Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

Something I’ve been writing

This is Benson my hound.

The dog lovers amongst you will be able to deduce that he’s a Whippet from his photograph. You can recognise his breed by his bony shape, long legs, pointy head and beautiful curves over his back and under his flattened but enlarged chest. He’s quite a goer.

But what you can’t do is hear the whining he makes when he’s desperate for a walk or his “happy growl”, which sometimes scares people, but in reality means he’s full of joy and really pleased with you. You cannot feel how soft his ears are, like rose petals, and … you can read the rest of my newest piece over on the blog

As I wrote last newsletter, “Small steps and all that but I’m back making things” and I am.

Some things I’ve been reading

Bubbles is a new way to find new and interesting writing online, mainly from the small web, which I find myself reading more and more as the “big”, corporate web becomes AI written and enshittified.

Taken is a beautifully crafted visual reminder of how much web pages can use data to track you.

Kill the corporation in your pocket - re-evaluating the place of smartphones in our lives and communities. I loved this article bu Slingshot Collective. More to think about when we think about smartphone use.

Something to share

If you are in the UK and if you’re looking to move broadband provider, maybe consider Youfibre. Now this isn’t some clever paid marketing pitch, but simply that I use them myself, I’ve had no complaints, they seem pretty fast and inexpensive and they’re currently running a promo at present where existing customers (me) and referees (you) both get a cash reward of between £25 - £100. So if you’re interested, and they seem OK to you, feel free to use my code: 39JD6B so we both get a bit of cash.

Something to be reminded of

I’ve checked the dashboard and there are newbies here, so just the usual reminder - at some point I’ll be moving this email newsletter away from Substack, so if you’ve subscribed by the app rather than good old email, you’ll need to change that as Substack won’t allow me to export your details (yes they are slowly starting the enshittification playbook path)

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can buy me a coffee/beer

2. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

3. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

As the world seems to be on fire, to help my sanity I finally forced myself to get writing again. I’m sorry it’s taken this long. Sometimes life and personal issues just get in the way of the muse. So here’s a few things to share with you.

• We lost a bird and it broke my heart

• I’ve kick started my reading and updated my bookstack

• I’ve started de-googling my life by moving all online photo’s to Ente, backing up locally and then hitting delete in Google Photo’s. That felt good!

• I’ve been thinking about how charities should reconsider their use of data tracking services

• Updated my Now page and About page

• I chuckled at this video (see enshittification comment below) made by the Norwegian Consumer Council

Small steps and all that but I’m back making things…

Reminder - at some point I’ll be moving this email newsletter away from Substack, so if you’ve subscribed by the app rather than good old email, you’ll need to change that as Substack won’t allow me to export your details (yes they are slowly starting the enshittification playbook path)

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can buy me a coffee/beer

2. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

3. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

I once again find myself in the bit between Christmas and New Year, thinking about time past and plans for the future. It has been a bit of a challenging end to this year, as evidenced by my lack of newsletter posts, my lack of website posts and what you won’t have seen, my lack of consistent and worthwhile journal entries. I have not been writing as much as I wanted or needed to do and this has added to the stress and anxiety.

The Past

Towards the end of the year, a number of big events took place:

• My job was put at risk of redundancy, so I had to navigate re-applying and planning for the worst case scenario. It was pretty hard and even though I succeeded in staying on, the emotional impact of losing good work colleagues took it’s toll.

• My wife managed to break her wrist badly. The impact of this on her was awful, the impact on us as a family meant that I was the sole driver, errand runner etc. This is all ok, marriage is about being there through better or worse, but still it was another layer of life to manage

• We had a parental death in our family. Not wholly unexpected, but still the loss hit hard in waves. The proximity of this to Christmas added to the low level constant sadness.

• Probably as a result of the above, my son and then me came down with really heavy colds/virus/covid infections right before the Christmas holidays. I was pole axed and my energy tanked.

So it’s been an interesting month or three where I have had very little reserves left.

I knew something was off kilter because even writing in my daily journal became a chore and something I kept having to catch up on. And as for online? I just could not get words out.

So this little message is part way of an apology.

I paused, then cancelled paid subscriptions as I could not justify anyone supporting me for no benefit. If you were a previous paid subscriber I want to say thank you, your faith in me or my writing really mattered. Much more-so than the actual cash.

Likewise, for anyone who has bought me a Ko-Fi over the last year, I am so very grateful. It’s only small change but it means a great deal.

So TLDR: I’ve been struggling, I’ve not managed to write much at all, I feel guilty about this, but I’m resting to get ready to go again in the New Year.

The Future

Although I’ve not written much recently, things are bubbling away and I will be back to normal service in January. But there will be a few changes to where and how I write.

My plan is to return to writing all posts on my website and then linking to them with my newsletter. No more blurring my website posts with Substack posts. And I will migrate the good stuff here to the website for posterity.

I’ve become more and more disillusioned by the path Substack wants to go. Algorithms, apps, notes are all moving towards something I have reacted against before. Centralised, controlled walled gardens. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I don’t wish to endorse this. so I will at some point early in 2026 be looking to move my email newsletter to a different platform that just does one thing well.

In theory this should all be easy for me to do, and you, dear reader, shouldn’t notice any real changes. But, if you have subscribed via Substacks App, then I will not have your email so will not be able to migrate you. (Another reason I’m beginning to really dislike Substack’s direction of travel) So if you subscribe by the app, and want to stay on the list, please do subscribe with your own email. Thanks.

Now to get back to recuperating. I wish you a very happy and peaceful New Year when it gets to you, and am very grateful for your time and attention.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can buy me a coffee/beer

2. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

3. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

I’m off for a couple of weeks enjoying a small summer break. Time to kick back, slow down, reduce tech and remember what actually living feels like. I’m hoping to get a bit of writing done too, so watch this space and in particular The Unmachined for some longer and more content. But for now I’d like to share a few things of interest.

Hedgehogs

I was returning home on a bike ride with my son. We’d pootled along the seafront taking in the views. We passed a wiry haired smiling hippy, happily sat on his Brompton, guitar strapped to his back. We’d returned via the Mr Whippy Van where I managed to spill the red sauce and a bit of marshmallow from my Oyster Ice Cream (rookie mistake on a scorching day) down both my T-shirt and my shorts. Stickiness everywhere.

On the last leg, we cut through the car park for the leisure centre. Snuffling across the hot tarmac was a Hedgehog. He moved towards the turning circle and I rated his survival chances, when coming to a future likely altercation with an SUV reversing as pretty close to nil. So we stopped and I tried to encourage him out of danger onto the grass. He stopped. Unmoveable.

Now Hedgehogs are prickly and can have fleas. I’m not sure if they bite or not, but I felt precautions were necessary. So I pulled out my paper notepad in it’s leather cover and gradually encouraged our new spiny friend to hop aboard. After a few clumsy failures he was on. Sat atop the shopping list “Blue Milk, Butter, Mustard…” etc.

I placed him carefully down under a Holly bush in thick grass. Welcome shade, cover from predators and time for him to cool down and move off. As I was putting my notebook away, my son said “Dad, you need to write ‘This is the page I used to pick up a Hedgehog’ on the actual page, as a reminder of what we did.”

And that is another reason why you should always carry a paper notebook.

Cycling

If you want to feel like a child again, I can heartily recommend reconnecting (or connecting for the first time) with a bike. I’ve had a road bike for a good many years now. A sleek Orbea built to clock up many many miles. Slim tyres, perfect geometry, razor thin buttock shredding saddle. A speed machine.

I’m not taking about this type of bike.

No I mean the thing you go on adventures with, the thing you mooch about on, potter, pop down to the shops, or beach, coffee shop or pub. I had one of these, an old mountain bike, which was unfortunately nicked. So I replaced it with a Gravel Bike. And it’s turning out to be brilliant. Something I can go out and about with, solo or with my wife and son to just have fun.

