Web directories eh? Now that SEO spammers have stopped spamming them, they’re becoming cool again, and I was impressed with Warp Point: a web directory dedicated to one of my favourite subjects: video games.
Sadly, I don’t think I write enough on Retro Garden, nor write too many video game posts here (I’ve got like 3 Pico 8 ideas in my drafts) to justify my listings there, but I’m writing and sharing the site here to remember to come back and add a few sites to my RSS feeder. Maybe could be better with a random order of listings by default? Rather than “Aarons amazing website!” appearing top?
Few months ago Cloudflare introduced Markdown for machines…
This blog post on Unstory is short, but really impactful. 5 paragraphs, and will never rank for anything, but it’s hit me more than any blog post I remember in the past few months.
I often think about short blog posts. I was an attendee of the school of a minimum of 300 words to rank in search engines. Often filling up space and therefore losing impact. But it ranks. Shit. But it ranks.
Unstory talks about how their writing disappears, so I was thinking of quoting the entirety here. But will just leave it on their blog, and encourage you to read it there. I feel eventually the link above will disappear. But so be it. Click the first post and read it there.
It’s incredibly boring to talk about a music concert in text form, but yesterday I watched the Foo Fighters play live in Anfield, Liverpool as part of the Take Cover 2026 tour.
The first hour and a half was incredible, with me grinning throughout. I’m not afraid to say that during Learn to Fly I got a bit emotional and cried a bit. That song felt so fresh and so new, when we finally got a satellite subscription at the turn of the millennium and it was played all the time on MTV, and my go to song in the jukebox in The Marine after (and before, oopsie) I turned 18.
I didn’t appreciate the comments Dave Grohl made about playing an “Old School” song and it was off the Foo’s third album, and there were two songs I know they didn’t play that I loved (Next Year and Walking after You – I wasn’t sure they played Everlong but the set list said it did?), but overall a top gig. Would definitely dad rock again.
Also, I reckon given a few weeks practice I could solve a Rubik’s Cube faster than Dave Grohl’s daughter’s boyfriend. Just saying.
Also, before the gig I had some amazing sushi at Hibiki in Liverpool. Bit of a hidden gem, recommend going.
I rarely talk about politics here. Not real reason – I believe we should talk more about politics and how things affect us: a blanket “no politics” rule kills a safe space for marginalised communities, but for whatever reason I feel like the permanent nature of blogs and the temporary nature of public opinion means it may bite you in the bum at a later date1.
Nevertheless – I do wear my political opinions on my sleeve (which is ally, left wing and think that Brexit is the stupidest thing we have done as a nation), and I was happy waking up to read Andy Burnham – the mayor of Manchester – won the Makerfield by election and therefore has a definitive path to become prime minister.
There has been genuine change in Manchester: the busses are now yellow to match the trams and have clear branding promoting £2 bus fares, and homelessness is at the very least a lot less visible and at most almost eradicated. The city has transformed over the past 10 years, and Andy Burnham spearheaded it. Between that, the work he did for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and how visible he was during COVID and in the aftermath of the Ariana Grande concert bombing, he feels like a genuine change and a genuine bloke.
I was worried about this election. To drive from mine to my partner’s house drives straight through Makerfield, and the last few weeks I’ve seen so many Reform signs out. I saw one Restore sign, and about 3 Vote Andy placards. Sunday I was tailing a Reform bus in the off teal colours for about a mile on Sunday, and I felt like it was inevitable for a shock. A lot of the places I drive through is one of those places that have England flags everywhere, and not just for the World Cup.
I’m sympathetic to the resident’s plight – as I live in a similar area that has been forgotten, and people are crying out for change. It’s just depressing that the void in these places has been taken advantage by racist populists, who believe the country is full, taxes are too high and anybody who doesn’t scale a lampost to hang a Union Jack is unpatriotic. Last night felt like a bit of genuine hope.
I’d never vote for Reform or any far right party (or indeed center right at the moment), and their candidate seemed like the sort of person I wouldn’t get on with. For them to be licking their wounds after being told resoundly to go fuck themselves made me smile.
Anyway, good luck Andy, hopefully you are the change that people desperately need.
I had a football blog once where I praised an individual for a classy gesture, who later turned out to be a wrongun. ↩︎
I love Krakow. I’ve been there four times in the last 10 years, granted it’s a bit biased as I talked about before – my brother got married there in 2016 and having that knowledge on where to go, where to avoid and how to have a good time really helps. But sometimes you just discover a place that sets your soul into a warm embracing self hug.
I went to Krakow last weekend for WordCamp Europe. You’ve probably read a few dozen blog posts about it, mine is coming next week. At these events there are fringe events. One of those was after the first day of the conference – the Bluehost/Yoast Glow Party. A pride party in all but name.
Anyway, in a colossal senior moment, I travelled to the party a bit early and then realised I wasn’t 100% sure I locked the front door, so I double backed to the hotel. I’d hoped to go to a relatively uninspiring burger bar that I couldn’t find before the event, but on the tram on the way back to the distinctly average AirBNB-masquerading-as-a-hotel, I did some Googling and found a place next to the railway bridge I was staying by.
It had a few reviews, and looked interesting. A communism-era van serving Kielbasa – the Polish sausage cooked over an open flame next to the train and tram I have to get. That will do, I’m already running late and wanted to get in and out of the party before an early night before the Krakow parkrun1.
I checked the AirBNB/hotel, and walked to the van, and was greeted with a glorious sight:-
They must be onto something, right? Poland knows their sausage, and it’s a good queue of 20/30 people at least waiting for it. As the queue shortened (in a process that took about 20 minutes), I was greeted with a well oiled machine of cooking sausages over an open flame, like in those movies about New York in the 1980’s.
There was one thing on the menu – sausage, and a limited supply of drinks. Cash only. Very simple, but seemed to be a staple for a few Krakowians (Krakowites?) on a Friday evening. Their fish and chip Friday, I took the bread roll and my meal (which took about 20 minutes just to get), and stood at the table listening into conversations I didn’t understand. I felt like a fat, Welsh, bearded Anthony Bourdain.
Was it the best meal I ate in Krakow? No. The steak I had in Pimento was incredible. But the meal at Kiełbaski z Niebieskiej Nyski2, is a meal I’ll remember for a very long time.
It didn’t end up that early, but was fine the next day. ↩︎
Sausages from the blue Nysa – which actually from a bit of research in thinking it was a reference to a river in Poland, but is actually a literal name for the van it’s served out of↩︎
