David Peach

Category: Long Form

  • Are you being a fucking idiot?

    (Originally pasted into facebook) I don’t often stick long posts on this god-awful surveillance website, but after hearing about some friends and family suffering, I didn’t want to hold back. If you’re going into shops etc without a mask on when you should wear one, you’re a fucking idiot.If you’re holding personal gatherings when you…

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  • 2020 — Review of the year

    Disclaimer — this post is still in a bit of a draft state. I have published it, however, as it is New Year’s Eve 2020 and if I don’t do it now I will probably forget to do it. What an absolute bloody shit show this year has been. I’ve been super lucky when compared…

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  • Setting up my own labs

    I’m going to begin setting up my own “labs” area to play around with various web technologies. For the longest time now I have been holding myself back quite a bit by only really learning technologies around current roles at the time and for my own personal site. This has mainly revolved around Laravel and…

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  • 31 Films of Halloween 2020

    I think I’m going to try and do the 31 days of Halloween by watching 1 new horror film each day in October. (Or just 31 new horror films by the month’s end is more likely for my timetable) I may alter the order as I go. 1 — Suspiria (2018 remake) — watched 1st…

  • No better feeling than to create

    There is no better feeling than that of creating. Yes, that is a super vague statement but I wanted to write something — anything — and this post is it. I have spent too much time tonight just clicking around reading articles and watching videos around the world pandemic and the complete fucking cretins governing…

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  • Moving my video share links to my own Peertube

    I am moving all of my old YouTube embedded videos to my self-hosted Peertube videos. So that Google inc. can not track you on my site.

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  • On Keeping a Commonplace book/site

    From Wikipedia: As soon as I heard about the idea of a commonplace I was immediately interested and wanted to start keeping one myself. But then I soon realised — my website is kind of on the way to becoming what I would call my own commonplace. I tend to write about a bunch of…

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  • Been learning to use Docker Swarm

    Despite not yet managing to get what I have learnt implemented, I have nonetheless took on board some good concepts around docker and docker swarm

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  • 10 Albums that greatly influenced my taste in music

    No explanations, no reviews, just album covers in alphabetical order. Thanks to Rafe for the inspiration for this.

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  • February 2020 round-up

    Here is the first monthly round-up I’ve done. Just some songs, albums, films and games that I’ve enjoyed in February 2020.

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  • I think I prefer reading on a Kindle

    I have always tried to maintain the belief that reading novels from physical books is always the best way to go. And whilst there is something to be said about a physical living breathing book that can’t run out of batteries, I have found something interesting with my kindle. When im reading a book, I…

  • I need to write more

    I literally started writing this post at the moment I had the thought that I should be writing more. I love the idea of being a writer and for that I know that all I need to do… is write. You see, I keep finding myself wanted to write about different topics that interest me,…

  • What Is the Fediverse?

    The word Fediverse comes from the joining of the words “Federated” and “Universe”. It encompasses web-based social software that is inter-operable through open protocols1 and gives each person full control over their own website and data.

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  • One of the most exciting pictures I’ve seen in a long while

    This picture is one of the most exciting pictures I’ve seen in a while. On the surface it is just three people looking at something on a computer monitor. However, for those who know and enjoy two of these people’s work, it is something to shout home about. Junji Ito The guy on the left…

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  • It’s been a while

    I’ve not been writing as often as I’d like this last week. Partly this is due to my having done the Birmingham International Marathon last Sunday and being in recovery from a knee injury from that. But I know that’s a pathetic excuse – there’s always my phone that I can write posts on after…

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  • Stop worrying about your niche – just write

    Every single regurgitated blog post I see about starting a blog always says the same thing – find a niche and focus on targeting it. This can be a toxic idea as it has the power to both limit you and paralyse you from writing. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a focus in your…

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  • Birmingham Marathon 2017 – 30 days to go

    Today’s run left me feeling a lot more confident for the upcoming marathon than the previous Sunday’s. Last Sunday I attempted this route but ran on an empty stomach which, amongst other factors, caused me to stop at the 8.3 mile mark. This time I made sure I had a good meal one hour before…

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  • “Visits” are real people too.