There is something about cycling. Something about cyclists that just seems alright. And these two films I found recently help to sum this feeling up perfectly.

The 90 Year Old Cyclist and The Good Line

Removed

I hate being out and about and seeing nearly everybody plugged into their poxy smartphone, looking down, scrolling. The more you notice, the weirder it all seems. So I loved seeing this work by Eric Pickersgill.

Thank Goodness You’re Here

It’s a computer game, set in T’North of England. I’m not a gamer per se, but do like to occasionally have a bit of mindless fun. And this looks hilarious! It’s not a new game, but a colleague recommended it to me. If you’re not from the UK and want to understand a bit more of northern culture, this would probably be better than Wikipedia.

As always do say Hello!

Any new subscribers to my little newsletter, welcome. And if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

Un-optimising Dog Walks

I’m fighting back against machine thinking while walking my hounds. A short piece over on the blog where I have an ‘aha’ moment whilst picking up dog poo.

Local Cash Economies

And while you’re over on the blog, if you visit my digital garden via the secret leaf link, you’ll find a new story about a simple way to re-engage small, human community relationships. I’ve been guilty in the past of choosing large, branded, national companies for work. It felt safe and was more convenient. But choosing to get some work done by a local, and paying in cash, reminded me of another way we rebuild communities and un-machine.

Some other things I’ve been pondering

Here’s a few links to things I’ve been reading or watching lately:

• Provide a legal right to access certain services without a digital device. Tim Arnold of The Super Connected has put a UK parlimentary petition together to ask our MP’s to think about enshrining the right of people to engage in society without having to own a smartphone. If you’re in the UK, please support this. I have and think it’s vital.

• Rob Wringham’s New Escapologist Kickstarter is up to fund another 4 issues of his ace magazine. In my opinion better than The Idler. Bag your advance orders now.

• Apparently, your smartphone is a parasite!

• Seth Workheiser’s Social Media Escape Club is a lovely new newsletter / blog I’ve been digging into. Here’s a great example post how writing a newsletter shouldn’t beat you up. One of the things that kicked my backside to put this little issue together for you.

As always do say Hello!

Any new subscribers to my little newsletter, welcome. And if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

Ever get those days/weeks/ (OK months) where you are just struggling? Where doing the things that you want to do, the things that make you feel good, or alive, or joyful, melt away and everything feels just off? Those times when you want to write your newsletter, want to provide useful stuff for the tribe of people who have subscribed and supported you and yet you just can’t hit finger on key? That.

I write here and on my website about stopping social media, not scrolling through endless news, opinion, argument. I write about trying to live a good life, doing real things in the real world. And yet, to put it bluntly, things have been feeling pretty crap.

Watching the world seemingly go to hell in a handcart. Seeing the standards of public life, professionalism, statesmanship, truth, honesty and compassion fall to the ground and sink under the mud and slime of the current technology, tech-bro, right-wing, oligarch, dictatorship mash up has brought me low. Not down and out but a bit battered and needing to retreat and rest and regroup. And in that place it’s been difficult to do much more.

But maybe, if you’re in a similar funk, I can offer a few things that have helped me a bit or at least acknowledge your similar feelings.

Oh, forgot to add, my “Unmachining” project is still brewing in my mind. More of that (as practical tips and ideas about how to push back) will be coming again soon, but for now my “normal” newlsetter will have to suffice.

Back to the “how to unfunk yourself a bit”.

• Force yourself to get out and do something in nature. Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed, I’ve continued to run 3 times weekly. I prefer to run first thing in the morning around my local park during the week and then add a longer run on a Saturday morning with my son. Despite sometimes feeling a bit un-motivated I can honestly say that I have never finished a run and not felt better about myself and the world. Seeing, hearing and smelling nature, combined with the enforced headspace to daydream, think and ponder is one of the most powerful tonics I know. And do not wear headphones.

• Read a real, paper book. Preferably more than one. Not Kindle (as it’s more tech-bro, privacy stealing electronic machine, controlled silicon). I had found my reading slipping, until I decided to just read 20 pages every morning. After a few days the habit stuck and very quickly I finished Elizabeth Oldfield’s excellent book on imperfect faith - Fully Alive, which I recommend btw. In addition I read something before bed. Fiction is best, or a story, not non-fiction or anything I want to learn. I’m following Mirian Lancewood’s adventures in Woman in the Wilderness as she and her husband Peter disappear into the New Zealand bush to live as pseudo hunter-gatherers.

• Fight back. Push back against those you are unhappy with. Do not accept their narratives. Rebel. Do not comply. Go outside and leave your phone at home. Turn it off. Be happy with driving without a sat nav and risk getting lost. Buy some actual vegetables and meat or bread and cook something not wrapped in plastic. Give money away to help someone or a cause. Hack your technology, bend it to do what you want. Refuse the cookies, use disposable emails, ignore calls.

• Go out into your street and smile and talk to the actual real people you live with. Having a whippet helps, as you’d be suprised by the number of people that will chat to you as you walk a four legged friend. But even if you don’t have a dog, go out and say hello to your neighbours. They and us are in it together.

• Notice nature. The photo above was last week in my local park. Yes the Bluebells are back.

• Watch the booze.

• Sit it out, it will get better. Remember the maxim “this too will pass.”

Some other things I’ve been pondering

Here’s a few links to things I’ve been reading or watching lately, all loosley tied to the above:

This is What a Digital Coup Looks like - watch Carole Cadwalladr’s latest TED talk. then start resisting.

The Art of Poisoning Music Files - fighting back at AI’s theft of creative music.

Starting off the New Year without a smartphone - an older piece I somehow missed, but good reading.

How a French region voted to ban smartphones in ALL public places. Reading further I understand that eventually this ban was overturned, but it shows there is hope, there are other’s like us asking whether all tech is good tech. Vive La France!

As always do say Hello!

Any new subscribers to my little newsletter, welcome. And if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

Zecharia etc…

When an angel told Zecharia that his elderly wife would bear a son named John (the Baptist) Zecharia's first response was to ask him "How?" and he was struck dumb for this.

Sometimes we need to remember that 'How' is often God's department, whereas what he asks of us is 'What'.

Over on my website I’ve shared a recent reflection I was asked to deliver for work. It’s a bit different from my usual posts, but I hope you find it interesting. As always, I’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback.

RSS

As part of my de-machining plans, I’m moving back to moving away from centralised sites and apps and onto more RSS. Interestingly I learned that you can also add Substack and even Youtube feeds via RSS to your reader of choice, thus stripping away a lot of the cookies and tracking and just read on your own device, in your own curated list. Two readers I’ve tried are Newsblur and Artemis. Newsblur is big, slick but nice, but I’m also loving Artemis, a small-web labour of love.

Copyright and AI

You may have seen on my latest blog post that I’ve added a copyright notice to my photograph. I’m going to do more of this now in light of the stealing of original content by AI. It’s theft, plain and simple. It’s a way of large organisations stealing from artists and then benefiting by users on their platform. We need to call it what it is. If you’re UK based, please join the Make It Fair Campaign and email your MP. And maybe we’ll need to lock down our content to stop the tech-bro parasites. Or create silent music tracks…

Returning to PocketMod

A single, mini notebook. Folded like a zine, and with the option of printed templates. That’s PockedMod. I used to use this tool ages ago, like over 10 years! But I keep coming back when I need a down and dirty mini notebook for a single day or two’s scribbling. And for that it’s ace. (And it’s not tracking you or analysing your data…)

Paid vs Patreon

Quick Question. If I stopped all Substack paid subscriptions and moved to Patreon for long-term support (for which I’m really grateful) with Ko-Fi for ad hock donations, what would you think dear reader? I’m genuinely interested. I want to give value, earn a few quid for my time but also not over ask. I don’t quite know how best to give the long-term and short term option, whilst not feeling I have to write to keep stuff coming for monthly paid supporters. I’d love to hear any thoughts.

