/reader

I would love to sit down with Sister Gabriel over a bottle (or 2) of Newcastle Brown Ale and just talk. She seems like such a fascinating woman.

Anyway, check the video out below...

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook

In the age of belief, magic is a myth. But when an apocalyptic crusade comes to the remote border of Gul Kana, that belief is shattered as is the tenuous peace that held the Five Isles together. Now, the prophecies that were used to justify this war are unravelling revealing a hidden agenda while the world lies in the wake of the degradations of this war.

But a slim skein of hope resides within the hidden truths, long kept secret, and scattered throughout the isles--truths less reliant upon prophecy than heroism, and great sacrifice.

Not everything is as it seems in this epic, long-awaited conclusion to trilogy which Booklist raved as "high fantasy in the vein of Stephen R. Donaldson or David Eddings, with generous helpings from George R. R. Martin."

I've enjoyed this series of epic fantasy novels, but my god they were a long read. The story twists and turns, but culminates in this final book of the trilogy.

I think Durfee wrapped up the various storylines rather well; it certainly didn't leave me wanting for more, which is a nice change as I find that most of the series I read tend to leave the story open just in case the author decides to add to the series. I didn't get that impression here.

Overall a good series to read, but it will probably take you a while.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook

After my original post I received a shit load of recommendations from you guys. They ranged from very cheap options, to ridiculously expensive ones. Far and away the most recommended ear buds were the Nothing Ear 2. So if this battery repair goes belly up, I think I'll nab a pair of them (I might even grab some on Black Friday as a spare).

Anyway, a couple of people mentioned that it was a known issue with the XM4s as a result of a poor firmware update that kills the battery over time.

It most often affects the right-hand ear, where the battery will last less than hour. This is exactly what I was seeing - so I assumed I probably had the same problem.

I had a look online for guides on how to replace the battery and it seemed quite straightforward, so I figured I'd buy a pair of replacement batteries for £20 and decided to give it a go.

Once the batteries were replaced, I left them in the clamps for a couple of hours to let the fresh glue dry, then placed them back in the case to charge overnight.

This morning I cracked open the case and checked the battery levels on my Sony app - both were reporting as 100%. That was a good start as the right-hand battery would only charge to 90% previously. I also noticed there was a firmware upgrade available, so I did that, which took around an hour.

I've now been listening to music with noise cancelling enabled (as the kids have a snow day in school and I'm working from home) for around an hour. Here's how the battery situation looks:

Ok, so we're over 80% on each ear bud after around 2 hours of use. Granted they weren't playing any music for the first hour while I was updating the firmware, so let's conservatively say that's around 5 hours of actual use for a full charge? I'm thrilled with that! If I managed to get another 2.5 years out of these batteries, I'll be absolutely chuffed. Fuck, if I get another year out of them, I'll still be happy.

There was one small casualty during the repair process though; you have to use a heat gun to warm the glue before splitting the case. I managed to overheat one of the cases which caused a little droop in the top of the case. Time will tell if that's affected the seal and waterproofing.

So there you go folks, instead of defaulting to "I need to replace this thing because it's now broken" there's always the option to repair.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook

The sound quality and noise cancelling is great, and the batteries lasted ages. I use these things every single day, whether it's for walking the dogs, or just when I'm doing jobs around the house on my own.

But unfortunately, my love for these little buds is eroding as the battery life has gone to shit. Now the batteries will last around 45-50 minutes, which is no good considering most the walks I take the dogs on are around 90 minutes. Even a "quick" walk is an hour.

Weirdly, one of the buds only ever announces that it's 90% full, even after being in their dock much longer than is needed for a full charge. So I assume the battery is just worn down from the constant charge cycling I put them through (like I said, I wear them every day).

I'm quite disappointed - I was expecting to get at least 3 years out of these buds, considering they were around £150. But alas, they haven't. I could buy another pair, but knowing that they're only going to last another 2.5 years, it seems wasteful.

So I'm looking for recommendations for a new pair of ear buds. Here's my requirements:

• Must be Bluetooth and have active noise cancelling
• Must be able to run for at least 90 minutes between charges
• I prefer in-ear buds - I don't want over-hear headphones
• I'm not interested in standard AirPods, as they were very uncomfortable for me - I am considering AirPod Pros though, as they have the silicone buds
• I'd like personal recommendations - I can do a search myself online if I want generic recommendations 🙃

If you do have a personal recommendation for me, please use the reply button below - I'd love to hear from you. ❤️

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook

How do you cope with wife, kids, animals, hobbies, Fosstodon, watches and all other things?

Marco is right, there's a lot of things that we manage. Here's an incomplete list off the top of my head:

• A full-time (and very stressful) job
• A wife
• 2 young kids
• 2 dogs
• a blind cat
• 3 aquariums
• 12 chickens
• Various DIY projects
• a vegetable patch
• 2.5 acres of land
• Various projects like Fosstodon, 500 Social and this blog
• 2 motorbikes
• A ride on lawn mower
• A 5 foot flail mower

I think the first thing to call out here is that most of this I don't do alone. I don't "manage" my wife (she actually manages me, usually). She supports me. We're a partnership and share this list out between us, among everything else that's needed in the household too.

She couldn't do it without me, and I certainly couldn't do it without her.

But that still doesn't leave much in terms of spare time, and that's fine. I like being busy, but honestly, when I hear people say they don't have time to do something, I usually call bullshit on that. For most people there's always time that you can find somewhere.

So anyway, we manage it all by working together. This allows us to get a tonne of shit done, but still have time for ourselves, and every now and then, time for each other.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook

Do you have faith in the future of humanity? Why or why not?

The short answer to your question, Brandon, is no. I don't have faith in the future of humanity, and the reason for that is people are fucking idiots.

I mean "people" as a collective noun. Individually people are generally intelligent, reasonable creatures. But when we reach critical mass, I think we're fucking morons.

The state of the world is actually part of the reason my wife and I decided to adopt instead of having biological kids. I think in the next few generations, the world is going to be irrevocably screwed, and I didn't want to add to the problem by adding 2 more people to the billions that are already here.

To be clear - that's not the only reason. There are other reasons, but this isn't the place for me to talk about them. That might be a post for another day.

Before people with biological kids get their pitchforks out; I have nothing against people who have had kids the old fashioned way, it was just our personal choice not to. No judgement here. ❤️

Anyway...

Over-population aside, there's wars here there and everywhere, Trump is back in the oval office. And Putin, Kim Jong Nob-Doll and their ilk ain't going anywhere either.

Services like Bitcoin and AI are putting tremendous stress on the greenhouse gas situation, and that's only getting worse, too.

This post is heading down a really dark path, and it's pretty fucking depressing, so I'm going to leave it here.

Sorry, Brandon, this probably isn't what you were expecting. I hope humanity proves me wrong.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is great, and you're great for using it. ❤️

Reply to this post by email ● Sign my guestbook