Wrekenton XC

A trip to the United Kingdom's answer to Disney World.

A proper post about doing a triathlon: how it felt, what I did, and who couldn't get my name right at the end.

Quiet one round our end.

Living exhausted in the shadow of the Castle Howard triathlon.

Joining a running club, attending Middlesbrough Front End, getting my bike tuned up, competing in a triathlon

A busier week than usual: a spa day, a cold, a trip to Scotland, a dip in a reservoir, a walk up Worm Hill.

Doing way more running, cycling, and swimming than I ever thought I would. Also: getting back on the motorbike!

Getting back into it.

A long month of nothing, waiting for my hand to fix itself.

Got a bit of momentum behind us on what feels like the darkest month of the year, astronomy be damned.

2022 was a year of real highs and lows. We got a dog, climbed a bunch of mountains, learned to ride a motorcycle, re-learned how to ride a bicycle, travelled to Europe, travelled to the United States, read a whole bunch, and wasted a buttload of time.

A show in Manchester, a couple of walks, a motorbike accident, a new bicycle, and a whole lotta stumbling around in the dark.

That's October done and dusted. A bit of general upheaval but we all made it through in one piece. I went to a conference!

The weather's finally turned, so I've got to choose my days out strategically or spend the next 5 months soaked through.

A month of slow meandering back towards a sense of normalcy, with plenty of two-wheeled conveyance and first steps out in the wide world.

July was exhausting and overwhelming—from weather to life events to sheer lack of sleep—and I’m glad that it’s over.

A full month: catching COVID, going to Riga, getting back out on my bike, & thinking long & hard about what I want to do next.

Busy month: lots of long weekends, lots of driving, sun's back out, bring on the summer already.

A quick look back on how CraftCMS is working out for me, after a few months of using it.

April 2022 was a busy one: plenty done online and plenty done outdoors. Now if they could all be quite this way, I'd be well pleased.

March was a difficult month, and I'm glad to put it behind me.

Monthnotes from February 2022.

A look back at everything that I did (and didn't do) in 2021.

A list of all of the books that I read in 2021.

There are plenty of Linux distributions that look like macOS, but most offer skin-deep changes and don't adhere to the ethos of macOS. These settings do, while allowing you to continue using the Gnome environment.

I can never remember quite how PGP encrpytion works (mostly because I never use it), so I'm writing it down here to refer back to when someone starts talking wonky crypto stuff at me.

A cohesive unified theory on the purpose of art rendered incoherent by being like really tired of a lot of things.

I'm extremely tired of the powerful in tech holding the rest of us hostage in the name of innovation.

Some thoughts on how to use margins in CSS. Needlessly opinionated.

Some meandering thoughts on what it means to be an effective person in a tech career.

A bit of meta-commentary on Tailwind CSS' description: "Tailwind, like most CSS frameworks, solves a problem really well. Its supporters, on the other hand, are a pain.

What I got up to in March 2021.

My favourite Vektroid album, only intermittently available on Bandcamp.

What I got up to in February 2021.

Some thoughts on JavaScript outside of the browser and its unpopularity in Big Tech.

What I want for the blog; thoughts on template builders; Cassie Evans on SVG animations; Supabase.

A tonally weird movie, with 1-dimensional characters, no plot development, and a truly awful script: 2/5.

Everything they've said is true: Pixar is back in form. Beautiful and meaningful.

As a romp through a visually-spectacular world, it's a fine film, but don't expect any poignant messages at the end.

No one made any good space movies in 1998, I'm pretty sure. Armageddon: 3/5 and Deep Impact: 2/5.

A quick overview of everything significant that happened in 2020.

In 2020, WordPress remains relevant and dynamic as ever. But it's still got a few pain points.

Bandcamp, RSS, and the Cleveland Way

A short day trip along the Cleveland Way in Kildale in the North York Moors.

The very best totally messed up no-good flawed film I've watched in a while.

An account of a day trip along the Cleveland Way between Square Corner and Sneck Yate.

The web isn't about me, Umami.is, application holotypes, and utility programs

How I built a user-password-based encryption system that even the database owner can't break.

What I got up to mid-August 2020.

What I got up to in early August 2020

Walking up to the source of the Tees and Cross Fell.

My entry in the canon of explanation for why JS developers always seem so tired

Yet another CSS methodology: one that works pretty well for me.

Some thoughts on how to determine whether code is good.

More navel-gazing about being an effective person.

I shaved my beard off and it made me all sorts of introspective for some reason.

Pointy fonts with really high stroke contrast are everywhere nowadays.

Algebraic effects, memoisation, and running a mile because GQ told me to.

A bunch of musing on the screen and the job as defining us as people.

Canadian brand guidelines, error-resistant React apps, and a model of the Roman world.

Things are going well.

How to build a proof of concept for a realtime database, a la Firebase.

They say you learn best when you try to teach someone else. So here I am, trying to teach... myself.

Use slugs for your Rails routes, rather than database primary keys.

How to redirect routes with Rails, but only if they match a given regex.

How to build an AJAX signup page in WordPress.

