Sunday, 5th April, 2026

Happy Easter! 🐣

The Apple wireless keyboard (A1644) is surprisingly cheap. I thought I’d have to get the really old one but think I can probably get one of these for under £20. They’re not the TouchID ones, but that’s perfectly fine. USB c charging.

Think I need a Mac for when iPhones go crazy and need restoring. Windows arrangement is crazy, I must’ve spent 4 hours trying to sort out my daughter’s phone. Maybe the phone has issues but boy are there a lot of Apple devices errors as to why I can’t update…🤬

Now the recommended method, via Reddit, is to use iTunes and not Apple Devices…plus disable so many windows features.

Saturday, 4th April, 2026

We were in the library and there was a comic strip style book about asylum seekers from the perspective of a kid. I read it. Then thought “I need to shut the fk up complaining about things”

Speaking of complaining, I’m not really looking forward to Disneyland Paris. 🤷

When I simplifed this site, I got rid of several years of entries and basically made it a single page website. I even deleted the git log so they were all truly gone. It was refreshing, but a tiny part of me thought maybe I should’ve kept them. Well, turns out I did (or mostly did) because of an experiment converting the site to a dayone journal. Goes from 2021 to mid 2025. I’ll just leave it there for now.

I have a grandfathered tier of “plus” in DayOne. Means I don’t pay a subscription, which is nice and so maybe I should be using it more. It’s a very nice app. I have the family journal in it, which has suffered in recent times. Maybe I should try my keyboard to phone method. The surface one is fine but kinda want an old Mac wireless one. Then 3D print a phone stand and setup somewhere and write up our day.

I’ve been reading Project Hail Mary, and so not been on the computer, but I think writing up the journal would be time better spent than on the computer.

Thursday, 2nd April, 2026

Jack has made a nice site with Claude code using 11ty. Thinking about doing the same but then I went to pika.page and liked it (again). For me it’s the entry of the blog that’s the problem. Where I write it and how I get photos and text in. Maybe Claude can’t make me a pika.page style editor which then pushes the content to the static site.

Or maybe I’ll sit outside in the sun with my book about time.

Did take the X4 to the play park with the kids and read some there. Then when we were back at home on the trampoline, I dislocated my finger but somehow pushed it back into place almost immediately. Probably from the shock horror of seeing it at a wrong angle. Seems okay but sure does hurt.

Well everything has sold, bar one hard drive that I need to list. Two of the drives have sector count errors, which means they either need overwriting or using some hidden, reserve sectors. Would take about 16 hours to run that on the computer, and may not fix it. So I’d rather sell them with the issue for a knocked down price. I have explained it in the listing but I’m sure someone will come back. If so, I’ll just refund them and let them keep it as it’s of no use to anyone.

So…now what? I achieved the “sell stuff equal to the Neo”. This is where I should have some life values or something that I can test decisions against.

Probably I shouldn’t buy it.

Wednesday, 1st April, 2026

One hard drive has sold. Always amazing how selling a bunch of random bits and pieces soon adds up.

Shown the X4 to four people, one said it was cool and the other three said “isn’t it too small?”. I find that funny and ask “well how big does it need to be?”. Which they have no answer to, and their question comes from the fact that other e-readers are bigger. Anyway, I like it.

Day 3 and I fell off the morse wagon.

I should setup Claude code and make something. I’ve been fiddling with trying to make a hiking trip planner that combines gps routes that I’ve made, a schedule of times for driving there, climbing etc. and notes about parking or whatever. Tried to make something in tiddlywiki but haven’t found a simple solution for adding durations plus the gpx map is a bit of a faff. There’s dokuwiki where the map is quite easy and the text although not checked on the adding of times via some plugin.

What I wanted was an overview map so I could see all my routes and options or look up a summit and find the route and perhaps change things like “if I drive the night before, when will I get home?”

Part of me also thinks I should just extend the google sheets I use with more screenshots or links to the gps routes. Given the hardest part is the schedule and I’m using other websites to make my routes and walking estimates.

I download at Kamoot and GaiaGPS. Both nice but not quite what I want. I pay for OS maps and it can do a lot and it has time estimates…maybe I should investigate that more.

I use plotaroute to make all my maps. They have a premium option and I looked at how much it is…£20 a year…why don’t just pay for that! Supposedly includes OS maps, which I also pay >£20 a year for. Think I just need to be more organised with tags and names and then I’ll be set. Probably keep the spreadsheet for durations but can just spend a bit of time tidying and then can link to plotaroute.