As always do say Hello!

Any new subscribers to my little newsletter, welcome. And if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

I’d hit a bit of a slump recently. Disobeying some of my own healthy rules, in particular those around not getting caught up in the 24hr news cycle, not letting events in the USA get into my head. And the result of this was a lack of ability to sit and write. Hence why I decided to pause paid subscriptions as it didn’t feel right for me to continue receiving your patronage for nothing.

Whilst I hadn’t been “writing” writing, I had been notemaking. Pulling together ideas and thoughts. Deciphering scribbles in paper notebooks and adding them to my digital Zettlekasten/Slip Box required smaller bursts of energy and was doable. Creating ideas and forming embryonic articles that will hopefully appear in future.

And I forced myself into reading more. Reading printed books, from time tested authors. And slowly as I focused less on the madness and slowed down, I felt myself getting back together again.

So this newsletter is a result of all of the above.

Make sure you’re not tracking the wrong lion

Over on the website you’ll find my latest essay. It talks in more detail about a lot of what I wrote above. It’s got skidpans, lions and Donald Trump. I hope you enjoy it.

Those time tested books I mentioned

It’s still wintery over here in Blighty. So not too late to read something seasonal.

I picked up The Children of Green Knowe after seeing it recommended as a similar type of children’s story to The Dark is Rising. It was excellent. A strange mix of ghostery, witchery and discovery set in an old country house. Whilst reading it I kept wondering if it was all a dream. Lovely.

Although it’s February it’s not too late to have an Almanac. And Lia Leendertz’s The Almanac A Seasonal Guide to 2025 is a joy. Each month lists facts, fables, weather, standing stones, recipes for the month. It grounds you in the seasons to help you notice the world better. It makes winter easier as you really involve yourself in it, rather than wish it away. And it helps you see the rhythms of life and natural pace and change of nature.

One from the archive - The thing about blogging

Blogging is still alive. And that’s a good thing as I explain here in this post from the archive. I’ve been nicely surprised to see a whole new generation discover the joy of writing on your own bit of digital turf rather than renting your spot on social media. Bear Blog seems to be helping drive this change, which is fantastic, and I enjoy reading a selection of writers on this page. Although my personal choice is still to do it all yourself, the ethos behind Bear seems good.

If you’re new here

Finally, I’ve noticed another batch of new subscribers to my little newsletter. If that’s you, welcome. And also if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

As soon as I clicked "‘open account' the screen changed. For a split second I saw "Welcome to Facebook". Seconds later the screen refreshed, another page opened. "Your account has been suspended". I was told it would be deleted permanently in 60 days. I could dispute this if I clicked on this link...

…which told me to upload a full video scan of my face, from all sides for ID.

I felt very slightly sick. (OK to be really honest, I felt slightly sick after verbally saying “Oh Fuck Off Zuckerberg!!” ) Apologies for the cursing, but it’s the truth.

After a pause, I did the only thing that felt correct. I told my work colleague that I would not be able to sign up and manage the work account. This "ID" was a step much too far into the machine. I would not play this stupid Facebook game.

I should have stuck to my guns. I've been off Facebook for a few years now and never missed it. I even recently closed my Instagram account. I was done with it all. But I'd thought that perhaps using just a work account to manage a page would be OK. My mistake.

This isn't about stopping fake accounts. This isn't about making Facebook a safer place. This is what happens when you look into the eye of Sauron directly. It wants you. It wants every bit and byte of my data, my life, to sell and monetise and misuse.

A few days earlier Elon Musk waded into the scene. Criticising UK court decisions, courting the far right in Germany, offering money to UKIP. Meddling like a spoilt over privileged frat kid.

Zuckerberg bent the knee. Offered piles of cash to a convicted criminal, and said he'd reduce the fact checking on his empire. Under Bezos' ownership the Washington Post censored a critical cartoon.

Jimmy Carter passed away. A man full of dignity who strived to use his position to make things better for the ordinary citizen. A man with grace, faith and morals. The next US President in waiting snarled about taking Greenland and renaming the Gulf of Mexico…

This last week or so has felt very dystopian. I've tried to be stoical, tried not to get angry or upset, but failed. It all felt too much.

But then I thought about a few other events that took place recently.

My wife losing her mobile phone, only for it to be picked up by a neighbour. A neighbour who speaks poor english and travels miles on public transport to work hard all day suporting his growing family. When he returned it and I offered a reward, he point blank refused.

Running in the park with my son in the snow that has arrived here. Smiling to locals, who all smiled back and said hello, even the ones battered by years of poverty, poor diet and often substance issues.

Thinking of buying a new paper shredder to replace an existing knackered one, only to pop into the nearby British Heart Foundation charity shop to find the same model that sells for £40, available used but immaculate with a 12 month warranty for a mere £5!

One of the things I am looking to do more this year is to be more local. To shop and do more in my lovely community over here in Liverpool. To buy more local, to buy more used. To do more small good things in the place that I call home. To have an impact in the small ways, to do small things. because maybe these small things will build and grow and help others to do the same.

I'm not going to get distressed at the state of foreign affairs. I may say my piece and be honest of how I feel, but I can't change those things. But I can try to do the right thing and the good thing over here where I am with the people I meet.

Things I will be doing more of this year

• Do more local.

• Read more books, preferably paper, if possible bought second hand, if bought new bought from local businesses.

• Be more present

• Create and feel more joy

• Reduce online and increase offline

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription. I have paused paid subscriptions for a short while - more details explaining things soon.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

I’m breaking from the usual format of my newsletter to simply wish you and your loved ones a very merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

I’m so grateful that over this last year you’ve chosen to give me some of your time and attention in reading or replying to the odd scrawls I post here and on my website. I’m also extremely grateful to those kind souls who’ve bought me the occasional coffee or become a paid subscriber. Just knowing that somebody enjoys or values what I put out is such a special feeling. So thank you internet friends.

I’m keeping this brief and simple. You’ve all got much better things to be doing than reading emails on Christmas Eve, or the days following. But I wanted to say that I hope the meaning of Christmas, that of hope, peace, reconciliation, goodwill towards men and women meets you in your home and heart.

Whether you are a person of Christian faith, other faith or none, I wish you every blessing.

With my very best wishes,

Alastair

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my website or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Here are the latest interesting things I’d love to share with you.

Digital Garden

A digital garden is a type of website that emphasises learning and growing in public. The main difference between it and most other websites is that it does not assume to be the finished item. It's not set in stone. 

I’ve written a bit before about the concept of digital gardens in this newsletter. The key difference between them and a “normal’ website is that they recognise imperfection and the growth of ideas. Things can change, grow or get weeded out if wrong. The whole thing becoming something that grows, develops and changes. It’s refreshing.

I think this is quite exciting, so I’ve decided to add a digital garden to my website.

But it’s also a semi-secret garden at present. While I work on it and get it into shape, I’m not sharing it publicly. At present, new posts do not get indexed on the main site, or by search engines. They’ll just be shared with newsletter subscribers like yourself or by clicking on the 🌱 icon in the main top menu on my site. Only when they grow into fully formed writing, when they are mature, will they move to the main site for all to see. That’s they theory anyway, let’s see how it all goes.

The Problem with Substack

Over on said Digital Garden, I’ve been thinking about a problem I’ve had with Substack. To be very brief, I moved my newsletter over to it (Good) and I like the way it easily allows discovery, sharing and paid subscriptions (Good). But I’ve also felt uncomfortable with the way it keeps trying to be more and more an “everything app” - newsletters, website, podcast, social media Twitter copy (Bad), annoyed at how much it pushes me to use it’s App (Bad) and have felt it’s been getting me to play a game I don’t really want to play.

