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Xavier starts again on WordPress, part 71,812,125

I’ve never really been sure what to do here. I’m only back now because assorted friends starting up a Discord blogroll reminded me this place even existed, albeit on a domain that had long expired (not even for the first time) and the heavens opening up over South Africa tonight has meant my work shift was somewhat quieter than my boss intended.

There was a considerable time I fancied the idea of being a writer, but that never quite meshed with my sheer hatred for actually writing rather than basking in the glow of having written. I vividly remember one SATs mock almost two decades back where I couldn’t decide how to start and thus simply didn’t put a single word on the page for the entire hour. Sure, that’s a particularly extreme example, but it set the tone for what was to come: most of the more recent attempts to churn out words either academically, recreationally or professionally were only somewhat more productive, and usually cobbled together around 3am through fits of severe deadline pressure, panic attacks, vomiting, profuse sweating and self-loathing. In the end I got everything done that mattered though (mods do NOT check this).

Two domains ago, the last thing I published here was nearly seven years back, a County Championship match report to use as part of a job application that ultimately went nowhere. Six months later I did get myself into that same place as an intern, fending off over a hundred others to earn single-digit pounds on the days I’d commute to the London office on a peaktime train. Locking the place up on a certain Friday in March 2020 I had a feeling I might not be back particularly soon – oh what an innocent little boy that was – but this summer I did go back to that same building (now overlooking the street, no rear-facing basement office these days) to train some folks who’d travelled from New Zealand in the tedious minutiae of the work database, with one of the official agenda items being for them “to be as knowledgeable as Xavier”. Different company, albeit with several colleagues also having migrated similarly, and still the same looming fears I’m never doing enough to justify my salary, that without work there is no point to my existence, and that it’s all going to come falling apart at a moment’s notice somehow, but anyway.

I’m working on trying to have some sort of confidence and/or hope, I swear! I have been (incredibly slowly) for approximately 29 years, two weeks and four days. But it’s tough when, hypothetically, you survive one of the most stressful and frankly insane weeks of your life, begin to feel the slightest glimmer of something good on the horizon, and eight hours later find yourself having to smash your grandma’s front door down. That was precisely 11 months ago now, perhaps even to the minute.

Even before borrowing the neighbour’s hammer and calling 999 we were operating from a very low baseline, with 2024 being a year defined by grief and love and despair and endless, endless fear that all ricocheted off each other and just tore me apart, and it didn’t particularly feel like there was much of me to tear apart to begin with. But after what one pal called a “season finale” moment in A&E that night in January, a [REDACTED] number of long walks strongly considering throwing myself into the sea to escape it all, a particular low point in Brixton over the summer where I spent an hour on the floor crying out unknown fluids having already become the sweatiest person ever present at an LCD Soundsystem gig, thankfully the prophecy did eventually start to demonstrate itself. I’ve graduated from counting the hours between spirals where I lost all hope to bragging to my therapist that I didn’t have one Bad day in November – several very good ones actually! Amid the first chaos it felt like a logjam that had been holding strong since about February 2017 was finally coming unstuck. Well, either that or I’d finally lost any last shred of sanity and was simply on autopilot through circumstances too surreal and stressful to comprehend, which would still have been enough of an upgrade. But then the good bits started. Moments of calm and joy were no longer immediately sandwiched between intense bouts of despair and loneliness. I finally started losing track of how many days had, in fact, been worth living.

And that, in essence, leads us here. I think I do feel like an adult now. I think I’m happy with where I am and who I am in most aspects of life at long last, and the majority of what plagues me the majority of the (increasingly rare) time I do feel plagued is out of my control anyway. Last year I made perhaps too much of a habit of journaling thousands of self-deprecating words a night, which might not have been the best method of dusting off the keyboard cobwebs, but at least it happened. This is quite possibly the first thing I’ve ever written with the vague intention of other people reading it that hasn’t been half a dozen disparate ideas chaotically linked together and refined to the point of obsession over several hours/days but instead written from start to finish in one go and published without allowing myself to start overthinking it.

