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17 down, 27 more to go - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-05-31T13:35:00.000Z

Here we go again. Afternoon walk this time around. It’s almost 2pm, and I’m standing in the same parking spot where I got picked up last week. No breakfast in me, but I did have lunch before heading out. Compared to last week’s hike, this one’s gonna be way easier. We have a bit more than 20kms to walk, with roughly 650 meters of ascent and 1300 of descent. Gonna be fun.

Before we begin, I’ll have to apologise for the terrible photos I took, especially of the churches. Been a weird walk, and there was also non-ideal lighting most of the day and, I don’t know, I guess I was not very inspired today? I’ll hopefully do better next time around. Ok, down the mountain we go.

Compared to last week, today’s a lot cooler, and there’s a gentle breeze. Perfect conditions to walk down a mountain and into the forest.

The first part is a lot steeper than I thought. I did consider walking the whole loop in reverse, and this part would not be fun. I’m having a hard time going down, I can’t imagine going up from here, especially after a long walk.

Thankfully, the trail becomes a lot easier to walk after that initial steep part, and I’m now enjoying my time in the woods. There’s gonna be a lot of going in and out of the woods on this hike.

Down a few steps and I’m about to emerge next to Montemaggiore, the last town you encounter on your way up to Mount Matajur. I saw these concrete stairs many times before, while driving up this road. Always wanted to walk this trail, and I’m glad I’m finally doing it.

The trail goes through the buildings, neat! So many old and abandoned buildings. Makes me kinda sad. But I get it, life up here ain’t exactly easy, or practical.

And on the other side? A big, and frankly quite ugly, Jesus. This is relatively modern, and I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan.

The trail continues in and around the town, down a few sets of stairs, and through some overgrown grass. So far, this one’s the worst-maintained trail I have walked. But I can imagine that doing maintenance is not exactly easy over here. So kudos to everyone who does it.

I’m now back on one of those service roads, and it’s a very enjoyable walk. We’re slowly going down, the weather is lovely, and I’m very much enjoying my time outside. It’s not an incredibly varied walk so far, the scenery is mostly the same, but still, this is not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

This small football field made me smile. I have no idea who comes up here to use it, but it’s fun to see it’s still there. I’d have loved to have something like this available to me as a kid. But now there’s nobody around, these valleys are slowly getting abandoned, which is sad but also understandable.

Time to take a left turn, leave the service road behind me and go up into the woods again. I’m not too distant from the first of the three churches I’ll visit today.

Was not expecting to find myself in this open area with a view of the valley underneath. This is a lovely spot, and there’s also a cabin nearby. Probably used by the hunters, like most of the cabins scattered around the valleys.

Into the woods again, and I now need to leave the trail behind me because the first church is some 100 or so meters off the path. So down I go and to reach the church of Sant’Ulderico in Monte (15/44).

The area around the church is quite neglected, and the overall scenery is really not the best. The only good thing about this one is that one of the windows was open, and I finally managed to take a decent picture of the inside of one of the churches. It’s very barebones, but the altar is nice. I still think it’s sad that these are all locked; they could become awesome shelters for the night. I should probably learn lock picking…

Time to hike back up to where I left the trail earlier and keep moving on through the woods. Next stop is gonna be where the trail splits and the variant starts. I hate these variants. They make no sense, and this one in particular is almost as long as the main path, only to touch one more church, one that is not even all that nice or unique. But I guess there’s no point in complaining; nobody is forcing me to walk these trails after all.

After another hour of uneventful walking into the woods, we have finally reached the location of the church of Santi Primo e Feliciano
(16/44), which I didn’t even bother visit closely and only took this photo of it.

The only nice thing about this church is the location, since it has a great view, but the building itself is incredibly uninspiring, especially because it has probably been restructured in modern times. There are a couple of pictures on the link above if you want to see more of it. That said, though, there are a couple of way more interesting things to see around here. Starting from this throwback sign.

What a blast from the past. Do you even remember the time when not everyone had a phone, and you could use phones in public places to make phone calls? What a time!

The other unusual sight is a Thai temple?!? That was very unexpected. I was aware that there’s a Buddhist one in the area (that I might actually see during a future walk), but knew nothing about this one. Neat!

And right in front of it? A small chapel to remember the people who have died during the two World Wars. I told you these things are everywhere and that it’s impossible to forget what happened during those times if you live here.

I’m about to start going back up, and my watch vibrates to alert me that there’s a “severe weather storm alert” which is always great to see when you’re half way through a long walk, and you’re in the middle of nowhere, a couple of hours from your car. I was contemplating stopping for a quick break, but the opposite happened: I started going! As a result, I took very few pictures of the next chunk of the walk but was mostly the same, going in and out of the woods.

An hour later, I connected back with the main path and was close to the third and final church of this walk, the church of San Michele Arcangelo (17/44), which is by far the best one of the three I visited today.

Very small and in an elevated position with a nice view of the valley. Like many others, it was reconstructed after the quakes of the sixteenth century, and you can clearly see that there are parts missing in the front. Still, I much prefer to see churches in this condition; at least they feel like they have a history behind them.

Almost 4 hours in, still 7 kms left to walk, which means there’s no time to waste. I leave the church behind me, go through the small village, into the woods, and some 20 or so minutes later, I’m back on a paved road.

My legs would love to go right and downhill, but I need to go left and uphill, the direction our grandparents used to take to go to school back in the day. But I’m quite happy for this because I get the chance to see a church I've always wanted to visit.

That’s the church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo and every time I drive up to Mount Matajur, I can see it from my car. Has this very characteristic twisty road going up to it from the small village underneath and I always wanted to drive there.

And I have to say, the location is very nice. Living up here must be a nightmare because there’s only one way down, and the road is very narrow. Plus, the closest anything must be 30 to 40 minutes away by car. But if you’re looking for peace and quiet, this is the place for you.

Another point scored by team Mary on my way out of the town.

There’s less than 5kms left now, I’m starting to feel a bit tired, my feet hurt, I need better shoes, I want to take a quick break, but I also don’t want to stop because I know I’m only an hour or so from my car. And stopping at this point makes no sense. So into the forest I go again for the final stretch of this walk.

