May 2022 Entries
Tuesday, 31st May, 2022
I’ve had this new site design for a month now. I like the design, if I do say so myself. Haven’t quite got the search working yet, not sure why the javascript seems to do nothing. Not really sure how to debug JS. I’ll be happy once I get all the old TW entries into here too. Didn’t work on that last night as still watching Stranger Things. Two more episodes left of this half, then wait until July 1st for the second half.
Today’s soup is brocoli and cheese. I thought it sounded horrible but it’s actually quite nice. 🥣 I ate all my snacks this morning and so this afternoon is going to be disappointing. Plus it’s pouring with rain, so I can’t nip to the shop.
I didn’t bid on the Sony NW-A45 that was ending last night. I don’t really need it…I should stop looking. An A55, with headphones, is ending this afternoon…I’ll look at it, although it’s more expensive still, but includes headphones so there’s that.
I asked my dad about his casette tape last night. Turns out his deck broke about 5-6 years ago. He says he might still have the tapes in the attic or he threw them away (he never throws anything away). Could’ve got him a player for christmas if he still has them. 🖭
I got looking tinto DACs for the computer, it’s been a while since I’ve looked. Ended up deciding that I don’t want it in the office and should get a portable one, so I can sit anywhere…outside, another room, etc. I don’t want to sit on the computer to listen to music, because I won’t listen to music, I’ll dick about on the computer with music on in the background. The question is do I need more headphones? I have some comfy Beyer dynamics DT770 Pro (I think). I use these on the computer. If I’m elsewhere then does that mean I need another set? I’m not going to travel with them that’s for sure. I guess some in-ears is really the better option.
What a great ending to Volume I of Stranger Things 4, can’t wait until 1st July for the next one! 😃
Monday, 30th May, 2022
Spent a lot of time down the rabbit trail of high definition audio last night. It started with looking at tape decks as there was one for sale near me. Then I was curious about vinyl, and there’s still many new models of players being sold. Given I don’t own any tapes or vinyl it seemed like a silly way to approach this. Also what exactly is this? I think it’s the desire to actually own the media I have and not just rent it. The price of netflix and other streaming services only seems to go up. There’s competition but prices aren’t coming down. At what point will I stop paying for it? Also, they may decide to stop providing certain shows, movies, albums, songs etc. due to whatever licensing agreements they have. We’ve actually seen it on a particular song that our youngest daughter really likes. We had to make do with a cover by someone random. I have noticed that it’s come back now.
For a lot of things, I don’t really care that we just rent it. Especially TV and films - a lot of them we watch once and then never again. There are some films we do like to watch multiple times. e.g. family traditions at Christmas time or the kids like watching some Disney films many times (I’ll watch them many times too), and we do own copies of a lot of them, for this very reason. Also before Disney+ it was hard to find them on streaming services…and now we have to pay for Disney+ if we want them. I used to be more “hoardery” and want to keep copies of everything. I spent ages copying our DVDs to the computer. Then I realised that it wasn’t all of equal importance and started clearing out the rubbish that we’d never watch again - even if we did have the DVD.
Anyway, I also like the idea of choosing music from a small subset of music that I have. I can stream “every song ever” online but generally listen to two playlists of the same songs. The algorithms don’t work for new stuff as the kids listen to so much crap it ruins it (I’m looking at you ‘fart song’.). So I never find anything new. I also forget about old things that I used to listen to and used to like. Back when I had CDs, many would sit on the shelf and never be listened to for ages but then one day I’d suddenly want to play it and the fact of its very own physical presence allowed me to remember it and play it. Today I don’t have that. I have to actively think and decide what to play, and that’s too much effort, so I don’t bother.
So having, and building a collection of albums and songs gives me the hope that it’ll help me enjoy all the music I used to. This led to looking at high definition players - mostly after seeing Phil’s note about his Sony from 2019. Up until that stage, I never really knew they were things to be had.
And so I ask myself, are these files on a hard drive/device really any better at fixing this than the search function of a streaming app - or spending some time making playlists on it? Is this just a huge song and dance (gettit?) to result in me doing what I like most….researching some new area or tech. Investigating how I could unlock a Japanese import with some custom firmware. Buying something. Particularly buying it on eBay with the thrill of auctions and finding “good deals”.
So what am I going to do? probably still buy something ;)
I’m getting my old computer ready for my sister - cleaned out the dust, and make sure everything is working and reinstalling Windows. I found an old hard drive inside the case. I think it’s my very first “large” hard drive I bought ages ago. It’s 1 TB and used to be where I kept everything - my music, DVD rips, backups, documents, etc. I stopped using it once I setup the home server and it’s just moved from computer to computer. Not sure why I’d disconnected it. It might’ve been when installing Windows in the past and I didn’t want any mistakes, so just disconnected it. Unless it was broken? But then why disconnect and not remove it? Anyway, I’m curious to see what’s on it. Maybe full of hidden gems I thought were lost to time! Pictures, movies, bitcoin wallet with 1000s of ฿…Probably not. I did know of bitcoin in around 2009-2011. I even CPU mined some…feel like it was 0.000xxx with a lot of zeros. But I don’t think I ever bought any, so probably not going to discover anything exciting. Now I might find some old music.
I used to have a lot of music on the computer, but generally poor quality of stuff that friends shared whilst we were at uni. Might be fun to trawl back through though.
I’ve not used my new laptop in nearly two weeks…so much for that. However, I’m using it now as I’m at home and my daughter is on the computer. Plus I wanted to fiddle about with converting tiddlywiki to markdown files to then import everything into this site. This seems promising to do what I want. Well, certainly to handle the conversion to markdown. I’ll still need to setup the correct naming of markdown files but should be fairly straight forward with python to use the tiddler date to generate it. There’s not much documentation with this package but hopefully I can figure it out.
The tiny keyboard is looking at me and I know I should at least finish soldering the M key so that (hopefully) it keeps working. Likewise the raspberry pi zero, I should redo the soldering on the GPIO pins so that I can use it with the inky screen. It’s sat by my little reading/writing area and so I could put something interesting on it. Maybe some quotes or questions to myself - e.g. have you journaled about today? When did you last call your mother? etc. It has buttons on the side, so I could have a few screens and flick between them. If I was super keen I could embed it into a photo frame so it looks nice. Maybe some random art work or whatever too. The possibilities are endless. So I’ll do nothing.
Look at all these notebooks! 😍
This site is very much an online journal. I really don’t care about typos or spelling or nonsensical sentences. It’s for me to write about stuff to a (most likely) imaginary reader.
