[Photo walk] University of Melbourne #3

I took a few photos at Melbourne Uni when I was there for an evening event.

Study nook at Arts West

Photo taken from a higher floor looking down at a corner space in a large building. There is a grey, square study table with an electrical power board in its centre. Blue, plastic chairs have been placed around this table.

Research lounge in Arts West

Photo of an armchair, coffee table, and reading lamp surrounded by fully stocked bookshelves in a cozy library space.

Study table in Arts West breakout space

Photo looking straight down at a long study table installed along one wall. The table has an orange, padded bench running along one long end and an office chair placed on the other side. The table has a large, orange lamp clamped to one end. A television screen and another orange lamp are mounted on the wall at the other side of the table.

Thursday night at the Baillieu Library

Photo taken from the outside of a large, four-storey university library with floor-to-ceiling windows. The inside of the library is brightly lit, while the area outside is relatively dark.

Ticketmaster is a pain: "Secure Ticket selection is required"

tl;dr If you get a “Secure Ticket selection is required” error when trying to pay for a ticket on the Ticketmaster website, temporarily turn off all your adblockers and reload the webpage.

Nadia and I have gone to the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne pretty much every year since 2007.

Collage of selfies of a man and woman at a tennis tournament. In most photos the pair are outdoors and are wearing hats. In one of the selfies they are standing in front of Rod Laver Arena.

So when the pre-sale for AO25 kicked off today, I went to buy us a couple of tickets.

Screenshot of an email that reads, across multiple lines, “AO25. The hottest tickets in town. Get Set! Your AO25 Pre-Sale hits today. Your access code to early tickets.”

But the Ticketmaster website kept spitting out this “Secure Ticket selection is required” error every time I tried to make the final payment.

Screenshot of a website form-submission error that reads only, “Oops! Secure Ticket selection is required.”

The problem, of course, was that there was no ‘Secure Ticket’ selection visible on this page for me to make.

So I did what any normal person would do: I fired up my favourite search engine and ran a search on that phrase :)

To my surprise, I got only a single hit to a Reddit thread from about a year ago.

Screenshot of a search engine result from the Moto GP subreddit on the topic of ‘Phillip Island race’.

Since most of the people on that thread didn’t have an answer, and the solution only comes at the end of the thread, I figured I’d write this quick post to add to those search results.

Basically, the ‘Secure Ticket’ selection loads from a third-party website and that third-party website component gets blocked by your adblocker. The fix is to temporarily turn off your all your adblockers and reload the page. When you do that, you’ll see the ‘Secure Tickets’ component that was missing from the page before.

Screenshot of a webpage component titled, ‘Secure Tickets’. This upsell tells you that “By upgrading your tickets to a Secure Ticket you will be eligible to receive a refund if you are unable to attend this event for any of the reasons in our Secure Ticket Terms and Conditions”. This component forces you to make a choice between, “Yes, please upgrade me to a Secure Ticket for an additional $8.62” and “No, thank you. I do not wish to upgrade to a Secure Ticket”.

It’s a pain that you’re forced to actively say “no” to this upsell, but I appreciate that they don’t automatically opt you in to it. (Which they’d be fined for if they did, of course.)

But it’s a bigger pain that they haven’t yet implemented this upsell into their main ecommerce sales path, and so it has to load from a third-party domain.

I would have assumed they did this deliberately, thereby forcing people to turn off their adblockers. But if that was the case, they would have told us what to do in the error message. Since they didn’t do that, we can’t attribute this stuff-up to malice – which I guess is a plus, given all the other reasons to dislike Ticketmaster!

Anyway, now you know the workaround so you know what to do if you get that error. (*sigh* What a world we live in.)

PS, for completeness’ sake: a search on Google for that error notification gave me just 14 results, with the top one being the same as the one from DuckDuckGo.

Screenshot of search engine results, the top one from the Moto GP subreddit on the topic of ‘Phillip Island race’.

COVID-19 booster FTW!

It’s been eight months since I got COVID-19, and with some travel planned for the end of the year, it was time to get a booster.

Selfie of a man sitting in a car with his t-shirt sleeve rolled up to show the band-aid placed on his upper arm.

And like I said when I got my flu shot a couple of months ago, does a vaccine even work these days if you don’t take a selfie and post about it? :)

Belinda Carlisle – finally!