Found a bunch of sheep chilling in the forest right at the end of the walk. These animals are so fun. If I had the space, I’d totally get a few, just to see them play with the crazy dog I have. I wonder what he would do. Maybe one day I’ll find out.

Final descent into the forest, couple of turns, and here we are, back at the parking spot where I left my car some 5 hours ago. Thankfully, it’s still there because walking home from here would not be fun. Doable, sure. But not fun.

So far, my least favourite walk and the churches were mostly uninspiring, but hey, that’s part of the fun. Next up, we have another long descent, but I very much look forward to doing the walk after that, number 6, since that has the potential to be the most tiring yet fun and interesting walk of the entire series. I’ll definitely need to buy a better pair of shoes by then. There's a new folder on the shared Drive folder with all the pictures I took on the walk. And yes, I have moved from iCloud to Drive because apparently iCloud doesn't like huge albums. And there's also the link to the data recorded by my watch, if you want to get more info on the hike itself.

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Milk chews - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-31T00:00:00.000Z

Since I am thinking about delicious Scottish treats this evening, I thought this would be an apt time to write about another of my favourite Scottish sweets: milk chews.

ALT

A packet of milk chews. The left side of the tube of milk chews has a blue background with the label "Milk Flavour Chews"; the right side has a cow on a field next to a windmill and a lady.

Image credit: Photo cropped from the Golden Gasket Group website.

Manufactured by the Golden Gasket Group in Greenock, Scotland, milk chews – or, as they are named on the packet, “MILK FLAVOUR CHEWS” – are Starburst-sized sweets that have a simple, sweet taste. The Golden Gasket website describes the flavour of milk chews as:

Reminiscent of old-fashioned milk bottle sweets, they offer a comforting, familiar flavour in a modern, plant-based format, making them suitable for vegans and vegetarians!

Growing up, I loved milk chews. Only a few places sold them, and so getting a packet of milk chews was a treat.

Today, equally few places near me sell milk chews, but they are still available and just as delicious as I remember them. I had a packet last week that was gifted to me; the best possible sweet gift I could receive.

Milk chews may not have all of the accoutrements of the caramel log, for example, but milk chews have a special place in my heart and a resonance with my taste buds that echoes through the years.

I am so glad I finally wrote this blog post. I definitely want to keep some of my favourite things here. While I can't store a physical packet of milk chews on this website, I can store a little bookmark of them for me to look back on and to link to for whenever milk chews come up in discussion. Assuredly, I will try to speak of them more often: milk chews are so good.

Golden Gasket Group website milk chews caramel log delicious Scottish treats

The caramel log - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-31T00:00:00.000Z

I have been a long-time lover of Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, made in Uddingston (near Glasgow), Scotland. Made with alternating thin layers of caramel and wafer and chocolate, Caramel Wafers are among my favourite biscuits. But today I learned of a Tunnocks product I had not yet tried that has now become another of my favourite biscuits: the caramel log.

ALT

A red packet that says "Tunnocks Caramel Log: Roasted coconut covered caramel wafer biscuit". The weight of the chocolate is 32g net.

Image source: Cropped from the Tunnocks website.

The caramel log is made of wafer and caramel and “sprinkled with roasted coconut”. It is delicious. I am always a lover of anything that has chocolate and coconut. The wafer and caramel adds an extra bite of delight.

I was offered either a Twix or a caramel log today. I chose the caramel log because I love Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, but I almost took the Twix, another one of my favourite biscuits (on reflection, the intersection of the biscuits I love and the biscuits that are my favourite is quite high; there are so many delicious biscuits!).

Maybe the lesson for today was that trying something new can lead to wonderful results. Perusing the Tunnocks website, which I had not visited until today, also reminds me there are dark chocolate Caramel Wafers. I will try those next. But before then, I have a pack of caramel logs to eat.

Happy Sunday!

Tunnocks website caramel log Tunnocks Caramel Wafers

Re: how to avoid doing XYZ when I want to do ABC? - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-31T00:00:00.000Z

The following is an excerpt from a private exchange. The details of my correspondent remain private, as I am publishing this with permission. The indented/quoted part comes from my correspondent.

The question I have for you is one related to behaviour. I have been informally studying, and trying to practically apply, philosophy for about three years now. While I can say with confidence that I have learned a little about it, I am hesitant in claiming I have learned how to live it. I have had months in which I feel in control of my actions and in touch with the world, but they are dispersed by periods where my impulses have the reigns. The recurring pitfall I find myself in, is simplified as follows:

Through reflection I have realised that XYZ is bad for me.

Likewise I realised that ABC is good for me or necessary.

When the time arises for ABC, I do XYZ.

In general XYZ is easily accessible and gives instant gratification, while ABC requires effort and the fruits are not borne until later. An example of XYZ is wasting time away e.g. on YouTube, whereas ABC is writing my thesis.

It feels very silly when written out like this, and the answer would be to just do ABC. I believe that in moments where I am at a crossroads between the good and bad actions, I push my reason aside and simply indulge in the instant gratification given by XYZ.

I was wondering if you have had experience with or any thoughts on this. I want to be able to rely on myself, but it feels as if deep inside I do not truly want to give up my bad habits. Perhaps I am scared of the notion of a life where I am missing out on many conveniences. How do you keep yourself in check once you decide not to do XYZ, especially in moments where it feels as if your body yearns for it?

I think this is a case of conditioning. It is not about how well you understand what you want to do or how bad the consequences are of the behaviour you are trying to avoid. It is not even a matter of how strongly you believe in your values.

Conditioning is about the automaticity that we naturally build for everything. One way to understand this is with the muscle memory that helps you type on the keyboard. Your fingers know where to be and your hands move accordingly without you having to think about each tiny motion again and again. Even if you are not a proper touch typist you still have embedded in your body a certain memory of how things are done.

The body does this to economise on the consumption of energy. It is equivalent to the cache on the computer. The upside is that we do not have to relearn everything on a continuous basis, which is energy-intensive. Think how much time/effort it would take to relearn how to type each day or even multiple times per day—and then extend that to everything you have learnt. Same if the computer needs to re-run all the computations from zero to get the values it needs each time: it becomes increasingly burdensome to do anything. The downside of this conservation of energy is that we embed potentially harmful patterns that are then hard to undo, just how it is difficult to retrain our muscle memory.

