~hedy's blogroll - BlogFlock

seen - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-19T00:00:00.000Z

A flat sky
Field of fog
Hidden hills
Echoes of snowfall —
Not yet.

Letter in a bottle - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-10-19T00:00:00.000Z

Hello my friend,

I have been thinking of you. The idea that you might exist moves me. This morning I realised the possibility you embody. I thought of how it can be that you are actualised somewhere in this world. It inspired me to contact you.

We are strangers right now, my friend. I do not know your name, have never heard your voice, and cannot recognise your face. The waves that delivered you this bottle are not under my control. You could be close or somewhere far away in space and time. Though we are not complete strangers. I actually know you well. I have already felt your presence in the wind. Even though I live in the mountains, I still fathom the sea. It will always be with me as openness everlasting. I continue to envisage myself cutting through the line of the horizon. To go to the further places where people who are not like me experience the world as I do.

There is an unmistakable trace to who you are, my friend. It does not elude me. I write this letter in an effort to approach you, to tell you that you are not alone. I do it out of curiosity. I am keen on proving that you exist. I am bent on demonstrating that a certain potential is made manifest through you. I also write it out of interest specifically in you. I plan to know you better and am inexorable in my endeavours: to understand the world you represent beyond the aspects of personality and the interests we have in common.

If you have read this far, you necessarily are curious like me, my friend. You already know there is nothing more to this bottle than the present letter. I have no ordinary gifts for you. Though I am still offering something special, something I can least afford: my time. You understand that you have my undivided attention. You sense my vitality through these words. It is inexhaustible in its creativity. By reading this letter, you ultimately wish to make sense of the story and from there to understand a little bit more about its creator.

Words is the best we have, my friend. There is nothing more I can give you that will stay in your mind as a vivifying force. When you evoke the memory of what has transpired here, when you think of the author and of authorship, you shall muster the energy of the heavens and, with some sustained effort, direct it at will as I do.

Writing to you feels natural, my friend. I have no inhibitions. This letter communicates a facet of my authentic self even if it remains generic. We both know, deep in our hearts, that we only ever appreciate the words we say to each other in earnest; words that are spoken without regret and with no shame. The rest we forget, even if we feel strongly about them in the moment. But the honest word stays with us.

These words are a token of my benevolence towards you, my friend. I know you will treat them kindly. They will make you contemplate what has been and shall become. You will wonder what made me do this. Though you already know the answer: you did. I am writing this letter because I have dreamt of the place you occupy in the space we coexist. In dreamscapes I have found what the forms of life in my midst have been hinting at.

Who are you really, my friend? What is it that made you read this far? You will consider as much the same way I shall. And there you will discover that at some level we are one.

Take care, A feral soul

🔷 Consider making a donation.

contours - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-19T00:00:00.000Z

Spectra of coherence — ground, sky; all presents. // Deconstruct.
Where do I find the word that embodies a step?
— elevation, propulsion, placing; in cycles, forward, forward.
A mirror of irreducibility.
How can a word reflect my cold nose, dripping with winter air,
Breathing in fast, deeply.
Stories, of moments —
Collapsed colour, stark senses, every expression:
Poem, no contours; possible?
(But in contours definition exists.)

Sunday, October 18, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-10-18T18:58:32.000Z

Me and my 1979 Honda Civic. First car I paid for. It was a disaster.

STATUS: Sitting at a computer when I'm not supposed to be
TODO: Clean the inside of my car's windshield. Gross.
READING: "Stolen Focus" by Johann Hari
LISTENING: Saxon, "Hell, Fire and Damnation"

I was planning to stay away from computers today. I've been partially successful. I'm staring at my notebooks and thinking that I'm doing it wrong. I recently bought the gorgeous and expensive Plotter, but I don't know how it fits. Or if it fits. I wish I needed it, but I don't think I do. Great, more $$$ down the tubes on a just-in-case.

On a positive note, season 4 of The Diplomat is out and I love it. There's something about smart people doing difficult jobs as best they can.

✍️ Reply by email

Weeknotes W1 - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-18T00:00:00.000Z

Many of my pieces of writing, especially my creative non-fiction and Nature pieces, describe a single moment or the events that happened over the course of a day. With that in mind, one of the skills I want to develop in my writing is to consider longer periods of time in my writing – to tell stories that expand over greater lengths.

