Wednesday, 25th March, 2026

I’m not going to renew my .pics domain. I’ve had it for 12 years and it’s a nice domain but I have no use for it and it’s nearly $50 to renew. Rather spend that $50 on pika, and actually use the product I’m buying.

Remembered I have an account at freeshell.de. I should setup some backup services on it or host a few personal things there. Maybe a personal diary 😅

I’m looking for a tool that lets me plan hill walking trips. Either single day but also multiple days (like a holiday away) where I can capture the schedule, and route and then see them on a map. Sometimes I plan out some routes but then realise I don’t have time for them this week, but would be good to save that and find it later. My current spreadsheet method is okay but it’s becoming too messy and hard to find things.

I’m sure I’ve looked before and found some programs but nothing quite right. There’s Alltrails and other paid for services which maybe could be good but not sure they’ll do what I want. I did start seeing if Tiddlywiki or Docuwiki would work…probably they would, just need to figure out how to structure things. Maybe that is what I want as then I can add text and other info too. I kinda want to do it with tiddlywiki…

Tuesday, 24th March, 2026

Just about finished the Hermit book. Wow. What a tale and what a life and what simple but deep understanding of what it is to live.

He says “don’t let life pass you by while you wait for some imagined ‘best time’ in a future filled with so many unknowns. Go and do it now”.

Many times have I thought to myself about things I’d like to do but that will have to wait until later. Occasionally, I’ll do them and it’s been good.

He admits he has no dependents, although many friends, so it does enable his way of life. I can’t help but think that it’s fine for him to start living in the wilds in the early 80s but could someone go and do that today?

There’s always a balance. He still went shopping and many trips to the hospital with cancer and a stroke, and he lived in a cabin in the woods by the loch, growing some food and cutting all the wood to keep him through the winter. I don’t want to live in an isolated cabin in the woods. But I do enjoy the outdoors…but we’re not going to move house as school is so close and the small walk across the playing field is so much more enjoyable than driving the school run. A brief spell of fresh air, seeing the daylight become earlier each day and hearing the trees susurrations is pleasing.

Chopping wood and having a stove would be nice but not having to do it constantly for the worry you run out in winter and you freeze to death.

Later in the book he talks about going on his big trip into the town to get supplies but hears of “the internet” and now how people buy stuff from their computers (of which he’s never used one) and don’t go into shops. He asked the reader who is the hermit now?

Life is full of choices and he made his. One doesn’t have to do the same but he’s right about being good natured and caring to others, to not be greedy, to respect the world, to think twice before using things. But modern life makes it all too easy to forget and get caught up in everything.

I love he’s kept diaries for his whole life and takes quotes from them into the book, from 70s, 80s, 90s. The chapter on his cancer are just select quotes from those years. The story couldn’t be more powerful. He’s taken many photos as well, things so rare and unique that can only come from living in the wilderness for so long.

If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed the book. I love the Scottish highlands, even if I do race around them to keep to my schedule and have been (and still do) driven by imaginary internet radio points. But it made me get out and see it and feel it. Even wet and windy and snowy.

I’ve often thought that my friend Fraser has a good life and knows what’s best. He and his wife live in a cosy wee cottage in a small village in the country side. I think it says a lot when their main lounge has no tv. Only a hifi and log stove. He gets out every day, cycling walking etc. he’s very handy at everything and is very passionate about land rovers and has been for 35+ years. Friendly and generous. But it’s easy to see all the good things, and I’m sure he’s had hard times and difficulties. I wonder if I’m trying to replicate his life (suddenly wanting Land Rover for example) as I don’t know what I want myself. Maybe I just wish I was retired too! But there’s that excuse about how I can’t do those things because of money or expectations.

Probably it’s just late and it’s time for bed. I don’t like typing this on my phone but if I turn on the computer it’ll be midnight and I’ll have written nothing more but wasted time on who knows what. I’m very fortunate for many things in life and I should appreciate those more.

My X4 finally shipped.

Monday, 23rd March, 2026

I sold the rower! To a lady at work who came first in a sports challenge thing and was 1st in rowing. Obviously she needed a concept2 rower. I’m pleased though.

Bought a 10” deskpi 4U mini rack…and a Lenovo micropc thing and a rpi 4…for reasons which, in the interest of time, I won’t go into now.

I don’t really want them. I just liked buying them and imagining building this cool mini rack thing. Maybe I should send the rack back and sell the computers…

Reading “The Way of the Hermit” by Ken Smith. An autobiography of his life living 40 years in the Scottish wilderness. Link is to a BBC article and a documentary was made about him. Yet to watch it. About 1/3 in and it’s good. Amplifies my oscillating desires towards the “less is more; simplicity; get rid; minimise computers; etc.” approach to life.

Makes you ask yourself hard questions. Like why and what do you want in life. Questions your choices of work and what is “doing right by them” with the kids. Social norms, the human condition, selfishness, excess, the rat race, what is right and wrong, what will happen, and so many more questions.

Then later I look up £1000s worth of ham radio stuff so I can collect numbers via satellites with other old men also collecting letters and numbers to complete their list.

It’s hard to change lanes, because it’s hard to see where the other one goes. Even harder as I don’t now where this one goes.

To be clear, I don’t want to live in a log cabin, far removed from society all on my own.

I’m amazed he kept journals of everything his whole life. Even whilst living in the wilds. He also took a lot of photos too. He doesn’t just live in a cabin and never speak to people. He goes into town and buys modern things, he just buys what is essential and manages the rest himself.

Thursday, 19th March, 2026

We got the cat back. It’s quite the story and I should write it up sometime.

Work have now blocked OneDrive on personal computers. I was using that to sync my markdown notes so when I worked at home I could access them that way. Was even thinking of changing from vs code to obsidian as I don’t hate it anymore. I can just GitHub as a sync method…seems like that defeats what IT are trying to do. Maybe obsidian has a nextcloud sync to use my server at home.

I could use onenote 🤮

Used pika the other day. It’s so nice for writing posts. But I don’t want to pay $60/year for it. Maybe I could look at export options and some elaborate song and dance to convert.

Thursday, 12th March, 2026

One of the cats hasn’t come home in a few days. 😿

Wednesday, 11th March, 2026

It’s funny how quick you get out of a habit. Still think about lots of things to write but then just don’t.

Thought about that new MacBook Neo. I like that it doesn’t really have any upgrade options as then I wouldn’t get sucked into a £2000 laptop. Plus all I do is browser and plaintext files. Maybe photo editing but it would probably just be Photos.app. Then I could also play with Tinderbox. Likely could wangle edu discount via my wife too. But I don’t need another computer.

Fell into a Time rabbit hole. Ordered a QRP Labs clock that gets the time from GPS. Mostly as it was pretty cheap and I get to build it. Seems the next level of accuracy is then £100s up towards £1000, to run a network PTP server delivering circa nanosecond accuracy. It would be cool to do that though, just because.

Saturday, 28th February, 2026

Been losing interest in this site recently.

Doesn’t really matter, it’ll just sit here until I come back.