m thinking I’ll just do a slimmed down list about the stuff I’m playing catch up with.

Newsletters:

I’ve signed up to a lot of newsletters, quite possibly more than is humanly possible to read in a single lifetime and so I have over 200 of the things cluttering up my inbox. Some of them are from creatives that I’m a fan of; others are brilliant curators of useful and interesting links and information. Here some that I’m catching up with:

Warren Ellis – Comic writer, novelist, screenwriter and mad hermit in the Republic of Newsletters. The first newsletter I followed and for the most part the direction pointer to the other newsletters I’ve signed up to. On top of writing about his projects there’s recommendations on tech, writing tools, books and methods of working that I find immensely useful.

Ganzeer – Just saying Ganzeer is an artist feels like I’m underselling everything he does. His work covers, comics, murals, graphic design, paintings and much more. Another good newsletter to follow for an insight into methods of working.

Sean Bonner – An eclectic curation of links as well as his own commentary on any number of topics. I have never read a newsletter of Sean’s that didn’t result in a few hours of googling and Wikipedia rabbit hole diving.

Elsewhere – So one of my many interests is psychogeography, not the Guardian style hipster twat finds long words to describe going for a walk psychogeography, but more the Iain Sinclair telling stories that fuse myth and history with a physical space type of psychogeography. If that sounds remotely interesting to you then Elsewhere is worth checking out. it is a fantastic online journal dedicated to the idea of place.

Cat Vincent - Fortean journalist, writes about magic, religion and all associated oddities. Usually has some fascinating social commentary from an occult perspective and another good example of link curation if you’re researching all things weird.

Music:

Not quite stuff I’m catching up with but stuff I’m listening to at the minute.

Georgia Ruth – This should probably be in the podcast section but what the hell. So since starting to dysgu Cymraeg I’ve been doing deep dives into Welsh language music. And Georgia Ruth’s show on Radio Cymru is a marvellous curation of music. Also, she is a brilliant musician in her own right that you should absolutely check out.

Adwaith – A post punk trio based just down the road from me in the City State of Carmarthen. They recently won the Welsh Music Prize. I first heard them on the afore mentioned radio show of Georgia Ruth and have enjoyed working my way through their albums.

Super Furry Animals – Maybe an obvious choice on the Welsh music deep dive but They kind of passed me by when I was younger so I’m really liking catching up with their music.

Gorrillaz – Not Welsh music or a deep dive, I just really like their new song.

Podcasts:

Much like newsletters I subscribe to far too many podcasts. These are just two that I’m focusing on catching up with at the moment.

99% Invisible – It’s a podcast about the design of those things that you probably never thought required too much designing; warning signs, flags, fire escapes, I really enjoy listening to the smooth tones of Roman Mars. One of my favourite episodes is titled Game Over and looks at what happened in the run up to the end of Sims Online.

Welsh History Podcast – Welsh education is so poor we don’t even learn about our own history. But this podcast does a superb job and hearing Canadian Johnathan Williams pronounce certain Welsh worlds is amusing.

Well, I’m done. Hope you enjoy the links, feel free to share anything you think I should check out and I see you next Dydd Llun.

Brave heart, dear friends and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

THE MOSTLY POLITICS POST

Shwmae from the banks of the River Lleidi!

The last week has been about dealing with the tax fraud shenanigans. Bloody hell, every time I’ve thought that it’s now being dealt with and that I can get on, I find myself back at square one. As a result things have been pretty dull and uneventful.

I’ve got into a good routine going to the gym three times a week, finding the energy to go that fourth time has so far eluded me. At the minute I’ve just been sticking to cardio while I get into the routine also I really wanted to be sure my dodgy tendon in my arm is undodgy. So the plan is this week to start doing 30 minutes of mixed weights and 30 minutes of cardio. And then after a few weeks start breaking the days into specifics: Cardio day, arm day, leg day, etc. If I still can’t muster that fourth day I’m just going to try and add 20 minutes to each session.

Thanks to the pestilence and its impact on my sleep pattern I haven’t done any circuit training this year. Usually I’d get up early and do 30 minutes before starting the day. This week will be about getting back into that routine.

Have also been blitzing my way through the Google Digital Marketing course that I mentioned last week. Currently at 56% complete. Aiming to finish that this week then gotta find some fancy paper to print my certificate on to… Unless they send out the certificate I’m not sure.

