Luke Alex Davis

£5

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Saturday morning
With a five pound note in hand
Cloudy and grey skies

Bought a cricket set
To play completely alone
My day is all set

The cold air soothes me
My ball rebounds off the wall
And I swing for four

a semblance of you

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

looking through old messages
searching for a semblance of you
and even more of me

where did all the time go
all those wants and needs
desires in bits
bytes in tatters

but they're all there
in black and white

all the black squares

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

what if i made a tapestry
out of all the black squares
adorn my wall with it
as rememberance of death; a void
where love and compassion should have been

what if i made a quilt
out of all the black squares
cover my bed with it
as a means to sleep, in the knowledge
that i remain cold and unprotected

what if i made a carpet
out of all the black squares
tile my floor with them
as a way to navigate the hollow rooms
where community should have been

what if i made a grid
out of all the black squares
improve my instagram with them
as a way to look like i care
as long as everything
stayed in perfect harmony

Banana rum cake recipe

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Here is my recipe – Banana Rum Cake. It is roughly measured as I don’t have exact equipment here, but the recipe is very forgiving.

1 block of butter, 250g
1 and half cups of sugar
5 small eggs
a quarter cup of dark rum
one tablespoon of vanilla extract
4-7 bananas, depending on their size (I used 7 quite small ones)
4 cups of self raising flour

Heat oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Lightly butter and dust with flour three loaf tins. Cream together the sugar and butter, by hand or with a mixer. Add the eggs, rum and vanilla and beat well for a few minutes. Add the bananas, roughly mashed, and mix well together. Gently stir in the flour. Divide into three loaf tins. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Black survival is Black excellence

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Black survival is Black excellence.

blogging is whatever you want it to be

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro'; import Separator from '../../components/Separator.astro';

<Lede>people struggle to start blogging.</Lede> there are so many internal and external barriers to entry to put the work out. so if you're advocating for more writers and more bloggers, don't put anymore hurdles in their way.

blogging is this, blogging is that. this is a blog, this isn't a blog. if someone has an idea of what blogging is and reads all these different ideologies, they might find that nothing matches up with their idea and then not bother. that's what we want to avoid.

so if you're reading this and you think blogging is having something meaningful to say, with depth and lots of ideas and references but you have an idea that you can't flesh out in that vision... i'm here to say that's okay. write it anyway. posting a draft that you progressively enhance isn't going to stop the world from turning. it's not going to get you banned from the grand blogging council. you can just write and post and revise if you want.

the sooner we break down the barriers, the better we'll have it. food for thought is one thing but you gotta eat eventually.

Carl Jung on self love

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

To love someone else is easy, but to love what you are, the thing that is yourself, is just as if you were embracing a glowing red-hot iron: it burns into you and that is very painful. Therefore, to love somebody else in the first place is always an escape which we all hope for, and we all enjoy it when we are capable of it. But in the long run, it comes back on us. You cannot stay away from yourself forever, you have to return, have to come to that experiment, to know whether you really can love. That is the question—whether you can love yourself, and that will be the test.

Cherish

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Whoever or whatever you love, cherish them. Scream about them to anyone and everyone. Indulge in them, absorb them, get obsessed (in moderation), and enjoy them all. Make sure those proverbial flowers are ready to be given at all times.

Love them with every atom of your heart and experience them to the full. Because once you're both gone, you can't do it again.

childhood fall

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

the cold clings to the inside of my lungs
like a crisp winter coat
maybe I should put one on
after I score another goal
and run around in a blaze of glory

Chocolate fudge cake recipe

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

2 1/2 c Sugar
1/2 c Margarine or butter
2/3 c Evaporated milk
1 Jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme
2 c Semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c Chopped walnuts
1 ts Vanilla

Line 9 inch square or 13x9 inch pan with foil so that foil extends over sides of pan; butter foil. In large saucepan, combine sugar, margarine and evaporated milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add marshmallow creme and chocolate chips; blend until smooth. Stir in walnuts and vanilla. Pour into buttered, foil-lined pan. Cool to room temperature. Score fudge into 36-48 squares. Refrigerate until firm.

Remove fudge from pan by lifting foil; remove foil from sides of fudge. Using large knife, cut through scored lines. Store in refrigerator.

Makes about 3 pounds--36-48 squares.

don't let Web nostalgia obscure a positive Web future

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

personal sites never left, they just changed. a lot of what we see now are commercialised billboards, selling people's identities as proxies for intangible ideas. but the old school personal sites are still with us if you know where to look.

the issue is that people wish it was still the mid-to-late 90s and i don't think that's a good thing to want. there are a lot of interesting things you can do with the Web now that you couldn't do back then and it doesn't have to involve React, Tailwind, generative AI, Substack, or any other evangelising framework. there were also socioeconomical problems in the 90s too (if you're Gen Z or younger, look them up. it was really bad for a lot of people.)

what we should be doing is taking inspiration from what made those times happier and forge a better future with what we have now. living in the present, carving out our own little spaces on the Web, making them accessible to everyone, not using tables for layouts (seriously, try grid and flexbox).

a lot of things suck right now but longing for days that also sucked but not for you because you were younger isn't the way. communities without intellectual gatekeeping that go beyond just "groups of people with the same interests" will take us so far.

related: web fonts aren't the devil

Earworm lyrics

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Gabriel Garzón-Montano – MARMALADE

Smile to the pain, smile to the pain / Coke and champagne, sugarcane / Sugarcane, why you do me that way? / Polyurethane, doin' my dance in the rain, once again / Might not ever feel the same

Seal – Whirlpool

Life is hard in a circle / Especially when you think you're going insane / And all you get for love is lots of pain / I should have known better

SiR – D'Evils

Tell me who that nigga if it ain't me / If it ain't a party then it's finna be / Never had a problem that I could solve / It must be official if I get involved

Happy accident #1

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

My son wanted to listen to something on Spotify and said something to my Google Home Mini. And its response:

"Alright. Playing 'So What' by Miles Davis on Spotify."

