It’s our office Christmas party soon. The dress code is black tie. I’ve managed to avoid tux-based events for some time, but I didn’t realise quite how long for until I dug my old suit out of the cupboard. I now feel like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride.

📚 Finished reading My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall by John Major. A book on this topic is a difficult concept, trying to convey the essence of acts that in many cases can’t be seen on film or heard on audio recordings. The photos and illustrations in the book go a little way to bringing things to life. At times it felt quite dry and textbook-like, but it would then pick up again when the next chapter took a different angle. Aside from the music hall, what stays with me is the author’s childhood memory of accidentally injuring his father and believing that he had caused him long term damage. What a thing to carry with you through your life.

📚 Reading a book that comments on what people were doing with their increased leisure time in the late 19th century. With this new information, it now feels as though my beloved Berkhamsted Cycling Club just isn’t trying hard enough in the name stakes.

I’m enjoying the Openvibe app. It lets you view a consolidated timeline across multiple platforms such as Mastodon and Bluesky, including the different feeds from each service. Really well done.

📷 Debating whether to clean up the tonne of leaves that have already come down, or to wait for the others to join the party. It makes no sense to do the job twice, right?

🎶 50th anniversary box set arrived last night. I can’t wait to play this. It’s a lovely thing. Still remains my favourite album of all time.

📷 Blackwell’s book store in Holborn has gone. I misread the sign at first, thinking that the nearest store is in Oxford Street. It’s actually quite a bit further away than that.

📷 Seen on my walk to the office. This story seems…implausible?

📚 Sounds like Charles Sloman was the original Harry Mack.

📚 Finished reading Where The Light Gets In by Kimberly Williams-Paisley. The author is best known for playing Annie Banks in the 1991 version of Father of the Bride. This read as a very honest narrative of her mother’s diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia and her subsequent decline. It was a useful, insightful and easy read. The book ends with a section of useful references and brief guidance for anyone dealing with dementia, or the potential of it, in their lives.

This is an incredible discovery. Peanut butter infused with mince pie filling. I was skeptical, but it was an unexpected lunchtime delight.

📚 Finished reading Wrestling Merchandise of the 1990s by Kevin Williams. Bought for me as a niche Christmas present. This short book consists of what I assume are photos from the author’s collection of professional wrestling-related things, along with an enthusiastic narrative. The text could have benefitted from a little proofreading.

📚 Finished reading Taming Silicon Valley: How to Protect Our Jobs, Safety, and Society in the Age of AI by Gary Marcus. Having occasionally read the author’s AI-focused newsletter, I picked this up to get myself up to speed ahead of a presentation on Generative AI that I was due to give to one of our company boards. It was put together in a hurry and the result itself is a quick read. I agree with pretty much everything in the book, but there wasn’t much new for someone that has been following the progress of Generative AI closely since the release of ChatGPT a couple of years ago.

Big. Huge.

📷 East 53rd Street, Manhattan, 28 September 2024

📷 Cloud blanket over New York, found as I ran around the reservoir in Central Park.

📷 Important advisory notice on the New York subway.

Yes, I’m absolutely going to do this right away. The kids are going to be stoked.