Climbing Sharp Edge on Blencathra in the northern Lake District.

How to publish a package to the Atom text editor repository.

How to create a basic Express server, with templates.

A short bit about using the fonts that your users' computers come with.

A short post explaining how password resets work, mostly just to help me remember.

Climbing Naei-zan in Kami-Furano by snowshoe with Sam and a couple of buddies.

What it's like to run the Abashiri Marathon in on 27 September 2015.

Climbing Okirika-yama, just outside of Fukagawa, by ski in the wintertime.

How to climb Kitoushi-yama, a small hill just north of Asahikawa, in the wintertime.

Coming across an abandoned home. Nanowrimo 2015.

Frustrated by Word documents that get mangled in email transit, a plea is issued for a simple PDF.

Walking from the beach into town. Nanowrimo 2015.

A grade 6 graduation at Kaisei Elementary School.

A visit to Tsuru-no-yu at Nyuto Onsen in Akita Prefecture. I sit in a very hot bath far longer than is considered normal.

Climbing Tomuraushi with Tony over two days and running out of water on what was maybe the best walk I've ever done.

I attended the launch of the Space Shuttle for STS-127 back in 2009.

My first real trip out to Shiretoko, touring of the Five Lakes district in the late fall.

Climbing Yotei for the first time, alone in the early winter, and being absolutely floored by the beauty.

Twenty-fourth tour round the sun and I'm still enamoured of the autumn.

Climbing Kogane-yama out west with Jordan, padding out the post with a bunch of rubbish about steep dropoffs

Running 10 kilometres in Okoppe.

Random stuff I overheard on The Bus in Honolulu.

Driving over Ukishima-toge on the way back from Asahikawa to Takinoue

My first long distance ride, to the Northern Welcome Party in Nakagawa

Running in the 10km Biei Healthy Marathon, riding my bicycle to Monbetsu and back, remembering Canada Days with the Boutins.

Camping down south, at one of the welcome parties I think, coinciding with the Jigoku-matsuri in Noboribetsu.

Driving home from Tony's house in the rain.

Driving down south, visiting the Jozankei sex museum, sleeping in the Matsumae Michi-no-Eki parking lot

Climbing Tokachi-dake with Emma and Oliver.

Climbing Teshio-dake with Tony and Oliver, visiting an abandoned school on the outskirts of Monbetsu.

Driving north from Asahikawa with the windows down.

A brief interlude at the top of the Nissho Pass, driving with Tony down to some event in the southwest.

Returning to Shari after the abortive attempt the previous fall, a trio of Kiwis and I summit in glory.

The first day of summer, coming surprisingly late to northeastern Hokkaido.

Oliver let me tag along on an excursion to see what was left of the rail line that used to run through Yubetsu.

I drove Penelope the AZ-Wagon around the whole perimeter of Hokkaido to see what else was out there.

Tooling around Maruseppu in Penelope the AZ-Wagon.

Much ado about melting snow; the gang comes across a pair of abandoned cars.

The first days of spring are coming to Hokkaido.

Coming back from Pippu, I am struck by the first blue sky I've seen in what feels like months.

A blizzard strikes Yubetsu.

Skiing at Kurodake and my first visit to the Sounkyo Ice Festival.

A trip on the icebreaking ship Aurora to see the sea ice on the Sea of Okhotsk.

Back to Yamabiko-no-taki in wintertime to see the frozen waterfall.

In Iwamizawa, I experience my first (and thus far only) earthquake, and we drive home through thick snow.

A bit about Hokkaido in the dark on a quiet evening.

Going out skiing at Piyashiri, trying to leave anxiety behind me.

A brief layover in Osaka on the way back from the States leads to some real soul-searching on trains.

Much ado about a bunch of snow. I guess I'm not used to quite this much snow.

The night of the rented Higashikawa cabin, and the emotional aftermath.

The days are approaching their shortest; winter is well & truly here & boy is it dark.

The winter is starting to settle in. I celebrate American Thanksgiving with friends in Monbetsu.

In which the author rambles a little bit.

A belated Halloween party, home from which we took the low roads over the mountain passes.

More urbex at the Kampo-no-yado Sounkyo, a semi-destroyed hotel by the side of the road just outside of Kamikawa.

Konomai, the first time I explored some abandoned infrastructure that marks so much of the face of Hokkaido.

The first abortive trip up Shari-dake, accompanied by a quartet of Kiwis, ending in a mad rush down the mountainside after hours of beating through the wilderness.

Yamabiko-no-taki, my first encounter with a higuma, a drive on a forest road, and karaoke with the Monbetsu folks.

A trip to Nitori, a night in Asahikawa, and a trip to Tenninkyo

Hauling Renyu on a mikoshi through Kamiyubetsu.

The Sapporo Welcome Party: the Bier Garten, Susukino, A-Life.

On the relationship between Japaneseness and my foreignness, and remotely about a house party.

A dairy farm, climbing Meakan-dake, the Eastern Welcome Party.

The Northern Welcome Party in Kembuchi.

Arriving in Japan, Tokyo Orientation, the train up to Yubetsu, and my first days at work.