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Hey Stella,
Thanks so much for your letter, I enjoyed catching up on what you have been up to! I assume you won't read this as you're retreating from social media a little. I'll email it to you too, but we'll see!
I haven't been doing weeknotes as much recently. I might get back to it but I felt weird trying to squeeze the juice of each week into that format, as well as feeling weird about trying to "grow an audience" a bit and that being a weird vehicle for that particular journey. I am thinking more about writing stuff that doesn't try and isn't meant to generate income so they may come back to it, but we'll see how I feel.
The "append-only" stuff is interesting to me, as I will probably start taking an attitude more like that with the blog, at least on actual posts (pages I can do what I like!). I'll do minor edits if they come up, but I think I'm going to go back to the beginning of this blog and address topics I covered before that I have more to say on. Looking forward to cringing at some almost 3 year old (a fine vintage!) takes. My older blogs on different domains are all tech focused, so little to update on there, but maybe I'll link them all from this blog!
I also left Obsidian for Capacities again (have gone back and forth only once but still feels weird!). Obsidian's mobile app takes too long to load for me with sync and I don't even have that many pages! Also, I find having complete control over my notetaking system means I spend too long tinkering with plugins and not much time actually writing, so probably for the best. Similar to how I feel about bearblog as a platform actually; the restrictions help me get out of the noodling space and into the writing one.
But anyway, as usual, I want to talk about something else! You use the Arthur Clarke quote "any sufficiently advanced technology is indisguisable from magic", call yourself a witch, write yourself a letter to me, AND disrespect technopaganism to my face, on the day of my daughter's wedding! I say in the piece that you read that I think technology is a broad thing, encompassing many aspects of the mundane and marvellous in our lives! You say you want to use paper, a human technology, and learn weaving, a more advanced technology!
It annoys me that people have taken the word "luddite" to mean "hates technology" when the luddites hated the boots on their necks and the masters that were in those boots, deploying technology to ruin their lives. It annoys me you can read my post and still come away with the idea that I think "high" technology, a distinction I don't like but will allow, is the basis of my faith here!
Using writing, a medium I love, and blogging, a platform, technology and way of socialising that I also love, to tell me you are going back to the land is one thing but don't misunderstand my attraction to "magical thinking rocks". I think you can find just as much solace in the web weaved by a spider as those on a screen, I just think they are different in kind.
I won't deny there are problems with these particular magicks, to put it lightly, but nothing is without side effects, and less human made is inevitable. People raise false gods, from the TESCREAL flavour to the more general luxury automated mass-poverty machine conception of AGI and big tech, sure, but they have since time immemorial. These aren't views I hold truck with. I don't think a being able to conjure flame at any time you want with a stove, lighter or flamethrower is any more or less worthy of awe than an internet connection.
Writing this has jogged me out of a small writing freeze, so I thank you for that. Onto plans!
I want to try and write a bit every week of 2026, so far I've been doing alright at that I think! I have only really been stuck on the public-facing stuff, I've been taking notes every week for sure in my personal planning spaces. I have a lot of other hopes for the year as per but I think creating more is the main one, and solidifying either my thoughts or my direction. I'm also writing for YouTube, thinking about making a web interview series or two, and looking into electronics and more creative-but-not-just-writing web projects.
My year of the word is enchantment, both with/of/regarding/towards myself, my surroundings, my mindset and my approach towards them.
Hope you're super well,
Olu
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