In the scenario you describe, conditioning involves situational memory. It is about the association of a certain place with a given activity and its attendant stimuli. To change the activity, then, you need to break that association. One approach is to have the iron will to “just do it”, but I personally have little faith in that being successful, as it requires discipline that can only be developed over time (and if you had that then we would not be having this exchange). The other approach, which I prefer, is to physically remove yourself from that place and to do something else instead.

For example, sitting at your computer in the afternoon triggers you to perform some mentally harmful activity. You then need to catch yourself early in the action. Once you are done with the task you actually wish to accomplish switch off the computer and leave the room. Go outside for a walk, play some sport, do gardening, make your own bread and cook a nice meal, or stick to literally anything that requires some attention while keeping you physically away from the computer. You want to keep a distance from the situation that enables the pernicious activity for as long as possible. This distance is physical at first and becomes mental over time, at which point you are in control of your behaviour rather than the behaviour being in control of you.

Creating such a separation will allow you to gradually weaken and eventually dismantle the connections you once had, while creating new and benign ones in their stead.

You mention yearning, so let me offer a concrete example from 20 years ago when I quit junk food (and related). On my way back home from university there was a fast food restaurant. I would think of its servings even when it was closed, which is how I noticed the aforementioned situational memory. So I decided to circumvent it. Instead of taking the short and direct way that connected my apartment to the campus, I would go on a big detour. This was beneficial for me, anyway, as I walked more and got to explore the area, but it also helped me uproot the yearning. I was then free from the desire and could pass in front of the restaurant without feeling the pull it once had on me.

There is some level of required discipline to do this on your own. The more disciplined you are, the easier it is to commit to a course of action and sustain it long-term. Otherwise, you have to create arrangements that reinforce your new direction. For example, if it is a social activity then you have other people keeping you engaged (and thus away from what you do not want to do). If it is food you are making, then make sure it is the kind of meal that demands your attention, as opposed to baking something for 2 hours. I will not belabour the point with examples. I do not know the exact situation you are describing in abstract terms, though I am confident you can figure out the details once you notice the dynamics.

Finally, about the study of philosophy. I am, of course, fine with that. Though I consider it a trap to commit to the self-invigorating cycle of reading and thinking. The reason is that it represents a turn inward from which it is difficult to escape and which will eventually inhibit your decision-making. In sustained inwardness you will only find mental illness. Learn, instead, to maintain a balance between intellectual matters and physical activity. Do not live in your head. To live in your head sometimes is enriching. To live in your head the whole time is a death sentence.

Billionairs and rockets - Baty.net

2026-05-30T17:25:59.000Z

I love science and space flight as much as the next boomer, but my attitude has changed over the past decade. Now, when some billionaire's rocket "experiences an anomaly", I cheer a little.

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4x5 Self-portrait - Baty.net

2026-05-30T14:19:46.000Z

Self-portrait (2021) - Linhof Master Technika

Pretending to use the Crown Graphic while taking a self-portrait using the Linhof Master Technika.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-30T13:04:56.000Z

Mom and dad (2026) - Leica MP / 50mm Summilux-M ASPH / HP5

STATUS: Killing time until the deck stain arrives
TODO: I'm due for a water change in the reef tank. Don't feel like it.
(Re)Watching: "Running Point" because my wife wants to watch it, too.
LISTENING: "Sex Without Bodies" by Dave's True Story

I'm kind of exhausted by everything online right now. Seeing that I have nearly 1,000 entries in 1Password was depressing. Everything wants an update or an upgrade or something from me that I don't want to give or receive. I just want to have a few nice, useful things and use them without interruption or ongoing costs.

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Thompson thinks ads are "a societal good" - Baty.net

2026-05-30T11:25:46.000Z

Ben Thompson, Stratechery:

I think digital ads, particularly Meta-style ads that introduce you to things you never knew you wanted, a societal good.

Thompson's and my worldviews continue to diverge.

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AI blog question challenge - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-05-30T07:10:00.000Z

Rishabh emailed me the other day, asking me to answer the 7 questions of his new blog challenge, and who am I to say no to such a request? So here we go.

How was your first experience with AI models?

I assume by AI models we mean the current crop of LLMs, and not AI models in general, because I’m old enough to remember when “Machine Learning” was a thing. What even is AI anyway at this point, since everything is lumped together into one useless definition? Anyway, I believe my first experience was trying out chagpt back when it first came out. I don’t think I spent more than 10 or 15 minutes using it at the time. It was impressive tech, but was also completely useless for me at the time, and that’s why I didn’t bother spending more time using it.

Do you use AI or are you completely against using it?

This is an interesting question. Do I use AI? Well, I guess the answer is yes since it’s almost impossible to avoid using it if you use the web at this point. Pretty much all tools and services are integrating some sort of AI-powered functionalities, and it’s become harder and harder not to use them. If, instead, the question is do I use one of the various LLMs directly to do stuff, then the answer is still yes, but the amount of usage is so low that some people might consider that to be the same as not using them at all.

I don’t directly pay for any of the models, but my work email has been powered by Google for more than a decade, and so I do get access to Gemini Pro. Workspace has usage data for everything, and I just looked it up: In the last 90 days, the only AI-related feature I used was the Gemini App (that’s not surprising considering I turned off everything else), and I have apparently used it 62 times.

I’m now looking at the history of those chats, and pretty much all of them are single-question queries related to something web dev I was doing. Things like how to do a specific thing inside Kirby, or how to achieve something using a particular JS library. This is stuff one should be able to find inside documentation websites, but the search there is often awful and so after a google search, I try my luck with AI.

And as I wrote somewhere else, I never copy-paste. I ask very narrow questions so that I can be pointed towards the correct answer. And once I have that, I do the coding and I re-implement everything myself.

Am I against using AI? As a generative tool, yes. I refuse to ask AI to do something for me or to generate content from scratch. As a tech in general? I think it has some potentially useful applications in narrow contexts. As always, the answer is not cut-and-dry, and it can be yes or no depending on the framing and the scope.

Do you have any preference among different models, for example Claude vs ChatGPT? If yes, how do you choose?

Nope.