During the Homebrew Website Club Asia/Pacific meetup this week – open to all, hosted at a time that works well in the Asia/Pacific timezone by Naty – the topic of weeknotes came up. This got me thinking. Could weeknotes be a way for me to think about a longer time horizon in my writing? Shortly thereafter, I decided I wanted to try weeknotes again, this time committing to writing one week note each week for four weeks, ideally on a Sunday evening.

I suspect my weeknotes will be oriented more around bullet points than longer prose, but, in any case, I am coming at weeknotes afresh (I have tried to author weeknotes twice, but on my last try I ended up spending more time making a custom page layout than writing, which may have made the practice less sustainable). I am keen to see what I write and share!

The highlights

Herein, events of the week.

This was a busy week in terms of studying. I am continuing to work my way through the “art and the environment” block that I am studying. This week I spent a lot of time reading the textbook. I especially enjoyed learning about the Frost Fairs in London. Part of our work was focused on what we can learn about European attitudes to cold climates by analysing both art and prints from the London Frost Fairs as well as art and documents pertaining to the Arctic.

We did a “virtual gallery visit” where one of our lecturers presented photos of and historical background about artefacts from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, discussing them in the context of our module. This was my second time attending such a visit, and I got a lot out of it. I didn't realise the extent of the excess wealth the Medici family had.

This was a busy week for events, too. I hosted a Homebrew Website Club (HWC) on Wednesday (notes), a HWC Writing discussion on Saturday (notes), and the 32-Bit Café Web Weaving Workshop today, as well as helping out with a non-technical event in a different community. Reflecting on these events in aggregate, they all have their own identity: I ask different opening questions in each, discussions flow in different ways. Indeed, when I am hosting an event I have to be “on” as much as possible; even if I take a few moments to find a link or write notes, I still need to be attentive to the wider room, thinking about how to make sure discussion continues between several participants. Perhaps I should write something about hosting online events. Reader, what would you like to know?

I had one day this week where I had four events I wanted to go to that were scheduled for the same three hour window: Front End Study Hall, the aforementioned virtual gallery visit, another university event, and a writing club event. It was hard to choose, but I decided to attend the first 30 mins of Front End Study Hall, which started before all the other events, then the full gallery visit. This worked out well: I had a great evening, and I didn't end up pushing myself to try and be in too many places at once.

This afternoon I watched the last game in the NFL London series on the television. Stroud’s passes were amazing. The Jaguars had me on the edge of my seat many times due to flags (a problem in their game in London last week too). I missed the final minute, at which point the game was equal. I just read the final score and the Texans won 34-31. I am not sure how many more games I will watch this season – the London games are on at such a convenient time – but I do want to learn more about how to “follow” a sport without watching the games. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

Music corner

Herein, music I have enjoyed listening to this week.

Courtney Barnett’s music is amazing. Thank you Thamara for the recommendation. I have listened to almost two whole album after learning about her music yesterday. Barnett is one of many Australian singers whose music I really appreciate, others being Hilltop Hoods, Montaigne, and Angus & Julia Stone.
Taylor Swift released two new versions of Patient Zero: the acoustic and piano versions. Of the two, the piano version is my favourite. I shall have to listen to it again after finishing this post.
I am on the lookout for hip-hop / rap bands, ideally that are more words-focused in their songs (and don’t sing too fast). If you have any recommendations, send me an email!
I listened to a few songs by Sigur Rós this week whose music I loved. Any more recommendations along these lines would be sincerely appreciated!

Thoughts, wandering

Herein, wondering thoughts as-yet not explicitly included in my writing.

How titles change a work.
“Reading the texts of time.”
I haven’t been doing many technical changes to my site lately. I haven’t had much inspiration for the coding side of my site of late. I feel both satisfied with the design of my website and also feeling like I want to make something new. Maybe a new page in my playground?
I am interested in why bookshops are so fascinating to me even when I know I don’t want to buy any books because I have some to read already. I’m thinking of bookshops as a place for visual inspiration.
I would like to make more zines, but I am also struggling to find the motivation. I saw a cool zine in a bookshop at the weekend that had a photo on the front cover and was tiny. I wonder if I could make a tiny photo zine?
Blogging encourages writing to become part of life.
I need new shoes for the winter. I always procrastinate on shoe shopping because I struggle to find shoes that are comfortable and that I like.

