Matthew Lang

Another Sunday, another medal under the belt. Ethan's settling in well at Paisley Golf Club and the boys in the junior section have been great in welcoming him.

... Turn It On Again 22 didn't roll off the tongue as easily.

When Ethan was at golf coaching before Christmas, he asked the professional how many balls he would need to hit to get his swing perfect or as close too. His reply straight to the point, “10,000”. Given the chance I have no doubt that Ethan would have started that night trying to rack up as many swings at the ball as he could.

If you practice something long enough you’ll eventually be good at it. Great? May be. Good? Most likely. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already got prior knowledge or your new to something. Spend enough time at it and you'll get better.

The same goes for writing.

When I first started blogging I looked for something to write about that people would like to read but that’s a rookie mistake. If you want to find something to write about then write something that you will want to read as an individual. Write the web you want to read.

Yes, we’re borrowing slightly from Austin Kleon’s “Write the book you want to read”, but the goal in each case is the same.

I also don’t write straight into my blog anymore. I did this for a year, but there came a point where I was just going through the motions. I was filling up the space for the day and when I read back what I was writing, I didn’t like what I seen.

Instead I write far away from any digital interface that will allow me to easily publish. I write in notebooks, plain text files, and in some cases, even on an index card. Write anywhere that doesn’t have a big “Publish” button at the side of it. It will give you a chance to read, review and edit your writing.

I’m certainly not an expert on whether my writing has improved using a scale of measure but I would like to think that after this amount of time writing on this blog, I have improved my writing in some respects.

The contribution buys you an evening at home. No dressing up. No rubber chicken. No sitting at a table for eight trying to create stimulating conversation. No silent auction. No requirement other than that the time be used to relax and enjoy an evening without obligation. “Think about us…for a second or two,” the solicitation might suggest.

— Phantom Banquet by Kurt Harden

I love this. Buying yourself an evening at home.

Kurt, just send the invite when you get this organised.

I like the look of this.

via The Verge

In a quest to get back on the blogging bandwagon, I thought I would take a look this week at the different benefits that blogging offers.

Ownership might not be the most obvious answer but for me it’s the most important reason why I blog. I’m not just talking about the blog itself, but the words and the content and how my writing acts as my soapbox in the world today.

Owning Your Words

The most important reason why I blog is because it allows me the opportunity to put something out there that’s mine. They are my words, my opinions, my stories, my views. It might not always be gold, but that’s okay. They are my words.

It can be a short post, an article, some long form writing or even a short story. It might be a quote a link or even just a word. Just a single word is enough to convey some message across about where you are.

Owning Your Space

Another reason why I blog is the fact that I want to own my words. Lately there’s a lot of chatter about the pros and cons of hosting your blog in Medium and whether it’s a good or a bad thing. I can see why people would choose Medium as a blogging platform. It’s a great entry into writing online.

However I do prefer having more control over my blog and where it gets published too. Medium is snowballing as more and more people make the switch from their own hosted blog to becoming part of the Medium network, but the problem with this is that it becomes difficult for anyone but people on Medium to see your and follow your blog.

The other great benefit of owning your words is that you can take your blog with you to other blogging platforms if you find that you have outgrown your blogging platform. I started blogging on Tumblr years ago. I then moved to Posterous (now Posthaven), then to Jekyll and now I’m using Ghost. Throughout this time I’ve been able to take my posts with me so that nothing gets left behind.

Own It

The ability to own your little corner of the Internet and carve a niche out for yourself is why many people blog, but being accessible means owning your words and the space you blog form. You don’t have to run a fully configured server with a custom Wordpress install on it. There’s plenty of great blogging platforms out there that allow the world to read what you have to say.

Write it, publish it, own it. It’s as easy as that.

I love this post from Adrian about what he's learnt from his time as a developer and where he sees himself going next.

Take conscious decisions in your life. Be aware of your actions and their effect. Do not blush or be embarrased for changing your opinions. Say “I’m sorry” when required. Listen. Do not be a hotshot. Have integrity and self-respect.

— Being a Developer After 40 by Adrian Kosmaczewski

The big four-o for me is just around the corner. I can't freelance for another twenty years, or can I?

The Awl remembers the glory days of Google Reader.

Instead, our websites now keep tabs on us, the better to target us and hold us down and turn us into money, like so many caged broiler chickens, puffed up with soybean meal. Doesn’t feel good, does it?

— O Reader! My Reader by The Awl

To be fair it's not all that bad. People are still blogging and the demise of Google Reader as seen a growing market in RSS readers which is great for everyone. The glory days might still be ahead.

Project Infinite, announced at Dropbox’s Open London event wants to give you the best of both worlds. The idea is fairly simple: you can view all your Dropbox files right from your PC, but your computer will only download files as it needs them.

— Dropbox's new "Project Infinite" will make you stop crying about your puny SSD by The Next Web

For a while there I was wondering if Dropbox would do anything to update their service. This would be a great benefit as I don't need to have my whole Dropbox synced to my MacBook all the time. Just what I need, when I need it.

