https://oliverobscure.xyz/index.xml

I just set up command-line multi-language dictionary lookup. It amazes me that there are people in the world who have put so much work into making software functional and free to use. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants.

Installation and Usage:

sudo apt-get install dictd
sudo vim /etc/default/dictd (change the locale from en-US to en-GB)
sudo apt-get install dict-freedict-eng-pol dict-freedict-pol-eng
dict -d fd-eng-pol cool

Output:

1 definition found

From English - Polish Piotrowski+Saloni/FreeDict dictionary ver. 0.2 [fd-eng-pol]:

  cool /ku:l/
  I.  <Adj> 1.  chłodny
   2.  [ubranie]  cienki, przewiewny
  II.  <V> 1.  chłodzić się, chłodzić
   2.  studzić się, studzić
  III.  <N> 1.  chłód
   2.  [ktoś]  zimny, zimnokrwisty
   3.  [nieform]  play it cool (play V: :it :cool)
   - zachowywać się jak gdyby nigdy nic
   4.  [nieform]  keep cool (:keep :cool)
   - utrzymywać spokój, utrzymywać opanowanie
   5.  [nieform]  lose cool (:lose :cool)
   - tracić spokój, tracić opanowanie
  IV.  <V Phras>cool down  1.  stygnąć
   2.  chłodzić, studzić
   3.  uspokajać
  V.  <V Phras>cool off   ochładzać się

You can find a list of available dictionaries in the Ubuntu Package Registry (other package tools are available).

And so I can still make flashcards while offline. Also cool alias you may want to setup, I’ve used two-letter codes for each language, the d stands for dictionary:

alias denpl='dict -d fd-eng-pol'
alias dplen='dict -d fd-pol-eng'

Don’t worry, this one isn’t a serious addiction like drugs or gambling, I wanted to tell the world that I bought Slay the Spire 2 on a friend’s recommendation and now I can’t stop playing.

Well, I can go to the office and not play the game but still think about the game and also setup multiplayer sessions for the evening, or I can write blog posts about the game but also not actually play it, and you know it’s a little all-consuming that I don’t do much else with my weekends and evenings, I suppose I’ve just substituted reading for something else now.

Anyway, game’s fun but I hope the urges stop soon.

WHY can I not add an .ics file from my non-native Mail app into the Calendar app?

WHY??? This is the most basic functionality for a phone operating system, and it’s missing. Do people at Apple not use their own products?

On Monday of this week I was seized by an uncontrollable desire to move back to the first city I lived in post-uni. It was such a strong impulse that I couldn’t fall asleep until 2:30am. I’ve long been a believer of the mantra “never trust how you feel about your life after 10pm”, which is typically when most of my negative thoughts happen, but…

This impulse was uncharacteristic for me in that 1) it was a positive idea, imagined as moving towards something rather than running away from something else, and 2) I generally do not have such strong and sudden resolutions.

By Tuesday I was calling my aunt who lives in nearby Grantham, and my mum, to whom I had previously half-promised a relocation to London, to inform them of my plans. To my aunt I had posed the challenge of “talk me out of this”, which was impossible as she loves having me in fairly close reach!

On Wednesday I took the day of the work to travel up there by train from Cheltenham. I went to my favourite cafe in town, The Hungry Pumpkin, for lunch. I hopped into St. Mary’s Church for a brief reminiscence, and then grabbed the bus to Lady Bay, an area I had once discovered while on a summer bike ride.

After a flat viewing (no thanks, not this time, no I don’t have any feedback for the landlord), I walked through The Hook Nature Reserve (funny how all my favourite places I associate with exercise), across Trent Bridge and along Victoria Enbankment up to Wilford Toll Bridge. I got the tram into ’town’ as far as the Victoria Centre before walking back towards the station.

Previously I lived in the city centre, overlooking the Lace Market tramstop. Friends and guests will recall not being able to sleep very well. I’m hoping to live somewhere else this time round, probably in the Trent Basin area, which is still kinda under construction but mostly finished. That way, I get walking distance to Meadow Lane for Notts County games, running distance to Colwick Country Park and the swimming lake, and I can still go to the gym I used to go to.

Now that’s all well and good, but the one tiny detail I need to work out is: am I gushing for the nostalgia/optimism that naturally came to me after finishing university or is there something unique about this place that I can’t get anywhere else? I want to believe it’s the latter. Maybe the fact that I’ve listed the attractions means that I want to be there? Open question. More soul searching required.

Well, thanks for reading, comments/insults welcome via email and so on and so forth.

My first read of 2026 was a 1981 Penguin Classics reprint of a 1958 translation of four plays by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906): The Master Builder, Rosmersholm, Little Eyolf, and John Gabriel Borkman. This book has sat on the shelves through various house moves, and was bought by my father for a price of £1.75. He had written his name on the inside cover in blue pen. There are no other markings on the book.

While reading the script is never the best way to experience a play, I do enjoy the exercise of placing the characters on the stage in my head and thinking about how I would perform lines in a key moment of dramatic tension or revelation.

That being said, all four these plays contain dramatis personae that can only be described as completely and utterly delirious.

The Master Builder: An aging paedophile, refusing to admit that other people may have talent in his trade, climbs to the spire of the tallest church he has built (which he claims was God’s sole purpose for him), and throws himself off it after singing and waving his hat to his wife.

Rosmersholm: A man has new ideas about his country, but his closest friend threatens to disown him if he doesn’t disavow himself of the new movement. The young woman living at his home, once a friend of the dead wife of this man, reveals that she drove her to suicide because she fell in love with him. He proposes, she refuses, then somehow they both jump to their deaths, hand in hand.

Little Eyolf: Giving up on a book he’s worked on for a decade but never finished, a father resolves to change his ways and put his life’s work into helping his crippled son Eyolf grow into a resilient and intellectual young man. The Rat Wife appears in their home and leads Eyolf into the bottom of a lake before anyone notices he’s gone. After his death, his mother confesses she wishes Eyolf had never been born, because she wants her husband’s undivided attention. They can’t reconcile, the play ends.

John Gabriel Borkman: A man just released from prison for white-collar crime shuts himself upstairs for eight years, looking for any way he could have played the situation differently. Meanwhile, his son, groomed by his aunt over his childhood, has grown into an adult. His aunt and mother fight over his affections, and then he silences them both when he leaves to live his life independently. John Gabriel, inspired by this, takes a walk outside in the cold winter air while screaming about being free, gets confronted by his wife’s sister, who curses him. He promptly keels over and dies.

I don’t recommend seeking out stagings of any of these four plays, except maybe Little Eyolf, because these plays’ main characters are so preposterous in their actions, that it’s not even interesting to try and empathise with them or understand them.

