🎮 Two games that I’m looking forward to this month: PlateUp and Balatro, both on the Nintendo Switch

Got out on my little folding bike this afternoon. So much fun! But I’m so unfit I need a nice cup of tea and a sit down now

This weekend has been nice. I haven’t really done much but I’ve had this feeling of actually enjoying things again. Being excited about things and having the energy to want to do them. It’s lovely. I hope I can make it stick.

One of the things I did was buy a couple of domain names. Wasn’t really intending on buying two but one was super cheap so who cares. Mainly I wanted to get myself a ‘proper’ domain name for my blog so I paid for the name for a year and set it up to point at my micro.blog blog and everything. I really like it. It does feel really cool to have it all personalised like that. I’m definitely getting into this all over again. So much better than shitty posting on Facebook or something where everything looks the same. It’s mine all mine, haha, and I like writing stuff and I also like just tinkering with it.

The other domain name I bought will probably just be used for email. It was surprisingly alright to set up with iCloud and now I have a pretty cool personal email address too!

I also changed how micro.blog and mastodon are set up together. I used to have it so that the RSS feed from my Mastodon account would go into my blog, so that I could post either on Mastodon or directly to the blog, and they’d both end up on the blog. I can’t quite remember why I thought that would be the best way to set it up? I think I liked the idea of everything ‘collecting’ on the blog. This did also give me the opportunity to put something on the blog that I didn’t really care to ‘share’ on Mastodon. I’m not sure why I thought that would matter?

I’ve redone it so that it’s the other way around now - anything I post on micro.blog now gets posted to Mastodon automatically. I think I prefer this because if I post something short on the blog, it looks very natural on Mastodon. If I post something longer, as long as I give it a title, it posts to Mastodon as a link to the blog, which is also very natural-looking I think. And then I’ve got the opportunity to post absolute shite to Mastodon, like the Wordle or something, and it can feel a bit more throwaway than having it added to the blog. It also means that Mastodon hashtags don’t float over to Micro.blog. I does mean that the stuff I’m putting on Mastodon doesn’t have any hashtags, but I can easily edit them in if I want to so even there I’m not really bothered. So I think I am going to prefer this setup better.

One more thing that I mucked around a tiny bit with this weekend is Drafts (the iOS app). I know I used this years ago but I only used the free version I think, and it was fairly limited and I suppose I didn’t really have much use for it. I read a couple of workflows for using it to post to blogs and I think I’ve got it the way I like it now? Plus I even think I can use it for some other stuff…

So it’s set up so that I can easily launch it from my iPad, from the lock screen of my phone, or from a complication on my watch. So I can get to a blank document really quickly. I downloaded an action that posts to micro.blog, it even gives me the option of publishing or posting it as a draft. I also got this other app that can be used to upload photos. I haven’t tested it out really yet but I think that will make adding photos to my blog quite straightforward. So yeah, I can quickly load that up and write as much or as little as I want and then send it straight to my blog, which of course then sends to Mastodon. I do also have an action to post just to Mastodon, if I want to do that for whatever reason.

I also just now set up an action to add stuff to my groceries list that I think I might end up liking a lot. I have had a Shortcut set up for this before but the problem there was if you didn’t hit send before your screen locked you would lose everything you wrote. And that won’t happen with Drafts. I think the next little tweak to do will be to set up some keyboard shortcuts to run these actions so that it’s really smooth to use from my iPad.

It’s been really lovely nerding out about all this stuff over the last few days.

Finished Reading: Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff 📚

Just got a Daft Social account. No idea what I might do with it but I like it for some reason.

I got one of these a few months ago for work. I was using a bigger backpack before this and I wanted something a bit more compact. And since I liked the EDC sling so much I thought I’d go for another Tomtoc bag.

The laptop I have for work is a 14inch Dell one. This bag is designed for a 14inch Macbook Pro, which I think are a bit more square than the Dells, so my work laptop does fit, but it sticks out of the laptop sleeve a little bit more than intended I think, so it means I can’t really use the elastic fastener to keep it in place. Not that it matters because its a snug fit and it stays in place anyway.

I keep the very front pocket fairly empty, using it just for my keys (because there’s a nice key leash in there) and my work ID badge and lanyard.

The main pocket has been a sort of ongoing puzzle for me since I got the bag. It’s pretty spacious but I think you have to think about how you pack it to make use of the space. At the very back there’s the nice laptop pocket which is very padded and runs the full width of the back of the bag. It doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the bag either, which means if you dropped your bag the laptop shouldn’t hit off the floor. Right in front of the laptop pocket is another, slightly smaller padded pocket, intended for something like an iPad. I use this one for my A5 notebook and pen.

There’s then a pretty large mesh pocket and a small pen holder in front of this. I keep some paracetamol and hay fever tablets i the mesh pocket, and a spare pen in the pen holder.

Attached to front part of this space there’s a water bottle holder, which I do use for a water bottle. I’m not too sure what I think about this design as you’re putting your water bottle in the same internal space as your laptop and that’s a bit of a worry. When I’m going to and from work I will empty my water bottle before I pack my bag, so for me that isn’t an issue.

