Feed List

Blogging Gets Serious in 2001 With Warblogs and Movable Type

2025-10-30 13:36:00

This is a great post and a walk down memory lane from around the time I became interested in reading blogs. Although my own blogging came much later, in around 2011, I was a consumer long before then.

More broadly, Richard’s Cyber Cultural site is a fantastic resource for all kinds on web nostalgia. It’s one of my favourites.

Smartphones are not the enemy

2025-10-27 11:31:00

I strongly agree with Thomas’ thoughts here. When I thought I was addicted to my phone it turned out my paltry 1.5hrs/day was way below the 4.25hr/day average. Even so, I think that’s too much, and my screen time has actually reduced to around 1hr/day now.

I’ve fallen foul of “I need to implement [thing] to force me to use my phone less” in the past, but it’s bollocks. We just need to have more willpower and not pull our phone out every time there’s a moment of silence. I consciously do this now - when I’m alone, my initial pang is to pull out my phone, but I deliberately don’t. Over time those pangs have reduced, but they’re still there.

Thomas mentions turning off notifications in his post. I did that a few years ago now, and it’s done me a lot of good. These days, the only sound my phone makes is when someone calls me. And the only notifications I see are from Signal and WhatsApp, but because they don’t make a sound, I check them when I want to, not when my phone tells me to.

Just writing that last paragraph (in the office, on my lunch break) I’ve heard 4 different phones beep.

Turn. Notifications. Off.

You can thank me later. 🙃

10 More Pointless Facts About Me

2025-10-25 15:05:00

The last post was fun and it's seemed to have garnered a few replies so I thought I'd do 10 more pointless facts about me. Because why not. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Since so many people have took part in this now I figured I’d do some more just for the lols.

1. I have totally useless magic skills

I can do crappy magic tricks that kids love. I can find their card, every time. I can pull coins out their ears, and I can make coins miraculously disappear up my sleeve. I can also juggle.

Kids think I’m a wizard, while their parents just roll their eyes.

2. I’m allergic to something I love

I’m allergic to bananas, but I absolutely love them. They make my tongue swell and my lips itch, but I sometimes put myself through the pain (and the slurred words) for a few hours, just because it’s worth it.

If this isn’t proof that there’s no God, I don’t know what is.

3. I once had an awkward social disaster

So it’s around 16 years ago, my wife and I had been seeing each other for a couple years and she invites me to a family wedding as her +1. It’s an opportunity to meet her extended family, so I had to be on my best behaviour.

For the most part it went well, until I met one of her aunties. You see, her family are huggers, but my family aren’t. So I went for the handshake, and she went for the hug. I completely mistimed it and firmly planted my open hand right into her groin.

Fantastic.

She said “ooooo” I said “ohhh, shit.” then pulled my hand away and awkwardly hugged her. My wife, her sisters, and all her cousins fell about laughing while I wanted the ground to swallow me up. They still laugh about it today, and I still can’t look her aunty in the eye.

We have never spoken of it.

4. I’ve made life changing decisions by the flip of a coin

I’ve written about this before, but I’ve made many life changing decisions with the flip of a coin. I even created a simple little site to do this for me.

My theory is that if I can’t make a decision, I flip a coin. If I’m comfortable with the result, all good. But if I’m not comfortable, that’s kinda making the decision for me anyway as I’d clearly had an opinion, I just didn’t want to admit it. Either way it helps me make decisions.

5. I have a ritual that makes no sense

Shampoo and conditioner have to be used at the same rate. If one runs out before the other, it throws me off completely. I’ll even ration them to keep things balanced.

I know it’s really weird, but I cannot use one more than another. Because who knows what craziness might occur in the world if my shampoo and conditioner get out of whack.

6. I own something weirdly sentimental

When I deployed to Iraq in 2006, my nan gave me a Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) 25 cent coin for good luck. It seemed like a weird trinket, but she was superstitious like that, so I kept it.

It survived 9 months of Iraq in my pocket, so when I got home, I drilled a hole in it and attached it to my keys, where it still lives today, nearly 20 years later.

My uncle lived in Zimbabwe and she got the coin when she was out there visiting him. So although I don’t believe in luck, the coin does have a lot of sentimental value.

My Rhodesian 25c coin

7. Eye contact makes me uncomfortable

Eye contact makes me very uncomfortable. My wife once told me that I need to make eye contact more, as people can think it’s rude. So I made a concerted effort to make eye contact when I was talking to people.

But then, months later, my wife told me I had gone too far the other way and my constant staring into people’s eyes was too intense. So now, when I’m talking to people, I need to think about making eye contact, but not too much. So I consciously have to look back and forth to the person I’m talking to so I don’t come across as rude, or too intense.

It’s very complicated and I sometimes miss things in conversation because of it. Being a person is hard!

8. I once tried a stupid fad

I did one of those juice diets that promised “detox and clarity.” After 3 days of drinking nothing but vegetable juice, I passed out while bending down to put my walking boots on.

After 3 stitches above my eye, and a very bruised ego when explaining it to the nurse, I never tried a fad diet again.

9. I can’t grow a beard

Well, I physically can. And what a beautiful ginger (with some grey) mane it is! However, as my beard grows, I have this horrible habit of chewing the hair at the side of my mouth. The longer it gets, the further to the side I can chew. So I inevitably end up with a gap in my beard at either side of my mouth.

Me with a beard

10. I talk to myself a worrying amount

I’m talking full conversations, too. Not just a bit of muttering, but proper back-and-forth dialogue.

That’s fine though…right?

Final thoughts

There you go, folks. That’s 10 more useless facts about me. You now have 20 of them! These ones aren’t really repeatable by other people, as they’re very personal to me. But if you want to do a similar post, as we’re all weirdly wonderful in our own ways, please do so and don’t forget to let me know.

Career Snakes & Ladders

2025-10-18 14:36:00

After years of climbing the ladder in cyber, I’ve learned that sometimes the best move isn’t up. It’s stepping back to make life sustainable again.

The corporate ladder is less of a climb and more of a game of Snakes & Ladders. Moments of progress, setbacks, and the occasional lucky roll where everything just seems to align. Sometimes you go up, sometimes it’s a move sideways, and sometimes it’s a move down.

The climb never ends

In August 2024 I was offered a promotion at work that moved me from a “senior manager” position to an “executive” position. It came with all the cool perks one would think an exec-level role should come with; a nice corner office, a personal assistant, the kudos of being one of a few very senior people, and of course a salary to match.

I took the role, but the expectations of a senior manager versus an executive are very different. I work for an American company, so a lot of the people I work with are based across the US. That means lots of late evenings.

But I also have a team in Singapore, so that means early mornings too. Then there are my teams in the UK, Ireland, and India, so I’m busy during my core working hours as well.

Running a global team is hard enough, but add to that the fact that I work in the cyber security industry for a large American bank that’s a huge target. Shit gets busy.

Then layer on top of that regular travel to America, a young family at home, lots of pets to look after, and a disabled brother who my mum and I both care for. It’s a lot.

Re-framing success

When I took the role, I had a feeling that this promotion might be a step too far. I knew what I was getting myself into, but I had to give it a try to see if I could do it. I’m one of only two executives within the cyber team where I’m based, the other being nearly 20 years my senior. This was a huge mark of success for me, and I was incredibly proud of what I’d achieved.

But as time went on and I spent more time at my desk and less time with my loved ones, it became clear that I needed to re-frame my measure of success. Plus, I was burning out.

I vividly remember the moment it clicked that I was messing things up. I’d had a string of particularly late evenings working on a project we’d been running for a few months. It was a Thursday evening, and I signed off around 9pm. On a Thursday, my kids have swimming practice and it’s usually a late night for them. They got home at around the same time I signed off, and my youngest came up to me, gave me a big hug and told me he’d missed me.

I didn’t understand. I asked why he’d missed me when I hadn’t been anywhere. He said:

Yeah you have. You’ve been in America again, haven’t you?

I hadn’t been in America. I’d just been working such long hours that I hadn’t seen the kids for four days.

It wasn’t a dramatic “breakdown” moment, just a calm clarity. The realisation that being present with my loved ones matters more than being important.

Stepping down, not away

So I decided that the exec role wasn’t for me and it was time to step back to a senior manager position with a smaller scope, less stress, and most importantly, more balance. This wasn’t a failure or a retreat, but a deliberate move toward sustainability.

I set up some time with my manager and broke the news to her. She told me she understood my decision, that I’d clearly put a lot of thought into it, and she was happy to support my stepping down.

We agreed that she would speak with HR and make the arrangements so I could transition out of the role while supporting whoever took over from me. We estimated six months for this process to happen.

But then my sister took her own life and everything was turned upside down. While off on bereavement leave, I caught up with my manager and explained that I needed to take a step back ASAP because I didn’t have the capacity to carry on with the exec role.

She was a few steps ahead of me and had already arranged cover so I could step down. A week later, I did.

I’ve never felt so supported by any employer I’ve ever had. Anyone who’s worked for a large enterprise will know that things move glacially slow, so for my manager to get this squared away in a couple of weeks felt like she’d moved mountains for me.

That right there is the kinda shit that makes me want to work somewhere for the rest of my career. The pay, the benefits, the corner office — it’s all just bullshit and noise. The work is important, but the humans are what matter most.

Redefining what winning looks like

Sometimes sliding down a rung is exactly what keeps you in the game. I’d much rather be in the game, albeit having slid down a snake, than be up another rung of the ladder; overworked, miserable, stressed, burned out.

As a result of all this, I’ve realised that success isn’t just about upward motion. It’s about endurance, purpose, and perspective. It’s about being content in the work we do. Being challenged but not overworked. And most importantly, being in a position to spend time with loved ones.

Because let’s be honest, people: no one ever lay on their deathbed and thought “I wish I’d joined that meeting at 9pm.” But I’m sure plenty of people have laid there thinking “I wish I’d spent more time with my wife and kids…” I refuse to be that person.

So I’m now back to being a senior manager and proud to be doing the work I do. More importantly though, I’m still in the game, just playing it on my own terms.

Ten Pointless Facts About Me

2025-10-16 12:45:00

I've seen this doing the rounds on a few blogs recently, so wanted to add my own version because I'm a narcissist. 🙃

Pete Moore did his version yesterday, and David did his version all the way back in April. I actually had this in draft from around then, but never got around to finishing it (there’s always something more fun to write).

Well, I don’t have anything more fun to write at the moment, so Pete’s post prompted me to get it done. So here’s Ten Pointless Facts About Me…

Do you floss your teeth?

Kinda. A pet hate of mine is having food stuck in my teeth. So I always clean them out with a toothpick every time I eat. 🤢

Tea, coffee, or water?

All 3. I mostly drink water and coffee, but do enjoy a cup of tea with breakfast at the weekend.

Footwear preference?