Sunday, 29th May, 2022
I forgot to put the dishwasher on last night. I put it on a 30 minute wash this morning and everything was clean. Normally we do the eco wash which takes 4 hours. Both cycles are 50°C, so I wonder what the trade off is. Presumably the 30 minute cycle uses more water and more electricity, but how much more? Perhaps the manual says, but I’m not going to look so I’ll never know. 🤔
Watched the first two episodes of Stranger Things. Oh how I could watch it all in one go but not when it’s 2300 when I finish the second episode! I remember either season 2 or 3 I’d watch in the morning on the bus into work even if I’d stayed up too late the night before.
I have quite a lot of things I want to sell online. I just need to get round to taking photos and listing. I am waiting for an eBay sellers discount but also I’m not sure I have enough packaging materials for everything. I should add up what I might get for it all…so I can decide what I’ll buy with the money!
Sort of thinking about a GR3. I like how small it is, and could take it everywhere. However I can’t quite decide between the x or non x, ie 40mm or 28mm eq. Probably the 40mm is better for me as I’m generally taking pictures of people rather than landscapes or views. My normal go to is 35mm so 40 is closer than 28! It’s just I feel like some of the features, or lack of viewfinder, make it more suitable as a 28 mm. You can guess the framing a lot easier with 28mm and the snap focus mode is easier as more will be in focus.
I started looking at vinyl and tape decks. I don’t even own any. So why do I need to spend a fortune on hardware. My dad has a massive vinyl collection and no doubt very fancy gear. I guess I’ll claim it when he dies? Isn’t that nice.
My grandparents died when I was a bit too young to have awareness or space to keep some of their things. Now that I am older and would appreciate the family sentimentality, it’s too late.
Saturday, 28th May, 2022
The new graphics card arrived today, which was very fast. I didn’t even pay for weekend delivery, so that’s nice. Fitted it into the computer. Nvidia to nvidia is easy from a drivers perspective! It doesn’t have DVI output and my second monitor is setup with DVI from the desktop. However, I did find a DP to DVI cable in my box of endless cables, so that was fine. Probably GPUs haven’t had DVI in a long time. Also makes it easy for giving my old card in my old computer to my sister. I’ll need to format and sort it out for her.
I’d been saving some good story games for the new card, so I can enjoy the eye candy of them. Just letting them install now whilst I start on Season 4 of Stranger Things.
Friday, 27th May, 2022
Modern vaccinations and other drugs are using machine learning to develop them. The patent system and laws are all written assuming a human has developed it. How is this going to work when breakthroughs and IP are derived from computers? 🧬🧪🖥
Stranger Things Season 4 is released in an hour. Shame I have to go to work today!
After deciding I wouldn’t bother upgrading my GPU since I bought the new computer a month or so ago, a good deal popped up today and I went for it! So a 3060 Ti is incoming. Guess I’ll have to play all those games I’ve collected now!
Neighbour wrote a letter to us to cut the hedge…It did need cutting but seems excessively formal. I cut it though.
Thursday, 26th May, 2022
I think I should add search to this site. I could import them into tiddlywiki instead? Having done a little research on hobonichi’s in the past I went to my wiki last night to see where I’d previously found to buy them. I also had a look on Jack and Phil’s wikis to see if they had any other insights into the hobonichis. Next year will be Jack’s 10 years of hobos! I was reminded of how I liked the backlinks to references of them in daily notes. It wasn’t necessarily useful or impactful to my decision making, it was more of just a nice awareness factor.
Oh I was looking at this last November, maybe I should get one.
– for example.
I think a search on this site would accomplish that also. However, I like the minimal one option menu, so will probably just leave it unlinked anywhere but will probably live in the rather obvious /search/ location. Actually, I could put it on the archives page.
I keep wondering about analytics for this site. I’m just curious as to whether or not it’s more than about 4 people. I might install it temporarily, or maybe my hosting has something I can use.
The lawn needs mowed again. It always feels like a chore beforehand but then when I’m doing it, it’s quite a relaxing activity. Strimming the edges can feel like the chore though.
When we moved house, I remember seeing a house for sale nearby that had an enormous garden. It would’ve been completely impractical and a huge amount of maintenance, plus the house wasn’t as convenient as where we live now, but having a huge garden would be fun. You could have so many different areas, and some many things for the kids to explore. You could have a decent sized vegetable patch that actually provided (or could in theory) enough potatoes and other vegetables to live off. A nice dream but not a reality for the time being.
Going to give my old computer to my sister who is returning from China and going back to university. I do need to get a GPU - either a new one for me or another for her. A new one for me is going to be expensive, there were some small signs of reducing prices earlier this year but that seems to have stopped. I’m better off getting something from ebay for hers. GTX 970 seems like a good balance in cost and performance. She likes playing games but they’ll generally be older ones, and that’ll be more than capable for 1080p. Maybe I should organise all that so I can give it to my dad who’ll be visiting soon. Need to reinstall windows and sort things out.
I wrote some code somewhere that converted tiddlywiki JSON export into individual markdown files for going from my TW journal to my previous jekyll static blog. Least I think I did. Now I can’t find where I wrote that code.😤
It’s getting close to the end of the month and for about the last 5 years I’ve told myself that I’d do monthly money write ups in a notebook or somewhere. So maybe I should start this month? So obviously I need a new notebook that’s dedicated to that 😅. I think I have a blank field notes in a box somewhere. That’ll do, even at only 32 pages that’s going to be plenty of months’ worth. I don’t want to mix it all in with everything else as it’ll be harder to find and compare and be nice for my wife to be able to reference it.
Feel like I need to plan out what I’ll put in it though. For example, is it just the month’s info or is it also year to date, and is it just expenses or looking long term? Probably just that month’s expenses would make sense. So categories and then top 10 items? I have a big money spreadsheet which has mortgage tracker and taxes etc. so this is more about building awareness of what gets spent. Probably want to split it into essentials - like mortgage and bills (or maybe omit mortgage) - and others (don’t want to call them non-essentials or discretionary as where do you draw the line? Perhaps controllables? Anyway I’m sure it’ll be obvious.
I did start this on my first wiki (dokuwiki) around 2016. I even made some templates that it would use when I made a new month (dokuwiki is really good…) and would fill in the details there. Think I lasted two months then stopped. Well I shifted to using beancount (a ledger-cli type) and fava for a web interface. I think in a physical book will be better though. Might go look for that notebook now, and then make a start on the lawn.
Written on my iPad looking out at the back garden 🪴 with a cup of tea ☕️
Wednesday, 25th May, 2022
Went for a walk at lunchtime. Was lovely and sunny when I left, then it absolutely poured with rain and I got soaked. Tried drying my shirt in the hand-dryer at work but no good. It’s now lovely and sunny again. 🥺🌞
Thinking about printing all these entries into a book - my web journal. Mostly so I go back and read them one day. They’re all markdown in this site, although I do have some in Tiddlywiki I’ve not migrated across, but those are JSON structured files (or can be). I think this is just figuring out a layout and CSS and then using something like pandoc to create a pdf or epub and finding a website to print it. I could even just export to DayOne formatted JSON and get them to print it! Although that’s probably a bit expensive.
