2022-10-07: Lots of new music added to MusicBox this morning for the next weeks listening.
2022-09-21: I thought the twin genius of Shatner and Nimoy on the album “Spaced Out” would be a balm to the news …
2022-09-11: Finished. Strange. Slightly unsatisfying yet likely memorable.
2022-09-09: The release of WatchOS 9, and the dropping of support for the series 3, means I need to upgrade my …
2022-09-04: I’ve finally finished my Lego Botanicals set.
2022-08-21: My children started playing real life Animal Crossing. However it’s turning into Lord of the …
2022-08-08: Last week we decided to sell the Xbox and get a Switch from eBay - my son is now obsessed with …
2022-06-26: My son is building a Lego chess set, I’m doing Lego succulents.
2022-06-18: My first go at cold brew coffee
2022-06-09: New window shown on running Xcode 14 for the first time… …but no ViM mark support …
2022-06-08: My kids started watching people playing Mario Wii games on YouTube for some reason I’m not …
2022-05-26: Finished reading: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima 📚
2022-05-26: On the way to school my daughter insisted that she’d brushed her teeth this morning. When I …
2022-05-25: MusicBox is an app I’ve been waiting for for a long time. It is a “listen later” …
2022-05-24: I’ve recently fallen down a rabbit hole into a land of email clients. Two requirements I have are: …
2022-05-19: Raycast and Org mode I’ve transitioned recently from Alfred to Raycast. I have created a few scripts, one of which …
2022-05-16: My attempt at leveraging habit stacking is working well so far. Now into my third week of preceding …
2022-05-13: Chinese headings in Apple Music today?!
2022-05-02: My little girl has a poorly eye this morning so we’ve changed our bank holiday plans to …
2022-04-21: Introducing my son to home computers of the 1980s with a Top Trump style game.
2022-04-16: Spring has arrived (on my desk)
2022-04-13: Since getting a 14” MacBook Pro last week I’ve been enjoying some minor updates to my …
2022-04-13: I had no idea there was an iOS accessibility setting for those of us who are colour blind. Thanks to …
2022-03-08: Could we see Apple’s Primephonic replacement launch today?
2022-01-16: On the way home from visiting my Mum and the children were playing some noisy game in the back. …
2022-01-15: A couple of new adornments to my desk for 2022. A Lego bonsai tree (Christmas present), and a …
2022-01-04: Back to work today. I stumbled about in Emacs for 15 minutes or so until my memory of the necessary …
2022-01-03: Christmas Lego bonsai tree completed and ready to join me when I get back to work tomorrow.
2021-12-24: Christmas Eve games
2021-12-22: Some Christmas edible crafts. The houses quickly collapsed during decorating but were delicious.
2021-12-09: Today I’ve finally got around to asking Google how to stop macOS reordering desktops in …
2021-11-13: Big thumbs up for these vegetarian ‘ meat balls’ 👍😋
2021-11-13: My son is VERY excited about Lego Star Wars Battles at the moment. Recently he hasn’t touched …
2021-11-06: Prospect Magazine wins again for first Christmas card of the year
2021-11-04: It’s been a long time coming. But I’m enjoying finally getting to use Xcode 13 in ViM …
2021-10-27: My order from Apple has arrived! Probably the only thing I’ll be buying from them this year.
2021-10-20: Miniland (Legoland Windsor)
2021-10-18: Just finished Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee 📚. A bleak extrapolation of the near future, but a …
2021-10-14: What is it with the weird Apple logo my bank is using?
2021-10-05: Finished reading: Ready Player Two: A Novel by Ernest Cline 📚
2021-10-05: Following on from yesterday’s experiment of offloading thoughts into Tot I’ve been …
2021-10-04: I’m giving using a pomodoro timer a try again - specifically one from SetApp Session. In order …
2021-09-26: Finally the mushrooms come in a container which can be recycled. We need to end the practice of …
2021-09-17: Land, Birmingham Some beautiful vegetarian food this lunchtime to celebrate my wife’s …
2021-09-16: Finished reading: PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee 📚
2021-09-06: I use Org mode clocking for tracking time spent on billable tasks. Until recently I was using …
2021-09-06: Just dropped the children off for their first day back at school. Afterwards I went for a coffee …
2021-09-03: For a while now I’ve been using Day One for general note taking during the working day. For …
2021-09-01: It’s beyond the time at which I should have started learning SwiftUI. I’m very much …
2021-09-01: These little guys were returned to the garden after being cleaned off some lettuce for lunch.