Crocs! I love Crocs! But I don’t wear them outdoors - they’re more like comfy slippers for around the house for me. When I’m out of the house, it’s usually trainers or walking shoes. Usually the latter as I’ll take comfort over fashion any day. My personal favourites are Merrell and Columbia.

Favourite dessert?

Anything lemon flavoured. Usually lemon drizzle, or lemon cheesecake (not the America kind though 🇬🇧).

The first thing you do when you wake up?

I always have a pint of water next to the bed. So the first thing I always do is to take a drink to freshen my mouth, then go to the bathroom to get rid of the water I drank the night before.

Age you’d like to stick at?

Probably 28…ish. I think late 20s is a good balance between health, disposable income, and level of responsibility.

How many hats do you own?

I actually don’t know. 8 maybe? I have a few winter hats, a cap, some summer hats, and my old beret from when I was in the Army.

Describe the last photo you took?

A photo of one of the watches that I’m selling. I don’t take a lot of photos really. When I do, they’re mostly of my pets, my kids, or my motorbikes.

Worst TV show?

No idea. I have a pretty low bar when it comes to TV and movies. I can usually find something I enjoy in pretty much everything I watch. The worst movie I’ve watched though was Dog Man; absolute steaming pile of dog shit (pun intended). 💩

As a child, what was your aspiration for adulthood?

I didn’t have any serious aspirations to be honest. I was too busy being a child to worry about adult stuff. I did want to be a doctor for a while, but then I realised that I don’t like blood, and that I’m not clever enough.

That’s it

And that’s it, those are the Ten Pointless Facts About Me. Maybe you found it interesting and learned something about me?

If you want to take part, here’s the questions in a copy/paste format to dump into your own blog post…

• Do you floss your teeth?
• Tea, coffee, or water?
• Footwear preference?
• Favourite dessert?
• The first thing you do when you wake up?
• Age you’d like to stick at?
• How many hats do you own?
• Describe the last photo you took?
• Worst TV show?
• As a child, what was your aspiration for adulthood?

I'm Selling Most of My Watches

2025-10-14 11:34:00

I have too many watches in my collection, so I'm trying to reduce it down to around 24 watches. As a result, many of them are for sale if you're interested.

I think it’s time to drastically reduce my watch collection. You see, as I started getting into watches, I bought everything I came across that piqued my interest. But now I’m a few years into this hobby, I have a much better idea of what I really like to wear on my wrist.

Fact is, I only wear around half of my collection on a regular basis. Many of my watches have never worn, or only worn once or twice. So they’re mostly brand new, and frankly, a waste.

So I figured instead of dumping them all on eBay, I’d list them here to give you fine people first refusal. Here’s how it will work:

1. You take a look at what’s for sale and if anything floats your boat, use the email me button to make an offer. Please make sure you fill in the offer amount and your country so I can calculate postage.
2. I’ll review the offer, calculate postage and will come back to you with a full price (inc. postage), or a counter offer.
3. If we’re both happy, you send me the money via PayPal and I’ll ship the little ticker out to its new home.

This will be a first come, first served process and as the watches sell, I’ll remove them from the list.

So please, take a look and if you’re interested, make me an offer. I’m planning to donate all proceeds of these sales to a local mental health charity, Open Door in memory of my sister, Lisa.

⌚ View My Watches for Sale

Like, Share and Subscribe

2025-10-12 13:15:00

I was reading The Internet Phonebook last night and a comment in the prologue stood out to me about the term 'like, share and subscribe'.

The Internet Phonebook is a fantastic read for anyone who spends time online, or doing this blogging thing. Or if you’re considering starting a blog, it’s a great way to learn the many benefits of doing so.

Anyway, I digress. While reading my copy last night, a quote in the prologue stood out to me:

The internet I discovered had fewer abstract words. Less “attention”, “competition”, “promotion”, “action”, and “solution”. Instead, there were words like “home”, “love”, “shadow”, “glow”, “fly”, and “ladybug”. Shorter and softer words, but also mysterious and wondrous. Words that rarely asked me to share, like and subscribe, but which sparked curiosity like a trail of signs through the Black Forest.

I love this quote as I think it epitomises the difference between the likes of influencers, content creators, & YouTubers and us bloggers.

Put simply, the former, I think, are chasing growth, while the latter just want to share their thoughts and ideas with the world. For me, that’s a far more attractive proposition as it encourages dialogue, conversation, and friendship.

I’d much rather chat with someone about a post they wrote than be one of a thousand commenters under a YouTube video or Instagram post where the creator seems more interested in their sponsor than the discussion below.

But maybe I’m weird, as my ilk and I are in the minority, I think. 🤷🏻‍♂️

What do you think?

Service Offerings from Mastodon

2025-10-10 13:43:00

I think this is a great move by the Mastodon team - so many instances are supported by their members through donations. As I understand it, a large part of Mastodon’s funding comes from donations and sponsors too.

By diversifying their income streams, we will hopefully see Mastodon here for the long-term, and (more importantly) not selling out to big tech as they will be able to stand on their own two feet.

…Mozilla, take note. You sausages.

A Theory on Why Contact Forms Get More Spam Than Email Addresses

2025-10-09 20:18:00

I’ve had my email published on this site for around 4 years at this point, and when I set it up, I decided to use plus addressing so I could easily switch addresses when the inevitable spam came.

But it never came.

And now, 4 years on, I’m still using the original email address I published back in 2021 with no additional spam seen.

I always wondered why this was the case; I mean my email is out there for everyone to see. Then I read this post by Luke and it all (depressingly) clicked into place. I’ve considered adding a contact form to this site again, but having read this post, and my lived experience, I don’t think I’ll bother.

A Cartoonist's Review of AI Art

2025-10-09 09:19:00

Yes, I use AI. I’m a fully paid up subscriber to ChatGPT, and that’s because I find it to be a very useful tool.

In this post comic Matthew makes some great points about how the creativity…the soul if you will, of a piece of art is lost when it’s created by AI. Go read the comic; it’s a lot of fun and gets the grey matter swirling.

I’ll wait with my brew…

☕
☕☕
☕☕☕

Ok, you back? Hi! 👋🏻

So back to it - I have used AI to create images (I won’t use the term art, as I don’t think it’s art), but only for mundane things. For example, I have an anonymous blog elsewhere and I wanted an avatar. So I asked Chatty Geeps to create me a basic avatar of a middle-aged man. It obliged, it was useable, so I use it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ve also used it for a couple of digrams in slide decks for work. Again, what it produces are good enough, and it saves me time pissing about.

I think these are good uses for AI image generation. But Matthew’s comic got me thinking about other uses for AI - mostly coding. Many people consider code to be an art form, by creating code that does a job in an elegant way. I can see that. I don’t agree, but I can see why coders may think that.

So is code that’s created by AI also a big fat no-no?

In my opinion, sometimes.

Appropriate uses for AI code

Regular readers will know that I’ve been learning PHP for the last year or so. At this point, I think I know enough to be dangerous, but I still get stuck. A lot.

And that’s where my mate Chatty Geeps can come in. I can ask it things like:

Geeps, I’m writing this piece of PHP to do XYZ, but ABC isn’t working and I’m a bit stuck. Can you take a look and tell me what I’m doing wrong please?

(yes, I’m always polite to Chatty Geeps as the computers will be our overlords one day!)

Invariably, Geeps comes back with a good explanation that helps me work through the problem. I see it kinda like Stack Overflow on steroids - I can ask it questions and get real-time responses and feedback. If I still don’t understand, I can ask it to dig further, or dumb it down more.

To me, as someone who is trying to learn this stuff in my (very limited) spare time, it’s incredibly useful and has improved on my capacity to learn by orders of magnitude, and saved me to a shit tonne of time.

On the other hand…

I think asking Geeps to create a tool/application/script in PHP from scratch, to just fire out onto the internet is very dangerous. Especially if you don’t understand what the code does.

I could ask it to build me a React app that, I dunno, allows me to flip a coin, but I have no idea how React works - I don’t even know if you could write a coin flipper in React - but if it could, me putting that out on the internet could be all kinds of bad, as I’d have no idea what it does.

But this shit happens all the time. Having said that, I work in cyber security and all this AI slop keeps me in a job, so keep it coming, folks! 🙃

Final thoughts

Kinda digressed into a completely unrelated topic here, sorry about that. Matthew’s comic is great (like they usually are) so go read it!

Given I’ve written so much about Chatty Geeps in this post (I think this is my first post about AI?) it felt right to give it the last word, so I asked it:

Hey Geeps, I’m writing a post about you (see below). Do you have a closing comment/message to my readers from you?

So, to end this post, here’s the final message from my pal, Geeps:

Switching from Buttondown to Sendy

2025-10-07 15:16:00

I've spent some time this afternoon switching my email subscription system from the fantastic Buttondown, to a self-hosted Sendy instance.

I’ve been using Buttondown for years and in that time it’s been faultless. I love their RSS import implementation that allows it to consume a feed and spit out an email. I’ve used Sendy in the past, but this option wasn’t available, and so creating emails was a manual copy and paste process.

Not any more.

I’ve been teaching myself PHP for a little while now and I’m slowly getting better. So with a little help from ChatGPT, I’ve been able to implement a PHP script that will pull my RSS feed into Sendy and spit out an email automagically via API.

Wonderful.

But why change?

Well, as you know, I’ve been looking at simplifying stuff lately, and while Buttondown is very much set and forget, it’s quite expensive. So although this move isn’t much of a simplification, it is an exercise in reducing costs, and being more self-reliant.

Buttondown actually costs me more than the VPS that hosts this site, and all the other sites associated with my various little projects. So paying so much for a service that’s only used by a few hundred people seems crazy, especially since I already had a Sendy license hanging around.

All my testing shows that Sendy should be a 1:1 replacement for Buttondown, so if you’re subscribed via email, everything should just continue to work. The only thing you will notice is that the email you receive looks a little different. But everything else is the same - there’s no tracking, and there’s always an unsubscribe link in every email if you decide you no longer want emails from me.

Of course, there’s always my RSS feed if you want another way to subscribe.

Having said all of the above, if you notice anything wonky, please do let me know buy using the reply button.

If everything works how it should, this post should land in your inbox in the next few minutes. 🤞🏻

When a Tool Becomes a Hobby

2025-10-07 10:19:00

As a fellow watch nerd, I can relate with Joel here. Like Joel, I’m also the proud user of a safety razor, and have been for a couple years now.

Unfortunately, unlike Joel, I can’t be a fountain pen user as I’m left-handed. As any fellow leftie knows, it’s nigh on impossible for us to use a fountain pen, as our hand smudges the wet ink. So I have to stick with a (rather nice) Waterman ballpoint pen, but it works well enough for me.

All that being said, I agree with Joel - it’s very easy for a tool to become a hobby…or maybe it’s some kind of neurodiversity that we all share. Either way, it’s fun.