It’s hard not to want to buy little trinkets to sit at my writing area. Really they should be things I’ve acquired from distant relatives, or a trip somewhere interesting, or has a funny story behind it. Not some junk from Amazon, or eBay, or Etsy.
I hate to admit it, but last night I did some work at home. Managed to get some item that’s been dragging a long time out of the way which was satisfying. It’s just not satisfying to be doing work after hours. But being productive is good, right? I say this as now I’m tempted to do something else work related.
I’ve just noticed that as I sit in the office, the background noises consist of birds outside, the occasional person or car going by, and by far the loudest of the lot, the hard drives in the server doing various reads or writes or whatever they’re doing. Little chirps and burrs coming from under the table. Like the snoring of a slumbering beast. Occasionally it’ll turn over and there’ll be a sudden garumpff of hard drive writing and an unknown job kicks into action and decides it needs to write a bunch of data. Most like my friend’s server deciding to synchronise some unimportant data between our machines.
Searching my password database led me to remember this blogging site.
Bought the Hobonichi July-Dec half book in A6, and a few stickers and tape from Suteki stickers. Gets posted out 20th June. It was a bit pricey but people seem to like them and the half book is…half the price… so will be a good starter to see if I like it. I should’ve got the full one for Christmas but I decided to go with the Rocketbook - the wipe clean, scan it, OCR, thing - which I’m afraid to say I’ve never used yet. Oops.
Tuesday, 24th May, 2022
I just noticed I have emacs installed on my work computer…💭🤔🤨🧐🧙🏻♂️🧠
I eventually printed off a few photos last night, wrote a small letter to my mum, who’s been ill, and posted it to her. I just wrote with a pen rather than the typewriter. It’s just quicker and quieter, although my handwriting is terrible. I should try and make that better. I also watched some more Gravity Falls.
Monday, 23rd May, 2022
I built the Ferris Sweep last night. Was fun to do, and it all works except the M key. I’ll check the solder joints tonight, either on the switch or maybe the controller - unless the switch itself is broken, but that seems unlikely. My goodness it’s going to be a challenge to use the thing though! 😅
I’ve added the DayOne widget to the Home Screen of my ipad. Now I get to see the “on this day” without having to open up the app, which is nice. I’ve entered into it on and off over the years but never really looked at old entries, so having this is nice. I did get two books printed out, which are really nice and great ways to actually look back at what we did. It definitely encourages me to keep using it.
I used to get hung up over missing days and thinking that I needed to go back and fill them in. Then that would feel overwhelming so I wouldn’t enter anything and that made the situation worse. I learnt that when I come back to read the entries, I don’t really care that I missed entries but that I really enjoyed when I did make them. So if I miss a day, a week, a month etc. then don’t fret and just add today’s. That usually helps build up the rhythm to keep adding to it everyday.
I’m currently a little like this with a photo album I was going to make. I was planning on printing off some photos and sticking them into a large notebook. This was planned in time for the new year and I have still yet to do anything. Now I’m wondering if I go back to 1st Jan and print things out or just start from today. Adding photos is fine but I wanted to write a little commentary to go with it, and maybe make it into a present. Now I’ll struggle to write anything worthwhile - either it’ll just the be obvious: “here we are at so-and-so’s”, or I’ll just copy DayOne entries, which is just a duplicate. I guess by my previous logic I should just start now…but somehow I’m not convincing myself enough. 🫠
In case you haven’t seen it: The first eight minutes of Stranger Things Season 4 has been put on YouTube by Netflix.
My daughter was using the typewriter today. She enjoys seeing the output immediately on the page and the noise and feel of it. Carriage return has a new (original) meaning now! She was amazed at how to do ! too. It’s very loud though. Speaking of loud, the neighbour’s boy is learning the bagpipes. 🏴 I can hear it well through two sets of double gazed windows, so it must be absolutely deafening in the house! Let’s hope he masters it quickly, for his family’s sake!
There’s lots of things I could do. But I think I’m too tired to do any of them. Is that okay?
I kinda like sitting at my new writing area and…er…writing. It’s mostly been on the iPad rather than notebooks or typewriter, but I think that’s okay. I’m still using a computer but it’s slightly better. I did try to tidy up the apps on my iPad so I wouldn’t just wonder off and look at random things. I did find myself scrolling through Amazon Prime video list. I’ve barely watched anything on Amazon Prime, and scrolling through it didn’t encourage me to watch anything. However, what was I doing? I then opened up YouTube and started scrolling. I even opened a video but then closed it immediately. Everything is 20 minutes minimum and I don’t want to commit to that. I could watch it at 1.5 or more speed but still. It’s mostly about buying something. Least that’s what I get recommended: new cameras, computers, stuff. It doesn’t help. I’m too tired to do anything but seemingly not too tired to buy things!
What could I be doing?
- Fixing the keyboard I made last night
- Fixing the GPIO headers on the pi zero I soldered a month+ ago, and then finally getting it working with e-ink display.
- Printing photos for myself or others
- Write a letter to someone
- Do all these JavaScript and etc. tutorials I’ve saved for myself.
- Read some of the endless non-fiction books I buy
- Go for a walk, run, cycle
Listen to music. When was the last time I just listened to music as the activity. Not have it on in the background or whilst I do something else? Probably about the time I last bought a CD.
I remember as a boy, before we had a computer in the house, that I had a desk in my room. There was nothing on it. I presume I used it for drawing or colouring or maybe reading. I do remember getting a telephone (from somewhere) and running an extension cord to the socket and then having the phone on the desk. I’d put it on the top, or in the drawer or on the keyboard drawer and generally move it about. I didn’t call anyone or get any calls - although I probably took calls from my dad on it. I’d admire the phone and felt the desk was whole and proper now that it had a phone. I really wanted a computer but that was never going to happen. Least not for another 5 years. Now I look at my desk and I can’t find a surface for computers and other stuff. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just how things are. I’m probably not looking back on them as the good ol’days. I do wonder what I did with all my time as a kid. I wish I had a photo of my room. I remember having some shelving which kept all my books and things. I just don’t remember what was on it.
I like looking at Google Streetview and house listing archives to see inside and out of the houses we used to live in when I was a child. I could make a record of it all, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Sometimes I think about trying to remember as far back in time as I can and then writing it all down, and seeing what does come back to me. Sometimes I’m not sure I should though.
Sunday, 22nd May, 2022
HTTP Cat, a cat for every status.
I’ve fallen off every system I’ve had. I thought they weren’t worthwhile, but now I’m thinking that perhaps they are. Given every evening or piece of free time I have no idea what I should do, and end up just looking at random things online or creating reasons why I need to buy things.
