Back Again (Again)

Another week’s weeknotes coming to you on a Tuesday evening. An irregular occurrence that has been happening quite regularly in the last few weeks. I’ve been sick, and I’ve also been abroad. Also, I absolutely knew this was going to happen and this would get posted well passed Sunday.

When I was at City Airport last Tuesday, just before I flew to Berlin for three nights, wrote ‘!!WEEKNOTES!!’ in my bullet journal. 

I saw this sign not long after arriving in the city.

The trip meanwhile, was successful (I think). I had a bunch of dinners conversations, coffees and meetings. I spent an afternoon with talking to a really cool startup. Then I went to see Mat and Holly’s Starmirror as last month when they showed me around it was still being installed. I also picked up their book ‘All Media is Training Data’. Obviously is pirated their exhibition as a gaussian splat too. lol.

I also spent an entire day down in the countryside at the facilities of a startup that is making dry composting toilets for municipalities, national parks, and festivals. It was absolutely fascinating, a really interesting day listening to the challenges of building a small scale manufacturing business. And also hearing about the regulatory environment in Germany and the EU around composting human waste — and the scientific studies they are involved in with their ‘night soil’.

It was extremely busy and basically non-stop. And then the weekend was somewhat of a write-off, a friends birthday lunch and then after my shocking cold that I had before I went, that I kept at bay with Lemsips whilst I was abroad. It came back hard and demanded it run out its course.

Yesterday of course was the first day of the new week, and I was getting back into the swing of things. Insane how much e-mail builds up over 7 days.

Right now, I actually only have two weeks left of my ‘year’ before Eve and I are supposed to be going to Sri Lanka on holiday. A trip of a lifetime that is currently in superposition due to the cyclone and the floods. So we are giving ourselves a moment to see how things are unfolding before we make a decision, and start investigating cancellations and our travel insurance etc. Or go ahead. Doesn’t look like we are going to be taking the train (One of the reasons we were going)

Anyways, because of the half month I was hoping, and planning, to get two big pieces of work and writing out before the end of the year. I wanted to publish Episode 302 of Permanently Moved, and set up pre-orders for the zine, and also publish the book I have been writing all year on the ontology of media. It’s about the Information Age Iconoclasm. Called SLOP MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE.

But there is just still so much left to do. Meetings in town, work and social commitments between now and when we leave… So I am not sure that either are going to get done.

I think perhaps I will try and finish the book and get that out on my return first thing 2026. And then towards the end of January, Episode 302 of Permanently Moved.

So I thought to myself the other day that “One does not need to believe in ghosts to live in a haunted house.” and posted it to bluesky. And Colin Walker replied “One does not need to live in a haunted house to believe in ghosts.” Which I thought was rather good.

So I wrote this double poem.

On The Blog

BYENNE is nearly finished! Only 5 days to go now! The half year long project of getting some of my thoughts out about the concept of Storydwelling is coming to an end. In the new year I’d like to do a physical print run via pre-order and the release them all as an ebook.

If you dwell inside

long enough.

You will come to think

it was always yours.

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Berlin!
  • Multiple meetings
  • Dinners
  • Site Visit
  • Discussions, Dinners and Dreams.
• Recovering, had a shocking cold the whole time!

Terminal Access

If you read one thing this week from my blog. Read this long read on NATO readiness and Drone warfare in Ukraine.

The most interested in the drones was a Czech instructor, Jakub (name changed), a veteran of peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan. Together with the Eighteenth, they decided to conduct an exercise: Czech paratroopers would assault Ukrainian positions, and the Ukrainians would fight back using Mavics.

“After the very first assault actions, he comes up to me and says, ‘Listen, can we remove the Maviks?'” the major recalls of that conversation. “Why, Yakub?”

“You can spot us with your ‘mavics’ instantly, we can’t even get close.”

“Jakub, unfortunately, we are preparing for a real war,” I told him.

Reading

I finished Elitism: A Progressive Defence by Eliane Glaser on the plane to Berlin on Tuesday. A very good book. Also in retrospect, a very brave book to write and publish in 2020 given the cultural environment at the time.

On the way home I was reading Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading by Nadia Asparouhova. It’s a very eerie book to be reading as its a summery of some of the ideas that have clearly been incubating in/across the same milieu as me. Perhaps we are only one group chat removed?

Still plugging away at Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls. The introductuary essay and analysis I think, is longer than the main text. Haven’t got to it yet. I’m also still listening to Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson. But I haven’t had any time really to press play.