In August 2021 Nadia and I bought tickets to go see Belinda Carlisle in concert in February 2022.

Screenshot of a ticket purchase confirmation email that reads, “Ameel, You’re In!”. The ticket is for a Belinda Carlisle concert at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda for 8pm on Friday, 11 February 2022.

Unfortunately, the concert got rescheduled thrice: twice because of pandemic lockdowns and once because Belinda was having knee-replacement surgery.

But three years later it all finally worked out :)

Photo of a man and woman standing in front of a massive poster for Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Decades’ tour at the Palais Theatre.

And the concert was great!

Photo of an indoor concert stage on which Belinda Carlisle and her band are performing.

I thought I’d come out of this with one of her mega hits stuck in my head, but instead it was In Too Deep and Big Scary Animal – both of which I love. So yay!

[Photo walk] Seafarers Bridge

I had some time before an all-day work offsite along South Wharf, so I took some photos around Seafarers Bridge.

It was a clear, bright, winter morning and the sky was so blue that some of the photos almost look fake!

Bright winter morning in Melbourne

Photo of several tall buildings with an urban river in the foreground. There is also a Ferris wheel on the other side of the river.

The Polly Woodside as seen from the Seafarers Bridge

Photo of a historic, iron-hulled, three-masted ship (called a barque) permanently berthed on an urban river.

The structure of the Seafarers Bridge almost looks fake against the bright blue sky!

Photo looking up at the white-painted steel arches and support cables that are holding up a bridge. The arches are streaked with dirt from the rain and wind. The photo almost looks fake because of the bright blue sky in the background.

Looking up at the arch-shaped structure and steel cables of the Seafarers Bridge

Photo looking up at the white-painted steel arches and support cables that are holding up a bridge. The arches are streaked with dirt from the rain and wind. The photo almost looks fake because of the bright blue sky in the background.

Traffic safety mirror along South Wharf Promenade on the Yarra River

Photo of a large, convex, traffic safety mirror installed on a pole in a blind curve along a cycling and walking path next to an urban river. The photographer has captured his own distorted reflection in this mirror.

Photographer in a convex traffic safety mirror

Close-up photo of a large, convex, traffic safety mirror installed on a pole in a blind curve along a cycling and walking path next to an urban river. The photographer has captured his own distorted reflection in this mirror.

Seafarers Bridge spanning the Yarra River

Photo taken on a bright, sunny morning of a concrete, steel, and glass pedestrian and cycling bridge spanning an urban river. This suspension bridge is held up by asymmetrical arches supported by steel cables - all of which are painted white. The bridge deck is made of steel and concrete, and has clear glass balustrades running along its length. A few people are crossing the bridge. There are several tall buildings on the other side of the river from the photographer.

[Video] Stop using Times New Roman

I made an explainer video about why you should stop using Times New Roman and which font you should use instead (based on your needs).

What did you think? This is the first time I’ve made a video like this, so all feedback is appreciated. A voiceover artist I am not :)  So if you have any specific voice acting tips for me, please share those too. Thanks!

Where did this come from?

You know how they say, “if you can’t find what you want to read, you should write it yourself”? Well I’m now applying that to explainer videos too :)

Designer Oliver Schöndorfer from Pimp my Type is the only person I know who creates videos like this one. They’re excellent and you should watch those on his YouTube channel. He also does weekly ‘Font Friday’ reviews on his mailing list.

But most of the other online discussions about typography are in blog posts, forum threads, or webpages – like these alternative-to resources on Typewolf and Practical Typography.

I myself wrote a couple of blog posts about recommended alternatives to Times New Roman a few months ago (original, follow-up).

The videos that people have produced about fonts are either from a graphic designer’s perspective or they’re one-offs – like ‘The controversial story of Times New Roman’ by The Middle-Aged Hack.

But since I’ve never seen anyone do an explainer video of this type before, I figured I might as well make one my own.

And since I had so much fun creating this video, I’ll think I’ll create a bunch more. Maybe one every couple of months? *crosses fingers*

Let me know if there’s any font you want me to talk about, by the way. I love researching and getting into the nitty gritty of typography, and I’m more than happy to take requests :)

Video transcript

Links and references, in order of appearance

Font downloads and purchases

Photos and screenshots

Text and articles

Other resources

 

[Photo walk] Webb Bridge and surrounds

This is the third of three photo sets from my walk between South Melbourne and Docklands.