For a while I was thinking I should sell all my Fuji gear and get a X100V. Now the X100V is a very fine camera, and I could be perfectly happy with it. I used a X100F for three years and had no other camera. The V even has some upgrades over the F which I think I’d like - such as the fold out screen and supposedly improved lens for focusing at f/2. In many ways it would be nice to have a single camera, no need to look at lenses, and just focus on using it to improve my photography. I also really like 23mm on APS-C, the 23 mm f/1.4 is my most used lens on the X-T2 I have. I’d also like the classic neg, and the extra jpeg options in camera that the X100V has. This is actually one of the biggest pluses for me. I’ve really come to enjoy using the colour management in the camera to then avoid having to do any editing on the computer. At most I do is cropping and very, very occasionally fixing the exposure on a shot. Usually the shot is fine as is or it’s nothing that interesting to waste my time correcting. As I write this I’m tempting myself more with this idea. 😅
Why wouldn’t I change? Well the hassle of selling everything, the fact that all the lenses have probably depreciated, and the lack of flexibility. It is nice having an ILC body so I can switch from the f/1.4 for indoors, to the 200 mm zoom for kids sports or wildlife, the macro for scanning film negatives. Doesn’t that all sound great? Well the reality is whilst I have those lenses and could do all those things, I don’t. I don’t scan negatives, I did one but home developing isn’t something I’m doing much of as it feels like a chore, and whilst my daughter does play football, I’m usually at home with the others. She does a lot of swimming but photography isn’t allowed, and I’m also at home as before. So whilst that flexibility is great, I don’t really use it. The most I get out of it is picking between 23, 35, 50 mm lenses for when we’re in the garden or out and about. I have the 16-80mm f/4 zoom but it’s too big and heavy that I stopped using it. I prefer the fixed length primes give. Now as the children get older I might do these things more (maybe) so there’s that.
It may be just an excuse to buy new things (and maybe it be cash neutral once I sell the other stuff). I’m also very much in a simplify and minimise mood. I have been guilty of buying new (used at least) lenses over the past 6 months, which I probably don’t need but somehow (rather easily no doubt) convinced myself to buy them.
After taking lots of film photos at the wedding a few weeks back, I’ve not really taken any photos. So all this talk of buying and selling, I decided I should get the X-T2 out and start taking pictures. It reminded me that I enjoy doing it, but it didn’t really help decide if I should keep the X-T2 or not. The cameras are really tools, and like a good tool box you tend to try and gather the right ones for when the job comes along. So whilst you might not use something for a long time, when you do come to need it, it’s nice that you have it. This is another reason for keeping the X-T2. It’s also a reason to keep everything but sometimes having too many things is annoying.
If I took more film photos then I’d probably be happier moving to the X100V, however, the price of film has become insane. A single B&W HP5 is now £7. Colour can’t even be found, except a 5-pack of Portra 400 for £82! £16.40 for one film 😭 Not sure what to do about this. I have some film still in stocks but when am I going to buy more? Ugh.
Saturday, 21st May, 2022
The PCBs for the Ferris Sweep arrived today. They’re a lovely shade of blue. Not sure when to build it. Tonight?
Trying out DigiKam for photo organisation. It looks like software that you need to watch several videos about to understand how it all works. There’s a big manual but it’s big… I left it detecting faces but I think that I should’ve limited it to a small subset of the photos. It also seems like you detect faces (as in here be a face vs. a plant), name a few, then re-run it or I suppose retrain the model. We’ll see how it goes. It’s certainly not lacking features, just it might be overwhelming.
Another glorious day here. 😎
I want to go back into my journal and see if there’s reasons why I bought the mac mini in the first place. Perhaps I just “wanted it” but I think there was some reason. There was certainly having another computer to use when my daughter is on the main one. It also might’ve been my thoughts of learning javascript (and how I couldn’t do that with just an iPad - actually I could). Funnily enough buying the computer did not result in me learning JS… 🙄
Why is it so easy to think of new things I want to buy? It seems impossible just to be without having to buy something.
Gravity Falls is hilarious.
Friday, 20th May, 2022
Turning off smart punctuation stops the em and en dash thing in iOS. Finally. Conveniently the . with double space is it own setting.
It’s a lovely day here. After school drop off I sat out in the garden with a cup of tea (of course) and just listened to the birds and shooed away a cat looking to use the veg patch as a litter box. I could sit and write a novel out here.
I ought to tidy the garage and do other things but…maybe later. 🕰
I cleared out the mac and made space for the typewriter and notebooks/paper writing. Removing one of the monitors for the mac did make a big difference and I was tempted to keep it just like that - think iMac look. Whilst it did look much better, it still wasn’t going to help with doing more actual writing. So I’ve removed the mac altogether. The space works well for typing on the iPad too, although that’s not much better than going on the computer. I wrote a little in my notebook and it was nice. I want to write more letters and send mail with photos etc. or just write on paper. Can’t decide if I should sell the Mac and monitor or just keep it all. Either I might change my mind, or maybe it’ll be useful later? I should probably just sell it…I’ll see how it goes.
I now immediately want to buy some desk organising thing or something to stack paper and pens and other writing junk. I don’t need it, I just want to add it! I have the date stamp somewhere so I could use that. I also have Mario Pipe mug that I’m using as my pen holder, so that’s good enough. Perhaps a little tray might be nice to keep a few tiny items. Putting everything out does risk the kids getting it, especially the 2-year old, and then drawing/stamping/using/breaking whatever it is over everything. So maybe it’s best that stuff stays out the way.
One week until Stranger Things Season 4. Feels like an eternity since the last ones…maybe I should rewatch them…? 🧑🏾🧑🏻👦🏻👧🏻🩸🙃🧇🚴🏾♀️👩🏻🦰
Thursday, 19th May, 2022
It annoys me that it’s a pain to type --- on iOS without it making em or en dashes. Think I complained about it last time I used the ipad to add a post here. What’s especially annoying is that the JavaScript in 1Writer to add the frontmatter also messes up the dashes. Wonder if there’s some raw or ignore ability.
It rained a lot yesterday and now it’s glorious sun and warm, the garden is going to explode with plants! 🌺🌳 Which will be great.
Off work tomorrow, will I do anything constructive or will I waste the whole day on the computer doing nothing 🤔🫠
I could do the mac move about, as I’ve still not done it.
I did install nocodb,and it’s nice, although features are a bit limited. It’s pretty much a nice front end to a database to add and edit tables. Does a few other things but not the full functionality of table joining etc. that I’d like. A useful place to store tables, so I know where they are. It does have an API so you can query the tables. I logged into Airtable and was immediately reminded of the full functionality that I was really looking for. Except I don’t want to pay for Airtable. Nocodb is also a little buggy, it’s not broken but there are quite a few things that need work around or you have to repeat a process for it to actually stick. 🐞
Daughter and I have been watching Gravity Falls. It’s a great show, I could easily watch it without her! ⬇️🌎🌲❓
This is a nice site.