2021-08-30: I’m mostly happy to see one of my own apps sherlocked by the purchase of Primephonic by Apple. …
2021-08-30: My son at the moment is preferring to do dot-to-dot instead of computer games.
2021-08-30: My daughter isn’t yet particularly into building Lego, but she does enjoy playing with it. …
2021-08-30: Bank holiday breakfast preparation
2021-08-29: My transition from shampoo and shower gel in plastic bottles to shampoo and soap bars has been a …
2021-08-26: Nice to see they’ve cleaned the water in our local botanical gardens.
2021-08-26: I opened my daughters curtains this morning and saw a fox asleep in our garden.
2021-08-25: Train Sim World 2 on Game Pass. I’ve been enjoying the Bakerloo Line.
2021-08-25: Attempting to photograph a dragonfly
2021-08-24: My first visit to the cinema with my wife in over seven years to see a non-Paw Patrol film. Cake and …
2021-08-24: The Cube in Birmingham
2021-08-19: I had promised a client a build of an app today. However I’ve got no signal on my mobile - …
2021-08-14: Toposcope
2021-08-13: Each Friday for the past month Apple Music tells me that “Mozart & Contemporaries” …
2021-08-13: New release Friday. I’m very much looking forward to playing wurdweb from Apple Arcade and …
2021-08-09: My son sneezed out a wobbly tooth. It might be hiding somewhere in this photo.
2021-08-01: Finished reading: The Midnight Library by 📚
2021-07-22: Finished reading: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 📚
2021-07-22: The only time I find it’s cool enough for a brisk walk at the moment is first thing in the …
2021-07-22: I’ve been having a play with Craft Docs and Obsidian recently. However each time I pop back …
2021-07-21: I’ve just started ‘playback’ of a GPX file recorded on a train through a location …
2021-07-18: Our bunnies needed repairing
2021-07-16: My son is liking the new Angry Birds released on Apple Arcade today.
2021-07-15: The children are off school for the summer holidays. As I’m working at home I am trying to …
2021-07-15: Morning walk posters
2021-07-06: This looks an interesting suggestion from the “Classical You Must Hear This Month” …
2021-07-04: Tried the Beyond Burger for lunch. I was quite impressed, smelt when cooking just like a …
2021-07-03: My biggest wish for iOS 15 is for AirPods to take priority over other Bluetooth speakers. So many …
2021-06-28: I feel as though I’m making progress with the Android ARCore task I’m working on - …
2021-06-27: Another trip to the cricket ground this morning. Now had both Covid jabs. 💉💉🦠
2021-06-24: Android augmented reality development is, so far, a big bag of annoyances. I’ve just found out …
2021-06-22: Music Bar is a menu bar app that shows you what is currently playing on Apple Music. I’m very …
2021-06-20: Birthday books
2021-06-18: In the past I’ve been slightly scathing of using web technologies to create apps. However …
2021-06-14: Pan fried sea bass and giant couscous for lunch. Working at home has definite benefits for the …
2021-06-12: Finished reading: Foundation by Isaac Asimov 📚
2021-06-12: Saturday morning craft as the children decorate mugs for a great aunt’s 70th birthday.
2021-06-11: Shocking static on this evening news that Cornwall has vaccinated more people than the 22 poorest …
2021-06-11: For me this will be the best improvement to Xcode since I started using Xcode. I’m very …
2021-06-09: Been playing with ScreenFlow this morning to make a video for one of my apps.
2021-06-08: So many dandelion seeds have got caught in these plants that they look like cotton!
2021-06-07: Starting the week off with a healthier lunch than I usually make.