Scooting onto the Webb Bridge

Photo of a man in blue leather boots, light khaki pants, navy blue jacket, and black helmet riding a stand-up electric scooter. The scooter has a carrier in which there is a small dog that is also wearing a navy blue jacket. The man is about to ride the scooter up the incline of a pedestrian and cycle bridge that crosses and urban river.

Corner seat at Hooks At The Yarra

Photo of the corner of a building with floor-to-ceiling windows. This floor of the building is a restaurant with several tables and chairs, all of which are currently unoccupied.

A little litter goes a long way

Close-up photo of a Bandalong litter trap installed on the banks of an urban river. This trap has collected a large amount of litter floating down this river. A sign affixed to this trap reads, “A little litter goes a long way. Keep the Yarra River clean. Bin your litter.”

Almost ready to press record

Photo of two people, a man and a woman, standing on the cemented banks of an urban river. The man is a camera operator and is manipulating a DSLR camera attached to a sturdy tripod. The woman, who is about to be filmed, is looking down as she composes herself for the recording take. The two are standing near the intersection of two cycle paths. In the foreground of the photo is a series of small directional signs mounted on a pole. These point to the three directions that cyclists can go in.

Crossing the Webb Bridge to Docklands

Photo of several people and cyclists crossing a bridge that spans an urban river. The bridge looks like a grey metal pipe that has been cut in half lengthwise.

Cleaning our rivers

Close-up photo of a Bandalong litter trap installed on the banks of an urban river. This trap has collected a large amount of litter floating down this river. A sign affixed to this trap reads, “Cleaning our rivers”

Heading up the Webb Bridge from Docklands

Photo taken along the length of a pedestrian and cycle bridge that spans an urban river. The bridge has several rings going around it at regularly spaced intervals.

Fishing along the Yarra River

Photograph of three people fishing along the banks of an urban river. On the other side of the river there are several large and small boats tied to their berths.

The Webb Bridge on the Yarra River

Photo of people walking along a curved bridge that spans a river in the middle of a metropolitan city. This bridge, the Webb Bridge, is modelled after a Koorie fishing trap used to catch eels. It is curved on one end, and this curved portion is covered (like a tube) by an organic, irregular net design made out of metal beams.

Cycling down the Webb Bridge

Photo of a cyclist heading down a curved bridge that spans a river in the middle of a metropolitan city. This bridge, the Webb Bridge, is modelled after a Koorie fishing trap used to catch eels. It is curved on one end, and this curved portion is covered (like a tube) by an organic, irregular net design made out of metal beams.

[Photo walk] South Melbourne, Docklands infrastructure and cars

This is the second of three photo sets from my walk between South Melbourne and Docklands.

Looking through to Yarra’s Edge buildings with a zoom lens

Black-and-white photo of two tall, residential buildings as seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

Queueing for the Power Street exit on CityLink

Photo taken from between two elevated roadways of a large, overhead LED sign that shows icons of cars queueing. There is text on the sign that is cut-off by one of the elevated roadways, however you can make out the words ‘queueing’ and ‘power’.

Caution: queueing for the Power Street exit on CityLink

Photo taken from between two elevated roadways of a large, overhead LED sign that reads, in all capital letters, “Caution: Queueing traffic at Power St exit”.

Happy graffiti on the Charles Grimes Bridge Road off-ramp

Photo of a bright white graffiti spray painted onto perforated, black coloured metal sheets that line the underside of a road. The graffiti is a of a classic smiley face.

You can see a lot with a big zoom lens (this is a 31 storey tall building)

Zoomed-in photo of the very top of a 31 storey building with the green Linkt logo affixed to one side.

Portal across the West Gate Freeway

Black and white photo taken from ground level of several elevated roadways. A large concrete archway structure has been constructed around one of these elevated roadways. This otherwise-rectangular structure (called a portal) has been built with a slight rotation, so it looks like it is twisting clockwise.

Cars for sale at City Mazda

Photo taken along the back of several Mazda cars parked in a line at an outdoor car sales lot.