Wednesday, 18th May, 2022
NocoDB looks fun. I’ve installed it before but never actually used it. I should do so properly this time.
Later on last night I realised I could use gedit’s external script feature to make a bash script (or python) that creates the new file, with correct name and front matter, all with one shortcut key.
Imagine if I could use Linux at work. It would be utopia. 🦄🔮
Tuesday, 17th May, 2022
I’ve yet to do anything whatsoever, and I will just move the mac mini temporarily, but I still feel that the better option is to sell the mac. I don’t want more choice, and more scope for distractions. Yes, iMessage, and Photos and safari handoff are nice but I think I made them out to be more beneficial that I thought. The biggest challenge will be photos. But even that isn’t really much of a challenge. I already store them in organised folders on the computer, I back these up to my friend’s server. There’s no face recognition, or auto memory generation, though but I could install DigiKam or Lightroom or something and use that. I don’t want to pay for Lightroom subscription, but I do have a key to classic or whatever the standalone version is called. Apple Photos has been nice but I’ve not really used much of it. Sometimes I open it and look at what it suggests, or I’ll find a photo from the library on my phone to show someone. But nothing that I could easily do without.
Printed photos is what I really want, and Apple Photos hasn’t helped with that…
The hardest part will be unwinding iCloud subscription to the 50GB tier and removing all my photos. The 2TB tier is only £7 a month but I have a lot of only £<10 month things and they do add up. I should do a subscription list and see what it is.
I won’t be selling the mac mini until an eBay seller offer comes along but I should be ready as it could be any weekend. I’ll sell the Apple Cinema 23” HD too, that’s going to be a pain to post but I don’t need it cluttering the house. Also the mac mini is a little slow, likely Photos app’s fault, and it’s stuck on some older version of macOS.
But I do worry that once I’ve sold it, I’ll miss having a mac for some reason. Probably the trackpad.
Finally setup the ThinkPad with the dock on my main monitors. Bluetooth and figuring out the sequence of power button pressing of the dock was a bit of a pain. Still not sure I know what it’s doing, especially when the screen doesn’t come on to enter the decrpytion password. GNOME handles it all well, except I think there’s probably an optimum power/wake/power button setting combination to make things smoother. One thing I can say though…
I LOVE IT! 🥰️
I’ve been trying out using gedit for editing this blog. It’s by no means as fully featured as VS Code, but it does still have a lot of tricks up its sleeve. There are a lot of plugins for it, and you can set custom scripts to run on a shortcut - basically any bash code you want. I have a quick git commit and push one. So with a simple Ctrl+Shift+p (for push) all the new posts are pushed. Good enough for me, and quicker than VS Code’s GUI.
Monday, 16th May, 2022
For starters, I can relocate the mac mini to under my desk and plugged into the main monitor. This means I can clear the area where it was and setup my analogue space. This means I can test the theory and the decision is reversible. I’m not sure it’s a long term solution as it doesn’t help get rid of computers, it just adds choice…do I log into the windows machine, the mac or the linux laptop? There’s also the edge case that my daughter likes to play multiplayer games with her friends when they visit…but this is rare and they can do something else. The weather is meh but time for a lunchtime walk. 🚶
Weather turned out to be more than meh
Sunday, 15th May, 2022
I did finally install Arch Linux on the T490. I like GNOME and it makes things very easy once you’ve got the bones of the install done. I used to hate GNOME and say it was too bloated, and the lack of choice was poor etc. I’d run XFCE if I wanted a DE or i3 if I just wanted a WM. i3 is very nice but unless I had it on all machines I use, I’d forget the shortcut keys and it would get annoying. I also found that on a laptop all I use is full screen single app, or two side by side, and pretty much every DE does that out of the box. I just need to install gnome, gnome-extras, and networkmanager and then everything is done! GNOME is also nice with integrated apps for accounts - much like Apple. I sign into Google account once, and then email, docs, calendar etc. are all configured.
The hardest part of the install (or that takes the longest) is the partitioning and drive setup and boot loader. I like to do LVM on LUKS, so that I have an encrypted drive with LUKS, and then an easy way to enable hibernation with swap as part of LVM volume. It might not be entirely necessary but it’s the way I’ve found works and generally easy to do. Boot loader wise, I like to use systemd-boot, as I already have it installed, vs. the other option which is GRUB. GRUB might be easier but I like having systemd do it.
Of course the Arch Wiki covers all of these in great detail, but it can be confusing to piece everything together, or work through all the documentation because there is so much. I have my own cheat sheet which has all the commands but also links to the wiki pages - in case stuff changes between installs.
Gnote, an app for GNOME, is remarkably well featured and quite honestly could be used for PKM. It’s got wiki links, daily journal, todo, table of contents, and can sync with various cloud systems (the ones configurable in GNOME accounts), or webdav, and you can export to HTML. I’m pretty impressed. If only I used GNOME everywhere…supposed the notes are in Tomboy format (some sort of xml) so maybe usable elsewhere.
Thinking of selling my mac mini setup, so that I can have an analogue area without computers - for writing or typing on typewriter etc. Could have a little lamp and pens and paper stack or something.
Very surprising the UK won 2nd place in EuroVision song contest. 🇬🇧🥈
I feel the tide turning. I want to change things up (well in the usual way but the desire to do so is back), including:
Simplify stuff.
I have too many computers and things. I want to get rid of the Apple Mac Mini, and use the space for analogue activities. Journaling, typing, note-taking, letter writing, book making. Things are too difficult to write and it’s impossible not to sit at a computer. I’ve thought about having something else around the house where I have my analogue station but I’d need to buy more furniture - a desk or table - and don’t want to. I could use the kitchen table but that’s not permanent and not sure I like that idea. I ahve been thinking about rearranging the garage to make a work space and I could write in there.
However, I do like the Apple Photos setup I have. Given I have all our photos in it, and ones from my phone sync with the computer it’s very convenient. I don’t really need it though but it’s hard to undo it. The good thing about selling a mac is that they don’t really depreciate much once quite old, and I think this model (the 2012 i7 with 16GB of RAM) is still very popular. I’m still torn about getting rid of it as it might come in handy? Or the money will just get lost and I’ll not get anything meaningful in return - although I could buy a lot of paper stuff for the same price. Sometimes I regret selling things as I’m too hasty to get rid of it then later wish I hadn’t. The only counter to it, is that I do want to get an iMac at some point for the house - probably kitchen if we do a redesign - to use as a family computer. Although that’s more I just want to get something and if I thought hard enough I’d realise I don’t need it.
