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Another thing I’ve noticed is that I always get tired. Not in a bad way, the opposite actually. It’s a tiredness that seems to say “no need to rush, nothing is seeking your attention, just relax”. A wonderful feeling.

Even though I wouldn’t want to live like that all year round, I think it’s important to invite moments of silence into our lives. It doesn’t have to be silence as in no sound at all. Just a moment without distractions, a little stillness in the eye of the storm.

No matter how busy our lives are, there’s always a place for it. In the shower, on the subway, in the elevator, during breakfast, in the line at the supermarket.

There’s always time for the timeless. Let’s not waste it by constantly reaching for the next moment, the next thing.

Nothing beats this moment.

The other two CLI-based productivity tools I used for the month were Taskwarrior and nb. Taskwarrior is very good at managing tasks, but I don’t know if it’ll stick as my main task app. There’s too much typing involved with keeping things updated (adding tags, projects, etc.). The TUI helps, but I’m not sure it’s enough. I’m currently tinkering with Super Productivity as more GUI-ified option, but I’ll probably just end up back in Emacs org-mode like I always do.

I’m still exploring nb. It’s surprisingly deep and capable, and I’ll miss it if I stop using it.

I don’t know what I’ll use nb for, exactly. It’s not like I don’t have too many places to keep stuff already. Still, it’s neat and handy. The downside is that typing the entry ID gets tedious: e.g. nb edit 157. Another issue is that when there are thousands of files, listings can get pretty slow. For example, in my “kb” notebook, searches can take 10 seconds or longer to return all results. I’m enamoured of it, though, so I’m keeping it around for now.

For email, I’m still using aerc for quickly checking messages. I alternate between aerc and the Fastmail web UI. Both are fine, but I’m surprised by how much I miss Apple Mail on macOS.

The thing that puts me off sticking all CLI, all the time is that sometimes I just want to kick back and drive with the mouse for a while. Being forced to use a keyboard for everything puts me off after a while. I’m happy to be wrapping up the experiment, but I’m hanging on to the CLI tools I’ve learned to enjoy using.

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Do I print it? Or give up on graphic design and go back to backend programming where I belong?

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I re-read last year’s update to see what I did and, more importantly, what I’d listed in the closing what’s next? section. It included:

• Renovating the brick shed on the drive into an annex for guests.
• Continuing to work on the garden.
• Insulating the roof in the conservatory.
• Two more bathrooms, a downstairs loo, and the kitchen.

Well, dear reader, most of that plan went to utter rat shit this year. Aside from continuing to work on the garden, we got absolutely nothing on the list done. That’s mainly because we ended up having to replace the entire roof on the house, which is still ongoing as I write this.

Worse still, because the new roof is heading into winter, we’ve had lots of rain. That in turn means leaks in the house, the worst of which has been in my oldest son’s bedroom. If you read last year’s post, you’ll recall we only renovated that room last year. 😡

If you’ve never had to put a new roof on your house, firstly you’re very lucky. But secondly, they’re really expensive. So that has meant we haven’t had any disposable income for other projects.

Making progress in the garden

We managed to plant some wildflowers in the far field, which one of our neighbours who keeps bees is very appreciative of.

Wild flowers starting to come through in field

We also had a load of groundwork done at the back to flatten some of it off. They ended up moving 50 tonnes of soil from the area to make it level. Our hope is that this summer we’ll be able to enjoy drinks and barbecues on the new flat piece of land.

We’re also continuing to improve the chicken coop. We now have a fairly large enclosed outdoor space for them, mainly because of bird flu in the and the council applying restrictions on where they can roam. We’ve also grown the flock to 17 hens and a rooster.

Looking to year 4

The list for this year is going to be similar to last year’s. I just hope there will be fewer expensive surprises.

We’re hoping to add a polytunnel so we can grow more of our own vegetables. I’d also like to insulate the roof in the conservatory as it’ll effectively give us another room we can use all year round.

The bathrooms, toilet and kitchen will have to wait. We’ll just have to see how the cashflow looks. If next year I can get the polytunnel and conservatory done, I’ll class that as a win. I’d love to get a quad bike for towing the flail too, but again…money.

All in all it’s been a difficult year at the smallholding, but we have a new roof, so that’s good. I suppose…

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I was able to use my Android phone to get on the NYC subway a few days ago. Turn the phone on, point it at the reader on the turnstyle, and just keep walking. It's that fast and a lot better than with the MetroCard. Sometimes things do get better. #

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This approach really paid dividends with the LM Drum, so I feel it's time to have a go with another.

Aside from the TD-3s and RD-8, the piece of gear I've had the longest (and probably used the least) is the Behringer MS-1 — their clone/re-imagining of the Roland SH-101. I should get to know it better.

My approach with it has always been to turn knobs and slide sliders until something sounds okay. That's not sustainable and takes too long — likely why it's sorely under used.

I need to get to grips with sound design on this (almost) simplest of monosynths so that what I do with it is intentional and repeatable.

The 101 was a staple of early house and techno. While it may seem limited by comparison to more modern alternatives, it still has a classic sound that I should use more often.