Miscellanea

Santiago Calatrava has worked on many impressive buildings. Two that stood out that he has worked on are the Milwaukee Art Museum and Liège-Guillemins railway station.
This series of Wonders of Web Weaving is coming to a close. I am not sure if there will be another series yet, but w will see! I will think more about that in the next year.
I thought I had more links to share in this post, but I looked at my bookmarks and I realised I haven’t saved many. I should keep this in mind for next week!
Naty’s recent feed changes caused some people to see all of her posts again in their web readers. This is common in tweaking web feeds. I have done the same in the past. I learned this week that Artemis was able to handle the changes with grace and didn’t show all of the posts in Naty’s feed as new. I can’t exactly remember all of the technical decisions I made to make this happen – it has been a while since I touched the polling part of the project – but I am glad to see things working.
The Book That Changed My Life was a wonderful documentary. After the documentary I found myself thinking more about my favourite book, Walden.
Seeing Joel and Naty publish weeknotes is what inspired me to give this a go. I have had fun! This is a different kind of writing from my other posts, but it’s nice to think through the week a little bit.

Naty Naty’s recent feed changes Liège-Guillemins railway station Milwaukee Art Museum Santiago Calatrava Front End Study Hall Homebrew Website Club Asia/Pacific meetup this week notes notes Walden I have tried to author weeknotes twice Joel new page in my playground Thamara The Book That Changed My Life Texans won 34-31

When the mechanical keyboard moves to the periphery - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-10-18T00:00:00.000Z

Even a cursory view of my website will tell you that I write at length and in depth. The keyboard is an essential tool for my computing experience. It connects my brain to the machine. Words in my head get converted to characters on the screen through key presses that are embedded as muscle memory. The creative process is as much a matter of thought as it is a sensory experience.

All the configurations I make converge on a single goal: to close the gap between mind and matter. I want there to be as little friction as possible between me and the computer. This is how I avoid distractions and remain focused on the task of expressing myself in earnest.

Having a refined interface is of paramount importance. Such is a maximalist approach, for it demands attention to every aspect of the whole. It is why I am deliberate about my GNU Emacs setup—why I even picked Emacs to begin with—and why I am so attuned to colours and typography (I have designed the Aporetic fonts and have 40+ original themes for Emacs).

My split mechanical keyboard is here to improve the ergonomics of typing. It augments my ability to input commands and write as much as I wish. I am otherwise not especially interested in keyboards as a hobby. They are cool, sure, though there is nothing in them that captures my attention independent of the utility they offer me.

I nonetheless spent a considerable amount of time researching the constituents of a mechanical keyboard. I developed a reasonably good understanding of keycaps, switches, and relevant materials to the point where I can reason about which arrangements suit my preferences. The product of these efforts is something I greatly enjoy though I know that it can, in theory, be optimised further, as I have documented in previous entries to this section of my website.

Optimisation has diminishing returns to scale. The more you try it, the less you gain out of every additional unit of effort. This, however, assumes that optimality is pursuant to another goal, for only then can it have a constant against which it is assessed. In my case, I tweak the relevant variables in order to facilitate my creativity. This is true for the keyboard but also for every other part of the broader computing environment.

Put differently, the keyboard project is subordinate to the rigours of the creative process, which itself contributes to the superordinate objective of personal wellness, which in turn involves a commitment to wellness at-large emanating from my immediate milieu outwards.

By being creative, I remain content with myself. This is the outlet for my innate curiosity and attendant inquisitiveness. I work towards an end that adds meaning to my life. It is what I can unequivocally consider worthwhile and never have regrets doing. In effect, I find fulfilment in the adventure of exploring this world in a manner that feels appropriate to me.

The pursuit of optimality yields negative returns to scale, i.e. is wasteful, whenever it obfuscates and then usurps the ulterior motive. If I keep tinkering with the keyboard, or Emacs, or my tiling window manager for Linux, or anything else for that matter, at the expense of my creative output, then that is a clear sign that I am moving down the wrong path.

This is not exact science. It is alright to have some downtime to build capacity. Though it has to be couched in terms of practical reasonableness: do the tools actively inhibit you right now or do they already work mostly okay? The former is a clear-cut call for more effort on the fundamentals of the configuration. Whereas the latter suggests that time can, at the very least, be divided between tinkering and creativity.

Such has been my reality in broad terms for several weeks over the course of the past few years. Though I have reached a point of stability where the gap between my mind and my computer is so small that bridging it is of no import. I can produce at will and am highly effective in this regard.

My consistency hints at a well-designed setup that is conducive to the actual target I am aiming at. It has all I need and does what I expect. I am writing this essay right now. Yesterday I wrote another that reached the 2000-word mark and then spent 3 hours programming during a live stream, among other tasks. Such is the norm for this week, and the week before, and the months prior, and so on.