I quite like the idea of trying to write words and get excited about things and think out loud again. This isn’t the first attempt at putting something together here – most have been tucked away as they’re perhaps slightly more suited to discussions in therapy than going on the World Wide Web for eternity, but there’s been enough going on in life and inside my head I’m sure a good portion of it will be better out than in. Certainly I’d love to start enthusiastically yelling about music again, and if you’ve read this far it would be wonderful if you could incessantly pester me to finish off a piece on my favourite things I’ve listened to this year that didn’t make it into the Spotify Wrapped festivities. That feels as sensible a place to start as any.

Maybe this is the start of something fun. Maybe I’ll be 36 by the time the next post goes out. But I hope it’s the first one. I’m getting used to hoping again now. It’s quite nice really.

Taylor and Ackermann’s finests give Leicestershire the opening round advantage

Hove, April 5-8: Leicestershire 252 & 232 for 3 beat Sussex 173 & 308 by 7 wickets

Until Colin Ackermann’s scathing cut towards Hove’s third man rope sealed a rather straightforward seven wicket victory at 2:30pm on April 8th, one would have needed to hark back close to two decades for Leicestershire’s last spoils in a County Championship jaunt to Sussex. Following up a maiden first-class ton from 23-year-old sprog Darren Stevens, the limelight of that 1999 Arundel fixture fell firmly upon one Matthew Brimson, whose 9 for 120 dwarfed the two other five-wicket hauls his orthodox spin had delivered a month apart against Kent and Sussex three summers prior. Should that name ring any bells, it will most likely be thanks to the surreptitious appearance of his penis on page 657 of the next year’s Wisden – probably not the only reason his county days lasted just six further outings, but nevertheless a perplexing act of self-sabotage that Paul Nixon’s squad would do wisely not to replicate.

Ackermann’s spot at the crease to secure victory was fitting, having earlier used his part-time off-spin for a career-best 5 for 69 – his first five-for in 190 attempts at the professional level. Having gone unbowled first time round, his token over to accelerate forward the second day’s tea interval achieved what 20 from four pace colleagues hadn’t, ending the opening stand of 105 between Tom Haines (39) and an ever belligerent Phil Salt, who slashed 11 boundaries in his 67-ball 80. His dismissal was the perhaps the finest of Ackermann’s crop, with the ball jutting in sharply off a length to force him either to stand still and take his own shot in the gonads or back away and prod it meekly into the bowler’s own mitts, though Hasan Azad’s gymnastics at short leg to catch Chris Jordan and Ollie Robinson within three deliveries on the eve of the new ball the next morning would likely beg to differ.

The hosts had earlier found themselves five down for 36 under an hour into the season, with Salt’s charge a welcome reparation for the indignity that was feathering Chris Wright behind to nab a duck right on the stroke of 11am. Tom Taylor had then run rampant, quelling any lingering doubt around Paul Horton’s decision not to contest the toss under uncharacteristically fine April skies. Upon bowling skipper Ben Brown first ball, the one-time Derbyshire man was on a hat-trick with figures reading 6.1-2-12-4, and by mid-afternoon that too became a career best with the additions of David Wiese and Ollie Robinson’s off and middle stumps respectively.

Wiese had reached 51 by that stage, following up his counter-attacking 139 against Cardiff MCCU five days prior with more of the same before driving past another fine Taylor ball that nipped in. Driving expansively through the offside had worked relative wonders as the score almost tripled in just 10 overs of Wiese joining Stiaan van Zyl, who was marking his first Championship innings after 10 months sidelined with a bruised kneecap, but momentum slipped once again after van Zyl pulled Leicestershire’s winter signing Wright down onto his wicket shortly before lunch.

For the third successive summer, IPL calls from their seam stocks have lured Sussex into short-term overseas reinforcement. This time, that comes in the shape of one-test Pakistan left-armer Mir Hamza, who makes up for his lack of name recognition with mighty swing and a stellar record of 282 wickets at 18.37. Catching the Ateeq Javid nudge back to his right-hand side made that 283 before six overs were out, and by the time he’d called an early tea with one that outfoxed a visibly irked Mark Cosgrove by swaying deceptively in from leg, Leicestershire were well on their way to a Sussex-like 59 for 5.