Well here we are again. Happy New Year! In 2025 I set myself some promises and mostly stuck to them. Simultaneously I became more self-assured, whimsical, but at once a little jaded and cynical. No, I won’t elaborate further (harr-umph).

My thoughts for this coming year can be tritely summarised into a tricolon: do more, do less, do nothing.

I don’t mean more (countable), I mean more (greater quality). Be more spirited in what I claim to enjoy. Remind myself that I choose my life and my hobbies. No half measures.

Give up on things that do not bring much personal pleasure. That is, I can still be selfless, but don’t believe you can change the world, or excel at everything. Pick and choose your battles.

Take more pauses, put the screens down, let your thoughts echo.

Wowie that was a lot of wishy-washy non-committal self-help-style mumbo-jumbo. What about tangible outcomes? Again, as with last year, I want to carry on through the multiple boxes full of unread books. Perhaps I’ll share them publicly like fellow blogger Theoo has done (and what a lovely little page it is!).

Secondly, I’d like to use my weekends to go to different places. This doesn’t need to involve extensive planning or exertion, but there’s so much in Gloucestershire I haven’t seen yet.

Anyway, that’s it, bye.

I’ve never really taken much interest in doing 100% completion challenges, but I had a spare weekend so I set myself that task of getting every Wonder Seed, Purple Coin and Flagpole in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a game I’ve owned for two years now but “finished” some time around mid-2024.

Given it’s a Mario game, it can’t be that hard right? Wrong. I’m stuck. I’m stuck on the very last section of the very last level, and I’ve accepted that I’m just never going to do it.

The game was fun until then. I have to stop, otherwise it’ll cloud the good experiences I had up to that point.

I did learn something, though. I now understand how orchestral musicians can play complex passages and only need a glance at the sheet music - sheer muscle memory from doing something over and over.

For reference, here’s the level: YouTube

It’s time to do something else with my life.

In mid-October, I took a rail trip from London to Warszawa over 5 days. On the way I stopped in a Belgian city known for its cycling mode share and its traffic circulation plan.

In 2017, the city banned through traffic in its medieval city centre. All vehicles must use the ring road. As a result, most people choose to get around by bike and public transport, and most car traffic on side roads and residential streets is for access only.

This contributes to a calm cycling environment without the need for segregation on every street, as is imagined by some. Even though a large portion of cycle trips are by students (some one in five residents of Ghent is studying), the whole city sees the benefits. There are also plenty of primary routes to go long distances with their own segregation and traffic light cycles.

While I was waiting for a dinner spot to open, I went for a ride out of town of 15km, and didn’t break a sweat, because cycling wasn’t stressful. It’s a mode of transport, not just an extreme sport like it is in the UK.

Too often in my country, the arguments against cycling stem from perceptions of the ’lycra-clad maniac’, and most people perceive that allocating road space to anyone on two wheels is a waste.

You can’t justify a bridge by the number of people swimming across a river. – Brent Toderian

Comparison is the thief of joy, it’s said. It’s true! Difficult to argue with that principle.

Nevertheless it’s not easy to deal with. You can try to “work on yourself”, but then you’re perpetuating the problem. In the struggle to prove that you can do things just like others can, you stop enjoying the activity and use it solely as a means to an end.

You can’t always work on your hobbies and be the best. That’s not the point of them. You’re probably comparing somebody’s sole focus with what is something you only think about when you’re bored1.

Allow yourself lapses, maybe indulge in the doomscroll and bedrotting for a little while. Who knows, perhaps your brain will factory reset you and you’ll get out of bed feeling refreshed and with a kick-ass attitude. But more likely, you’ll find a middle ground between an urge to be “productive” because that’s what you see around you, and resting your brain from the urge to compete with all your fellow humans.

That panic you feel, that you only have so many years left to be significant and that there so many possible experiences you’ll never have because you don’t have the energy or the money or you made the wrong choice or didn’t try hard enough and you still think about it every now and then and you get into a funk thinking about it so you switch some Chet Baker on to hear the guy’s voice and enhance the feelings2? That panic? Ha! You’re young, kiddo, get on with life and stop worrying. You’re in control.

1. Okay, fine, maybe I’m projecting my own problems on you, dear reader. Sorry! ↩︎

2. Hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it again. ↩︎

…I genuinely haven’t noticed it’s gone. I don’t even remember the day or the month when I deleted my account.

I understand that my situation allows me to go without it. My clubs and commitments don’t rely on it to update their members, email is used instead. I haven’t encountered a pressing need to reinstate my account.

If there’s some important information locked behind a login wall, I’ll just move on with my life or try and get it another way. If it’s a business, well, too bad. One customer lost won’t make a measureable difference to their bottom line.

The promise of social media is that it connects communities. But I’m talking to people just fine without it.

I have a new reader from https://blogroll.org . Is that not cool? Humans finding each other the ‘old-fashioned’1 2 way.

There was no obligation, but I bookmarked the reader’s site and promised to read it and check for new posts.

1. old-fashioned for the internet, maybe, not for human civilisation, if that wasn’t obvious. ↩︎

2. wowee first footnote on this site isn’t that wonderful. ↩︎

What do I say to the man on the high street,

who spent his money and devotes his time,

handing out leaflets and making eye contact,

who erected a banner twice his own size,

imploring ‘Join the Global Awakening!’,

and signalling to all the passersby,

that his true calling in life is to spread

his ‘own research’ and ‘damning evidence’

against vaccination and the lizard people.

Do I say ‘get a life’ and smirk smugly,

do I say ‘fuck off’ and give a scowl?

What do I say? I say nothing, because to

engage is to be brought down to his level

of misery and moping, while in the world

beyond there’s so much to love and enjoy.

I would like to dispel the idea that you have just formed based on the title, which is that I’m going to pin the blame on anyone but myself. Believe me, this is a problem which is solely caused by me.

Invariably I am late to work. The commute time is 10 minutes cycling, if that. Sometimes I arrive at 9:05, other times 9:35, but mostly between those times.

I find myself being arrogant with time, overconfident that it passes slower when I wish it to. I think that I always set my alarm to leave enough time to do my routine. And yet.

A critical review would diagnose the problem as too much phone time. I find myself reaching for it as soon as I wake up, and then constantly looking at it while I should be putting my full attention on the tasks that actually sustain me and keep the house from not turning into a shit-tip.

So much for my 2025 goals…

Regular readers of the blog will know I prefer my cities with as few cars as possible.

Therefore my internet browsing habits reflect this topic. But reading forum posts does nothing to move the needle. I waste hours at work and at home, silenting smirking at uneducated peons trot out the same old tired anti-cycling and anti-public transport narratives, snivelling at the rubes wasting money on a big metal box that sits unused 95% of the time and is the number one cause of why kids don’t play in the street anymore.

Even the paragraph I’ve just typed above will make zero difference to anything, anywhere, at any time.