I enjoy what I am doing because I effectively cleared the space at the centre of my conscience. It is a receptacle for every activity I engage in: I can direct my undivided attention to the given task in full confidence that everything else will perform up to the standard I have set.

The keyboard, Emacs, and all the rest, are still here without me having to periodically confirm as much. As I am typing now, I am looking at my carefully designed Emacs environment which uses my Aporetic font design. I am running one of my themes and am benefiting on a daily basis from several thousand lines of Elisp code that I have programmed myself on top of the free software that the Emacs ecosystem makes available. This keyboard shares the same quality of thoughtful consideration throughout. It has a particular style that fits my use-case and copes with the task splendidly.

This extended interface is not at the forefront of my attention at all times. It is right now while I am describing it. Though it otherwise moves with ease to the periphery of my conscience, allowing me to channel my vitality towards whatever field of endeavour I am involved in.

As I am typing, I have a consistent feedback which I can be attentive to though also let disappear into the background. The keyboard is not perfect, though it occupies that notional spot of being “good enough” without demanding the equivalent of a full-time job’s effort to excel at what I need it for. Everything from the keycap profile to the switch type contributes to an emergent quality of flux: it flows from the centre of consciousness to the periphery and back.

What bothers us, in essence, is that which does not move away from the centre; that which resists shifting to the periphery of our attention. I design my system to achieve this mental fluidity so that it enables me to control it. Part of that effort is down to the innate properties of the interface: to organise it in such a way that no part of it is bothersome, else misaligned with my immediate and ultimate ends. Though the other part is strictly a matter of attitude. It consists in mindfulness, in the awareness of my ranked goals.

We liberate themselves from distractions and false wants as soon as we are able to articulate our priorities and values. We must have a clear sense of our most cherished good, else that towards we are moving. Those who have not yet made such a judgement are effectively stranded in the desert without means of reorientation and are beset by a pervasive sense of dread.

The end goal is what empowers us to course correct. By having the lodestar in sight, we can tell when we are drifting away from it. Concretely, if I spend all day messing around with the computer without ever finding the time to write, then I start to feel bad about myself.

My sense of failure can only be understood in relation to my intuition of what success might look like. I cannot experience failure about something for which I have no notion of its success state or, indeed, no concept of it at all. For as long as I feel wrong about something, I can reason about its benign expression even if I may not be able to grasp it completely.

In my case, the goal is crystal clear. All the work at the level of the interface sets me up for a lifestyle that is defined by streaks of succesful creative sessions. I keep firing on all cylinders because (i) I know what I want and (ii) have cleared the space so that I can do it.

Keyboards are fun in their own right. Just how Emacs is an interesting program as such. Though I am not obsessed with the keyboard or Emacs, in the sense that I do not care about either of them in themselves. When I go places, I never talk about these areas of interest I have. I would rather learn something about the world and the forms of life throughout. I prefer to listen to people, to understand a little bit better the actualised possibility they embody, and to broaden my mind accordingly.

It is exactly due to the aforementioned flux that I do not mistake the interface to the computer with my identity. It contributes to my goals and does not detract from other parts of life. I enjoy it insofar as it is not trying to be the epicentre of my conscience. Now it is here, then it will be there, which is nice.

I am thus able to effectively travel between worlds, from the immediate reality of my place to the cosmic mind in which what is thought is present, such that the potential and the actual are one. The keyboard project cannot be reduced to a mere keyboard project in my personal case: it is a part of the whole and therein lies its utility.

🔷 Consider making a donation.

35 down, 9 more to go - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-10-17T16:40:00.000Z

We’re down to the final four segments, but we only have three walks left to do. The plan for today is to walk segment number 7 and also attach to it the beginning part of number 8. 23km, 870m of ascent, 1250m of descent. Next time, we’ll finish 8th and attach 9th to it, but that’s a problem for future me.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m kinda tired of these walks. Especially because this second half stretches across trails I walked countless times before. But I also want to walk the whole loop and visit all these churches, so we won’t stop here.

But we’ll move fast this time around. There’s no point in taking a million pictures at this point. The scenery is mostly the same, the overall area is still the same, so we might as well use this as an opportunity to do some cardio training.

The humidity is very high early in the morning, but it’s gonna get warm fast. The trail is gonna take us down for a bit, then back up, then all the way down next to the Slovenian border, all the way back up again, and the final stretch is gonna go down again, to the final church of today’s walk and also my car, since it’s parked right next to it.

