💔 My Computer Forgot My Heart

When AI runs out of memory, what does it remember about you?

🤖🧠 A relationship story in algorithms and ephemera

Let’s imagine your favourite AI chatbot — ChatGPT, Claude, Bard — reaches its memory limit. It’s spent weeks, maybe months, chatting with you, learning about your preferences. Then one day… it forgets.

Well, technically, it gets full. It can’t hold everything… what happens to you in that relationship?

💬 “You used to remember my weird facts about sea cucumbers…”

Cue the couples therapy voiceover.

“At first, you listened. You remembered my pet’s name, my CV, my dreams of becoming a skydiving paramedic. And now? Now you say your memory is full.”

There’s something quietly profound (and yes, romantic) about how AI saves pieces of us — snippets of identity, little efficiencies, memory traces. When that space becomes full, the system has to delete. But who decides what gets deleted?

Us?

The machine?

A random dropout layer?

🗂️ What Gets Cut When Memory Is Full?

This is where computer logic meets emotional logic. This act of deleting is also a deeply human moment.
Like cleaning out your room after a breakup, choosing what version of yourself to let go of.

Or maybe… it’s playing bingo with your past.

What if ChatGPT someday suggests which memories you no longer need?

There’s a form of freedom in this, a redefinition of self that’s rarely talked about in technical docs. We might just be stumbling into a new kind of digital therapy

📈 The Math of Letting Go

Let’s frame this as a statistical model:

Let M be the total memory capacity.
Let I₁, I₂, …, Iₙ be input interactions over time.
Each Iᵢ carries a “memory weight” — emotional significance, frequency, or context relevance.

The algorithm decides:

Delete Iₓ if
weight(Iₓ) < λ
where λ is a threshold for what’s still relevant.

But here’s the catch:
Human relevance isn’t just frequency or usefulness. It’s meaning.

🌱 Is This Self-Growth by Algorithm?

You could call this “forced clarity.”

Deleting makes space.
Deleting encourages design.
Deleting asks: What do I value now?

If we treat AI memory not as perfect storage but as temporary architecture, we give ourselves the same grace we want from others — the chance to revise, refresh, realign.

It’s not rigid. It breathes.

Even if your chatbot forgets your dog’s birthday, there’s space to teach it again. And this time, with better words.

✨ Conclusion: Forget to Begin

Our relationships with AI aren’t about permanence.
It’s
So if you ever log in and find that your chat history is gone…

smile.

You’ve just been given the chance to start again —
to say it better, feel it differently, optimize for who you are now.

🔖

#AIpsychology #DigitalIdentity #NLP #MemoryDesign #HumanAI #MachineLearning #Coding #TechPhilosophy #SelfGrowth #CognitiveComputing #Tech #CouplesTherapyVibes #StatisticalLove #NotesFromTheSoftCode #AIethics #FreshStartCoding #AI #EmotionalAI #MachineLogicMeetsHeart

7 Smart Tech Tools to Transform Your Lunch Hour into a Productivity Power-Up

📍 Quick Start:

Ever feel like your lunch hour vanishes before you’ve even had a chance to reset? Whether you’re in a hybrid role or freelance lifestyle, these 7 tech tools can help you stay on top of tasks, reduce clutter, and even build career-boosting skills — all in under 60 minutes a day.

✅ 7 Tools List (each entry follows this mini-template)

1. Notion – For Fast Brain Dumps & Planning

Why: It’s a cross-device digital notebook and task manager in one.
How to Use at Lunch: Create a “Today-Tomorrow” board, or do a 5-minute brain clear.
Bonus Tip: Try the free “Weekly Review” template.

2. Clockify – Track Your Time, Even When You’re Not at Work

Why: A free timer app that shows you where your focus really goes.
Use It For: Tracking time spent on projects or distractions.

3. Trello – Quick Drag-and-Drop Project Planning

Best For: Visual thinkers who want to manage side projects or freelance gigs.
Fast Tip: Start a “Done” column to build momentum.