[Photo walk] Bolte Bridge

I repeated my earlier ‘South Melbourne and Docklands’ photo walk a week later because my car needed some additional repair. This time, however, I took my long lens with me and got a bunch of interesting photos along the way.

These are the photos I took of the Bolte Bridge, and there are two more photo sets to come.

Morning traffic across the Bolte Bridge

Photo taken along the length of an urban river that shows two bridges crossing this river. In the foreground is the Webb Bridge, a curved cyclist and pedestrian bridge. In the background is the Bolte Bridge, a large road bridge. The Bolte (as it is known) is a large, twin cantilever road bridge with two 140m tall towers that hold up the roadway that spans the width of the Yarra River and Victoria Harbour.

Busy morning on the Bolte Bridge

Photo taken along the length of an urban river of a large road bridge and the shipping dock in the background. There is bumper-to-bumper road traffic on the bridge and behind the bridge a large container ship is docked at one of the berths. The bridge is a large, twin cantilever road bridge with two 140m tall towers that hold up the roadway that spans the width of the Yarra River and Victoria Harbour.

Bolte Bridge just before sunset

Photo taken just before sunset along the length of an urban river that opens up into a sea port. There are tall buildings on both banks of the river and crossing the river is a large road bridge with two tall towers at the centre. There are several shipping berths along the length of the river.

Bolte Bridge stretches across the Yarra River at sunset

Photo taken at sunset along the length of an urban river that opens up into a sea port. There are tall buildings on both banks of the river and crossing the river is a large road bridge with two tall towers at the centre. There are several shipping berths along the length of the river.

Bolte Bridge silhouette at sunset

Photo taken at sunset along the length of an urban river that opens up into a sea port. Crossing this river is a large road bridge with two tall towers at the centre.

Village drive-in FTW!

I wanted to watch Twisters at the drive-in cinema, but it had just stopped playing there. Oh well. Our alternative film was Deadpool & Wolverine and that was a really fun watch too :)

Photo of a large outdoor projection screen at a drive-in cinema. The screen shows the Village Cinemas logo. There are few cars parked between the photographer and the screen.

Food motivated

What can I say? Maggie loves to eat!

VERY interested in a dog food delivery we spotted on our walk

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash outside a black residential fence. The dog is excitedly sniffing two Lyka brand dog food cartons that a deliver driver has left outside the fence.

Riveted by Nadia chopping beef on the kitchen counter

Photo of a red/brown dog standing in a dining room with wooden floor tiles. In the background of the photo are they dog’s food and water bowls. The dog is looking up, very attentively, at someone off camera.

Agreeing with Angela Collier on how bad Star Trek: Picard is

Today I finished watching Dr Angela Collier’s 3 hour, 48 minute long video essay titled ‘How Star Trek: Picard Ruins Star Trek’ and I want to state for the record that I agree with it 100%.

I don’t usually write posts about how much I dislike a piece of media. But as a long-time Star Trek fan, a couple of years ago I was compelled to write about how season 2 of Star Trek: Picard (ST:P) was ruined in editing.

Angela’s media analysis takes things up several notches and explains how not only each season of ST:P is bad, but how damaging many of the currently-airing Trek television shows are to the philosophy and the joy of watching Star Trek.

If you’re a Trekkie like me and you enjoy long-form video essays, I highly recommend you watch this.

[Photo walk] South Melbourne and Docklands - follow-up

I haven’t focused much on black-and-white photography.

The only times I think in black-and-white (especially when taking photos) are when:

  • I want to capture a texture that lends itself to a monochromatic look,

  • I find myself in a scene in which the colours are a distraction, or

  • I’m at a location where there’s strong light-and-dark contrast.

Three of my recent photos fit the bill, so I converted them to black-and-white to see how they would look.

West Gate Freeway drainage overflow pipes

Black-and-white photo taken from underneath an elevated roadway out of which two wide draining pipes are emerging.

Looking through to Yarra’s Edge buildings

Black-and-white photo of two tall, residential buildings as seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

West Gate Bridge sign under the West Gate Bridge Freeway

Black-and-white photo of the back of a large overhead road sign affixed to an elevated motorway. The sign is seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

I think they turned out pretty well :)

Here’s a side-by-side comparison. I actually think I prefer the black-and-white versions of all three! Though maybe the middle one (the buildings through the gap in the concrete) works both ways.