First stop is gonna be the church of San Giovanni Battista (29/44), and on our way there, we see the church of San Paolo Apostolo far in the distance. It would be part of this segment of the loop, but we visited it on my previous walk, as I was walking all the way back to my car.

The church of San Giovanni Battista is in an amazing location, and out of the 44, this one’s probably the one I’ve seen the most throughout the years. There’s a lovely short loop that I often walk with the dog, and the view from up here is great.

Almost exactly an hour in, and we have reached the first POI I have marked on the map. I’m pleased with the pace so far; this is enjoyable.

I’m starting to walk down the trail I mentioned a moment ago when all of a sudden a formidable foe blocks my path: a herd of goats. Well, maybe herd is a bit of an exaggeration since it’s only 6 of them. But these were just out on their own—and were shitting everywhere—and not only did they have no intention to move away from the trail, one of them was not in the mood to let me pass.

Love goats, they’re fun. But can also be jerks, and the last thing I need is to find myself fighting a bunch of goats on a rocky trail. Plus, there’s a very convenient alternative trail just around the corner, so better to leave these alone.

Down, and down, and down we go, through the woods, without ever encountering a single soul. That’s honestly the best part about walking these trails: it is incredibly rare to see people. It’s just me and nature. And goats, I guess.

Through a couple of small villages we go—not a single human being in sight—and around the second church of the day, the church of San Bartolomeo Apostolo (30/44) that sits maybe a few hundred meters from the Slovenian border. We’re just a bit more than 2 hours in, and we have already walked half the distance. But we still have most of the uphill part to walk, so we’ll see if we manage to keep up the pace.

Up, and up, and up we go. And up and up the heartbeat also goes. But on our way up with pass next to the third church of the walk, the church of San Tommaso Apostolo (31/44).

There’s a house for sale literally right next to the church if you’re interested. Also another one for sale maybe 30 meters before it. If you like quiet places, this is the location for you. In the middle of absolutely nowhere. We’re not even a quarter of the way through this uphill section, so we better keep going.

Less than three hours into this walk—and almost 16.5km—we have reached the fourth church of the day, the church of Sant’Antonio da Padova
(32/44).

This is another one I have visited a bunch of times before, so no point in spending time here considering we still have the last uphill stretch to finish. I knew this was the last challenging part, so it was fun to keep pushing, and I think I peaked at 168bpm. But it’s gonna be almost entirely downhill from now onwards.

We take a quick detour to hit the fifth church of the day, the church of San Nicolò (33/44).

I wrote about this one in a previous edition of From the Summit. Another one of those churches I visited a lot over the years because it’s another place I walk often with the dog.

This would have been the final church of the day, and the normal route would take me west. But we’re going east, and then cut down through the forest to reach what would be the first church of the 8th segment. As predictable, this alternative path takes me through a trail that is overgrown but, oh well, who cares.

And just like that we have reached the sixth church of the day, the church of Sant’Abramo Eremita (34/44).

Wonderful location, with Mount Matajur always in the background. I have to admit that a few of these churches are placed in lovely locations; this is like the perfect spot to just chill and read a book on a sunny day. I might come up and do that soon; I ordered a bunch of new books just the other day.

Final stretch, only a bit more than 1km left to walk and then we’re done for the day. Risked falling on my back on a very slippery and steep part of this final stretch but thankfully I still have good reflexes. A bit more than 4 hours in and we have arrived at our final destination, the church of San Leonardo Abate (35/44).

I have to say, going fast made this walk a lot more fun. I might do it again. I’m glad we’re down into single digits; I can smell the end of this loop. And after that, we can focus on walking other places and see things that are not churches! As always, if you want to stalk my walk, here is the data recorded by my watch.

See you next time.

You love the outdoors and RSS. You're one of the special ones.

Share something with me

Saturday, October 17, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-10-17T13:50:45.000Z

Mexico (2005)

I wrote software for a living for a long time. Speaking for myself, I can confidently say that Claude Code writes code that's so much better than mine that it's embarrassing. I've gotten over it. I'm not a craftsman. I wish I was, but honestly I just want to tell the computer what I need done and have it do it. I suppose that's really all I've ever wanted. Now I can, and it's thrilling.

That Tesla Roadster demo was a pretty cool stunt. Cool, but dumb. And only a stunt.

✍️ Reply by email

Curtain Fever - Baty.net

2026-10-17T12:48:52.000Z

Death by Upholstery - by JA Westenberg

Curtain Fever (n.): Lavishing care on the décor of a life while the life goes unattended. “She spent three weeks on the logo for a company she hasn’t started. Total curtain fever.”