So why do I still do it? I know what I actually want, and that’s to move out of England. To waste my time on not making progress towards moving, which would include language proficiency tests or research, is folly.

Last month I donated my granny bike to the charity bike shop I got it from, Cyclists Fighting Cancer. I loved this bike and used it extensively (almost every day) to haul stuff around town:

Now I’ve moved, the longer-distance trips I needed to take have all evaporated (since I live closer to the centre), and it’s also a little too big for the hallway:

I’ve swapped it for a folding bike, which is decidedly out of the way of everything else. It is a very heavy model, but this isn’t too much of a problem, as I don’t really plan to take it anywhere on public transport. I still use a chain lock in public, rather than bringing it into shops.

Time will tell if I run it into the ground or keep it longer than one year.

My best mate sent me the link to his first post on Blogspot, and what a cracker it is. His writing is poignant, elegant, masterful.

I’m incredibly pleased for him, and happy that I’ve now increased the pool of contributors to the small web, just in the same way I was inspired to take up blogging by others.

If you’re reading this, why not start? Don’t know how? Try the guide on https://landchad.net/ or, if the cost is prohibitive, try a free hosting platform for a while.

Growing up I absolutely despised porridge. Maybe it was the consistency my mum made it at (bless her), or the lack of added sugar, such as you get in cereals.

Well, I’m back to it now. Oats, frozen fruit, almond milk, and a spoon of Biscoff spread. Can’t get away from the sugar.

I would share a photo but I’m not very good at that.

I like this meal for its ease of preparation. Although every time I open the fridge the cat comes running along. Not this time, buddy.

Came back from Athens last week, to watch King Gizzard at their three residency shows.

I like the city, although I didn’t see much more than Thiseio and Monastiraki.

I took with me Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, which was written in Ancient Greek. The private thoughts of this emperor helped me cope with a rather sticky situation where, due to my own stupidity, I got swindled out of a chunk of money.

Trying to use the words as a way to calm down and rationalise the situation post factum elevated the book beyond just something you read because it’s popular or trendy to do so…

And then I came across Alan Watts’ essay The Finger and the Moon reproduced on taylor.town and it just brought it all together. I truly did see the moon that Marcus points to, for just a few moments.

This will be the fifth time in five years I have moved.

• This time, it is because my landlady is selling the house I reside in.
• Before that, I moved for work.
• Before that, I moved for work.
• Before that, I moved to live with my girlfriend at the time.
• Before that, I moved to live with my friends from university.

It makes providing address history when applying for banks and renting a slight pain.

Switching my screen time to be majority RSS consumption was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

Reading other people’s lived experiences are like a glimpse into parallel worlds. I can’t relate to everyone I read about, but I can empathise and understand their worldview, even when it is shaped by what I myself will never understand.

How wonderful, then, that the internet has given us the opportunity to connect with others.

I carry a notebook around with me on most occasions. While I do write in it, it’s not often that those scribblings become pixels.

I’ve tried to remove barriers to posting, such as aliasing so that I can SSH to my VPS and get to a text editor faster, but it doesn’t magically make my laptop appear.

It also happens, that the things I think of as urgent, almost never turn out to be - I often forget that I wanted to post something.

Anyway, recently:

• Wrote to two local councillors about reducing car dependency. Mixed results, but I shall keep up the pressure anyway.
• Found somewhere new to rent after my current landlady has decided she would like to sell up.
• Ran a local race and surprised myself with the result.

I joined my first Critical Mass ride in April. Here’s somebody’s video filming the whole thing.

Critical Mass is a social movement, enabled by volunteers, which aims to highlight the demand for cycling in urban and rural areas.

In Warsaw, it was ran in co-operation with the local police, who installed rolling roadblocks.

I felt an overwhelming sense of joy at being able to ride through some of Warsaw’s busiest roads in total safety, seeing plenty of sights.

Particular highlights were going through tunnels: people whooping and cheering just to hear their echoes in the cavern struck me as touchingly human; how we all rejoiced in the act of making noise.

It was a ride for all ages and bicycles: kids on trikes, people on handcycles and recumbents, plenty of cargo bikes too.

I took part using the city cycle hire scheme, which offers free rides for 20 minutes, thereafter very cheap for subsequent hours of hire.

…

On this blog I repeatedly rail against the perils of car-centric design. Try cycling for yourself. Join a Critical Mass ride at the next opportunity.

The Cat is on my lap and I cannot move. I fear invoking his ire ’ere I stir. He inhibits me from conducting my business. But he’s just oh so cute and cuddly.

It’s March, which means spring cleaning. Last weekend I managed to part ways with objects that had occupied my living space but not given any value.

I listed them for free and offered to deliver to people in my town. On the Saturday I had 6 items, and by Sunday I rode my bike west and east to drop stuff on their doorsteps.

I was warmed by an incidental shout of “Thank you!” as one person had chanced to open their door as I was pedalling away.

Giving things away means you don’t deal with the awkward and sometimes divisive hassle of money, arranging a mutual pickup time. They can’t complain if they’ve got it for free.

I’m trying to get rid of a life’s worth of accumulated objects. Why? I hope to make moving abroad in the future as easy as possible. Plus, it’s not worth holding on to stuff for the sake of it. Here’s my progress:

Watching all my films once before selling them to CeX. I will keep around 10 as they have particular sentimental value. I currently have 30 more to watch. I think this is a good compromise. I ripped all my Wii games, offered the discs to friends, and the ones they didn’t want, I sold.

This one is such a drag… I probably should care a little more about picking sensible outfits, but… I can’t be bothered. At least today when I went into town I wore a pair of shoes that my mum bought me what must’ve been at least five years ago but I’ve never worn. Slow “progress” here.

Playing the long game here. I know friends in Poland who are raising children and would like to be exposed to/immersed in English, so the books that I read as a kid, I’m saving for them. Otherwise, I’m finally going to start tackling the ancient authors and then deciding if I want to keep them. Big fan of Plutarch so far.

They all currently live in a treasure chest and I’m dreading the day I need to open it. “Deadline” is in six months, so, you guessed it… I’ll only open it in six months.

I’m happy that I have all the kitchen utensils I need, and no more. I would like to start using up some back-of-cupboard stuff that I’ve now transported during at least three house moves, but honestly, if I didn’t do it previously, am I really gonna do it now? Bathroom-wise, probably just a matter of putting products in eye-line so that I remember to use them. I have six towels and four bathmats. Could probably get rid of half of those, but honestly, they don’t occupy much room in the grand scheme of things.

Listed some old editions of the Official Nintendo Magazine, which had a print run in the UK between 2006 and 2014 (the middle of the Wii U era). I notice I’m not the only person trying to get rid. I haven’t even opened them… I probably should read a few, for old times’ sake, or even to get some kind of reminder of what games journalism used to be.

