Tshepang logs

From the Archives

A sampling of posts spanning the blog's history, from 2011 through 2020.

FLOSS I use a-lot

August 2020

Children of Men

July 2020

The Seventh Seal (1957)

February 2011

The archive of personal logs on this site stretches across a wide terrain of interests, from the quiet craft of film criticism to the intricate world of free and open-source software. Each entry reflects a steady, thoughtful engagement with the subject at hand, never rushing toward a verdict but instead lingering on the details that make a work memorable. The tone is measured and reflective, inviting readers into a space where opinions are formed slowly and expressed with clarity.

Movies occupy a central place in this collection of logs, with reviews that favor substance over spectacle. The approach is never about reciting plot points or handing out star ratings; instead, the writing examines directorial choices, thematic undercurrents, and the emotional resonance that lingers long after the credits roll. A recurring fascination with how films treat their subjects reveals a critic who cares deeply about authenticity and the moral weight of storytelling.

Free and open-source software appears as a recurring thread woven through many entries, reflecting a genuine appreciation for tools built in the open. The logs explore everything from desktop environments to command-line utilities, always with an eye toward usability and design philosophy. There is a quiet advocacy at work here, not through loud proclamations but through careful documentation of what makes certain projects endure while others fade into obscurity.

The tagging system on this site serves as a gentle guide through an otherwise sprawling archive. Keywords like favorite, treatment, and topic act as signposts, allowing readers to trace thematic connections across years of writing. A tag such as smokin aces might point toward a particularly sharp film review, while companies could lead to reflections on the business of technology and the cultural weight of corporate decision-making.

A distinct strand of writing focuses on the experience of raising children, capturing moments of wonder, frustration, and quiet revelation. These logs avoid sentimentality in favor of honest observation, treating parenthood as a lens through which the wider world comes into sharper focus. The intersection of family life with media consumption and technology use adds a grounded, human dimension to the site's broader intellectual concerns.

The design of the site itself mirrors the sensibility of its content. A dark backdrop with generous spacing creates a reading environment that feels calm and deliberate, while the emerald green accents and rounded pill-shaped badges lend a soft, modern warmth. Large numerals rendered in ghost typography punctuate the layout, turning simple statistics into visual anchors that draw the eye without shouting for attention.

Among the most compelling entries are those tagged as favorites, where the author sets aside critical distance to celebrate works that have left a lasting impression. These pieces carry a different energy, more personal and less analytical, yet still grounded in the same careful attention to craft. They function as a kind of informal canon, a map of the tastes and values that shape the site's perspective over time.

The treatment of difficult or controversial topics is handled with notable restraint throughout the archive. Whether grappling with a film's problematic elements or a software project's troubled governance, the writing maintains a steady, principled tone that resists outrage in favor of understanding. This approach does not shy away from judgment, but it insists on earning that judgment through patient, well-reasoned argument.

Taken as a whole, this collection of logs forms something more than a blog; it is a slow-motion autobiography told through the media and ideas that matter most to its author. The absence of commercial noise, the refusal to chase trends, and the quiet confidence of the prose all point toward a space where writing is its own reward. Readers who stumble upon it may find themselves staying longer than they expected, drawn in by the rare pleasure of a mind thinking aloud with care.