Also built into the front here is a small but surprisingly roomy stretchy mesh pocket, that zips shut. It doesn’t seem like this should contain much but I generally keep a extra Sertraline tablet in a little pill canister (in case I forget to take it before I leave the house), a spare battery for my wireless mouse, the charger for my wireless mouse, a tube of electrolyte drink tablets, a fidget cube and some stationery odds and ends. It’s a surprisingly hand pocket, really!

All of this means that the actual ‘big’ space in the main compartment isn’t really all that big. The stuff in the sleeves at the back build up, and the things in the stretchy pocket on the front jut backwards into the bag, and the water bottle takes up a good chunk of one side. But there is still space under the water bottle and the laptop and tablet sleeves, and you can kind of pack things around the stretchy pocket too. So the main compartment for me has my wireless mouse at the very bottom, my Teams headset on top of that (I try to get the headband to fit around the bulge made by the stretchy pocket), and then my glasses case. My glasses case pretty much sits on top of my notebook, and I always want this at the top of my bag because I’ll want to use my glasses when I get home. The rest of my work stuff can pretty much stay in the bag.

The last pocket is a ‘secret’ one on the very back, so that when you’re wearing the bag it’s resting against your back so it’s the most secure one. I like to keep my wallet in this one, and I also keep an emergency cotton hankie in there too, just in case.

I thought buying this bag was a bit of a gamble because I didn’t know for sure if my work laptop would fit in, but it does, and everything else did seem like a tight squeeze at first but the more I’ve thought about how to pack it, the more everything has fit in with no issues. I like this bag because it’s very padded and comfy, and also because it is quite compact, it’s not all that wide and it isn’t really all that deep either, and the fact that the front kind of curves makes it look less bulky again. I’m 5'3 so it’s nice to have a bag that’s a little bit on the smaller side.

Lastly, I added a Heroclip to one of the loops on the outside of the bag. This comes in handy becuase I can hang my bag up at work (there’s a little radiator just behind my desk and I just dangle it from there) and it also means if my water bottle is full when it’s home time and I can’t be bothered to drink it or empty it, I can just clip the bottle to this and I won’t have to worry about anything spilling on the stuff inside.

Also re-did the way Micro.blog and Mastodon cross-post. Now it goes Micro.blog -> Mastodon instead of the other way round. Should stop hashtags turning up on Micro.blog, and I suppose I can easily edit them in if I want them on Mastodon?

Is this the best way to set it up?

Woo, my blog now has its own custom domain name: http://jaymys.place ! I guess this is officially a hobby now

First time out on my folding bike today. It's so cute haha. But it also feels fine, like, I haven't been on a bike for years and years but it didn't seem weird at all. I still can't hear properly so I was literally sticking to super-quiet streets and I wasn't out long but I still had a lot of fun

@3goodthings

💻 My WFH set up (I should work from home more often)
🥤Ginger beer
🧦 Nice socks (like you know when you have a pair of soft, warm, cosy socks. Nice socks)

So the plan now is: one more swab, my left ear is probably going to need hoovering out. Then a hearing test for both ears.

SUCCESS? 🤷‍♀️

Got rather upset, got sent home from work, rang 111. Got an appointment this afternoon.

So last week when they gave me antibiotics they shouldn't have. Instead of reading latest test results they looked at some stuff from 2021.

BRAVO

Still can't hear anything! GP surgery rings me at 10:30 while I was at work, said appointment is at a different GP surgery, in 30 mins time. I said I couldn't make that. They said ok, next available appointment is 3pm on Monday!

And that was all they could offer me. Receptionist implied it was my own fault because I turned down the 11am one.

YAY

@3goodthings

A day of doing not much at all as it's been cold and very windy, and I'm still having trouble with my hearing.

🛌 Lie-ins
🟦 Cosy blanket
🌃 Watching the sun going down and the sky getting dark

Currently reading: The Fold by Peter Clines 📚

Finished reading: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers 📚

I liked The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet the first time I read it, then I wasn’t as keen the second time. It just seemed too overly-wholesome and “quirky” the second time.

Having just finished the sequel I think maybe for me there’s a time and a place for these books. They don’t have fast-paced plots or danger on every page, they’re just nice people doing what they’re doing, and generally getting along with each other. At the moment I think that type of gentleness is just what I needed, so I enjoyed this a lot.

If you’re feeling cynical, I might suggest not picking up this series at that moment. When you’re in the mood for some cosy sci-fi loveliness, then give it a go.

@3goodthings it's been a while, let's have a go.

📆 Weekends
🔥Oodies
🥃 Baileys

Ha, guess what I mostly did today

Ear infections are still undefeated. I still cant hear anything. I got new drops yesterday so hopefully they work but today seems the same as yesterday. I’m actually really surprised at myself how much I’m missing listening to music

I’m posting this again because I remembered about it today, watched it and I still think it’s amazing and hilarious https://https://yewtu.be/watch?v=ZmxLja-DRIw

Currently reading: Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff 📚

OK, I think this is one of the actually good self-help books! I’m following the exercises and learning a little more, and I don’t know if it’s just good timing (it’s been about 6 weeks since I went up to 100mg Sertraline) or what but… yes. I am feeling a difference.

My nitpick is that as a book I feel like it could be much shorter. Each chapter starts with the topic and then goes onto an exercise which is brilliant, but then ends with a couple of pages of how life-changing self-compassion can be. I don’t think this is needed in every chapter. I would have preferred if that was kept in the opening chapter and let the rest of the book speak for itself.