What aspect of AI models do you like and what do you not like?

The only aspect I appreciate is the ability to ask questions in natural language. Because sometimes you have a problem or an answer you’re looking for that can’t be described in a more structured way.

As for what I don’t like, how anthropomorphised these stupid tools are is definitely high on my list. I don’t want my computer to talk back or to make jokes or to say «I’m sorry». If I input a question, I want an answer back, and that’s it. I don’t want follow up questions, I don’t want some pointless preamble. I get why this happens, but I fucking hate it. This is software. I don't want my software to have a personality. I want it to perform a task and get out of my way.

I also don’t like the lying, the gaslighting, and all the other crap, and I also don’t like what the AI industry is doing as a whole, but that’s a separate issue.

How do you feel about AI generated images? Does it annoy you if someone use them in a blog post?

Again, another question that has different answers depending on the scope. The idea of being able to generate images, in general, is neutral to me. It all comes down to what you use it for. There are some potential use cases that are totally fine, others are completely insane. As a whole, I think the ability to generate slop is bad, but that’s because humanity can’t be trusted to do anything the right way.

As for their use in blog posts, I think stock images were useless, and I don’t see images generated with AI to be any different. Unless you have generated an image as part of the content to explain or visualise something. That’s fine, label it as a generated image and move on. That’s no different than including a render, or a sketch on paper, from a content perspective.

Internet is flooded with AI slop now, full of generated text, images, audio and videos. How do you filter it from authentic human creation? Do you have a strategy?

My consumption of online content these days is so limited that I don’t have this issue. I read very few blogs, and I know they are not AI generated because I emailed the people behind them more than once, and I know what their stance is. I watch almost no YouTube, and I only read a few news sites. My strategy is to simply stay away from the digital world as much as possible, and I’m at the point where I’m considering dropping my digital consumption down to zero and quit the internet as a place for content.

Are you hopeful for a better future with A.I. or a dystopian one?

I have zero hope. And that is because I have zero hope in anything that’s in the hands of mega corporations. The incentives are totally skewed, and they’d do everything they can in order to keep the line go up. I don’t see people with strong morals in positions of power and so unless we decide to go full French Revolution, I see no reason for things to improve.

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Mitigating floods of posts in Artemis - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-30T00:00:00.000Z

Note: The logic described in this post may be a stepping stone to a more robust system in the future. Please keep that in mind as you read and know that my solution may not be optimal, rather a start toward solving a problem.

This morning I opened Artemis and found a website I had been following for a few months had published almost a dozen posts today. The website was now, unfortunately, a zombie site. This experience left me with two questions:

What should Artemis do if a site publishes significantly more posts than usual, and;
What should Artemis do if a site becomes a zombie site?

These are two separate questions. This afternoon, I addressed the first one by adding new logic to check for if a site posts more than usual. When Artemis prepares a user’s reader with the lists of posts from sites to which they are subscribed, an additional check now happens to identify if a site is going to flood a user’s feed.

This check is as follows: Artemis counts how many posts an author has published one each day they have published a post. For each day, in ascending order by publishing date, if the author has published more than three times the maximum number of posts they have published in a day up until that date (using a 30 day rolling window ¹), and the author has published on more than two unique days in total (to prevent false positives), the author will be flagged for that day.

Importantly, the check happens on a per-day, per-author basis. This is important because posting habits may change over time, and each author has a different posting habit; a heuristic like “do something if an author publishes more than N posts” would be liable to many false positives (i.e. news sites post a lot whereas personal websites often post fewer things per day).

If an author is flagged for a day, their posts from that day will be collapsed into a roll-up. A roll-up is a list of posts by an author published in a given time frame. A link to a roll-up created as a result of the logic described above will appear as a single entry with a title like this in Artemis:

Roll-up for example.com on 2026-05-30 (Author published more than usual)

With this implementation, a user’s feed will no longer be flooded if an author suddenly posts way more than expected. Instead, the user will get a link to a dedicated page so they can review the posts. In addition, this implementation will reduce the chance that a site that has recently become a zombie and is now spamming floods your feed.

The logic above does not explicitly identify zombie sites (this could be done with a separate series of heuristics, for example checking for language changes, site generator changes, post frequency, time since last post), but it does catch the scenario that led to my feed being flooded this morning: a site I first followed several months ago came online again and published almost a dozen posts in a short space of time.

From a user experience perspective, seeing a flood of posts is overwhelming. This is the opposite feeling I want someone to have when encountering a calm reader. Indeed, if someone subscribes to an author that publishes several times per day, that is okay: the user knows to expect many posts. But in the case of an author suddenly publishing a dozen posts in a day – 12x more than usual on days they posted – the experience is not ideal.

As I mentioned in the preface to this post, I suspect my logic will need tinkering. The use of maximums may lead to false positives; there may be more optimal ways to do this. If any ideas come to mind, please let me know. But, the logic I have today is a start, and an important one at that: floods of posts in a reader are not an ideal experience. Meanwhile, I need to also think about detecting zombie sites. Perhaps the logic above could be one heuristic to take into account when determining if a site has become a zombie.

There is one notable case where this logic fails: it only works on the first day a site has flooded a user's feed (until the maximum count resets every 30 days). But, I think this is good enough to prevent cases of accidental flooding. And, for sites that have become a zombie, a roll-up with the title "(Author published more than usual)" provides a cue to the user that a feed may need to be reviewed.

Because the maximum resets every 30 days, it means that an author posting a lot on one day far in the past will not break the logic.

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zombie site collapsed into a roll-up 1 [↩]

Handsome Squidward 4x5 - Baty.net

2026-05-29T13:05:27.000Z

Handsome Squidward(s) (2023) - Crown Graphic 4x5

Ran across this one from 2023. I used the 4x5 Crown Graphic and a single strobe. Makes me want to shoot more large format. It's always fun and I like the look of it.

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fLaMEd 🔥 - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-05-29T11:00:00.000Z

This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with fLaMEd 🔥, whose blog can be found at flamedfury.com.

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Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

What's going on, Internet? Kia ora, I'm fLaMEd 🔥. I'm originally from Te Awa Kairangi (Lower Hutt), now living in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Aotearoa, New Zealand with my wife and two kids.

