https://www.gordonmclean.co.uk/blog by @snowgoon@mastodon.social
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We only went and won a game at the World Cup! Tense, not the greatest watch but it disnae matter! Had half an eye on the Knicks game too, been a while since they were Champions! My wife is from New York so I guess they are my second team by marriage? (Lakers for life!). Very little sleep though, up at 2am and after the Scotland win some lads across the way took their celebrations and music outside until gone 5am, so been dozing on the sofa since then. But the day, and brunch with a friend,…
It’s been a long long time. I grew up watching us playing in World Cups, every 4 years we’d snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, like clockwork! I am tempering my hopes, but this squad does feel different, feels like a team, not just the “best 11”. So, yes, I will be getting up at 2am to watch the game. Thanks for reading and keeping RSS alive. Visit my site for more.
This musing was prompted by Robb’s post about pens. I have pondered all of this before but that was a while ago so I wonder where my passion now lies. Passion is wonderful I love people who are passionate about something —as long as it’s a positive passion for a good thing, if you are passionate about being a hateful douchebag, please jog the fuck on— and it honestly doesn’t really matter what that passion is focussed on. I’ve been lucky enough to chat to people about all sorts of hobbies and…
Do note that this is a slightly sarcastic post, there is alot of sarcasm on the internet at the moment. Take a moment to reflect if you want to expose yourself to more sarcasm. There are plenty of staid and somewhat boring posts out there as well… Isn’t it odd how people see things a certain way —a way that maybe says something about their own view of the world (?)— whilst you see them an entirely different way? Yeah, I know, it’s not odd at all, it’s just the way the world is yet, knowing that…
As mentioned before, I’ve been heading to Bubbles more and more to get my little blog fix every day. Hey, I’m an addict, I’ll happily admit that! Bubbles is great, and is definitely having a moment given how often it drives traffic to this silly little blog, but it does have some limitations. I don’t know if there is a way to even adjust for these but I do occasionally find myself wondering if there was a way it could flag more about the content of the post lying behind the title. This is…
Great, now I have THAT Frozen song in my head.. Do you wanna buy a GooProooo, record all the things arrouuunnddd.. Anyway, GoPro Hero 10 Black, with loads of accessories. I bought it with grand plans of recording my cycling adventures and then, how dare he, my son was born and everything changed (in the very best ways). Rarely used. Listing here (yes on a META platform, ugh): https://www.facebook.com/share/1CwmCj27mK/ Make me an offer I can’t refuse! Wait, that’s a whole other franchise… Thanks…
As I peruse the thought pieces already spewing forth after the latest round of Apple’s announcements, one thought is blooming in my mind. What cost (mostly) on-device AI? A while ago I read something about the energy usage of an AI query, I can’t find that article now but some searches suggest the following: Google search: roughly 0.3 Wh Typical ChatGPT/Gemini text prompt: roughly 0.2–0.4 Wh Heavy reasoning or coding task: several Wh to tens of Wh To put that into perspective: Boiling a full…
In reply to my Sort your sites out note Case Duckworth takes each of my points and gives them a good grilling. There are many good points in his reply so I thought it worth unpicking them a little, alongside my original glib comments, and see where I land. As mentioned before, I write to think and understand, so this is absolutely more an exercise for me than anything else, so please bear with me. The Origins My note was based on the last few weeks clicking around a lot of new blogs and…
I’ve not watched a ‘live’ WWDC for a while now. As any parent of a 4 year old whirlwind will recognise I just don’t have the time. But said whirlwind and his mother are away for a couple of nights so I sat back on the sofa and watched the entire thing. It’s all very slick, all very nicely produced —shot on an iPhone of course— and there was the usual gamut of interesting ideas. I think overall it was a good set of updates and whilst the Siri AI stuff will play out in the coming months once it…
