What I'm Doing Now

Last Updated: 18 July 2026

Everything Is Closing In.

AI Generated Image: A small house seen from outside at 4am, viewed across a darkened yard. Through a large warmly-lit window we glimpse the interior: a figure sits at a desk with their back to the viewer, working at a glowing computer screen. The room is amber-lit by a small desk lamp; a few papers, a coffee cup, sheet music stacked nearby, a small electronic keyboard against the wall. The figure's posture is focused, quietly absorbed � not triumphant, not collapsed, just present in the work. Outside the house, an immense dark ocean wave is suspended in midair, frozen mid-crash, towering high above the small house but not falling. The wave is vast, dark indigo-teal with subtle luminescence at its curl, heavy with weight. It is held aloft, not crashing. The night sky behind the wave is deep ink-blue with a scattering of small stars. A single small warm note of light � almost like a golden musical note or a tiny luminous mote � floats in the air just inside the window, between the working figure and the suspended wave. It is barely visible against the lamp glow but unmistakably there. Composition: tall vertical, the wave dominating the upper two-thirds, the small house with its warm window in the lower third, the figure tiny but central. Small warm light inside a vast pressing dark � the light persists without triumph. The wave is real, the room is real, both coexist. Style: painterly oil-painting texture, emotionally honest, quietly held. Influenced by Edward Hopper's interior warmth, Caspar David Friedrich's small figure against immensity, and the soft nocturnal palette of a Studio Ghibli night scene. No text, no signage. Atmospheric, intimate, weighted.

This has not been a good year.

I wouldn't usually post an AI generated image on my website, I try to keep my personal site entirely human. But this image seemed appropriate. One night when writing software to connect GPT Image 2.0 to Claude, I asked Claude "based on everything you know about me, generate a portrait of me". This is what it came up with.

I don't feel like sharing my private life right now.

Listening

Inferno, the new album by Boards Of Canada
Rosary by Gloss, a shoegaze / dreampop band from Perth
"Talking" by Daisy Park, a guitar-based indie pop band from Perth
DKFM: online radio station streaming shoegaze and grunge music.
Sonic Talk: podcast on music technology

Reading

ImportAI, an email newsletter by Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic. This is my best hint at what is important in AI development and what is in the near future. Each newsletter ends with a science fiction short story about AI, which I interpret as plausible-denial coded messages about what they're seeing happening on the private frontier edge of AI.

Watching

Under The Banner Of Heaven, an excellent 7-episode series. Based on the true story of a murder in a small Mormon town. Soundtrack by Jeff Ament, the bass player for Pearl Jam.

Things That Spark Joy

Music / audio equipment (synths, guitars, VST plugins)
AI, especially Anthropic Claude
Self-published DIY indie bands
Shoegaze / Grunge / Goth / Industrial
Coding in Go and C/C++
Iced Coffee & Venti Peppermint Mocha Frappucinos
Native software with minimal dependencies

Things That Spark Sadness

Russians, Hamas & Antisemitism
I'm Afraid Of Americans.
Eurovision drama
Directional politics
Notifications
Hiking (it's really not my thing)
Intrusive people
Inefficient & bloated software

Archived Now Highlights

This page was inspired by Derek Sivers' Now page.