Blog
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Tonight I learned that when my electric car gets down to 5% battery, it sounds an alarm.
And that when it gets down to 4% battery, it sounds a louder alarm.
And that when it gets down to 3% battery, it engages 'limited performance' mode and shows a picture of a tortoise.
And that when it gets down to 2%, and you've already turned off the heating and the radio and you're wondering how much power the windscreen wipers are using... that's when it stops showing you it's estimated range.
Fortunately, I then only had half a mile left to go. But for a while there it felt a little bit hairy!
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Electronic car dashboard showing 3% battery, a 'limited performance' warning, and an icon of a turtle in a yellow circle.
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Bitterly cold and starkly beautiful, this morning: West Oxfordshire is blanketed in an impenetrably thick freezing fog.
It's quite pretty, though I'm regretting not bringing my gloves out with me!
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Tree-flanked fields almost impossible to discern through a blanket of thick white fog.
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Chain Words
I've been enjoying playing Chain Words, from eclectech, intermittently, since it came out in November. If you've not given it a go yet, and you like a word game that's a bit different, you should try it!
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Imajica by Clive Barker
I recently finished reading Clive Barker's Imajica for what I think is the fourth time. It remains one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I'd love to tell you why.
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Not kink-shaming anyone, but I'm not sure I want to go to the 'toilets viewing area'.
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Sign above a door saying 'toilets' and 'viewing area' on separate lines, but looking slightly like they might be a single sentence.
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The younger kids' taekwondo school put on a free 'new years workout' class this morning. It was pretty awesome.
My watch says my heart rate averaged 146bpm, peaking at 169bpm. It's possible I'm not as fit as I used to be. 😅
But at least I don't feel like I might die, like I did during the 'dads go free' promotion last year. Progress?
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In a gym environment with punchbags visible in the background Dan, a white man wearing a black t-shirt, throws a right jab, alongside others who are doing the same.
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![Image representing post: Why I Am So Tired [Video]](https://bcdn.danq.me/_q26u/2026/01/why-i-am-so-tired-title-card-978x480.jpg#27897)
Why I Am So Tired [Video]
A video version of my recent joke about why I'm so tired, which was also made available in article and podcast formats.
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Why I Am So Tired
After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked.
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As part of my efforts to reclaim the living room from the children, I'm building a new gaming PC for the playroom. She's called Bee, and - thanks to the absolute insanity that is The Tower 300 case from Thermaltake - she's one of the most bonkers PC cases I've ever worked in.
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On a desk cluttered with computer parts, a partially-built PC stands in an irregular-hexagonal prism shaped case with vented yellow sides and a three-pane angled glass front.
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Visualising Forged In The Dark probabilities
Blades in the Dark (and other Forged In The Dark-based games) use a highest-value-from-D6-dice-pool mechanic to resolve actions. I was looking for a visualisation of the resulting probabilities, but couldn't find one... so I made my own.
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A small collection of text-only websites
Terence Eden's maintaining a list of websites that are presented as, or are wholly or partially available via, plain text. Obviously my own text/plain blog is among them, and is as far as I'm aware the only one to be entirely presented as text/plain.
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Tintern Abbey's looking especially beautiful in the fresh snow, this morning.
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A partially-ruined stone monastery juts out of a snowy plain in a wooded valley, under bright blue skies.
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Our dog has decided that the perfect place to lie down at our holiday accommodation is... on a staircase whose carpet is the same colour as her!
I'm grateful for her very-visible blep... or I'd have tripped over this camouflaged pupper several times already!
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A champagne-coloured French Bulldog lies on a step of a staircase carpeted in the same colour as herself, u her tongue in medium-blep.
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Found GC47WME PYVW- Cuckoo Wood
I was in these woods anyway, seeking GC10N80 and figured I'd come hunt for this cache too. A quick find; my geosense spotted a candidate hiding place right from the main path, and I turned out to be right.
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Found GC10N80 Wye Eye
This puzzle cache, undiscovered for 20 months, made for one of the most satisfying geocaching expeditions I've ever done.