Thursday, 28th May, 2026

It’s been a very busy week at work. Everything landed in the same week, so no SOTA outings. Which is a shame, as the weather has been very nice.

All my car cleaning stuff arrived. Suppose I have to actually clean the car now 🧼. Watching videos and making lists about it, made it seem fun.

Got home assistant setup and running again. Controls the battery and stats about the solar and whatever. It is so powerful and I just barely scratch the surface with it.

A MacBook 12” I wa watching (but forgot about) sold for £52 yesterday. That is cheap. I don’t really need it though and I recently cleared out all the laptops and mini pcs and whatever else I could find as it’s just clutter.

I bought a radio a while back that I plan(ned?) on installing in the new car. Be a fun project but I suspect I’d use it….twice a year…. maybe more but pretty infrequently. Even if I did a long drive once a week, I bet I’d rarely use it. I don’t really want to chat on it whilst driving, it’s mostly to reply to those calling CQ from activation sites to give them a contact. And round here, that’s not very often.

I still might install it, although Fraser already bets I’ll sell it and not install it. He’s probably right. It falls into the same dream of a Land Rover defender all kitted out.

Another ham friend, who recently retired - although from one office job to about 10 volunteering or other jobs - said he has a Land Rover but it’s just an expense as he doesn’t have time, or wants to spend time himself, fixing it up and doing things. He wouldn’t recommend…even though he’s on his second. I think that’s the point - it’s an activity in itself rather than a mode of transport.

My wife said I need to find another hobby when I retire as she doesn’t want to come climbing hills with me. She likes walking but not up. Even if she did get into hill walking, no-one wants to be standing at the top of a hill for 30 minutes (or more) whilst I shout a series of random letters and numbers into a radio in exchange for another set of random letters and numbers. This will be for when she’s at work and I’m not - mostly as she loves her job and mine is fine but no longer than necessary. I did start wondering what might be those other hobbies. There’s film photography, which combines well with outdoors, Land Rover maintenance…possibly although I don’t know anything about it, and likely we’d need to be living somewhere that I can keep it and it doesn’t get in the way and annoy everyone! Setting up more radio stuff at home, but that also needs space not to annoy everyone at home! Potentially car cleaning, should that take off. Model trains has been kicking around in my mind for a while…also needs space not to be in the way and annoy everyone… seems to be a theme here! Visiting Scottish Islands would be nice to do. I’d, of course, want to do some hills but I’m sure we can work out a balance.

What else? Minimising time on the computer currently seems sensible as it can get to me. I have plenty of books to read, and music to enjoy. Could always start that rock tumbling I thought of a year ago. There’s probably not going to be a shortage of things I try out, just are they all solo activities?

The busy work also involved important (as far as importance goes in a work context) stuff that had to be done/needs to be finished and has all be squashed into a short time frame. Inevitably, typos and mistakes have accumulated and I was worried it would all come crashing down. Remarkably, it didn’t but I feel like I lucked my way through it at times. A few people - long term friends of 30+ years - have commented that I often seem quite lucky. I do tend to agree with them. It’s a funny characteristic, heavily used in computer games and RPGs, and not a real thing (? Right ? I’d say? Maybe?). Or is it some subconscious action? Weirdly I have guessed lottery style games correctly a few times - now probably that’s my bias in only remembering the times I got it right vs. the times I got it wrong. But this week I feel lucky in some of the answers I gave - which turned out to be correct but we’d not done the work - and how, what I’d describe, as a bit of a shambles all fell into the right place at the end.

I have made mistakes that weren’t too far from “that’s the opposite of what I told you” but they worked out okay in the end. Maybe everyone is accepting and the general strive to to the right thing eventually forces everything in the right direction, even if you step out of line for a bit.

Jack’s blog reminds me that I want a Nikon F100. His blog reminds me I want lots of things. Probably should stop looking at it…but don’t tell him that.