[Photo walk] South Melbourne and Docklands

I get my car serviced at a dealership in South Melbourne that’s a short walk across the Yarra River from where my office is in Docklands.

Naturally, I take a bunch of photos every time I take this walk – usually super early in the morning and then just returning before sunset (in winter).

Here are the most recent photos I took.

Early morning coffee in the shadow of Charles Grimes Bridge

Photo of a woman stepping out from around the corner of a building with floor-to-ceiling windows. The second storey of the building is bathed in warm sunlight from the rising sun, while the lower section is in cool blue shadow. The woman is wearing a long, grey overcoat and is carrying a disposable coffee cup in her hand.

Early morning traffic and tram

Photo of an intersection with a line of cars going through and several cars waiting. In the foreground of the photo is a green-and-yellow tram running on a set of tracks parallel to one of the roads. The photo is slightly washed out because of the bright glare of the early morning sun coming off a reflective office building.

Waving to the tram driver

Photo of a green-and-yellow tram driving through an area with several trees and bushes that is otherwise surrounded by tall office buildings. The tram driver is waving his hand at the photographer.

If it’s on the street, it ends up in the river

Photo of a Bandalong litter trap installed to one side of an urban river. This trap has collected a large amount of litter floating down this river. A sign affixed to this trap reads “It it’s on the street, it ends up in the river. Keep the Yarra River clean. Bin your litter.” In the middleground of the photo a wide footbridge (the Webb Bridge) spans this river (the Yarra River). In the background of the photo, on the other side of the river, are several tall residential buildings.

Sunset seating outside Hooks at the Yarra

Photo of outdoor cafe tables and chairs arranged next to a grid of very tall trees that are set into raised beds in an otherwise paved area. The tables are unoccupied and the whole place is lit with warm sunlight coming from the setting sun.

West Gate Freeway drainage overflow pipes

Photo taken from underneath an elevated roadway out of which two wide draining pipes are emerging.

Jaunty portal, serious hotel #2

Photo taken from ground level of a large concrete archway structure constructed around an elevated roadway. This otherwise-rectangular archway structure has been built with a slight rotation, so it looks like it is twisting anticlockwise. Behind the portal is the tall, thin building of the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf hotel. There is traffic stopped at a red light below the elevated roadway.

Layers of traffic where the West Gate Freeway meets Montague Street

Photo of an intersection above which there are two elevated roadways of different heights. A sight at ground level reads, “West Gate Br / Geelong”. A bright yellow DHL delivery truck is crossing the intersection at ground level while a refrigerated truck drives along the middle roadway.

Looking through to Yarra’s Edge buildings

Photo of two tall, residential buildings as seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

West Gate Bridge sign under the West Gate Bridge Freeway

Photo of the back of a large overhead road sign affixed to an elevated motorway. The sign is seen through a gap in the bare concrete underneath of a series of elevated roadways and off-ramps.

This year I had only my 27mm TTArtisan prime lens with me (42mm full-frame equivalent) and the photos turned out really well. Though, to be fair, the gorgeous golden-hour light – both ways! – had a lot to do with that.

Last year I took photos with my 18-55mm Fujifilm zoom lens and it was a dreary, overcast day. Those photos look little different :)

[Photo walk] University of Melbourne #2

I’m on leave this week so I picked Nadia up from her office at the University of Melbourne. While I was there, I took a couple of photos.

End of the day at Dr Dax Kitchen

Photo taken from the outside of a nearly-empty cafe. A barista is making coffee behind the counter and there are two people sitting at the only occupied table.

Nadia on Royal Parade

Photo of a smiling woman walking towards the photographer. The woman is wearing loose pants with pink and yellow butterfly designs on it, a red top, and a gold necklace with a sunflower pendant.

Positive potato

Photo of several items on a shelf in a large wooden bookcase. The items are an intersectional pride flag set in transparent resin, a large blue-and-yellow mug, a crochet potato, a Newton’s cradle, and several books. The crochet potato has an eyes and a mouth, and it is holding up a sign that reads: “Positive potato. I might be a tiny potato, but I believe in you. Go do your thing!”

Back of the Howard Florey Institute building

Photo of the back of a large university building with floor-to-ceiling windows through which you can see a series of walkways, balconies, and office doors.

