Pick up the beat

"Free Of All Ties" - isn't that a way to be? This pub in the middle of my daily run has just shut down and is now to let. It has B&B too. It would make a great place to build community and run awaydays and retreats, y'know if that worked with planning and the landlords. Oh and if you could find the rent. It's a good daydream while I'm running by.

Saturday I went up to Oxford for #indiewebcamp a loosely organised day for working on being more independent on the web. Does that mean no Steemit? No not really. The STEEM blockchain isn't a silo in the way that, say Blogger or Flickr are. I can get my data back as long as the blockchain is running somewhere - will it last longer than Google will keep the servers on for Blogger? That's a matter of opinion. Anyway it would be good to keep a copy of things that I put here. I was reminded that it doesn't have to be perfect and measure up to someone else's standard of independence. It's just a good chance to remember that we are dependent on other entities for our web presence to exist and it's good to be mindful of who those entities are, what their priorities might be and what depending on them might mean. I've created a whole mass of stuff over nearly twenty years in all sorts of different places. For me the priority is tidying that up and trying to put in place processes for the stuff I create today that means it goes into a similarly tidy and independent place.

On Sunday I ran up and around the University. It's fresher's week this week and there were lots of very young-looking people wandering around, carrying packing boxes with worried-looking parents. Bless. The weather reminds me of when I first arrived in Guildford in 1984, except then it was even grimmer and there were no shops or anything open in town on a Sunday. Afterwards I got back into my pyjamas and watched the rain all day.

Yesterday was just a kind of nothing goes right day. I left a notebook on the bus and had to go into town to pick it up (at least it got found and handed in, not everything went wrong) but then I couldn't get a coffee where I wanted and the trains later were up the spout and the chip shop was closed and man, the rain just kept coming down.

So here's to a brighter day today!