Monday, 5 October 2026

New feature added to the blog:#

• Wide images the go outside the bounds of the main body#
• Little images that can go to the left/right and the posts text wraps around#

Below is just a test of these features, so please ignore 🙂#

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut scelerisque nisl nec velit pulvinar tempor. Nullam congue facilisis ligula id hendrerit. Suspendisse ut neque leo. Nunc consequat efficitur dui. Vivamus scelerisque turpis placerat, sodales mi ac, rutrum nisi. Proin eleifend interdum magna in gravida. Donec ante sapien, efficitur accumsan elit ut, gravida consectetur est. In ornare interdum risus, at dignissim erat dictum sit amet. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. In fermentum orci eu faucibus tempus. Curabitur nec porttitor nisl. Vivamus sodales nibh turpis, vitae tincidunt dolor condimentum vitae. Nam eget ex vel felis tincidunt sodales vulputate ac est. Etiam felis erat, cursus sit amet interdum a, faucibus et augue.#

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Integer eget velit laoreet, maximus leo ut, cursus metus. Pellentesque quis mi ut nibh interdum pellentesque. Ut volutpat orci ex. Pellentesque bibendum tincidunt lacus, vel suscipit lacus ullamcorper fringilla. Vestibulum eget consectetur ante. Fusce viverra sed lacus vel posuere. Cras ut eros efficitur, ultricies sem eu, accumsan arcu. Etiam sodales tempor elit, nec sagittis enim tincidunt at. Etiam ultricies hendrerit libero a ultrices. Sed pulvinar, eros sit amet consequat sagittis, ex turpis faucibus libero, at aliquam orci ante a risus. Mauris in egestas ligula. Etiam scelerisque sapien lobortis eleifend efficitur. Integer ornare vestibulum vulputate. Nullam faucibus odio eget urna fermentum, ac finibus dolor ultricies.#

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Quisque suscipit est vulputate neque lacinia dignissim. Vivamus tincidunt metus purus, vel scelerisque mi accumsan sit amet. Suspendisse ex arcu, sollicitudin nec viverra et, pellentesque ut dui. Etiam tincidunt sed dui non tempus. Donec risus magna, luctus in pretium in, aliquam eu purus. Quisque pretium nulla sit amet nunc vestibulum, a tempor turpis vehicula. Praesent a sodales odio, ullamcorper volutpat libero. Etiam mattis condimentum sem sed dictum. Nam sit amet blandit turpis. Proin rutrum, erat facilisis vehicula scelerisque, dolor metus interdum dui, vitae posuere magna metus quis lorem. Nullam interdum felis nec sem hendrerit, sed tempor nunc varius. Nunc cursus odio non laoreet ultrices. Morbi odio purus, aliquet quis pulvinar eu, euismod nec elit. Fusce ut lectus vel nibh tincidunt lacinia. Curabitur ut ullamcorper dui.#

There needs to be a name for the disappointment of someone showing you something at work that's clearly AI generated.#

Especially when it has been done last minute and not even humanised a bit.#

They're trying to run you through it. But they know about as much of the contents as you do.#

And it's always so long. And lacking basic, but important context/knowledge that a human would know.#

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I think often about Robert Shields, the man who logged every five minutes of his life.#

I ponder him mainly because I'm a bit of a "logger" myself, so I'm amazed how he managed it.11 Spoiler: autism, I'm sure#

Not only did he write often, but he wrote a lot. He tallied up 37.5 million words from 1972 until 1997 when a stroke disabled him. For reference, Samuel Pepys wrote 1.25 million words in his diary.#

But most of his entries were short. Here's some examples:#

April 18, 1994
6:30–6:35: I put in the oven two Stouffer's macaroni and cheese at 350°.
6:35–6:50: I was at the keyboard of the IBM Wheelwriter making entries for the diary.
6.50–7.30: I ate the Stouffer's macaroni and cheese and Cornelia ate the other one. Grace decided she didn't want one.
7.30–7.35: We changed the light over the back stoop since the bulb had burnt out.#

(You can see lots more examples here)#

I now log via my notebook, but I've mostly done it digitally using an app on my phone called Funnel (App Store link) which would send it to my daily note in Obsidian. But despite having a quick add app on a phone that's nearly always on my person, I'd still struggle to log every five minutes!#

However Robert wouldn't actually create a log every five minutes – that's impossible.22 Especially when you're using a IBM Wheelwriter. He would take handwritten notes throughout the day using a pen and paper and then in the evening he'd type up each five minute log at once on a typewriter. Which would be a lot of work and time. In one entry he said he'd been up since 03:00 writing them. As a result he avoided leaving town and disliked overnight trips because they put him behind.#

For a moment I considered logging just one day of my life every five minutes in honour of Robert. But that frequency is just insane. Fifteen minutes is more doable. Perhaps I’ll try. He died on an October 15th, which is ten days away. Maybe I’ll give every fifteen a go.#

His story is a curious one. You wonder if he had OCD or autism and these logs ruled his life and negatively effected those around him. Or, who knows, perhaps it was his driving purpose in life. And logging down everything was a way of living life more purposefully and ensuring his life would be remembered.#

Walden.blog still isn’t beautiful, but I’m trying to focus on features and functionality over beauty right now.#

Every site I have make I fiddle endlessly with the look. I’m trying to keep Walden light and clean.#

I’ll add some niceness at some point I’m sure. But I’m actually getting used to its bareness. I’m even growing to like its serif font.#

And now that things like little side images and footnotes are supported, its starting to look like a proper blog.#

And I’m very proud to say that it’s still just two files11 If there’s no images on the page anyway. – the HTML page itself and the CSS stylesheet. I’m especially pleased I’ve managed to not add any JavaScript yet.#

Either way, I’m determined to keep this site under 100 KB (it’s currently 5-30 KB depending on page size).#

How Walden.blog looks on mobile with night mode turned on: #

Just had a weird head rush. Powerful. A minuscule bit of dizziness. If I die tonight, that’s why.#