Dan Q

Personal blog of Dan Q: hacker, magician, geocacher, gamer...
https://danq.me/blog/ (RSS)
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[Note] Book Exchange
24 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Our family Christmas Eve tradition, which we absolutely stole from Icelandic traditions (cultural appropriation? I’m not sure…) via some newspaper article we saw years ago, is a book exchange. verybody gives each other person a book,then we sit around and read until people retire to bed (first the kids, then – eventually – the adults). […]

[Note] Xmas Post
16 Dec 2024 | original ↗

At first I thought “Christmas post” had something to do with letters and parcels, but then I found one in the wild.

[Note]
13 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Today I put 550 Christmas cards into envelopes, sealed them, put address labels on them, and stamped them. Because these were the "lick and stick" kind of envelopes rather than a self-sealing variety, I've been unable to taste anything except glue ever since.

[Note] Too Late
13 Dec 2024 | original ↗

You know you've stayed up too late when... the milkman arrives and hands you your milk.

[Article] The Edge of Burnout [RSS Exclusive!]
13 Dec 2024 | original ↗

This week, I allowed myself to come perilously close to my burnout point (you would never guess I was on sabbatical, would you?), but I'm proud to say I noticed before I hit a point of catastrophe. Now I just need to course-correct and stop picking up 'new' things for a few days. I can do that, right?

[Article] Moving Three Rings’ Servers
12 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Yesterday I achieved one of my primary sabbatical goals and moved Three Rings' primary servers to a new datacentre and a new architecture. But while the visible part happened yesterday, the whole thing's been months in the making and builds upon the effort of an entire team of dedicated volunteers.

[Checkin] Dan Q wrote note for GC9GTV3 Drive Slowly; Fox Crossing
12 Dec 2024 | original ↗

This checkin to GC9GTV3 Drive Slowly; Fox Crossing reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Checked up on this cache during a dog walk nearby. All seems good, cache is ready to be found!

[Article] Building another secret cabinet
10 Dec 2024 | original ↗

When I was ten, I'd have killed to have a secret compartment hidden in my bedroom bookshelves. And once she'd seen the one I built for my own room, earlier this year, my ten-year-old predictably wanted one of her own, too. Luckily I had the spare parts and, now, the experience to make her one. Awesome.

[Repost] Maybe Later
8 Dec 2024 | original ↗

"Install update" Maybe later. An excellent... I want to say poem?... from Ian Eure.

[Note] Bacon Solves Little, Improves Much
8 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Even when this... even when that... even when the other. Even then, there's still the comfort of a bacon sarnie for breakfast. 😋

[Repost] Recreational programming
6 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Foone shares that "the world needs more recreational programming". I agree.

[Article] International Volunteer Day
5 Dec 2024 | original ↗

It's International Volunteer Day, and thanks to being on sabbatical I got to spend most of the day volunteering with Three Rings. I liveblogged everything I got up to in a series of notes to try to shine a light on what volunteering (in a developer/devops role) with Three Rings can look like; this post is a summary of all that liveblogging, plus...

[Repost] A Friend Used AI to Wish me Happy Birthday
4 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Robert shares his experience of receiving a birthday greeting from a friend, that had clearly been written by an AI. I echo his sentiment.

[Article] Babies and Baubles
3 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Each year, we encourage our two children to each select exactly one new bauble to add to our tree. The result is a decoration that's a celebration of the changing tastes and interests of our two kinds: a mismatched, discordant, crazy mixture of colours and shapes, but in which each and every item is its own story.

[Repost] kirby vs. this blog post
3 Dec 2024 | original ↗

mgx shows off a cute use of Javascript to make a fun blog post post more-fun, all the while helping to keep the Internet fun and weird.

[Note] Cooking with Wine
2 Dec 2024 | original ↗

TFW a recipe calls for a glass of wine but you can’t get the cork back in the bottle so you just have to drink the rest of it. Ah well, what’s a chef to do? 🤷🍷

[Note] Morning, Sheep
2 Dec 2024 | original ↗

Not quite ready for wintering indoors, our village’s hardy sheep are enjoying pasturing in the large field near the school this beautiful but chilly morning.

[Article] 99 Days of Blogging
1 Dec 2024 | original ↗

I've blogged a total of 219 posts spanning 99 consecutive days of blogging, a personal best by a long stretch.

[Note] Disarmed
30 Nov 2024 | original ↗

In good news, my injured arm is not broken and should recover within a couple of weeks. In amusing news, the doctor who treated me recognised me from (tales of) my electric shock admission earlier in the year, even though she never treated me on that ocassion.

[Article] Stuck in a Lift
29 Nov 2024 | original ↗

About twenty years ago, I spent three hours playing I-Spy in a broken-down elevator. And in doing so, I learned two things about my friend Fiona.

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