A Frank Piece About Influencers

2025-10-06 19:52:00

Holy shit this one hit home. Especially given my post this morning, but also because as we’ve been working though my sister’s things, it’s become very clear that she was obsessed with this rubbish.

We have found thousands of pounds worth of unused cosmetics, beauty products, and “lifestyle organisers” from brands like P.Louise in her house. On checking her phone, we discovered tonnes of saved TikTok beauty and makeup videos, just like the ones Ava describes in her post. We assume that she bought this stuff thinking it would somehow make her life better, only to be thrown aside, unused, once it became apparent that they weren’t going to fix shit.

I’m not saying that these people are responsible for Lisa’s suicide, but I am saying that this fabricated bullshit is 100% having an effect on vulnerable people, like Lisa.

If you’re one of these people, you should be fucking ashamed of yourself.

Thinking About Social Media

2025-10-06 09:17:00

Is social media in any form really worth the drama, and was it doomed to failure from the start?

Regular readers will know that this is a thought that’s been swirling around my grey matter for a while now. Some examples:

• My thoughts on the Fosstodon drama (2025)
• Could you give up social media? (2024)
• Why have a personal blog instead of social media? (2024)
• Anti-Social Media (2023)

There’s probably more, but these posts are what spring to mind. Then this morning, I read a post from Manu where he talks about how the ultra vocal, chest-beating influencers (I fucking hate that word) are making things worse.

One thing that’s fun to observe, though, as a very passive and disinterested spectator, is how some patterns of behaviour seem to be platform agnostic. Which is just a very polite way for me to say that dickheads are omnipresent.

– Manu Moreale

Micro.blog seems to be better than most in this regard. I think that’s just because it’s a smaller place, and therefore has fewer dickheads (yes, I know I’m one of them before anyone emails me to say it 🙃). But it’s also full of great people — it’s just that, as usual, the minority ruin it for everyone else.

Anyway, I digress…

After everything that’s been going on in my personal life, I want to take this as an opportunity to re-focus on what really matters — time with my loved ones.

What will I do?

As far as you’re concerned, dear reader, mostly nothing.

Most of what I get from Micro.blog are discovering new people with blogs to follow in my RSS reader, and the odd interesting conversation. There are some people I talk to regularly there who either don’t have a blog, or don’t post often (looking at you, Basil 🙃), but that’s just FOMO.

So immediately I’ve removed the Micro.blog app from my phone, and from my favourites bar. I intend to stop visiting the site for a while and see how it feels. I’ll keep everything else the same, so my posts will still syndicate there, but I won’t be responding for a little while, I’m afraid. I’ve also deleted my BlueSky account, as I don’t use that anyway.

If it sticks, I’ll probably quit social media altogether — but we’ll see. This may just be a knee-jerk reaction as I work through my grief and the loss of my sister.

In the meantime, if you want to get in touch, my inbox is always open. See you out there…or not. We’ll see how this experiment goes.

Exit Strategy

2025-10-06 07:33:00

I’ve been a little slow with Exit Strategy mainly because I’ve had a lot going on at home so haven’t felt like reading. But I’ve needed some escapism the last couple days and managed to get this book done.

I read some thoughts from someone on Micro.blog recently saying that these book were “meh” and not very engaging. I disagree. I continue to really enjoy them.

Breaking Things, Fixing Things

2025-10-05 08:08:00

I’ve enjoyed watching Matt iteratively update the design of his blog - normally I would get this enjoyment vicariously through the person doing the tweaking, but having just given this site a major overhaul, I feel I can relate more than usual.

Matt finishes his post with:

Sometimes I think I have more fun tweaking my blog than I do blogging on it.

Now this I can 100% relate to, and is why I’ve tried to extrapolate content creation from site design/features. It’s a lot of fun, but it can get in the way of producing new posts for me, which is never great as ultimately, I think I enjoy that more.

There’s still a tonne of things I want to tweak on this site, and I’ll get to them eventually. But for now, I’m focussing on writing posts and getting to know my fledgling Jekyll CMS, Hyde.

Life is Really Shit Sometimes

2025-10-02 18:50:00

I'm not really sure what to say about this one. I have no more words.

This post talks about death and suicide.

Two days ago, on 30 September 2025, my Mum found my younger sister dead in her bedroom. To say that it’s been a head-fuck of a 48 hours would be the understatement of the century.

My little sister, Lisa, was 34 when she died. She leaves behind a 16-year-old son.

Today, while clearing out some of her things, we found three letters and some notes. The letters were addressed to our mum, my step-dad (her dad), and her son. They are brutal to read. I am not going to share them here because they are too personal, but I do want to share a few lines from her notes. They are hard to read, but they matter:

The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.

Why am I like this? I hate it. I hate myself! I put on a smile and act happy, but inside I’m dying.

All I do at night is cry. I hate it! No one wins when you’re like this.

If you are feeling anything like Lisa felt, please talk to someone. Talk to your loved ones, talk to a professional, call the Samaritans. We knew she struggled, but we didn’t know it was this bad.

Because she did not talk to us.

Talk. To. Someone. Suicide is not the answer, and trust me, it is fucking horrendous for the people you leave behind.

Wherever you are, Lis. We all love you and miss you terribly.

Lisa Quirk (24 April 1991 - 20 September 2025)

Switching Back to Jekyll & Building My Own CMS

2025-09-30 12:10:00

After flip-flopping about what I'm going to do with this site, I decided to flip to Jekyll and build my own little CMS while I'm at it. Because why not? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yup, I’m back on Jekyll, folks. RSS subscribers will have received a load of “new” posts dumped into your RSS reader from me (sorry). As a result, a couple of people have reached out to see what I’m up to, so here’s my explainer. 🙃

Regular readers will know that I’ve been thinking about simplification for some time now, but I’ve always been torn between the convenience of a CMS, and the performance/simplicity of an SSG.

After lots of deliberation, I narrowed it down to a couple of options:

1. Keep Kirby and rip out some of the complexity.
2. Switch to an SSG and have a static workflow in Obsidian.

But, me being me, I ended up going with option 3:

Switch to an SSG AND build my own (simple) CMS.

And you know what, dear reader? I did that and it’s bloody brilliant. I’m actually writing this very post in my little CMS (dubbed Hyde because, you know, Jekyll & Hyde). Here’s some screenshots of what it looks like:

Hyde homepage

Existing posts list

The post editor window

The beauty of having Hyde as my CMS is not only that it works exactly how I want it to work, but it also removes content from the rest of the site. Within Hyde all I can do is load and edit content; I cannot do anything with the design, layout, or features of the site. My hope is that this will encourage me to write more and fiddle less. We’ll see.

It also means that there’s no Git CI/CD workflow getting in the way of things. I have a simple DEPLOY button that runs a Jekyll build and rsync’s any changes to my server. A build and deploy takes around 5 seconds in total.

Hyde is PHP based and runs locally, so no security issues or complexity is introduced, either. Publicly, it’s all just HTML, CSS and a tiny bit of JS. Lovely.

I’ve written a bash alias so when I type hyde in my terminal, it runs the local PHP server for Hyde, and starts my Jekyll server too. So I have everything I need for my little CMS, including previews, before I hit DEPLOY.

I’m really please with how Hyde is coming along. Sure there are still bugs and things I’d like to tweak, but it’s 90% there now, and as a result, writing this post has been just as nice as writing a post in Kirby.

Why switch?

That’s a great question, dear reader, and there are a couple of reasons for my switch. Firstly, why not? It’s fun and I enjoy doing this stuff, and that’s all the reason I should need really. But there are other reasons.

As I said in my previous post, the Kirby site was starting to creek with all the complexity I’d added, so things kept slowing down, crashing, and just being annoying.

I’d just like to point out that this is in no way the fault of Kirby, but rather my own (very shitty) coding skills. Kirby is fantastic and you should definitely consider using it for your site.

Secondly, my host (Ionos) recently announced that they’re doubling the cost of my VPS because they can no longer pass on a free Plesk license to their customers, so the incentive was there to find a lighter host too.

I have another month or so before the costs go up, so will work on moving this site over to a CDN host, like Bunny, I think.

As a result of going back to a static site, I’ve decided to forego some of the more complicated features that this site had. For example, the guestbook, watch log and various stats pages are all gone (I might bring back stats in the future though).

Notes have gone too. Instead, I’m just gonna use my Micro.blog site as my notes site, and will post via the Micro.blog app - much more simple.

Final thoughts

I’m super proud of how Hyde has turned out - it’s a great little CMS that is customised to my needs, and gives me just what I want and no more. It also abstracts content and site away from one another, so I can get on with writing and not be tempted to fiddle.

Right, that’s it. I’m gonna hit the DEPLOY button and hopefully you lot should see this post in a few seconds…

💭 Screw it. I've ripped out all the comment and indieweb functionality. …

2025-09-21 18:49:12

Rogue Protocol

2025-09-21 17:50:00

Took me a little bit to finish this one. Even though it’s a short book, I’ve been super busy and have been too tired to read in the evenings.

Anyway, it’s another great book and I continue to enjoy this series, especially as I’m starting to fine Murderbot more engaging. As Joel commented recently, the chapters are really long, sometimes taking me over an hour to read. Which can be annoying as I prefer shorter chapters as they allow me to only pick up a book for a few minutes if I want.

All that said, I continue to really enjoy this series.

Rogue Protocol

2025-09-21 17:50:00

Took me a little bit to finish this one. Even though it's a short book, I've been super busy and have been too tired to read in the evenings.

Anyway, it's another great book and I continue to enjoy this series, especially as I'm starting to fine Murderbot more engaging. As Joel commented recently, the chapters are really long, sometimes taking me over an hour to read. Which can be annoying as I prefer shorter chapters as they allow me to only pick up a book for a few minutes if I want.

All that said, I continue to really enjoy this series.

💭 Spent some time this afternoon hooking up webmentions properly …

2025-09-21 17:38:01

Making Some Website Changes

2025-09-20 16:15:24

The previous post was a bit of a whinge about me logging into the amazing Kirby panel, getting side tracked and ending up tweaking stuff instead of actually writing content. Me being the sausage that I am, my potential solution was a switch to a static site generator, like 11ty.

I sat down to think about this properly and I realised that I didn’t need an SSG, what I needed was a workflow for publishing content that’s separate from the Kirby panel. Now, the great thing about Kirby is that it’s all plaintext files under the hood, so I could just write posts in something like Obsidian, but Kirby’s format is awkward to write in and I’d lose all the markdown secret sauce that Obsidian offers.

Here’s an example of what a plaintext Kirby post looks like:

I’d much prefer to write in good old Markdown with some frontmatter, just like you SSG folk do. But that’s not supported by Kirby; quite the quandary, dear reader.

Obsidian to the rescue (kinda)

I decided to roll my own thing and wrote an Obsidian plugin that allows me to export a markdown file with frontmatter, to Kirby’s plaintext format.