Happy new year everyone! Best wishes to anyone reading this. Before deciding what to do in 2025, why not look back to see if I did what I promised for 2024:

Yep! Definitely did this one to my satisfaction. 20 this year, and I’m happy with them all.

Been feeling far less guilty, happy to spend even. I’ve been treating people, and going to see them.

Oops, went back to my old ways here. Need to rethink how to not repeat the pattern.

Gained a little more weight and enjoyed learning new recipes. I still need to remember to eat something almost straight after sport, as it will stave off the sugar cravings I get.

So, more of the same this year? Probably. A positive trajectory I wish to continue. Here are some themes I want to achieve:

I feel like I’ve got to do everything before I die or grow old or get tied down or something arbitrary. On the way, I’ve probably not given present moments the attention or attitude they deserve. Dreaming’s great and all, but don’t neglect the here and now.

I’ve got all of my necessities covered. My kitchen has all the tools I need, I’ve got all my bathroom products, and I’ve only bought clothes I’m going to wear. In my space, there are a lot of unread books, and unwatched films sat on the shelves. I want to go through them, experience them, and then donate them away to charity. Holding on to them isn’t helpful. When I move, I want to only keep my essentials and favourites. Similarly, I need to try scrapbooking in order to organise the knick-knacks I’ve accumulated over my whole life.

Sometimes it still surprises me that people enjoy my presence and want to spend time with me. I enjoy time with friends and family. I need to make sure I do the rounds at least once this year, to keep the people I value close.

I’m actually not afraid of my own thoughts. There is no emergency or group chat conversation that I need to be in right now. Just less is always going to be good.

In a house move, an ASUS Nexus 7 surfaced. I haven’t turned this device on since the 18th of July 2018.

The thing was my go-to device for watching pirated anime and reading pirated manga… as well as containing some of my secondary school notes.

It runs Android version 6.0.1 with kernel version 3.4.0, last built 2016-07-02. By technology standards, this thing is ancient – but to any other kind of electronic appliance, it’s still a baby.

It ran GTA: San Andreas comfortably, though. Plus it was just the right form factor and weight to never be cumbersome to use.

I was thinking about all of the possible things I could repurpose this device for, thinking I would be one of those cool tech bloggers who does something crazy with hardware for a niche purpose… and then I showed my mum and she wanted it, so, guess I’m patching and resetting the thing instead.

I had a hire bike for the four days I spent in Copenhagen in February. It was absolutely lovely. One moment that will stick with me.

A group of motorcyclists were revving at a red light in the direction opposite in the middle of the city. I am also waiting at a red light, along with about 10 others in a cycle lane. In front of me there is a mother with her child’s tricycle hitched to the back of it. The little girl begins ringing her bell in response.

Bewildered for a moment, a few adults look behind briefly, thinking someone is trying to get past the bikes. Then the whole lane catches the meaning and they all start ringing their bells enthusiastically, hopelessly drowned out by the motorbikes.

A small act of defiance in the face of people who have no logic beyond “me like loud noise”.

Warning: boring site configuration ahead!

After a bit of wrangling in Hugo, I found the issue where only a truncated bit of content was showing up in people’s feed readers, instead of the full content:

Copying the contents of this default RSS template from the Hugo repo to my theme’s templates/_default/ directory, I edited a few lines:

First, I had to set the language parameters of my site’s config.toml, according to this link

Additionally, I changed (thanks to this source) line 55 to:

<description>{{ printf "<![CDATA[%s]]>" .Content | safeHTML }}</description>

… so now everything should render correctly. Right? Nothing ever goes wrong the first time.

And nobody is allowed to tell me how I should feel

Enraged by the agony which people unknowingly inflict on each other

Do we all writhe in pain and bridle at things known only to us?

I am staggered by a loss for things with no hope of return

It exists only in my head forever. Concepts which have been severed from the present

Only I know what has been, and the promises unspoken

It is the loss of what could have been that might sadden me the most

The best is behind me, and I didn’t event know

This may be the last time I ever sleep in this room. I’m despairing that life has changed

And all that’s left to me is memory.

I’m sure you’ve heard about urbanism, the social and political movement that is focussed on reducing car dependency and prioritising space for people over motor vehicles. There are plenty of campaigners and blogs out there discussing practical ways of achievement.

This blog post relates to something that happened to me yesterday, and I’m writing after I’ve cooled down from the stress and had a chance to process my feelings. However, it’s still my word salad and I can write how I want to:

It’s just past 6pm and it’s already dusk. I am cycling home on my commuter bike and I see someone riding a mobility scooter in the road at less than walking speed, and a few cars waiting in a queue behind waiting for an opportunity to overtake.

Once I catch up, I dismount and ask if everything’s okay. After all, this is a stressful situation where we’re both in the road where we really shouldn’t be, and fast-moving large metal boxes surround us. The elderly lady, her name is Helena, she says the battery has gone flat – it is beeping terribly loudly every 5 seconds.

She says she’s not normally out for so long, but got delayed due to a mixup at the bank. So I offer to push her home.

As I’m doing so, the scooter lights up, and supposedly the battery is in good nick again – three lights instead of just one. She says that’ll do. I can’t in good conscience let her continue. She asked me if it was illegal for her to use the road. I don’t answer. With the endless sprawl of parked cars taking away pavement space – just think how utterly ridiculous that is, that we allow private vehicles to be dumped on public roads – she can’t make it past on the pavements without going into the road.

There are no busses this time of day between town and her street. Her mobility scooter is her lifeline in order to participate in society. I look at the scooter. It’s falling apart. On the way home, the bolt holding the armrest to the scooter body came loose. If I hadn’t been with her, could she have picked it up herself? In the dark? On a road where hundreds of cars move by, hundreds of people in moving living rooms completed insulated from the world, all thinking “not my problem”, no time out of their busy day to stop their movement from one cage to another?

The scooter, it’s too small for her. The footrest is curved, not flat. There’s no space for her to rest her feet flat. Her legs have to swing out to the side. We try and overtake a van which has parked with two wheels over the pavement. I’m enraged by the people who sold it to her, knowing for certain it was too small, but it was the only thing within her budget. She says they were probably trying to get rid of it. It causes her pain.

There’s a hill and the battery reports itself flat again. I start pushing again. We have to go in the road again as the pavements are too narrow. I marvel at the fact that no car has yet decided to use the horn as they yearn to overtake.

We get to her home after a mile and about 45 minutes of maneouvering. The whole way she’s said sorry. I tell her, each time, that she doesn’t have to apologise to me.

I bid her farewell after opening her door for her. As I make my way home to collect my bike, I can’t stop thinking about her.