I get up every morning at 4:30 am to get to the gym before the kids get up and the day begins. I've recently picked up golf again, but find less time for that than I do for website work.

You can get a better idea of what I’m into over at my website, Flamed Fury

I'm not a developer, not a designer, just a guy who loves the web.

What's the story behind your blog?

Flamed Fury started in 1999. It's been through more versions than I can properly count, but the rough timeline: 5 versions before it became a personal blog, a few side quests at different domains inbetween, and finally 4 versions in the 2020 era when I landed back at flamedfury.com where I started.

Started in summer 1999 on one of the free hosts, I don't remember (probably cjb.net). Moved to sweeetnet.com in 2000 through hanging out in the #sweeet IRC channel. A guy called kertiz from #sweeet took pity on my design skills and gave me a proper redesign, then stuck around contributing. Another guy fitty-two joined in. We iterated every couple of years until the dot-com bubble burst, advertising money dried up and the IRC crew drifted apart. I tried to keep it going by myself with a 2002 layout that wasn't great. But "blog" isn't really the word for any of this. The 1999–2003 version was effectively microblogging before microblogging was a thing, built around a niche (lifestyle magazine style, lol) before niche blogging was a thing either. We just didn't have the vocabulary yet.

November 2003 was when Flamed Fury became a blog in the way I'd recognise the format today. Posts about polytech, nights out, whatever was going on. That lasted until 2005, then I parked it and tried being "more adult" at another domain through 2006–2008. Took a break as MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter took over. Came back in 2012 with a niche barbeque blog and carried on with it for six years before archiving the whole thing in 2018, once I realised how much I absolutely loathed niche recipe blogging.

Revived the fLaMEd persona in 2019 on a new domain (Hugo + Netlify). In 2021 I settled back on flamedfury.com with Eleventy on Neocities. Two redesigns later and a move to a local VPS, here we are.

Every version of this site, going back to 1999, has been the same instinct: a personal site as a place to be yourself on the web. The 1999 version was more of a microblogging website with three friends collaborating around celebrity magazine scans, that's where the era pointed. The 2026 version is the opposite. Everything and nothing, no algorithm to satisfy, no brand. Different tools, same instinct.

There's a longer version of this story I'll get round to writing on the site soon. It's in draft, I promise. Hit me up if you want to see me finish it.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

Inspiration for what I put and write on my website comes from across the web and life experiences. A gig, a new record, a beer, a trip with the family, or any number of posts I find across the web gets me thinking. Storytelling, sharing my experiences and interests.

I love monthly recaps to populate my now page, reflections of last night's gig, new (usually local) music finds, a fun time out with my friends or family.

Drafts begin as a note on my phone, my notebook before I find myself with a spare opportunity at my computer.

I'll begin with these rough notes and begin fleshing them out. I'll have a couple of tabs open to grab details and links of what I'm talking about to sprinkle through the post.

Sometimes I'll start a draft and they'll sit there for days, weeks, and sometimes months in an untracked markdown file in Codium.

Depending on what I'm writing about I won't have any proof reading. If I'm writing about something topical about the web I'll often have xandra or one of the other 32-Bit Cafe crew read over it and give me some pointers or a thumbs up.

Then after sitting on it for a minute, an hour or a day, I'll publish it.

Other pages on the website will get worked on and usually published in unfinished states and I'll continue to work on these over time - nothing is ever really finished is it?

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

My ideal creative environment is in my home office, at my desk or couch in silence. I might listen to a few songs or watch a couple music videos to get me in the zone, but when it comes to focus time, all noise off and I work in silence, often talking to myself.

If I'm away from home and I get a moment to myself, it's either at a table, kitchen bench or an arm chair. Hopefully with silence, but usually with the chaos of family life going on around me.

Our kids are young, they're busy, noisy and need lots of attention so focus time these days is few and far between :)

Do I believe the physical space influences my creativity? Heck yeah, if I'm not in the office, then a walk around the block or through the village listening to music will help me get creative - as long as I get those thoughts out of my head before they dissapear. If I'm travelling, then any beautiful location might inspire some spark.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

I use Eleventy for building my website. I originally started with Eleventy Excellent by Lene Saile, but it's evolved beyond that over the years. I often check in with her when she releases new versions to make sure I take in any key updates, but also find some changes I've made find their way back into the starter template :)

These days flamedfury.com runs on an NZ-based VPS to keep the site close to home. I use a local domain registrar for my domains.

Deployment is a simple npm run build then rsync directly to the VPS.

To participate in the web, I've implemented a bunch of IndieWeb features, Webmentions, h-cards, h-entries and of course provide a number of Atom/RSS/JSON feeds which are syndicated to Mastodon through EchoFeed to meet people where they are.

My Bookmarks are backed by the 32-Bit Cafe's instance of Linkding and pulled into my website at build time and shared via Atom/RSS/JSON and EchoFeed.

I run an instance of Forgejo on my homeserver and commit the project there multiple times a day.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

I don't think so. If anything I would have tried to preserve everything rather than ditching things over the years. I've managed to recover a lot of the old stuff through old CD-Roms where I'd burnt old versions of the website or from the Wayback Machine.

I would have definitely tried to keep in contact with a lot of the old crew from IRC. We drifted apart before it was easy to keep in contact with each other. I do regret losing those early relationships.

I'm really happy with how I've managed to salvage a lot of the old stuff and merge it into what the website is today. It really is a labour of love.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

All in NZD. The domain is $39/year and my VPS is $82/year. All the other infrastructure on my home network is sunk cost over the years and I'm not sure how I'd put a $ value against that.

I haven't made money from my website since 2001 along with the original internet advertising bubble burst. I did have a go with ads and affiliate marketing with the barbeque blog, but that left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm a fan of services like ko-fi and the like but haven't looked into setting it up for myself - not sure if anyone would be interested in supporting me.

I throw money at the 32-Bit Cafe's ko-fi and contribute to infrastructure costs there as well as my time to help moderate and run the forums and will throw other bloggers tips here and there through their ko-fis, and will buy sticker packs wherever I see them being sold in the wider hobby web community.

When I need some new graphics for the website I'm always on the look out for a commission and will happily pay for talented graphic designers services.

I support a few independent journalists through their newsletters that I enjoy reading and support a local independent news/media website to help keep the lights on there as I enjoy their local content. A great way to keep up with what's going on in the country and the world without the doom-and-gloom.

What's my position on people monetising personal blogs? Go for it as long as it's not intrusive or full of dark patterns. Keep it personal and creative. I love the sticker packs or graphic commissions.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

So many to mention!

Chris Burnell — we've become great friends over the years. I love to bounce ideas with; dev, IndieWeb, beer, music.
Xandra — xandra is my small web bestie and I've got to know her pretty well over the years through the Cafe.
yequari — another of the Cafe barista team. The driving force behind our infrastructure endeavours. His new project https://webweav.ing/ recently launched a guestbook service that I'm using on Flamed Fury.
jay, fyr, key, and rodrick - all my fellow 32-Bit Cafe baristas who help running and making the Cafe an awesome place to hangout.
Cory Dransfeldt — another I've chatted to heaps with over the past few years. We have heaps of the same interests. His media collection and the direction he's taken his website is "beyond amazing".
Robb Knight — Robb always has a new and interesting project to check out. I'm always picking up neat things to add to my website from his.
america's decline - not often seen outside of the Neocities circles, but one of my favourites on Neocities. A throwback to my favourite era of the web, music, celeb, pop culture, and fantastic graphics.
shellsharks - an indie web powerhouse and curator of the fantastic scrolls weekly.
James - another indie web powerhouse. James's blog is full of thoughtful and insightful posts about the web and has recently launched a new podcast centered around the independent web, Wonders of Web Weaving.

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

If you're into making websites, or you want to start you should most definitely come and check out the 32-Bit Cafe - our small community of the web where we welcome hobby web developers of all skill levels and help each other out building our websites. We have monthly web weaving workshops, discussion forums, and other fantastic services offered free for the community and join in on the discussion at our forums.

Plugging my own stuff, check out my record collection, and my ever growing list of bookmarks

And for all the readers out there, keep building the web you want to be part of. There's so much great stuff going on out here. Laterz 🤙

Keep exploring

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Enhanced games - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-05-28T16:10:00.000Z

The other day that stupid thing called the Enhanced Games took place. As you might have guessed by the name, this is basically the Olympics on steroids, quite literally. The event itself is not even worth commenting on. I remember hearing about this concept ages ago and forgot about it, and only skimmed through a few headlines the day after the event. But reading about it got me thinking about what I’d love to see if we were to organise an Olympics spin-off.

There are two concepts I’d be genuinely excited to see, and they go in opposite directions. The first concept is to let tech and engineers go wild. A lot of modern sports are infused with technology of all kinds: from running shoes materials, to laser stitched swimsuits, to tracks that are incredibly bouncy, the list goes on and on and on. I remember, almost a decade ago, Nike trying to break the 2 hours barrier for the marathon, and thought it was an interesting experiment. I’d love to see what kind of barriers we can break by letting the best athletes and the best minds join forces, but without doing silly things, like strapping rockets to someone’s feet.

The other idea is the exact opposite. Remove all tech. Like all of it. No shoes, no fancy materials, no special equipment, no stadiums, nothing. We go back to ancient times, and we see how much just human bodies alone can achieve, with as little external help as possible. I’d very much enjoy seeing both of those events.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-28T12:58:39.000Z

Zim (2013)

STATUS: Refusing to do chores today
TODO: Anything but chores
READING: "Five Decembers" by James Kestrel
LISTENING: "Fair Warning" - Van Halen

I cleaned and sanded the entire deck yesterday and now my back and knees are yelling at me. Today might be a do-nothing kind of day.

Finally emptied the storage unit. It's not a good idea for me to have too many places to store stuff.

Testing the interesting new macOS photo app, Iris Photos. The idea is sound. Surfacing things from a deep photo library is helpful. I pointed it at my 2026 photos folder and it pulled everything nicely. Then, I got cocky and pointed it at everything. Crashed after about 15 minutes. One thing holding me back (even if it didn't crash and wasn't macOS-only) is the ability to edit metadata. A photo viewer is where I frequently spot things I want to include in the metadata. Iris doesn't touch the photos, so this isn't possible. Still, it's a nice-looking app that's worth keeping an eye on.

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Games: Borderlands 3 - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-28T00:00:00.000Z

Games I have covered thus far are slow-paced experiences: puzzles that you piece together to reveal their secrets. They tell you a story without expecting you to be decisive in your actions. Borderlands 3 (hereinafter referred to as “Borderlands”) is the exact opposite (spoilers throughout this article). It is a first-person shooter with many intense moments of action. You do not need to be a commando yourself to have a fun time, but you definitely have to have a decent mastery over the controls.

I am a fan of the gameplay. Shooting is precise and the feedback direct. Enemies are generally easy to discern as they stand out from their environment. Their motions are basic so you will quickly figure out how to exploit their weaknesses. In this sense, the game is easy. I personally like it that way as it contributes to the absurdity and lightheartedness of its lifeworld. It would make no sense for those hordes of cultist psychos to be at once delirious in fanaticism and assiduous in their every decision.

My favourite part of the violence is those critical hits that you can score with a precision gun. Once I got my hands on a sniper rifle I was going around “bang! bang! bang!” with the headshots. By contrast, the assault rifles and submachine guns felt underwhelming. It is preposterous to have those unarmoured maniacs take thirty bullets to the stomach without flinching. Though I make an exception for some “epic” weapons that would just annihilate everything. I had one such shotgun which turned an otherwise challenging boss fight into a 4-second press of the trigger.

Borderlands is proudly silly and self-deprecating. It has a certain humour that you may love or hate. I find it appealing. The characters you meet are flat and uninspiring, which I think is a perfect fit. Why would we even make pretences to intellectuality when we are here to pop off some heads? I would find it unsettling if, say, Vaughn was contemplating the implications of his existential angst, even though he looks a little bit like a certain philosopher I know! To me he is not a believable character. He is a talking head that gives you orders and provides colour commentary for a little while until some other equally uninteresting figure takes over.

What the cast of characters does well is express unhinged opinions while behaving casually. As outsiders, we may think this is over-the-top, though we can also take the view of the anthropologist in describing without judging how other people behave. In this regard, the delivery is super effective in highlighting the underlying values of such a futuristic wild west. The only law in this land of danger and opportunity is that of the gun. Individualism and cut-throat competition are the governing principles as each person is set on a path towards personal enrichment and glory.

There is no such thing as legitimacy in this world. Courts of law, correctness of conduct, and tolerance of diverse opinions are the kind of conventions that have no place in the hypercapitalist normality of the Borderlands. The supreme powers that mobilise resources are private corporations which engage in business deals using either financial or martial means. Kind of how Western Europeans conducted trade in East Asia during the Colonial Age, as both businesspeople and pirates.

In this regard, Borderlands provides commentary on some of the excesses germane to our world. History is, in large part, a record of humanity’s inexhaustible capacity for cruelty. Many insatiable butchers of men are remembered with the epithet “the Great” or variants thereof. The most greedy CEOs are revered as prophets of the one true money-god for their remarkable consistency in sacrificing everything to the altars of profit. The villains in Borderlands are social media personalities with a massive cult following who end up being as shallow as our world’s celebrities.

If anything, the fantasy horrors of the game pale in comparison to the brutality that we can now bear witness to in 4K definition. And that we do with indifference, using it as yet more fodder for our doomscrolling mindlessness. Our politics and social norms are increasingly influenced by pernicious memes. We are made to follow greater-than-life characters qua caricatures who speak nonsense and are dead serious in the same sentence.

It is all jokes and gimmicks until you are sent to the front lines to die for the interests of some lobbyist nerds. They are cowards. They will never lead by example. Instead, they will make you, the desperate yet capable fellow, give up your life for their unholy cause. And in times of peace they will ruthlessly harvest your organs for their evil rituals. At least in the Borderlands you have the option to digistruct yourself for another round. Whereas here you get the middle finger and are even happy to have received some attention.

Games: Florence (plus the First Six Months of Love) - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z

I recently added a gaming section to my website. This is yet another vehicle for my philosophy: to express thoughts in a relatable way; thoughts that I could have formulated in abstract terms.

I got Florence (spoilers below) because it was peddled as a puzzle game. Given my positive experience with Gorogoa, I thought to myself “my body is ready!” and looked no further: https://protesilaos.com/games/2026-05-26-gorogoa/.

Alas, Florence is barely a game. The player’s agency is reduced to super simple interactions for 30 minutes. If I am to judge Florence as a game, then I am not giving it a passing grade.

Still, Florence has the redeeming quality of being an interesting interactive novel. The elements of interactivity make for an effective story-telling medium. Depending on the audience, this is more reliable than presenting people with a wall of text that they will get bored of within 3 seconds.

The story is about a girl named “Florence”. She leads the generic modern city life. Her world extends from her home to the office, while her social affairs are largely confined to a binary choice of “repost” or “love” buttons on a social media app.

Like her fellow city dwellers, she commutes while being absorbed in her own world, enabled by digital media. Instead of paying attention to her surroundings, she blasts music in her ears and stares at her screen all the time.

In other words, Florence embodies and symbolises the robotisation of the human being. This is the person that had anticipated and embraced its own obsolescence by machines long before the advent of AI. The introduction of artificial intelligence has, in this regard, been a formality, the culmination of a process that stretches back several decades.

AI can be a celebrity and influencer because those people are reducing themselves to caricatures: fake looks, fake clips, fake personalities. AI can be an office clerk as those are tasked with a robotised job anyway. AI is your new emotional support and romantic other because the solitude of digital life at-large took intimacy away from you, while porn and its Hollywood counterparts gave it the fatal hit. And so on.

There is a life outside that world; a life of slow pace, of simplicity, of austerity, and appreciation of the little things. Talk to a modern girl like Florence, for example, and she will tell you about her notion of freedom, which revolves around the pursuit of a career. Social standing is the token that matters. If this girl has more of an intellectual side, she will expound on the evils of traditional societies, and will go to great lengths to explain how terrible it is for women to be seen as “baby machines”. Instead, she will continue, freedom is realised through business opportunity, not understanding that she is daydreaming of becoming a “paper machine” that the corporate higher ups will blithely replace with an actual bot.

As the story progresses, Florence has the good fortune of running out of battery on her phone. The digital world that is depriving her of situational awareness no longer has a hold on her psyche. She is finally free to notice finer points in her milieu, even though she is not well developed on that front. She meets a guy named “Krish” that eventually becomes her boyfriend.

Through this love affair, Florence discovers a small part of the human element. She encourages Krish to cultivate his musical talents. In turn, he inspires her to express her own artistic inclinations and connect with what she used to suppress for a lifetime, pressured by her “tiger mom” to focus on the bullshit goal that is academic excellence at all costs.

In this regard, Florence gives us a hint of what it means to not be absorbed in your own world and to not settle for mindless routines. Do what you must to survive, but otherwise resist the degenerative forces of inertia as you become your own person and a champion of fortitude.

Florence and Krish fail to incorporate that lesson in every aspect of their life. They make the common mistake of thinking that their future will be all about sunshine and rainbows by switching to an auto-pilot mode. They thus become complacent and eventually revert to a life of mindlessness, which brings about the demise of their love.

Nature does not tolerate stasis. Organisms that become too comfortable experience decline which brings about their end. They are absorbed by other organisms, becoming an environment to them, subject to their force, or altogether undone. Love is no different. It must be maintained with care, with emphasis on the finer points and everyday stuff, the way one tends to their garden with undivided attention.

Life is a struggle regardless. Yes, it would be nice in some way if we could just sit back and rest. But no matter how intensely we prey to a benevolent god, the forces we are subject to will remind us how things actually work. To this end, I bring to memory a wonderful song by Michelle Gurevich, titled First Six Months of Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqGQIO2m3YQ.

Michelle is a cynic at heart. She speaks the truth without euphemisms and the attendant penchant for beautification. Our world thinks of cynicism in a negative way because fundamentally it prefers to delude itself with all sorts of fancies than to deal with the difficulties pertinent to the here-and-now of our condition.

In the song, Michelle states thus:

Before begin the dissections
Before the therapy sessions
We danced the night we met
Now we need dancing lessons

Remember how it all began
We must not let habit set in
Come up the stairs, let's recommence
The first six months over again

Florence and Krish were not aware of this reality or anyhow did not live up to its rigours.