✍️ Reply by email

What happened to the desktop metaphor? - Baty.net

2026-10-17T11:55:44.000Z

What Happened to the Desktop Metaphor? | Dead Parrot BBS

The problem appears when abstraction turns into concealment.

There is way too much concealment going on.

✍️ Reply by email

Autumn - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z

The night-given crystalline coating on the red leaf shimmers with the burgeoning light of day. As I take a step forward, the light hits the ice crystals in a different way. We had our first frost last night.

I looked up to see an expansive winter-blue sky, with faint lavender on one side of the sky and the beginning of a yellow glow on the other. Day was about to break, but the sun had not yet risen.

Next to the red leaf that caught my eye there was neater red leaf, this one with veins made more definite by the frost; the fiery-red of the leaf became white. Around me, the occasional rabbit hopped over the path; birds sang. A peaceful whisper permeated the air reminding me of the forthcoming season. I came outside to feel the cold; to experience the latter part of autumn.

An evergreen tree is tipped with silver, the colour of the frost accentuating the droop in the leaves of the tree, almost as if the tree itself was being weighed down by the frost.

My morning was full of observations of the season. Two young deer stood with their parent, all grazing on a frosty field. A low white haze blanketed a field that was home to many sheep. A bird skimmed across the river. Heavy trees hid an abandoned, cobbled house. Shortly thereafter, the sky became more yellow. The sun is beginning to rise. Birds sat on a tree and caught the rising sun. I love watching the light change. Trees became golden.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Should there be any riches in the world, may they be Nature and friendship and warm coffee on a cool day. Nature is among my closest companions, there whenever I look out the window or step outdoors, existing always in memory and in the present. Even on a busy street, the odd leaf rests on the pavement.

While I gazed out the window drinking a warm cup of coffee – around which I cupped by hands to savour all the warmth I could – I smiled at a passer-by, who smiled back. I love moments like this. Shortly thereafter, a lady passed by with a suitcase, to which was affixed a sticker that said “HOPE” with an accompanying illustration.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Winter forces me to confront limits — of how hard it is to stay in cold for long. What keeps me going is the beauty of Nature. There are things I can only feel in Winter; there are things I can only see in Winter. The grass twinkles with the frost. The pulse of the song. What is the pulse of Nature?

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

As day continued, warmth interleaved with the cool air; the breeze was cool but the sun continued to shine down, creating conditions where it was pleasant enough to sit outside and watch the world go by in the park for a while. I thought about the fleeting nature of autumn while gazing at the trees and watching as people walked past. I wanted to look at the trees as much as I could so as to reinforce my impression of the colours; of how autumn transforms this place. I could see there were fewer leaves on the trees than in previous weeks, but the colours were as joyful as ever.

I take notes, holding onto some thoughts, while also letting some thoughts come and go, knowing that, as with the passage of seasons, I cannot rush my thoughts forward. I sat looking around at the world, seeing what I could see; appreciating the afternoon.

Emacs live extracting the Modus themes core at 2026-10-17 14:30 Europe/Athens - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z

[ The stream will be recorded. You can watch it later. ]

Today, Saturday, 17 October 2026, at 14:30 Europe/Athens, I will work on my modus-themes for Emacs.

About a year ago I turned them into a framework that theme developers can rely on. Lots of themes have been built on top of Modus since then.

What I want to do this year is extract the core Modus that other themes need into its own library. This way, we can have a separation of concerns between what is the framework proper and what are modus-themes (modus-operandi, modus-vivendi, etc.).

I expect to work on this for 3 hours or more.

I will have the chat open in case someone has a question about what I am programming or ANYTHING else they might want to ask me.

🔷 Consider making a donation.

A searchable archive of everything - Baty.net

2026-10-16T19:06:36.000Z

I wrote something down recently, and later I couldn't find it. If you know me, you know why; I put my notes into too many different apps.

Once in a while I declare loudly that "I'm using only this app, from now on! I mean it!" and then change my mind a month later. It's just the way I am. This most recent failure was the last straw and finally forced me to deal with it properly.

Instead of fixing myself, I built a software crutch. I spent today vibe-coding an indexer and search engine for all of my stuff. Here's the initial version of a web UI:

I also hacked together a TUI and an Emacs package. Those access the data via Tailscale SSH so I don't need to worry about installing things on other machines. Just the wrapper script.