After surviving an early Hamza appeal, Lewis Hill ably stabilised proceedings with consecutive partnerships of 92 and 52 with Harry Dearden and Taylor respectively, facing one more ball than his top five combined as he built a gentle 67 across either side of the light-enforced close of play. Danny Briggs earned his reward after warming up for what seemed like the first 55 overs as Hill swept hard over a full ball that skittled his off stump, but not before Hill had played the same shot somewhat more successfully to bring up a coveted April batting point. That was joined by a second in the final over before a belated lunch as Wright and a twitchy Will Davis put on 31 for the final stand, eventually broken six balls (and no runs) later as Ollie Robinson topped off a typically understated collection of 4 for 46.

The second day proved to be the peak for Sussex, as their overnight 211 for 2 was followed up by another six wicket session, with van Zyl at least waiting one ball longer than Salt had before giving Hill and umpire Jeff Evans their first actions of the morning. Taylor soon sent a middle pole cartwheeling from behind Luke Wells and had a quacking Wiese trapped in front in overs either side of Ackermann’s continuing plunder running into Brown, who claimed the first pair of noughts in his decade-plus at the first-class level when a turner came into his back pad. Once Taylor had picked off Briggs to claim his tenth of the game with the last ball of his second-priciest over, Wright took all of one ball to seal the hosts’ fate and set his side an eminently chaseable 230 in a day and a half.

That equation morphed into 131 on the final day after an evening washout with Leicestershire only a Javid down, and with it kept looking firmly in the visitors’ favour as none of Horton, Azad, Cosgrove, or Ackermann appeared keen to rush things along amidst the most pleasant conditions of the game. After two rejected appeals, two more wickets came for the economic Robinson through edges to Salt in the slips, though Horton’s ended up deflecting off his hands to be taken by Jordan instead. Eight overs apiece from Briggs and Wells were nowhere near as fruitful for spin as the pitch had suggested via Ackermann the night before. Likewise, 24 split between sub-par displays of Hamza and Jordan conceded 110 runs, as steadier heads ultimately prevailed in an enthralling display that left Leicestershire sitting atop the Division 2 table.

Miserable Hampshire chase allows Glamorgan a record win in Vitality Blast opener

The Ageas Bowl: Glamorgan 168/6 (David Lloyd 38*, Colin Ingram 35, Liam Dawson 2/25) beat Hampshire 105 (Andrew Salter 3/34, Ingram 2/15, Graham Wagg 2/17) by 63 runs

One could forgive a Hampshire supporter for hauling a cool bag of above-moderate expectations out to The Ageas Bowl for Friday night’s sun-kissed Vitality Blast opener. Craig White’s side comes with a strong pedigree in the short format, after all – being attendees at Finals Day for seven of the the past eight summers and twice champions, anchored by an incessant core of strong internationals, and fresh off sealing a dominant victory in the game’s other limited overs format at Lord’s just six days prior, it’d be rude not to have faith for their homecoming.

Freshly imported to bolster a top order that already ranks amongst the circuit’s strongest, 86-cap New Zealander Colin Munro made inroads towards an under-par Glamorgan target of 168 by dispatching Andrew Salter for a deep boundary with the first ball of the innings. Such audacity was immediately stemmed, however, as Chris Cooke took a sharp catch behind before Lord’s hero Rilee Rossouw misjudged a sweep to leave the score at 9/2 six balls in. That became 15/4 three overs later as Timm van der Gugten caught both a stunning return grab off England misfit James Vince (2) and a flimsy prod from former Kent talisman Sam Northeast (3) off the miserly Michael Hogan, hopes of anything respectable lay firmly on the shoulders of Tom Alsop, who struck a bold 64 in similar circumstances last summer against Sussex.