I’m not really using social media much these days but my accounts still exist. Most of them have the same photo of me pinned to my feed. Why? Because visibility matters. Because support matters. Because I want it to be clear that I both see, and stand beside people who are fighting to have their own gender and sexuality confirmed. As my wiser than wise wife says (I am badly paraphrasing), “what business is it of mine what you have in your pants or what you do with it, it makes no difference to…
Life Notes A busy week! Final check-in with Jack’s nursery and he’s doing great. We knew that, but we also know he’s a different person when he’s not with us, and the structure they have there seems to work for him; we were told that a lot of the other kids look to him for examples of what to do/how to behave. His confidence and independence are soaring. It makes me so happy and proud of him, and us! And continuing the parenting theme, we had a parents introduction session to his new primary…
Up very early and headed out for a cycle. Stayed at Aberfoyle last night (Cobel Campsite), so it was a couple of hours out and back to Stronachlar. Lovely road (B829) with some sections newly surfaced over rolling hills. A few sharp climbs but that just means hitting 56kmh (35mph) on the down hills! Wheeeee. Man, I love being out on my bike! Could’ve done without the incessant rain mind you. For those with Strava: https://strava.app.link/rVt1Pj1QL3b Thanks for reading and keeping RSS alive.…
I have a couple of days solo soon (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) and whilst I’ll still be working it does give me a little scope to get some other things done. One of which will be to check the brakes on my bang about bike as they are squealing again, not long after getting new discs and brake pads. Took it to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) today but he can’t take look at it properly for a couple of weeks… so I’m gonna have a bash myself! As ever, when I start planning what to do with my time I’ll make a…
It’s almost time for the Monaco Grand Prix, the most famous, and my least favourite, Grand Prix of the year, but then, I’ve been watching F1 for a long time so maybe I’ve been spoilt. F1 is increasingly popular these days, and whilst the Apple produced F1 movie was entertaining (if nonsense), it’s safe to say that there is a series on Netflix that has given F1 a lot more exposure. Drive to Survive I’ve not watched the last couple of seasons of Drive to Survive, largely because I’ve not had the…
I got the renewal notice for my Microsoft Office subscription through a while back, £85 for the year. Enough to make me pause and think, do I really need this? Like most of you I use Office365 at work, extensively, and there is a lot of good to be found if you are embedded in a SharePoint / OneDrive / Word / Excel / OutLook / Teams / Powerpoint driven place. But at home I was mostly using Excel, and mostly for vanity projects that were, largely, just lists —a gigs list, a simple finance…
Just a quick update on my post titled 34 Draft Posts, can you guess what that update is? The thing is, I have 4 posts scheduled already, but a couple of those weren’t part of the original list of 34 Draft Posts, so coupled with some newer ideas the number has gone up. This is good. For me, draft posts are there for when I run out of immediacy. Let me explain, I tend to write a post almost in entirety and if it’s something that is timely, or just something that my brain is buzzing about, I use…
It started because I was noodling about with HTML and needed some ‘content’ (or ‘words on the page’ as I likely called it back then). Last year I marked 26 years of this blog by writing: It is odd to think of this blog through a different lens, I mean I know other people read it from time to time, but mostly it’s always been a way for me to think out loud, to share my thoughts into the void. That vain desire remains, still pushed by the one time someone said something I’d written helped them…
A scattering of thoughts as I’m only here between breaks at work which is, frankly, manic right now. I start T’ai Chi tonight. I am not at all nervous, which I think I would’ve been in the past. Another sign of getting older. Fuck it. I’m increasingly of a mind to move this site off of WordPress, but I am loving my new design and don’t wanna lose it, plus the thought of having to rebuild it, and the potential migration issues of 3000+ posts, ugh. I’m getting increasingly bored of reading about…
Life 100 Days starts now (well on Monday last week). I’ve set myself a small challenge, small in terms of effort that is. I need to do some form of movement every day for 100 days. Weekends are fine as chasing my son around, cutting grass, etc all count, but each morning this week I got up early and walked or cycled (Wednesdays are evening walks while Jack is in Squirrels). In case you are wondering, 100 days takes me to my time in Madrid for the inaugural Grand Prix weekend. Jack had his last…
