Apple’s iOS 17 Preview:

The new Journal app looks interesting, but from the limited demo it seems entirely local, with no sharing - unless I’ve missed something?

No one but you can access your journal.

With the integration with Shortcuts, and the potential for third party apps to contribute via the Journaling Suggestions API, all it needs is a little love for ActivityPub and it would be a powerful source for (micro-)blogging platforms like micro.blog.

When implementing humane gun laws is beyond your society’s ken, I suppose you can always try the Winnie the Pooh gambit. But maybe, just maybe, try a bit harder on the gun laws?

“Danger is scary, but our legendary friends Pooh and his crew are here to help us through,” reads one page.

— Winnie-the-Pooh book teaches kids to ‘run, hide, fight’ in a shooting, Washington Post

Scone Palace

Today I ate a scone in Scone.

Travel notes:

• jam first, then cream
• the use of both ‘sandwich’ and ‘palace’ demonstrate a degree of hubris
• lovely peacocks and grounds
• never realised how much I didn’t know about Douglas firs
• yet more evidence that Queen Victoria fair got about

Moot Hill, Scone Palace

Two theatre visits in one week:

• And by Charlotte Mclean
• Ane City

When will this extravagance end? Now. It will end now.

Once more unto the breach… I wonder if the Dundee Repertory Theatre offers a loyalty scheme?

Two nights at the theatre in one week, two young women from the eastern coast of Scotland telling their personal stories in ways that only they can. While And is intimate and minimalist, Ane City is loud and luscious. Though I wonder if both had attended each other’s performances if they might not have spotted a kinship.

Ane City is a coming of age story set against a backdrop of the hometown that protagonist Tay (Taylor Dyson) has so desperately tried to escape. Tay confronts her family, friends, and past - and a local taxi driver - through monologue, poetry, and song. With cameo appearances from poetic royalty and royal royalty.

Her feelings are complex, much like her Dundee home - simultaneously infamous for the depravation-driven high rates of teenage pregnancy and drug deaths, and yet appearing in Lonely Planet’s Best in Europe top 10 places to visit in 2018 with significant recent inward investment from the likes of the V&A and Eden Project. Seemingly contradictory sides of ane city.

Verdict?

Gloriously funny. Bluntly introspective. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

More info: Ane City by Elfie Picket Theatre

It’s been too long. It’s funny what a global pandemic does to your idea of spending time in a public theatre - even one as perfectly formed as the Dundee Rep.

If you get a chance to witness And in person, I urge you do so. I certainly plan to return. Which is fine, because the now 28 year old Charlotte plans to perform this show for the rest of her life - each time revised to reflect her greater experience.

But what is it?

A solo contemporary dance show? Performance poetry? A living memoir? Charlotte’s own web page for the work describes it so:

And is an auto-biographical performance about growing up as a woman, and explores culture, identity, nationality and politics.

In the spirit of all performance living in the space between performer and audience, I would add that’s it’s a reflection of the individual impact of a turbulent world on the idea of self, joy, responsibility, and guilt.

It’s deeply personal performance story-telling.

Verdict?

Both fierce and gentle, cutting and comedic, And is an emotional and poignant story of a young woman and womanhood - generationally tied to mothers past and yet cautiously optimistic about future children.

A perfect show for a rainy Wednesday. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

More info: And by Charlotte Mclean

King Taharqa @ The Ashmolean, Oxford

📺 The Sopranos

Finally, I know.

Often lauded as the greatest TV show of time, and I can see why. Very much enjoyed.

And. That. Ending.

I’ve never read Natalie Guest’s blog but this comment on her email subscription page persuaded me to try:

[Her writing] does have a knack of keeping me reading on even when I have better things to do

I always have ‘better’ things to do.

Murdo, with stick

Corrie Fee, Glendoll

Carolyn on Mastodon:

Could you please not denigrate a man by equating him to a woman? There are a lot of asshole men you can draw from.

Amen.

Falls of Unich, Glen Lee

🕹 Casual Birder - Playdate Season 1, Game 1

The first title is a groovy Pokémon-esque throwback for twitchers - gotta snap ‘em all! Pokémon games were never my thing, but they might be yours.

But, holy cow, the text is small for my old eyes. Playdate XL, Panic?

Michael Amundsen:

Even the simplest screens in an app should be architected to allow for scrolling.

— Every Screen in Your App Should Be a Scrolling View - Lickability

When developing for iPhone today, if you can set a minimum version of iOS 16.2 then you need to be prepared to support the following phones and their respective screen sizes.

That’s ten different screen sizes from an iPhone 8¹ to an iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Comparing devices for “how much they can show on the screen” you should look at the Logical Dimensions column.

---

1. iPhone 8 was released on 22 September 2017 and discontinued on 15 April 2020. ↩︎

Path to Ethie, Angus

Finished reading: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 📚

A poignant exploration of the fragility of our psyche.

🕹 Playdate - initial impressions: perfectly cute, beautifully engineered

Kudos to Panic for bringing artisanal whimsy back to the world of video games.

Slàinte Mhath 🥃

It’s too late this year, but next… what do you do for hogmanay?

[David Sparks watches] Star Wars, Episode IV, in such a way that the Death Star blows up precisely a the stroke of midnight.

Blowing Up the Death Star at Midnight, Again - MacSparky

Looks like I am on a triennial blog refresh cycle.

New:

• Cards theme by @ericgregorich
• Conversation and Surprise Me plug-ins by @sod
• trialling On This Day page

Regressions:

• direction of next/previous buttons (also missing from posts)
• post category labels

Vaccinated.

Virus: SARS-CoV-2
Vaccine: Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent
Dose number: 4
Superpowers: »tracking disabled»