Here's the list of sources being indexed (so far):

./archive index
baty.net: 1272 items (0.9s)
archive.baty.net: 2791 items (1.1s)
linux.baty.net: 26 items (0.0s)
blot.baty.net: 678 items (0.3s)
jackbaty.com: 581 items (0.1s)
notes: 2287 items (1.0s)
dayone: 2507 items (1.4s)
thebrain: 1177 items (0.5s)
mail: 1 updated, 0 removed (since revision 43773) (1.6s)
duplicates: 786 items in 381 groups (10.2s)

One nice thing about this is now I can search all of my Denote notes from my phone.

Everything is plain files and it uses boring, durable tools, so the archive should outlive whichever apps made the content that week. Even an AI layer, if I add one, sits on top of the search instead of being built into it. The database is disposable because it only takes 10 seconds to reindex everything.

Maybe now I'll be OK with all of my app churn.

✍️ Reply by email

Fitness challenge: what’s next? - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-10-16T15:35:00.000Z

Back in early June I blogged about my summer fitness challenge. The two main goals were to lose some weight—from 89.6kg to 85.3kg, the oldest measure I had on record from late 2015—and also to get back into a better shape than I was a decade ago.

The weight goal was easily quantifiable; I still have the same exact scale I was using 10 years ago and so it was only a matter of jumping on it every morning and track the progress. As for losing weight, I didn’t really have much of a plan other than not eating like an idiot and moving more. And I guess it worked. I’m now hovering around 82kg, going up or down depending how much I decide to eat—or not to eat—any given day. Last time I was this light I was probably in my late teens. And I think this is the perfect weight for my lifestyle, so I’m planning to stay at this level for the foreseeable future.

As for being in better shape, that’s a bit trickier to evaluate. My legs are definitely not as strong as they were back when I was in my mid-20s, but I was also playing A LOT of basketball back then, while now I play exactly zero. I do walk and hike a lot more though, and I overall feel much better.

So, success! Both goals achieved. Now what? Now it’s time to start another challenge, and this time it will span 12 months. And that’s because even though I do feel better, I’m nowhere near satisfied with myself and my body. There is so much room for improvement, and I realised that I need to have stupid challenges to keep myself motivated. So this is what’s on the menu for the next 12 months.

First, I need better cardio. I have never trained it in my life, and my cardio sucks. The realistic goal I currently have set for myself is to run a 5k in under 25 minutes and with a < 150 HR. There’s also a trail I hiked recently that I’ll go hike again next year, and the goal there is to do the first part in less than an hour. It took me almost two last time.

Next, I need to build at least some upper body muscle mass. I hate training upper body, especially because none of the activities I enjoy doing involves upper body strength, but it’s nice to have a balanced body and so I need to take care of that. This is a goal that’s harder to track, but I do have a reference body I’m aiming for, and I am taking progress photos at the beginning of the month, so at the end of the 12 months we can compare and see if I managed to get there.

Lastly, I want to improve overall flexibility. I am doing some stretching regularly, but I’ve always had a goal in mind, going back years, and that was to manage to get in full lotus position. So we’re aiming for that in the next 12 months.

This is gonna be fun. I don’t plan to constantly write about this because there’s not much to say on a regular basis, but if there’s anything you’re interested in, feel free to email me and ask.

Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

Connect via email :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month

Food Questions Challenge - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-16T00:00:00.000Z

There is maybe a fun blogging challenge in writing about our favourite snacks from where we live...

After a discussion with Joel and Zachary, I started writing a few questions about food to which I’d love to hear others’ answers. This is in the same vein as the “Bear Blog Questions Challenge” and other similar challenges. To participate, copy and paste the questions below and answer them on your own website:

What was your favourite food growing up?
What is your favourite food that is made locally? (In your region/country.)
What is your favourite food generally?
What is one food you have had in the last year that you remember warmly?
What food do you really want to try?
Do you take photos of your meals?
Savoury or sweet?
Spicy or no?
Tea or coffee? (Both? Neither?)

Once you have answered the questions, feel free to send me an email with a link to your post. I will add a link to your writing here.

Submissions

I will add contributions to the challenge here when received.

My responses

Below are my responses to get us started.

What was your favourite food growing up?

It has to be my grandmothers’ jam, especially the blackcurrant and gooseberry (or apple) jelly. Blackcurrants are my favourite fruit and my grandfather gardened a few bushes of them. Granny would use as much of the fruit from the garden as possible to make jam; every summer’s harvest was enough to make a year’s supply of jam, with leftovers. I would only have the jam when visiting them, so it was always a special treat. Blackcurrants to this day are my favourite fruit, although I haven’t had them in a while.