This allows me to not only publish posts like I’m using an SSG, but over time it will mean I also have a markdown version of all my content. So if I did want to move, it would more simple.

I’ll probably write a script to export all my current content to .md format at some point.

I’ve even made sure that my little Kirby Export plugin also supports my custom post types, like Books, Links and Notes. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. So much so that I’m writing this very post in Obsidian and I have to say, it’s very nice.

Other changes

One thing I did want to do to simplify things, is have my notes mushed in with all the other content on this blog. Before, books, links and blog posts were on the homepage, but notes were on their own on a separate page.

I wanted my homepage to be a stream of consciousness for everything I publish. So I mushed them all together and changed the design slightly, so other post types look a little different than notes. I think it came out looking pretty good:

I created a few templates in Obsidian so I can dump them into a new markdown file and away I go - it makes getting started with a new post really simple.

Deploy script

I use Git as the backbone of my site. I have a local copy, and I deploy changes to my site as needed. To allow me to not have to go into the Kirby Panel to pull new changes that I push to the server, I wrote a little script that commits and pushes local changes to GitHub, then logs into my server via SSH and pulls changes.

So now, not only can I produce content within Obsidian, I can also deploy those changes to my site with a single command. I’ve been writing notes like this for a few days now and it works really well - so much so that it’s quickly becoming muscle memory. It goes something like this:

• CTRL+N => New note.
• CTRL+P => Insert template.
• Write the post…
• CTRL+P => Export to Kirby.
• CTRL+P => Deploy.

So I don’t need to take my hands away from the keyboard, or move outside of Obsidian for the entire process of creating and publishing my content.

Pretty. Bloody. Cool.

Comments & Webmentions

While I was making changes, I decided to add a comments section below all post types, using Maurice’s fantastic Komments plugin. I also installed and configured his IndieConnector plugin so this site now supports Webmentions (I think - I haven’t been able to test that, so we will see).

I’ve battled with both comments and the IndieWeb in the past, and neither ended well. So I’m not sure if these changes will stick, but I figured it was worth trying for a while. I can easily revert them if they get annoying.

Final thoughts

I know all this is adding complexity to the site, and my aim here was to simplify, but I want to see how the comments thing goes with Kirby.

To actually simplify, I do plan on pulling some features out. Namely the Watch Log, and potentially the Guestbook too. But again, we’ll see - I don’t want to make too many changes in one go.

For now, I’m happy with the changes I’ve made. I’m not sure if this new content creation process will stick for me, or if it’s just a fad. If it is a fad, I can always revert to my old way of producing content in the Kirby Panel. But if it sticks, I have a nice halfway-house between an SSG workflow, and a great CMS panel when I need it.

TL;DR - Kirby + Obsidian = ❤ …I hope.

Making Some Website Changes

2025-09-20 16:15:24

I published a post about simplifying this site recently, I've made some changes, but I don't think I've simplified much.

The previous post was a bit of a whinge about me logging into the amazing Kirby panel, getting side tracked and ending up tweaking stuff instead of actually writing content. Me being the sausage that I am, my potential solution was a switch to a static site generator, like 11ty.

I sat down to think about this properly and I realised that I didn't need an SSG, what I needed was a workflow for publishing content that's separate from the Kirby panel. Now, the great thing about Kirby is that it's all plaintext files under the hood, so I could just write posts in something like Obsidian, but Kirby's format is awkward to write in and I'd lose all the markdown secret sauce that Obsidian offers.

Here's an example of what a plaintext Kirby post looks like:

I'd much prefer to write in good old Markdown with some frontmatter, just like you SSG folk do. But that's not supported by Kirby; quite the quandary, dear reader.

Obsidian to the rescue (kinda)

I decided to roll my own thing and wrote an Obsidian plugin that allows me to export a markdown file with frontmatter, to Kirby's plaintext format.

This allows me to not only publish posts like I'm using an SSG, but over time it will mean I also have a markdown version of all my content. So if I did want to move, it would more simple.

I'll probably write a script to export all my current content to .md format at some point.

I've even made sure that my little Kirby Export plugin also supports my custom post types, like Books, Links and Notes. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. So much so that I'm writing this very post in Obsidian and I have to say, it's very nice.

Other changes

One thing I did want to do to simplify things, is have my notes mushed in with all the other content on this blog. Before, books, links and blog posts were on the homepage, but notes were on their own on a separate page.

I wanted my homepage to be a stream of consciousness for everything I publish. So I mushed them all together and changed the design slightly, so other post types look a little different than notes. I think it came out looking pretty good:

I created a few templates in Obsidian so I can dump them into a new markdown file and away I go - it makes getting started with a new post really simple.

Deploy script

I use Git as the backbone of my site. I have a local copy, and I deploy changes to my site as needed. To allow me to not have to go into the Kirby Panel to pull new changes that I push to the server, I wrote a little script that commits and pushes local changes to GitHub, then logs into my server via SSH and pulls changes.

So now, not only can I produce content within Obsidian, I can also deploy those changes to my site with a single command. I've been writing notes like this for a few days now and it works really well - so much so that it's quickly becoming muscle memory. It goes something like this:

• CTRL+N => New note.
• CTRL+P => Insert template.
• Write the post...
• CTRL+P => Export to Kirby.
• CTRL+P => Deploy.

So I don't need to take my hands away from the keyboard, or move outside of Obsidian for the entire process of creating and publishing my content.

Pretty. Bloody. Cool.

Comments & Webmentions

While I was making changes, I decided to add a comments section below all post types, using Maurice's fantastic Komments plugin. I also installed and configured his IndieConnector plugin so this site now supports Webmentions (I think - I haven't been able to test that, so we will see).

I've battled with both comments and the IndieWeb in the past, and neither ended well. So I'm not sure if these changes will stick, but I figured it was worth trying for a while. I can easily revert them if they get annoying.

Final thoughts

I know all this is adding complexity to the site, and my aim here was to simplify, but I want to see how the comments thing goes with Kirby.

To actually simplify, I do plan on pulling some features out. Namely the Watch Log, and potentially the Guestbook too. But again, we'll see - I don't want to make too many changes in one go.

For now, I'm happy with the changes I've made. I'm not sure if this new content creation process will stick for me, or if it's just a fad. If it is a fad, I can always revert to my old way of producing content in the Kirby Panel. But if it sticks, I have a nice halfway-house between an SSG workflow, and a great CMS panel when I need it.

TL;DR - Kirby + Obsidian = ❤ ...I hope.

💭 Will everyone please stop taking about #Omarchy. It's too tempting!

2025-09-17 20:35:00

💭 My new CMF 2 Pro came with a free pair of Nothing Buds Pro 2. I …

2025-09-17 09:33:29

💭 Switched to a Nothing Phone CMF 2 last night. It's really, *really* …

2025-09-17 06:15:00

💭 If you're following this blog via RSS, I'm really sorry about the …

2025-09-16 21:21:04

💭 The more I play with #Obsidian, the more I realise why people love it …

2025-09-15 06:25:00

Thinking About Simplification

2025-09-14 10:35:00

Since moving this blog over to Kirby a couple years ago, I’ve added a lot of features. Prior to the move, it was a simple site that had a blog, an RSS feed, and a handful of pages. But since then, I’ve been learning a bit of PHP and this site has morphed into a playground for my online antics. As a result, I’ve added:

• A notes system.
• A guestbook.
• A blogroll with an automatically generated OPML file that you can download.
• Custom post types that include blog, links, books, watches, and goodness knows what else.
• Stats for both my blog posts and my notes.
• A log of which watches I wear, along with stats.

Under the hood I’ve built a number of custom plugins, routes, hooks, configs etc. It’s a lot, and I struggle to keep up with all the things I’ve done at this point.

By some people’s measure, this isn’t that complicated. But for a hobbyist like me, this is really bloody complex and as a result things are starting to creak. For example, I’m now having to reboot my server once a month or so, because something (I don’t know what) is causing it to shit the bed.

It also means that I’m spending more time fiddling and less time writing, which is shame because it’s what I love to do. If you look at the stats for this site, you will see a big drop off in 2025, which coincides with me starting to learn PHP and fiddling more.

What shall I do?

My first thought was to burn it all down, simplify the whole thing and re-write it in something like 11ty. No PHP, no complexity, just a simple blog, RSS feed and a few pages again.

But I love Kirby and honestly, I think I’d miss the CMS too much if I got rid of it. But then, on the other side of the coin, Kirby is what’s causing me to fiddle so much.

• Do I go to an SSG like 11ty?
• Do I keep the CMS and go with something like Ghost?
• Do I just strip a load of the functionality out of this existing site?

I’ve been thinking about this for months, and I can’t make up my mind. I know I want to get back to writing, but every time I login to this site, I end up getting side-tracked on something I want to fix, change, or improve. It’s a slippery slope.

I’ve been using Obsidian for notes for a while now, and I love it. I could turn it into a slick SSG publishing machine…but I’m not sure if I want to open that can of worms, either.

Gah, I dunno. I think I’m going to spin up a simple 11ty site and see if I can build a decent workflow around Obsidian, then go from there…

Thinking About Simplification

2025-09-14 10:35:00

This site’s a fun playground, but it’s evolved into a cluttered maze. Lately I’ve been wondering if it’s time to strip it down so I can focus on writing.

Since moving this blog over to Kirby a couple years ago, I've added a lot of features. Prior to the move, it was a simple site that had a blog, an RSS feed, and a handful of pages. But since then, I've been learning a bit of PHP and this site has morphed into a playground for my online antics. As a result, I've added:

• A notes system.
• A guestbook.
• A blogroll with an automatically generated OPML file that you can download.
• Custom post types that include blog, links, books, watches, and goodness knows what else.
• Stats for both my blog posts and my notes.
• A log of which watches I wear, along with stats.

Under the hood I've built a number of custom plugins, routes, hooks, configs etc. It's a lot, and I struggle to keep up with all the things I've done at this point.

By some people's measure, this isn't that complicated. But for a hobbyist like me, this is really bloody complex and as a result things are starting to creak. For example, I'm now having to reboot my server once a month or so, because something (I don't know what) is causing it to shit the bed.

It also means that I'm spending more time fiddling and less time writing, which is shame because it's what I love to do. If you look at the stats for this site, you will see a big drop off in 2025, which coincides with me starting to learn PHP and fiddling more.

What shall I do?

My first thought was to burn it all down, simplify the whole thing and re-write it in something like 11ty. No PHP, no complexity, just a simple blog, RSS feed and a few pages again.

But I love Kirby and honestly, I think I'd miss the CMS too much if I got rid of it. But then, on the other side of the coin, Kirby is what's causing me to fiddle so much.

• Do I go to an SSG like 11ty?
• Do I keep the CMS and go with something like Ghost?
• Do I just strip a load of the functionality out of this existing site?