We still have some ancient - 8? years old - kindle tablets, the 7” ones. When I bought them, they were refurbs for $20 or something crazy from Amazon. The kids still use them a little although they’re pretty slow, and struggle to download software. Not sure if the OS is too old or the SD card is dead or what but it’s painful. Streaming on them works just fine once you’re in the app. For long car journeys or flights, it means everyone has a screen to be entertained. However, they do seem like they’re getting just that little bit worst - downloading Netflix items for offline use seems to be slower and slower and harder and harder now. At some stage it’ll stop functioning. I don’t want to but I feel obliged to get some new devices so that everyone still has something. It conflicts with my desire not to have so many devices in the house, but the issue is then just one person goes without and that’s not really fair. Probably I should buy an iPad, often the base models are pretty cheap (well for iPads) and then everything will work nicely. I used to buy my wife a new one and then the old one would go down the pecking order. I suppose that’s an option, but hers is fine. I thought about getting one but then I don’t want to kids messing it up and I don’t need one.

So probably I’ll just wait for it to die and then immediately buy something.

Wednesday, 27th May, 2026

Yesterday the little one’s first tooth fell out. This morning she comes through at 5:30 am and says, in a tiny voice, “the tooth fairy didn’t come”.

Ah ffffffff. 🧚

Monday, 25th May, 2026

I finally finished a blog post about my past 4-6 weeks worth of SOTA activations. TBH it felt like a chore to do it, and I only half heartedly did it. A bunch of photos and a few sentences. The photos are the best part anyway, so probably could’ve just dumped them in and left it at that. I wrote up the interesting ones of the sota forums already and just linked to them. Writing a blog post for your own site shouldn’t feel like a chore.

This whole thing of it should be on my server/terms/site is all well and good but strictly speaking, it never really is - unless I’m hosting from home. I do have the raw data. I don’t know what my point is, other than I’m not sure I can be bothered with a blog. I have several other drafts of posts I think I should write (do I want to write them?) but again, feels like a big todo list to finish them off. Maybe other people also feel the same way. They want to write things but the effort to do it is great, and so they don’t bother. I like my other blog but this one is still easy to just write in. Probably as I don’t care what it looks like or how it’s written, so just rattle off stuff. Also no pictures. Even though pika makes pictures easy, there are still steps to get them off my phone, into pika, sort out the order, write captions, etc. Way easier than a SSG but still stuff to do. The SOTA forums isn’t much better, least pika lets me upload a lot of photos at once. However, I know the SOTA forums has a captive audience and usually the hills I write up are somewhat novel or different in some way. Do wonder if I should just not bother with a blog, and write up my interesting hills on the forums. For me, I did think about using DayOne to write them up…or just dump in the photos with the where and when. I have a Garmin connect account where it tracks my activity, and when I do a hike I add 3-5 photos to it. That’s probably my favourite record of things I’ve done - has the route, map, distance, time, (and therefore difficulty) and then a few key photos. There are things to download your Connect data but I wonder if I can use that to save the interesting things. Although why? I had a nice time and that’s that.

Went down a bit of a rabbit hole with car cleaning, and ended up buying a whole bunch of cleaning products - buckets, mitts, clothes, foam, shampoo, wheel degreaser…perhaps I went overboard. Anyway, would like the ability to wash the cars properly. After watching a couple of videos, I realise I do it all wrong. Also the pressure washer foaming looked fun! Be nice to keep the new car in nice condition vs. the mess the other one is in. I wondered about getting rubber mats for it too. Especially come winter with muddy boots, wet school shoes and all sorts. Seems a shame to get rid of the soft carpets and the nice summer weather is fooling me into thinking I’ll keep them nice.

There’s also something satisfying about completing a physical task that has a clear result at the end. I make a little fun of our neighbours for constantly cleaning their cars - maybe 2-3 times a week. Probably they’re the smart ones as it’s just 15-20 minutes each time and their cars look nice.