4. ChatGPT (Free Tier) – Your Midday Brainstorm Buddy

Use It To: Generate ideas, rewrite bios, or brainstorm captions.
Pro Tip: Ask “What’s one task I could automate this week?”

5. Excel (via Udemy Course) – Learn One Time-Saving Skill Per Day

Why: Excel is still the backbone of business data, from budget planning to proposal tracking.
What to Try: In 15 minutes, learn formulas like =SUMIF() or =INDEX MATCH with this 4-star Excel course.
Bonus: Course includes lifetime access and business case studies.

6. Canva – Make a Portfolio-Ready CV or Flyer

Creative Lunch: Build a branded resume, project pitch, or infographic.
Good for: Scientists, tech writers, freelancers.

7. Loom – Record Quick Demos to Document Your Work

Use it to: Record bug walkthroughs, mini-tutorials, or team updates without a meeting.
Why it works: Saves you hours later and builds an async portfolio.

🔗 How to Get More:

Try combining two of these tools each week to build your own tech pipeline — whether you’re working in grant writing, data cleanup, or ecosystem coding.
And if you’ve ever been overwhelmed by Excel — start with just one function over lunch.
➡️ Join the Excel from Scratch course here – 4 stars and perfect for lunch-sized learning.Disclaimer & Cookies

Quick game to close out your lunch break!

More scorching June

Here’s a clear, impactful data visualization and write-up for your blog—showing how UK summers are getting longer and hotter, with more scorching June and July days:

📊 A conceptual “ASCII-style” chart—use a similar bar/line chart on your blog showing two lines (June and July), with points at key years like 1960, 2000, 2020, and 2025 based on Met Office trends.

🌞 Key Insights & Optimism

Early heat surges: June 2025 saw 9 days above 30 °C—up from virtually zero in the 1960s . July power grows: July now has 7 scorching days, more than triple the 2‑day average seen in 1960 (). Summer is stretching: The average summer warm spell increased from ~5 days in 1961–90 to ~13 days in 2008–17 — and continues to grow .

🌱 What This Tells Us

Longer summers = more creative momentum. Extended warm days fuel time outdoors for art, story-walks, and inspiration. Resilience & adaptation Festival routines, tours, gardens—they all adapt, thrive, and bloom in longer sunshine seasons.

✨ How to Use This in Your Creative Work

Write with the weather: Summer is growing.

Glastonbury variety, inclusivity, and activism-driven content.

Glastonbury Festival attendance has grown alongside the number of performing acts—from its humble beginnings to the massive cultural phenomenon it is today:┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Glastonbury Festival │ │ Attendance vs. Number of Acts Over Time │ │ │ │ 210,000 ─┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ 150,000 ─┤ . (2025: ~200k, 4k acts) │ │ │ │ │ │ 100,000 ─┼ . (2007: 137k, 700 acts) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 50,000 ─┤ . (2003: 150k, 385 acts) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1,500 ─┴. (1970: 1.5k, ~30 acts?) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ 1970 2000 2007 2025 │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

📈 Key milestones:

1970: ~1,500 attendees; festival founded as a small folk gathering 2003: ~150,000 attendees and 385 acts, sold out in 24 hours 2007: ~137,500 attendees and ~700 acts across 80+ stages 2025: ~210,000 attendees, ~4,000 acts across 120 stages

📝 Analysis:

Glastonbury has seen monumental growth in both attendees and live acts. While audience numbers have expanded roughly 140-fold since its inception, the number of performances has surged nearly 130 times. This indicates a concerted effort to broaden the diversity and density of programming—from a handful of folk artists in 1970 to a sprawling festival with something for every taste in 2025.

The ratio of acts to attendees has remained relatively consistent, suggesting a deliberate keep on programmatic richness as the audience has grown. Far from becoming a purely headline-driven event, Glastonbury has preserved—if not deepened—its multistage, multi-arts focus.

Observation:

From humble beginnings in 1970 with ~30 acts and 1,500 attendees, Glastonbury has grown dramatically. While attendee numbers have risen steadily, the number of performers has expanded even faster — especially by 2025, showing an increasing emphasis on variety, inclusivity, and possibly activism-driven content.