I've been thinking about this for months, and I can't make up my mind. I know I want to get back to writing, but every time I login to this site, I end up getting side-tracked on something I want to fix, change, or improve. It's a slippery slope.

I’ve been using Obsidian for notes for a while now, and I love it. I could turn it into a slick SSG publishing machine…but I’m not sure if I want to open that can of worms, either.

Gah, I dunno. I think I'm going to spin up a simple 11ty site and see if I can build a decent workflow around Obsidian, then go from there...

💭 I know lots of people don't like services like ChatGPT, but I get *so …

2025-09-12 15:30:00

💭 Switched to #Spotify after [my …

2025-09-09 08:20:00

💭 I hope there's no wind tonight. 😳

2025-09-03 18:50:00

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries

2025-09-02 16:30:00

Another short book in this series and I’m really enjoying it. Being so short, they don’t feel like books, more like long chapters. But I’m becoming more invested in The Murderbot and I’m looking forward to starting book 3 this evening.

ART is definitely my favourite “character” in this book. I thought the dynamic of Murderbot and his sidekick (a ship!) is really novel.

The entire series (and other Martha Wells books) are still available on Humble Bundle. So if you’re interested, go and nab them quick!

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries

2025-09-02 16:30:00

Another short book in this series and I'm really enjoying it. Being so short, they don't feel like books, more like long chapters. But I'm becoming more invested in The Murderbot and I'm looking forward to starting book 3 this evening.

ART is definitely my favourite "character" in this book. I thought the dynamic of Murderbot and his sidekick (a ship!) is really novel.

The entire series (and other Martha Wells books) are still available on Humble Bundle. So if you're interested, go and nab them quick!

💭 We had a birthday party for my youngest today. Instead of the usual …

2025-08-31 13:50:00

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries

2025-08-30 17:15:00

I bought All Systems Red back in November 2023 but never got around to reading it, as there was always something else I fancied more.

At around 150 pages, it’s a quick read, and I finished it over a couple of evenings before bed. Because of the brevity, the story wastes no time getting started and needs to hook you right away. It did.

My only frustration is that I wish it had been a little longer, with more space to explore certain details. I am not sure why Martha Wells keeps these novellas so short, but I’ll take “too short” over endless padding.

There are eight books in The Murderbot Diaries, and buying them all adds up. Together, they are about the length of a single Brandon Sanderson epic, yet each novella is priced roughly the same as one of his full-length novels.

That said, I love a good yarn, and I am happy to support authors I enjoy. Especially when the eBook ends with a note like this:

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

I will definitely be picking up the next one.

MKJ and Xinit, over on that there Fediverse just let me know about the entire series (and some other Wells books) available on Humble Bundle, so I’ve just snagged them all.

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries

2025-08-30 17:15:00

I bought All Systems Red back in November 2023 but never got around to reading it, as there was always something else I fancied more.

At around 150 pages, it's a quick read, and I finished it over a couple of evenings before bed. Because of the brevity, the story wastes no time getting started and needs to hook you right away. It did.

My only frustration is that I wish it had been a little longer, with more space to explore certain details. I am not sure why Martha Wells keeps these novellas so short, but I'll take “too short” over endless padding.

There are eight books in The Murderbot Diaries, and buying them all adds up. Together, they are about the length of a single Brandon Sanderson epic, yet each novella is priced roughly the same as one of his full-length novels.

That said, I love a good yarn, and I am happy to support authors I enjoy. Especially when the eBook ends with a note like this:

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

I will definitely be picking up the next one.

MKJ and Xinit, over on that there Fediverse just let me know about the entire series (and some other Wells books) available on Humble Bundle, so I've just snagged them all.

💭 I have a tonne of songs in my #Apple Music library, but it feels like …

2025-08-29 19:35:00

💭 We're in the process of getting a new roof put on the house, so the …

2025-08-29 16:55:00

💭 Dammit. The first piece of spam has made it through the (rudimentary) …

2025-08-28 16:55:00

💭 I've been off for nearly 2 weeks now, and a combination of a sprained …

2025-08-28 08:05:00

💭 I've been trying [Zen Browser](https://zen-browser.app/) for a couple …

2025-08-27 08:20:00

The Shed on the Drive 🛖

2025-08-27 08:15:00

We have a brick shed on the drive that we've made into a playroom for the kids. Problem is, I use it more than them! 😂

As you come up our drive there's a small brick building that we call the shed. It's not actually a shed; it's a lovely little insulated brick building, with electrics and water, that's about the size of a single garage.

Apparently the guy who converted our house from a working barn, back in the early 80's, built the shed as a bathroom to accompany the caravan he was living in, on the drive. 🤷🏻‍♂️

We thought about turning it into a small guest suite for when we have friends/family to stay, but we already have a guest room, so figured it was moot. We're also lucky enough to have a double garage (which I turned into a workshop), 2 stables, and a fairly large tin barn. So we didn't need it for storage, either.

After some thought about what to do with the shed we decided to turn it into a playroom for the kids, while they're young enough to enjoy it. At one end is a craft table, and some shelves with all kinds of board games and trinkets for the to tinker with. At the other end is a small pool table that doubles up as a foosball table.

We also keep a small freezer in there that contains the dog's food. Whenever I go out there to top up the dog food we keep in the house, I always stop and play a couple frames of pool. It's now gotten to the point where I go out there to practice!

I've always enjoyed pool and snooker - I used to play a lot of both when I was younger. When I retire and no longer have a need for a home office, I'm 100% going to turn it into a pool room. But for now, I'll continue enjoying the kids' playroom more than they do!

The Shed on the Drive 🛖

2025-08-27 08:15:00

As you come up our drive there’s a small brick building that we call the shed. It’s not actually a shed; it’s a lovely little insulated brick building, with electrics and water, that’s about the size of a single garage.

Apparently the guy who converted our house from a working barn, back in the early 80’s, built the shed as a bathroom to accompany the caravan he was living in, on the drive. 🤷🏻‍♂️

We thought about turning it into a small guest suite for when we have friends/family to stay, but we already have a guest room, so figured it was moot. We’re also lucky enough to have a double garage (which I turned into a workshop), 2 stables, and a fairly large tin barn. So we didn’t need it for storage, either.

After some thought about what to do with the shed we decided to turn it into a playroom for the kids, while they’re young enough to enjoy it. At one end is a craft table, and some shelves with all kinds of board games and trinkets for the to tinker with. At the other end is a small pool table that doubles up as a foosball table.

We also keep a small freezer in there that contains the dog’s food. Whenever I go out there to top up the dog food we keep in the house, I always stop and play a couple frames of pool. It’s now gotten to the point where I go out there to practice!

I’ve always enjoyed pool and snooker - I used to play a lot of both when I was younger. When I retire and no longer have a need for a home office, I’m 100% going to turn it into a pool room. But for now, I’ll continue enjoying the kids’ playroom more than they do!

💭 What Others Said...

2025-08-26 14:40:00

I've been reading a lot about blog interactions, community echos, and manual Webmentions recently. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and roll my own.

Not wanting to be outdone by the rest of the blogging community, and of course, wanting to be a part of the it too, I decided to roll my own version of community echos. But I'm lazy and decided to do it a little different than other people (and also because Kirby is awesome).

I love that Joel continues to work with Jekyll after all these years, and props to him for implementing his manual Webmentions process. But I know I'm too lazy for all that messing around, so I decided to partially automate my "What others said..." section.

I added a community replies section to the dashboard for my posts. I then created a little Kirby plugin that automagically pulls the post title and description when I save the entry. Here's what it looks like:

All I need to do then is add the author's name and the date the post was published, and bingo, bango, bongo. I have a community reply. This info is pulled from the page's meta data. Unfortunately there's no standard for adding an author name or published date to the meta, so I stuck with those 2 only. ☹️

If there's any community replies added to a post, they will appear in a card, right after the content, like this:

I'm still not 100% sold on how it looks yet, so I may play around with the design a little. But the nuts and bolts of a nice little feature are there.

I now just need to go looking for people's reply posts! Wish me luck...

💭 What Others Said...

2025-08-26 14:40:00

Not wanting to be outdone by the rest of the blogging community, and of course, wanting to be a part of the it too, I decided to roll my own version of community echos. But I’m lazy and decided to do it a little different than other people (and also because Kirby is awesome).

I love that Joel continues to work with Jekyll after all these years, and props to him for implementing his manual Webmentions process. But I know I’m too lazy for all that messing around, so I decided to partially automate my “What others said…” section.

I added a community replies section to the dashboard for my posts. I then created a little Kirby plugin that automagically pulls the post title and description when I save the entry. Here’s what it looks like:

All I need to do then is add the author’s name and the date the post was published, and bingo, bango, bongo. I have a community reply. This info is pulled from the page’s meta data. Unfortunately there’s no standard for adding an author name or published date to the meta, so I stuck with those 2 only. ☹️

If there’s any community replies added to a post, they will appear in a card, right after the content, like this:

I’m still not 100% sold on how it looks yet, so I may play around with the design a little. But the nuts and bolts of a nice little feature are there.

I now just need to go looking for people’s reply posts! Wish me luck…

💭 Today is gonna be another [Tissot …

2025-08-25 10:40:00

💭 I don't know why, but the term *"vibe coding"* really pisses me off. …

2025-08-25 09:05:00

New Watch Day

2025-08-23 13:05:00

I've been trying to be more thoughtful with my watch purchases lately, and I'm so happy I have been, as this latest addition to my collection is just stunning.

It was recently my birthday, and now my wife and I are over 40 and been together around half of our lives, we don't really bother with presents. Instead, we just buy ourselves something. This year, my present to myself was a new watch.

When I first started getting interested in watches, I bought every single watch I came across, which has resulted in a very large collection. Now, a few years down the line, I have a much better idea of what I like, so I'm trying to be more thoughtful with my purchases.

I really like vintage automatics. If you have a look in my collection, many of my watches have a somewhat vintage aesthetic. But for my next watch, I wanted something really different. The requirements were:

• Legit vintage watch (has to be older than me).
• Not cost the earth - I'm not into ostentatious tokens of wealth.
• Preferably Swiss or British made.
• Have a unique design.

So for the last year, I've been trawling the internet looking for my next timepiece. I subscribe to Horological Underground and a few months ago I saw this beautiful Tissot Seastar Blue TV. It was perfect and ticked all the boxes.

• Made in 1973 ✅
• Less than £400 ✅
• Swiss made ✅
• Unique design ✅

Problem was, it had already been sold. Gutted that I'd missed the boat, I resigned myself to continue the search.

Then a few days ago, another one turned up, and I wasn't going to let this one escape! It's was a little more expensive than the previous one, but is a 1972 and still has the original Tissot crown, so I think it's worth the extra money. Here's some pics from the Horological Underground site:

I can't say how gorgeous this thing is; the pictures do it no justice. I absolutely love it. I keep staring at it and finding more little details - the beautiful applied indices, the patina on the hands, the applied Tissot logo, the way the outer most number on the date window is ever so slightly taller than the inner number. The brushed effect on the dial, and the brushing on the "TV Screen".