I’ve got back into the swing of Duolingo, currently in the promotion zone of the Sapphire league getting ready to move up to the Ruby league! 

I like Duolingo but it really needs to let courses like Welsh include speaking exercises. My ability to read welsh is better than it ever was in school but without speaking exercises that verbal language part of my brain is useless. Friends will say something to me in welsh and I have to repeat what they’ve said, using my fingers the same way I did in school to work out sums except each finger is a word! Then by the time I’ve worked it out they’ve walked away chuckling. Despite this the learning continues. Araf, araf, dal i mwnci.

So in lieu of anything major happening I thought I’d unleash the first of the two politics related posts I mentioned last week. I originally wrote a modified version of this way back in 2016 and it is astounding how things have developed. So I decided to do an updated version for where we are now.

I wrote it because so many people, myself included, felt powerless and unsure how to engage with politics. And those who did seem more engaged just seemed to be spinning their wheels and not getting anything achieved.

The last three and a bit years have been a Pandora’s Box of awfulness, hate crimes and the general vitriol that have slithered into every corner of rational discourse. So I’ve tried to be more informed about Welsh/UK politics. And obviously whatever anxieties I’ve felt pale in comparison to how marginalised groups feel all the time, let alone right now. But despite all the bad I was inspired by posts appearing in my social media feeds from people in the US reacting after Trump got elected. They were posting daily or weekly ‘Resistance Reports’, the reports detail how they’ve been engaging with local and national politics and even providing quick and easy actions that others can do to help (I’m sure the first one I saw was from Calvin Starnes). I really liked this idea and wondered if anyone had been doing something similar in the UK post-referendum that could provide some actions I could follow and post about in my own reports. I didn’t find anything so then I looked for any guides on the best ways to engage with my local and national politicians with the plan to set my own actions and go from there. Again I didn’t find the bounty of information I was hoping for, a lot of US specific guides but barely any for the UK. So then I just went looking for relevant information that I could use to create a rough guide for myself before setting my actions.

I ended up falling down a rabbit hole of helpful and infuriatingly unhelpful information for anyone wanting to engage with UK politics without joining a political party. So I’ve made this post a resource dump for useful links along with thoughts and suggestions that I’ve gathered from social media and other sites on how best to use them and set your own actions. I’ll try and keep this as concise as possible but I apologise if this sprawls or rambles all over the place.

Now, living in Wales means there are devolved issues that don’t apply elsewhere, same with Scotland and Northern Ireland. So I’ve tried to keep as much of this applicable to the whole UK as I could but I am planning on doing a Welsh politics post soon.

Getting started:

Getting more involved with politics doesn’t mean you have to take to the streets with placards, although this is really helpful when the situation calls for it. It does mean finding your voice and dialling it up to eleven. It means shaking off your apathy, stepping out of your comfort zone and putting in some hard work. It is no longer possible to sit back and continue on under the assumption that it’s all going to work out for the best.

Possibly the most important step is that you have to speak up. Hate crimes soared in the wake of the referendum so it’s really important that we speak up for others when we witness attacks, verbal or physical. This is extra important for white guys. Don’t scream or engage, just calmly show that hate will not be tolerated. The Hollaback group have some great resources about standing up to hate.

The same goes if someone makes discriminatory comments in front of you, call it out as unacceptable. I know it can be intimidating; particularly with family but there are ways to criticise with kindness. Don’t let this kind of behaviour become normal.

If you live in a city or large town then there’s likely to be a cultural centres and organisations for migrants or other minority groups. They often have open days or other events. Go to them and take friends and family with you. It’s a small thing but it can help get rid of the us and them bullshit that the daily mail loves to stir up. If those groups do any community work then respectfully find out if you can help. This may mean learning how to be a good ally.

As an addendum to this: it’s vital that we find ways to build links between echo chambers. Particularly with those that we support but may not think to get involved with, such as groups campaigning for racial equality. Understanding that their fights are symptoms of the same disease that helped bring about brexit and Trump are really important for being a better ally and building a stronger resistance.

