Sharing is caring,
The woods a mercy.
Planes stitched the sky.
Making new radio,
Zines to follow.
The Weather Turned
First a big thank you to everyone who shared my post on Playability last week, it’s lead to some really interesting conversations.
The weather turned really hot last week we’ve had multiple 30C+ days with, as I write this on Monday afternoon, one more to go. After that things drop back to the more manageable mid 20’s. Despite the heat, Eve and I went to the woods yesterday.
Spending an hour or so in the cool dappled light was very welcome, before tackling the hill. Which on such a hot day… was baking. But it was worth it as we were rewarded with the view, and we stood and watched the planes coming in and out of Heathrow for a while. But with the punishing sun went back down and walked home. The day was then spent hiding from the worst of the heat, with our floor fan coming out of storage to do it’s heroic work once again.
Podcast / Zine
Pre-production work (making notes lol) has started on what I might do once 301 comes to the end of it’s run at the end of this month. Right now it’s looking like things will fall into two categories. I will keep posting audio essays online as per the style of 301, but they won’t be 5mins1sec they will be as long as they need to be. These ‘shorter’ shows will be a learning zone for going a bit longer, finding the vibe and shape of the show without the 301 container. I’d like to try weaving interview content in with narration etc as thats a new kind of writing challenge I haven’t approached before. I also have some lectures and talks I’ve given over the last few years that i’d like to share with you as a audio, and they will come out ad hock.
The second kind of content type is full blown ‘radio’ I want to make ‘a show’. A topic explored over multiple episodes with scoring, interviews, on location audio etc. I have a couple of ideas, and the first kind of content will (for a while) be practice runs for this more ambitious show.
One thing is for certain is that each episode going forward is going to get it’s own zine. Either in the one page format and eventually more ambitious things will be printed at a printers, A6 and stapled. I’m really into the idea of each episode having it’s own zine. I figure if people liked an individual episode and wanted to support the show you can ‘buy’ the zine version of it as merch. I think I’ll overprint the zine run by 20% or something and set up a shop. Regular supporter will continue to receive whatever/everything that has come out quarterly in one package.
Speaking of which!
Q2’s zine (#Issue 14!) is nearly finished I just have to do the layout in affinity and i’ll be getting it printed next week. Why not subscribe now, get that, and also help me produce the next phase of the show, and my creative life with confidence?
Subscribing to SSRZ supports my online work and creative projects.
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On The Blog:
Haven’t posted anything on this blog here at thejaymo.net this week. But!
I’ve started another blog hosted by leaflet.pub. In part to try the platform out, but also to support the leaflet team as I think they are doing great work. You can subscribe via rss or the Bluesky publications feed functionality.
BYENNE
A newsletter about storydwelling. Byenne is what’s left. After the storm. After the telling.
by Jay Springett @thejaymo.net
Permanently Moved
Tales Untold
It is the graft that reveals the craft.
Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2025/06/27/2516-tales-untold/
Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
Subscriber Zine support the show! https://startselectreset.com/
Quarterly zine; my gift to you ✉️
Photo 365
Tyger Tyger, burning bright …
In the Bamboo Woodland Trail of the nightSorry to William Blake for mashing up his words! But have you spotted the tiger in our Bamboo Woodland Trail? Yes really, a @Stevexoh tiger has crept into Kingston! Don’t worry though, we hear it is friendly so do give it a wave.
Do tag us in your photos – we’d love to see your tiger hunt photos. Like this lovely one on Instagram from @thejaymo.
… We’re going on a tiger hunt! …
The Ministry Of My Own Labour
- Received a lovely email via my contact form
- Finished the copy for a bunch of public facing versions of our final playtest report.
- Demoed our engine’s game editor
- Attended a call/talk on immersive and generative sound design.
- Had a call with someone at Microsoft Research
- Put Playability onto worldrunning.guide
Terminal Access
This medium piece on why the author nuked their ‘Second Brain’ is really interesting. Why I Erased 10,000 Notes, 7 Years of Ideas, and Every Thought I Tried to Save
Human memory is not an archive. It is associative, embodied, contextual, emotional. We do not think in folders. We do not retrieve meaning through backlinks. Our minds are improvisational. They forget on purpose.
Knowledge management systems they say give us a semblance of intellectual control, but also they can foster deferral. The belief that a better, future version of oneself will process and synthesise the ideas later. A self that never arrives.
Dipping the Stacks
How Wattpad changed the way we think about writing
As a 14-year-old, I found Wattpad’s saturation of teen popular culture exhilarating; it promised to appease my quickly shifting reading preferences. My digital library became a hoard of historical fiction and supernatural romance novels, where I surrendered to my teenage angst and lived vicariously through questionably written characters. For four years, I religiously followed the satirical but romantic Storm and Silence series, treating the Wednesday chapter uploads like morning church service.
Speaking in hushed tones in a crowded Damascus café, Abu Wael said that after 40 years of treasure hunting, he knows that riches are not easily found. He accused metal-detector salesmen of tricking people into spending their meagre savings on a pipe dream.
Why Gradients Rapidly Increase Near the End of Training | alphaXiv
In this work, we focus on one particular unusual behavior that arises only in longer-duration training runs, and not for all machine learning models, an uptick in the norm of the gradient towards the end of training
The messy end of the pageview economy
The end of the pageview economy is unfolding slowly and then all at once. Google’s addition of AI Mode is the writing on the wall. Anyone using answer engines knows this is a superior option for many searches than wading through a sea of blue links stuffed with SEO slop. The second-order effects on publishers are becoming clear. Some notes on my recent conversations.
The Drawings the Shakers Got from God
An exuberant exhibit shows that, when it comes to art, the community should be known for far more than its furniture.
Reading
This week I read Y2K: How the 2000’s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) by Colette Shade. I absolutely inhaled this essay collection. It’s a personal memoir that steps us through the trends and cultural shifts of the Y2K in the first person. Having read Taylor Lorenz’s Extremely Online somewhat recently I appreciated the chapter on Britney, Fame, Paparazzi and the cultural logics of of Web2.0. The chapter “How Larry Summers Caused My Eating Disorder” for example is an intertwined look at fashion and the cult of skinny in 2000’s media, whilst skilfully giving us the historical arch of neoliberalism. Really good book, especially if you lived though it. Really good book.
Despite my ongoing ‘finish everything you’ve started’ policy for 2025, I cracked and started reading books on the backlog despite there only being TWO books left from ‘the old times’ the first was Shades book above, the second being The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena. What a remarkable book.
Music
Stagno – OVO
Italian noise rock legends OVO have a new double A side record out. And it’s been the first thing I’ve been listening to whenever I’ve left the house all week. Not for the faint of heart. I’d love to see them live again.
Remember Kids:
I understand and I know from experience that: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; He teaches without the noise of words. Never have I heard Him speak, but I feel that He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do. I find just when I need them certain lights that I had not seen until then, and it isn’t most frequently during my hours of prayer that these are most abundant but rather in the midst of my daily occupations.
Story of a Soul – Thérèse de Lisieux
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