When I was a kid and my mother wasn’t around to make us something to eat, my dad used to smile and explain that we had our choice of a peanut butter sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a jelly sandwich. “You should have it on toast,” he would say. “It tastes better because the peanut butter gets all gooey.”

— PB&J by Kurt Harden

The things that remind us of our childhood.

The project is vaguely on your mind. You sip coffee and read a book. You scan the news but with faint attention because you are still sorting out the project. As much as you might like to do so, the process can't be rushed.

— Nothing But Thinking by Michael Wade

I'm coming off the back of a frantic couple of months of client work and looking forward to a little bit more time spent like this.

Do this.

A wonderful piece highlighting some life lessons from a father.

Begin conversations with people on airplanes when you hear “We have begun our descent.” If they prove to be fascinating, you will broaden your world; if they prove insufferable, it’s only 15 minutes. Uber rides and chairlifts provide a similar opportunity — exposure to people you would not otherwise meet in controlled time periods.

— Unsolicited Advice for My Three Sons, In No Particular Order by Rufus Griscom

It's writing like this that I love to read but going through the thousands of posts on Medium is a real problem. Another walled garden of potentially great content I guess.

Find it again.

Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Love this quote that Shawn Blanc highlighted as part of his Focus Course and he follows it up nicely with his own take on it:

May devotion to our business not be sustained by neglect of our health, relationships, values, and even our own happiness.

— Family Balance by Shawn Blanc

Both worthy additions to DailyMuse.

Stephen Fry's post makes for a good argument in getting off the grid.

Jacking out of the matrix would cast one as a hero of the kind of dystopian film that proved popular in the 70s, Logan’s Run, Zardoz, Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451 … on the run from The Corporation, with the foot soldiers of The System hard on your heels. We really are starting to live in that kind of movie, mutatis mutandis, so surely it’s time to join the Rebels, the Outliers, the Others who live beyond the Wall and read forbidden books, sing forbidden songs and think forbidden thoughts in defiance of The One.

— Off the grid by Stephen Fry

I would love to delete my digital footprint (with the exception of this blog of course), but what does that achieve for myself? My career is the Internet.

Stephen of course is not just a conventional celebrity, he's more than that. I can understand why he would like to remove himself from the digital world, but it's not really an option for me.

A freelance web developer without a Twitter account?

How absurd.

Great to Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass working on the new Bourne movie.

Today marks 20 years since Ocean Colour Scene’s Moseley Shoals entered the British charts. It was the band’s second stab at success: their self-titled 1992 debut sunk without trace and they’d been honing the follow-up for four penniless years. “We knew it was good,” said guitarist Steve Cradock. “We spent a lot of time working on it.” Championed by Radio 1’s Chris Evans – who loved The Riverboat Song so much he made it the theme tune to TFI Friday – it screamed in at No 2 and stayed in the top 10 all summer, buoyed by support from Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher. The real reason for its success, though, was simpler: it was an absolute gem of a record, by a brilliant group of musicians.

— Ocean Colour Scene: the band whose chief crime was being too normal by The Guardian

I can't believe it's 20 years since Moseley Shoals was released. I'm still an avid listener of Ocean Colour Scene today. Can't fault them at all. Recommended.

I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled to see Sony releasing a console so soon after the release of the PS4. It is good to see though that all future games for the PS4 and PS Neo will be compatible and you will be able to play on the PlayStation Network regardless of which console you will own.

That move is one of several that Sony is reportedly making to keep PS4 and PS4 Neo owners on an even keel. The company's documentation reportedly states that there will be no Neo-only games, owners of both versions of the console will continue to use the same PlayStation Store, and publishers are barred from offering special features or downloadable content to owners of one type of console. Crucially, players of both the original PS4 and PS4 Neo and will be able to play alongside each other on PlayStation Network.

— Sony’s upgraded 'Neo' PS4 will reportedly have smoother games and better graphics by The Verge

Not content with the millions of Kindles out there, Amazon have introduced another Kindle to the family. This time it's the Oasis. A very different Kindle to previous models and with a new longer battery.

One of the Kindle's signature features has always been its marathon battery life—up to six weeks in the case of the Voyage, assuming that you read on average for a half hour a day. I always assumed that such endurance was sacrosanct, but with the Kindle Oasis, Amazon has messed with its recipe in a new way. The device is so small and thin that it packs a rather dinky battery, which Amazon says provides up to two weeks of power, again based on an average of 30 minutes of reading a day. But every Oasis comes with a posh leather case with a much beefier built-in battery. The case snaps on magnetically—its battery sits next to the hump on the e-reader, and fills in the surrounding area—turning the whole package into an e-reader that can run for up to two months, a new Kindle record.

— Amazon's Kindle Oasis: The Highest-End High-End Kindle So Far by Fast Company

The extended battery life, new look and what I would consider to be minor features aren't enough for me to upgrade. I'm happy with my Paperwhite.