I bought a new computer recently, and I didn’t really need it. Although I’m now thinking I can give my old one to my sister, who likely just has some ancient laptop and she’s going back to uni so will have lots of time and not much money so it’ll be better to play games on. Plus I’d get nothing for it on ebay so she might as well use it. Will need a new graphics card, and at this rate I’m never going to buy one for myself, so might have to pick up an older one on ebay for it.
I’d possibly miss DayOne on the mac but actually I’ve not been using it that much - on the mac or in general - so probably not the end of the world. I have the iPad with keyboard that I like typing on so can always use that. It’s still a nice thing and when I print the books it’s good. Debated about stopping using it and handwriting but I think that’s putting it at risk of ever doing it. I do have the big moleskin I’m meant to print out pictures yet not printed anything in ages. Partly why I want to setup an analogue area, so I write stuff and improve the habit.
Exercise
I need to do some. My work trousers have not shrunk in the wardrobe. I do cycle to work which is something at least but it’s hardly the work out. I deliberately don’t go too fast so I don’t need to change or shower at work, as that’ll take ages. However, I have a hard time separating wanting to buy things with doing exercise. Nothing is stopping me from using the bike trainer I have, or going for a run or doing HIIT or push ups etc. at home. I don’t need to buy anything. Yet I still want to buy a rowing machine. I think that will make me do something. Really though I need to refer to simplify stuff, I need to habit track it (oh, let’s install habitrpg and that’l…no it won’t) and then do it. I should make it part of this blog or something. Metres rowed today, can even back it into the front matter and make it look nice. It’s 4 years worth of Zwift subscription. I was considering buying a GR3 or a X-E4 camera…they’re both about the same price and I don’t need them. A GR3 would be nice, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I need to sort out the garage. Maybe do some cycling to get into the routine THEN think about buying one. Or use the gym at work (when it gets built).
Use computers less
They’re not bad. I’m just bad at using them. I waste so much time on them. It’s impossible not to get sucked into looking at stuff that I don’t need or want. I should be doing other things. See above two items. Not sure the best way to do this. It’ll require active work to make it happen.
Feel like I have a lot to write today.
Saturday, 14th May, 2022
Lovely weather this morning. ☀️We were all out in the garden. I fixed the wigloo (willow igloo) as all the top branches had come away and everything was open at the top.
The lawn needs mowing again but the garden waste bins are full as they wouldn’t empty them as we haven’t paid another fee to the council 🙄
I need to re-jig the server so I’m running nginx as the proxy not traefik - mostly as I just want to post a static site or some non-docker thing. I’ve been saying this to myself for ages, yet I never do anything. I was sort of going to rebuild the server or reinstall it or something but I’ve done none of those, and I don’t really need to build a new one. I’m also meant to be installing linux on my laptop but yet to do that either. The time I spend thinking about doing it, I could’ve just done it.
Also lots of other things I’m meant to be doing. I forget them just now.
Friday, 13th May, 2022
Cycling to work this morning was enjoyable. The weather was mild, everything is green, some little birds flew out of the hedges and flew besides me for a while. I was listening to talkpython podcast - such a well done, interesting and motivating podcast.
The financial world seems some what negative at the moment - inflation, interest rates, utility prices, declines etc. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in it and feel negative towards life. So much of that is not controllable by me, it does me no good to stress or fret over it, so I should clear it from my mind. This is easy to say but can be hard to do.
It helps putting things in perspective. There was a news article about how kids’ playgrounds aren’t suitable for disabled children. I’m grateful that I’m well-abled, and my family all are too.
Do something constructive, do something outside, spending time with people face to face. ⬅ That’s me telling me.
I refreshed my memory of QMK, and now trying to figure out a layout for the Ferris Sweep keyboard. The stock layout is hard to find…well it’s not obvious in the github repo. There are several others if I search Github, some are simple and some are complex with all the advanced QMK things that my familiarisation didn’t cover. What I really need to do is print out some layouts and write in them to see what makes sense.
Turns out I’ve used keybr in the past (2016).
Thursday, 12th May, 2022
I’m amazing. Amazing at spending so much time looking at web frameworks, CSS, layouts, themes, static generators, blogging software, and yet making no progress whatsoever in regards to any changes or, more importantly, writing anything. 😫
My parts for the keyboard I’m building arrived. They included a nice little stroopwafel and sticker in with it, which was fun. The PCBs have just been shipped, although I picked the cheapest and slowest shipping method, so it could still be 2-4 weeks before they arrive. The new heads for my soldering iron arrived too. I could look at the firmware and start thinking about the layout and getting those files ready - in fact I can even flash them to the controllers has I have them now. That would be a good use of time this evening, getting the code and familiarising myself with QMK again….with the noobs guide I think.
The key to the success of this new keyboard, the Ferris Sweep, is going to be in the layout. It needs to be efficient, learnable and as simple as possible. Sounds easy. Some guy on youtube seemed to have a good approach to it. Need to go back and look at what he did, but the main approach seemed to be using the two thumb keys to always navigate back and forth between the layers and not rely on holdoing down keys. It’s better to tap a key to change a layer, enter the letter, then tap the opposite thumb key to return, vs. holding a thumb key or other key as a modifier. It’s more key presses, so seems a little counter-intuitive but he says the motion is more memorable as it’s a frequent pattern and therefore more practical. But we’ll see…
Wednesday, 11th May, 2022
The Terra UST and Terra LUNA collapse makes for an interesting read. (If you don’t know UST is meant to be a stablecoin, i.e. pegged to US dollar, but maintains the peg via an algorithm with the LUNA coin). After huge demand saw it rise to top 10 coins/tokens, various manipulation by big boy institutions or owners has made it collapse. I hope it does recover the peg, because I feel that for crypto to be a true decentralised financial system it needs a stable coin that is independent of the traditional system. It does work as a stable coin but when people take advantage of situations to make more money for themselves at the expense of everyone else I wonder what the real problem is. However, if you saw an opportunity to make money via “a clever way” would you not take it? Especially as you don’t see all the people who lose out as their mysterious online entities.
You know it’s bad when reddit starts pinning suicide hotlines.
For anyone who does hold UST, then I’d suggest just sitting tight. You can’t control anything about it and the mechanism to hold it stable is still there. You just have to sit through the fear of everyone else whilst they sell out. LUNA holders…I’m sorry, who knows. Of course, Warren Buffet tells us to be greedy when others are fearful. This could be the greatest money making opportunity this year in crypto. Buy a dollar for 35 cents? Why wouldn’t you 😅.
I think I’ve concluded my endless search for a new blog layout. I just need to make it now.
I need to find something else to do in the evenings. Maybe even do some exercise! No, I should plan out the garage rearrange…I still really want a rowing machine.