Besides the fact that 'So What' is my favourite Miles Davis song, my son was also named after him.

Hay fever (haiku)

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Blast this hay fever
My missed journeys through Nature
And unsmelled flowers

How I make albums

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I come up with a theme or follow on from an existing one
I gather lots of samples (too many is enough)
I start making drafts, usually 1 or 2 bar loops
I keep doing this until I have a batch of them
I come back the next day and start going through them and flesh them out with skits, beat variations, and other forms of orchestration
I listen to other artists for inspiration and copy bits from them (not the sound, just little techniques or drum rhythms)
When I think I'm done, I bounce each track to a WAV file and put it on my phone to test out on my headphones
I make the album cover
I make notes of what needs to change, usually levels or EQ
I make those changes and go back to Step 7 and 9 (if necessary)
When I'm happy, I put it on Bandcamp
?????
PROFIT!

I want this digital radio

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

<figure> <img src="/images/revo-supersystem.webp" loading="eager" alt="The Revo SuperSystem in walnut and black"> <figcaption>What a beauty</figcaption> </figure>

The Revo SuperSystem is a DAB+ digital radio, with FM analog radio, Internet radio functionality, Bluetooth, and it supports wireless audio streaming. That kind of technology is commonplace in high-end devices now but The Revo SuperSystem looks so good. It's the walnut finish for me; clean and modernist. I actually saw this in The Equalizer 2 as Denzel Washington's character had one in his apartment. Anything Denzel owns must be good.

It's sold out on the official website but I did manage to find one on another site... except it's £629.00. Yikes. I love it but not enough to bankrupt myself, especial when I already have an internet radio. I'm a magpie for good looking tech, what can I say?

If I were a rich man #1

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

<figure style="aspect-ratio: 1.15:1;"> <img src="/images/keith-haring.jpeg" alt="" loading="eager"/> <figcaption>Keith Haring - POP SHOP III (3), 1989 SCREENPRINT</figcaption> </figure>

This Keith Haring piece is worth $39,500.

If I was mega rich, I'd buy this immediately. No questions asked. Just look at it.

in threes

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

what was once
here is now
none so what
will be next

-lh-

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I found myself getting some Portuguese words mixed up the other day: folha, pilha, filho. They all mean completely different things and realising how close they were (from a NLP perspective), I decided to look up some other words that had lh in the middle. I used a JSON file of common Portuguese words and only picked out 5-letter nouns:

<ul> <li>bilha - a jug</li> <li>filha - daughter</li> <li>filho - son</li> <li>milha - a Portuguese mile (not the same as an imperial mile)</li> <li>milho - maize</li> <li>pilha - battery</li> <li>bolha - bubble</li> <li>folha - leaf</li> <li>folho - a frill or ruffle of fabric</li> <li>molho - sauce</li> <li>rolha - cork</li> <li>solha - flatfish</li> </ul>

And now for some silly sentences that nobody would ever say:

Minha bilha do molho milho da filha - My daughter's corn sauce jug

Minha solha do filho engoliu uma rolha e uma folha - My son's flatfish swallowed a cork and a leaf

Language related: We Need To Use The Lang Attribute More and my personal lexicon

LLM evangelism

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro';

<Lede>LLM evangelists find discomfort in comfort and being at peace with enough.</Lede> they have lionised the perverse and glorified the inhumane for heights they will ultimately never reach. sadly they have safety nets that the rest of us could never afford and we're caught in the middle of this process.

and the thing is, a large number of them have the domain experience required to diagnose any LLM issues that arise. most people who use them regularly don't so they're just trusting what comes out until it doesn't work and then they ask it what happened. that part is always left out in their sermons

a lot of them also don't seem to like coding because what if they just put the boilerplate in a function or package earlier? i thought they were really smart and highly proficient where we weren't? jury's still out on that one i guess

if they could ever give me compelling and unique arguments grounded in logic and compassion for humanity (with references to non-faulty poltiics), maybe i'd listen. but alas we just get diluted and directionless fascist-leaning ideals ("leaning" is being VERY kind here).

the middle ground between brief and verbose writing

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro'; import Separator from '../../components/Separator.astro';

<Lede>writing is harder than ever.</Lede> it is also easier than ever. you can pick up a writing instrument of any kind—analogue or digital—and put words down. but the difficulty comes from knowing what words to put down and how many is too many and how will it be interpreted and have i written too passively and how many 'justs' and 'mights' did i put in?

there's been a lot of discourse around writing more actively over the decades and it formed a major part of writing guides in the early 1900s in particular. a notable example is The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. (later revised and expanded by E. B. White) that had a particular disdain for the passive voice. many linguists have since criticised the book for its arbitrary and strict rules including the folks at Language Log (some more critiques and debates about the book if you're interested).