Instead, all he could muster was a lethargic pull on 12 to become Salter’s third victim, and Graham Wagg’s brace of Lewis McManus (0) and Liam Dawson (2) to similar shots into Salter’s hands the next over sparked hunts for the record books. From a platform of 32/7, only superfluous counterattack from tail-end duo Gareth Berg (26) and Kyle Abbott (a career-best 29) kept Hampshire from limboing beneath their decade-old previous lowest of 85, and by the time they closed their tallies the formidable ground appeared yet more cavernous. Around 7,500 spectators appeared, and all many had to sing about was how football may well be coming home. Continue reading “Miserable Hampshire chase allows Glamorgan a record win in Vitality Blast opener”

UOSM2008: Topic 2 reflection

This post is part of a series published as part of the University of Southampton’s Living and Working on the Web module. To find out more, including links to all of this year’s student blogs, check out the UOSM2008 website.

Understanding news and contemporary media is a particular interest of mine – my ongoing dissertation work is on how journalists and publishers use digital tools and their perceptions and reactions to the “post-truth” epidemic – so it’s fair to say this has been my favourite topic so far. With this issue of authenticity so prevalent, in my post I looked to summarise the assorted facets of fake news, to what extent social media has played a role in it, and, using a MOOC exercise, how to critically assess what we see to determine trustworthiness.

In response, Nikhita Sharma raised a challenging question: why now? After brief deliberation, the conclusion that made most sense to me was to look primarily at how the wider cultural context is being reflected online, rather than any explicit technological factors. On his blog, Tom Pethick noted the associated concept of the Overton window, as explained by Vox‘s Carlos Maza.

In my comment on Tom’s blog, I also cited Tom Rowledge‘s alarming statistic (from Gabielkov et. al., 2016) that 59% of links shared online haven’t even been opened, which itself was cleverly buried beneath a bogus headline bold enough to entice me to read further. The interactive activity he embedded also proved a fun, accessible insight into how easily online influence can be built when integrity is set aside.

Throughout the module I have been enjoying Jeremy Luzinda‘s witty takes on each topic, and his infographic for this topic is too memorable not to share here.

000-e1521042407305 — Five steps to assessing online content. Source: Jeremy Luzinda, 2018

My comment ventured beyond increasing users’ media literacy into how the service providers themselves might be compelled to act. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t discuss this further – I find Facebook’s survey example perfectly straightforward, but is handing users the power to shape authenticity an irresponsible and flawed approach? Only time can tell…

Comments

Word count: 299

Live review: Khalid at Eventim Apollo, London

R&B’s newest superstar remains unfinished both on stage and on record, but a Valentine’s crowd is certainly not bothered.

Originally published in The Edge

374 days ago, the idea of Khalid filling out Hammersmith’s prestigious Eventim Apollo – let alone doing so twice with ease at rather lofty prices – would have seemed more than a little far fetched. He was making his London debut seven physical miles and a million conceptual ones away at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, a venue typically reserved for the newest of newcomers and perhaps best known at the time for over-the-bar barbecue courtesy of Michigan techno oddball Seth Troxler. Courtesy of still being a week away, debut album American Teen hadn’t yet accrued any of its multiple billion streams. In fact, when The Edge took a punt on him to feature as one of our picks for 2017 the month before, it was only after a haphazard combination of play counts that we arrived at a figure of 30 million streams for ‘Location’ to make our selection seem that little bit more statistically sound. Here, it would be remiss of us not to attempt something similar: per Wikipedia, the Khalid of today has 46 platinum certifications around the globe. Continue reading “Live review: Khalid at Eventim Apollo, London”

UOSM2008: The “fake news” bubble and how to (potentially) handle it

Task: Evaluate how to assess the reliability and authenticity of online information

The “fake news” bubble

“Fake news” is an inescapable term of the zeitgeist, in part thanks to politicians using it to discredit journalists (Juliane Lischka, 2017), Macedonian teenagers creating hoaxes to share widely across Facebook for easy ad revenue (Samanth Subramanian, 2017; Craig Silverman, 2016), discussions around journalistic standards (James Ball, 2017; Mark Di Stefano, 2018), and social networks endlessly vacillating on how best to handle it all (Mark Zuckerberg, 2017; Adam Mosseri, 2018, Alex Kantrowitz, 2018). Google Trends data shows an explosion in related search activity around 2016’s US elections and close associations with Donald Trump, broadcasters like CNN and Fox, and verification services like Snopes.