    When trying to write every day, I find myself looking at my WordPress dashboard to see how many visits I’ve had up to that point. When the bar chart goes way higher than the average I get excited; when it is lower or completely empty I get down. Sitting down to wait for my dinner…

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  • Birmingham Marathon 2017 – 32 days to go

    After last Sunday’s run that kept me feeling ill for the rest of the day, I began to doubt my chances of completing the marathon. However, although I am still in no way fully confident in my abilities, I have had a slight confidence boost with my latest run tonight. Distance: 6.7 miles Time: 1…

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  • Tomorrow night is Terminator 2 night

    Tomorrow night I finally get to see one of my favourite, if not my actual favourite, film of all time – Terminator 2: Judgement Day. My only initial concern / worry is that it’s being released in 3D. I don’t like to be a hater for the sake of hating, but I’m always sceptical about…

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  • I would miss SoundCloud

    I’ve just been reading about how a decision today could potentially lead to the end of SoundCloud. The company has just been saved by a couple of investors but still may be gone very soon. I’ve discovered some great artists through SoundCloud and will be somewhat saddened if / when it does indeed die. It…

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  • Taking my blog too serious

    I’m finding I’m taking my blog way too seriously. Instead of just writing; checking; and publishing, I’m leaving posts in draft worried they are not professional enough. This is stupid. This website is for me and me alone. I’m currently writing (have written) a long post about my experience with playing Life is Strange and…

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  • Building systems for yourself to achieve your goals

    Setting goals is the accepted way of aiming for those achievements you want to make. Write a book; buy a house; run a marathon. While having goals is important, more time should be focused on building systems for yourself. These should be designed to help you get there rather than just focusing on the end…

  • Opportunist racism of my morning commute

    Yesterday morning I was witness to a bit of casual racism which really got me annoyed and ready to rage at the dickhead who uttered it. There were no bad words used but, nonetheless, his confused intent got to me. The Setup The train was pulling into the station as I was waiting to board…

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  • Faith in humanity restored

    I write this post on just another commute into work. The journey in is almost always uneventful, albeit for the occasional train delays and cancellations. However, today was different and my faith in humanity, and what we can accomplish, has been restored – and all from one simple interaction with a stranger. I pretty much…

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  • For the many not the few…

    I’ve not long got back from voting in my first ever General Election. Then after about ten minutes of trying to decide whether or not to put some money on Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister, I closed the browser window – I just don’t have faith in this country to put the right person…

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  • Let’s talk about the term ‘Terrorist’

    Over the past three months the United Kingdom has witnessed some horrific acts of terrorism. The ones I am specifically referring to here are the Westminster attack on 22nd March 2017, the Manchester arena bombing on 22nd May 2017, and the London Bridge attacks of 3rd June 2017. These are disgusting, unforgivable acts of terror.…

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  • Going through old books – memories of times long past

    Yesterday I finally got round to sorting through a load of old books of mine that I have collected over the years. To anyone watching from the outside these will just look like a mess of old books on varying subjects – Clive Barker novels; Derren Brown-recommended psychology books; Music Theory and scale books. To…

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  • Retracing my steps with The Walking Dead

    The Walking Dead is one of my favourite ever TV series. Dark; brutal; gut-wrenching – it’s everything you could possibly want in a series. You may know it already but for the benefit of those who don’t, The Walking Dead is based on a long-running comic book series of the same name. Since the finale…

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  • The 5am Habit

    My usual morning routine consists generally of getting up twenty minutes before I’m due to leave for the train station, rushing out and getting to the train barely on time. However, for the past five days I have been forcing myself into a new routine – getting up at 5am; nearly two hours before I’m…

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