I’m not saying Substack is bad full stop. There are a lot of interesting people I read here. But I don’t think playing the Substack game is a good fit for me, outside of what I used to do, namely share content I’ve written on my website and other interesting things in my good old fashioned newsletter.

To read a bit more detail, pop over to this post.

A Modern Good Samaritan Tale

I’ll leave you with this. From my own part of the world. Because it’s writing about thoughts like this that help me parse how the world is and clarify my thoughts.

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoy my back to the old style newletter. As always I would love to hear your thoughts and comments about anything written here or linked to.

Until next time,

Be kind!

Thoughts? Insights? Feel free to comment via Substack to join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

I can't explain why being in nature makes me feel small but whole.

I can't explain my faith, where as an imperfect human being I have glimpses of connecting with the divine.

I can't explain the joy I feel in connecting with a friend in real life and seeing them smile in their eyes.

I can't explain why I want to show love.

All these things are not quantifiable. The machine cannot take them and measure them and profit from them. The machine cannot understand them.

The people creating the machine, the powerful, the political wannabes, the mega wealthy tech bro’s, do not like this. They feel uncomfortable. You see, they cannot control this.

So they and the machine dismiss such things as irrelevant, un-modern, superstition. They say "we haven't worked out how to decipher the life ‘code’, the data that makes these things happen. We haven’t managed to map the electrical processes in your brain that create this. We haven’t cracked the science behind your behavious, the logic, the data. But we will."

No, they won't.

And if they cannot, when they realise this, eventually they will use different tactics to diminish what I can't explain. Ridicule, division, social pressure.

Now the thing is, I don't have to explain, and maybe I don’t want to explain.

I feel these things. They are part of me. I was created as part of them and they are as much a part of me as flesh and bone. They are good. And that is enough.

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

That picture up top, is not what it seems. It’s not Garlic Bread. It is in fact, hand harvested, Wild Garlic Bread. Made a while back after an afternoon foraging the pungent herb that grows everywhere there is some water in my neck of the woods. It’s delicious, natural and I’ve been told that it does not leave you with Garlic Breath, which is an interesting fact I’ve yet to prove.

Why the sudden influx of bread related header photo’s you may be thinking?

English Essays

I’ve launched a new section on my Substack. It’s called English Essays and it’s a place where I will be sharing personal stories from my 50 odd plus years as a British Chap. The kind of thing I occasionally write about on my blog. I decided to start this series, because a few times in the past, I’ve had comments on here that some of you, from distant shores (i.e. not people living in England), enjoy when I write about how life is in Blighty.

Whilst I didn’t want to mix it all in with this newsletter, it seemed better to have a separate section so those of you not interested in my friendly ramblings, can avoid. I also thought long and hard and decided that as I would like to earn from my writing, and this stuff is personal, and takes time, these posts will be for patrons primarily. This is to give those of you who choose to support me with paid memberships, something to say thank you for your kindness. So for you kind souls, English Essays will be like the back stage pass, the invitation to a mug of tea and a choccy biscuit to sit and chat in my lounge, with snoring whippets by our feet, or an offer of a swift pint at my local to natter and set the world to rights.

The first essay, Bread, is up. And if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, I’m offering a 20% discount on new subscriptions until 4th October via this link so you can hop over and read it.

Here’s a few other things that have been occupying my attention lately…

How to De-Google your life

Proton Mail has this great guide showing how you can wrestle your data and identity back from Google. As you know via my un-machined writing, I’m in the process of doing exactly this. So if you’re interested in doing the same, it’s a good read.

UnConformed Lives

I’ve been really enjoying reading the many posts over on A Library of Unconformed Lives by Ruth Gaskovski. I was included in the submissions, but it has been great to find a similar crowd of folks pushing back against the ever tightening grip of technology.

10 AOM Posts

I’ve been reading Brett McKay’s Art of Manliness blog since I was in my 30’s. It’s steadily provided a huge amount of honest and actionable information to help me live a better life. I recently found this old post in the archives where Brett lists the 10 posts he’s found most useful to him and they are really worth reading.

Whippets

Finally, I was messing about with slow motion video on my phone and decided to shoot this sequence of my wife’s whippet leaping over the sofa in hot pursuit of her ball. I share it here just because she is mad (the dog not my wife obvs), whippets look odd from underneath, and it made me laugh. I hope you enjoy it too. We should all be more whippet!

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

As the curate placed the small square of gluten free communion bread into the hands of the servers by the altar, over the speakers we heard the faintest sentence,

"The body of Christ."

My son and I looked at each other and suppressed giggles.

The second time this happened he looked at me again and whispered "It's like ASMR communion dad."

My wife had forgot…

Read more

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Subscribe now

Firstly apologies for things being quiet for a while, a combination of being made redundant from my old ‘proper’ job, choosing to use some of my newly acquired free time to actually live and have adventures with my son over the summer, followed by the slight knot in my stomach and occasional 2am wake up wondering if I’ll ever find a new job, added to spending a lot of time on application forms to try and secure a new job… yep things have been a bit different. And this sapped energy and affected my writing. But I’m back now, raring to go again and wanting to say how grateful I am for you sticking by me and not unsubscribing or cancelling your paid membership or hurling abuse and calling me a lazy b’stard.

This newsletter is going to be a bit more like the ones of old. More chatty, less formal, less of an essay and more of me just eagerly sharing things that I’ve found interesting with a great group of people who often share my curiosity. I want to get back to a more informal style of this newsletter. Although Substack is a good service, I find that using it sometimes pushes me to adopt a more essay style of writing here, which I’m not sure is an honest reflection of me and how I communicate. So bigger stuff will go on my website / blog, with this serving more as a letter to a friend. I hope you don’t mind.

Anyhoo, “so what’s going on Alastair?” I imagine hearing you saying…

Seeing as you asked,

Bookstack

I was made redundant from my ‘real’ job in July. To be fair, I kind of chose redundancy as due to my having been employed for some time the redundancy payout was quite a lot. Enough for me to take a couple of months away and do all of the dad adventures I’ve dreamed about when an employee. As well as adventures, I read a lot more. And having read more, I thought I’d better update my bookstack with some recommendations from the reading pile. Over there you’ll find one particular book I cannot praise enough (and have mentioned before) – Boyd Varty’s The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life (pictured above) I’ll write a full review on my website soon, but suffice it to say, if you’re thinking about life changes like I was/am then you’ll find a holistic and nature centered approach from reading this story.

The joys of job hunting

I’d been employed in my last job for 9 years! I was a bit rusty in the job market. So I’ve been forced to go back to LinkedIn and update my profile, engage with conversations, ask for recommendations and so on. Although I dislike the platform, I’ve found it easiest to treat it as a video game. Play hard, find out the rules of the game and use tactics and hacks to increase engagement. Avoid enemies, such as the initial scam/spam requests that hit my inbox using obvious AI messages, to connect with distant HR ‘experts’ in places such as Nigeria, who I’m sure were ready to relieve me of sums of my hard earned cash.

I also noticed that on Linkedin,

Many people

Write updates and posts

in this strange,

single

line

format.

Nope, can’t understand it either. Just be human I say.

Photography

Whilst having the aforementioned summer adventures, as often as possible I swapped my iPhone for a 35mm film camera. And the results have been really interesting. Using film slowed me down and I took fewer photo’s. But when reviewing my scans a much higher percentage of these photos were good or memorable. The lack of instant review on a screen enabled me to take a picture and then just get back to what I was doing. I was less distracted and much more present.

I’ll write a bigger post soon on film photography, but until then I would really recommend you giving it a go. Pick up a cheap, used film camera from a charity shop or eBay. Pop in some inexpensive Kodak Gold film, snap away, send the film for processing. Then wait. And the wait will act as a marinade, deepening your anticipation for when the results come back.