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Souvenirs

The Bandcamp descriptions says it all:

“Crows of the sky, please tell me What is found above the clouds?
-Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, “Tell Me”

The first vocal album by beloved Ethiopian nun, composer, and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – profound and deeply moving home cassette recordings made amidst political upheaval and turmoil.

These are songs of wisdom, loss, mourning, and exile, sung directly into a boombox and accompanied by Emahoy’s unmistakable piano. Though written and recorded while still living at her family’s home in Addis Ababa, Emahoy sings of the heartache of leaving her beloved Ethiopia, a reflection on the 1974 revolution and ensuing Red Terror in her homeland, and a presentiment of her future exile in Jerusalem.

In the 21st century, Emahoy has become known worldwide for her utterly unique melodic and rhythmic style. Commonly misinterpreted as “jazzy” or “honky tonk,” Emahoy’s music actually comes from a deep engagement with the Western classical tradition, mixed with her background in Ethiopian traditional and Orthodox music.

Remember Kids:

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The Horizon Line

We went down to Folkestone today for a flying visit for birthday lunch with Eve’s Dad. Because of the train times we got quite early, so we walked down though the town, to the harbour. mostly because I wanted to see the sea.

I’ve written about the horizon before but it is something that is very important to me.

It is hard to speak about this with people who grew up amidst city or hills. But I find a deep peace in the presence of that vast line. My eyes, and my mind, rest upon it and relax.

The edge of the world, as far as the eye can see, a boundary between the knowable and the mysterious. Everything between you and it is knowable. When I look at the horizon the complexity of life fades away, leaving a line on which everything can be settled. A surface on which to hang all existence. 

I said to Eve whilst we were standing in the sunshine that it ‘resets my eyes’. And in a way, it resets my place in the world too. “Everything between you, and it, is knowable”. The limits to ones perception in the world. There are, of course, things beyond it, destinations, concerns, etc.

The sea exposes the horizon, as do the tops of mountains. Cities meanwhile are close and twisty. Places that reveal themselves with the turn of every street corner. It’s not good at all to spend your life in the city. Makes you crazy.

I think having a relationship with the horizon is healthy.

On The Blog:

May 2025 | Photo 365

Photo 365 2025. Year 4 Month 5.
Photo-a-day for the month of May 2025.

Permanently Moved

This weeks episode has already caused quite a bit of comments and feedback from people. Glad I wrote it.

More Distant Than Ever

https://permanentlymoved.online/

Growing up in Britain in the 1990s, America felt like a country that existed only on television and in toy boxes. A place across the pond that shared a language, but also seemed so alien. 

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2020/10/09/301-2040-abstract-objects/

Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
Subscriber Zine support the show! https://startselectreset.com/

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

Subscribe to the Podcast: https://permanentlymoved.online/

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Gave a demo for our new engine at work, and pitched what we want to build next.
• Met up with Ross from impossible object books
• Worked on my IF story a little bit
• Re-read parts of Slop Machines made lots of notes

Terminal Access

There’s been some chatter about the need for video game journalism recently, this long read on gambling mechanics published by Polygon (post layoffs, so I hope this is where they are taking the site in future) is FANTASTIC. Nobody understands gambling, especially in video games

Where do we draw the line? Is it gambling to play any game that is also played in casinos, like poker or blackjack? Is it gambling to play a game that evokes the aesthetics of a casino, like cards, chips, dice, or slot machines? Is it gambling to wager or earn fictional money?

Gaming has always been a lightning rod for controversy. Sex, violence, misogyny, addiction — you name it, video games have been accused of perpetrating or encouraging it. But gambling is gaming’s original sin. And it’s the one we still can’t get a grip on.

Reading

I finished reading The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life by Paul Millerd. Not impressed, do not understand the cult around this book at all. Picked up Right Story, Wrong Story by Tyson Yunkaporta.

Back to Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf

Chiminyo – NRG 4

I’ve been listening to this new album from jazz/electronic/live drummer Chiminyo this week. Recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s recently. It’s a improvised jazz album, mostly held together by the syths, its gooves are extremely contemporary and it sounds like the sound of post brexit London. I really want to see if I can get to some of RS’ Late Late Electronic nights now.

Also, Chiminyo is one of the best drummer’s I’ve ever head. Check out the album it rocks!

Remember Kids:

The post The Horizon Line appeared first on thejaymo.net.

I Watch Bright Things Unfold Themselves

I wrote the little poem at the start of this post in my phone earlier this week, sitting in a coffee shop. The sun is now out, and we’re heading into a heatwave here in London.

I watch bright things unfold themselves.

I’m really pleased with it as a sentence, I love the rhythm of it when you say it out loud.
Thats all I really have to report this week … that I like a single sentence that I wrote.

