Happy with how dark mode has been going with Micro.blog. Of course it’s only a first past and will work with feedback once it gets rolled out. I won’t say too much yet. Working on it makes me realise there are many UI/UX tweaks that can be done also (but not yet).

Having a break now for a few hours, trying to drag the girls out for a little walk… but they don’t want to. Tonight I am working on a TOP SECRET project called Dark Mode for Micro.blog 😋

Yes, it’s possible to cram in 3 days of work into 1.5. Urgh, finally. And still on time, thankfully! Enough moping.

Ah the joys of React coding. I fell in love with MOBX and the great extra package called MOBX State Tree (MST) during Gluon dev. This code is a project I worked on all by myself and it has grown… and it’s so easy to add extra stuff without headache. Love it ❤️

Whilst I did buy a battery pack, I am conscious to not buy anything extra that I don’t need. Ideally I will replace things as they break or become, unfortunately due to consumerism mentality, obsolete with software or highly targeted "propaganda" (haha). Or when I truly do need something (which is fine).

Saying that, my original iPhone lasted all the way to the iPhone 4S and I waited a long time before buying it, followed by the iPhone 6 (which then became obsolete because of software). Went with the iPhone X after that, which was fine — also allowed me to create apps for clients on a modern phone (started out on the 6 though). The X screen died and it was difficult to replace due to shops being closed last year… so I went for the Mini. Hope that lasts at least 5 or more years. So hoping to continue the trend… if the X didn’t die… I would probably still rock it.

After that, I hope we have better options (maybe something more ethically sourced closer to home?)… although I am thinking that it all requires resources to create these things — especially batteries (more natural resource extraction on our living planet). Ah, choices. Yes granted this is only one person making a decision like this, but maybe there will be more and more with the same mentality.

Instead of buying a MagSafe Battery Pack for all my different tech devices (get it?) for $99, I splashed out at $50 for a Hiluckey 26800mAh portable solar pack. Charges everything I care about 8 or more times via 2x USB and Qi charger on the other side. We’re going hiking soon, and that is good to have around.

Waterproof, shockproof — basically can throw it around and not worry… and if we get stuck, there is always a solar option (but I think I would have to be pretty desperate and hope to never use it — planning a dedicated solar panel to have around to charge things properly at some stage though, instead of using this tiny one). It’s under 500 grams, which is acceptable. Also has a torch, but hope to never use it.

Useful when electricity goes off? Yep. Useful if we get stuck? Yep. Rugged? Yep. Weather and element proof? Yep. Useful technology? Yep.

Overpriced, useless, MagSafe Battery Pack? Nope.

BTW, I was totally kidding about Gluon being built with Electron for the Mac. The dev team of one had a talk and decided it’s not worth the dev resources. No further long blog post required to talk about my reasoning.

I’ve been moping around the past few weeks. There is nothing I can do except accept that this just happens to me. Everything, from client projects to life, is behind and there is no way to catch up now.

Glad I am at the end of my moping.

Gluon for Mac, and other systems that do actually exist, will be powered by ELECTRON.

Thunderstorms are on the forecast for tonight. Will probably stay up for a listen and look. One of those beautiful things nature provides 🌩

Today my keyboard is deciding that it will paste everything twice, or even three times, on one time press of the paste combo. Such an awesome, well designed, keyboard 👍

Thanks to everyone that purchased a Gluon T-Shirt in the past. I will stop selling them fully by the end of the month. We all have enough stuff already and I’m doing my bit. As I mentioned, all profits went to charity #BLM ✌️❤️

It’s Friday, which means I am free to do what I want. This is my day to explore my own stuff, instead of solely concentrating on client work. To be fair, the last 3 weeks were mostly personal already 😋

Starting next week, I’ll be removing Sentry from Gluon. It served a purpose at the beginning, but I just prefer real feedback from people using it. Plus it’s one less data point I need to worry about.

Am working on a few things on Micro.blog and I really, 100%, appreciate that there are no pre-processors for CSS or JS. Really nice and makes a lovely change. Granted my head has to think about it a little more, but it’s good. Love it.

50% battery left on my laptop… let’s see how much a 10 minute Zoom call can kill it.

Spent an hour behind the TV before we left today, as I was waiting, and pulled out the Xbox and cleared out some cables too. It is pretty neat back there as is, but always good to give it a nice clean. Nice to see less stuff around the TV also — granted it’s only one big black box, but still.

Also had my Sound Sticks at the back of there, so I took them… they never get used as we are stuck with the HomePod. Only ever used them with the Xbox… so pretty much just wasted energy. When our original TV died (I miss it!), we bought a new one — and because we seemingly rushed, I bought one without a headphone jack (which the speakers use). It was dumb… but now I’m stuck with it until it also dies.

Happy with the result so far. More I can be doing to dumb down a few things and have less boxes lying around. There is one big gathering of gear in the storage cupboard, so I’ll spend a weekend soon and clear it out and sort it nicely.

The Xbox might be missed, but I’d rather just exercise or read a book from now on. I used to play so much as kid and teenager, enough for my lifetime. Most games are terrible anyway. Nothing feels original anymore… just like movies I guess. With the games I played I learned some real life skills like map reading, an immaculate 3D spatial awareness of where things are around me, and other useful skills. I always attribute my gaming to my skills as a pilot. Modern games make it too easy.

Ah, also pulled the ethernet cable from the IKEA smart lights (they’re not so smart). Remotes still work and that’s fine for my use case. Siri doesn’t even take my requests anymore anyway, so that’s fine — won’t miss anything here.

I’m careful not to buy things I don’t need. I’d rather replace them, when they eventually just die, with something true and tested… and that doesn’t need software updates.

Took my laptop out to a remote location. I would say that I am working… but I am not. Doing research, for personal hobbies, instead. Kinda nice.

My Xbox is going into storage. It mainly lies there and I never get into anything...

I’m aware I haven’t replied to anyone that was kind enough to message regarding digital minimalism and on useful technology. I will do my best over the next few days.