On arrival, look at your images, smile and then maybe repeat. Trust me, it’s so much more fun than phoneography. And if you’d like any recommendations of cameras, technique, film or processing, just let me know, happy to help or advise.

Flip Phones

I re-watched The flip phone manifesto:

and suggest you do to. We’re losing something with smart devices. I’m about to make personal changes.

Digital photo’s and climate change

I’ve often thought that the criticisms of paper tools and analogue photography are incorrect. Many times I’ve been told that digital is better for the environment, saves trees and chemicals. But no one seems to factor in the energy from all of the out of mind ‘cloud’ services in data centres. This piece though took a deeper look. And it seems that all of our online ‘stuff’ particularly the rubbish such as hundreds of un-deleted crappy photos and videos are causing physical environmental impacts. So film and paper still rules!

Blog

More people need to blog. To create individual, human, honest narratives in the face of centralised horrible social media and AI generated guff. If you’ve thought about it but weren’t sure where to start, maybe consider Bear. It’s just lovely and simple and elegant. If I was starting from scratch I’d probably use something similar. And a shout out to a random Bear Blog user, Robert Berming, to illustrate the loveliness of personal blogs as an example of what I’m talking about.

Slow cooked chicken thighs

Autumn is on the way, and thoughts move to warm, wholesome, cheap food. A few days back I made this slow cooked chicken in a honey and mustard sauce for dinner. Plopped it all in the slow cooker and left it to do it’s thing. Served with a bit of rice, it was amazing. All the family loved it and my 12 year old gave it a solid 9/10 so it’s a keeper.

Would you sponsor a rando?

Finally, a little bit of fun. One of my best mates is Phil. A talented photographer, cyclist and all round good egg. I’ve known him for over 35 years! He’s doing a sponsored skydive to support his local hospice. I will be sponsoring him, but in an act of pure mischief I thought maybe I’d play a nice prank. This is what I thought.

What if Phil, had a good friend who he affectionately called “Big Al”. What if said friend (that’s me) happened to secretly share Phil’s sponsorship page on his newsletter, and some of his readers who wanted to do a bit of good happened to sponsor him, but in their messages just added “Big Al sent me…”? What if on seeing these strange messages from random internet people, he couldn’t, for the life of him, work out why this was all going on…

Would that make you chuckle as much as me?

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

When I was younger, the more important people were, the more difficult it was to make contact with them.

It was a mark of my low status in many jobs that I was on call, at a moments notice. My boss would expect me to answer the phone or call him back “real quick”. This was a boss of mine from America. A go-getting, work driven aspiring media tycoon. My status meant that I had to be on call. All the time. Even when I took the train home, tired, arriving back at about 8pm, I would sometimes find messages on my answerphone telling me to do this or that. Never a please.

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Once, when working in a TV documentary company, I failed to get back to a director on the weekend and had a huge dressing down from when I went back to work on the Monday.

This is still relevant today. Very important people are not easily accessible. You can’t just pick up the phone and expect to (a) find their number and (b) call and be answered by them. No, they will have a barrage of gatekeepers, assistants and other people shielding them from the distractions and requests of mere mortals like you and me.

Maybe they have a PA to handle emails, calls and letters. Probably even the means to get in touch with them will be obfuscated. They’ll be safely hidden behind companies whilst real addresses, emails and phone numbers will be kept very, very private.

If this is how very important people live, why then do the majority of us feel that always on, always available is actually a good idea, a mark of honour?

Our egos want us to think that we are central to the world around us functioning as it should be. We are indispensable, irreplaceable. Our ego tells us that we are important, therefore it’s vital that we are ready to save the day, to be in demand, to hustle and solve things, to put out fires. We must check and respond, straight away.

And this is magnified by the snack-oil chicanery that social media and apps and smart phones employ relentlessly to wear us down, keep us providing the crude oil of attention and data to their money making plans. Check for update, swipe, refresh.

35 new notifications! I’m important, all of these things need MY attention, NOW. I’m in demand, I MATTER!!

One evening, many years ago I was going through a pretty tough time. Poor mental health and personal problems had hit me hard. I was not functioning very well. I was off work. I was getting help to heal. I went outside into the small back garden of my house. It was a cold, clear winters evening. I looked up and saw the stars. As my eyes accustomed to the darkness, more and more of them unveiled themselves. With no clouds in sight the whole universe was opening up above my head. I sat down and just stared. Then I relaxed into wonder. So many stars and planets out there. So much space. Billions and billions of miles of universe. How small was I? How utterly insignificant yet at the same time how amazingly special to actually exist and be a part of this vastness.

For more than half an hour I had time to just sit and gawp. And as I did so, the realisation of just how small a part I was of all this, hit me very hard. I smiled. This view gave me a sense of relief. My ego was shrinking. There were things so much bigger than me. And they all worked together perfectly. I was small. I did not have to feel the weight of the world on my shoulders as I was insignificant in the grand scale of a whole universe up there. The world did not and would never revolve around me.

The apps, the notifications, the need to have the smartphone are all created by highly paid, clever men and women in silicon valley. They are smart and well paid. The companies they work for are wealthy beyond imagination and hold huge amounts of power. But they lie.

They lie when they whisper in your ear that you are very important. That being on top of these dings and pings is important. That you must reply. You must check. You must be on top of it all. Lies, all of it.

You are insignificant. You are a tiny piece of the universe, just like the cloud floating above, or the fly buzzing around you in warm summer air. You do not matter to the vast majority of people. The world will not stop revolving on your behalf. You are a tiny part of a huge world.

But you are also amazing. The fact that you exist at all for this smear of life, based upon universe time, is a miracle. You are a minute, yet amazing cog in all of this. And you can do amazing things and have amazing experiences like looking up to the stars on a clear dark night, if only you stop and give yourself permission to do so.

As an amazing person, you are important, to the small group of real friends and family and people you encounter day to day. So build your own system to defend your precious life and time from interruptions, other people’s agendas and algorithms trying to constantly control your behaviour and actions. Be more like the old bosses and celebrities and build your defences so the bad actors cannot get to you. Protect your real life. It’s actually all that you have.

Turn off the notifications, ditch the apps, kill the screens for a while and stop and think of how much of your real and precious life you are spending in artificial digital universes. Relish how unimportant you are.

Switch off, get outside, look up and breath.

And then, maybe you’ll start to smile again.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Ruth Gaskovski and her husband Peco, over at the brilliant School of the Unconformed asked people to share their stories of how they live differently in this digital age. Much of what they write resonates with my thoughts on The Unmachined, so I decided to share a little of my story to add to their project. I hope that you find it interesting…

How I live life differently in the digital age?

As I sat reading my book, in the fresh summer air, drinking tea out of an aluminium camping mug I felt the lightness. The feeling that I was in the world and a part of the world. Fully living in reality.

Inside the tent, tucked away somewhere under clothing or family detritus was the only link to the digital world. And as links go, this was more of a "two tin cans and a bit of string" digital link. A dumphone. Calls, texts and, well that was about it. And to add to it's uselessness only two people had the actual number for the phone, my mum and my wife.

'Lightness' - it's a wonderful feeling to have. And one that is fleeting in the modern world. But it's a feeling that I remembered from years ago. Back in the day before we all became more and more machined.

And getting back to that feeling of lightness, and as a parent passing it on to my son, is the main driver for how I have started to live differently in the digital age.

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Before we continue though, I have to admit this is a work in progress. I have not arrived, I've not finished or won the race. Life changes, technology changes, my needs change. I make mistakes, I change my mind. It's a journey not a destination. The things I have done have made things incrementally better, but I can often improve and aim to do so.

Is this good for me?