Sometimes just the one is enough!

You should watch this talk by Anne Carson given for the LRB last year. It’s deeply moving and full of wisdom. Nominally it’s about losing control of her handwriting due to Parkinson’s disease.

Though in true Carson style, it’s not just about handwriting. She effortlessly speak on art, poetry, history, and philosophy. It’s really about: life, creativity, and how we keep going even when everything is getting harder. Though the lens of her personal struggle, she explores big questions: who we are, how we stay ourselves when our bodies change, and how we keep creating meaning even as we face ageing and loss.

It’s one of the most honest talks I’ve ever heard. It never tips into sentimentality however tempting that must have been in earlier drafts.

On The Blog

Accessions | 230425

The cards for Downcrawl 2E a game by designer Aaron A. Reed finally arrived!

Permanently Moved

Surface Without Substance

https://permanentlymoved.online/

As generative AI erodes the very nature of the image, the world will continue to thicken with surfaces with signs slipping past meaning. It is another stage in the Information-Age iconoclasm. The great unravelling of the image as a stable carrier of truth.

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2025/04/26/2509-surface-without-substance/

• Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
• Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
• Subscriber Zine! https://startselectreset.com/

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Re wrote intro to SLOP MACHINES – new edit required to harmonised voice and tone
• Punted WRITING THE IMPOSSIBLE OBJECT to June
• Made some more systems progress on METIS III. Nearly ready to just .. write the story.
• PROJECT ENTRY calls.
• Got asked by my former co-founder to write up some of our learnings about putting LLMs in MUDs. Tentative essay title: HARD WORLDS FOR LITTLE GUYS

Got a super busy week next week. Need to go to Essex!

Terminal Access

Kei Kreutler published a great essay on the history of Appalachian Mountain Clubs their internal governance and treasury policies and what we can learn from them.

However, the ongoing maintenance huts required led to changes in the relationship between the overall organization and its local chapters. Maintenance costs relied on collecting 30% of annual membership dues from local chapters, yet they often resisted sending these dues to the AMC headquarters in Boston. In 1947, the Delaware Valley Chapter temporarily withheld 40% of collected fees to fund local shelter repairs.[3] The AMC Board of Directors responded by creating a matching fund program where chapters could retain half of excess annual membership dues if they met certain benchmarks

Reading

I finally finished with Metaverse by Matthew Bal Its a really good book. I’m curios about the paper back version being completely re-written. If I see it anywhere cheap I think I’ll pick it up.

AND I’ve only got about 30 pages to go tonight and I’ll finish Saints by Amy Jeffs!

Y – Y EP

Despite being a cosmic country band, my band Forest Bed have has the privilege of supporting a ton of brilliant young jazz musicians and thie rbands. It’s via one of thoes musicians on social media I discovered London based band Y.

After watching the video of them live at the Lexington below. I really wanna go see them play live. It’s all a big mix of Japanese Jazz fusion, Hardcore punk drums and really angular riffs.

They are apparently part of a much bigger wave of ‘Post Brexit Pop’ i’m here for it. Kinda wanna start another band and make some my self. LOL

Remember Kids:

The post I Watch Bright Things Unfold Themselves appeared first on thejaymo.net.

Given that a double-digit number of people unsubscribed from my weeknotes newsletter last week after I posted a poem, I’m going to assume everyone still reading is sufficiently indifferent to the form that I can go ahead and do it again.

One of the things I enjoy doing in my journal is splurging out whatever I’m thinking or feeling without stopping. Over the years it’s become a vital tool for the maintenance of my mental health.

I write in my diary at least once a day, sometimes more. Most of what ends up on this blog, or in my podcast, starts this way, or as a transcribed voice note. But the vast majority of this daily practice is left on the page as lexic exhaust.

But writing always happens in the edit, and compression is an important skill with a muscle that needs regular flexing. Often, if I’ve written something that isn’t going anywhere, I’ll read it back and then try to strip the whole thing down to its bones.

That’s how this post came about. I wrote it this afternoon and then edited it after dinner.

When you compress personal writing to these extremes, what emerges is something like a prose poem, or a lyric essay. But neither of those terms quite captures it. Instead, it feels like a distinctly stylised kind of prose. A form of online writing that borrows tone, pacing, and emotional resonance from poetry, with the clarity and contemplation of non-fiction essays. Close relatives might be found in newsletter culture, blog posts-as-art, or even podcast monologues.

I think there’s value in this kind of writing, and it’s something I produce quite often. And whether or not it fits neatly into a box, I want to share more of it, because I’ve stopped caring about whether I should share it or not.

