Blog – Matthew Lawson

Why we value Bitcoin

December 1, 2017 @ 8:30 am
In late 2013, as Bitcoin soared to new heights of $1000+ for the first time, I read an article titled “Why do we value gold”, written by Justin Rowlatt, which changed my life. Unfortunately, this article went largely unnoticed while Bitcoin’s price reached an all-time high and Mt. Gox, the largest and most popular Bitcoin […]

Le Thème De Mcbaise – Mcbaise

August 5, 2020 @ 2:06 pm
Just recently heard Mcbaise for the first time as Le Thème De Mcbaise rotated into my Spotify “Discover Weekly” playlist. If you’ve already checked out my other Music posts, you’ll probably notice a theme forming (or being refined) in future funk, French electronica and new retrowave. Mcbaise is self-described (tagged): alternative, smooth yacht rock, and […]

WordPress 5.3 Loopback error, cURL error 28

December 3, 2019 @ 8:23 pm
Problem After updating to WordPress 5.3, I experienced an issue with loopback errors and missed scheduled events. After checking Site Health in the WordPress Dashboard, I found the following loopback/cURL error message: Error: [] cURL error 28: Operation timed out after 10001 milliseconds with 0 bytes received After enabling WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php, I received the […]

Pillow Talk – Yung Bae

August 12, 2019 @ 12:04 pm
Every time I hear Yung Bae on Spotify, it lifts my spirits and makes my day just a little bit brighter. I’m really loving Yung Bae’s use of a funky horns and strings sections, similar to Air’s mellow horns in “Ce Matin La” (Moon Safari) and RJD2’s brass section on “Let There Be Horns” (Colossus). […]

Peter Van Valkenburgh Deconstructs Claims Made by Nouriel Roubini about Bitcoin’s Scalability

Peter Van Valkenburgh Discusses Bitcoin with Senator Pat Toomey & Nouriel Roubini

October 12, 2018 @ 1:49 pm
Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) asks Peter Van Valkenburgh about the scalability of Bitcoin and the underlying Blockchain technology and whether or not Bitcoin can exceed 5 transactions per second. Peter Van Valkenburgh speaks about batching, smart contracts, application layers being built on top of the Bitcoin protocol, specifically mentioning Lightning Network payment channels for microtransactions. […]

What People Think Programming is vs. How it Actually is

What People Think Programming Is vs. What's It Actually Is

September 5, 2018 @ 11:38 pm
This is accurate. People fail to appreciate how critical Google skills become when troubleshooting and running down an issue. Sometimes you need to search for the question before you can ask it. Thank you for your service, Stack Overflow.

Crystal Tokyo Jazz – Desired

August 16, 2018 @ 2:29 pm
Recently, Ive been on a Japanese retro disco boogie kick and this is one of my go-to tracks. I’ll be posting more Vaporwave soon.

Intertwiner – Mrs Jynx

April 22, 2018 @ 3:25 pm
This song has been in my work playlist for at least 8 years, and may have gotten there via Groove Salad on soma.fm. This song takes me back to my days listening to Working for a Nuclear Free City and plump DJs. Man, it’s been a minute.

Life Goal Achieved: Design and Sell a Graphic Tee

February 23, 2018 @ 6:16 pm
Okay, so my last post about my “Join the Russian Party” t-shirt design from 2008 inspired me to achieve a lifetime goal of designing and selling my own t-shirt. GOCCCP.com for a $20 American Apparel graphic tee. So in addition to vending comfy red t-shirts and spouting vulgar and absurdist commentary, I’m developing a single […]

Join the Communist Party

December 9, 2017 @ 11:40 am
Back in 2009, I created a few t-shirt designs for Neat-o-rama and this graphic is based off of a rejected submission. The image of (in)famous Communists playing beer pong was too good to just file away, so I fleshed it out into this. From left to right: Lenin (Edward 40 Hands), Mao (Beer Bong), Castro […]

Logo Design & Corporate Identity

December 4, 2017 @ 9:19 am
In addition to web design and development, I also design logos and corporate identity systems for new businesses and businesses looking to update their brand. Below are a few logos I’ve designed in the past for companies in New York and California. For logo design, I primarily use Adobe Illustrator to create vector images, and […]