Pupdate

It’s been pretty cold and wet, so the boys are needing to wear their coats outside.

Milo had a scan at the start of the month. Initially things were looking good, and the plan was to stretch out the next visit to three months time :) But then the technician noticed some lymph node density changes, so we’ll be back next week…

Briana Corrigan

Another brilliant act at Trading Boundaries. She sang a fab mix of Beautiful South material, her own songs, and some covers.

RC2014 Picasso

Having ordered my kit back in the Easter holidays I’d been waiting for a wet (and quiet) weekend to put it together – not expecting it to be quite so many months :/

Annoyingly it didn’t work straight away, and the cause wasn’t obvious. After swapping components with my working RC2014 Mini, and checking all the obvious stuff with a meter and scope I paused.

Jason Byrne

Another act that we would have usually seen at the Fringe, but also one of the kids’ favourites. So we caught his tour as it passed through London. Hilarious as always. I think he only got to about 10m of prepared material in almost 2h as there was a LOT of audience interaction.

Retro meetup

The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge held a retro gaming event that was a good excuse to get (some of) the meetup crowd together in person. It was also great to meet and chat with some of the exhibitors.

RC2014 Picasso cont.

I’d hoped to chat to RC2014 creator Spencer at the event, but sadly he was unwell and didn’t make the trip. So the debugging continued using the name badge card from RC2014 Assembly. Eventually I noticed a difference in how I held the system – a loose connection or dry joint I’d somehow missed. It was good to see it reliably booting :)

LUX

I’d not previously heard of Rosalía, but I noticed some raving about her new album on Bluesky. Then I saw the video for Berghain. Wow! Instant buy.

I’ve probably listened to it almost every day since the CD arrived, as it’s a masterpiece.

Of course I’ve now gone into the back catalogue and bought ‘El Mal Querer’ and ‘Motomami’.

It’s a little weird listening to stuff where I don’t understand most of the lyrics. But I realised years ago that it’s possible to enjoy singing without understanding it, when a friend gave me an album from the Icelandic band he was part of.

Boots

I got some Sorel Boots at Rei in Tysons Corner on one of my last DXC trips, so they’ve lasted me well considering I’ve worn them a LOT over the 6y or so. They were comfortable from day one, and so they’ve joined me on many adventures.

But… the soles were starting to wear through, and then when I checked them over before sending away for a resole I noticed splits between the upper and sole on both boots. I’m amazed that I hadn’t regularly got wet feet :/

Finding some replacements wasn’t straightforward. I’ve settled for a pair of Panama Jack P03 Aviator C23. Early signs are promising (despite $wife saying the sheepskin lining looks ‘chavvy’), though I’m taking some care breaking them in.

Solar Diary

It’s been cold, and dark, so not a great time of the year for solar generation, but also not the worst November.

VR

After practicing all month I’ve managed to get much better and more consistent at Clay Hunt VR. I can shoot perfect rounds of skeet and trap, and my scores on the various sporting rounds are edging upwards. Did this translate into a real world improvement at the clays ground? No :( If anything my score was worse than usual, and I found myself missing shots I’d usually expect to find easy.