My country is cruel to anyone outside of a car.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. -Ian Fleming, Goldfinger

Chatting on WhatsApp with a friend. They type the word Bebras. Next day they get an advert on Instagram for Bebras.

This is such a specific keyword that there is no way whatsoever for it to be happenstance.

We are outside of the age range of the challenge, neither of us teach at schools, and this is such a niche topic that there cannot be a random advert for it.

We are finally convinced that Meta uses the contents of WhatsApp messages to serve advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

Every student applying to university in the UK has to write a small essay about themselves for the admissions department to read. I remember being seventeen and immensely stressed about this peice of puff prose. I think it’s a load of drivel now. I unearthed as an example for a family friend now of the same age, I thought I’d publish it and you can play the role of an admissions officer from the comfort of your own screen:

Having attended a lecture by the leading researcher Alex Pentland entitled “The Human Strategy: Building Human-AI Ecologies”, I was inspired to think about how so much of the modern world is now dependent on computing. Society’s progression will be highly dependent on technological and electronic innovations, an exciting field which I want to be a part of. The discussion made me consider how we can use the decision feedback loops in AI systems to improve communication and operations in a business setting - and since then, I began to fully appreciate how vast the applications of computing are. As more and more computerized systems are developed and integrated into everyday workflows, there is a greater need for technologically-minded people to make them intuitive, purposeful, and accessible.

At school, I chose to study Mathematics and Further Mathematics in order to complement my chosen field. The Decision and Statistics modules have been particular highlights so far, providing me with a more in-depth insight into areas such as network design and data science. Doing Physics has helped me think about the practical side and how systems are actually implemented, along with their limitations. This knowledge was particularly useful at the 2018 UK Space Design Competition, where I won the National Final as part of my team’s automation department. We worked together to design robotics and computing systems for a human settlement in orbit around the Earth-Moon L4 libration point; it was an incredibly stimulating weekend. I am also the Lead Academic Prefect for Computer Science and the school’s CompSci Society President. The opportunity to develop articulation skills and present my ideas to people, even if they know nothing about the subject, has been very beneficial to me.

In June, I had some work experience with the marketing company Persado, whose clients include The Telegraph and Barclaycard. It was really interesting to learn about their product, a machine learning platform that optimises emails and online adverts by predicting the most engaging words and phrases. I enjoyed seeing a real, working example of machine learning technology implemented in a business setting. During my placement, I spent time not only looking at the tech, but also managed to get some insight into client interaction and meetings. It was incredibly useful to have the opportunity to have hands-on experience in the ‘real world’ of business, and to develop my communicative skills.

I have a particular love of Cyber Security and ethical hacking, qualifying for the Government’s CyberStart Elite camp, one of 23,000 who entered. I picked up vital skills such as cryptoanalysis and cross-site scripting. I was also chosen for Cyber Security Challenge UK’s Masterclass event, to take place in November, for my interpersonal skills and technical knowledge. This was following a Face-to-Face competition inside the Bank of England, where my team was tasked with solving issues such as network infrastructure weaknesses, staff education, and incident response.

Outside of academia I have strong passions for sport, playing volleyball at the London Youth Games, and running in cross country events for my school. I have recently learned to play the clarinet, taking part in ensembles at school concerts, and also making a few appearances on stage. Computer Science encompasses my want to work with the theory that underpins so much of modern technology and to develop future innovations that will change the world. I have a great desire to thoroughly study this subject, and I am exceedingly eager to attend university.

You are allowed to apply to five universities, I picked Cambridge, Warwick, Bristol, Bath… and the fifth escapes me. Courses were either Computer Science or Cyber Security. I went to Warwick for four years.

I received a response from Max Wilkinson’s office within 24 hours:

Dear Oliver,

Thank for the email. As you might know Max has been Cheltenham’s ‘walking and cycling champion’ in the past and continues to support environmental transport in the town. So this is a issue that’s close to his heart.

He’s committed to working for Cheltenham and continues to support the town becoming net zero. As a result he’s in support of the new cycle paths being added to the town. That not just serve the people of Cheltenham but connect us to the rest of the county too.

Rob Nancekivell – Caseworker for Max Wilkinson MP

And that’s it.

My Member of Parliament is Max Wilkinson, a Liberal Democrat elected for Cheltenham on the 4th of July 2024. This is the first time I have written any communication to an MP. OK, to be fair, it’s not a letter but an email:

Dear Max Wilkinson,

May I first take this opportunity to congratulate you on your successful election. I look forward to attending surgeries in the future. Thank you also for raising the struggles people are facing in the constituency as part of your maiden speech.

I’d like for you to speak up in Parliament, should the opportunity arise, in order to urge a reversal the cuts to active travel, i.e. walking and cycling, made on the 6th of February 2023 by the Sunak government. Active Travel Fund 4 was a direct cut to capital funding, against which Cycling UK wrote a letter, urging a reversal to the loss of money for schemes not just in England, but across the UK.

A little closer to home, I’ve moved to the area recently, and can’t afford the costs of a car. In order to get to work, or go to the swimming pool and supermarket, I’ve enjoyed using the Honeybourne line as a low-stress way of getting around. However, the first half of my journey is harder to navigate, as there is no easy way to get to that path without sharing with cars (which are getting ever larger and deadlier).

Cars and people don’t mix. I’d like to see segregated, two way cycle provision between where the Honeybourne line ends at Royal Well Lane to join up with the intersection of Bath Road and Vernon Place, connecting with the cycle path at Sandford Park.

The provision of a cross-town, safe facility will connect more destinations, reduce car traffic as more people choose to use it (therefore making drivers’ times shorter), and reduce the risk of collisions. Built to standards such as London’s Cycling Design Standards helps ensure good quality and encourage use.

I applaud the council’s work so far to provision segregated cycling along the A435 past Pittville Park.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

With respect, oliverobscure

I shall post when his office responds.

There can be great joy in taking care of the basics of living. Fresh bedsheets, for example, smell great.

I didn’t have to change them. I wouldn’t starve or lose my job if I didn’t. I did it because I wanted to, and inexplicably that is great satisfaction in itself.

Relaxation through a bit of tasking. Who knew.

The catchphrase of the cyber security industry in recent years has been the three-word “Secure by Design”, which is where companies try to pretend they’re doing something new but aren’t.

As with all catchphrases, it can be wielded to mean anything that the wielder wants it to mean, rendering it saturated and useless. It can be added to the pile along with “Next-Gen”, “Single Pane of Glass”, and other shibboleths that marketing and sales can repeat ad infinitum.

In order to get me to take you as a vendor seriously, you have to show me your design. Just like any other feature of your platform, I can’t trust what you’re saying unless it’s verifiable.

What does verifiable Secure by Design look like?