more recently, there's been discussions on our use of words like 'just', particularly in wordplace email settings and how cutting those out can make you sound more confident and assured. i don't know for sure if this works and i don't know how that could even be measured but it's popular enough to have inspired a whole Chrome extension.

this is all to say that there are an abundance of rules around writing styles and i don't think they marry up with the speed of linguistic evolution. younger generations are reinventing words and making up new ones at a phenomenal pace and i don't see who some of these guides even work in those contexts. we can correct children on their grammar and language all we want but we were them once and we had our own cool new words that became old very quickly.

harsh cuts to verbiage to the point of sounding cold and purely directive is bad but i think adding additional words in an attempt to appear more scholarly and important all while addressing points gathered and researched for the purposes of a blog post that in all honesty nobody will read seems incredibly unnecessary (ahem). it's all about finding that middle ground. the word 'just' isn't a bad word. it has a purpose. you've just got to find it and not fixate on the number of times you use it too much.

in my opinion, if someone reads a non-critical email and points out the number of 'justs' and 'coulds', that's their character flaw, not yours. different circumstances call for different types of language but i don't think cutting them out for everything is a sensible default. and yes, i said "don't think" because it's subjective and i know that people would disagree. it's not a hill i care enough about to die on.

so what could help you find that balance?

consulting the wisdom of crowds. find people you trust enough to give you an honest opinion on whatever you're writing. you don't need harsh criticism but sugar coating won't help either. encouragement and helpful suggestions to get you where you need to be with your writing will goes a long way.
imagining someone wrote the thing to you. how did it make you feel? what instantly stuck out to you? hone in on anything that popped into your head and make those changes. if you're really unsure, leave it in. your uncertainty may be unnoticed to someone else. a great friend once reminded me while working on a presentation that the client wouldn't know what you cut out so if it has to go, let it.

and avoid chatbots for writing advice as much as you can. grammarly sucks and given what chatbot training data is made up of, you'll end up in a circle of your own doubts. or confirmation bias will win and you'll learn nothing.

for me, it's about conveying a message and staying as human as humanly possible. i know neurodivergent people are (falsely) perceived as cold and robotic but that's really down to perception. sometimes you gotta get to the point. other times you can embellish and cushion some of those words (like the difference between adding a full stop to a WhatsApp message when you're angry vs adding 'lol' so they know you're joking. don't lie, you know you've done it before!) but it has to come down to what decision you make in your writing, not someone else with a checklist and a book to sell.

My style guide

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

A few months ago, I republished a web copy style guide by Matt Pfeffer and enjoyed it. Then, a few days ago, I found a style guide by Chase McCoy (archived) which I also liked. So I decided to write my own.

Much like Chase's, mine will be a work-in-progress and I will inevitably go against my rules. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Grammar

Titles always in sentence case unless for an aesthetic reason or for comedic effect
Punctuation on the inside of a quote ("because the other way feels icky").
Oxford commas for now, forever, and always
Em dashes shouldn't have the space either side of them—okay?!
En Dashes are for numerical ranges such as dates or times and that's a rule I'll always keep from Day 1–365
Companies/brands are singular, not plural. "Google is a company" rather than "Google are a company"

Hyperlinking

From now on, I will avoid using long text sentences as anchor text as it isn't optimised or helpful for the user
- Instead, I will use shorter phrases or just the main entity.
I will also avoid linking to entities purely for internal linking purposes that offer little relevance to the text. For example, if I write about cats and I mention something about computers briefly, I won't link "computers" to my tech page (but I've linked it just now because it's relevant to the point).

Things that aren't in the U.S. Constitution

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

I get sick of hearing about "freedom of speech", especially in the UK who have, like a lot of things, adopted it from the US because they have no ideas of their own (see also, ironically: the British Empire). So I found this and thought it was interesting:

Things That Are Not In the U.S. Constitution

Have you ever heard someone say, "That's unconstitutional!" or "That's my constitutional right!" and wondered if they were right? You might be surprised how often people get it wrong. You might also be surprised how often people get it right. Your best defense against misconception is reading and knowing your Constitution. A lot of people presume a lot of things about the Constitution. Some are true, some are not. This page will detail some of the things that people think are in the Constitution, but are not. One critique of this page is that it is full of nit-picks. Slavery, for example, may not be "in" the original Constitution, but it is in the original Constitution — the word may not have been there, but the concept was. This is absolutely true. But by studying the words and coming to know them intimately, we gain a better understanding of our history and how some arguments about the Constitution endure.

Now, I'm not up on my American legislature (I neither passed not took the bar) but this appears to be sensible and level-headed but if there are holes in the arguments, then so be it, and in which case email me and let me know. Otherwise, have a read and get educated.

Personal lexicon

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Fluff

Context: A replacement for the F-word
Origin: A YouTuber called Drewby (formerly Mr Talent and Nipps)

Frail baby

Context: When someone or something is weak, particularly when playing Pokémon and an attack does more damage than you want it to
Origin: Drewby again

he'll yeag!

Context: a corruption of "hell yeah" based on mistyping and autocorrect
Origin: all credit goes to seacreature, a shiny hunter who made it up

next level!