2021-06-05: My son has reached the age where I’m quite jealous of his birthday presents
2021-05-29: Lost lego
2021-05-29: No mow May
2021-05-29: Some of the wild flowers we planted, and then regretted, last year have come back and doing a …
2021-05-28: Finished reading: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts 📚
2021-05-28: If AirTags were small enough to attach to my glasses I definitely would have bought some by now.
2021-05-28: Bluebells and dandelion snow The woods near where I live aren’t very big, so it was a lovely surprise to see such large …
2021-05-24: Enjoyed Great British Photography Challenge this evening. Great to see so many assignments in one …
2021-05-22: My wife bought some shampoo, conditioner and shower bars to try and reduce the number of plastic …
2021-05-21: I’m only just getting round to having a play with Catalyst for creating Mac versions of iOS …
2021-05-20: Finally finished
2021-05-18: Finished reading: Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield 📚
2021-05-18: It’s been very on and off wet at the moment. A pro though of all the rain is the freshness of …
2021-05-12: Finished reading: Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe 📚
2021-05-11: Heavy rain showers this morning interspersed with sunshine. I’ve been needing to get out and …
2021-05-09: The end result - Egyptian Koshari and Orange Salad with Spiced Syrup
2021-05-09: Next step in this evenings meal. Pickling some cauliflower and carrots.
2021-05-09: In the fridge for later. I’m finally using a recipe pack my wife bought me last June. Egyptian …
2021-05-08: Family Lego time. We’ve got Harry Potter, Friends baking competition and Friends sitcom sets …
2021-05-07: I’ve not been able to see my £4.99 Apple TV+ credit. Just discovered though that it gets used …
2021-05-07: I’m finally dealing with the ever dwindling space on my iMac. Its a machine purely for …
2021-05-05: It’s number day in my sons class on Friday. So my wife has made him a magic square t-shirt.
2021-05-03: Finished: The Absolutist by John Boyne 📚
2021-05-03: It’s a wet bank holiday so time for some family rock painting
2021-05-03: I’m glad I’ve finished my lunch as my daughter seems to be enjoying a fries/McFlurry …
2021-04-29: Listening to Takemitsu, Hindemith, Janáček, Silvestrov: Five Pieces by Duo Gazzana 🎵
2021-04-29: Just finished: Gridlinked by Neal L. Asher 📚. They mentioned this on The Skeptics’ Guide to …
2021-04-28: This weeks panel edition of the podcast “The Bunker” recommended “The Long Goodbye …
2021-04-28: I tried the new colour balance calibration on my Apple TV HD / 14 year old 720p TV this morning. I …
2021-04-27: I took another look at Apple Podcasts earlier to see if the changes made in iOS 14.5 make it worth …
2021-04-27: I couldn’t resist just now putting on a face mask to try the iOS 14.5 Apple Watch/iPhone …
2021-04-27: My wife informed me this morning that COVID vaccinations are now available to 42 year olds. It took …
2021-04-26: Finally in iOS 14.5 there is a sensible UI to view all of your Apple News+ magazine subscriptions.
2021-04-25: The segment on iOS 14.5 on tonight’s BBC News was a good bit of advertising for Apple’s …
2021-04-22: Taking a sunny lunchtime walk with my little girl and her teddy on the last day she will be three. 🎈
2021-04-21: It seems like there was more announced at yesterday’s Apple event than most people hoped for. …
2021-04-20: No luck running the Emacs from Emacs For Mac OS X on my M1. Early days I guess!
2021-04-20: Nearly out of teabags
2021-04-20: We listen to a lot of music in our house, and it is lovely to see our children really taking an …
2021-04-20: Looks like the Emacs builds from emacsformacosx.com now support Apple Silicon. Something to try this …
2021-04-18: New soap
2021-04-18: Today’s game was with my very nearly four year old. Press Here Game is great for children just …
2021-04-18: I’ve been rediscovering how much I enjoy using my 1st generation Kindle Paperwhite. I’m …
2021-04-17: Oh dear 😩
2021-04-15: 🎵 The Brandenburg Project ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - fantastic.
2021-04-14: Key To The Kingdom is a game my sister and I used to play when we were children. She found it on …
2021-04-12: Eggperiment
2021-04-12: I’m working on a location based app this month. One of the trails has you wandering up and …
2021-04-11: We’ve stepped up our campaign against the clothes moths. Whilst the sticky moth traps which …
2021-04-09: New recipe from the gin club.
