2024-11-20 21:20:00
I watched this video last night and I was utterly enthralled throughout the entire thing. In this video, a nun answers random questions all about her life, religion and a all kinds of other stuff.
I'm a proud atheist, but I'm not a bigot - I'm happy to talk about things like religion, and I enjoy hearing other people's perspectives. Especially when it's something I have little knowledge of, like the inner-workings of a nun's life.
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...
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2024-11-20 19:35:00
✍️ Written by: Brian Lee Durfee
🏷 Genre: Fantasy
🗓 Published: 29 Novemeber 2022
📄 Pages: 1088
🧐 My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)
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.
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2024-11-19 19:00:00
A couple days ago I wrote about how my Sony WH-1000XM4 ear buds were dead and how I was on the hunt for a replacement pair. I ended up replacing the batteries instead, but did it work?
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.
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2024-11-17 23:40:00
Two and a half years ago, almost to the day, I bought my Sony WF-1000XM4 ear buds, but now they won't hold a charge, so I'm on the hunt for new ones.
I started off with standard AirPods, but couldn't get a long with them, so I replaced them with the Sony buds which have served my faithfully for 2.5 years now.
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:
If you do have a personal recommendation for me, please use the reply button below - I'd love to hear from you. ❤️
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2024-11-17 17:50:00
This is the second AMA post I've written. I'm currently sat on a flight to Florida, so I'm wading through these to help quell the boredom.
Anyway, Marco on Fosstodon asked this one; hopefully it will be a bit more positive than the last one. He asked:
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:
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.
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