Wednesday, 8th April, 2026

I keep bidding on Apple keyboards but then losing by £1, mostly as I don’t want to pay very much. Then after I lose the auction, I think that maybe it’s best I don’t buy one as I don’t really need it and it’s just some clutter. I could use the Bluetooth keyboard I have right now but I don’t, so why would I use the Apple one? Because it looks nice and completes the setup better…if I wanted to do it, I’d already be doing it.

Will probably still buy one. Find an auction that ends 3pm on a Tuesday or something like that.

We decided my wife needs a new phone and daughter gets her old one. Apple has a lot of models these days…AI helped narrow it down though to 16e or 17e. I setup alerts on hotukdeals and this morning 20% off on Amazon for the 17e! Could get a better model as refurb but she’s not interested in that and I think the 17e is the ideal spec. We’re going away but I ordered anyway and I rescheduled delivery on Amazon so all good. Was going to have it delivered to work but they need a code or confirmation in the app at delivery and that would be difficult so skipped that idea.

Made me realise my phone is pretty old. 13 Pro is 2021 I think. The battery is getting a bit weaker but it still lasts all day…just about. I’m not really interested in a new phone, maybe except the 48MP camera but wonder if I can see a difference.

I did wonder about an android phone, but tiny things keep me in Apple, like home kit and screen time controls. iMessage, less so as everyone just seems to use WhatsApp…not that I really like it but there we go. Photos are nice but I don’t really use it, I never got the Mac to manage it and think I’d rather install immich (w/e) and set that up. But I can’t be bothered to move, it’s just easier to stay on iOS. Supposedly iPhone 13 will keep getting updates into 2029.

Off to Disneyland tomorrow. If I’m a grumpy old dad, I’d say why can’t the wife and kids go and I’ll stay at home and look after the cats. But I’m sure it’ll be wonderful. 🏰🪄🫧🔮

Tuesday, 7th April, 2026

Found this site, to waste more time.

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.