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Kind: Notes

Short content: a post or status update with just plain content and typically without a title.

  • Off to London for a couple of days of musical theatre fun! Don't wait up!

    Full image of Dan on a speeding train.
    Alt

    Dan on a speeding train.

    • Note
    • posted 19 June, 2026
  • 125 days since our house flooded, and the damaged furniture fittings, floors, underfloors, and now inner walls have been torn out.

    Over a third of a year since we had to move out, I'm optimistic that perhaps, at last, reconstruction work is almost ready to begin.

    It's a long, slow process. And there's clearly a way to go. But it's good to see progress happening.

    Full image of A view through a pair of dilapidated residential rooms, through the gaps in a hollowed-out partition wall.
    Alt

    A view through a pair of dilapidated residential rooms, through the gaps in a hollowed-out partition wall.

    • Note
    • posted 18 June, 2026
  • ๐ŸŽถ It starts with sausage,
    A hot dog in a bun.
    One simple sausage,
    Put some mustard on one...

    Is it just me, or are (sinner) Sir Pentious's colours reminiscent of a hot dog?

    Full image of Sir Pentious, an anthropomorphic snake from Hazbin Hotel, in black and yellow longitudinal stripes with red 'eyes'.
    Alt

    Sir Pentious, an anthropomorphic snake from Hazbin Hotel, in black and yellow longitudinal stripes with red 'eyes'.

    • Note
    • posted 17 June, 2026
  • I guess it's sweet that the dog has decided that I'm not to leave my home office without her noticing.

    But when the naps right behind my wheelie chair I worry she's going to get her paws run over!

    Full image of A fawn-coloured French Bulldog lies on a laminate floor against the feet of an office chair.
    Alt

    A fawn-coloured French Bulldog lies on a laminate floor against the feet of an office chair.

    • Note
    • posted 16 June, 2026
  • Making another attempt at learning to tango, this time at a more-beginner, more-local class. It's still super hard but he makes me question whether I even know how to walk, let alone dance, but I love it so much!

    • Note
    • 2 comments
    • posted 13 June, 2026
  • This morning I had a lovely meeting with Andreas Marakis, who's researching the sociological impact of the Web of the 1990s on people who experienced it first-hand.

    I'm seeing more and more interest in this period - even, surprisingly, among people too young to be nostalgic about it - as the countercultural "web renaissance" tiptoes out of the shadows and encourages newcomers to take their first steps in building their own Web identity with HTML, CSS, and (maybe) JavaScript.

    Anyway: chatting to Andreas was great and it reminded me of quite how grateful I am to have gotten to experience a lot of these seminal technologies when they were at their newest and most-experimental.

    • Note
    • 1 comment
    • posted 11 June, 2026
  • 115 days since our house flood, the beginnings of the very first of the remedial works are taking place. Today, builders will drill through and lift part of a cracked poured-concrete foundation to work out what's beneath and whether it's stable enough to lay a new floor on top of. Also, somebody's coming around to quote for the laying of new floors (and we'll see if their numbers line up with those estimated by the insurance company).

    Full image of Several vehicles parked in the rain on the rural residential driveway of 'The Green'.
    Alt

    Several vehicles parked in the rain on the rural residential driveway of 'The Green'.

    • Note
    • 2 comments
    • posted 8 June, 2026
  • "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm."

    Full image of A fawn-coloured French Bulldog wrapped in a blanket in a way reminiscent of robes. This, combined with her wrinkled features, makes her look a little like Yoda.
    Alt

    A fawn-coloured French Bulldog wrapped in a blanket in a way reminiscent of robes. This, combined with her wrinkled features, makes her look a little like Yoda.

    • Note
    • posted 7 June, 2026
  • Working with an old codebase today, I moved a method from one file to another. CI was happy.

    Then I realised the method didn't have any automated tests, so I wrote one. It turns out its entire (new) file didn't have any, so my change would improve test coverage. Nice.

    But it didn't. CI complained that test coverage had dropped. Wait, what? All I did was move some code and add a unit test.

    Then I realised that the coverage analysis tool was only counting files that actually contained any tested code. By adding a test to part of a previously-untested file, that file became part of the scored codebase. Uh-oh.

    Looked deeper. Turns out the code coverage tool was also counting the test files themselves as being part of the code-under-test.

    Fixed all of the above. Code coverage score dropped by about 40%. ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

    Now I've got more work to do.

    Happy Friday. Check what your coverage tool is inspecting, folks.

    • Note
    • 1 comment
    • posted 5 June, 2026
  • Got to say, it's very sporting of AWS to make compliance with their terms of service and acceptable use policy optional.

    Full image of Screenshot of dropdown field labelled 'Will you will comply with AWS Service Terms and AUP - optional', currently set to 'Yes'. The label is saying that the field is optional, but the joke is that it sounds like complying with the terms of service is optional.
    Alt

    Screenshot of dropdown field labelled 'Will you will comply with AWS Service Terms and AUP - optional', currently set to 'Yes'. The label is saying that the field is optional, but the joke is that it sounds like complying with the terms of service is optional.

    • Note
    • posted 3 June, 2026
  • Note to self: ignore search results that say to install a plugin; the absolute fastest way to send a test email from a WordPress/ClassicPress installation (assuming you're using WP-CLI) is just to run something like:

    wp eval 'wp_mail("recipient@example.com", "Test Email", "A test email from WP-CLI");'

    • Note
    • posted 1 June, 2026
  • There are many things I don't like about the kitchen in the Chicory House where we're living medium-term following our house flood.

    But I like the fact that the integrated spice rack makes it much easier to see where we perhaps have a very-specific blind spot for "buying a new one where the last one's still more than half-full".

    Full image of Close-up of a spice rack containing not one, not two, not three but four tubs of 'ground white pepper by Sainsburys'.
    Alt

    Close-up of a spice rack containing not one, not two, not three but four tubs of 'ground white pepper by Sainsburys'.

    • Note
    • posted 31 May, 2026
  • I think I'm probably done with my blog (and podcast) series of Wikpedia @ 25 posts. It's been a surprising amount of work.

    But don't think I've stopped hitting Random Article! Today I was reading about surface plasmon resonance, and, despite looking at it on and off all day... I still don't think I "get" it. I've even dived into the linked articles to try to get a background understanding of the topics around it, but... nope. It's still all gibberish to me!

    Think I need the ELI5 version!

    • Note
    • posted 30 May, 2026
  • I let the elder kid choose her lunch. She chose a pizza so huge that each slice is larger than her entire face. Needless to say, she needed a little help with it!

    Full image of Two preteen children sit in front of an enormous pepperoni pizza.
    Alt

    Two preteen children sit in front of an enormous pepperoni pizza.

    • Note
    • 3 comments
    • posted 26 May, 2026
  • As both the UK's heatwave and my up-and-down England road trip continue, I think I've finally found a fan big enough to cool me off.

    Full image of A large wind turbine.
    Alt

    A large wind turbine.

    • Note
    • 2 comments
    • posted 25 May, 2026

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