I’ve wondered about not keeping a blog but doing videos instead. I don’t like the sound of my voice but maybe it’s easier…no it’s not…or maybe more interesting? Perhaps, but I’d mostly be doing it for myself as no-one will watch it. Also feel like I’m just copying Fraser.

It pains me to say this, but I don’t think everything needs to be documented to be remembered. Enjoying the time is what it’s about.

I could write about it here but this site is more of me complaining about things to myself. Also how would I find it? We’re doing business planning stuff at work and I have to sign off on numbers. I can’t tell the wood from the trees when I look at the numbers, I need a chart, and I look at a chart that I can find where the numbers started and they look fine. However, the numbers have gone through various spreadsheets and so I just have to assume what comes out the other end is right.

In my head, that’s like me writing up what happened on a hike on here but then it gets buried in nothingness.

I said this at the start, but the pictures are the most interesting part. They also jog my memory of what happened. Perhaps just the blog of the pictures is good enough. Route, pictures, maybe a map of contacts if I can be bothered or it was interesting, and not just the usual UK/EU. That’s what my reports on the reflector tend towards - just photos. I write some words but I find less is more and people can’t be bothered to read about all the minutiae of the outing. Some people do write up their reports going into every stone and bite of sandwich. I think some people read them as they like the details - there are several older guys who did SOTA 10+ years ago but are perhaps not fit enough to be able to do it now, and the details are reminders to them of their hill walking days. A stark reminder to us all. Whereas I just scroll to the bottom, look at a few photos and then heart the post.

This week isn’t working out well for an outing. Too many work things spread across every day, makes it hard to take a day off. Probably today would’ve been the best day but I wasn’t sure if I could really take it off. Perhaps Wednesday is now possible but not ideal… Could roll over my day into next week but then it just makes next week harder. As I’m not chasing 1,000 points anymore, I’m not that interested in rushing up a 4-pointer nearby in a morning then going to work in the afternoon. Also stuck in this obsession with doing the CNP summits. So I’ll drive 4 hours to walk for 3. Maybe that’s not too bad actually, especially as I can do it in the EV now and pay about £3 for the trip. I always think it’s a drag to drive there but I’m usually excited to go out, so the journey there passes quickly, and then on the way back I phone my mum/dad and speak to them so that passes the time. There are just a few hills which will take a lot of time and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it. I could do one at a time but they all involve cycling….seems a lot, but if it’s the only way then so be it.

Sunday, 24th May, 2026

The V850 situation reminds me of ham radios. Manufacturers make a great product that does what you want. Then it gets discontinued and people realise there isn’t really anything that compares, and so - in the case of ham radio - used prices skyrocket and people are trying to get these used products. This fine for a while but eventually they start to get really old and you wonder why you’re paying more for this 20 year old radio than a brand new one. Oh yes, that’s because the feature set is worst now than it was before. I don’t think V850 prices are going to go up, but they’re certainly not going to go down.

I think they still make the V600, which is probably perfectly usable for me, of course I keep thinking the V850 would be better. I did find a site selling a new

The funny thing is that two days ago I hadn’t thought about the scanner for years. It’s been a trip down memory lane, when I was doing scanning before, and looking at the limited selection back then. But now I want to get one and it’ll arrive and immediately go onto a shelf or the attic. Probably a macro lens option is best but that whole route is a faff. I can 3D print stuff now, so maybe that would help somehow. Really I should find my dark bag, get a 120 insert for the dark tank, buy some film and use it!

“This too shall pass.”

Saturday, 23rd May, 2026

This site is like a broken record - I wonder what a modern equivalent of that is…a gif? - here am I, moaning about things, 1, 2, 3, 5, … year later and nothing has changed. Buy a mac; don’t buy one, spend too long on the computer, don’t do anything useful, want a new blog (actually I don’t want a new one right now, I just wish I could write in the one I have), oh yeah, actually write in the blog.

