Wife: I need help clipping the goat's hooves. Here, hold this... Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Follow up from this post - I just signed into my Vinted account (to delete it) and it didn't send me an MFA SMS so how the fuck is me giving them my number securing my account in any way? The internet is fucked. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Brilliant. I'm such a "valued customer" that they couldn't even be arsed to put my name in the email. Why is it even necessary to have a "business intelligence database" with a 3rd party? I ordered a fucking laptop. Can a tech company not create their own customer database? Full email here - https://cdn.kevquirk.com/framework-breach-email.pdf Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
I have a habit of giving all our pets nicknames, there's many of them for each of our dogs. We've Nelly for 4 days and already I have: Nells Bells Nelly Bean Nelly Furtado Man Eater (after the song) Nelly the Elephant It's anyone's guess which will stick. Our other dogs, Tia and Sid, are t-bone and squid (short for Sqidley) respectively. 🤷🏼♂️ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Wooh! The last few weeks have been absolutely mental here in Casa del Quirk. Around 2 months ago we started renovating the stables to make things better for the goats and chickens. We've had an extraction system put in so fresh air is always circulating, as chickens are very dusty and goats don't like it too hot and stuffy. While we were at it, we also had some new fencing and gates put in, as well as better hard standing around the stables. Finally we had the old, rotten windows and doors replaced with lovely new ones that have shutters so we can control the air flow depending on the weather. Our stables with the new windows and doors As you can imagine, this has been a significant expense, but we planned for it. So it's all good, but then... Around a month ago we noticed that our older (and favourite) dog, Tia, had rather smelly breath and her mouth was bleeding when she was playing with her ball. We figured it's just old age and bad teeth, so we took her to the vet to have her mouth checked and properly cleaned. Unfortunately it was bad news. Tia has a benign but aggressive tumour growing in her gum. Apparently they're relatively common in older dogs (she's nearly 14) but if left untreated it would get very painful and we ultimately end up having to have her euthanised as it would significantly effect her quality of life. So we paid the unexpected £1,000 (~$1,350) bill to have the initial tumour removed, her teeth cleaned, and a biopsy. In the meantime we were also referred to a specialist to hopefully get the issue sorted properly. Last week Tia went to the specialist to have a full body CT scan. This would give them more info about the tumour in her mouth and what our options are, but also (because she's so old) let us know if there's anything more malicious going on in her body. We have to be pragmatic about this - the treatment was going to be expensive, and we had to make a call on whether we wanted it doing if they found something like cancer lingering somewhere in her body. Luckily for us the old girl came back with a clean bill of health and the tumour was treatable. That was another £1,500 (~$2,020) down the drain, but well spent. The procedure to treat the tumour involved taking around 40mm (~1.5") of her lower jaw away. It's a significant operation and the recovery, especially for an older dog, will be difficult. On Monday she had the procedure, it went really well, and yesterday she came home a day earlier than we expected. She's a tough old girl. She's much better today, but still struggling as she's been through a lot. Having a pet that's in pain is the worst - you can't really reassure them like you can a human, so you find yourself hopelessly watching them suffer. It's heartbreaking, but it's for the best. We're still to get the bill for this procedure, but the vet has estimated an eye-watering £4,400 (~$6,000). If anyone is playing along, that's £6,900 (~$9,200) in unexpected vet bills over the last few weeks. She also isn't insured as it's prohibitively expensive for a dog of her age. So we need to foot the entire bill. Anyway, on to more positive news... Last Saturday we welcomed the newest addition to our family, Nelly the 8 week old Labrador/cocker spaniel cross. The breed is known as a Cockador apparently - very unfortunate name if you ask me. Nelly on her first visit to the vet, being very good. Like any puppy, Nelly is a lot of work. Especially if you add into the mix a very sick dog, and the kids being off school for the summer holidays. I've also been working long hours recently, so my poor wife has been juggling most of this on her own. She's at her whits end. Nelly, Tia, and our other dog Sidney are all getting on well though. Nelly is even helping distract Tia from the pain she's in. It's fair to say that all our savings are gone, and the last of Tia's treatment will need to be thrown on a credit card so we can pay it off over the next few months. Things are extremely busy and stressful at the moment. But hopefully we will have Tia for a couple more years so her, Nelly, and Sid will become a proper little pack that gives us lots of lovely memories. Pets are a gift and we wouldn't have it any other way. I just wish vets bills were a little cheaper! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Thinking about selling the 64GB RAM from my laptop and paying off my mortgage... Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Our new addition to the family, Nelly, has arrived and she's causing havoc already. 🤣 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Signed up for a Vinted account. My options to "secure my account" were adding a phone number, or to logout. I fucking hate this side of the internet. Scumbags. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Today is the first of August. Where the hell did the first two thirds of 2026 go??? 😵💫 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
