What I’m Doing Now

Updated February 13, 2025

I’ve been my Mom’s care giver since 2017. Mom’s 100+. She broke her hip in 2020, and since then, taking care of her has of necessity been my primary activity.

Projects

I’m still trying to blog about technology at IT:, and Celtic and Medieval Studies at DigitalMedievalist.com. Sadly, the updating of late is mostly repairing link rot, and repairing lost images. I have been adding various Slash Pages (hat tip to Robb Knight ), meta pages like this Now page you are reading (hat tip to Derek Sivers by way of David Sparks ).

Mostly I’ve been converting sites from the bloat and Gutenberg annoyances of WordPress to static sites or to newer, simpler platforms.

• In late 2024 I started converting an old Blogger site Something Pacific about life in the PNW (specifically Puget Sound) to static pages while I mulled over switching sites from self-hosted WordPress, and back to static pages, or moving to another more basic blogging tool. Instead of hand-coded static pages, I am slowly moving Something Pacific to Posthaven.com.
• I have moved Floccinaucical.blog from self-hosted WordPress to Pika.page. I really like the simplicity and ease of use of Pika.page, and enthusiastically recommend it.
• I converted Something Downeast (about life in Maine) to the very easy-to-use Posthaven.com platform.

I began a new static hand-coded site about Chaucer. I’m adding extant content to it as I have time. It is currently a local only site.

In 2020 I began researching a possible new book about writing. I drafted most of it in 2021, and I am side-eying it and working on it as I can.

Technology Changes

I bought an M3 Macbook Air in late December of 2024. My 2018 MacBook Air butterfly keyboard needs another keyboard repair, and I foresee tariffs headed my way.

I gave up on the Kobo Libre 2 Colour because I received a black and white Kobo Libre 2 as a Christmas gift. I very much prefer the Kobo Libre 2 for reading text over the lower resolution and poor contrast of the Kobo Libre Colour screen.

Last Super Book I Read

Roland Allen. The History of the Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper.

Roland Allen has a Website .

Roland Allen’s The History of the Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper is the best book I read in 2024. I reccomend this podcast episode featuring Roland Allen on the Erasables podcast. Erasables Episode 217: Posh Blond English Protagonist (with author Roland Allen).

Current Reading

So far nothing I’ve read in 2025 has really stood out. That said, I am reading Terry Pratchett for the first time and quite enjoying it.

Last Album I Loved

Keel Road. Danish String Quartet, 2025.

Current Obsessive Passions

Stationery, still, particularly notebooks, fountain pens and ink, and both woodcase and mechanical pencils. Current favorites:

• Woodcase Pencil: Musgrave Tennessee Red
• Mechanical Pencil: The Mitsubishi Pure Malt, running slightly ahead of the very similar Pilot Legno.
• Fountain Pen: Lamy 2000 F with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai. I usually have at least 3 fountain pens inked, but 2025 has been a rough year, so this is it,
• Paper: Writepads Their paper works with both F & M fountain pens, and with pencil. I’ve also been using this EMSHOI A4 Spiral Notebook College Ruled , 11.2" X 8.27", 150 Sheets/300 Pages, 100 gsm Thick Lined Journal for disposable notes and rough drafts.

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