Context: when something is above or beyond your expectations
Origin: I feel like this has come from Black British culture as me and my sister say it and my Black friends at school did too

Reasons to get Ableton Live Standard edition

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

(These reasons are my reasons. I don't need unlimited tracks or scenes and I don't really use packs or instruments.)

Audio to MIDI
Analog
Drum Buss
EQ Eight
Glue Compressor
Spectrum
Vinyl Distortion
The Rhythm MIDI tool

Saddam Hussein had a Bacon number of 3

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

From a Brewers' fan forum in 2007:

Saddam Hussein was in a documentary film called Les Dix (2003) with Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was in Malcolm X (1992) with Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon

Woah.

SAVER STORE

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Discount computers.
Affordable components.
It was deals galore.

search works best when everyone involved is honest and helpful

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro';

<Lede>search works best when everyone involved is honest and helpful</Lede>. what i mean by that is someone accessing a search engine hopes to look for a thing and eventually find what they wanted. the expected length of that journey may differ depending on the age of the person (remember Ask Jeeves????) but you shouldn't assume not to get what you wanted.

and yet nowadays that's a growing possibility. this isn't a post about "better search engines to use instead of Google" and i'm not saying Google isn't that bad actually either. but no matter which search engine you use, your experience will be vastly different. that's expected as Google has the biggest index so anyone else will have to prioritise specificity over depth. but because of generative AI and paid ads, search results are full of things you never asked for.

trust fails

Google's AI Overviews are the bane of my existence as a user and a search professional. they're wrong a lot of the time and when they're not, they offer links to articles that don't really back up the data they've scraped. i'm the kind of person who goes out to do further research before taking someone's word for it (seriously, we should all go back to that. we can't be THAT busy where we can't click a few links and read more—think! use your head!). but they're everywhere and they likely won't leave unless something better/worse/different comes a long to take their place. those zero click soothsayers didn't see THIS one coming in 2019!

if you manage to come out of a search results page alive and you've clicked a link assuming that you'll get what you're after, i really hope that you have! sadly there's no guarantee as the second point of failure on a user journey is the Web itself. people are so AI-pilled these days that they feel the need to stuff their pages with AI-generated content and don't link to external sites for fear of losing the sacred juice of links (or, in a less sinister way, to avoid showing that they did no research and an LLM wrote the article). boo these people! it's a minefield out there and i don't know how we're gonna fix it but that's a discussion for more knowledgeable people.

help wanted

so i've referenced the two main steps in a user journey from query to results to picking one to hopefully getting that thing you wanted. at the moment, that journey is fraught with danger and it keeps getting worse. and to go back to the title of this blog, there's a lack of honesty and helpfulness. sure, Google had its helpful content update and has flagged sites as unhelpful and that tanked performance (rightly or wrongly; some sites still haven't recovered after fixing themselves up) but what of the sites that aren't helpful and got away with it? a lack of honesty at any point in your journey will cause the experience to break down. if you're giving advice and that advice came from a chatbot AND you don't tell anyone, that's bad.

it shouldn't matter that the advice was objectively good. you've made a moral choice to defer responsibility to a machine that spits out words based on lots of other stolen words. it's also based on probability. ask a different question or the same one a few times and you might get different answers. is that what you want to put out in the world? answers based on D&D dice throws?

honesty is the best policy

what we need is to go back to doing the research, being honest about where information came from and what your intentions are, admitting if you got something wrong or if it's a work in progress, and going from there. search engines also need to prioritise giving an answer rooted in facts and not the probabilities of an LLM and perhaps not just presenting An Answer in the results pages with a tiny link back to where they might have got it from. i still find that practice disingenous and you can't change my mind.

i don't want us to go back to old search. i think using LLMs for contextual understanding has its merits (albeit with a lot of biases involved) but whatever we have now isn't it. what use is E-E-A-T if i don't feel the T. or the E. or the other E. actually, not the A either. wow, that's the whole abbreviation! that's not G-O-O-D! and as for the alternatives, they come with significant caveats too. do i want to pay a subscription fee for an approximation to the search experience i had a few years ago? that still feels janky to me, even if it's meant to work out for some people. i wonder what Jeeves is up to. maybe i should ask him.

Só cansado

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Tired: wanting an edit button on Twitter
Wired: writing that tweet on your own website and editing it whenever you want

Either way, nobody's gonna read it.

Sound familiar?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Person 1: This piece of technology could do this really helpful thing Person 2: That's really great. I just hope that it isn't used for nefarious activities down the line. Person 1: Stop being so pessimistic and appreciate what they're actually doing with it. You're not helping! [bad thing that Person 2 was cautious about happens] Person 1: Omg, this bad thing happened. I can't believe it! Person 2: I literally warned you this might happen. Person 1: Stop being so self-righteous and appreciate what the seriousness of is happening. You're not helping! Person 2: Fuck this shit. [Person 2 finds like-minded people to form a safe space to combat bad thing that happened, share jokes, and generally feel better about the new circumstances] Person 1: I don't see why this group exists. It's exclusionary. Person 2: No it isn't. And you made me feel excluded. Person 1: You can't prove that. Anyway, I want to join. Person 2: You can't as this space is not for you. You are welcome to create your own group. [Person 1 writes think piece about feeling excluded and bullied, gives full details of Person 2] [Person 2 is doxxed and harassed] Person 2: Why would you do this? And you weren't bullied! Person 1: I'm sorry, I didn't think that would happen. But, I was bullied and you're bullying me now. I feel unsafe. [Person 1 writes long Twitter thread abot feeling unsafe and deactivates, absolving themselves of any responsibility or accountability] [Person 2 continues to be harassed]

the near infinity of pixels

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro';

<Lede>While I was down an internet rabbit hole</Lede>, I saw a display of tiny monochrome pixel sprites. They looked so cute and I marvelled at their diversity given the small surface area. And that got me thinking:

if you had a 32x32 pixel square, how many different icons could you make, provided you had to use a minimum of 1 pixel and a maximum of all 1,024?