Haniya Aslam

One of my favourite people died last night. Haniya Aslam was a friend and fellow musician, and I can’t believe she’s not going to be around anymore.

I’m not one to grieve in public, but today is difficult. So let’s celebrate instead.

In 2005 a bunch of us in Islamabad got together to form the F-10½ Acoustic Project. We jammed at our place for a few weeks and then, over two weekends, performed a bunch of covers and originals at Civil Junction.

A flyer that reads “On Saturday 27th August at 9:00 PM in the first of two performances at CJ the F-10½ Acoustic Project presents original material by: Zeb & Haniya, Sheheryar Mufti, Sarmad Abdul Ghafoor, and Natasha Ejaz. And pays tribute to (among others): Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, B.B. King, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Alice in Chains, U2, Coldplay, Crowded House, Blind Melon, Beach Boys, John Mayer, Simon & Garfunkel, Lisa Loeb, and The Beatles.”

We don’t have any photos from those jam sessions, rehearsals, and performances, but fortunately Sarmad Ghafoor recorded the entirety of our first show :)

Here’s some of what we performed that night.

This is Haniya Aslam performing Aitebar, with me on drums, Sarmad Ghafoor on lead guitar, and Shehryar Mufti on bass guitar.

And, on a more celebratory note, this is us performing Simon & Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson with Haniya Aslam on vocals and rhythm guitar, Natasha Humera Ejaz on vocals and tambourine, Sarmad Ghafoor on bass guitar, Nadia Niaz on shakers, and me on drums :)

[Photo walk] Lygon Street #4

First I was unwell and then I was super busy at work, so it’s been over three months since my last photo walk. It’s good to be back.

Today’s walk was a quick one down Lygon Street in Carlton. It was lovely, sunny Saturday afternoon and it’s nice to be heading towards the end of winter in Melbourne.

All these photos were taken with my (relatively) new TTArtisan 27mm pancake lens (42mm full-frame equivalent).

Performance space at Argyle Square, Carlton

Black-and-white photo taken from behind and to the side of a large, high-ceiling, covered outdoor stage in a large public park.

Brand new ‘Sapphire by the Gardens’ building complex

Photo of two tall buildings framed by bushes and trees in the foreground. The two luxury towers are connected by a large, multi-storey skybridge. https://sapphirebythegardens.com.au/

The brand new ‘Sapphire by the Gardens’ building complex – as seen from Lygon Street

Photo of two tall buildings framed by bushes and trees in the foreground. The two luxury towers are connected by a large, multi-storey sky bridge. https://sapphirebythegardens.com.au/

Beaded friendship bracelets in a car

Photo of two brightly-coloured beaded friendship bracelets (or maybe necklaces?) hanging behind the rearview mirror of a parked car.

Bicycle loops on Lygon Street

Black-and-white photo taken from ground level looking up at several metal bicycle-parking loops installed on a sidewalk. One bicycle has been locked to the loop farthest from the photographer.

Post-lunch service emptiness

Photo of the covered outdoor seating areas of several restaurants along a road. All the tables in the photo are currently unoccupied.

Gluten free pasta and pizza on Lygon Street

Photo of a sandwich board on a sidewalk with text written in blue and pink chalk on a black background. The list on items on the chalkboard reads lamb shanks, tomahawk steaks, Atlantic salmon, arancini balls, barramundi, and gluten free pasta + pizza.

Photographer reflections

Photo of a closed glass door set in a bluestone alcove. The glass is very reflective on this sunny day. In the reflection you can see a commercial street with cars parked on it. The main subject of the reflection is a man wearing white sneakers, black jeans, a bright orange jacket, and a dark driver's cap. The man is holding up a camera at chin height and is taking a photo of his own reflection in the glass door.

It's pronounced ah-sigh-eeh

Photo of the entrance of The Acai Company. Text in a speech bubble below the company logo reads “pronounced ah-sigh-eeh, not ay-chay!!!”.

Pizza oven on Lygon Street

Photo of a large, currently-empty, wood fired pizza over through the window of a pizzeria.

Affinity six-month free trial!

I am not a fan of Adobe and I go out of my way to avoid Adobe products, which is why my image and vector editors of choice are Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, respectively.

I’ve been using Affinity software for years and I love it. You pay a one-off fee and the software is yours for life (no subscription!).

