Archive: 2025-07
Week 238: Unbalanced
I picked up 2 kg of rice from the no-packaging shop on Tuesday, along with a few other things, and with all that in one pannier my bike was noticeably unbalanced as I cycled home. That’s OK: I’m used to cycling with a one-sided load. What I’m not so good at is manoeuvring the bike when I’m walking it. I stopped off at Lidl to pick up a couple of things, and as I pushed my bike towards the stands it fell over.
I really should just have let the bike fall, but instinct took over and I grabbed it and wrangled it upright again. I won, but at what cost? My leg and shorts were covered in muck from the tyre, and my leg was gouged by the pedals. They don’t call those grippy flat pedals “shin tenderisers” for nothing, but at least it was a meaty bit and not the actual shin.
Beep to get your attention (but not if you’re on a call)
Want to get a script on Linux to play a sound to get your attention, without embarrassing you if you’re in the middle of a call? I have found just the trick.
Japan Week Manchester tries to exploit performers
According to Manchester City Council, Japan Week is
Week 237: Please consider the environment before replying to this email
DD33
Fifteen years after my first time and two years on from my last time, I tackled the Dunwich Dynamo for the fourth time.
Week 236: A lot of cycling
L— was away for the week at a couple of conferences in Nottingham, so I was home alone. By the end of the week I even figured how to hang up a Signal video call on Android on my own! The buttons disappear off the screen after a few seconds, and it’s not an environment that lends itself to experimentation to work out the user interface, but I eventually did: tap on the video, and the buttons (briefly) reappear.
Adding a Lilypond custom language for easy sanshin transcription
Week 235: Tonioque ce proscateur
I was woken unreasonably early again on Tuesday morning when, at six o’clock, a neighbour’s burglar alarm went off in response to a brief power cut. It was 31 C in the bedroom, so I gave up on any more sleep and got up and showered instead.
Week 234: Awakened with a start
The week started with a bang when we were both jolted awake in the middle of the night by the sound of something crashing to the floor. To mitigate the heat, we’d had the windows open on both sides of the house. An unusually strong gust of wind blew open the shutters, overcoming the magnetic catch, and knocked the little USB fan off the windowsill. No damage was caused, but it did give both of us a shock, and it took me a while to get back to sleep with all the adrenaline.