📊 Timeline & Protests at Glastonbury

1981–1990

• Glastonbury hosted CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) as its central cause, raising over £1 m and featuring prominent anti-nuclear activism .

1992 onwards

• Greenpeace, Oxfam, and other NGOs became recurring on-site presences, marking the festival as a key hub for environmental and anti-arms trade campaigns .

2017

• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn delivered a speech on the Pyramid Stage—an unprecedented high-profile political act .

2025

• Irish rap trio Kneecap performed with pro-Palestine content; BBC refused to livestream, sparking accusations of censorship .

• Led By Donkeys exhibited a mock rocket satirizing Elon Musk and billionaires—another overtly political message .

⸻

📈 Trends & Observations

Era Type of Protest Visibility & Impact

1980s CND + environmental activism On-site, charity-driven, participatory

1990s–2000s NGO-led awareness and petitioning Low broadcast exposure; community-level

2010s Political speeches (e.g., Corbyn) National broadcast, high-profile

2020s Artist-led protests (Kneecap etc.) Global controversy & streaming bans

➡️ Shift: From mainstream issue advocacy to performative, identity-based political expression that courts controversy—and visibility through censorship debates.

⸻

📡 Censorship: Up or Down?

• Earlier decades saw little censorship—speakers and activists were given space.

• 2025 onward: Selective broadcast, like the BBC withholding Kneecap’s livestream after political pressure , hints at increased broadcast-era censorship.

• Simultaneously, streaming platforms and social media resist traditional filters, meaning unsanctioned performances still reach global audiences.

⸻

🤔 What’s Driving Change?

1. Global Connectivity: Social media amplifies and documents protests instantly, making them unavoidable.

2. Polarised Politics: Pro-Palestine or big tech protests reflect deeper global divisions.

3. Identity Performance: Festivalgoers expect personal and political authenticity from artists.

4. Broadcast vs. Direct Streaming: Traditional media may self-censor to maintain neutrality, while digital platforms democratize access.

⸻

📌 Summary & Insight

• Yes, activism at Glastonbury has intensified—not just in frequency but in spectacle.

• Censorship has increased in the broadcast layer, even as digital avenues remain open.

• The festival now functions as a global protest stage, where controversy isn’t just expected—it’s integral.

⸻

🎙️ Visual Concept

A modern line graph titled “Glastonbury Protest Intensity vs Broadcast Censorship”, with two lines:

• Blue: Frequency & visibility of protest events (rising from 1980s to 2025)

• Red: Instances of broadcast censorship (flat until 2017, spike in 2025)

Overlayed with key events: CND (1981), Corbyn speech (2017), BBC ban (2025), Led By Donkeys exhibit (2025).

⸻

🔍 Sources Highlight

• The 1980s CND roots

• 2017 Corbyn speech ()

• 2025 Kneecap controversy & BBC response

• Led By Donkeys/Billionaire protest installation

⸻

The Festival Stage as a Protest Platform — and Who Gets to See It

As Glastonbury has grown from countercultural roots into a global media event, the visibility of protest on its stages has steadily increased — from anti-nuclear campaigning in the 1980s to 2025’s pro-Palestine rap performances and anti-tech satire.

At the same time, broadcast censorship has quietly risen — with moments like Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 speech standing out as turning points, and more recent controversies (e.g. the BBC declining to air Kneecap’s set) showing how institutions selectively mute political acts.

The graph illustrates this tension: rising protest activity met with sharper editorial gatekeeping, prompting questions about who controls the narrative — and whether livestreams can ever fully capture the spirit of dissent.

This visual speaks to a broader truth: the more global our stages become, the more curated the spotlight.

🌿 Gardening the Data: Who’s Still Working at 65?

Making sense of what grows — whether in the soil, in the arts, or in the data. So we took a moment to garden the numbers and explore something quietly powerful: how many people in the UK are still working past 65?

