Weeknote 08/2025
“Remember that it is not the weight of the future or past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone.”
(Marcus Aurelius)
Let’s start with something positive, shall we? This week, as part of my February experimentation, I created Album Shelf. I was inspired to create it after watching the start of Jim Groom’s conversation with Audrey Watters on Reclaim.tv. He later told me that what I thought were record covers are actually Laserdiscs! But nevermind, it seeded an idea…
I’ve never been into vinyl, having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s with cassette tapes, CDs, and Minidiscs. So it would be a bit anachronistic for me to start buying actual records as a physical background for my new home office. Instead, I wondered if I could generate a background — and do so in a way that I and other people could generate lots of different versions!
To do so, I turned to an app I’d been messing about with a couple of weeks ago called used Lovable. It’s pretty incredible: imagine using an LLM to create a full-stack web app. I found that it requires a little bit of knowledge of web technologies to help put it on the right track sometimes, but on the whole it’s pretty incredible. Try it! The promo image above uses the Top 10 Albums from Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. What would be on your shelf?
Otherwise, it’s been a pretty shitty week. You know, I’ve looked after myself during my lifetime. I’ve exercised, eaten well, got enough sleep, and generally avoided things that might kill me. But there’s something wrong with my heart. I wore a Holter monitor for 24 hours from Thursday to Friday morning, and am awaiting results.
I went on the exercise bike at normal pace on Thursday lunchtime to provide an ‘event’ for the medical staff to study, and felt pretty terrible afterwards. I didn’t do any exercise on Friday, and then this morning just lifted some weights at the gym. Walking home, I couldn’t get up the steep hill to our house without sitting on a bench half-way up. This is a hill that I’ve previously sprinted up at the end of a 10k run! When I was washing up (“doing the dishes” for you Americans) after dinner, I had to sit down for a bit. What’s going on?!
The work situation is absolutely on its arse as well, meaning that I felt compelled to write a post entitled Exploring New Horizons (aka “Hire Me!”). I shouldn’t complain, as it’s potentially a chance for us to get an air source heat pump, but our gas boiler seems to be dying as well. FML.
<sigh>
I wrote some things at Thought Shrapnel. I co-created digitalcredentials.fyi with Laura. I had some bizdev conversations. I took my daughter to football-related things. I went to the pub and played pool with my son. I cashed out my remaining crypto and I divided the money between my family at Costco and we bought weird stuff, just for fun.
2025 is a shitshow. Someone posted this video which is full of Stoic advice that I already know, but need to apply. Hopefully next week, which is half-term for our two teenagers, will be better. Fingers crossed 🤞