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2026

Thoughts on the Kobo Clara Colour

·470 words·3 mins
After using the Kobo Clara Colour for a few days here are my initial impressions. I’ve come from a fairly old Kindle so this has been really interesting. This isn’t a proper review just my thoughts on the new device and how I use it.

Rebuilding my digital library

·690 words·4 mins
When I was a kid me and my brother read a lot, we devoured books so much so my mum had to keep taking us to the library to get more. Eventually when we got a bit older we started buying our own books and both our rooms became full of Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkein and other amazing authors. I love reading it transports me to a better place.

Default Software & Hardware 2025

·200 words·1 min
A list of my default hardware and software for 2025, taken from here and expanded on. Hope you enjoy! ๐Ÿ“จ Mail Service: Gmail Fastmail ๐Ÿ“ฎ Mail Client: Gmail Fastmail ๐Ÿ“ Notes: Joplin โœ… To-Do: Google Calendar & Vikunja ๐Ÿ“† Calendar: Google Calendar Fastmail, Etar ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ Contacts: Google Contacts Fastmail ๐Ÿ“– RSS Service: Hugo ๐Ÿ—ž๏ธ RSS Client: FreshRSS โŒจ๏ธ Launcher: None โ˜๏ธ Cloud storage: Gdrive & Synology Nas ๐ŸŒ… Photo library: Google Photos & Immich ๐ŸŒ Web Browser: Firefox & Librefox Firefox ๐Ÿ’ฌ Chat: WhatsApp & Signal ๐Ÿ”– Bookmarks: None ๐Ÿ“‘ Read Later: Wallabag ๐Ÿ“š Reading: Kindle Paperwhite ๐Ÿ“œ Word Processing: Google Docs & Libreoffice ๐Ÿ“ˆ Spreadsheets: Google Docs & Libreoffice ๐Ÿ“Š Presentations: Google Docs & Libreoffice ๐Ÿ›’ Shopping Lists: Mealie ๐Ÿ’ฐ Personal Finance: None ๐ŸŽต Music: Navidrome/symfonium/feishin ๐ŸŽค Podcasts: AntennaPod ๐Ÿ” Password Management: 1Password ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ Social Media: Mastodon ๐ŸŒค๏ธ Weather: Weather&Radar ๐Ÿ”Ž Search: Google & DuckDuckGo ๐Ÿงฎ Code Editor: VSCode & nvim & VSCodium ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ Distros: Win 11, OSX, Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, CachyOS (I use Arch btw) ๐Ÿ“ฑPhone: Google Pixel 7 Pro ๐Ÿ’ป Laptop: Lenovo X1 Carbon 5th Gen MacBook Air ๐Ÿ“œ Document Management: Paperless ngx ๐Ÿ’พ Remote servers: 1 ๐Ÿ’พ Home servers: 3 3.5 ๐Ÿ“ฑTablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab 9

Homelab Update January 2026

Happy new year homelabbers! I’m cheating a bit and rolling some of the work I got done in December 2025 into this update. I want to say my homelab is pretty boring now it just works which is awesome, only minor tinkering is required these days so I’ve decided to focus on observability for a bit. Knowing when and what things have gone wrong was sorely missing so I’ve finally gotten round to sorting a lot of that out which I’ll detail in a section below.

Year in Review 2025

·1715 words·9 mins
I think this is the first time I’ve done this although I’m not really sure, for reasons I didn’t do it last year. So this will be an attempt to summarise 2025 into something that makes sense.

2025

How I build my CV from Markdown

·463 words·3 mins
I’ve changed site generators and cms more times than I can remember (my git repo has the entire history of this site!) the one thing I try to keep the same is my CV. It changes roughly every few years with either a new job or update in skills. I want a way that regardless of however my site is built my CV is just there ready to go.

The frequency of blogging

·287 words·2 mins
The frequency of blogging is directly tied into how work is going, what my physical health is like and what my mental health is like. At the moment work and my mental health suck so I’ve just not been able to put as much effort into blogging. I currently have the following posts that are in some state or another (in no particular order):

Ten Pointless Facts About Me

·360 words·2 mins
Do you floss your teeth? # Yes, every 2 or weeks I’ll floss my teeth. I’m trying to be a lot better about teeth care. It’s cost me enough already!

Crinacle Project Meta and others

·614 words·3 mins
Update 20/07/26 - I can no longer recommend Crinacle Project Metas, mine have broken. I contacted the team at hangout.audio and all they could offer was a new pair at full retail price. It took a long time for the issue to re-appear after it went away so took months to finally pin down and record it so it ended up out of warranty. I’ve gone back to my Moondrop Dusks now.