Web search interest in the term "fake news" between January 2004 and March 2018. Source: Google Trends. — Web search interest in the term “fake news” between January 2004 and March 2018. Source: Google Trends.

However, its history is deeper. In this video I recorded with Adam Rann and Ryan Dodd for the UOSM2012 module last year, we investigate how the phenomenon came to be.

How to (potentially) handle it

In a New Statesman extract from his book on the subject, James Ball (2017) points to five actions readers can take to dispel these post-truth trends.

Proactively seek content from contrasting sources to prevent filter bubbles, where algorithmic personalisation and our curation limit the viewpoints we’re exposed to online (Eli Pariser, 2011)

React with careful consideration, verifying sources and assessing credibility before sharing
Improve statistical literacy to better understand poor, misleading, or inaccurate data presentation (John Burn-Murdoch, 2013; Agata Kwapien, 2015)
Approach everything – not just what we’re inclined to disbelieve – with skepticism
Resist baseless conspiracy, lest help fuel anti-expertise sentiment (Henry Mance, 2016)

How can we apply this framework to an example? Here’s one from the “Learning in the Network Age” MOOC (FutureLearn, 2017):

MOOC Fake News Example — Source: FutureLearn (University of Southampton)

The headline may be eye-catching, the URL plausible (KTLA is a genuine broadcaster), and “sources” reputable (NASA and Caltech researchers). However, there are telltale signs that this is fake, such as the author’s name (Jonah Oaxer = Jon, A Hoaxer), the lack of corroborating external sources, and the extreme language (e.g. “NASA”‘s “our days are numbered”). Additionally, other content on the site is outdated (e.g. a privacy policy updated in 2016) and of a similar clickbait nature designed for viral sharing rather than credible journalism.

Bibliography

Word count: 300

“Willing and excited and enthusiastic, that’s really what we are” – An interview with Sofi Tukker

The New York duo tell all about their unlikely friendship, what makes a perfect party, and percussive on-stage foliage.

Originally recorded for Surge Radio and published in The Edge

Sofi Tukker (aka Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern) might not be a household name just yet, but you’ll certainly recognise their sound. Since the release of their Portuguese-language debut ‘Drinkee’ in 2015, vocalist Sophie Hawley-Weld and basketball player turned instrumentalist Tucker Halpern have been fusing her bossa nova adoration with his house style for a series of infectious releases, including 2016’s debut EP Soft Animals. Last autumn, they were picked out by Apple to soundtrack their iPhone X campaign, launching ‘Best Friend’ – a lively ode to friendship penned alongside New York duo The Knocks, Australian twins NERVO, and Japanese newcomer Alisa Ueno – directly to a global audience. During their recent headline tour across Europe, we caught up with the pair to dig into what makes their unlikely friendship so special and find out what they’ve got brewing for 2018.

Continue reading ““Willing and excited and enthusiastic, that’s really what we are” – An interview with Sofi Tukker”

UOSM2008: Topic 1 reflection

Having previously explored digital inequalities as part of SOCI3073, it was interesting to explore a wide, more specific array of thoughts on digital differences. Personally, I could not find any factors that impede my digital usage or access to opportunity, hence I chose to look deeper at efforts to provide tools and skills to less digitally privileged users.

Here, Carl Leckstein commented (with a 2012 Guardian piece) that internet access should be considered a human right. Ultimately, I agree with what his reflection concludes – access is essential for today’s way of life and this will only increase globally as technological adoption and provision increases. We must, however, neither ignore concerns nor accept divides as inevitable.

Chloe Cripps’ blog raised an interesting question about MOOCs and how they deliver on their promise of education for all, and researching this led me to Coursera data (Zhenghao et. al., 2015) on who actually uses their services and why. Aleph Molinari’s TEDx talk – as highlighted by Chloe and others – is promising, as his work looks to close digital divides with eco-friendly social hubs and rapid digital literacy education rather than mere infrastructure, as in my example of OLPC.

