...are not for me lol! Undeterred by my impatience setting up the Alpine terminal email client, I read a couple of articles last night about using terminal-based web browsers. They seemed simple to install so why not give them a go?

Messing around on the web one night last week I went down a reminiscing rabbit hole that took me to the terminal based email client “Pine”. My mind conjured up fond memories from the late '90s of the winding route to the computer room at Van Mildert College in Durham University – left past the high table in the dining room, along a narrow corridor, before queuing up to go down a few steps on the right for my time to surf the fledgling internet with Netscape, or access my email via Pine instead.

The software I use for writing markdown blog posts on my computer, Typora, has moved from its beta testing phase into a commercial offering. Whereas it was free before, it now needs a licence, enabling the user to download it on three separate devices. This gave me pause, as I hadn't twigged it was a testing phase piece of software when I originally downloaded it – or maybe this was something I quickly glossed over... it's hard to remember now!

I recently came across the company Framework, whose USP is a fully repairable laptop. Shouldn't seem revolutionary but somehow it is in this age of planned obsolescence and glued/welded components. Reminds me a little of Fairphone, who are also trying to disrupt tech hardware with their emphasis on ethical sustainable supply chains and modular, replaceable components.

Wales has opened up vaccinations to 40-49 year olds so my wife phoned up the local number for the Mass Vaccination Centres (MVCs) a few times last Friday (patience needed before getting on the queue!) and we had our jabs yesterday! Very well organised so thanks to all involved with this!

I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my head – best to get them down somewhere so that when I do have time to do something, I can try and prioritise! Having them out in the open on my blog might also help keep me honest!

I'm now a patron of The Midnight Pub and have set up a (sub-)capsule/room at the pub too. You can find it on the web but it's more fun accessing it via Gemini space! I still need to do some decorating of the web version of my capsule, probably with a variation of the Lagrange Midnight Pub CSS theme I'm currently sporting on Write.as.

Everywhere you look now there seem to be hints of a sci-fi future emerging in our cities. Will this future be built by the people for the wellbeing of the people, or by corporations for the wellbeing of their bottom-line and shareholders? Or a little of column A, a little of column B?

A confession – I'm rubbish at taking notes! The idea of something like a Digital Garden or the Zettelkasten Method “second brain”, as has been mentioned by other bloggers, sounds rewarding but the discipline and effort involved is massively intimidating... and if my note-taking history is anything to go by, unrealistic for me!

I've seen a few posts about the mysterious Gemini space, a lightweight, markdown-like section of the online multiverse using a protocol somewhere between the internet we all know and Gopher (which I'd not heard of either). There are https proxies to access it but where's the fun in that? Last night with the babe and The Canadian asleep, I gathered up my courage and set forth to explore!