Sitting This One Out

The market’s crashing.
Tech stocks are bleeding.
Friends are losing jobs. Again.

This is the third real-time crash of my life.
I feel the pull.
I’ve felt it before.

To watch. To know.
And to tell yourself you’re staying informed.

But somewhere Duncan says,
a man is sitting by a waterfall.
No phone. No headlines.
No idea how afraid he’s supposed to be.

I think I could be him.
Maybe that I should be.

I’ve been a good boy since holiday.
Inputs managed.
Lines held.

But it doesn’t take much.
To slip back under.
Into the current.

This morning my alarm went off
I opened the phone.
And there it all was-

Panic, piped in like gas.
Other people’s opinions before breakfast.

It stays with me all day.
A low hum.
Jittery nerves.
By noon, I’m flooded-adrenaline and moral urgency.
But not my own.

Timelines don’t just steal time online.
They shape your world.
They decide what matters.

It’s battle for attention.
And on the other side,
of the dark mirror.
The conflict of disinterest.

A two-step dance.
One step toward what matters.
One step away from what doesn’t.

It’s not nihilism.
It’s a form of care.

Refusal as clarity.
Indifference as strategy.
Not apathy.
Discernment.

Not everything earns your energy.
Very little does.

When I stay offline in the morning: write, make coffee, move slowly,
the day feels lighter.
It’s mine.
Not abstract. Not lost in the symbolic.
Real.

This new crisis, whatever it is, will play out.
It’s just that point in the time line.

I could watch it.
Post about it.
Lie to myself that it matters that I’m informed in real-time.

But I’m sitting this one out.

Posting only simulates agency.
It isn’t action.
It just makes things louder.
And it makes you feel worse.

It’s just noise.
And I don’t want to contribute.

The platforms want your outrage.
They profit from fear.
But not everything deserves your attention.

Yes, things are falling apart.
But panic isn’t participation.
It’s performance.

So no.

Better to hear the voice across the table.
Better to attend to what is here.
What is real.

Because sovereignty isn’t just where you place your attention.
It’s what you let drift by.

And right now?
I choose to overlook.

I’m sitting this one out.

Start Select Reset 📑

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Get the Zine!
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The post Sitting This One Out appeared first on thejaymo.net.

On The Blog

A Note on Jetpack Social Notes

I spent some time trying to sort out self hosted/published social media posts form wordpress using the Jetpack plugin and wrote up my notes here:

After trying out Jetpack’s Social notes feature I think there’s some real potential here but I ran into a few issues and unexpected behaviours that I wanted to note down:

It’s funny how the internet works. I’ve already received two messages from strangers who were looking at trying the same functionality out. One of them included steps to fix one of the issues I list in the post!

Permanently Moved

Information Age Iconoclasm

https://permanentlymoved.online/

Ghibli images aren’t really about copyright or ethics, they’re about unexamined questions of power. Who gets to make images? What gives them meaning? And what is their value when machines can produce them at scale?

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2025/03/30/2506-information-age-iconoclasm/

• Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
• Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
• Subscriber Zine! https://startselectreset.com/

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

Subscribe to the Podcast: https://permanentlymoved.online/

Show Supporter 📻

£5 MONTHLY 👏

Quarterly zine; my gift to you ✉️

Subscribe 🔊

Wherever you get your podcasts

Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Began a big edit on the long thing i’ve been writing that I wanted done by end of January
• Got some feedback from IRL people on the other long thing i’ve been writing throughout 2024/25
• The jump in raw intelligence provided by Gemini 2.5 has resulted in significant progress being made on a slow burn project. As great deal of javascript has been written (generated)
• PROJECT ENTRY continues at work.

Terminal Access

If you will indulge me. I was interviewed for BBC news:

What’s next for social media?

Image source, Jay SpringettImage caption,

Jay Springett experimented with new social platforms

As multiple people pointed out that image caption “experimented with new social platforms” makes it sound like they are some kind of drug! LOL

Reading

In my ongoing effort to finish reading all the books i’ve got on the go, i closed the cover on the Warhammer 40k anthology Sabbat War by Dan Abnett et al. Just one Gaunt’s ghosts book to go 🙁

I made a great deal of headway on Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World by Kelly Clancy, and Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism by Anna Kornbluh finally ‘clicked’ and I’m now reading along at quite a fine clip.

Nala Sinephro – Endlessness

I just discovered this 2024 album and I’ve fallen in love with it. This album is a jazz ambient oddesy. An exxploration on loops and simple melodic gestures. Very playful.

Its a lovely album perfect for this spring weather.

Remember Kids:

The post Without Ceremony appeared first on thejaymo.net.