One of the first places that Becca took me and where our connection really started, was Mugdock Country Park; so it was nice to Jack there this morning. He’s been before but was both too young to remember it —only a few weeks old— and slept for the entire walk, strapped to my chest. He loves being outdoors so, even though he’s a wee bit under the weather, we still had fun stomping in puddles, building dens with sticks and branches, spotting deer, and throwing stones in the loch. Rain did not…
I can’t recall what made me stumble across this old article from the Guardian —possibly my own blogpost about helping out Zoe as I designed her website back in 2005— but it was nice to reminisce about those heady days. As well designing the website for myboyfriendisatwat Zoe (honourable mention in her sidebar), I also designed girlwithaonetrackmind Zoe’s website (my old one man designs moniker still at the foot of the page!) and attended her book launch in London. In fact I did a few others, a…
Outside of work, which is always busy, there are is a myriad of little things to get done. Working at home makes this easier, for sure, but I have found that some days just end up being busier than others. Today is a good example. It’s pay day so I need to move some money around into the right accounts. I do this every month so all bills are paid automatically and we don’t miss any. And as it’s the last week day of the month, I’ve checked my Reminders to find 33 tasks for today! Now. I have…
I read a lot of blog posts in my RSS reader of choice —NetNewsWire— but for those I want to revisit I tend to open the post directly in Safari so I can go back to it later. Yes, I KNOW, there are a myriad of ‘read later’ apps available. The trouble is that some websites are just not good as an experience. One I’ve visited twice now has confused me both times, as it has large bars down the side of the window that mark a paragraph, with each paragraph having a bar on a different side of the…
The turn is on a bend in the road. As I drive towards it the road curves to the right and the entrance I want is just round the apex of the corner, on the right. Once you pass the apex you can see the turn clearly so I was slowing as I drove towards the bend in the road when the other car came at me. Both wheels well over the white lines, I swerved hard, mounted the pavement with a bang, avoiding the other car which didn’t even slow down but sped off round the bend and out of sight. What the…
Subtitle: If I was a… We don’t buy tickets for the lottery very often, and if I do I always just put on a Lucky Dip. We do like the fun chat of what we would do if we won but, being quite happy with our lives as they are, there are only a few things that we’d immediately do. By and large our thoughts are that, as long as we have a house, some savings, and no debt, and are set for life (and Jack’s life) then we can share out the rest of our winnings. I don’t fancy the life of a millionaire to be…
I’ve had a bike —now known as my bang about bike— for 15 years. I first used it to complete a Glasgow to Edinburgh ride, Pedal for Scotland, which was a big fun day out kind of event, very much enjoyed by amateur/part time cyclists doing it for charity. But it took COVID to really push me into cycling as an enthusiast. A proper road bike was my first purchase, but before long I had all manner of gadgets and doo-dahs, including my precious bike computer (more on that later). I’m currently on a…
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use…
Life A glorious time in the Highlands of Scotland last week. We travelled up to Gairloch, spent time on the gorgeous beaches, cycled, walked, relaxed, and felt very in awe of this beautiful country we live in. From huge mountains to golden beaches, we really are spoiled. As I was spending time with my family, and some members of the extended family too, I deliberately didn’t spend much time online at all. Admittedly the signal in Gairloch was a bit rubbish anyway, but even when that improved…
My son loves his bike! Thanks for reading and keeping RSS alive. Visit my site for more.
In response to Don’t Plan So Much which is an interesting theory if your life allows for it. You might think that you cant head out because you have kids, but either you can call in a favor from your partner for a kid-free night, or better yet, bring them with you. Kids love camping, and you don’t need to plan 3-5 bussiness day in advance with them, at most you need to give them 15-30 minutes to finish whatever they’re doing. I’m basically trying to think how we would go away for one night…
