Adactio: Jeremy Keith (original) (raw)

Jeremy Keith

Journal 3208 sparkline Links 10751 sparkline Articles 87 sparkline Notes 8014 sparkline

Thursday, January 8th, 2026

The Main Thread Is Not Yours — Den Odell

Every millisecond you spend executing JavaScript is a millisecond the browser can’t spend responding to a click, updating a scroll position, or acknowledging that the user did just try to type something. When your code runs long, you’re not causing “jank” in some abstract technical sense; you’re ignoring someone who’s trying to talk to you.

This is a great way to think about client-side JavaScript!

Also:

Before your application code runs a single line, your framework has already spent some of the user’s main thread budget on initialization, hydration, and virtual DOM reconciliation.

Wednesday, January 7th, 2026

A selfie in a row of musicians.

Sessioning

A fiddler, an accordion player and a mandolin player round a table with a fiddle on it.

Wednesday session

It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons @ tonsky.me

I’m avoiding Mac OS Tahoe because of the disgraceful liquid glass debacle, but it looks like the rot goes even deeper. Here’s a detailed look at the sad state of iconography in application menus.

I know that changes in an OS update can take time to get used to, but this isn’t a case of “one step forwards, two steps back”—it’s just a lot of steps back with no forwards.

Tuesday, January 6th, 2026

A man playing tin whistle and a man playing fiddle.

Tuesday session

(Tá sé ag cur sneachta anois—go bog—i mBrighton)

His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

— James Joyce, The Dead

An ornate poster with multiple fonts that reads: Concerns about...Harms of AI?...Corruption and big tech?... Social media and mental health?... Surveillance? Come speak and listen at Brighton Ludd Club Every first and third Friday of the month 7.45pm at the Cowley Club 18+, members and guests welcome brightonluddclub.org With skill-sharing, book-sharing, speakers, meet-ups and events.

I may have found my people.

Monday, January 5th, 2026

Two concertina players and a guitarist playing at a pub table in the corner.

Monday session

Sunday, January 4th, 2026

2025

Here’s the new year, same as the old year. Well, not the same, but pretty similar.

At the end of 2024, I wrote:

It was a year dominated by Ukraine and Gaza. Utterly horrific and unnecessary death courtesy of Putin and Netanyahu

See what I mean?

2025 added an extra dose of American carnage with Trump’s psychotic combination of cruelty and incompetence directed at the very foundations of the country. I’ve got to be honest, I’m tired of the USA living rent-free in my head so I’ve issued an eviction notice. It’s not that I don’t have sympathy and empathy for what’s happening there, but a majority of the country voted for this …again. Like a dog voting to have its nose rubbed in its own shit. Maybe this time the lesson will stick.

Anyway, leaving world events aside (yes, please!), I also said this at the end of last year:

For me personally, 2024 was just fine. I was relatively healthy all year. The people I love were relatively healthy too. I don’t take that for granted.

Again, same. No major health issues in 2025. My loved ones are well. My gratitude grows.

I’ve already written about how much music I played in 2025. I’m hoping to continue that trajectory in 2026 with lots of sessions. We’re four days into the year and I’ve already had two excellent sessions. There are another three lined up this week.

One of the highlights of 2025 was my trip with Jessica to Donegal. Learning Irish by day, playing in sessions by night, all while surrounded by gorgeous scenery. I’ve already got a return trip planned for 2026. I’m also planning to be back in Belfast for the annual tradfest.

Other 2025 highlights include:

Most of my travel in 2025 was either for music or family.

I made three trips to the States to see the in-laws: California, Florida, and most recently, Arizona. I can’t say I feel very comfortable going to the States right now, especially to Florida, where people openly display their intolerance on their T-shirts, and Arizona where they openly display their guns.

I went back to my hometown of Cobh a few times during the year to visit my mother.

Aside from those family trips, I went to Belfast, Donegal, Galway, and Clare in Ireland, Cáceres in Spain, Namur in Belgium, and Amsterdam. Only that last one was work-related. I always make sure to get to CSS Day.

Meanwhile here on my website, I posted 695 times in 2025. That includes 345 notes, 262 links, and 86 blog posts. Here are some I’m quite fond of:

All in all, 2025 was a grand year for me. It wasn’t all that different from the year before. I’m at an age where the years aren’t all that differentiated from one another. I’m okay with that because I’m also at an age where I know what brings me joy and satisfaction, and I can focus on those things.

So here’s to 2026, which I hope I will spend doing more of what I did in 2025: playing music, speaking Irish, eating good food, hanging out with friends, reading good books, travelling to interesting places, and staying relatively healthy.

I’m sitting playing my lovely red mandolin and smiling at the camera. Mé seanding on the street pointing over my shoulder at a red brick building behind me. A selfie in an auditorium with big screens displaying the Clearleft logo. Myself and Jessica dressed in black with our instruments in our backs taking a selfie in a bus shelter. A selfie with Jessica with green grass and a sandy beach in the background under a blue sky with a few clouds. A selfie of me wearing a blue shirt and blue hoodie on a sandy beach next to the ocean under a sky that is half clear and half cloudy.

Saturday, January 3rd, 2026

Three fiddlers. Flute and two fiddles. Fiddle and two concertinas. Guitar, flute, fiddle, and another flute.

Playing tunes in a kitchen on a Saturday night.

A Website To End All Websites | Henry From Online

Hand-coded, syndicated, and above all personal websites are exemplary: They let users of the internet to be autonomous, experiment, have ownership, learn, share, find god, find love, find purpose. Bespoke, endlessly tweaked, eternally redesigned, built-in-public, surprising UI and delightful UX. The personal website is a staunch undying answer to everything the corporate and industrial web has taken from us.

The past is a foreign country that we should impose tariffs on.

— Matt Webb

The Case for Blogging in the Ruins

Start a blog. Start one because the practice of writing at length, for an audience you respect, about things that matter to you, is itself valuable. Start one because owning your own platform is a form of independence that becomes more important as centralized platforms become less trustworthy. Start one because the format shapes the thought, and this format is good for thinking.

Friday, January 2nd, 2026

A smiling woman playing fiddle next to a man playing banjo at a pub table with a fiddle on it.

New year’s day session.

Thursday, January 1st, 2026

It’s surreal to see my name on this list:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DS7VZUqiImo/

2026: The Year The Bubble Bursts

Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh, a cairde!

A modern hand-crafted oval-hole mandolin made in Australia. A classic bowl-backed mandolin from eastern Europe. A red wall covered with Italian bowl-backed mandolins of different sizes. A classic F-5 mandolin from Gibson with its distinctive scroll.

More mandolins

Reading Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood.

Buy this book

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