Hi everyone. I really want to write more and also to cherish the positives in my life, both past and present. For this reason, I opened the Gratitude app on my iPhone and had the journal feature give me a prompt. It was to write a gratitude letter to one of my grandparents. I have shared quite a few times how my paternal grandmother positively impacted my life. I could write her a gratitude letter and I may do so later on, but for today, I’m choosing to write one to my paternal grandfather.…
Preview detail of a spread from a forthcoming zine project currently in production I’m working on several zine/book projects at the moment, and now have the first in production. It’s only taken about four years of second guessing, losses of momentum, and restarts to get to here, but it’s finally found a form that works. Of course, stripping the idea back to the bare metal is what helped it finally click. The plan, as much as there is one, is to have this and at least one more ready in time for…
it feels wrong that I can leave my plate unsupervised on the table it feels wrong that the pet store is having a sale and I can't go pick a new toy it feels wrong that I can leave the house and not have a reason to hurry back it feels wrong that in the dark I try to see the shape of a sleeping dog and then remember
Matt creates and designs some great apps, they are thoughtful, and considerate of the user. The fact his latest Micro app is called ‘That Guy’ suggests, with a subtle wink and a nod, some knowing on his part about what he has created and, whilst I laud the thinking behind it, I can’t help my gut reaction being JUST WATCH THE MOVIE! The suspension of disbelief, the ability to lose oneself once you enter the hallowed space of a movie theatre, committing to the art and skill that you’ve paid good…
I’ve signed up. On Sunday 9 May 2027, I’ll be taking on the shortest route: 40 miles (65 km) with 2,823 ft (860 m) of climbing. I’ve ridden it before, although the 2021 edition ran in the opposite direction after the original event was postponed because of COVID. The later date coincided with the potato harvest, so the route was reversed to reduce disruption to local farmers. So this will be my first time doing it in the “proper” direction. I’m hoping I can stay injury-free in the lead up. I’ve…
Status: Had a couple of friends over last night to watch the football, which was nice but also the first time, in my 54 years, I’ve ever had someone over to watch the football, so it was a little odd. I wasn’t sure if we should be catching up or attentively watching the little men run around. Match was fun, and I confess to some schadenfreude at the eejits in their crusades cosplay at the end looking all sad. Fuck those guys. Learn your history. Today I took some portrait photos for my…
mostly for my own remembrance. Friend told me you can pick your discomfort now in fitness or later when you get (even) older.
This was the first stop on a road trip south to visit my wife's family. We've driven past Newport countless times over the last decade, but somehow never realised that one of the finest brick houses in Britain was sitting right there, barely a minute off the M4. We headed down in the morning and arrived at Tredegar House just before lunch. Access here was easy, with no single-track lanes to negotiate! The junction getting back onto the M4 west afterwards is a slightly odd one though. We started…
Well, it's been a while. It's not that I haven't had the time to post. It's just that I sort of fell off the wagon and stopped writing and posting regularly. That's something I want to remedy, because both are positive habits that make me feel better about myself. So, instead of procrastinating while waiting for the perfect ‘I'm back!’ post to be delivered through divine intervention directly to my brain (I'll be honest, I've already tried that approach for a couple of months and it's been less…
In a bid to make my previous flat cosy (fuelled by dreams instigated by pastel youtubers) I bought a few plants. Of course, in my frenzied megalomania I bought a Strelitzia (bird of paradise) for a hefty amount and marvelled at its beauty. I call her Tereza because that way I can remember her scientific name. Two pots later this being has grown exponentially in the corner I have placed it in. Now the plant has started leaning towards the window, seeking direct sunlight and it looks as though it…
Well, that's done! They finished everything just before the rain arrived, so we got lucky. There was some smokiness returning as well, and the weather seems to have pushed that out too. They've got to let those walls cure a bit and then they'll take down the bracing and begin working on the slab. I have to figure out where the PEX piping will go for the radiant heat. But first they have to lay out the plumbing, interior wall footers, add stone to bring everything up to grade, compact it all,…
Weird technology mistakes: on Saturday I just wanted to add one of our family gatherings to my calendar on the iPhone. I typed “Family gathering” and the phone helpfully used all the information from an old family gathering, (2019!) copied them into the new entry – and then sent out an invitation everyone who was invited back then. At least it was the right side of the family and nobody was shunned since then, it would have been even more embarrassing. Change feels like a personal attack: “my”…
In 2012, the first Danish wolf in nearly two hundred years was discovered in the northwestern part of the country. Their numbers increased slowly in the years that followed, and by 2020, fewer than ten wolves were still being tracked. But then the population began to rise sharply: around 14 in 2021, 30 in 2022, as many as 80 by the end of 2024, and probably close to a hundred today.At first glance, this is a heartwarming story. The wolf, in the abstract, is a majestic creature. It's great to…
About three weeks ago, a neighbor down the street posted to a local group that she found an orange cat laying on her porch. She’d brought him in for the night, but was looking for his person. The next day, I was outside chatting with my next-door neighbor when a woman drove by asking if we’d seen two loose cats. I said, “No, but our neighbor down the block found one yesterday.” I connected them, and the woman happily took her cat back home, thanking us. She’d just gotten two cats from a friend.…
Bumped into a few people on this evening's dog walk. One of them wasn't even on land.50 words · 1 image
Exactly a week ago, I was in Tonbridge mid-morning, having left my car at one of the local garages, for a re-gas of the air-conditioning system, of all things. It was Mrs PBT’s idea to address the issue of the failing air-conditioning, even though she is not a regular occupant in the passenger seat, but with a week or more into the third heatwave of the summer, I had to admit that the prospect of yet another journey home from work in a steaming hot car, had definitely lost its appeal. I agreed…
Backpacking is about more than gear and permits. Drawing on the Babylon Fire and the recent Bears Ears reduction, here are on some thoughts on why stewardship also means caring about the future of our public lands. Read More ... Continue reading More thoughts on the once and future Bears Ears at PMags.com.