Perhaps the problem can be solved by standards? But we tried this with ISO 27001 and now large companies fill up entire departments’ worth of people whose sole directive is to shout down any changes because they’re Not Compliant and Won’t Pass Audit. Not to mention most audits being a tickbox exercise which don’t prove any degree of security and you’ll still Get Hacked Anyway and Lose My Data because oopsie, you left a privileged account lying around that got overtaken by an attacker.

Maybe penetration tests for any security product become mandatory? Great way for some to make a killing. Again, the problem is that commissioning companies have all the control for scope, severity and report publishing rights - no pentest results ever need to make it out into the open.

If we can’t solve the trust problem with audits and pentests, what do we have left? I posit that in order to make Secure by Design a reality, and not just a stick that random bloggers can beat imaginary strawmen over the head with, both security vendors and national bodies (such as the NCSC) need to start publishing examples of what they mean. \

Show me how your software and hardware platforms are architected. You can still keep the copyright. I might not have the technical expertise to understand them, but we already have a healthy ecosystem of experts running personal blogs to loudly point out any issues. Yes, some companies may take a short term hit in the Court of Public Opinion if they get things wildly wrong, but in the long term this can only be healthy, with incentives to build rapport. Imagine a security industry where the most successful vendor is that which just has a sensible design, rather than whoever can spend the most money going to conferences and evangelising.

Oops, this website’s been offline since early July 2024. What happened?

First, the domain expired while I was away from my PC. Secondly, I had trouble renewing it. Third, the .xyz registry operator decided to put a serverHold mark on my domain. Apparently it had been listed on some abuse database. I checked, no such thing. Fourth, life had got in the way.

Sorry if you missed me.

In this post the author reveals where he currently lives… Nottingham! In a subsequent post, maybe I’ll discuss what it’s like living here (yet another random adding his opinions on a topic exhausted of discussion).

The letters QMC are seen everywhere in Nottingham - on trams, buses, maps, local government press releases, local resident Facebook group posts, you get the idea.

QMC stands for Queen’s Medical Centre, on of the major inpatient hospitals in the city. So I says to myself, says I, Oliver, where did you first see the de-abbreviation? I think, possibly, also on the tram map.

Hypothetically, if you were a first-timer to the city, had a minor injury (bad luck) and wanted to get it looked at, I presume the conversation with a taxi driver would unfold as follows:

• Where to, mate?

• Hospital, please.

• QMC?

• Come again?

But then, I suppose, not that big of a deal. There would be a bit of awkwardness in the driver explaining what the QMC was as you were getting in.

Other cities and towns probably use “Hospital” on all their signage and in common parlance, with most people not needing/caring to know its full name, while QMC is the Nottingham shorthand - nobody would say, “She’s the director of the hospital”, (with the speaker referring to a major one in the local area). You would always say, “She’s the director of (the) QMC”. Never have I ever heard anyone de-abbreviate it.

Is my life so mundane that I think this is the threshold for a blog post? Find out next week, on oliverobscure.xyz.

What do I live for, now?

What brings me joy, what’s important to me? What matters?

The swims I do on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with people who encourage me and that I keep learning from, even when I thought I couldn’t be taught anything new.

Going to see friends, or them coming to see me.

The realisation that even though I enjoy being alone, I do still get lonely. I think I like making the effort of travelling, even if the journey isn’t always smooth.

I like trains. The option to look out of the window or sleep or read a book or sneak looks at other passengers or be stern when people aren’t following etiquette.

Who do I write for? Myself or for an audience? Is it okay to be a little self-indulgent, do I change my style because I know someone’s going to read it? I don’t think I’m holding back with my thoughts, perhaps it’s a little difficult to formulate them at the moment. Why?

I’m glad I have a stable income now. Still enough at the end of the month to put away. I don’t think twice about spending money if it’s on people who I cherish. Maybe it’s okay to be renting. forever. I don’t know. Maybe I won’t enjoy being settled in one place for the long term. At least not in this decade of my life.

Can I even settle on something I want to do as a career? Do I have a severe case of Shiny Object Syndrome? Why am I so obsessed? What’s with all the questions?

Up naturally at around 8 and felt good. Lots of water drunk and quick orange and banana before Parkrun.

Parkrun good, getting closer to 20 minutes each week. Sunny day with not much wind or heat.

Good cooked breakfast today. Both pairs of hands to help. Nice to host someone.

Walk out in town, stopping at various places. We buy books we hope to read someday when we have the time.

Drinks at lunchtime ahead of the Forest v Palace game. Fans from neither side seem optimistic.

It’s the Brentford v United game we’re interested in. Couple of hours before 8pm, so nap for me and walk for him.

Met up with a common friend who serves pints. Quiet evening to watch, slow shift.

Agony of the first 90 minutes, no goals for an age, then one for United (undeserved). Brentford close with an equaliser.

Bit cold waiting for the tram home, we timed it wrong leaving the pub. It’s half full but quiet. We look out the window.

Plenty more for whom the night is just getting started, but we want to sleep now. Both of us write. It’s pleasant.

Life is so short that it’s not really worth giving up your time on something you don’t enjoy. Big statement, I know, and this doesn’t apply to things you really have no choice in (such as being able to afford to live). Thought I’d narrow the scope and restrict it to books.

I’ve been trying really hard to enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo, and the first 200 pages or so were excellent, but somewhere afterwards I was disappointed by the shift in focus, and thought that the French aristocracy really did have the mercy of time and leisure in how long it took for them to receive their comeuppance.

And while I regret putting it down and not finishing it, I will be at least content with taking away a few pieces of wisdom as I move on in life and pick up the kind of literature that truly does engage me. Like I said, the book wasn’t worth it.

“For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.”

I hope to not need to speak about this again.

In Summer 2023 I experienced a love for life which, when I recall the moment from time to time, still makes me happy.

I had just spoken to a very kind gentleman at Tip Amsterdam North, who let me take out a day rental after hours even though he was closing (I would lock up and return the key at a drop location in the evening when I was finished). It was overwhelming to be so warmly welcomed, and I appreciated his patience as I stumbled through some Dutch.

My plan was to go through Noorderpark and head west towards NDSM-Werf, before taking the ferry back to my start point. There’s something to be said about just how relaxed and comfortable I felt on this ride - I could go very slowly while following established road rules so obvious I didn’t need to think about them. You can get anywhere you want to go on fully connected routes.

I ended up at the ferry terminal having just missed one, but fortunately the frequency was every 10 minutes (and it’s free!). I took the time to just look out at the waterfront and watch all the shipping traffic.

The passengers arriving at the terminal deboarded, I was able to push my bicycle easily on the step-free ramp and counted what must have been 200 people boarding within a very short span of time. We set sail (no sails) and were passing by a massive cruise ship, and waved to people up on the top deck, who waved back in earnest. All kinds of people, couples, families, old and young.

