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A personal blog about technology, music, books, films, and whatever else catches my attention.
Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
After the commercial and critical success of OK Computer, Radiohead could have made OK Computer Part 2. Instead, they made this.
Kid A confused and alienated many fans on release. The guitars were buried under electronics. Thom Yorke’s voice was processed beyond recognition. Song structures dissolved into ambient textures.
Two decades later, it sounds prophetic. The anxiety it captured—about technology, disconnection, information overload—only became more relevant.
“Everything In Its Right Place” remains one of the most unsettling album openers ever recorded. “How to Disappear Completely” is devastating. The title track sounds like a lullaby from the uncanny valley.
This album changed what rock music could be. See also In Rainbows, where they found warmth within their experimental approach.
The Small Web
Aral Balkan articulates something I’ve been feeling for years: the web we have isn’t the web we need.
The “Small Web” is his term for a more human-scale internet—one where individuals own their own spaces rather than renting them from corporations.
This connects to what I wrote about rebuilding personal sites. There’s value in having a corner of the internet that’s truly yours.
On Tools and Craft
There’s a tendency in tech culture to obsess over tools. The right text editor. The perfect note-taking app. The ultimate productivity system.
But tools are means, not ends. The carpenter isn’t defined by their hammer.
I’ve written about digital minimalism and the importance of being intentional about technology. The same principle applies to creative tools: choose something that works, then get out of the way and do the work.
The best tool is often the one you already know. Mastery comes from use, not from switching to something new every few months.
Arrival (2016)
Denis Villeneuve again (see my Blade Runner 2049 review). Arrival is perhaps the best science fiction film of the last decade.
Based on Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” it’s a film about language, time, and grief. Amy Adams delivers a career-defining performance as linguist Louise Banks.
The film’s structure mirrors its themes in ways that only become clear on second viewing. It asks: if you knew how things would end, would you still choose to begin?
Like Slaughterhouse-Five, it treats time as something fluid, something we experience rather than simply move through.
Sunset Walk
There’s something about the golden hour that makes everything look better. The harsh edges of midday soften into something more forgiving.
I’ve been making an effort to take more walks lately, especially in the hour before sunset. It’s become a small ritual—a way to transition from work mode to evening.
Like that earlier morning photo, these moments remind me to slow down.
On Rebuilding Personal Sites
I’ve rebuilt this site more times than I can count. Each iteration reflects where I am as a developer and writer.
Frank Chimero’s essay on The Web’s Grain has been influential in how I think about web design. The web isn’t print. It’s its own medium with its own strengths.
This current version prioritizes:
- Readability over flashiness
- Longevity over trends
- Content over chrome
Sometimes the best thing you can do for a personal site is to strip away everything that doesn’t serve the writing.
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, National Book Awards Speech, 2014
Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
A decade after OK Computer, Radiohead delivered something warmer, more human. Where OK Computer was anxious and alienated, In Rainbows is intimate and alive.
The pay-what-you-want release model made headlines, but the music itself is what endures. “Reckoner” is one of the most beautiful songs they’ve ever written. “15 Step” proves they can make odd time signatures feel effortless.
This is Radiohead at their most accessible without sacrificing an ounce of artistic integrity.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic is a rare thing: a legacy sequel that justifies its existence. Like Parasite, it uses genre conventions to explore deeper themes about humanity and identity.
Roger Deakins’ cinematography is breathtaking—every frame could be hung in a gallery. The film moves slowly, deliberately, allowing its dystopian world to breathe.
Ryan Gosling’s K is a different kind of protagonist than Harrison Ford’s Deckard. Where Deckard questioned what he was hunting, K questions who he is. The film earns its nearly three-hour runtime.