Sadly my maths isn't as good at it used to be so I had to look it up and someone had a similar question.

In an article called "The Realm of Finite Possibilities", A.G. started with a 4x4 square and managed to get 16 different combinations, or <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msup><mn>2</mn><mn>4</mn></msup></math>, where 2 is the number of options (having a black or white square) and 4 are the total number of squares you can fill.

So when you branch out to 32, that'd give you <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msup><mn>2</mn><mn>4</mn></msup><mo>-</mo><mn>1</mn></math> (because we don't want a blank square) which equals... a very large number with 309 digits. Here's one of the possible icons:

That blew my mind and that was before I considered a colour palette beyond black and white. Of course, most of those combinations would be "noisy" but the fact that you can create so many from a small 32x32 pixel grid is incredible.

Really puts our existence into perspective.

VGC Notes

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Scarlet & Violet

Reg C

Glimmora - Flying Tera is a thing
Scovillain learns Rage Powder
Find a way to effectively KO Houndstone
Iron Jugulis is a TANK
Don't forget about Chien-Pao Sucker Punch and Protect pivoting
- Iron Bundle Encore/Protect worked well (lol at the rage quit when this happened)
Indeedee-F potential counter for Prankster Tailwind with TR + Psychic Terrain?
252+ SpA Beads of Ruin Chi-Yu Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Dragapult: 498-588 (157 - 185.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Beads of Ruin Chi-Yu Heat Wave vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tera Steel Dragapult: 440-522 (138.8 - 164.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Mystical Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tera Steel Dragapult: 318-376 (100.3 - 118.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO (needs Tailwind)
252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Palafin: 326-386 (95.6 - 113.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Never-Melt Ice Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Palafin: 392-464 (114.9 - 136%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Klefki Metal Sound + Fairy Tera Flutter Mane Dazzling Gleam lead for MausApe leads. Might not work every time but remember when it worked that one time

Visionary

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Data > Experience > Opinion > Vision

Wander in Porto

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

import { Vimeo } from 'astro-embed';

I've never been to Porto but after extolling the virtues of Lisbon, people have recommended it to me. Maybe one day.

Web copy style

Sat, 13 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT

(Disclaimer: this was originally published by Matt Pfeffer in 2002. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220127224548/http://www.provenanceunknown.com/edit/style.html">It is archived on the Web Archive</a> but just in case the US courts decide to destroy it, I'm putting it here for preservation. In some cases, links have been amended if they were broken or outdated. Copyright ©2001-2003 Matt Pfeffer.)

This style guide seeks to serve as a resource for anyone writing or editing web copy, and to document some of the conventions that distinguish good writing, as published on the web, from writing published in other media. It is also intended as a complement to this site's description of the principles of <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220709170602/http://www.provenanceunknown.com/edit/basics.html">copywriting for the web</a>.

This document does not offer a comprehensive guide to usage, nor is it intended as a replacement for such guides as the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chicago-Manual-Style-Univ/dp/022628705X?&linkCode=ll1&tag=liofast-21&inkId=ae0a61b81e6f4877f5afc51eeda3b05f&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl">Chicago Manual of Style</a> or the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Associated-Press-Stylebook-2022-2024-ebook/dp/B0B72HTS37?&linkCode=ll1&tag=liofast-21&linkId=fae8770c1306762a8e4be7cd6f59b5b7&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl">Associated Press Stylebook</a>. But it is a living document, and with luck it will grow into a useful guide to written communication over the web.

The standards set herein are my own, though they owe a debt to other style guides I have seen, and to my experiences using them. Certain conventions ("web" and "website," for example) reflect predominant usage online more than any personal preference on my own part, however.

You are free to use this style guide for any personal purpose; however, if you wish to excerpt any part of it elsewhere, please include an attribution and link to this site. Thoughts, suggestions and reactions of any nature <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220127234244/http://www.provenanceunknown.com/about/contact.html">are welcome</a>.

Note: This is only a guide. Hopefully, most of its conventions will serve you well, but you may find some that you don't like, or that don't fit your writing style. Different writing styles demand their own particular rules, both online and in print. If any of the conventions described here don't suit your purposes, do not hesitate to adopt your own.

<h2>First principles </h2>

If clarity and economy of expression are prized in print, they are doubly so on the web. Readers have short attention spans for web copy, and most designers have a penchant for small text sizes, making text harder to read. And, on many critical pages on a site, space for text is often at a premium.