Tuesday, 31st March, 2026

I was panicking last night as I’d thought I’d lost one of the laptops, and spent an hour looking for it. Turns out one of the kids had pinched it and was looking at stuff on it in their room. I was annoyed but quickly glad it was found. It was 21:30 and I still had yet to figure out how I was packaging it. Mostly cardboard from the mower cut and shaped into some sort of box. With enough parcel tape it was fine 📦.

Up to £360-odd on eBay now. Got my old NAS hard drives to sell too. Need to get smart mon stats and list them. Think one is kaput, which is why the pool died, but curious as to if I can get it formatted and some stats on it. But even the three good ones should take me to the £500 mark - not actually checked prices but £45 seems doable? Perhaps a few other bits and bobs will help. Have to rummage.

Of course, if I remember last time I wanted to buy stuff, the anticipation of the purchase was the fun. The actual device is meh. They look nice and handy to have photos on the laptop but what am I doing? Watching YouTube videos of more things I don’t need but suddenly want.

Took the X4 to work. Read three “pages” whilst waiting for my tea to pour but it’s not as slow as I thought. Maybe if I went for a walk to the park I could read for 15 minutes at lunchtime or something. It’s nice though.

Not loving the Morse practice. Takes a lot of effort to make myself do it. Still not done it today.

Monday, 30th March, 2026

On a roll with selling stuff on eBay. Think I could easily get enough for a Neo 😅. Then I started looking at the M5 Air…but wait a second, wasn’t the reason I liked the Neo was the price, and the near zero upgrades. Okay so it’ll have 8GB of ram and a decent but no P3 whatever screen…but I’m probably not going to notice. It’ll be far nicer than the old thinkpads it’s replacing. Of course the counter argument is that it’s only £400 and I’d get all the fancy latest stuff, 16g ram, nice screen, TB4 etc. Maybe I need to dig deeper in the things I can sell…

But the MBA doesn’t come in Citrus 🍋‍🟩

Speaking of spending lots of money (which I’m sure is completely opposite to what I was thinking the other day), I’ve been debating about a ham radio satellite setup, with rotating yagi antenna array and new cables and radios and all sorts. I should make a list but I’m sure it’ll would be £3k, and some used some new. You could cut that down with more used or even home made antenna but then it’ll never happen. It’s also not something you can just get a bit at a time, you kinda need nearly all of it at once. Oh well. We’ll see. Now I’m trying to figure out how I’m packaging these laptops I have sold.

Oh and my xteink X4 arrived! 📖

Sunday, 29th March, 2026

I like this Alex’s blog. I like it because there’s lots of content, not because it’s a clever/super unique or technically advanced site. She’s made a static site with Jekyll but clearly puts a lot of time into it.

I had a big clean up of my phone’s app screens. I now have two, first page are the main things I use and then second page is amateur radio apps/PWA links. Everything else I just search for when I use it - mostly as I didn’t know where it was on my previous 6 pages and various folders. Nothing changes but it’s nice to be organised.

I’ve blocked Reddit on the network and set the time limit on my phone to zero minutes. I waste too much time on it and I think I learn stuff or get good insights but I don’t think I do. I like reddit for research on a topic but once I go in, I never come out. Found it better to ask Gemini/Chatgpt for a topic and let it read Reddit and tell me the answer. Perhaps once I’ve got it under control, I’ll open up access again. But for now I want to spend free time reading my book (X4 is in U.K. so hopefully comes this week) or doing Morse code practice. Morse is an excuse to buy radios and keys, but tiny little ones or kits or simple stuff. Plus gives me something to work towards. See if I stick to it.

Installed windows on two of the thinkpads, but not listed on ebay. Bit of a chore taking photos etc. so procrastinating on that. Not sure about the Neo. It’s nice that’s a given but I don’t really use a laptop so … seems expensive for something I occasionally use. Sort of think a Mac mini would be better for me…should I need to spend money on a Mac…

Was tempted to buy Sim City 3000 last night. I’ll wait for it to go on sale, £4.99 is a bit steep. Actually should play Stardew Valley. It’s a game I know I would like and my friends and sister have all played it and put in >200 hours each. I can just never get started on it.

Speaking of games, the boys were at a friends playing in his switch 2 and Mario World (new Mario kart) and obviously they want it. We played Mario kart today together and now I want it! It’s their birthday this week I could easily buy it…probably should consult with the other parent before doing so 😅 I’m torn as I don’t want more devices as it’s bad enough with everyone and iPads and tv and computers. Although I’d rather them play Mario kart than Roblox or YouTube (YouTube is blocked on the network…for them and me).