Elsewhere, on Chloe Cheung’s blog, we discussed more international contrasts after she discussed using Chinese services. This led me to The Verge, where Shannon Liao (2018) explores WeChat’s ubiquity and how China’s government has helped it grow into from messaging into a state ID system. However, as Chloe responded, this hostile approach is not ideal.

We cannot force digital usage upon [communities]. We can only educate them to understand the wider benefits of the Web.

Regretfully, other commitments mean I have been unable to work significantly towards increasing multimedia usage on the blog or participating more frequently in comments and MOOCs, but topic 2 looks right up my street…

Comments

Word count: 300

UOSM2008: Exploring digital differences

Task: Evaluate the impact of your “Digital Differences” on how you interact with the Web.

My experiences of digital differences

When we got our first computer, my grandma and I learned digital skills together, despite a 50-year age gap. Now, over a decade later, there are certainly some similarities in how we use the Web – we both play games, get news alerts, and communicate via iMessage and FaceTime. However, my work and studies lean on desktop modes rather than her mobile/tablet preferences, and both for social and security reasons she has long refused to put personal or financial information online.

Structural differences

Whilst the Web utopia promises equality and opportunity for all, to achieve this we must address two interlinked areas of difference: access and skills. Previously we discussed how Marc Prensky’s (2001) concepts tied the latter to age, with digital natives’ early immersion in technology providing intrinsic understanding. Stating the need for networks to reach a “critical mass,” whereby usage is widespread beyond technically-adept early adopters and thus is beneficial for broader society, Jan van Dijk (2013) builds on this by placing users into concentric tiers.

Globally, van Dijk’s proportions are reflected in ITU (2017) figures. Although all but four nations show a year-on-year increase in Web penetration, this figure remains under 25% in 47 nations. Further ITU data (2017) illustrates divides in age and gender in online populations, however growth is evident in mobile and fixed broadband connections in developing regions.

Gender divides in internet usage. Source: ITU (2017)

Overcoming or reinforcing differences?

Technologies will naturally be built according to the perceived needs of their users, and if these are primarily towards the centre of this structure, the disparities run the risk of growing ever greater. Gerd Paul & Christian Stegbauer (2005) demonstrate this by looking at the usage and requirements of Germany’s elderly population, concluding that these users require simpler solutions than their younger counterparts and that individual gains from Web adoption can effect non-users detrimentally. Additionally, efforts to spread computing and connectivity have faced criticism for their shortsighted approaches, and discrimination proliferates (e.g. Lisa Nakamura, 2011).

Bibliography

Word count: 299

UOSM2008: Intro topic reflection

Although it has involved completely different styles of university teaching and writing to what I’ve been accustomed, I feel I’ve been adjusting well to UOSM2008 throughout the intro topic. It certainly helps that WordPress, Twitter, and Google Docs are all services I’ve used on a daily basis for a number of years, although, as studying the work of David White in particular has made me realise, my typically consumptive tendencies on these platforms probably put me more towards the visitor end of the spectrum. Going forward, where time permits, I’m certainly keen to up the visual pizazz on this blog as I’m rather envious of some of the graphics that have popped up!

The tasks of mapping out my digital usage and undertaking the self-test in the main blog post challenged me to think in new ways about how and why I use technology, and the discussion generated by these maps across the class means that – even just a week later – my map would likely look very different if I were to construct it today. Tom Davidson’s comment, for example, encouraged broader thought about how I contribute to Spotify and use it for social engagement rather than just passive music consumption, Luke Gibbins prompted me to think about a wider spectrum of online services in all four quadrants and how the timeframe considered can be so critical, and Tom Paterson’s blog had me thinking more constructively about professional residential activities and learning and developing skills.

Going forward, I will definitely be considering my usage of the Web through the spectrum of White’s mapping, particularly following the discussion about the scope of the zeitgeist this captures, and, as discussed on Tom’s post, looking to combine aspects of Marc Prensky’s work into this process. Onwards to Topic 1!

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