Joe Williams

@joewilliamskent

Walkable cities. Climate. Making stuff. Archaeology. Fungi. Music. Kent. London. General leftiness. All this and more. (he/they) 2020s Twitter turned me into more of a lurker than a poster, but maybe that'll change here. #Vegan #RejoinEU

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Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· May 17

Book cover: Jean-Paul Sartre's foundational work "Being and Nothingness and Grogu"

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· May 1

Post your warning sign

Seen on Margate Harbour Arm. A yellow triangular warning sign with a thick black border. The sign shows a large ocean wave, which looks to be at least 3 metres high judging by the stick-figure person next to it. Said stick-person is running away from the wave, but is clearly a split-second from being engulfed. Not ideal.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Mar 21

Same energy

The cover of Whitley Strieber's book "Communion", featuring a drawing of a "Grey" alien

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Nov 17

Li'l camper guy - Dali, Yunnan (China), 2018. I'm guessing this started out as an auto-rickshaw type thing. I kind of love it.

A vehicle about the size of a golf buggy, made to look like an old split-screen VW camper. It has a two-tone paint job (turquoise and white), and what appears to be a top-hinged full-height door.

A side-on view of the same vehicle. The wheels aren't visible because they're fully within the bodywork - there's no front wheel arch, and the rear one is tiny.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Oct 16

I've been having fun over the last couple of days experimenting with Pagan (a music sequencer for Android developed by @quintinfsmith.bsky.social). Enjoying it even more after finding this "How do I..." FAQ in the documentation.

Screenshot from website, of text reading:

"Use Pagan with generative AI to create music?

You have a contempt for human creativity that is fundamentally opposed to being an artist."

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Sep 23

Well, he's not wrong... greenamerica.org/your-green-l...

Screenshot from the linked article :
"In the early 2000s, British Petroleum (BP) popularized the term “carbon footprint,” as part of another ad campaign. In 2004, BP released its carbon footprint calculator and provided “solutions” such as going on a low-carbon diet—essentially putting the onus of solving climate change on buyers instead of BP taking responsibility for its product. Additionally, BP funded anti-climate change messaging and opposed climate legislation. The company’s failures were laid bare six years later when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill) poured an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Aug 28

Well, looks like I'm a Skycards guy now. This was up there when I opened the app for the first time!

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Jul 18

I'm not a marketing guru so I could be wrong, just seems like maaaaaybe there'd be a more reassuring figure from mythology to name your plane company after.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· May 22

I don't seem to have the option for Reader View toolbar shortcut since updating, is it elsewhere? I've definitely got this new version, as I could change tab switcher to a list.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Dec 29

Magdeburg.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Nov 14

Record company design committee: As you can see from the listener feedback graph, people didn't really get what The London American Legend Part 1 was all about when they looked at the cover. This time can you dial up the American a couple of notches? Cover artist: I got you fam

The sleeve of a compilation LP entitled ”The American Dream (The London American Legend Part 2" on a charity shop shelf. The dreamer of said dream, a bald eagle with a facial expression suggesting it's experiencing some nasty gastric distress, is standing on a vinyl record which it's talons have surely scratched the bejeezus out of. Above the eagle's head is a thought bubble containing the dream itself: a teenage American football player in blue-and-gold kit, sitting cross-legged in a white expanse with his gold helmet in front of him, with some kind of blue-green glow emanating from his nether regions.

In time-honoured charity shop tradition, "The Magic of Mantovani" is also on the shelf.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Nov 7

Over the last year I've been accumulating old hand tools, and recently I finished making one of my own. This mallet started out as a newel post that I had to grab when I saw it being thrown out - covered in layers of thick paint, but I had a feeling from its weight there'd be nice wood under there.

A large mallet made from reclaimed wood sits on a cutting mat amid wood shavings from shaping the handle, which has just been fitted. It's surrounded by some of the tools that were used to make it - a Stanley No. 5 plane, a spokeshave, a brace and bit, and a countersinking tool (which resembles a small screwdriver with a transparent orange handle, but with a conical head with sharp protrusions). The countersinking tool is one of my favourite flea market finds - it's great for softening off sharp edges with just a couple of quick twists after drilling holes.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Nov 7

Every now and again I remember this #RomanMosaic of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, laugh out loud at the memory, then have to look it up and LOL again. Today's the first time I've noticed that the mosaicists have clearly stuck a "wolf" front end on a horse's rear.

A Roman mosaic in earthy tones, with a geometric border of repeated concentric diamonds. The central panel shows the mythological scene of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a "she-wolf" (no closet is included, sorry Shakira fans). The black wolf stands under a black-trunked tree with a few leaves, bent 90 degrees halfway up the trunk to fit within the frame. The wolf's face is rendered front-on in a very flat cartoonish fashion, with big round googly eyes, a snout that begins at the forehead, and a particularly goofy human-like mouth that seems to say "awright guvna".

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Nov 6

Stranger at bar: Oh, I've never really heard Tom Waits before, what kind of music does he make?

Me: umm ... * shows this picture *

A sepia-tinted photo that looks to be from the early 20th century. A railroad signalman with a large moustache and two spindly low-tech prosthetic legs leans against his signal box, while a monkey operates the signal switches.

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Oct 30

If you see this, post a photo taken in the mountains (Bocce court on a terrace built on a steep hillside - Partigliano, Province of Lucca, Tuscany)

Joe Williams@joewilliamskent· Oct 28

#IMetLi'lSebastian - he's alive and well in the Weald of Kent.