Tuesday, 10th May, 2022
I still wasted the whole of yesterday evening looking at web site design things. I thought I’d found a nice CSS to use but later decided I didn’t like it. I ended up looking at random things on codepen.io thinking that I could combine various stuff together to make a new site. It was just doom-scrolling in another form.
I did come across lots of nice little personal blogs, that were all custom built and reflected what the author wanted them to. That is what I want to do, and in my head that’s not wordpress. I now just need to figure out what I want. Also considering merging this with the main blog, but I do like this as a standalone page with a dedicated purpose.
More notetaking software.
Did sell my old laptop screen, for about 60% of the price of the new 1080p, so that’s nice.
Monday, 9th May, 2022
Managed to distract myself enough from endless blog debating and order a Ferris Sweep PCB and parts. Was a bit more expensive than I thought it was going to be. Mostly as I couldn’t find a lot of the parts in the UK and had to order from Europe. I last made a keyboard in December 2018, and later sold everything I had as I didn’t use them and just wanted a normal keyboard. I think I’ve lasted remarkably well, three and a half years, before making a new one. Probably as I’ve been into film photography and other things in the interim. After I ordered it, I did wonder if it’ll end up the same as the previous times: Fun building it 🥽🛠 but then less fun actually using it. In my head I have that I’m going to learn Colemak or some random layout with the multiple layers and it’ll be…great? Plus as the minimum order was 5 PCBs I’ll make one for home and one for work and just use it all the time. 🙄
Well least I could sell the remaining PCBs to make a little money back - and you never know, it might be amazing…
I’m an “Enthusiastic Github User”.
I remembered I wanted some AfterShockz bone-conducting headphones for cycling. Although I just use one ear headphone on the inside and that seems fine. I should do a life stack page. This guy has lots of stuff I want…I don’t need more stuff..
I changed the wiki just to show the most recently created tiddlers: [all[tiddlers]!is[system]days:created[-7]!sort[created]].
Less 🪶
Sunday, 8th May, 2022
It’s been a week of this site. Could do with a quick way to add the small frontmatter to a new page. 1Writer has JavaScript actions that could probably do it.
Oh iOS annoying replaces two dashes with an en-dash or em-dash. Makes writing the front matter very annoying.
Setup a Wordpress blog which is really nice for writing and adding photos but I can’t get past not having a static blog. I don’t know why it matters so much to me. I just look at Wordpress and think bloat and excess. It probably isn’t but I can’t get past that.
Managed to sort out the front matter entry with 1Writer. Should make things easier. I even have an Apple Shortcuts that commits everything and pushes it to the repo. So I can ask Siri to sync blog and away it goes. Siri does announce the path and name of the file which is a little long and unnecessary but not sure there’s any options to turn that off.
Saturday, 7th May, 2022
I fell into my bad habit of spending the whole evening looking at blog themes and yet doing nothing whatsoever in regards to making progress. I ended up thinking that I should just make one myself, but I was meant to be avoiding that as I didn’t want to spend the time doing so. I then thought I should just go hosted, like Wordpress or micro.blog or Write.as etc etc. Then I remember I don’t like those as backup isn’t straight forward (although maybe it is and I’ve just not looked into it).
Anyway, it just means the whole evening was a waste and I regret not doing something better - even playing a game or watching a movie would feel better.
The sad thing is, once I finally make this site - am I actually going to write in it? 😑
Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess
— Alain de Botton Status Anxiety
One typed Page
Friday, 6th May, 2022
Tidied up the office a little bit today. Does make it feel better, although there’s still too much stuff. Not sure what I’d get rid of though. I think dual monitors for the mac takes up too much space, perhaps a bigger single one would be better…(or a new imac 😅). The typewriter is mostly a decoration and doesn’t quite fit, but again, that may be the second monitor. Ideally I’d have a dedicated work space for each. I don’t read or write (typewrite or handwrite) as everything is setup to use a computer instead. Be nice to have a separate bureau or writing desk to do that, or …a library 🙄.
I’ve also been thinking about setting up a workbench in the garage - for soldering, general repairs, projects etc. Just somewhere that it doesn’t matter if you make a mess on the top or I can open the doors to get some ventilation etc.
I’ve finally taken the new screen for the T490 out of the box and watched some videos on changing it. The videos only last 3 minutes and it’s done…why do I think it’ll take me an hour…It’s quite a lot of glued stuff or clipped on bits.
I successfully managed to replace the screen, now in glorious 1920x1080. Looks much better. Now just to install linux.
Tried making the new blog but didn’t have much luck with Hugo, perhaps I wasn’t in the right mode. also kind of just want to go with jekyll as I’m comfy with it.
Should’ve cut the lawn 🏡🟩 this evening instead of wasting hours looking a rubbish online. ▶️
Thursday, 5th May, 2022
Nanogallery looks nice, but I couldn’t be bothered to figure it out or build the HTML for it, and just threw the photos into my personal photos site. I might come back to it and make a python script to build a version. I’m surprised there wasn’t something on github already, or if there is I didn’t find it. I’ll add that to the projects list and then never do it. 👶
I do enjoy when my wife looks at my film photos and says with a surprised tone: “there are hardly any duff ones”. Thanks love 😅.
Editing film photos is just straightening a few that look bad, e.g. water or horizons, and cropping here and there. I never need or want to touch colour or even exposure. The only exception is where there’s a nice one and I tried to push my luck in the evening and it’s come out under exposed. However, one of those ones from this last batch was one of my wife’s favourites and I hadn’t even adjusted it.
Wednesday, 4th May, 2022
Didn’t make the new blog as I was speaking to my mum and dad last night. Probably been a month since I spoke to them on the phone/facetime. I’ve also just paid for my films being developed so I should be getting the photos soon. That means I’m now looking at static gallery generators to put something together for the wedding we were at. I’d prefer static so I can just throw it up online and forget about it. I’ve got my own static photo album site, which I do like, but that’s more for multiple albums, whereas I think I’m just going to want a single page. I took quite a few photos but I suspect there’ll be a limited number, plus people get bored about about 30 photos.
Some ones of potential interest:
Also on the wiki. (oh the pain of it being separated…)
Most interested in Nanogallery. Will have to investigate that more. Also has a php app that just makes the site, and an online builder.
I finished Picard last night. I understand a series ending such that there’ll be another one but I thought the gap left is too big. It was fine, nothing super-exciting to write home about and the story is only decent because of the characters and their history. If you swapped the characters to just random new people it would be pretty poor.
The 10 types of blog posts.