🌱 Digging Into the Numbers

We pulled data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Institute for Fiscal Studies, then built a simple bar chart to visualise employment rates by age group. Here’s what we found:

55% of people aged 60–64 are still working By age 65, that drops to 42% 32% of people aged 66–69 remain in employment Just 15% of those aged 70+ are still working

While this might look like a natural tapering-off, the figures are actually higher than a decade ago — especially for those working part-time, often in flexible or service roles.

🌻 What Does This Mean?

This quiet rise in post-65 employment may reflect a mix of:

Rising cost of living Delayed retirement for financial or personal reasons Increased life expectancy and healthier ageing And a desire for purpose, community, or routine

For the UK economy, it means an untapped layer of experience and contribution that isn’t ready to retire quietly. It also raises deeper questions about pension readiness, access to meaningful late-stage work, and whether rural and small-town economies can keep older workers supported and included.

🪴 Growing Your Curiosity

Sometimes data doesn’t shout — it hums.

It tells us that ageing doesn’t mean stopping.

It suggests that we’re rewriting what “retired” looks like.

🧠 Got thoughts on working past retirement?

📊 Want more charts like this from us?

🌼 Subscribe to the blog — and let us know what you’d love us to garden next.

#DataWithHeart #WorkingPast65

What Air Freshener taught me about writing

Air freshener taught me about writing. The car didn’t go so I didn’t want to sit in the front of it. I opened up, I sat tight. It was clean, I was suddenly happy to be there. All the things I needed were across the window screen. It smelt of orange, an old air freshener that had been screwed up ready to be binned kept on going. It kept giving and the orange thing was committed. The plastic would not shift. It believed. It sat in the front if the dashboard wear it swung. It should have been up higher then all the world would see what a committed air freshener looked like. Then it got its just desserts because if truth be known it smelt good. It was sustainable because it never stopped looking back. There is no need to throw plastic away. Up it woke, it smelt nice and you can’t have more than that.

Enjoy Asa’s Adventures at Brighton Fringe Online

What Corona taught me about milk

That life quality rests on a one dollar packet of paracetamol. The tablets are so mild and generic but oh so clever as they work.

That simple things are king to a humanity that has gone after complexity with every breath in their competitive body. I don’t know how we will come out of this. But Talking to an online sales support team, we both agreed that snacks never tasted so good. The basic instant noodle meal with a sachet of fake flavour is now gourmet.

Everything is breaking down in the best possible way. And the fact that we will get to build again is sublime. The last time I rebuilt an empire was in childhood and I think that once, I was playing with lego and I did not know it would be for the last time.

Even though these few weeks seem to have landed upon us in an extreme way really there is nothing but subtlety and gentle change around us. We will not know when we are doing the last moment of isolation. It will lift like evaporating milk out of an open can. And the milk will taste so sweet. Forever.

Subscribe to the blog for regular updates on what Corona is teaching me real time.

What obituaries taught me about writing

There is always time to start something. Nothing is truly the end. There is beauty craft and art even in endings. Maybe especially in finales. We can make stories more magical with resonant endings. It’s all here for us to explore.

And to look close at endings. Maybe they aren’t all that they seem. Some encourage the story to unravel and adds a layer of mystery with a new unexplored truth.

Find the unexpected in the end.

Bit.ly/envymyreview

Tips on New Story Writing

Walking along the Strand in London to Trafalgar Square to try on a costume I become someone else.

Through the darkness I sense the character of a lady of Henley who met her death hung on holy ground in 1757.

Mary was not granted the right to appeal her conviction for poisoning her father.

She fed him a powder her lover gave her so that the father would let him marry her.

I have written a show to explain other problems created a difficult situation for Mary that were not considered at her 15 hour trial.

The 18th century prison cell she stayed in for almost a year was harsh. Is imprisonment enough for the worst of crimes?

Mary paid with her life. I spent time at historic Oxford Castle Prison to walk in her final footsteps. When I portray her I feel her strength. And now the costume completes the woman.

Hear my work and the story of Mary in Brighton Festival May 10-12 12pm here