Kev QuirkModify

2025-06-22 22:55:00

Ok, my moment of irrational thought has ended and I'm now thinking more clearly - I don't need to switch anything up. #Kirby is fantastic and I love the site I've built. I'll be staying put.

2025-06-22 21:25:00

The edges of the case I have on my phone are textured to help with grip. Why can't phone manufacturers do that on the phone itself? They're so bloody slippy without a case.

2025-06-21 17:20:00

I just had a 5 minute conversation with my oldest son about Fortnite. I have no idea what he said; it's a completely different language. 🥴

2025-06-21 17:10:00

I think we need to double-click and take a holistic approach to the strategy here.

https://nolearnings.com/

2025-06-21 15:55:00

It will be too hot to walk the dogs later, so I made a coffee and took them up on the fields in my PJs.

The cat even joined us (which is impressive since she's nearly 100% blind). She just wanted the last of my coffee, I think!

The dogs are running around doing zoomies - having fun in the warm morning sun.

One of Carl's cows in the field next door is mooing.

Our rooster is crowing.

The bees and butterflies are out in droves.

The birds are singing. The dawn chorus is just lovely.

This is privilege. ♥️

2025-06-20 20:20:00

I've been thinking about changing some stuff up around here lately, but I'm on the fence about what to do. You could say I'm doing a Jack Baty...

I've made no secret of the fact that I bloody love Kirby. It's powerful, flexible, and just a joy to use. I've used Kirby for a couple of years now, and being the type who likes to fiddle with their website, I've inadvertently introduced a lot of complexity in that time.

I've added book posts, link posts, notes, a Guestbook, a watch collection, a watch-wearing log, and numerous RSS feeds that spit out various types of content to different places automagically. On top of that, I have my Micro.blog site and a Buttondown subscription that handles my posts → email service.

All of this functionality has been such a fun learning exercise, but like I said: lots of complexity now. There's custom plugins, routes, hooks, blueprints, snippets, and all kinds of other bits and bobs that pull this site together at the back end. I've had so much fun building it!

But...

The complexity bothers me. It’s a lot of moving parts that might not work when Kirby version 5 gets released. Then again, it might work fine, and I’ll have no need to worry. But what about Kirby 6, or 7, or 8? What if Manton decides to fold Micro.blog (he won't)? What if Justin decides to double the price of Buttondown (unlikely)?

What if? What if? WHAT IF?? It's all very irrational.

Ok, so what's Jack Baty got to do with this?

Great question, dear reader! You see, my internet pal Jack Baty tends to change things up with his blog, notes, etc., on the regular. I really enjoy reading about his antics, as I get to live vicariously through him.

But recently I’ve been channelling my inner Jack and thinking about reducing the complexity of this site—de-coupling some of the features I’ve built here.

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. I stop writing notes here and use my Micro.blog site for all things notish (is notish even a word??)
2. Remove some extra complexity, like the Guestbook, watch log, watch collections, posting automation, etc.
3. Set up a Ghost blog for just my long-form blog posts and newsletter.
4. Close down my Buttondown subscription.
5. Carry on using Kirby for my watch collection and watch log.

Yeahhhhh, still pretty complex, right? But hear me out, peeps. By making these changes, I wouldn't have 95% of my online life wrapped up in a website that I built. I'm not a dev, people. There's a good chance this house of cards could all come tumbling down at some point—and that worries me.

This would separate out the various services I use, and lean more toward a one tool, one function kinda vibe.

Day to day, it wouldn't change much. I'd still write books, links, and posts in Ghost. I’d write my notes in Micro.blog (I'm on there most days anyway, so no big deal). But most importantly, I wouldn't be relying on my lack of development skills to glue it all together.

Then again, I might just be a little bored and fancy a change. Maybe I should stop thinking about it so much and just wait for Kirby 5 to be released—and see where we are then...

Fin.