Mark Norman Francis

I'm Mark Norman Francis, a software developer and development manager who builds things of and for the internet. I use this website to collect my thoughts and ideas, and to collect the parts of me that I leave lying around on other sites on the internet.

Latest GIFs — I make GIFs, like it's 2010.

You can read more about the history of them.

Latest YouTube videos — I also make videos for YouTube.

Mostly video game content, where I try and make them more watchable and less erratic by judicious use of repeated attempts to get the best footage and a lot of editing.

Latest video — January 18, 21 Nathan Evans Wellerman Family Tree — shantytok mashup/supercut
Latest Game Shows video — June 04, 21 Assassin's Creed II — Chapter 10 — Emilio Barbarigo

Latest programming activities — I semi-regularly write software (mostly for “fun”).

Latest weeknote

Chips for week 48, 2021 December 06, 2021 — Made yet more GIFs. Weeknote also talks about how I measure some deadlines, and has a nerdy aside about an aspect of the GIF specification.

All weeknotes.

GitHub activity

Latest releases

July 29, 2021 flourish version 0.10.3

I occasionally write words.

May 08 (updated May 09) 21329 Fender Stratocaster

Next up… Monday 9, 06:25 sobs 08:59 21329 Fender Stratocaster
May 08 40516a Everyone is SPACESHIP!!

40516 Everyone is Awesome 40516a Everyone is SPACESHIP!!
January 04 Playing Wordle with the command-line

I hated when the family made me play Scrabble. I was only ever good at the numbers part of Countdown. And now I am also frustrated by the new word game Wordle that has been …
October 29, 2021 Updating the decor in my study

Changing the decor in my study a little, with some hellocanvas shapes. As well as a bunch of photos of friends and family, I also fancied including swatches of the colours of my website. And …
September 03, 2021 The static pages of hasworn

This is the second in a series of articles about hasworn — the site I run to catalogue which tshirt I wear on any given day. The project is open-source and published on Github, and …
August 22, 2021 Rebuilding hasworn

This is the first in a series of articles about hasworn — the site I run to catalogue which tshirt I wear on any given day. The project is open-source and published on Github, and …
June 23, 2021 Finishing the 2020 site restoration

A little note to mark the end of the restoration of this site that I started a year ago, and the work done to do the final part — restoring the handful articles I've written since 2005.
June 07, 2021 My potted history of making GIFs

Back in 2014, I put up a little website with about 20 GIFs on it. For the next five years, I only added one more GIF. Then last year, I started adding GIFs on a regular basis. Today, I've got over 350 GIFs published, and another 300 in the queue. But why?

I tweet a fair amount, and want to preserve some of my favourites.

November 06, 2021 The abyss And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also …
October 16, 2021 Mortlach 12y review Mortlach 12y review: two thumbs up. I’ve only ever rated two other …
October 07, 2021 I still scrub up okay Despite having left the house for anything more than popping to the …
March 30, 2021 I made myself a little something An image of a compass rose, but with my initials labelling the …
March 17, 2021 Washing machine It has been zero days since I last set the washing machine …
December 27, 2019 I helped kill a man Another thoroughly enjoyable Mischief Comedy production this evening with Magic Goes Wrong. …
November 18, 2019 Many presents Now I have time on my hands I’m doing some tidying up …
November 03, 2019 Snooze central Itsy is not a lap cat … until there’s a cushion or …
November 02, 2019 Fettercairn 12 I’ve been trying a new whisky every month for a year and …
October 07, 2019 Apple Messages •sigh• Add @Apple Messages on iOS 13 to the list of apps …
September 12, 2019 New lanyard Replaced my standard issue boring blue lanyard with one that has a …
August 17, 2019 Black cat appreciation day Roxy eyeing up my pork chop pillow for #BlackCatAppreciationDay. I’ve always loved …