That being said some of those echo chambers may not contain people who identify as liberal so some thought has to be given to find ways to embrace imperfect allies, they’re imperfections may be rooted in their privilege but if we can’t reach out to them then it’s all too easy for them to see only the fear-mongering and to adopt the mindset behind nationalism. I don’t have any firm suggestions for this, I’m the first to say I find it easier to completely ignore the people that voted for brexit or look at what’s happening in America as a good thing and not debate with them, but I also realise that’s not very constructive in the post-truth world we find ourselves in. If you have any thoughts or suggestions then I am all ears. (It’s been 3 and a bit years and I still don’t have any good responses to this)

Finding out who represents you:

It’s easy to find your MP. Their profile page will contain all their contact information as well as committees they serve on, questions they’ve asked in the Commons and the results of the election that made them an MP.

You can also find out how they’ve voted in Parliament at They Work For You. There’s also links for the voting records of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. Sadly there is (still!) nothing for the Welsh Assembly due to lack of resources. (If you’re willing and able, getting this much needed section up and running could be an action!)

When contacting your MP, phone their office. Letters and emails are all well and good but they can be put to one side and ignored. Answering a phone and dealing with (polite) questions and concerns takes time. Get enough people to call on the same day or over a set period of time then that’s harder to ignore. But if like me you don’t particularly enjoy making phone calls at all, then here’s a great guide to phoning your reps when you have social anxiety. I Know that there’s an ingrained British phobia against “being a bother” but if there is a running theme to this post, it is that you need to be a bother.

Protest and petitions are fine but how effective have they been over the last three years? A tiny bit of direct action could actually make the difference. A good list of ideas is by the Albert Einstein Foundation, they compiled 198 methods of non-violent action.

MPs will often hold regular surgeries to update their constituents on various issues and listen to concerns. Go to these whenever you can, if only to stay informed. Organise a group of people to go. If you’re attending a surgery with the aim of raising a concern don’t feel you have to go armed with reams of research on your particular issue.

Politicians respond to people engaging, silence and apathy are not protests, they’re giving up.

UK Issue Links:

It was tough to decide what to focus on and direct you towards. I didn’t want to prioritise any issue that was too regional or devolved. So the links below are broad but great starting points to get informed on specific issues, get involved and find other relevant links.

Liberty (also known as the National Council for Civil Liberties) are a cross party, non-party membership organisation that campaigns on human rights issues in the UK. They’re against the snooper charter and the use of facial recognition, providing this helpful guide to protect yourself online. Become a member, volunteer or make a donation.

Keep Our NHS Public is exactly what it sounds like. In Wales the NHS is a devolved issue but across England it is taking a beating. KONP has a ton of useful information, their social media has links to NHS campaign groups up and down the country making it really easy to get involved.

Stop Funding The Hate are a great campaign to convince companies to stop advertising with the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express. They’re a really effective example of online activism using social media, so getting involved is easy and can take up very little of your time. You can also sign up for their newsletter.

Social Links:

These links are for those of you that may want to get more hands on with a group or issue and may even want to organise your own groups.

Arts Emergency are responding to increasing higher education costs by offering a network of mentors to help 16–19 year olds pursue and develop opportunities in the arts, media, academia and professions such as Law and Architecture. If you have a background in the arts and humanities then maybe consider becoming a mentor.

Do-It are a database of volunteering opportunities so if you looking to get proactive this is a good place to start.

Seeds For Change Is a great resource offering training and information if you’re looking to organise your own campaign group.

The Trussell Trust are the UK’s food bank network. Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK now depend on food banks. If you can please donate some time, money or the priority items your local bank is in need of. It really will make a big difference to someone.

News:

The New European is a pop up newspaper that appeared during the referendum. It covers ongoing developments with brexit. It also covers a broad variety of news from around Europe which I think is important because Britain and America aren’t the only places far-right rhetoric are frothing up right now so staying informed outside our traditional news bubble is important.

Open Democracy Are an independent media platform that cover topics relating to democracy in the UK. Another great starting point for getting informed about a variety of important issues.

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I know this is far from complete or perfect but if you’ve felt overwhelmed and powerless to make an impact on UK politics this should give you some options to get involved. There’s no excuses. I know it’s not going to be easy, doing good in the face of adversity seldom is. But you are needed. If you believe in democracy, diversity, compassion and equality then it’s never been more important for you to speak up in defence of them. To resist anyone who tells you that they are unnecessary or incompatible with a civilised society.

Brave Heart, Dear friends and don’t let the bastards grind you down.