So many links in one post . I ended up going down all kinds of rabbit holes off the back of this single post (also the second time I've linked to Sal's blog today 🙃). I discovered Coyote's blog , and Sylvia's . So went ahead and read some of their posts. I was already aware of Brennan's fantastic blog , but it's a great read, so check it out. Anyway, I completely agree with what Sal, Coyote, Sylvia, and Brennan say in their posts - the backbone of the internet is the hyperlink, so go forth and link out to your fellow bloggers with reckless abandon. It's what makes the web, the web. 🕸️ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Apparently left-handed people can't use a fountain pen as the left hand smudges the ink as they write. I call bullshit on that. I'm left-handed, and I use a fountain pen just fine - even with an "overhand" grip. I read this post from Neal Stephenson a few days ago (thanks to Sal for sharing it), where Neal - a professional, left-handed writer who writes his books with a pen and paper - shares some of his experience and advice on writing with a fountain pen. I've been back using fountain pens for a few months now and it's going great, but as Neal says - it's all about the paper. I use a decent quality notepad for writing my notes, with either a £30 Lamy Safari fountain pen, or a ~£100 Kaweco AL Sport. Both work great and I'm yet to find myself with pen on my hand. Here's an example of me writing in my notebook, using both my Lamy and Kaweco. As you can see, I have an overhand grip where my hand swipes across the ink as I write, but the ink is dry by the time my hand gets there. Both these pens have a medium nib too. So if you're left-handed and think you can't use a fountain pen, you can! You just need some decent paper. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
by Jorijn Schrijvershof Sadly, toot.community is shutting down in October. This post talks about why Jorijn has made that decision. Read post ➡ So much of this post resonated with me and aligned closely with my reasons to step away from Fosstodon . Being a fediverse server admin is a thankless job and as Jorijn says: I find myself feeling more angry or discouraged after spending time as an admin, and that’s not what I want from social media or a volunteer project. Over a year on since I stepped away from the Fosstodon team, I'm much happier now, but the experience has tainted my experience of social media. These days I probably visit Fosstodon maybe once per week. Every post I write is written here, on my site, and syndicated over there. I feel this is much better for me personally, as it keeps me away from the latest drama. When I do go visit the timeline, it's usually fun because it's fleeting. I don't have time to get involved in the latest drama. I go, check notifications, quickly peruse the timeline, and leave. It's a much healthier way of engaging, I think. More broadly, I think the issue with admin and mod burnout on the fediverse is what will limit it in the long run. It's almost entirely propped up by volunteers, who don't want to be involved with the drama, or be attacked for making a decision you don't agree with. And as a result, servers like toot.community fall by the wayside. I don't know what the solution is here - I actually don't think there is one. It's a fundamental limitation of the way in which the fediverse is architected and as a result, another great server is gone. 😔 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Always fun when your bike runs out of electricity on the way to work. Note to self: connect the trickle charger TONIGHT! (Wife is on the way with my jump box to save me) Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
The poor buzzard was still there when I was walking the dogs this morning, so clearly something was wrong. Luckily my wife was able to get hold of a local falconer who was able to catch him and hopefully nurse him back to health. 🦅 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Taking the dogs for a walk with our oldest and we came across this beautiful buzzard just sat there. Wasn't bothered by us really. I just hope it doesn't have a bust wing or anything. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
I think if I had my time again, I would have become a software developer. I just so much fun - coming up with ways to solve a problem in an elegant way is very satisfying. Then people emailing saying they enjoy the tools I'm creating. Very rewarding! Mind you, would it still be as fun if it was my job? I don't know. 🤔 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
by Antonio Santos Antonio opines that by using RSS feeds instead of visiting people's sites, we're robbing ourselves of enjoying the design many site owners have put a lot of work into. Read post ➡ On the other side of the argument is this post by Christian Cleberg where he argues that using RSS allows us to consume many different sites with typography that we prefer. Maybe the site's font isn't that nice, or it's too bright, too dark, too small. Using RSS normalises the design across all sites and allows readers to have the same experience across all the sites we read. I lean more to Christian's way of thinking, but I do regularly visit people's sites too, just to see the design and how it may have changed over time. It's a simple click of the post title on my RSS reader, Miniflux , so it's simple for me to get the best of both worlds. So I don't think our RSS readers our robbing us - we can have our cake and eat it. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
by Loren Stephens Loren talks about the differences between Security and Privacy, but also how (and why) he prioritises one over the other. Read post ➡ I actually wrote about this topic back in 2019 - I agree with Loren that Security and Privacy are often used interchangeably, but they're objectively different things. Anyway, that's old news. The thing I wanted to comment on in this post is Loren's position on how he prioritises one over the other. He says: So, when I ask myself which one matters more, I consistently arrive at the same answer: security first, then privacy. I used to be among those who avoided Google services due to privacy concerns, and I understand why. [...] However, by choosing to avoid Google, many people end up using less secure alternatives. They've prioritized the second question while neglecting the first. I agree strongly with this. I've fallen foul of this myself, where in my efforts to de-Google , I've ended up using worse tools both in terms of security and functionality. At this point in my life, I just want my shit to work well and get out of my way. I do, however, prioritise security, then privacy, then functionality. Ultimately, I care more about keeping my data secure, than anything else. That's not to say I don't care about privacy. I just care more about securing my data. If I can find a tool that gives me both security and privacy, I'll use that every time. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Yup. Goat-proofing the chicken door really worked a treat. FML. 🤦🏼♂️ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Today was spent goat-proofing the automatic chicken door. We recently moved it to ground level and now the goats use it as a scratch post. 🐐 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
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