2021-04-09: Note to self - if using a VPN then you’ll need to close any running Android emulators and …
2021-04-09: I’ve just been listening to Voice 2 by Max Richter 🎵. The first of this pair of albums was a …
2021-04-08: 📚 Finished “Best Short Stories” by Somerset Maugham. A fascinating set of stories from a …
2021-04-08: There aren’t too many places you can go at the moment in the UK if you want an afternoon out, …
2021-04-08: Vintage Star Wars cartoons on Disney+!
2021-04-08: It’s the Easter holidays so I’ve taken the day off. This morning my son and I have been …
2021-04-07: I’ve often finished listening to an album on Apple Music and seen interesting albums in the …
2021-04-06: I’ve been enjoying the Simon’s Cat game released a few days ago on Apple Arcade. My …
2021-04-05: This recipe was enjoyed by my wife and I. However the kids very vocally disliked it. The write up …
2021-04-05: Bank holiday Easter bunny crafting
2021-04-04: Easter chocolate
2021-04-03: Homemade WHAT THE GOLF?
2021-04-03: This flavour of crisps is new to me…
2021-04-01: We like books in our household. Sometimes with children it’s hard to get the quiet time needed …
2021-04-01: Had a little look at logseq.com. Looks interesting. Good to see more projects using the Org mode …
2021-03-31: First work interruption of the year due to a wasp
2021-03-31: Top 5 Apple Arcade 🕹 in our house: Rayman Mini Grindstone Crossy Road Castle Word Laces Dear Reader …
2021-03-30: Best end of season I’ve seen for some time - Snowpiercer.
2021-03-30: In the Android emulator not that long ago you could give it a longitude and latitude for testing …
2021-03-30: A spring lunchtime walk really does lift ones mood. I set out early today so as to avoid the rush on …
2021-03-30: Only a few days now until our children are off school for the Easter holidays. My wife has been …
2021-03-30: A web app I’m working on at the moment contains a domain specific vector graphics editor. I …
2021-03-30: Happy piano day everyone!
2021-03-30: Listening to Iag Bari by Fanfare Ciocărlia 🎵Something a bit different than my usual listening to …
2021-03-29: The books my six year old brings home from school are so much better than what I remember having.
2021-03-28: Just read Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro 📚
2021-03-27: We’ve started giving pocket money to the children. Rather than giving them cash we are giving …
2021-03-26: Listening to J.S. Bach: Spira, Spera by Emmanuel Despax 🎵This is a very welcome companion to some …
2021-03-25: A trick used by some manufacturers of low end Android devices is to deliberately disable animations. …
2021-03-25: Advantages of working at home - playing Lego Friends with my little girl when she’s not at …
2021-03-25: A client server I needed to log into uses Microsoft Authenticator for 2FA. I haven’t logged in …
2021-03-25: Listening to Mirrors: 21st Century American Piano Trios by Lysander Piano Trio 🎵
2021-03-24: Listening to Vivaldi’s Seasons by Bolette Roed 🎵
2021-03-24: New challenge - to clear my macOS desktop at the end of everyday. I just clicked on a stack and was …
2021-03-23: I haven’t used Drafts for ages. The new custom syntaxes looks very interesting. Maybe I need …
2021-03-23: The office-ish chair I ordered for home last year, as the stay at home order looked likely to …
2021-03-22: (Finally) started watching Borgen. My wife and I are most definitely hooked! 📺
2021-03-22: Tippy.js - Tooltip, Popover, Dropdown, and Menu Library Tippy.js - Tooltip, Popover, Dropdown, and Menu Library What a fantastic example of a well …
2021-03-21: Tears followed by triumph. Mousetrap is always a rollercoaster of a game with my two little ones.
2021-03-21: Weekend mornings my wife and I do an Apple Fitness+ yoga together (usually with Molly). Almost …
2021-03-20: Indoor marshmallow toasting
2021-03-20: I’m not sure we entirely got rid of all the clothes moths last year. They’ve been out …
2021-03-20: We’ve just booked tickets to the CBSO Symphonic Collection. We are going to set some dates in …
2021-03-19: A little walk at lunch with my daughter and we came across lots of signs of spring.
