Happy New Year! | The Friday(ish) Update

Happy New Year Everyone! The fact I’m releasing this edition of the Friday Update on a Sunday suggests I may not be embracing any kind of “new year, new me” sentiment…

Nevertheless, I hope fellow users of the Gregorian calendar (and your loved ones) had a great last few days of 2021 and have had an even better start to this latest spin around the sun.

The last year was very good to me, with the channel continuing to do really well, giving me the opportunity to make a bunch of videos I really wanted to make and to do my best to get better at how I make them. Thanks so much for all your support throughout, I hope you’ll stick around to see what I do next. I’ve certainly got some exciting things up my sleeve!

What have I been up to this week?

It’s been a bit of a stop-start week since I last wrote to you. I’ve been trying to balance continuing to make progress on my next video whilst still taking some time during the festive period to catch up and celebrate with friends.

I’m really excited about the next video. It’s very grounded in real-world politics and is probably one of the most important videos I’ve made to date. This is involving being extremely thorough in my research and taking in a lot of information, but I’m finding that challenge really invigorating.

In order to keep track of all the relevant information, I’ve been playing around with a new piece of note-taking software called Obsidian which I’m finding to be really great. Unlike other programs, it works by encouraging you to find links between different notes until you end up with a big interconnected map of ideas. The result is not unlike Charlie’s big conspiratorial web of print-outs in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia but I think is a really useful way of working. The real test, of course, will be whether or not I’m still using Obsidian in a few months time, but I’ll keep you posted on that one!

In next week’s Friday Update, I’ll reveal what I’m working on. Hopefully you don’t mind waiting another week but I like to keep a bit of secrecy until things have really started to take shape!

Today, I also filmed the commentary track to accompany my video about the “metaverse” and platform capitalism. That will be out for Patreon supporters at the relevant tiers in the next couple of days.

And outside of work?

Outside of work, I’ve mainly been catching up with family. On Wednesday, I popped to my sister’s house to gather with my Mum, brother, sister and our families. I think most of us had managed to see each other in various different arrangements just prior to Christmas, but it was nice to spend a day all together. Definitely a sign that we’re all getting old that we hadn’t seen each other on Christmas Day!

New Year’s Eve was an incredibly quiet one this year. My partner was working a night shift and, while I did almost go to a friend’s house, in the end, I elected to chill out at home and see the new year in with a good book. Nevertheless, there were some pretty good DIY firework displays from some other people’s gardens that I was able to enjoy!

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

In between the mountains of journal articles I’ve been reading for the next video, this week I’ve been reading Andreas Malm’s How To Blow Up a Pipeline. Some of you will recognise the book as being the basis for Philosophy Tube’s latest video. I’d had it sat on my shelf since I last ordered a big haul from Verso and thought I’d take Abigail’s recommendation of it as an excuse to finally crack it open.

It’s a really interesting look at the present tactics of the climate movement and investigation of where activists might apply their efforts going forward. It’s refreshingly uncompromising about the scale of the situation and the action that needs to be taken to address the climate emergency. It’s also not too long and is exceedingly well-written so I’d definitely suggest taking a look if that sounds up your street!

Thanks for reading this week’s editing of the Friday Update. As I said at the top of this post, thanks so much for all your support over the past 12 months. It genuinely means so, so much to have so many people responding to my work in one way or another. I’ll keep trying my best to produce the best videos I can. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of what I’ve put out and that you’ll enjoy what I’ve got planned for the next year just as much!