Reading Log – 3 Body Problem
Everyone* had told me I had to read 3 Body Problem, but I never got around to it. When I saw that there was a TV adaptation of it, I thought it was best that I read the book before watching the TV series. In hindsight, I probably didn't need to. They two are pretty...
Cycling Gorilla Cinema #1
I got inspired. It happens sometimes. The idea: a guerilla cinema in the park. I wanted to inspire people to get outside more, and push what they consider "normal" with bicycles and travel by bike. Inspire people. Inspire myself. I came up with the name (it has a...
Ubuntu Tidyverse Packages
Mostly a note-to-self. After you've installed r-base on Ubuntu with the default packages, you will have issues installing Tidyverse. It's because there are a bunch of packages missing. Install them with: sudo apt install libfreetype6-dev libpng-dev libtiff5-dev...
The Quarry
If you pop through a hole in the right fence in the right suburb in the right city and walk up the hill for the right amount of time, you will reach The Quarry. It's filled with water since it's not actively quarried any more. Everyone assures me the water is fine....
Reading Log – Artemis
I had high hopes for this novel when I started reading it, after having read The Martian and Project Hail Mary. But this isn't a man-is-stuck-in-space-alone-and-needs-to-go-into-details-about-niche-science-knowledge themed book, so it feels outside of Weir's really...
Reading Log – Project Hail Mary
My lovely friend Nick recommended this Andy Weir novel to me. I'd read The Martian previously, so jumped PHM immediately. I was in the depths of being frustrated with Shantaram at the time, so jumping onto something fun and interesting was an easy decision to make. I...
Reading Slog – Shantaram
I couldn't do it. I don't give up on many books. But with Shantaram I just couldn't make it all the way through. I've never read a more unbelievable self-aggrandising autobiography. I got to when he's in Afghanistan, and I completely lost interest. I think there are...
Rocket.Chat – Wrong URI in emails
I recently spun up a Rocket.Chat server using Linode/Akamai's pre-rolled scripts, and it mostly worked well. The main issue being that the URI included in all the emails was stuck as the host name of the server rather than the site-url as set in the settings. The fix...
Reading Log – Shantaram
I'm about a third of the way through Shantaram. Lots of people have told me that I need to read it, and that it'll change my life. I'm always sceptical about bold claims. Especially life-changing ones. But now that I'm a third of the way through, I think that it will...
Emotional Eating
No, not like that. 6 years (and 4 days) ago, my eldest son went into the operating theatre, where the doctors were going to extract about a pint (imperial pint, not a fake South Australian pint) of bone-marrow. They do this with individual five millilitre syringes,...
My Desert Island Discs
I'd heard of Desert Island Discs before, but the most recent episode of No Such Thing As A Fish piqued my interest. Not so much about the programme, but about what eight tracks I would choose to bring along to my unplanned deserted island getaway. And what would be...
Cookbooks
I don't own a lot of cookbooks compared to some. Some dozens, I guess. They're tucked away, in a little Ikea cupboard and they rarely see the light of day. If I want a recipe these days, I tend to reach for my phone rather than casting my eyes over my cookbooks...