2021-03-19: Listening to Highway Rider by Brad Mehldau 🎵
2021-03-19: My go to radio station is Radio 3. BBC Sounds is a fantastic service for exploring it’s …
2021-03-19: An app I’d been working on for a client was rejected by Apple this morning. It is a location …
2021-03-18: Ever so often I like to check my iPod still works
2021-03-18: Listening to Bach & Busoni: Goldberg Variations & Other Works by Chiyan Wong 🎵
2021-03-18: It felt as though everything was back to normal this morning (even though it most definitely …
2021-03-17: We received some very belated Christmas vouchers for chocolate last week. I insisted on something …
2021-03-17: Just finished listening to “Emacs, Doom, Vim, Lisp & Games - with Henrik Lissner, Emacs …
2021-03-17: I’ve just used this to help shave 10MB of the size of an app I’m submitting to Google …
2021-03-17: Listening to Schubert: Winterreise, Op. 89, D. 911 by Roderick Williams 🎵
2021-03-16: I’m often testing apps which make use of your location. Whilst I have various scripts to make …
2021-03-16: Regardless of whether this particular device is actually going to make it to market, this is the …
2021-03-16: Listening to Rebirth by Sonya Yoncheva 🎵 On occasion I come across what I can only describe as a …
2021-03-15: Our children were not cooperative sleepers when babies and toddlers. Whilst my wife bore the brunt …
2021-03-15: After a little research this seems to be the only reliable method in CSS of applying a style only to …
2021-03-14: Sunday afternoon maths game - Möbi
2021-03-13: The Favourite 🍿 Surreal and compelling
2021-03-13: Census completed. Our household is very static in normal times, in what is still a national lockdown …
2021-03-13: I’ve did my first 30 minute Apple Fitness+ yoga session. Around the 22 minute mark it started …
2021-03-12: Continuing our exploration of things not eaten/drunk over Christmas - chocolate sprouts.
2021-03-12: My wife and I had COVID over Christmas so only just getting around to opening this.
2021-03-12: Listening to Jolas: Ventosum Vocant by Ensemble Accroche Note 🎵
2021-03-11: I’ve dusted off my mbtiles optimisation script and updated it to save tiles in either PNG or …
2021-03-11: Listening to Con-ri-sonanza: Works by Thomas Simaku by Joseph Houston 🎵
2021-03-10: The children are asleep, time to return to a Christmas present I’m taking my time over.
2021-03-10: My weekly todo list I use Org mode to track projects, tasks and a huge amount of other stuff. I’m trying out …
2021-03-10: Listening to Vivaldi - Paganini - Tartini by Nils Mönkemeyer 🎵
2021-03-10: The default method of generating a .mbtiles database in QGIS (generate XYZ tiles) is showing gaps at …
2021-03-10: Useful website with breakdown of users on iOS 14 and 13 App Store - Support - Apple Developer
2021-03-10: For the first time in many years I’ve found myself using Inkscape. I needed to import a bunch …
2021-03-10: I found myself needing to review how best to sit on an office chair this morning. I have very lazy …
2021-03-09: Waiting for builds… Now the children are back at school my wife finally has some time for …
2021-03-09: Just noticed how in Android Studio (and I guess other IntelliJ products) if you start a newline in a …
2021-03-09: I most definitely identify with this: I find some days that I struggle to decide what to work on …
2021-03-09: Good to get back to my (solo) lunch time walks in the nearby woods and fields now that the children …
2021-03-09: Listening to Gershwin & Debussy: Two Worlds by Andrejs Osokins 🎵
2021-03-09: The podcasts I regularly listen to are hosted by multiple presenters. I very rarely listen to …
2021-03-08: Listening to a playlist for International Women’s Day - Caroline Shaw: Visionary Women on …
2021-03-07: If Apple were to allow purchase of digital products, such as gems in a game or a monthly …
2021-03-07: One to maybe read: Yanis Varoufakis - Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present
