Newsletter.014 - May2021
What you won’t find here
- Consistency with previous or future newsletters
- Use of the word “nonplussed”
- Any vague way to make money from this
Hi. I’m Jim, and I’ll be your host for this newsletter. I’m here to do whatever it takes for this thing, no matter how many have to suffer and however many lives it may take to entertain, potentially inform if we’re lucky and kill some time in a good way. This is like building the pyramids but way better.
If a friend or colleague forwarded this to you, hug them immediately at all costs.
Of course, it would be fantabulous if you could forward this to a friend, spread the love and joy that only this newsletter can bring to the world. Send it to everyone, your mom, Uncle Bob, John in Accounting, bring the whole gang along. Forwarding is easy and fun for the whole family!
You can always unsubscribe here, if you are that insane, in which case, maybe you should. You can also check out all the back issues, assuming they aren’t carved into granite on a large monument in your front garden already.
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Updates
I have a full time gig reinventing communications. I’m the Senior Interaction Designer at SEDNA where I’m continuing the strategy and practice work I was doing last autumn for them freelance. This newsletter has nothing to do with that so I guess this is the part where I say something along the lines of “what lies herein is the expressed opinion of Jim Kosem and not his employer…”
NFTs are Nü Metal? Just maybe. I had a half hour lightning round debate with my former boss and decentralisation comrade Dietrich Ayala where we/I determined it. Well I think it was me. But I’m the one putting out this newsletter so I get to decide. How’s that for journalistic integrity? Dietrich, if you’re out there reading this, wherever you may be, I’m awaiting your retort.
NFTs obviously are everywhere. They’re there flying across the sky, they were there in your cereal this morning, swimming around getting soggy, drowning in their glut and missing a massive opportunity to redesign how digital art can be manifest better in the world for everyone.
I guess the funny thing with all of the hullabaloo is that most people, even the people who buy these things, don’t realise is how NFTs seem to work. When you buy an NFT, what you are buying is a link. That’s right, you’re buying a link to a file, not an actual file of “art” that a startup that has been in business for two years has on their server. What happens to that file if they go bust? What about that link? Who’s asking these questions?
Anyhow, if you’re reading this you’re likely either late to the gold rush, don’t care or would rather do the right thing and just listen to this amazing power disco power jam “Powered Up” by Cobra Man.
The Pizza Complex
You might be wondering just what The Pizza Complex is. Given a title that epic, I can understand your consternation and puzzlement. The answer is obviously hardcore data science and investigative data journalism around a bunch of pizza thrown around a North London park a couple years ago.
Dive into the data of a man who’s lost his mind and the pizza that needlessly suffered because of it
In the end, we just need to ask, “Why Steve? Why?” As we need to ask ourselves about our places in this mad world.
Shameless self promotion for a free thing which is in itself likely a very poignant and an incredibly sad comment on things
Killing Darlings
This is a logo and one actually written thing so far. And like a lot of things I start and let flounder, they should probably stay that way. But I like it though. I like the idea a lot about killing ideas and think most of us should do this way more often.
The gist is simple. You have an idea that you just can’t seem to let go, then you put a thing about it on the internet and then it can go and die the death it deserves.
Anti-Medium
I used to hate Medium. Now I generally don’t mind it that much. I’m not sure why this is. What I am sure about is that I used to spend a lot of time and thinking fuelled by that hate at a thing that got me nowhere.
Read the article here as a first step on your path to riches and glory
Super Serious Forwards
See A Satellite Tonight
How Dothraki was invented
Listen on Apple Podcasts
David J. Peterson has one of the most mental and somehow envious jobs I can think of. He’s like a production designer, researching, planning and experimenting with a world, but in the case, a world of words and expression. He’s invented lots of languages, and most importantly did so for Game of Thrones. He had to invent not just regular Valyrian, that is High Valyrian that all the cool kids are into, but also Slavers Bay dialects (!). Being able to dive this deep in world building and just leave the real world behind is a thing I envy to no end.
The most interesting thing I heard is how he decided that Dothraki would have linguistic gender but not in the sense of masculine/feminine/neuter but of animate/inanimate.
That’s it for now. Thank you for your patience. Your reward awaits you out there somewhere.
Halfman endorses: Ice cream, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Fugazi and in particular the song “Margin Walker,” lumbar pain as a transcendental experience, Jawbox, the sound of Farsi, trails, paté, The Worble Skateboards, Godspeed You Black Emperor, hiking, reconciling with corporeal age.
