Mike Ellis

Freelance tips, two years in

[Edit: I was interviewed by The Freelance Web about these tips – hear me talk about this stuff over here] So we’re just signing off our accounts for the second year of Thirty8 Digital (crazy business: two years? Where the hell did that go?). Things have been brilliant so far ~clutches hard at large piece … Read more

Block

I’m 17,000 or so words into my first novel and I realise I’ve been suffering a bit of writers’ block. It’s probably been a couple of months if I think about it realistically. I now see I’ve been in avoidance mode, ostriching the fact that I couldn’t get past this particular issue, and it’s been bugging … Read more

Real men

I had an idea for a thing – but I don’t know if it’s an event thing or a blog thing or a gathering thing or just a thing thing, or maybe not even a thing at all. Also, I’m in Devon in order to do less developing of things, so maybe it’s just a … Read more

Teetering

Writing – whether a new song or a bit of fiction – is very often like walking along a thin wire over an abyss. The abyss isn’t death but the loss of the idea – if you look down too long, or think too hard about the almost intangible thing you are running through your … Read more

Never enough time?

Lots of people have heard of Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion Anyone who has worked for any length of time knows this to be true. Looking at it from another angle, you’re never quite finished – yes, you finish projects, empty inboxes, get through to-do lists but there’s … Read more

New chords – “mother”

Another piano fiddling – as always it’s a work in progress and needs lots of stuff to make it more complete, but I like the sequence and think it might have legs..

Innocent: nothing to fear

So the whole NSA thing kicked off and the entire internet is full of commentary, as you’d expect. As with any new piece of news, HUGE REVELATION is followed by some detailed picking apart. (Right now, the biggie seems to be the “what does ‘direct access’ to servers actually mean?” – next up, “Why did … Read more

New tune – Birmingham

I’m pleased with this one – it’s a nice mellow sequence and thanks to a re-share by the awesome ASIP, my most played on Soundcloud by a long, long margin…

New tune – Flight

After I discovered that the amazing Vector Lovers used a piece of iOS software called NanoStudio to write an entire (very awesome) album – iPhonica – I obviously had to download it and have a play. My first public outing – as usual for me a non-finished work in progress – is below and GOT … Read more

3 months

In February we saw a huge pile of work on the horizon and heading towards us. If you work or have worked for non-profits you’ll know what it’s all about: lots of stashes of budget secreted around the country’s museums, councils, universities.. and then a last minute HOLY FUCK, WE NEED TO SPEND THIS SHIT … Read more

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I write about museums, meditation, music, tech and a few other bits and bobs. Once a week is the maximum you can expect to hear from me. In reality it's more like once a month.

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