We're often told that if you can be clear on the 'why' for anything, then the 'how' will be easier. I've completely taken this on board in my use of digital tools. One simple question helps me to decide whether to adopt a technology, keep it or drop it. And I ask this question regularly,

"Is this good for me?"

To get back to my opening paragraphs, I had noticed than if I had a smartphone on camping holidays I couldn't fully immerse myself in nature. This made it hard for me to be fully relaxed. I noticed other people’s and apps’ agendas directing my thoughts. I couldn't wind down. I didn't have the mental bandwidth to slow down and daydream. So when considering turning it off and having a holiday dumbphone instead, the clear answer to the question “Is ditching my smartphone for a simple emergency only dumb device good for me?” was a resounding YES.

So what do I do differently?

The dumbphone experiment was a tiny first step, a toe dip into the water. But it set a number of things in motion. I kept asking the question about any technology that I used, anything in the modern digital world that sometimes stole my focus, attention or peace of mind. Below, I'd like to outline some of changes I've made

I deleted Facebook and Twitter

These two networks made me angry, vain or egotistical. I wasted time arguing online with strangers. I wasted time judging myself against other people’s curated unreality. So I deleted my accounts and never looked back.

I removed any social apps from my smartphone

Whilst I continue to use LinkedIn and Instagram (although the latter is so near to going now) I made the decision to not have them installed as apps on my smartphone. Containing them on my laptop added the right amount of friction.

I continued to have a dumbphone to use on holidays and when wanting disconnection

I made a point of sometimes going out without any phone, smart or dumb, to remind myself that I used to do this for decades without the slightest worry. I find it refreshing.

My wife and I bought an old Hi-Fi system and started listening to CD's instead of streaming

This helped us to choose which album to listen to, to enjoy the whole package, and to avoid algorithms adding to my listening decision.

I bought a DVD player and now buy used DVD's to watch movies distraction free and at a low cost

This takes me back to the days of the video rental store. My film watching is more intentional, I don’t have to worry about movies dropping off streaming services for paid rivals, I can keep the movie if I love it or resell or donate it to charity. And all for less than the cost of renting from paid digital rental services.

I make an effort to schedule time to do activities with my son that cannot be done plugged in

We go running three times a week, we cycle, we walk, we recently took up paddle boarding. None of these lends themselves to looking at a screen.

I seek out quietness by turning off background TV

I’ve become aware of my need for quiet. If I’m inside I turn off the TV if I’m not actually watching something.

I’ve started taking a film camera with me to document memories without distraction

I began by taking a digital camera, which removed the smartphone distractions. But then I moved back to shooting on film. No screens to preview, the need to slow down and concentrate on composition. And the bonus joy of anticipation whilst waiting for prints or scans to arrive.

My wife and I choose areas to holiday or camp, that have poor or no mobile reception

We actively seek out areas where the digital realm finds it hard to invade. Wild places with poor signal, holiday lets without Wifi. The effects on our family are tangible.

As a family we now make time to sit and read paper books together

As a parent I’ve learned that instead of telling, demonstrate alternatives to digital. After battling to get our son to sit and read books, we decided that we would all do this together. It worked.

On my website, I created a hello page to be clear to others how I prefer to keep in touch

To make it easier to opt out of technologies I don’t agree with, I began to be positive about those I do. Email for example. Other people have since joined me in this which is lovely. (And if you want to join us, you’ll be very welcome)

I buy used paper books rather than order e-books on Amazon

Buying used from sites like World Of Books gives me paper reading, at a fraction of the cost of new. No digital rights, no e-ink screens, better for the environment. And something that can be sold, given or donated afterwards.

I use a Linux computer to remain in control of my digital tools

Instead of getting angry at how even Microsoft wants to distract or advertise, or how Apple wants to control, I spent time learning how to manage, customise and own my laptop and it’s OS.

When I am using my smartphone nearly all notifications are off and it's on silent

For now, I do still have an iPhone. But in addition to switching it off and leaving it at home on occasions, I also go through settings to make it as distraction free as possible.

When out and about I don't wear headphones

If I’m out walking, running or just pottering I never wear headphones. I take in the sounds of nature, the environment, or even listen to odd conversations around me which gives me material for my writing. I fully immerse.

When out and about I observe people around me

I notice how many are plugged in, looking at screens, listening to something not of their environment. It makes me sad, but determined to push back at the way we’re being changed. I also make eye contact and talk to people. This helps to redress the negativity.

I carry a paper notebook and pen

Small, often battered, my small notebook allows me to record thoughts without becoming distracted by a screen. When really bored, it even allows me to sketch, badly, for fun.

All of these changes have helped me to push back against the more negative effects of the machined culture. But, as I said before, this is all a work in progress. So if you’ve your own ideas or practices you’ve adopted, do share.

Ruth and Peco are collating other people’s experiences and as a thank you to contributors are offering a complimentary 6 month paid subscription to School of the Unconformed. You can find full details here.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

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Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

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One of the advantages of giving myself a bit of time off after being made redundant from my last job, has been feeling the way that I used to as a child when on my summer holidays. After struggling a little to slow down and be a bit more idle the last few weeks or so, I began to calm down and recalibrate. And gradually I’ve felt the ease I used to have that comes from knowing I have a large(ish) amount of time ahead of me to enjoy, without deadlines, expected work or anything else too challenging.

This feeling and lack of pressure has allowed my mind to wander and daydream and reminisce. I’ve thought back to these younger days. The days where morning TV would show dedicated children’s programmes such as Robinson Crusoe, The Flashing Blade, Dogtanion and the Three Muskehounds, Around the World with Willie Fogg, Why Don’t You. Where are they now? Why have broadcasters dropped this dedicated children’s slot that was not just filled with cheap low quality animation?

After the leisurely morning TV I would spend time outside (I remember the 1970’s heatwave and ladybird plagues), read books, play games on my Sinclair Spectrum, maybe go out and take photographs, watch the ocasional summer blockbuster movie or rent a VHS from the video shop.

I was happy, entertained, creative, exercised and feeling free.

So this week’s newsletter is my small way of sharing some of this with you to consider, as of my newsletters of old…

Summer Books

There are some books that just feel like they belong in the summer. Often because I’ve read them on holiday, but sometimes because of their subject or geography too. So if you’re looking for ideas of books to read whilst sitting outside in the sunshine here’s a small hand picked selection of a few good’uns.

Zorba The Greek - I’ve read this numerous times, that’s how much I love it. Life lessons from a passionate old greek, under the blazing sun.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning - my favourite Laurie Lee book, an adventure of life walking across Spain with just a violin to busk with, before the war.

Brendon Chase - One to read to your children, or just enjoy yourself. Boys take off to live wild in an English forest, hunting, fishing and enjoying absolute freedom.

The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life - I’m currently reading this as I think deeply about where my professional life goes next, but a tale of Lion tracking as a mechanism for getting in touch with your natural self just begs to be read in hot weather.

Summer Snapping

I’m more and more keen on using tools that are more Lo-fi or analogue to get me away from screens. I’ve written before about really enjoying film photography again, but it is quite expensive. Two possible solutions I’m intrigued by are this cheap half frame camera which saves money as you get double the number of frames per roll, and this lo-fi, screenless children’s digital camera that many adults are loving.

Summer (holiday) phone

Turning off my smartphone whilst on holiday has been a thing for me for a while. I’m really considering upping the ante and switching for even longer amounts of time, maybe even eventually ditching the smatrphone. But my old faithfull as shown in the first link is 3G and as the networks are closed down, I’m looking for a suitable replacement. This candybar that has only phone functions and WhatsApp might be a suitable replacement. (I’d much rather not use WhatsApp but almost everyone here does now hence that one addition)

Summer Movies

I have to admit, I never watched Stand By Me before. Last night in the quiet of a humid evening I corrected that. And it blew me away. Just a story of boys and friendship and navigating life, but so full of charm.