I'm so happy with this thing.

It also came serviced with a 1 year guarantee. So it should keep on ticking for many more years to come. Here's the watch on my wrist:

What's next?

I think I'm going to start reducing the number of watches in my collection ,and continue to be more deliberate about what I purchase in the future. I'm far more excited about this watch, and the watch my wife got me for my 40th last year, than the majority of the rest of my collection. And I think that's a result of my really knowing what I want, and slowing down with my purchases.

I think if I can reduce the collection down to, say, 15-20 watches, I think that will be a good number to manage. It also means that these beautiful timepieces will get more time on my wrist, which is kinda the point of all this.

So I'll be dusting off my eBay seller's account over the next few weeks, and will be putting some watches up for sale. When I do, I'll be sure to post here, as I know there's lots of other watch nerds that read this blog.

In the meantime, I'm going to wear the shit out of this Tissot, and really enjoy it.

New Watch Day

2025-08-23 13:05:00

It was recently my birthday, and now my wife and I are over 40 and been together around half of our lives, we don’t really bother with presents. Instead, we just buy ourselves something. This year, my present to myself was a new watch.

When I first started getting interested in watches, I bought every single watch I came across, which has resulted in a very large collection. Now, a few years down the line, I have a much better idea of what I like, so I’m trying to be more thoughtful with my purchases.

I really like vintage automatics. If you have a look in my collection, many of my watches have a somewhat vintage aesthetic. But for my next watch, I wanted something really different. The requirements were:

• Legit vintage watch (has to be older than me).
• Not cost the earth - I’m not into ostentatious tokens of wealth.
• Preferably Swiss or British made.
• Have a unique design.

So for the last year, I’ve been trawling the internet looking for my next timepiece. I subscribe to Horological Underground and a few months ago I saw this beautiful Tissot Seastar Blue TV. It was perfect and ticked all the boxes.

• Made in 1973 ✅
• Less than £400 ✅
• Swiss made ✅
• Unique design ✅

Problem was, it had already been sold. Gutted that I’d missed the boat, I resigned myself to continue the search.

Then a few days ago, another one turned up, and I wasn’t going to let this one escape! It’s was a little more expensive than the previous one, but is a 1972 and still has the original Tissot crown, so I think it’s worth the extra money. Here’s some pics from the Horological Underground site:

I can’t say how gorgeous this thing is; the pictures do it no justice. I absolutely love it. I keep staring at it and finding more little details - the beautiful applied indices, the patina on the hands, the applied Tissot logo, the way the outer most number on the date window is ever so slightly taller than the inner number. The brushed effect on the dial, and the brushing on the “TV Screen”.

I’m so happy with this thing.

It also came serviced with a 1 year guarantee. So it should keep on ticking for many more years to come. Here’s the watch on my wrist:

What’s next?

I think I’m going to start reducing the number of watches in my collection ,and continue to be more deliberate about what I purchase in the future. I’m far more excited about this watch, and the watch my wife got me for my 40th last year, than the majority of the rest of my collection. And I think that’s a result of my really knowing what I want, and slowing down with my purchases.

I think if I can reduce the collection down to, say, 15-20 watches, I think that will be a good number to manage. It also means that these beautiful timepieces will get more time on my wrist, which is kinda the point of all this.

So I’ll be dusting off my eBay seller’s account over the next few weeks, and will be putting some watches up for sale. When I do, I’ll be sure to post here, as I know there’s lots of other watch nerds that read this blog.

In the meantime, I’m going to wear the shit out of this Tissot, and really enjoy it.

💭 The most annoying thing about this stupid bloody sprain is no running …

2025-08-18 17:40:00

💭 Never expected to be spending my first day off in the hospital thanks …

2025-08-18 17:30:00

💭 I switched from Notesnook to #Obsidian last week for notes on my …

2025-08-17 07:40:00

💭 Last day of work today, then it's 2 weeks of time off. 🎉

2025-08-15 08:00:00

Follow Up on Notes

2025-08-13 18:30:00

I received a tonne of responses to my question about notes systems. I've also had a couple people email me asking for an update, as they're interested too. This is that update.

OK, so one thing became clear as a result of the many responses I received to my previous post - there's no one method to rule them all when it comes to taking notes.

Obsidian is very popular, but apart from that, everyone seems to be doing their own thing. So I decided to pluck the best bits of the various note taking systems people have emailed me with, and used those tidbits to improve my own system.

The result is basically a bastardised version of Bullet Journaling.

The new system

I already had a SuperNote Nomad, and wanted to keep using it. Problem was, there were no templates on the Nomad that worked exactly how I wanted them to. Turns out that creating custom templates is super easy. So I ended with a couple of templates; one for managing my to-do list, and another for bullet notes.

So here's how I put them to use in a kinda bullet journal, but not really kinda way...

With my to-do template, I maintain a monthly to-do list, which I append to as my list of things to do inevitably grows.

I then use my "bullet template" to write notes for every meeting I attend. The useful thing, for me, is that each page is labelled with the date of the meeting(s). If I have a lot of meetings that day, I just add another page and append the page number to the date. For example 11 Aug (3), would be the 3rd page for 11th August.

My hope is that this will allow me to quickly go back and find notes retrospectively. For example, if there's a meeting I attended on the 10th of last month, I know the notes for that day are likely to be somewhere around pages 10-15. So I pick one, and I will immediately know how close I am because of my date ( page #) system.

Anyway, back to my system...

I've now carved out 30 minutes first thing every working morning to review my monthly to-do list, as well as my notes for the previous day. I then do a couple things, as needed:

1. Add any to-do items from the previous day's notes to my main to-do list (these are usually marked with a star).
2. List any to-do items I want to focus on for that day into my daily note.

This is where the magic is for me. Firstly it allows me to plan my day somewhat, but secondly (and more importantly) I come away from my desk at the end of the day with a sense of achievement, as I've usually managed to cross at least a couple things off my to-list. Even if it's something really small like "email Dave about [thing]" I still get that sense of achievement.

I'm almost gamifying work, and it's working!

When it comes to the monthly to-do list, the thinking here is that by reviewing these items daily, and having to manually copy any outstanding items to a new to-do list every month, I'm able to see what's just noise and therefore not worth my time. So they will be ditched form the to-do.

Natural selection, baby. Darwin would be proud.

Here's an example of what my to-do list and bullet note templates look like. They're very simple, but that's exactly what I wanted. All the default templates have too much cruft that I'll never use. These are exactly what I need and nothing more.

These are fake notes and to-do items that I've written just as an example. I hope you can read my handwriting. 🙃

Final thoughts

So that's it. That's my new note taking system. I've only been using it for a week or so at this point, so it's likely to evolve over time. I like that all my notes and to-do's are now in one place, and are organised in such a way as to make them easy for me to find as well.

Plus, if I really wanted to, I could easily switch to a physical notebook with this system. So it's pretty flexible.

If you're using a SuperNote Nomad like me, and want to use these templates, here's the source files. Once you have them, just connect your SuperNote to your computer via USB and unzip them to the MyStyle folder. You should then be able to use them as a template when creating a new note (the templates will be in the Customization tab).

Finally I wanted to thank the many people who emailed me with tips, thoughts and feedback on how you all do notes. These conversations have been really helpful for me setting up this new system. ♥️

Follow Up on Notes

2025-08-13 18:30:00

OK, so one thing became clear as a result of the many responses I received to my previous post - there’s no one method to rule them all when it comes to taking notes.

Obsidian is very popular, but apart from that, everyone seems to be doing their own thing. So I decided to pluck the best bits of the various note taking systems people have emailed me with, and used those tidbits to improve my own system.

The result is basically a bastardised version of Bullet Journaling.

The new system

I already had a SuperNote Nomad, and wanted to keep using it. Problem was, there were no templates on the Nomad that worked exactly how I wanted them to. Turns out that creating custom templates is super easy. So I ended with a couple of templates; one for managing my to-do list, and another for bullet notes.

So here’s how I put them to use in a kinda bullet journal, but not really kinda way…

With my to-do template, I maintain a monthly to-do list, which I append to as my list of things to do inevitably grows.

I then use my “bullet template” to write notes for every meeting I attend. The useful thing, for me, is that each page is labelled with the date of the meeting(s). If I have a lot of meetings that day, I just add another page and append the page number to the date. For example 11 Aug (3), would be the 3rd page for 11th August.

My hope is that this will allow me to quickly go back and find notes retrospectively. For example, if there’s a meeting I attended on the 10th of last month, I know the notes for that day are likely to be somewhere around pages 10-15. So I pick one, and I will immediately know how close I am because of my date ( page #) system.

Anyway, back to my system…

I’ve now carved out 30 minutes first thing every working morning to review my monthly to-do list, as well as my notes for the previous day. I then do a couple things, as needed:

1. Add any to-do items from the previous day’s notes to my main to-do list (these are usually marked with a star).
2. List any to-do items I want to focus on for that day into my daily note.

This is where the magic is for me. Firstly it allows me to plan my day somewhat, but secondly (and more importantly) I come away from my desk at the end of the day with a sense of achievement, as I’ve usually managed to cross at least a couple things off my to-list. Even if it’s something really small like “email Dave about [thing]” I still get that sense of achievement.

I’m almost gamifying work, and it’s working!

When it comes to the monthly to-do list, the thinking here is that by reviewing these items daily, and having to manually copy any outstanding items to a new to-do list every month, I’m able to see what’s just noise and therefore not worth my time. So they will be ditched form the to-do.

Natural selection, baby. Darwin would be proud.

Here’s an example of what my to-do list and bullet note templates look like. They’re very simple, but that’s exactly what I wanted. All the default templates have too much cruft that I’ll never use. These are exactly what I need and nothing more.

These are fake notes and to-do items that I’ve written just as an example. I hope you can read my handwriting. 🙃

Final thoughts

So that’s it. That’s my new note taking system. I’ve only been using it for a week or so at this point, so it’s likely to evolve over time. I like that all my notes and to-do’s are now in one place, and are organised in such a way as to make them easy for me to find as well.

Plus, if I really wanted to, I could easily switch to a physical notebook with this system. So it’s pretty flexible.

If you’re using a SuperNote Nomad like me, and want to use these templates, here’s the source files. Once you have them, just connect your SuperNote to your computer via USB and unzip them to the MyStyle folder. You should then be able to use them as a template when creating a new note (the templates will be in the Customization tab).

Finally I wanted to thank the many people who emailed me with tips, thoughts and feedback on how you all do notes. These conversations have been really helpful for me setting up this new system. ♥️

Delio Phase Two

2025-08-13 11:45:00

I've read a few of Haywood's books at this point, and generally I really enjoy them. Delio Phase Two was no different. It takes place right after the first book, Phase One where Delio continues to progress her plan to control the human race. The plot is gripping, the characters are interesting, and Haywood's dark British humour often got a rise out of me.