2021-03-07: Fluffy pancakes for breakfast
2021-03-06: I missed a number of the details in the Wandavision finale which I was happy to have Den of Geek …
2021-03-06: Do I have time for another magazine subscription? Insert in this months Prospect Magazine is looking …
2021-03-05: Best recent purchase was a neck reading light. After my daughter stuck a raisin onto the bulb of a …
2021-03-05: Listening to Handel: Concerti grossi by Iona Brown 🎵
2021-03-05: I can confidently say that I haven’t missed my Adobe Photoshop CC subscription. Pixelmator Pro …
2021-03-04: Playing Sneaky Sasquatch with Harry Potter
2021-03-04: Updated the beorg website (well the top half anyway). Hopefully gives a clearer first impression to …
2021-03-04: Listening to Dear Reader (Original Video Game Soundtrack) by Michael Sweet 🎵. I’m not usually …
2021-03-04: Happy World Book Day!. This year R and C are Harry Potter and a Unicorn. Not sure why she is a …
2021-03-03: Released an update to my plain text task management app beorg. I’ve finally got around to …
2021-03-03: Assets vs drawable for adding a GroundOverlay to Google Maps on Android I work on a number of map heavy apps with one of my clients. Recently I was tasked with porting an …
2021-03-03: Just used M-| for the first time in Emacs. I’ve started using Emacs running in a terminal in …
2021-03-03: Lunchtime labyrinth
2021-03-03: A fraught hour trying to remove a number of individual commits, spread out over a week, from a …
2021-03-02: Very useful flexbox cheatsheet for the occasional web developer such as myself
2021-03-02: Listening to Beethoven Transformed, Volume 2 by Boxwood & Brass 🎵
2021-03-02: Listening to Il labirinto armonico by Ilya Gringolts 🎵
2021-03-02: I’ve finished my PhpStorm trial and have immediately purchased a license. I love Emacs but …
2021-03-01: I’ve bought a DVD player pretty much solely for rewatching my Frasier DVD box sets.
2021-03-01: Sketch Export base64/png - handy for small images that aren’t feasible to include in the icon …
2021-02-28: Classical music on Apple Music I love the curated classical music page on Apple Music for suggestions of new and recommended …
2021-02-27: Krispy Kreme treat
2021-02-27: Stepping stones 📷
2021-02-27: View from the nearby woods over to Birmingham university.
2021-02-27: My son is bored so we are taking a look at my 25 year old Oxford Concise dictionary.
2021-02-26: Listening to Bach: Sonatas for Violin & Keyboard Nos 3-6 by David Fray 🎵
2021-02-26: I’m reluctantly switching back to Dropbox for syncing my org files. My NextCloud sync has …
2021-02-25: Listening to David Lang: Love Fail (Version for Women’s Chorus) by Lorelei Ensemble 🎵
2021-02-25: The memory foam pillow didn’t work for me. I gave it back to my wife after about ten minutes.
2021-02-25: Trying out my wife’s memory foam bamboo pillow tonight before deciding whether to get my own.
2021-02-23: Listening to Classically Reminded: Bach by David Rees-Williams Trio 🎵
2021-02-23: Listening to J.S. Bach: Violin Concertos, Transcriptions for Organ by Daniele Boccaccio 🎵
2021-02-22: Sketch (and my mouse) seem to be conspiring against me and randomly scrolling today when I’m …
2021-02-22: Looking at my week ahead I’ll be coding in Swift, Kotlin, JavaScript/TypeScript and PHP.
2021-02-21: Trying out a parsnip tarte tatin recipe this evening The big test will be whether or not the …
2021-02-21: Unsatisfying yoga session this morning. Noisy children and uncooperative body. 🧘♂️
2021-02-21: Finished off Star Trek Voyager S1:E12 “Cathexis” on my iPad whilst my wife tries out her …
2021-02-20: Started watching the US version of The Office 📺
2021-02-20: Signed back up to micro.blog - let’s give it a month to see if I actually use it. Need to make …
2021-02-20: I need a bigger knife My daughter is trying to cut up a chocolate ladybird and her plastic knife …
2018-09-04: Spotify’s Weekly Playlist comes up with a gem - Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony …