Walden

October 2026

Thursday, 8 October 2026

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Awake. Did a weird one this morning to try and wake up less groggy. I woke up at 05:00 and took my Ritalin and then went back to bed.

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Just opened a Monster Energy.

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It could be coincidence. But I think waking up to take my Ritalin and then going back to sleep has actually helped me feel less groggy!

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On a walk around the block with Abigail.

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Back from my walk.

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Done with work. Running a bath.

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About to get in the bath.

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To be honest, I’m not really ‘feeling’ this bath. I feel a tiny bit anxious. And also tired. Probably because I had a 150 gram bag of Doritos not long ago. But right now I’m feeling dizzy and the last thing I want to be doing is getting in a hot bath. But I’ll make sure it reasonably cool and I’m sure I’ll have a relaxing time.

Obsidian is wonderful

6:04pm

I could write a long post about how wonderful the note-taking software Obsidian is.1 And maybe one day I will

For the first time ever today I launched the iPhone app and it didn’t load.2 It just displayed the app icon in the centre of the screen and my notes didn’t load. I was shocked. Obsidian always works. It’s one of the few apps I can use without signal on the Underground and it behaves just the same as when I’ve got WiFi.3 Seriously, I love that Obsidian doesn’t give a damn if you’re connected or not. It doesn’t even tell me I’m offline. It just shows all my notes, which are downloaded locally to my phone, and then when I come back online it gracefully syncs them. It’s never ever crashed. Ever.

And it made me realise how great it is. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s great. But I don't appreciate it enough. It’s truly a tremendous bit of software. Aside from my to-dos,4 Which are done via Todoist and notebooks. it powers my entire personal and work life. And it does it so reliably that when it doesn’t work just one time, I’m shocked.

So thank you Obsidian.

AppObsidianPKMTechnologyThankfulness

'Software' is dead

6:21pm

The word 'software' is dead.1 Or at best it’s dying. And 'app' killed it.

'Software' is now a fusty word, associated with dial-up, the family computer, and when software came on hardware (CDs).

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Associated Press’s style guide now tells journalists that everything is either a ‘website' or an 'app'.

I work in tech and I can’t remember the last time I heard the word 'software'. We build 'apps' and 'tools' now.

Technology

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Out the bath. Actually had a perfectly pleasant time.

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Went into the bath with it fully bright out. Now: darkness.

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Abigail is trying to get an early night, so we’ve parted ways. I’m fighting the urge to do something unproductive before bed (like just scrolling on TikTok). Am going to attempt to do some reading.

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Dinner: left over pasta from last night. Abigail had soup and bread and cheese.

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I fell asleep to "Means Girls" the other day and it was rather pleasant. I might have to fall asleep to it again today. And maybe even add it to my “films to fall asleep to” list.

Walden.blog is no longer so ugly

9:23pm

I posted before that this blog is still not that pretty. Mainly because I was trying to not fiddle with the design too much, as it’s a time sink hole for me.

Well today I did actually tidy up the looks slightly. Nothing crazy. Just a bit more padding here. A changed font size there.

But the biggest change is a custom font. I was using Georgia and Helvetica1 Or Arial on Windows. before. And I really wanted to avoid custom fonts simply because it slows down the site as the fonts have to be downloaded. But I just love typography too much.

I’m using Heliotrope. I kind of forgot I had a licence for it to be honest, until I happily found it in my /fonts folder on my Mac.

As the description of it says, it’s “nei­ther sans nor serif”. It’s a very interesting font. I often struggle to choose between serif and sans-serif fonts. I love the beauty of the former. But struggle to resist the cleanness of the later. Heliotrope is a great middle ground.

Here’s the blog on an iPhone 15:

But I have to say, I think the blog looks at its best in dark mode:

DesignTypographyWalden

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Got some stomach pain brewing right now (and some slight dizziness). I had reheated pork pasta for dinner. So I really hope I heated it thoroughly. I’ve heard sickness from pork can be awful. This is the face of a worried man:

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Very sleepy. Feel a bit like my body is shutting down right now. But I’m sure it’s just sleepiness. Why I’m powerfully sleepy I don’t know.

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Unable to sleep. Got this weird ear sucking thing that I’ve been getting quite often whilst trying to fall asleep.

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Can’t sleep. So midnight snacking.

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Feeling tired. Might be able to sleep.