However...

The last few chapters of the book let it down. I won't go into detail about what happens in the end, but suffice to say it took some of the shine off the rest of the book for me.

Now, just to be clear, the rest of the story was still good enough for me to give this 4/5 stars, but had the ending been better, it would have been an easy 5 stars.

I'm not sure if Haywood is planning to do a 3rd book in this series, and it's really not clear from how Phase Two ends, either. If he does, I'll definitely read it. I just hope the ending is better next time.

Delio Phase Two

2025-08-13 11:45:00

I’ve read a few of Haywood’s books at this point, and generally I really enjoy them. Delio Phase Two was no different. It takes place right after the first book, Phase One where Delio continues to progress her plan to control the human race. The plot is gripping, the characters are interesting, and Haywood’s dark British humour often got a rise out of me.

However…

The last few chapters of the book let it down. I won’t go into detail about what happens in the end, but suffice to say it took some of the shine off the rest of the book for me.

Now, just to be clear, the rest of the story was still good enough for me to give this 4/5 stars, but had the ending been better, it would have been an easy 5 stars.

I’m not sure if Haywood is planning to do a 3rd book in this series, and it’s really not clear from how Phase Two ends, either. If he does, I’ll definitely read it. I just hope the ending is better next time.

💭 First #run back after a week on Chicago and lots of indulgence. Plus, …

2025-08-12 20:20:00

💭 Yes, Hooman. I am fluffy. Whatcha gonna do about it?

2025-08-12 18:15:00

💭 You know what *really* pisses me off? When my wife sends an *urgent* …

2025-08-11 18:40:00

Finding a Home on the Fediverse

2025-08-10 16:55:00

I've been flip-flopping around the Fediverse lately. My most recent hop was from Micro.blog back to Fosstodon, but I've decided to switch back. Here's why...

So I considered flipping back to Fosstodon at the end of July, and ultimately decided to do it. I thought there were things I was missing; such as likes, boosts, and discoverability.

Fact is, I didn't. I think I've used the like button once since being back. I didn't use the boost button, and the discover tab went unloved and unused too.

Ipso facto, I didn't miss anything from Fosstodon. The irony is, there are things I miss from Micro.blog, so today I flipped back.

I can't put my finger on what it is that I miss though. It's more a feeling than a tangible thing I've missed. Micro.blog feels more wholesome. More friendly. Where Fosstodon feels more clinical and generic.

Anyway, one of the beautiful things about the Fediverse is that you can Jack Baty it as much as you like (sorry Jack!) and there's no impact. Simply pack your virtual suitcase and move somewhere else. No silos here.

I'm glad I flipped back to Fosstodon for a few weeks though - it gave me the context I needed to realise that I prefer it over on Micro.blog.

So anyway, followers are moving as we speak, and I've imported the people I'm following, so all should be good in the world. But just in case, if you notice I've fallen off your fedi timeline, you can follow me by searching for @kev@qrk.one.

Finding a Home on the Fediverse

2025-08-10 16:55:00

So I considered flipping back to Fosstodon at the end of July, and ultimately decided to do it. I thought there were things I was missing; such as likes, boosts, and discoverability.

Fact is, I didn’t. I think I’ve used the like button once since being back. I didn’t use the boost button, and the discover tab went unloved and unused too.

Ipso facto, I didn’t miss anything from Fosstodon. The irony is, there are things I miss from Micro.blog, so today I flipped back.

I can’t put my finger on what it is that I miss though. It’s more a feeling than a tangible thing I’ve missed. Micro.blog feels more wholesome. More friendly. Where Fosstodon feels more clinical and generic.

Anyway, one of the beautiful things about the Fediverse is that you can Jack Baty it as much as you like (sorry Jack!) and there’s no impact. Simply pack your virtual suitcase and move somewhere else. No silos here.

I’m glad I flipped back to Fosstodon for a few weeks though - it gave me the context I needed to realise that I prefer it over on Micro.blog.

So anyway, followers are moving as we speak, and I’ve imported the people I’m following, so all should be good in the world. But just in case, if you notice I’ve fallen off your fedi timeline, you can follow me by searching for @kev@qrk.one.

💭 If you deliberately don't capitalise the text you write, I'm probably …

2025-08-09 09:45:00

💭 Finished watching The Pitt last night. Probably one of the best TV …

2025-08-09 08:05:00

💭 Why TF does #Ubuntu not automatically switch to dark mode when it's …

2025-08-05 01:30:00

💭 When did people start substituting putting the phone to their ear in …

2025-08-03 10:05:00

The New Recruit (Liam Scott 01)

2025-08-02 15:05:00

Regular readers may know that I’m a British Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, so when my wife mentioned this book and that it might be good to read to our oldest son, I thought I’d give it a go.

The book is aimed at young teenagers. My oldest isn’t quite a teenager, but he’s not far off. So I decided to read it to him, but simmered down some of the more fruity language and difficult situations as we went.

Overall it’s a pretty good read. A little extravagant and not the best writing I’ve ever read, but the story is good and my son couldn’t wait to finish it with me.

I’ve read a lot of Andy McNab’s stuff over the years, starting with Bravo Two Zero and this is typical of McNab’s writing. Personally I prefer Chris Ryan to McNab, but my son enjoyed it.

This book has a lot of harsh language and talks about very difficult topics, such as people being shot, maimed, and killed.

Since reading this book to my son, he’s started asking some questions around my time in the military, which I think has been good for our relationship. I’ve obviously left some of the details out though.

This is the first book in a trilogy, and my son wants to continue so we are.

How Do You Take Notes?

2025-07-30 09:25:00

I find it difficult to organise my life, generally. Especially when it comes to work and keeping track of all the to-dos, notes from meetings, updates, follow up items etc. I have multiple ways of doing it all, and none of them are great.

I have OneNote, which is what I use the most. I tend to track my notes in there, but can easily lose things as it had a horrible, clunky UI. I’ve recently started making use of their tagging system to find to-do items, but that’s pretty clunky too.

When I’m not at my desk, I have a Supernote Nomad for taking notes digitally. Problem is, those notes are then not in my OneNote. So I now have 2 places to check.

Finally, there’s the times when I’m travelling, or need quick access to my notes from my work phone. I don’t have OneNote on there (and can’t install it) and invariably don’t have my Supernote with me either. Also, when I need to go hunting for previous notes, it’s frustrating and slow.

I need a system that works at my desk, in meeting rooms, and on the go. But nothing I’ve found works. The on the go part is the lowest priority of the bunch, as I don’t need that often and can usually make do. The problem really is me having a single place for my notes that’s available most of the time, whether at my desk, or in a meeting room, and easy to find what I need.

After all, what’s the point in having a note taking system if you can’t find what you need after the fact?

Any of you lot have any ideas?

I’m after recommendations for a note taking system, not a note taking app. I can’t install apps on my work devices.

A Month of Running

2025-07-27 16:45:00

When I was in the Army, I loved running. I was in my early 20s and very fit. I’d do my 2.4km (1.5 mile) fitness test in 8 minutes. I could run a 5km in 18 minutes and a 10km in well under 40.

If I had any spare time, I’d go for a run. There were plenty of times I couldn’t sleep, so I’d get up in the early hours and head out. So when I say I loved it, I really mean it.

But about 18 months after leaving the Army, I started working shifts: 4 days on, 4 off, 4 nights, 4 off. All 12-hour shifts (7 to 7). During that time, I got lazy and piled on the weight. I think there was other stuff going on from my time in the Army that I hadn’t really dealt with. Still haven’t, if I’m honest. But that’s a story for another day.

In two years, I ballooned from 85kg (187lbs) to around 133kg (295lbs).

That’s a lot of weight, right? I was massive. Way too big to run.

(For context, I’m 1.88m or 6’2” tall.)

Since then, I’ve dropped some of the weight. Last time I checked, I was around 106kg (233lbs). So I’m at a reasonable weight to try running again. The problem is, I’ve been hovering around this weight for years now, and every attempt to get back into running has followed the same frustrating pattern:

1. I go for a short run to ease back in — maybe a couple of kilometres.
2. It goes okay, and I keep it up for a couple of weeks.
3. I start to feel better, and my monkey brain convinces me I’m super fit again, so I push for a 5km.
4. I get injured and end up back at square one.

Trying Something Different

This time, I decided to learn from my past mistakes and force myself to keep the runs short. I started with a 2.5km (1.5 mile) distance. I picked it because it’s the same as the old Army fitness test, so it felt like a good benchmark.

First time out? Just under 18 minutes. Eighteen minutes!

But I stuck with it. Last week, I increased the distance to 3.25km (2 miles). I was nervous about upping the distance since I didn’t want to injure myself again, but I’m glad to say I haven’t.

I’ve now run that 3.25km route three times. My latest time (yesterday) was 19:01. Still not where I want to be, but it’s progress, so I’ll take it.

My Goals

I’ve deliberately not set lofty goals.

If I can get to the point where I’m running three 5km (3 mile) runs per week in under 30 minutes, I’ll be happy. As a stretch goal, I’d love to occasionally do 10km (6 miles) runs, but that’s further down the road.

I think that level of running, combined with the various walks I take the dogs on (usually around 5km/3 miles), is enough to keep me at least relatively fit.

As for weight: unlike the time I did Fat Boy at 40 (which I failed, by the way), I’m not setting any weight goals. Back then, I’d try hard all week, only to be deflated when the scales didn’t show what I wanted. That’s why I think I failed; I ended up falling off the wagon completely.

This time, I’m just going by how I feel, not what the scales say.

And right now I feel like I’m getting fitter, and I think I’m losing weight too. Someone at work even asked last week if I’d lost weight. That felt good, I have to admit.

Diet is a huge part of weight loss, of course. Mine’s not terrible. I eat crap sometimes (don’t we all), but overall it’s fine. My wife’s vegetarian and does all the cooking at home, so I eat meat maybe once every couple of weeks. Our meals are generally healthy and balanced. It’s evening snacking that gets me. That’s what I’m really trying to get under control.

Final Thoughts

So yeah, I’m a month into this running thing. I’ve got a decent pair of trainers, a new wrist phone (that’s a post for another day too), and I’m feeling genuinely optimistic that this might stick.

The plan is to stay at 3.25km (2 miles) for a few more weeks, then increase it to 4km (2.5 miles). I’ll stick with that for another 3 or 4 weeks, then finally bump it up to 5km (3 miles). Hopefully by then I’ll have dropped enough weight for my knees to handle it a bit better.

I am getting a few minor aches in my knees and Achilles, but they’re low-level (maybe a 1 out of 10 in terms of pain). So I’m just listening to my body and resting when I need to.