I like writing here (as in VS Code) at work because no-one knows what it is, and it’s definitely not a browser. Of course 100% of my time at work, I’m working. 😇
Tuesday, 3rd May, 2022
Spent way too long last night playing Dark Forest. Once I’d explored more of the map I found lots of good planets to go after. I really wanted to get a bigger planet before I went to bed so it could recharge whilst I was asleep. It was a lot of shuffling energy between smaller planets inching my way towards the target. Whilst I was waiting I continued watching Picard on Amazon Prime. I’d watched up to episode 5 or 6 a few weeks ago and then was waiting for the new ones to come out. This meant after watching one, I wanted to watch the next and so with this and the game it was a late night! 😴🌙
The other person who took my other planets has now captured the level 9 planet. Hopefully I can hide in the shadows because that thing will annihilate anything! I have spied a level 8 planet but I suspect so has this person.
In case you’re wondering the wiki is now here. It’s also here and has been ever since I switched to node.js version, but I don’t use that URL as work blocks mine domain. 😓 I’ve thought about having it generate a static version to host at wiki.alexjj sort of as a backup, but I’ve not got round to it yet. The question for myself is how do I change or use the wiki? I suppose use is the same, just fewer or no-journal entries (or maybe backing up entries from here?) and keep adding links and notes of useful things I find or stuff I’m working out. It’s probably more the home page, what tiddlers should be displayed, do I need a landing page tiddler or a welcome or something? Or do I go “I don’t care, it’s my wiki, it’s online as convenient for me, and it’s accessible because why not and maybe it’ll occasionally be useful to someone”. Tiddlywiki is great, and probably the best wiki, but I do struggle with the landing view of Tiddlywiki. As I don’t need a defined hierarchy to build notes and entires I don’t have a natural progression to find things. I still have my dokuwiki instance running, and I like the automatic structure of having sections and pages within those sections. Occasionally I’ll open it up and poke about and wonder if I should go back to it vs. Tiddlywiki. I’m reminded of my previous debates about it. It’s easy to keep both but I then only put in a fraction of the time to make things better.
I’m now reminiscing of my dokuwiki I had from 2014 until 2018(?), it dutifully ran on a €3/year ipv4 NAT mini VPS with 128 MB RAM. One upgrade broke it or maybe I did something and it stopped working. I have all the data (plain text entries - that’s why I love it!) but I’ve not restored it and only imported some of the older materials. I didn’t even look for other software or tools in that time. I think I’d come across tiddlywiki during that time but didn’t understand it (after 2 minutes of using it) so never continued with it.
We have a nice kitchen at home but the layout could be better and some cupboard/drawer combinations could be better. Just no-one wants to “edit” it, and just want you to buy a whole new one.
The Mac mini I bought somewhat recently hasn’t lasted long without slowing down or having various crashing issues. Unfortunately I suspect it’s the OS, as I used to have the exact same model back in 2018-ish. I sold it back then as the quad core i7 minis were going for a premium as they only sold slow dual core intel ones. Not sure if reinstalling will help, it’s hardly got cluttered. If it’s not the OS then it’s Photos app with all my photos in it. The photos app doesn’t seem slow but when I have needed to restart the machine, Photos won’t quit and I have to force quit it. I sort of planned to upgrade it to a new Mac mini at some stage. Although I’ve been thinking an iMac might look nice and keep things tidy in the Apple corner of the office.
The office has gotten out of hand and is messy and cluttered. I’ve tried to sort it out and apart from tidying up bits and bob there still seems to be loads of stuff. I look at each piece individually and there’s some reason why I need it but as a whole it seems excessive and messy. Perhaps I need to be more ruthless.
Using Working Copy on my phone to add to this. Don’t need to even bother with another app as it has a plain text editor built in, and honestly, that’s all I need. I like the ease of tiddlywiki but this actually works better as I don’t have to worry about the server syncing or logging into it, and can even write without internet (for those few minutes of the year!).
I’m torn between playing more Dark Forest tonight or “doing something useful”, such as redoing my main blog. The game is pointless and this round will end in 1.5 days. I’m unlikely to get my score to be above 27,777,777 where I’d win a share of $1,000, so why bother in the first place? I’ve got one more Picard to watch, so I suppose I’ll have df on the other monitor.
Some df group, dfdao has started developing an alternative version that uses another layer for even cheaper and faster transactions. That would be good.
Monday, 2nd May, 2022
Fixed a bunch of things on this site this morning. The next big thing I want to do is change the archives page. Think I want monthly archive pages where it has the whole content on the page. e.g. a 2022/May/ page with the full post content listed. I think a link to each page isn’t useful as there’s so much clicking. Seems like you can’t do what I want out of the box with jekyll but this plugin can probably do it all. Unless I add a search page…I might make a secret search page… 🔎👀
The only other thing I’ve been thinking about is randomising the little pokemon gifs at the bottom of each day. I’ve a whole host of them ready but debating between random on build or random on visit. Random on visit would be via javascript, that makes it more ‘fun’ but unnecessary javascript. Random on build is maybe not bad as I’ll update it most days, although could add to the build time? Currently running on vercel and it caches everything so after the first one taking a long time, now it’s pretty much instant once I push the updates.
Bank holiday here in the UK, but work only enforces three holidays in the year - Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day - the rest we get as flexible, so that means I’m at work.
Time to flip the switch and push this out!
My goodness the archives was a bit of a challenge. The jekyll-archives plugin only makes the pages for me, the layout was for me to figure out. Which is obvious in retrospect but I just assumed I could install the plugin and it was all done as if by magic 🧙♂️. With various for-loops and group-bys I managed to make what I think is a more useful archive arrangement. There are actually whole year archive pages, e.g. this one, where every post will be listed, but they’re not linked anywhere just yet. Might change it, or remove them or just leave as other hidden pages.
What else? I could import all my old posts from the last time I did a static site for this and from tiddlywiki. I’ll see how it goes for the next few days before doing that though.
I figured out how to setup a GPU miner for Dark Forest and I’m now exploring the map at about 50x faster. After losing my good planets to someone else I’ve since discovered that a level 9 planet is right next to where I was. This is the highest level planet in the game and this person is going to get it 😢. I have found a nice spot with some more planets that I can claim, they’re a little far away so it’s going to be slow going but hopefully I can get established and fortify myself a little. It’s interesting that you don’t actually get any points for capturing someone else’s planet. So it sort of doesn’t matter, but to expand further and find silver or artifacts to prospect etc., it helps to have a big planet resource base in which to have a lot of energy.
Sunday, 1st May, 2022
Testing out the new blog with the minimal journal style. Decided I don’t need most of the stuff I put on the site and the journal is pretty much 99.9% text. This gets rid of a lot of stuff to look after. I can add images into here without them looking terrible but they’re only just not terrible.
Not sure if I’ve got all the templating correct. I’ve not setup pagination, still deciding if I want it or just leave with two weeks of posts and then look to the archives. 14 posts might be a bit much on the home page? We’ll see. It’s late now and I should be asleep. I’ll fiddle with this more tomorrow and hopefully I can flip the domain too.
Then it’ll be sorting out my main blog. Think I’ve found a theme I like. 🤔💭