Observing just a few guidelines can go a long way toward ensuring you can be easily understood:

<ul> <li>Get to the point. Use short words and phrases, rather than longer ones, and omit unnecessary words.</li> <li>Keep it simple. Express one thought at a time, and use plain language.</li> <li>Don't use metaphors, figures of speech, technical jargon or other writerly flourishes, unless they help make a point.</li> <li>Resist using sarcasm and irony; and when you find you can't resist, say so.</li> <li>Let your readers know when you are stating your own opinions. When you state a fact, tell them where you got it from.</li> </ul>

<h2>Specific conventions </h2>

Conventions commonly observed when writing and editing web copy are listed below. For terms and conventions not specified here, standard references include <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/">Merriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary</a>, the Associated Press Stylebook and the <a href="https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html">Chicago Manual of Style</a>.

Within this style guide, accepted abbreviations indicate abbreviations that should be used on every reference, unless a term needs to be spelled out for sake of clarity. Acceptable abbreviations can be used at your discretion.

acronyms <blockquote>Use all caps for acronyms of two to four letters, except for letters that represent prepositions or determiners (a, an, or the). For example, for the Museum of Modern Art, write MoMA. In general, use initial caps for acronyms five letters and longer. For example, Nasdaq. There is one exception (documented here, so far): WYSIWYG.</blockquote>

agreement

Words referring to aggregates of individuals are treated like any other word (i.e., agreement is determined by whether the word is plural or singular). For example, The San Francisco Giants are going to win the pennant; They are going to win the pennant; The team is going to win the pennant. Company names that are written in plural form take singular verbs and pronouns. For example, Cisco Systems is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. Generally, you can distinguish the two cases by introducing the word 'the' in front of the name in question. For example, The Giants are going to win the pennant. Not: *The Cisco Systems are headquartered in San Jose, Calif. Company names generally take the neuter pronoun it. For example, Microsoft restated its earnings.

a.m., p.m. <blockquote> See <a href="#datesandtimes">dates and times</a>.</blockquote>

bulleted lists <blockquote> Introduce a bulleted list with a colon. For example, There are a number of things to keep in mind when writing a style guide: ... Capitalize the first letter of the first word of each bulleted item. Bulleted items must be parallel in construction. End bulleted sentences with periods (not semicolons or commas), and do not punctuate the end of fragments.</blockquote>

capitalization <blockquote> Avoid unnecessary capitalization. Only capitalize job titles if they precede the title holder's name. For example, Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch. Do not use all-caps for company names unless the name is an acronym. For example, IBM, One Touch Systems Inc. (not *ONE TOUCH Systems Inc.).</blockquote>

company names <blockquote> Avoid unnecessary punctuation and symbols in company names. For example, Yahoo, CNet, E-Trade Securities, Avanti.

Where a company name is spelled with an initial lowercase letter, do not capitalize the name at the beginning of a sentence. For example, eBay.</blockquote>

dashes <blockquote> Use em-dashes (either coded as a dash (—) or typed as two hyphens (--)) to set off distinct thoughts within a sentence. In general, try to rephrase your thoughts to avoid this construction. Where used, treat an em-dash as a word, with a space on either side. For example, No one disputes that Thom — who spells his name with an 'h' — is a totally rad dude. </blockquote>

dates and times <blockquote> Local conventions for specifying dates vary. To avoid ambiguity, either specify a date's month by name or letter abbreviation, or use the international standard date notation, yyyy-mm-dd. For example, Feb. 24, 1998, or 1998-02-24. (A summary of the international standard for date and time notation is <a href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html" title="A Summary of the International Standard Date and Time Notation">here</a>.)

Specify time of day by either using a 24-hour clock or omitting the seconds and using a.m. and p.m. For example, 17:15:23, or 5:15 p.m. Noon is 12:00:00 or 12:00 p.m.

In general, include the relevant time zone abbreviation when specifying the time of day. Time zone abbreviations are capitalized and separated from the time by a space. For example, 10:54 a.m. ET. (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030801073443/http://www.timeanddate.com:80/time/abbreviations.html" title="Time Zone Abbreviations">This list</a> provides proper abbreviations for time zones.) </blockquote>

decimals <blockquote> Place a 0 before decimals less than 1. For example, 0.27. In describing quantities in millions, use one decimal place at most. For example, $2.7 million. In describing billions (one billion being equal to one thousand million), use no more than two decimal places.

Use decimals instead of fractions.</blockquote>

dollars <blockquote> Abbreviate with a dollar sign ($) when used to describe an amount. Spell out only when discussing the type of currency itself. Do not hyphenate adjectival phrases. For example, A $5 million bonus.</blockquote>

dot-com <blockquote> Minimize the usage of this term. Where possible, rephrase using Internet (adj.) or Internet company (n.).</blockquote>

DSL <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for digital subscriber line.</blockquote>

e-commerce

email <blockquote> Do not hyphenate. (Note: While there is little consensus on the spelling of email, it is not hyphenated on most major websites (such as <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo</a>, for example). It is generally hyphenated in other media, however.)</blockquote>

emoticons <blockquote> Keep to a minimum. Emoticons can be helpful in indicating sarcasm or good humor, but quickly become cloying and distracting.</blockquote>

extranet

GIF <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for graphics interchange format, a technique for compressing the size of a digital image file.</blockquote>

hard drive

his/her <blockquote> Follow AP style. Use the third-person masculine form (his, him, he) when an indefinite antecedent is male or female. For example, A good reporter protects his sources. It is preferable, however, to rephrase a sentence to avoid this construction. For example, Good reporters protect their sources.</blockquote>

homepage

HTML <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language.</blockquote>

hyphens <blockquote> Use sparingly, and to avoid confusion. For example, a high-net-worth investor; a highly intuitive solution; a more involved project. Hyphenate complex phrases only to prevent ambiguity. For example, some more-involved projects.</blockquote>