A massive swell of emotion overtook me. I honestly lack words to describe it. It was such a simple gesture.

Since then I’ve always dreamed about living in the Netherlands.

I didn’t want to go for a run today. It was grey outside, the wind was fairly strong and I wasn’t having a good day at work.

I really, really wanted a nap at lunchtime. But out I went, not because I was motivated, but because I had discipline.

My routine, my consistency, my principles would all break down if I didn’t have the discipline to maintain them. Most days are a fight with the small part of your brain that says “I don’t wanna!”.

As the holy month of self-improvement (January) ends, any lasting committed resolutions will need to be stuck to through thick and thin, even when everything feels like garbage and there are far easier ways of getting that dopamine hit. So, my advice is: it’s okay to not feel motivated. Do you think the people who have trodden the path before you were always taking firm steps, becoming more enamoured with their goal in a monotonically increasing way? Of course not!

But I belabour the point. I went out today and I saw some ducks and birds and in that moment I realised that even if my legs felt terrible, everything was going to be alright. And I will go out and do it again.

Albums With Influence will look back in reverse chronological order at albums that have made a significant impact on my life. I highly recommend all of these albums. I’ll give a brief note on what makes these albums special and how they’ve shaped my life. Inspired by my friend Keith. Note the further that I go back, the less likely it is that I discovered the albums on release.

I listened to this while working on the tail end of my third year dissertation. It’s the soundtrack to my worries, mood swings, and my hopes for the future. It’s also ridiculously catchy. Favourite tracks: Metroland Is Burning, Jennifer, Cut UP!.

Discogs link

Introduced to me by a dear friend (hi Alex), this is the most violently angry and punkish album to have come out in recent years. Amy Taylor leads a band with unbounding energy and passion. I put this on when I need to conquer the day or I have a serious bee in my bonnet. This is just non-stop from start to finish with tight instrumentals, clever songwriting - and for once I feel like an artist is angry at the same things I’m angry about. I submit to change. Favourite tracks: Maggot, Don’t Fence Me In, Knifey.

Discogs link

I’ve had to scrub this album from my sight because I’m afraid of becoming fatigued with it, which would be a real shame because this is, emotionally, one of the hardest albums to listen to. Definitely one to listen to in complete darkness - I flip-flop between a pit of despair and a whirlwind of inspiration about 20 times on this album. Favourite tracks: Hypnosis, The Love You Want, Descending.

Discogs link

Thank you friend Josh for the recommendation of King Gizz. This was the album that cemented their status for me as one of the coolest bands currently active. Again, this one’s the soundtrack to much of my time at university - we’d be sat round the table playing drinking games and despite everyone’s protests we’d listen to some of their longer tracks in full as a soundtrack to someone’s unfortunate card draws. Favourite tracks: O.N.E, East West Link, See Me.

Discogs link

Probably one of my biggest regrets in life is not seeing Rattlesnakes live earlier. I was finishing school around this time, leaving the environment I had known and where I developed most of my personality - the things I cherish today, my principles, my hobbies - it was the crowning period of change. End Of Suffering is an album has much to say under the surface.

Discogs link

I’m very glad to have lived in this era of music. New music never invalidates the old.

I know that I struggle with periods of alternating very high and low motivation. I plan to be ‘a bit kinder to myself’ and ’live at my own pace’, which both sound like cliches. I’m not making resolutions per se, just general themes of stuff I want to achieve:

It’s fun! Even if no one reads them, I find it quite cathartic to have a scratchpad for my thoughts. Expect also some entries in German, since I haven’t got any writing practice since I left university.

I’ve always felt guilty about spending money. I have enough now to eat out at restaurants, buy some second-hand clothes, treat my friends, while being able to save for long-term goals. I’m also going to be investing in my hobbies, namely triathlon and hiking - so I will book hotels for races and train tickets without concern. I’ve always been worried that I’m going to need the money for something else. This year, I know I won’t.

Binned off Instagram, restricted it to desktop use only (the web app is surprisingly good) - I only use my PC about once a week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much my brain doesn’t miss it. Stopped scrolling on Reddit once I realised all I was seeking was people who agreed with me (about football, video games, or the city in which I live). I’m planning to replace the time with… nothing!

Currently I’m underweight. I have been my entire life. By better, it mostly means ‘more’, so that I keep my energy up during the workday (I have to nap quite often). With the amount of sport I do, it’s only fair. Maybe I’ll go back to calorie tracking, maybe not, it got quite tiring.

Note to self here, if you’re trying to maintain a blog, make sure you leave instructions to yourself about how to post new content, and make them easily accessible!

Use the command hugo new posts/title-of-blog-post.md to create a new file to write in. This will create a new file at $BLOG_ROOT/content/posts/title-of-blog-post.md. In the file will be a title neatly auto-capitalised based on your filename, a timestamp, and a draft: true attribute.

Use Markdown, remembering that for a newline you need to hit Return twice.

Hugo will not publish any content in drafts, unless you use the --buildDrafts flag, but then you have to remember to include that every time.

Run hugo in the $BLOG_ROOT directory and all shall be resolved, with the content in the directory as set by the publishDir=../public_html attribute in config.toml.

And just double check everything appears as you wish it to.

Thank you Unix permissions very cool. Grant read permissions to the new index.html file created in public_html and maybe one day write a script to do this automatically.

Life update: started new job. Going well. Can officially say “opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer”. Going on a nice hike in the Peak District tomorrow.

I’ve switched from Vultr.com to the University of Warwick Computing Society (UWCS) for hosting this website. The process was incredibly smooth and easy, all I had to do was export my files off the box I rented from Vultr, upload them onto my user space onto UWCS servers, and change my DNS records.

Top marks to Vultr for being such a good provider, they refunded me the remaining credit on my account even though they could’ve easily chosen not to, and they promptly deleted my account when asked.

A huge thank you to the UWCS tech team for guiding me through getting set up on their infrastructure, their hard work continues to make the society a great place for current students and alumni to hang out.

I expected this to be much harder than it was (for some reason), changing my DNS settings to point this domain to a new location was trivial. A slight pitfall was getting the permissions wrong initially such that all requests for CSS files and blog posts were returning 403 Forbidden, but a quick change with chmod o+r fixed this (I definitely removed all write permissions!). I didn’t have to do anything with backend server software, it was all done for me by tech team and lighttpd.

Oh, also, using the command mv * .. to move all files up a directory won’t catch hidden files, which was a problem since I’ve been using git to track changes to my blog files.

That’s all for this blog post, at the moment I’m not doing much work, instead twiddling my thumbs waiting for my new job to start. I am trying to cobble a script for a video about car dependency in semi-rural England, but that’s slow progress. Stay tuned!

Before starting my first full time junior role as a Cyber Security Consultant in September (go me!), my company offered to pay for a home office set-up to ensure my long-term comfort.