Wish me luck! 🏃🏻‍♂️💨

I Don't See the Point of Smartwatches

2025-07-21 19:40:00

Whether it’s Apple, Samsung, Google, Garmin, or any other smartwatch brand—they’re all utterly pointless as watches, in my opinion. Let’s call them what they are: not smart watches, but wrist phones.

You’re mid-conversation with someone, and they suddenly stop to check their wrist phone because it buzzed. So fucking rude.

Ask someone the time, and they spend 10 seconds tapping at their wrist phone just to wake the screen so they can maybe tell you the time. That’s assuming they can even find the time, buried beneath a mess of data, rings, and digital nonsense.

Want to track your sleep? Too bad, your bloody wrist phone needs charging every night.

Why track your sleep at all? If you’ve had a crap night, you’ll wake up tired. What more do you need to know?

You’re paying the same price for a wrist phone as you could for a beautiful automatic watch; one that will last a lifetime and can be passed down to your kids. Worse still, that stupid wrist phone will be e-waste in a few years, just like the rest.

What are they good for?

Activity tracking. That’s it.

I have an 8-year-old Garmin wrist phone that I use for running because it has GPS. I could easily use one of my many Casio watches, but I’ve got this wrist phone, so I’ll keep using it until it dies.

Once it does die, I’ll switch back to a digital watch—with a battery that lasts years, and a design that will never become obsolete. Unlike today’s disposable wrist phones. All for 1/20th the price of your Ultra wrist phone.

Smartwatches Wrist phones really are one of the most pointless, stupid inventions I’ve ever seen.

</rant> 🙃

A New Lick of Paint

2025-07-16 12:55:00

After updating the design history page recently, I got all nostalgic for the 2020 version of this website. I loved the design of it and the way in which it used emojis as icons. It was just a really fun design.

After playing around with different designs for the new version of the site, and even emulating the old site almost perfectly, I came to the realisation that I actually prefer the sidebar layout I already have.

So instead of trying to emulate that 2020 version, I decided an iterative update of the existing design was in order.

This new version is still using a sidebar (albeit a little wider now), it still has a brutal aesthetic, and it’s still content focussed. But there’s a few things I’ve changed, some of which are more obvious than others. Here’s a list of some of the changes I’ve made:

• A new colour pallet that’s similar to the 2020 design.
• A brand new header that includes the avatar Joel made for me (hover over it for a fun Easter egg) and a search bar.
• Emojis everywhere that are using Twemoji, so they should look the same no matter which OS you’re using. I’ve also replaced a lot of the iconography with emojis - I think it’s more fun!
• Removed around 400 lines of CSS from my stylesheet.

There’s lots of other little improvements too, and some that I still need to make, but for now I’m happy with the new design.

What do you think?

The Singularity Trap

2025-07-13 15:55:00

This was the last of Dennis E. Taylor’s books I hadn’t read, and I’m glad I finally got to it. I’ve always enjoyed Taylor’s writing — he tells engaging stories without getting bogged down in unnecessary complexity (though the Bobiverse series has been teetering on that edge lately).

The Singularity Trap is no exception. It hooked me from the start, and the pacing kept me invested all the way through. The ending is satisfying without tying everything up too neatly — there’s enough mystery left to make the universe feel bigger, but it still delivers a proper conclusion.

That said, I’d love to see a sequel. Just like with Roadkill, there’s plenty of room to build on what’s already a strong standalone.

Taylor himself seems open to the idea. On his Status of Things page, he mentions:

I am open to sequels on Singularity Trap and Roadkill. I may in fact do Roadkill 2 for my next non-Bob book.

So here’s hoping both sequels happen.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read The Singularity Trap — or any of Taylor’s other books — I highly recommend giving them a go.

Out With Old Tech, In With the New

2025-06-29 16:05:00

I’ve been on one recently and ended up making a number of changes to my tech stack. It all started with me replacing my trusty M1 MacBook Air with a Framework 13. After that, the house of cards came tumbling down: I decided to give my iPhone 16 to my wife and flip to a Pixel 9a.

Shortly after that, I stepped down from Fosstodon and switched to Micro.blog.

Oh, I also cancelled my Kagi and YouTube subscriptions while I was at it – the latter because YouTube is like crack to me.

Oof, that’s a lot, right? So to save you reading lots of posts on all these changes in isolation, I thought I’d hit them all up quickly in a single post.

How very efficient of me, hey? Ok, let’s jump in…

Framework 13

I already posted my initial thoughts after a week of use, most of which were positive. After using it for a couple of months, I’m extremely happy with my purchase. The screen issue was fixed quickly, as the Framework folks immediately sent me a replacement, and I’ve been able to test the repairability by upgrading the keyboard to the v2, which has no Windows key.

Battery life isn’t as good as the MacBook, but it was never going to be. It is, however, more than good enough for my needs. I’ve been sat on the Framework in the lounge for the last 90 minutes or so, catching up on work emails and writing this post, and I still have 81% battery remaining.

Ubuntu runs perfectly on the Framework – I’ve had no issues with it and no occasion where I’ve felt the need for Windows or Mac.

Pixel 9a

Meh. It’s a phone. It’s fine. Battery life is good, camera is fine, it doesn’t have much bloat on it (except for Google apps that I don’t use), and I can do everything on it that I could on my iPhone. It was also half the price of the iPhone and will be supported for 7 years.

The Pixel doesn’t wow me, but it does what I need it to do. Having said that, I don’t remember the last time any phone wowed me.

iOS frustrated me in certain ways. Android frustrates me in other ways. Neither is perfect, but the significant difference in price is the clincher for me.

Micro.blog

I don’t miss Fosstodon one bit. I have a lot more free time now, and once everything is fully handed over to Gina, I’ll have more money too. 🙃

Micro.blog is a nice little community, and I can still interact with all the peeps on the Fediverse too, so I’m not missing out in that regard. What I have noticed is that I’m spending less time on Micro.blog than I did on Fosstodon. Not because the former is bad – far from it. I think it’s a combination of things:

1. I’m not an admin, so there’s less work for me to do and I don’t need to spend as much time on the platform.
2. Manton – the founder of Micro.blog – has put a number of guardrails in place to prevent gamification. No likes, no boosts, no follower counts, no image replies, etc.

I’m really happy with my decision to switch to Micro.blog. If you’re thinking about a move away from the Fedi, I’d consider Micro.blog first. It’s a slower pace and has a lot of features that allow for customising the feed to make it more deliberate – or a firehose, if you prefer.

Kagi

I’m a search Luddite, so I don’t need a lot of the power features that Kagi offers. I love what they’re trying to achieve over there, but DuckDuckGo is perfectly good for my needs, so I might as well save myself $10/month.

I’ve been back on DDG for a little over a month now, and I haven’t missed Kagi once. Says everything, really.

YouTube

I was finding that I was spending a shit-tonne of time on YouTube. Like, any time I had a spare 30 seconds, I’d whip my phone out and start wading through the crap that’s on YouTube Shorts.

I cancelled my subscription to YT Premium and disabled the app on my phone (can’t uninstall it on Android, which is annoying). I’ve also started deliberately not carrying my phone with me. I have a place in the kitchen where I leave it so I know where it is, but it prevents me from unconsciously pulling it out of my pocket.

I have to say, it’s working really well. I very rarely go on YouTube at all now, even when in bed with my iPad. I’m mostly reading my Kindle in bed instead. My iPad isn’t long for this world, being around 7 years old at this point, so when it stops getting updates, I don’t think I’ll replace it.

If I start to miss it, I’ll probably buy a Pixel tablet. But something tells me I won’t. We’ll see…

Final thoughts

So there you go – I just saved you around four extra posts to wade through. All in all, I’m happy with the changes I’ve made to my tech. I’m saving money and will hopefully have hardware that lasts a lot longer.

Overall, I feel like my relationship to all this crap has shifted over the last few months. Before, I felt like I was perpetually online, but now, not so much. They’re just tools at this point. Don’t get me wrong, they’re tools that I enjoy using (especially the Framework – it’s bloody lovely), but tools nonetheless.

My Morning Walk

2025-06-27 08:45:00

My morning walk with the dogs is one of my favourite times of day. It’s so quiet where we live, and at this time of year, all the wildlife is out with plenty to see.

This particular route is around 3 miles (5 km) and takes me out of the village, up into the hills, and back down the other side. Going up the hills gets the heart pumping too, so it’s decent exercise. Anyway, here’s the route we took this morning…

First, we walk out of the village and head under this beautiful old bridge. This is where we start our ascent into the Welsh hills. On the way back down, we’ll go under a viaduct as we return to the village.

Apparently, this bridge and viaduct date back to Roman times (obviously they’ve been improved or rebuilt since then). A popular history show in the UK, Time Team, actually did an episode in our village:

Anyway, I digress. On with the walk…

We start heading up the hills. The dogs are starting to pant and I’m starting to sweat, but it’s worth it once you see the views.

On the way up, we see some of Carl’s sheep (he’s the local farmer). We always stop to say hello, but I was too busy scratching an itch between one of the ewe’s ears to take a photo – sorry!

As we head further over the hills, we notice that Carl has some of his calves out in the fields too. So we stop, and they wander over to see what we’re doing. Both dogs and calves have a good sniff of one another. I’m even subjected to a couple of sniffs myself.

All sniffed out, we continue onto a bridle path and start heading down the other side of the hill. We go past the wonky tree (that’s what our kids call it). Lots of horses use this path, but we didn’t pass any today unfortunately.

As we come out of the bridle path, we’re greeted with more lovely views of the Welsh hills, and Barnie, the local Shetland pony, comes to say hello.

We’re well on our way down from the hills now, moving onto a fire road that winds down through some woodland.

Halfway down there’s this lovely house with an old canal boat in the garden. I always gorp at this house as it’s so gorgeous. I didn’t take a photo of it though – that felt a bit rude. But trust me, it’s beautiful.

At the bottom of the fire road, we head under the viaduct and back into the village.

As we head back in, I hear one of Carl’s cows mooing in the distance – probably mum to one of the calves we saw earlier, and likely related to the cows he put on our land a couple of years ago.

That’s a lot to take in on a relatively short 3 mile (5 km) walk, which is part of why I love living here. It’s just so beautiful. Imagine how much we see when we do the much longer walks at the weekend!

Anyway, the dogs are tired, I’ve done some exercise, and it’s time to sign on for work as my first meeting starts soon.

A Moment of Reflection

2025-06-21 07:55:00

It will be too hot to walk the dogs later, so I made a coffee and took them up on the fields in my PJs.

The cat even joined us (which is impressive since she’s nearly 100% blind). She just wanted the last of my coffee, I think!

The dogs are running around doing zoomies - having fun in the warm morning sun.

One of Carl’s cows in the field next door is mooing.

Our rooster is crowing.

The bees and butterflies are out in droves.

The birds are singing. The dawn chorus is just lovely.

This is privilege. ♥️