And on it’s way to me is a DVD copy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to watch with my son. Again, it feels like it needs to be watched in the summer, if only for the sunlit glinting off the soft top Ferrari. As an aside, I’ve found that here in the UK, the cost of buying a used movie on DVD from World of Books is often cheaper than streaming it. And you can give it away afterwards or re-sell it. And it feels a little like the old days of trips to Blockbuster.

Over to you

So, dear reader, I hope some of this resonates. But I’d also love to hear any good recommendations for your summer movies or books or similar.

And also, just a reminder, is there anything that you would like me to cover? Anything that you are involved in that you would like me to share with your fellow readers here? If you’ve a project or idea that fits with living well, making a difference, being more human or similar just let me know.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

P.S. This newsletter is free to all. But if you enjoy it or would you’d like to support my work both here and on my blog, there are a number of ways you can help me.

1. You can become a patron with a paid subscription.

2. You can buy me a coffee/beer

3. You can leave a like by clicking the ❤️ below. It really helps more people find my work.

4. You can spread the love by sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it.

Attached to my door was a black and white picture of a blonde woman in full song. The ragged edge down the long side betrayed the fact that it had been torn out of a book. Next to my room, on my best friend's door was an equally cool looking David Bowie.

I was 18 years old. And staring me back in the face, on my study door was Stevie Nicks.

Three years earlier I was about to meet my younger brother in London and head back down with him to Sussex on the train. I had a little time to kill, so took a stroll to one of the big HMV stores that were commonplace. Stacked with all of the good stuff a teenager in the 80’s could desire. The important stuff like posters, T-shirts, VHS movies and music.

As I wandered the record and cassette aisles I listened to the music playing over the PA system. The track playing was a mix of rock and synth, filled with wild vocals. "Talk to Me". The singer hit hard. I stopped and began to smile. This was new to me but I definitely liked it. I had no idea who this was, but on a whim told myself that if the next song was good, I’d buy the album.

And then the echoey “I Can’t Wait” began to repeat as a melody grew ahead of the tidal wave of drum machine and percussion that started the second song. That was enough. I asked at the till and walked out with a cassette of my first Stevie Nicks Album. I would later sit in my room listening through without skipping, time and time again to dig deeply into this piece of music, whilst flicking through the cover artwork and song lyrics printed on the red white and black cassette inlay.

So I’d been a fan since 15. At 18 I now owned a fair number of her albums and in recognition of my musical obsession, when my teenage mates had nicked a book from the school library and torn out the pages of the artist that corresponded with each of us to stick on the door of our room, Stevie was mine.

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This was the first gig I have been to where I did not have any alcohol to drink. Not even one small beer. I was clutching my £2.50 can of still water, standing as far forward as I could, waiting 3 hours before Stevie was due to come on stage at BST Hyde Park. Beer would have resulted in trips to the toilets. Trips to the toilets would have resulted in me losing my place near the front. So no beer, no toilet trips, place secure for the performance. My only concession to this had been to walk to the merchandise stand beforehand to bag a tour t-shirt. Steep at £40, but it had to be done.

It’s amazing how some music and artists accompany you through life. Their songs and albums mark out special events. Crushes, falling in love, split ups and heartbreak. Teenage feelings of isolation and no one understanding you. Stevie understood. Her off world lyrics, full of melancholy hit that nerve full on.

Bella Donna was my companion aged 17, quickly followed by The Wild Heart.

Listening to “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?” with tears in my eyes and a heavy soul, after my first real heartbreak was a comfort and also vessel to help get the sadness out. A purge. Every time I hear that melody I’m dragged back to those high emotion years of teendom.

The Other Side of the Mirror played out over CD in a college friend's Vauxhall as three of us took a trip from Salisbury in Wiltshire to Le Touquet in France to photograph motorcycle races in the sand dunes. That album sat next to me as I honed my skills as an aspiring photographer and film maker.

Trouble in Shangri-La sang to me through early adulthood. More calm, more measured but still melodic and big.

My last album to be bought slipped through the cracks of a grown up work life with family and responsibilities that made it harder to grab time to stop, sit and listen to an album, rather than pick random Spotify selected songs. But when I noticed In Your Dreams I was again compelled to buy it, stop, sit and listen to let the art wash over me.

Weirdly, I only really came to love Fleetwood Mac, via Stevie Nicks. An unusual timeline, but one that fitted me. Suddenly there was this whole other world of high value, crafted lyrics and massive melodies to dive into. And again, my love for the cool, stick thin, twanging accent of Tom Petty has Stevie Nicks to thank for the initial introduction. All the more poignant when the guitar riff of “Running Down a Dream” blasted out over the expectant Hyde Park crowd as the show began.

I’d almost been here before. Twice. Years ago I waited on a website, constantly clicking page refresh until I managed to get onto the ticket portal. Fleetwood Mac were coming to the UK. The whole of the group, even Christie McVie. A big tour with gigs near to me up North. I battled through the captcha’s and anxiety inducing timers telling me I could only hold the potential ticket for another 3 or 4 minutes. Success. Booked. I was off to the races.

Until something happened, illness, injury or similar. Two gigs on the tour cancelled last minute. Birmingham would be rescheduled. The fans would be OK. Manchester? Just cancelled. Guess which one I had booked? Refund. I was gutted.

That was the last chance I could have seen the complete band. Christie McVie sadly died a few years later.

Back in Hyde Park, after the encore, Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks sang Landslide. That beautiful Mac track. As the music flowed, behind them were images of Stevie and Christie projected on the stage. A slide-show of a life spent together. At the end, Stevie explained how this day would have been her friend’s birthday. That she dealt with grief by running back to the stage. How performing and feeling the love of the crowd carried her through this still very real sadness and loss.

I had never been to a concert where the artist left most of the audience crying, myself included.

Despite missing the opportunity to catch Fleetwood Mac and see Stevie live, I kept waiting and looking. A few years later I’d again sat tapping refresh on the laptop and succeeded in buying new tickets. And this time I had a different tack. See two musical heroes, a kind of buy one get one free opportunity. Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. Could not be better.

Life got in the way. In the end, I couldn’t make the gig. Begrudgingly I sold my opportunity to another fan. I didn’t make a profit as ticket gouging is the lowest of the low. I was sad, but stoical. It would be OK. They’d tour again and that time would be different.

Except Tom Petty died.

The last time Stevie had played Hyde Park had been with Tom. As this evening continued her band paid their respects with "Free Fallin’". At the end, once again with Harry Styles taking on Tom’s part in “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” I paused to notice. To fully take it all in. Here I was with thousands and thousands of other fans immersing myself in a tune that has been with me nearly my whole life.

I had failed twice, but now, 40 years later I was submerged in so many emotions watching one of my musical heroes enchant an audience. She sang. She stopped to tell little stories and anecdotes. Rock Goddess Stevie turned into a charming, slightly cookie neighbour. Being smaller, more human. Reminding us of the power of friendship. Wanting to let us in, make us feel special. She disappeared backstage to return holding signature Stevie attire. The lacy, coloured shawls she often made her look.

“And this one is the actual shawl from the video of Rhiannon. It’s the first time I’ve worn it since.” she smiled. The crown erupted.

Wrapped around these small moments, was the music. Those songs that got into my head and stuck in my heart. As powerful as before. Delivered as perfectly as before. Sure the voice had aged, changed slightly but powered by the experience and stage craft of such an icon, the overall effect was still pure magic.

I went to Hyde Park to see Stevie Nicks this last Friday. It’s Monday now and I am still buzzing. I’m still finding tunes resurface, bringing with them more memories and moments from my life.

"So apart from gushing about finally meeting an idol, what is the point of this post Alastair? " you may well be asking.