So if you’re in the market for an image or vector editor – or desktop publishing software, for that matter – then I would highly recommend at least trying Affinity’s products.

The cool thing: everything is currently on sale for 50% off. Or you can get a six-month trial of all their products for free. Yes, completely free!

Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

Decision fatigue solved: what to watch next

How do you decide which movie or TV show you’re going to watch next?

Do you make lists? And if so, how do you organise those lists?

After years of trial-and-error and one-dimensional list making, I now have a solution that works exceptionally well for me. So let’s talk about it.

To get to my current solution I had to solve three problems.

1. Effort required to watch

Some media takes effort to consume, while other stuff is quick and easy to watch.

When I used to have all my movies and TV shows in a single, long list, deciding what to watch next became a chore in itself. As I went through the list, I’d need to keep track of which movies and TV shows I had the mental capacity to enjoy at the time. And because it took so long to pick something, I’d often just end up watching what was being broadcast on one of the movie channels instead – flicking through until I found something interesting enough.

I fixed this problem by grouping my next-watch items into three ‘brain power’ categories: 30%, 60%, and 90% brain. Now, based on how I’m feeling and how much effort I’m willing to expend, I can decide which of those shorter lists to look through. I also maintain separate lists for movies and TV shows, which makes the lists even shorter.

So what do those brain power categories mean?

30% brain

This is stuff that’s easy to watch – low emotional stakes, relatively straightforward plots; usually something fun and quick.

Action and comedy media tends to fall into this category, as does most YA stuff; some talk shows and panel shows too. Most reality TV doesn’t fit here though, since that to me is 10% brain media and I usually get bored watching it.

Some examples of 30% brain media that I’ve enjoyed watching recently are Obliterated, Wednesday, and FUBAR.

These shows might not be 30% brain for everyone, of course. But for someone like me who watches a lot of action and SFF (science fiction and fantasy), they all make for low-effort watching.

60% brain

This is stuff that has a bit of meat on it, but you don’t need to fully invest yourself emotionally to enjoy.

Plot-driven and character-driven action and drama media tends to fall into this category, as well as some SFF stuff with more advanced world building.

Some examples of 60% brain media that I’ve enjoyed watching recently are Reacher, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Fallout.

90% brain

This is stuff takes a bit of effort to enjoy. You need to invest yourself mentally and emotionally, but the resulting payoff is worth it.

The things that fall into this category are advanced drama, action, and SFF. Mostly stuff that you can’t or don’t want to binge-watch.

90% brain media I’ve enjoyed recently: The Peripheral, Shōgun, and Silo.

Yay for Tumblr

This way of categorising content into how much effort it takes to consume comes from Tumblr, by the way. I can’t find the original post (it was from a long time ago), but in it the poster had said they were tired and only had the energy to watch a “30% brain” TV show that night. This method of classification stuck and is now used quite frequently on that social network.

2. Priority-sorted lists

Grouping to-watch items into separate lists doesn’t solve the problem of having to go through each list every time you want to watch a movie or start a new show. So now I prioritise my lists, with the things I want to watch first placed towards the top.

Every now and then I’ll go through each list and re-sort it, moving the items I feel like watching sooner further up the list. This usually happens after I’ve listened to a podcast episode featuring someone who talks about a movie or TV show they were involved with.

3. Search-minimising processes

Maintaining three priority-sorted, brain-power grouped lists – one set for movies and one set for TV shows – didn’t solve all my problems though. I needed to create some additional processes to make everything run smoothly.

I did that by adding three more lists:

  • Inbox: This is where all new items go if it’s not already clear which brain-power list they should be sorted into.

  • Waiting: This is where I move TV shows when I’m waiting for the next season to start.

  • Watch next: This is where I put items that, regardless of brain-power level, I want to watch as soon as possible.

Now the first place I look is the ‘watch next’ list. And as I start to clear this list, I add items from the three brain-power lists to the bottom of this one.

Great success

Screenshot from KanbanFlow

I moved fully over to this system at the end of last year and it has been working incredibly well for me. So much so that a few months ago I adopted the same approach for the books I want to read.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering which tool I use to maintain these lists, I use the free version of KanbanFlow since that has all the functionality I need.

What system do you use for deciding what you’re going to to watch or read next? I’d love to know.