It’s hard to break my habits of a lifetime. Sit down on the computer and “do stuff”…or mostly don’t do things. I want to get rid of the computers. Maybe just has a single laptop. But then that would be annoying for everyone else. The kids used it today to do their homework. It’s really just me, who needs to do something else. In the summer time, it’s easy to think I could go out for a walk, or finish cutting the hedge in the garden in the evening instead of sitting on the computer - but I don’t - whereas the winter, that’s not going to happen.

I don’t even write in the family DayOne journal. I haven’t even loaded the photos I took on the camera from last weekend onto the computer yet. The camera is just sitting right next to me by the computer. A friend at work bought a X100IV and that kickstarted me into using my XE4 again, but that didn’t last. I reinstalled Proxmox on my server, which is what I had a while ago before two drives failed and I started again with just a Debian install. This time I wanted to make a docker LXC, so it would be easier to backup vs. Installing docker on the host. I’ve started that but not quite finished. Installed Home Assistant again as the vendor who made our solar inverter and battery went bust, and I want to make sure I’m in control via home assistant. But also not finished setting that up. Was also going to install immich and get rid of photos on iCloud.

I mostly just don’t want to do these things. It’s not exciting configuring a server, or dealing with photos, or really using a computer.

It’s a bit like people who don’t want to have a smart phone because of social media, but then struggle without one as everything else assumes you have a smart phone. The computer stays where it is though, and, again, it’s me who needs to do something else.

I’m writing this on my tiny setup - the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and a small iPhone stand I printed. I like it, and haven’t used it in a while. I had to make myself use it. I like the focus of it, and I like that I’m not sat in the desk chair. Plus when I sit at the other side of the room, I’m behind the door and so no-one thinks I’m in here!

I have been using the 3D printer again. So that’s a plus, vs. It sat there doing nothing.

We have a “new to us” car. It’s pretty fancy, but once you set it up and put most things on auto, then you can just get on a drive. It’s quite nice not having a dash behind the steering wheel. Means we have three cars for a couple of weeks before the other one goes back. So a bit of driveway juggling.

I’m still amazed by myself, when I think that “it’s good to get away from the computer and type here”, my next immediate thought is “so therefore I should get a mac Neo, or maybe a mini and monitor, or maybe an iMac.” “Yeh an iMac would go nicely just here, the small 24” would actually work quite well. I like this keyboard, use a Bluetooth mouse and get on with things. In some ways I would like to replace everything I have with a single iMac, for the simplicity.

I learnt the Epson V850 pro scanners are now discontinued, because they couldn’t source the camera/scanning part anymore. Makes me think I should try and get one, as I’m not sure what else is out there that’s equivalent. In case I finally develop my own medium format. Perhaps worthwhile if I actually took any film photos.

It’s easiest if I just do nothing and leave everything as it is. Complain some more on here later and then carry on.

Keep coming back to should I have a separate email host and what domain should I use for email - sort of don’t want it to be what I use for blogging as I want to keep it spam/scam free. Spam filters work fine but I want something for banking and insurnace and proper accounts without being polluted by the internet. Whilst then it doesn’t matter what it is, I still cannot decide. Mostly I want it to be a .com or .net just for ease of saying over the phone (should that occur) and maybe for reliability. Something short and snappy, but of course that’s very difficult, unless I use numbers. Like fxb5.net. Not checked that but along those lines. Oh course I over think it and wonder if people automatically assume 5 or five?

It would be good to go through my password manager, log into old accounts and delete them. I must have 300+ accounts in it from the past 15 years.

Oh yeh, maybe I should just not bother with blogs.

Time to play Diablo 4 and see if my friends are online.

Tuesday, 19th May, 2026

I have four drafts on my blog needing finished. Don’t seem to be able to dedicate time to finishing them…and that’s before the six SOTA outings I want to write up. Not tonight either 😢

Sunday, 17th May, 2026

I should setup a finger server. Just because I can. And so I can say “finger me” 👈 instead of a /now page.