Internet, the Net

intranet

irony <blockquote> Always give your readers a hint (or some sort of confirmation) that a particular passage is ironic. Even the most obvious instances are often misunderstood.</blockquote>

ISDN <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for integrated services digital network.</blockquote>

jargon <blockquote> Avoid technical terms if you can; most can be rephrased into meaningful English. If a term cannot be rephrased, it should be avoided, unless it is commonly used, accepted and understood.</blockquote>

Java

JavaScript

JPEG <blockquote> Accepted acronym for joint photographic experts group, and for a technique of compressing color images.</blockquote>

log in (v.); log-in (n., adj.)

log out (v.); log-out (n., adj.)

m-commerce <blockquote> Acceptable abbreviation for mobile e-commerce.</blockquote>

measurements <blockquote> Do not use " for inches or ' for feet: For example, A 12-inch ruler; A 10-foot pole.</blockquote>

Spell out the following:

inches
feet
miles
pages
pounds
yards

Use the following abbreviations (and don't spell out when preceded by a numeric value):

cm (centimeter)
dpi (dots per inch)
fps (frames per second)
GB (gigabyte)
GHz (gigahertz)
Hz (hertz)
Kb (kilobit)
Kbps (kilobits per second)
KB (kilobyte)
KBps (kilobytes per second)
KHz (kilohertz)
Mb (megabit)
Mbps (megabits per second)
MB (megabyte)
MBps (megabytes per second)
MHz (megahertz)
mm (millimeter)
mph (miles per hour)
ms (millisecond)
ppm (pages per minute)

Do not hyphenate adjectival phrases using measured quantities with abbreviated units of measure. For example, He bought a 1200 dpi printer and a 10 GB hard drive. Do hyphenate such phrases when the units are not abbreviated. For example, 'there was a 20-second delay before he dropped them both off the 200-foot cliff'.

million, billion <blockquote> One million is equal to 1,000,000, and can be abbreviated by M. For example, Mom & Pop Co. took a $23M accounting charge in 2002.

One billion is equal to 1,000,000,000, and can be abbreviated by B. </blockquote>

MP3 <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for MPEG, Audio Layer 3.</blockquote>

MPEG <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for Moving Picture Experts Group, and for a digital video compression standard created by that group.</blockquote>

Mr., Ms., Mrs. <blockquote> Use only to avoid confusion; i.e., where an article or essay mentions two or more individuals with the same last name.</blockquote>

multimillion-dollar

New Economy

none <blockquote> None can behave like a contraction for either "not any" or "not one," depending on context, and takes singular or plural verbs accordingly.

When used to indicate "how much," none means "not any," and is singular. For example, None of the water was left.

When used to indicate "how many," none often means "not any," but is plural. For example, How many companies are going to make a profit? None of them are (going to make a profit).

When none is meant to indicate "not one," it is singular: None of them is bigger than any other.</blockquote>

numbered lists <blockquote> Bullet points are preferred unless the exact order or the exact number of items is significant. Numbered lists follow the rules for bulleted lists outlined above.</blockquote>

numerals

Spell out numbers zero through nine. Use digits for 10 through 999,999. Above 1 million, spell out million, billion, trillion, etc. (One billion is one thousand million; one trillion is one million million.) For example, The company shipped 1 million units, but only 780,000 arrived intact. Do not go more than one decimal place when spelling out the magnitude in millions, and two decimal places for billions. For example, $5.1 million. $5,104,300 also is acceptable. Where describing a range, use to, not a dash. For example, There will be 20 to 25 people at the party. Spell out all numerals (except for years) that begin sentences. For example, Twenty units were completely destroyed. 1999 was a very good year. Always use numerals in addresses. Always use numerals for measured quantities. For example, He was driving 5 mph. The PC ships with a 7 GB hard drive.

on to <blockquote> Do not shorten (to onto) unless the combination is used to mean "end up on top of." For example, Let's move on to better things; You can log on to the server; He jumped onto the car.</blockquote>

offline <blockquote> Always one word, no hyphen, when used to mean "not connected to the Internet." In all other uses, spell as two words, hyphenated. For example, The tracking system is still off-line.</blockquote>

online <blockquote> Always one word, no hyphen, when used to mean "connected to the Internet."</blockquote>

onscreen

onsite

open source

over <blockquote> Generally describes a spatial relationship, not a relative quantity or amount of something. In the latter case, use more than.</blockquote>

PC <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for personal computer.</blockquote>

PDA <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for personal digital assistant.</blockquote>

PDF <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for Portable Document Format.</blockquote>

percent <blockquote> In general, spell out. Use numerals when spelling percentages. For example, A 5 percent increase. Do not hyphenate when forming compound adjectival phrases. For example, We discovered a 30 percent drop-off. The word percent can be abbreviated in graphs and charts. Drop the first "percent" when providing a range. For example, 25 to 35 percent.</blockquote>

P.O. Box

pop-up window

pronouns <blockquote> Follow AP style. Use the third-person masculine form (his, him, he) when an indefinite antecedent may be male or female. For example, A good reporter protects his sources. It is preferable, however, to rephrase a sentence to avoid this construction. For example, Good reporters protect their sources.</blockquote>

publication names <blockquote> Italicize the names of newspapers and magazines in print, and follow AP style. For example, italicize the name of the Wall Street Journal, but not WSJ.com.</blockquote>

punctuation <blockquote> Follow AP style, with the following exceptions:

When a quote within a quote ends at the end of the full quote, separate the ending quotation marks with a single space. For example, As Amy put it, "The guy was like, 'Do you want chips with that?' and I was like, 'Duh!' "</blockquote>

quotations <blockquote> Edit quotations for grammar and house style. Exceptionally, a violation of good grammar and house style should be preserved if and only if it conveys the speaker's deliberate attempt to express a specific attitude, mood, or other contextual element.</blockquote>

real time (n.); real-time (adj.)

resume

San Francisco Bay area

sarcasm <blockquote> Writers are somehow tempted to employ sarcasm far more often when online than off. This is usually a mistake. Sarcasm should only be employed with reluctance, and should be identified as such, either with a parenthetical remark (saying, for instance, "(Just kidding.)") or a statement (or even an emoticon) indicating amusement.</blockquote>

serial comma <blockquote> Use only when it serves to clarify a long or complex phrase.</blockquote>

spam (n., v.) <blockquote> As a noun, this means unsolicited email. As a verb, to spam means to send unsolicited email.</blockquote>

sport-utility vehicle

startup (n.); start-up (adj.)

text editor (n.) <blockquote> A software application used for manually coding a program or document.</blockquote>

time zones <blockquote> See <a href="#datesandtimes">dates and times</a>.</blockquote>

titles <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation: CEO. Acceptable abbreviations: CFO, COO and CTO (chief technology officer). Unacceptable abbreviations: *VP.

Chief executive is not a title and is not capitalized when preceding a name. For example, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs will lead the company out of its current woes. Vice presidents are ascribed divisions with of (not with commas). For example, Joseph Johnson was promoted to vice president of marketing.</blockquote>

URL <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for uniform resource locator.</blockquote>

voicemail (n., adj.); voice-mailbox

web, World Wide Web <blockquote> (Note: The word web is a proper noun, and would normally be capitalized, but is often not capitalized in web copy. It is, however, usually capitalized in other media.)</blockquote>

web addresses <blockquote> Follow the style for website names when referring to the site as a whole. When referring to the address of a specific web page (including a site's homepage), write out the full address, including the http://.</blockquote>

web links

Use hyperlinks selectively, and keep them short. When linking text, link from a noun or noun phrase if possible, but link to a verb phrase if necessary to avoid confusion. For example: Dean Allen's <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020212000526/http://www.textism.com/">Textism</a> is often very good. He once wrote <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020212000526/http://www.textism.com/article/402/">a story</a> about a cat. And he even <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020212000526/http://www.textism.com/resources/index.html?id=5">uses the word "dude"</a> sometimes. Not to mention these <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020207203153/http://textism.com/resources/index.html?id=9">handy scripts</a> he wrote for coding web pages. And Digital Web magazine <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020210074652/http://www.digital-web.com/profiles/dean_allen.shtml">says</a> he was born in Vancouver! (Note: There are usability considerations to take into account with regard to link text, in addition to stylistic ones. How you reconcile these is up to you; one good approach is to add titles to links. (Mark Pilgrim <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020701084056/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/06/27.html#day_14_adding_titles_to_links" title="30 days to a more accessible weblog: Adding titles to links">describes why</a>.)) </blockquote>

weblog, weblogger <blockquote> Sometimes shortened to blog and blogger.</blockquote>

website <blockquote> (Note: The word website is often treated as one word in web copy, but is typically written as two words (Web site) in other media (in which the word Web is also often capitalized).)</blockquote>

website names <blockquote> In general, drop the www. For example, MetaFilter.com. Capitalize as the site treats its own name (avoiding excessive caps). For example, CNet.com, craigslist.org.</blockquote>

WYSIWYG (n., adj.) <blockquote> Short for "What you see is what you get." A WYSIWYG (or WYSIWYG editor) is a tool intended to enable a designer to write and edit the code of a program or document by specifying its desired appearance, without typing the code by hand.</blockquote>

XML <blockquote> Accepted abbreviation for Extensible Markup Language.</blockquote>

what if personal sites were like service stations or truck stops?

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

import Lede from '../../components/Lede.astro'; import Separator from '../../components/Separator.astro';

<Lede>i had an epiphany</Lede> (maybe 2 days too late):

{frontmatter.title}

so much of the internet is focused on social media sites, on our desktops and phones. but to go to a website that isn't trying to sell you something and browse freely feels like a break away from it all. at least to me.

i've tried to build this site with that in mind (even though i didn't have these words to describe it). i hope it feels that way to anyone reading.

the web is built on the backs of weird web shit

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

the web is built on the backs of weird web shit. all the overly polished saccharine BS we have now is purposely made as an anthesis of the rough draft aesthetic that was popular in the 90s.

and while i don't believe the weird stuff ever died, this renaissance is being co-opted by people who want it re-imagined in their image. make digital gardens like i tell you, create websites like i tell you, create components like i make them, blog like i tell you. fuck that.

Where There's Gold

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

import { YouTube } from 'astro-lazy-youtube-embed';

I'd forgotten just how great this Where There's Gold by Seal was (and I say that every time I hear it after months away)