I also loved eating scones growing up. I didn’t have them very often; only when visiting cafes. But they were – and still are – so delicious.

What is your favourite food that is made locally?

I had a colleague who once called me, affectionately, Mr. Oats because I liked porridge and other oats products. Here in Scotland we make a food called an “oatcake” which is essentially a thin slab of oats. It is ideally served with cheese on top, but I have in the past enjoyed eating them plain. (I like plain foods as snacks.)

I also enjoy Tunnocks' confectionaries, in particular the caramel wafter.

What is your favourite food generally?

I like lots of foods, but I think pasta and fish are my favourite food categories. (Although as the days go by I think more and more about what it would take to reduce the amount of fish I eat.) My favourite dessert is a small, well-made tiramisu (or, really, any dessert, so long as it: (i) isn’t too sweet, and; (ii) isn’t chocolate cake).

What is one food you have had in the last year that you remember warmly?

I have a lot of good memories with food this year. One that stands out is a delicious vegan schnitzel I had in Nürnberg, Germany. The lingonberry sauce that accompanied the dish was delicious; my first time, I think, trying lingonberry. What made the meal was that I was surrounded by friends. Food is almost always better with conversation.

Going back a bit further to a few years ago, one meal that stands out was a I had a pizza with capers on top that I had in Rome, on my first trip abroad. The weather was warm, almost 40 degrees. I had never experienced a climate like it before. I didn’t expect how salty the pizza would be. With that said, it was delicious. That day I remember drinking several bottles of water, too.

What food do you really want to try?

I love trying new foods (especially vegan/vegetarian). The one food I have been wanting to try for a few weeks was 100% dark chocolate, which I was able to taste yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Savoury or sweet?

Sweet. 100%.

Spicy or no?

I like spicy foods, and do enjoy challenging myself to see what spice I can tolerate. With that said I wouldn’t say I seek out spicy foods.

Tea or coffee?

Both! I like tea most of the time, although I do enjoy the occasional cup of coffee, especially when I am out and about. When I am travelling, I like to seek out new coffee shops to try; I walk a lot while travelling so I need all the energy I can get!

Bear Blog Questions Challenge oatcake Joel Tunnocks' confectionaries Zachary

Emacs: all my packages have an AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md to restrict use - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-10-16T00:00:00.000Z

I just finished adding AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md to each of my Emacs packages. I copied the files from the emacs.git trunk. Those files inform LLMs about the project’s policy to reject LLM-generated contributions.

The reason for this change is that (i) I have assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation, (ii) all my code is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and (iii) my packages are designed to be compatible with core Emacs (all my packages can, in principle, be part of emacs.git).

I do not want to merge changes that can jeopardise the legal standing of my code base and, more generally, choose to remain aligned with what the Emacs developers are doing.

🔷 Consider making a donation.

Thursday, October 15, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-10-15T11:23:49.000Z

Me and my grandson (2026). Leica MP. Photo by Jessica.

I swear if I hear the word "slop" one more time I'm going to punch someone in the throat.

I just did a nice and thorough de-cluttering of my office and I feel much better.

✍️ Reply by email

The Incomer (2026) ★★★★★ - Baty.net

2026-10-15T09:27:40.000Z

What an unexpectedly delightful, sweet, funny, quirky, heartwarming treat this was.

✍️ Reply by email

Emacs live continuing ‘denote’ maintenance and refinements (2026-10-15 26:30 Europe/Athens) - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-10-15T00:00:00.000Z

[ The stream will be recorded. You can watch it later. ]

In a couple of hours I will resume the work I am doing on my Emacs denote package. There are general refinements I wish to make, but also to continue iterating on the new denote-data-mode, which is an optional in-memory cache for Denote.

I will have the chat open in case someone has a question about what I am programming or ANYTHING else they might want to ask me.

Catch a Bird (or, Happiness) - James' Coffee Blog

2026-10-15T00:00:00.000Z

What made you happy today? asks Catch a Bird. I love this question, and the website. For the last five minutes or so, I have been both answering the aforementioned question, and trying my best to make some people smile. Here are a selection of my answers to the question:

Trying 100% dark chocolate for the first time.
Playing the guitar.
Singing my heart out.
The joy of autumn.
Have a wonderful day :)
Taylor Swift!
Seeing two cats while wandering the neighbourhood.
You’re an amazing human :)

I love technology that can highlight the best of us; technology that brings us together.

To you, dear reader, I hope you have a wonderful day.

See also: Frances’ Sharing good things online.

Catch a Bird Sharing good things online