So I now have a Corsair TC200 ‘gaming’ chair and a GoStand Manual S2 Sit-Stand desk. Here are my thoughts on them.

Price: £350, Colour: Grey, Material: Fabric

1. Very adjustable, especially the armrests.
2. Leans all the way back (but I don’t expect to ever use it).
3. Ease of assembly, done in 15 minutes, however the QR code on the box for the digital manual was a deadlink.

1. Please give me a physical paper manual next time.
2. I am comfortably below the recommended user height maximum, and yet the headrest is not really comfortable, and the neck pillow is both too thick and rests nowhere near my neck.
3. Wheels don’t roll smoothly, but I don’t move around much anyway.

Price: £300, Frame Colour: Grey, Desktop Colour: Alaska

1. Incredibly solid desk, especially the top, which looks great.
2. Well documented instruction manual, took 90 minutes, can be done solo.
3. Pre-drilling holes for £10 extra means no power tools required

1. Desk goes up slightly short of what I wanted, max height is 115cm (but I was aware of this before I ordered).
2. Handle turning is a bit clunky, but fortunately I don’t have to be excessively gentle.

All in all, I’m very happy with both and it feels good to have the option of sitting or standing. I like standing for reading and writing blog posts, and sitting, well whenever I feel like it. While it does take about a minute and a half of cranking to switch between the two, I don’t think a non-manual desk would’ve provided much benefit for the price increase, plus it would’ve needed a plug socket which I don’t have spare at the moment (the concept of extension leads terrify me). I can’t fit the whole of the chair beneath the desk when standing, but instead I can tilt the seat back and fit 90% of its profile under the area of the desktop.

I’ve been learning German at university for four years now as part of my course. That’s all come to an end now, and I’m left with a large collection of stored vocabulary in my brain and a limited amount of grammatical glue to arrange the words into something sensible.

The seminars in my German modules were two hours a week of speaking in class, learning a new construct, and practicing that construct. We would be set homework to complete each week, and occasionally it would be reviewed in class the week after it was set. Once every three or four weeks, we’d have a writing task of about 200 to 300 words, which the teacher would mark.

As anyone might be able to guess, going through only this material and nothing else, did not a good language learner make.

There was a lot of independent learning, which I will always defend as a Good Thing (tm), but when you’re a beginner, it’s hard to know where to go. You are overwhelmed with resources (I still am), some of which are of dubious quality, all trying to push their style of instruction as the One True Method. Instead of all that, I encourage everyone to just try their hardest to get exposure to your target language.

You don’t have to move there, or go on holiday. Listening through streaming shows or podcasts, wherever you get them, goes a long way. Or you can read free news sources of whatever your flavour of politics. The key thing is that it’s okay not to understand everything, in fact I’d argue that it’s not even desirable.

Throughout the entirety of your language journey, you want to form patterns of understanding. Sentence structures that appear frequently, which you may have no idea of meaning, will, once you have learned the vocabulary, become almost instinctive. I sound like I’m hand-waving magical incantations here, but I promise, consistent exposure to the language is the top thing you can do. Every day if you can.

For example, two years ago I started listening to the Easy German Podcast. It was at a level that was way too hard for me, but I stuck with it by having it on in the background while doing other things, to at least listen to something. Today, I play it on 1.5x speed and can understand almost everything. Of course, there are some words missing, but it’s amazing what you can fill in within the context of the conversation.

The best thing about living in the information age is that so much of it is free. You can learn pretty much any skill nowadays, so long as you’re willing to be patient and sort through the crud to get to useful content (therein lies the rub).

I’m not usually a life advice dispenser, but I have to say that learning German was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I don’t promise language learning is going to be good for everyone. But humans invented language, why not see what your brain can do?

I recently fell into a rabbithole of the ‘old’ internet. The era defined by personal websites, blogs, webrings, niche chat forums and the like. It felt oddly personal.

I was born after the turn of the millennium. I don’t have that much idea of the truly ancient; dial-up was definitely gone in the UK by the time I have the first memories of the ‘family’ computer (although I more strongly remember when we got an LCD screen to replace the chunky CRT box). I got my first laptop in (I think) 2011. I didn’t use it much.

I absolutely cannot claim to be part of the old era, mysteriously it evokes some kind of weird vicarious nostalgia in me. To my generation, which has consumed most of its ‘content’ (while I used to hate that term, it is a useful catch-all) on social media sites and mobile apps (remember 9GAG and iFunny?), it’s different. Gone are the cozy, whitespaced, round-cornered, design-‘philosophy’-driven interfaces of the multi-billion dollar corporations. The only adverts you’ll see are pixel banners to install Netscape Navigator.

And I like it. So, that’s why this blog exists. I want what they have, and what once was.

It’s 2023 and I don’t want a reality check. I want a cool blog because my own corner of the internet is an important concept to me. That’s it. And yes, perhaps I’m failing as a writer to articulate my opinions properly. There’s some unexplainable part of my brain that really likes this idea.

However, I’m aware much of what I write is going to be meaningless word salad. I expect the vast majority of people will find my writing abhorrent. But it’s my word salad, and I get to choose the dressing.

Recently I realised I was addicted to social media. I think I still am.

Behaviours included pulling out my phone any time there was a gap in my life, spending long hours scrolling, and most importantly: having remembered nothing of what I had just seen in any given session.

It’s hard for me to exactly characterise why I’ve been doing this. I like to make excuses, such as saying to myself that shorter periods of time between events do not lend themselves to the concentration required to focus on something traditionally considered productive, such as reading a book. Or that the book I’m reading (currently Crime and Punishment) is not interesting enough.

Having reflected on it, I think it boils down to a single thing, which I’ve termed the funny. Mostly, I think the reason why I’ve spent a lot of time on Reddit and Instagram is because they frequently deliver the funny after not much effort. Sometimes, after a particularly shit day I just want to hunker down in a cozy place and receive the funny.

In the long term, I don’t think it’s healthy. I’m trying to slowly wean myself off both of them. Reddit, by finding a bunch of blogs of people I find entertaining, interesting, or otherwise, and adding them to an RSS reader. Instagram, by simply not using the Explore page. I still want to see updates from friends who use it.

Not only in pursuit of the funny, it could be also an inherent need for some semblance of community. Best I can do is parasocial relationships (not really healthy either oops).

So. This blog. Maybe it’ll be an addiction of its own?

This is the first page of the obscure blog. This site is hosted using Vultr (which is my referral link), and I purchased this domain using Njalla.

The content for this site is assembled using Hugo using the nostyleplease theme.

Setup instructions can be found from LandChad.net

I’ve decided to launch this site because I’ve always wanted my own corner of the internet. To all the strangers who have made it here: welcome, and thank you for choosing to waste your time here.