Florence ends with the girl switching away from her office job as she makes a living off of her art. One can only hope that in the process of disentangling herself from the values of the society she once took for granted would give her the impetus to think that there is more to be done beyond her own personhood.

There is nothing inherently wrong with digital media and the tools that technology makes possible, including video games and this very website of mine. The key is to find moderation, which typically means that you spend more time outside your head, literally and figuratively touching grass.

Views; between - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z

There is beauty in the moments between arriving and reaching your destination. I felt this yesterday in the moments before attending an event in Edinburgh last night. I had an hour before I needed to arrive and, the day being so warm, I decided to slow down and listen to the world around. I walked through the park with my eyes open under the evening sun for which I had been yearning for months. Every breeze through the air enlivened my senses. Every smile stuck a chord somewhere in my soul.

Nature invites us to see more, closely, in the warmer weather; we emerge from the indoors and seek the outdoors. Looking around, I saw humanity everywhere. I saw humanity in the revived bridge in the heart of the city – a bridge under construction for years that, now, brings colour where there was none for so long. We built the new on old foundations: we added colour. I heard humanity in the parting words of a young couple on an early date: with smiles on their faces, one said to the other with a laugh on the precipice “I don’t want you to see get on my bike.”

I saw humanity in the child with the red hat who climbed the lamp post, dismounting to throw a coin in the bagpipe case to the right of the foot of the piper playing in the park. The sweet sounds of life play. Amazing Grace. A woman in a perfect white dress walks past, also dropping a coin in the case. Several people stand to appreciate the music. I realised that I was among them, standing more at a distance to see not only the piper but more of the people walking past. I walked from pace to pace, seeking new views of the same place, and noticing how short the distance one must travel to see something new.

The solemnity of the pipes catch the ear of all around. The repertoire of the piper delights. I noticed that he played a song I could not recall ever hearing on the pipes. You can hear an instrument for so long and continue to discover new music. How many chords have I not heard, or heard but not known? There is always something new to appreciate.

I brought the music with me on my journey, albeit not the pipes. I hummed in the bookshop where I searched for a title I wanted to have on my bookshelf. I don’t know why I like humming in bookshops: maybe it is because there is no music playing and it feels there should be some. Or maybe it’s because books bring out the colour of human stories, but the sounds are trapped within the pages – we as viewers bring the melody. Subsequently and serendipitously I learned there is a new book in another series I have been reading that is now out. I purchased the books with joy: I held stories in my hand.

Returning to the park, I found myself philosophising – asking questions about the things that interest me. Where better to ponder? Among people living life in a million ways; around trees growing in infinitely complex ways; under the sun in a place forever my home; near people going at a pace like me: slowly, admiring the world around. I realised that the linear path ahead in the park is only linear in form – we can always choose how we walk it.

The park in which I found myself was on a hill, above which there are wonderful buildings with hundreds of years of history. A castle catches the corner of one’s eye. The topology of the garden – its steep hill, inclining into the city – invites us all to look up; to admire history and the sky and the skying and the music and the colour and the all-encompassing nature of all the stories around. The park invites us to be with ourselves, with others, and with the world around.

Departing for my destination, touching a leaf so delicate that silk could not match, and seeing the light shine through the trees in myriad different ways – through a constellation of buildings and trees (we too are constellations?) – I thought of reverie, of how on our travels some details stand out and become magnified. I thought about how reverie intersects with pace: some emotions can only be experienced when slowing down; conditions matter: the sun and the smiles and the pipes and the lovers.

First year - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z

I am half-way through my first year of university. I am studying toward an art history degree (although part of me wants to do art history and creative writing, which I would have the option to do starting next year!).

The first year of my degree is an introduction to studying humanities, and is divided into two courses: one that covers themes seen through the lenses of different disciplines (i.e. traditions as seen through history and religious studies), and the other that looks at disciplines in depth (art history, classical studies, creative writing, and English literature).

In both parts of the course, I have been exposed to so many topics I otherwise may never have encountered: the history of Cleopatra, Elizabeth I’s reign, an analysis of how Mozart built his reputation, and more. In my most recent block, English literature, we were studying Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Again, I may not have chosen to read these works myself: studying gave me a chance to encounter them. Twelfth Night left me with the delightful impression that a text written five hundred years ago can still make us laugh. Jane Eyre is now my second favourite book (following Walden).

Because I study with a distance learning school – the Open University here in the UK – most of my study is independent, leading up to assignments we do – essays on what we have studied. I have really enjoyed the essay writing part. I love applying my knowledge practically. I am especially excited for the next block on creative writing which will have many practical exercises. My initial introduction to it a few weeks ago dispelled my years-long fear of creative writing. I never knew where to begin, but the prompts in our textbook helped me a lot.

Overall, the year has been challenging but in the right way. I am learning new things, which was exactly what I wanted when I decided to study. I am able to interact with new-to-me disciplines. I am thinking about how things connect: new writing techniques I had never encountered, the meaning of a “classic”, the value of “close” study (i.e. close reading in English literature, close looking in art history), history as something that evolves as we ask new questions, and more. I feel comfortable in studying the humanities ¹, and love discussing what I am learning with other people both in my class and bringing it into my everyday life.

I just finished my essay on Jane Eyre and thought I’d write this blog post as something of a treat – reading a 400 page book and analysing and studying its themes and key points in two weeks was tricky, although very satisfying. Next up is a week on philosophy and morality for which I am especially excited, and, separately, study of the question “what does it mean for something to be a classic”?

Although I still love thinking about technology too!

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Found Negative 017 - Baty.net

2026-05-26T19:58:14.000Z

Found Negative #017. 1910s

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Tuesday, May 26, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-26T13:02:31.000Z

Gate (2026) - Nikon F100 / Kodacolor 200

What if I didn't even have a computer? Wouldn't that be something?

"What is the point of this?" is a question I've been asking myself, lately. Sometimes when I'm writing a note. Sometimes when I'm posting to my blog. Sometimes when I'm testing some new software or workflow. Sometimes when I'm just gazing off into space. I usually don't have a good answer.

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