When winter settles over your beehive home, the pace of life in the hive slows to a crawl. The surviving workers cluster together around the queen and gently buzz their muscles to maintain a safe internal temperature. The hive burns through its honey reserves and prepares for spring. Step 1: Keep the Hive FedIn order for the hive to survive the winter, the number of filled surplus honeycomb cells must equal or exceed the population of the hive. Empty one surplus honeycomb cell per adult worker…
I was studying, like, last night and noticed that I was tired as fuck during the process of writing a few queries while watching a video explanation on how to use the best parameters in a database. Yeah, after a day of more than 8 hours of work, 5 different meetings, more than 40 messages sent, and 1 hour of gym after work, of course I would be destroyed when I was supposed to study. Then I started to pressure myself to achieve results, like, "your time is running out. While you're playing…
So I read Turbie's I Wonder How Many is Too Many When it Comes to Adding Pages which says For some people, 9 pages (excluding home and blog (blog posts doesn't count)) seems like it's alot but for me, it seems perfect... for now. I went and checked how many pages I have: thirty-eight excluding the blog and home. With several more in the draft stage. This will seem like a lot to some people and small fry to others. Which is a great thing. We can do whatever we want with our websites! They are…
I woke up this morning with that realization, after having slept on it, to the sound of the cosmos... ...which, actually, was 'just' Ludwig Göransson's inchorprandible soundtrack to Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's epic, as I walked home alone and along Bay Street to home, at almost midnight last night, after having taken in the 8 PM showing at AMC Metreon. And yes, I just made up that word to describe the soundtrack [and by the way who the heck is Göransson and why hadn't I heard any…
I have been wearing smartwatches for over ten years now, pretty much ever since Apple released the first Apple Watch. I went through several of the basic models, eventually landing on the Apple Watch Ultra and up until recently wearing the Ultra 2 daily. I really liked their design and the interchangeable bands, braided solo loop ftw! Had sported pretty much all of the Pride solo loops over time. But like many people embedded deep in technology, I started feeling the tech fatigue of too many…
The other day I mentioned archiving some of my family history online. I opened up Obsidian... and was hit with an older project I've not worked on for a few weeks and started nearly a year ago. Whoops. At my writing group I was talking about a new story I've started. "What about [other story]?" someone asked. Oh, well, you know. Old news. Moved on to shinier pastures. In May 2025 I wrote No starting, only finishing. The situation has not improved. The number of wips has only increased, with…
A chapter of my life closed on Friday 07-10 when my mother's ashes were buried in a grave next to her own mother. Mother and daughter are reunited after being apart for 56 years. I wrote extensively about my mother and her mother in a Mother's Day post, and I strongly encourage you to read it before proceeding, as what I will write is a direct follow-up. If you don't read it, you may be lost with the references and callbacks, so if you need to pause your reading here, please follow the above…
Please enjoy some camera focus adventures (and bonus flowers) This morning, one of the cats was sunbathing in the window and what struck me was the "golden hour" light that was hitting them; usually that's rad as hell and super photogenic but as it was 11am I had a bit of concern. Going outside, I found the sky a shade of brown/orange that can only be described as "Hollywood movie set in Mexico or the Middle East". By about 7pm, we had this blood-red sun in the sky and it looked ominous as…
Recently, I was talking with an online friend that I met in the FGC community. We quickly developed a kind of gaming friendship where we discovered that we both shared the same interests and played the same games, other than fighting stuff. In our last conversation, he told me that he was basically quitting fighting games due to a lack of progression. I was a little bit confused about that since he seemed to enjoy playing fighting games together. When I asked him, he told me, "I'm not…
Heads-up: This post is a bit of a bummer so stay away if you’re looking for something positive. When I went to open the bedroom curtains this morning, I did not expect the outside to look like it was lit by a giant night lamp. This is a photo I took in the apartment at 10 a.m.: And here’s our backyard: The photos don’t do it justice, so I measured the colour temperature of the outside with a white balance card: It’s 3000K outside right now! A normal sunny day is typically around 5600K. For…
Interesting examination of whether therapists are too quick to suggest patients cut off ties with their parents. Of 7,000 estranged parents in a recent survey, some 3,000 said they believed a therapist had played a role in the split.→ The Wall Street Journal
AOMO – Art of missing out BOMO – Beauty of missing out COMO – Chagrin of missing out DOMO – Delight of missing out EOMO – Ecstasy of missing out FOMO – Fear of missing out GOMO – Guilt of missing out HOMO – Happiness of missing out IOMO – Indignation of missing out JOMO – Joy of missing out KOMO – Knack of missing out LOMO – Love of missing out MOMO – Meal of missing out (South Asian dumpling) NOMO – Need of missing out OOMO – Obligation of missing out POMO – Pride of missing out QOMO – Quality…
