Notes

Everything old shall become new again.

Woke up feeling nauseous. Stumbling around in the dark, walked into a wall, nose first. Blood everywhere.

Pinch and a punch, first of the month. No returns.

Controversial opinion but: I like Mastodon’s official clients! All that’s missing from the official iOS app is an edit function, otherwise it’s easy to use and far less fussier than Ivory, for one. As ever, I’m here for the default option.

Over the last few years, I’ve started following several channels on YouTube. I don’t subscribe to them. Instead, I manually search for each channel because I don’t want to sign into Google. The other day I wondered if I could subscribe to channels using RSS. It turns out that yes, you can! It’s not easy, but thankfully NetNewsWire does the hard work, so I only need to give it a channel’s URL. Perfect!

Is Tailwind not a euphemism for farting?

Have updated the introduction to Indiekit, detailing how it can be used to authorise applications, publish content and syndicate it to third-party websites.

Also works as a useful illustration as to why syndication remains the hardest part to get working faultlessly.

Open my front door to discover that something (or somebody?) has pooed on my doorstep.

Happy Monday!

Fond memories of travelling on Network SouthEast’s ‘slam-door’ trains in the late 80s and early 90s.

Now available for just £3 per square meter.

Not sure what to make of Empire of Light, but that my chief criticism is that the train seat moquette shown in one of the final scenes was not introduced until 1986, 5 years after the film was set, is probably a good indication.

ABBA Voyage. No smoke but plenty of mirrors… lasers, LEDs, LCDs, 3D, ray-traced CGI, mixed reality and every other conceivable trick to manipulate 16 million colours, all in service of creating the best disco on Earth. I loved every luminescent, iridescent, psychedelic minute!

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Fun start to the week: somebody tried to break into my flat, while I was home.

I watched Licorice Pizza at the cinema twice (and then had HAIM on repeat for the rest of the year). Such a funny and uplifting movie; The Guardian has it as number 5 for its best films of 2022, but it’s my favourite film of the year.

Disgraceful hosts, but a delightful final. Congratulations Argentina!

Today’s the day. 😬

Brighton’s London Road is rapidly going downhill: they’re opening a Starbucks. 🤮

Just read that there’s another Motherland Christmas special this year, airing 23 December on BBC One. This is truly excellent news!

Inspired by @danielpunkass, I too am committing myself to shipping this side of Christmas. The first feature complete beta of Indiekit v1.0 will be released on 17 December - 10 days time!

Been reviewing Indiekit’s support for the different IndieWeb specifications and protocols. Still lots to do, but Micropub support is looking particularly good (if I do say so myself).

It’s been over six months since I discovered damp under my kitchen floor. Having taken up floorboards, traced the source of the leak, got the flooring repaired and then ordered replacement vinyl – with all the delays and disruption along the way – today I can finally look at a fully repaired floor. Honestly, this may be my highlight of 2022 (make of that what you will).

Really enjoyed Glass Onion. Rian Johnson’s second whodunit – a well-timed indictment of supposed genius ‘disrupters’ – feels different to the first, almost winking at the audience throughout. Daniel Craig was clearly having a ball, but it’s Janelle Monáe who carries this film.

A nice chunky release for Indiekit on the road to v1.0. Adds a new built-in IndieAuth endpoint, adding support for the latest version of the spec and improving the application sign in journey. Updated the getting started guide, too.

Oh my, It’s Coming Home for Christmas is brilliantly daft and reflective, “a football Christmas song, not at all demeaning”.

Other people’s code, am I right?

Really enjoyed the first series of Welcome to Wrexham. I love how the show reflects the personalities of Rob and Ryan and also conveys the character of the club and the community, two things that ought not go together.

The lettuce lasted longer.

My current exercise regime mostly involves walking to a relatively distant supermarket to buy chocolate biscuits.

Back on the Eurostar this evening. Finally headed home, yet returning to a very different country.

All change, all change.

She’s been very clear, and she’s got a bold plan. So that’s all good then.

Went into the local bar and ordered a drink, entirely in Portuguese. My 8 day streak on Duolingo has paid dividends. Cheers!

Find myself tantalisingly close to the Spanish border in Valença, Portugal. Was on the delayed train from Porto to Vigo, but it’s broken down. Now we wait for a bus. A sprinkling of adventure!

Wish I had an appreciation for foreign languages growing up. I didn’t visit a non-English speaking county until I was 26; a holiday or school trip to Europe may have been transformative.

Sat in my happy place, on a Eurostar train headed towards mainland Europe.

Having had my arm twisted, binged all 4 seasons of Stranger Things with my eldest niece over this last week. I throughly enjoyed it! It’s a compelling story and has some fun characters, but boy do they need to hire some damn editors; that last episode was 139 minutes long!

Brentford!!?

Going against the grain when it comes to sleeper trains on the continent, turns out the Sud Express has been suspended indefinitely. Makes planning a trip to Porto all the more difficult to arrange.