Weeknotes 2024 W23

This week has been a joyful mix of getting out into the wild world, catching up with old friends, fostering a revised fondness of writing, both my own and other’s, and creating a space for those words to rest.

I started the week with joining familiar faces from Clearleft in Brighton for a few celebrations. There’s a saying ‘Once a Clearleftie, always a Clearleftie’, that certainly seems true from the open door and smiling faces. Lots of excitement about the upcoming UX London conference and also some exciting talk about another conference… watch this space.

After signing up for the climate change themed conference Content Rising, I met up with one half of its organisers, Charlie Peverett. We took a long walk around the surrounding countryside of Lewes talking about some of the great in the sustainability and regenerative space. He shared his binoculars and coffee with me too, what a gentleman!

I joined the equally friendly and kind-hearted folks at Homebrew Website Club on Wednesday evening. It gave me the opportunity to share my process for prototyping a printable web zine. I received some interesting ways to solve a problem I was having and some exciting suggestions for enhancing the reader experience. I’m really excited to join again next week and share my progress.

I’m finding the IndieWeb community to be a really positive influence at the moment. I’m spending a lot more time on my website and thinking about expressing myself through words. Having dyslexia has always been somewhat of a barrier to consuming and creating through the written word but it has never dampened my enthusiasm. I really value the creativity and playfulness of the community members. I feel very much at home here.

It’s been a fun week of tinkering with my website too. The time I would usually spend deep within a Youtube hole, I’ve been checking off items from James’ post 100 things you can do on your personal website or Joe’s 10 more things you can do on your personal website. That’s what I love about the IndieWeb scene. There’s genuine content that reflects genuine connections. The vacuous facade of ‘corporate web’ starts to crumble, revealing a quieter internet.

It seems the slugs have finally given up the fight. My seedlings are doing well and the diligent routine of discarding of any slime-covered stowaways as I tuck them in at bedtime has finally paid off.

I’m wrapping up the week with some baking, a lovely long bike ride with a friend.