Sometimes in life you have to be bold, slightly reckless. You have to jump before you’re ready. Hesitate too much and you can miss the final opportunity to experience amazing things in life. There will be a time when it’s too late.

Sometimes you just have to keep trying. I blew it twice. I wasn’t sure whether there would be another opportunity to see her live in concert. But I made it. And I feel lucky and grateful.

Sometimes you need to spurge on important things. I paid extra money to gain stage side "Gold" tickets. My natural sensible head made me doubt whether to do this. But in the end I was so glad I did. Why do something this anticipated halfheartedly?

See things live. If you love an artist, musician, actor, comedian, go and see them in real life. Get off the screens. Go and show up. Be there with other people. Be human, and organic and alive. Spend the money to do this. They will feel this as much as you. The energy goes both ways.

When you do this, experience it. Really experience it. Take it all in. Listen, smell, feel the air. By all means take a picture or short clip or two (as I did), but then put down the phone and just let it hit you in your eyes, ears and heart. Those memories will be far more valuable than a share on social media. They’ll be part of you. They’ll weave around the older ones, the times when the songs made you laugh or cry. They’ll keep good company. And your life will be better because of them.

And finally... I have to conclude, Stevie Nicks still rocks.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

p.s. I’m stepping things up a bit now and having a serious crack at my Substack. So I could really appreciate your help.

If you enjoy my writing and want to help make it possible the best way is to become a patron

But I also know that this is a big ask and not fit for most people, so if you’d like to support my work on a much smaller scale, there are a number of ways you can help me.

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p.p.s. this essay was originally written on my website alastairjohnston.com

Hello again, dear reader.

In my previous newsletter I wrote “Why is it so difficult to not work for a while?”

That’s turning out to be the understatement of the summer. I’m drifting.

I had visions of sitting outside in the park with a book, reading in the blazing July sunshine. I had thoughts of having made a plan, everything in place, having my extended time off sh*t together. But instead my sh*t is really not together... yet.

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The weather hasn’t helped. I don’t know about where you live, but over here in the North West of the UK our summer is turning into a wash out. Last week we finally had a few hot days, days that reminded me of childhood, time off school to play out or visit my grandparents, brown grass, tarmac melting and bubbling on the road outside our house. But then as soon as we had started the usual British trait of complaining that it’s too hot, low pressure was back. Grey, cold, drizzle returned apart from those moments when the drizzle stopped and it chucked it down. Raining “stair rods” as we used to say. Or more modernly “pissing down”.

I felt swindled by this. How could I get my head together sat inside on my one opportunity to do something different for a while? This did not help my mental health or mood. But then I can quickly slip into being an Eeyore.

I also find myself currently car-less. First world problem I know, as my wife has a car that I can use, but most of the time she is using it, leaving me at home. I’ve lost the ability to get far out of the local neighbourhood. I’ve lost spontaneity. And no bike at present either, because my old mountain bike that I used to pootle about on, was stolen.

I had started to address the transport situation, by visiting a few dealerships to look for something suitable. And the second trip to do this helped my mental health slightly. I took a couple of buses to a garage some miles away. I spent a bit of time looking at options and taking a test drive. I put down a deposit on a car that had come in recently, so needed to be serviced and valeted before sale. I made some progress on one small thing. I got out of the house. I took a new tiny micro adventure to go somewhere new. This felt good.

But on some other days I started to panic that time was passing by and I was not making the most of my non-working opportunity. This brought me down. Wasting time. Monotony. Guilt. See what I mean about this stuff being hard?

And the problem with this was how it affected my mood. I became more introspective. I ruminated on what was wrong. In my life, at home, everywhere. Negative spiral.

OK, dear reader, enough of that. You don’t come here to read my moanings or navel gazing. You come here to hopefully find possible solutions when you’re facing similar dilemmas as yours truly. So here go a few ideas I’ve found, with one caveat, I’ve not solved this problem. The things I have found below help ‘a bit’. It’s still a work in progress, just as I am. But with that warning, these are some things that I’m finding do seem to help.

Things that may work when you feel down about not working.

Run

I have written a number of times on my blog about the positive impact of running. I’m not sure what the magic of this activity is, but I am guessing that going out for one of my regular runs helps me on a number of levels.

1. It gets me out of the house and outside. It changes the scenery for me which is a good way to feel more alive.

2. It’s physical. It keeps me physically fitter and more healthy. I feel better when I know I am doing something good for me.

3. It’s mental. Running gives me head-space. The repetition of my stride somehow works to calm my brain down. This idle brain time allows my subconscious to bring up odd and creative ideas. It’s a cliche that many people say that the solution to a problem just popped up when they were exercising, but it’s a cliche that is true.

4. It’s discipline. I don’t always want to go for a run, but every time I do I feel that I have been a better man. I’ve made myself do something that was the right thing to do, even if it could have been easier to leave it. This helps my self esteem.

5. It reminds me that I am alive and part of something bigger. I notice the weather (I love running in bad weather). I feel the wind or rain on my face. I feel the sunshine warming my skin. I notice the seasons change, the leaves grow, the cycle of nature continue with new life in spring as I observe birds and beasts. It takes me away from the man made, artificial, screen driven fake life and re-grounds me.

Tidy something

A couple of days ago, I just decided to go to my office and clear away old papers and bits of unused obsolete tech and cables. Every day I’d worked around this bit of mess and every time it made me feel a little bit worse about myself. Just tidying up one bit of the room made me feel that I had made some progress that day.

Just go out

As I mentioned before with running, sometimes you just need to get out and go somewhere that is not your home. The change of scenery helps to re-engage your mind in new sights and sounds. This re-engagement then helps you to feel in less of a rut. I’m lucky in this regard as owning two whippets, I have to be outside every day to walk them. But even if I didn’t have the dogs, going out for a walk is something that I would always look to do. That’s another reason why taking the bus to look at a new car, in a new area, also helped me feel better about things.

Actually watch a movie

Instead of feeling bad, how about actually embracing the situation. Having this time off, but feeling unsure what to do, and beating myself up about it was no help at all. So one day I decided to just sit and watch a movie, all the way through, in the daytime. I chose Stan and Ollie, which I’d wanted to see for a long time, but not being something my family would have enjoyed, I’d put it off constantly. No time you see! So I embraced the opportunity, spending time just for me. And I was wowed and moved by this amazing film.

Get off the internet

Do something that does not involve a screen. As hours pass and I’ve not moved, I feel disconnected and annoyed. Screens are easy, they can provide everything you think you need. But don’t let them lure you. At times I just stopped, thought about what I had actually done in the last hour or so and decided that I wasn’t happy with the situation. Instead of working out what to do instead, I simply made the easier decisions to choose to put down the tech for the next hour or so. Sit with this and then see what comes up.

Bloody write!

Take out your journal. Or fire up a distraction free writing app or program. And start bashing away. Put thoughts down. Mindmap. Dream.

I want to do more writing as a way to earn my living in future. This is a dream of mine. I’m nowhere near that yet, but even without the end success, I do know that when I write, I feel I am growing and learning. I think out loud in my journal and I think in public on my blog and newsletter. I benefit hugely from doing this and in addition, I feel better when through my writing I connect with like minded souls such as you, dear reader. It makes the word seem a better place and it feels satisfying and worthwhile.

So despite finding that this ‘not working’ thing is proving hard for me, I am slowly managing to use some of the ideas above to pull myself out of too many negative thoughts. I still have anxious moments. I steel feel my occasional Eeyore surface, but I am learning to deal with these feelings a little bit better. And I’m reminding myself that I have bit of time. For once, there is no rush. I’m slowly getting there.

(And I’ll continue this series with another update soon.)

Now a question for you. What have you done when in this situation? What worked for you when you’ve had unexpected free time but anxiety that you’re not using it correctly? Any hints, tips or general comments are most welcome.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.