A digital garden cultivating the possibilities of life.
My understanding of The Quantum Garden Vault and why it exists is refining. Some time ago I culled all unnecessary broken links 1 and now my mind has turned its attention to the lists of books I am maintaining and why I am maintaining them. The broken link process highlighted books missing notes about them, and with the way the system is currently set up, I need to create for each if my book lists…
I've completely retired Paperless from my document storage workflow from 5 August 2026 in favour of a simple Johnny.Decimal system organised around files and folders. The additional work required to duplicate tags in Paperless, plus the overhead of a Docker container made it not worth the effort. With a file system back-end I can easily save files from email or any other source without needing to…
The Quantum Garden Website is a reflection of me. It reflects what is important to me The site has notes upon notes on what is important to me. The main menu on the left broadly organises them into Landscapes of a Digital garden . Notes fall into two main categories. Idea exploring conversations and reference notes; neither independent from the other. It reflects my need to share knowledge The…
I don't need to prove my life, 1 yet time and again I set up systems and infrastructure to do so. As part of Returning to Kobo Sync I enabled progress sync to my Hardcover account. 2 I estimate a couple of hours working on: Connecting calibre-web to Hardcover, including linking via hardcover-id set in both calibre-web and Calibre itself. Frustration with Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome failing to…
I was listening to Sunny Kind of Journey (2026), 7 Things You Must Quietly Eliminate From Your Life as I walked to the supermarket this morning and one line, "Self-care, on the other hand, should still feel like actual care, like rest, kindness, support, listening to what you need, letting yourself to be actually a human and not a project," had me wondering if I'm treating my life as a project. I…
My first attempt at getting calibre-web to sync with my Kobo was a failure. So much so that I wrote about it in Kobo Sync sank . This week I revisited it so that my daughter might be able to sync my books with her Kobo remotely. It works! Initial setup This setup assumes your ebook library is managed by Calibre and you have calibre-web installed and running. You will also need your own domain…
I'm sitting here thinking, "Damn. Another three days without any writing of note." The reality is I'm tired. Really tired. And I'm spending time decompressing from my work week. It's not that I've achieved nothing all weekend. I've made some website improvements and created a script that helps me identify incorrectly dated files in Mediabank . It's important I show myself compassion. I know I'm…
For a while I've been pondering what I'll do when my Apple Watch watch finally dies. My Apple Watch Series 4 was a Fathers' Day present in 2019 so it's nearing 7 years old and longer than I'd have expected it to last at the outset. The battery health is 81%, just above the minimum recommended before replacement though a quick hunt for pricing failed to find anyone who supported a watch this old.…
Winter has finally arrived with a vengeance. Where I live that means days with a top of 10–11℃ and grey skies. Nothing approaching snow levels. It has superficially snowed here once in my lifetime and that was 1985. My last Now post was Now, 5 July 2026 . I missed last week because I simply did not have the energy or motivation to write. Work has been a real challenge this month. The nature of the…
My efforts to Migrating from Quartz 4 to Quartz 5 are almost complete with only a couple of must-do items remaining. However, I've reached an inflection point where design decisions in the new system rely on several note structure changes for index pages ( Blog , Now ) and I don't want to be changing back and forth to get a post out. I'm better off pushing for completion and making hard decisions…
I'm working to get a Now post out each Sunday evening. This is my third in a row, and it almost didn't happen. After making remaking the bed and putting my clothes away I just want to sit down and chill out in front of whatever rubbish is on TV. I didn't get any other post out this week either. Last week at work was a struggle. A combination of not being able to push projects forward and I think…
I'd like to get a Now post out every Sunday evening. Today's will be shorter than Now, 21 June 2026 . It was a week of Good work , with a lot completed and very little sense of time passing. By the end I was weary-tired and content/proud of what I'd managed to complete. Even three days later, that feels like it was the totality of my week. I put my learning from Flores (2013), Conversations For…
Jason McIntosh's article, Being kinder to my dumbass past self resonated with me strongly as I too, have a dumbass self that likes to periodically remind me of things I'm ashamed of. Like Jason, these are situations where I said something I shouldn't have, or feel like I've done something I shouldn't. The thoughts in my head are full of blame and fear. If someone turned up wanting to hold me to…
This update has been two weeks or more in the making. I've spent a couple of weekends "intending" to write and never getting there. Last Sunday I got as far as jotting down reminders in a journal entry. Of course, another week has passed and more has happened. A destination reached I first thought of "Bringing humanity to the workplace" in January 2012 after it surfaced in my mind from some quiet…
When a Request is declined, or withdrawn, and a person goes ahead and does the work anyway, relationships are impacted in hidden ways. I often rely on my colleagues for technical information. Obtaining it means making a Request of someone, detailing what I need, why and by when. Since others are busy with their own workloads they will sometimes decline, unable to meet my needs. Alternatively, I…
I am profoundly sad to live in a world where computers specifically, and technology more broadly, are only understood by a few, yet relied upon by so many. I'm an educator at heart, and usually describe my job as being "to make your job easier," so I've been Sitting in the question for quite some time about improving digital literacy. Digital literacy is fundamental to a person's Dignity, and…
Quartz 5 has been released and with it a formidable plugin structure. I use Quartz to generate a static HTML website from The Quantum Garden Vault and since I began using it in September 2023 have made many tweaks to align it with my vision. I'm now in a position where I have to make many of those tweaks once again. Progress below I'm adding Progress notes below. It's slow going. What did I…
A Conversation for clarity in its rawest form occurs between two people seeking to understand each other better with an interplay of questions and responses driving towards a mutual truth. Conversations for clarity can be difficult. I frequently find people shy away and feel uncomfortable being asked for clarity because: The very act of asking can feel like a challenge to their Sincerity or…
I'm looking to expand my connections and engage in conversations with others who are interested in what I am. Mastodon allows me to follow hashtags as well as people. Not knowing which would be the most suitable I asked Microsoft Copilot for some help. I'm going to make a public request for people to converse with about the ontology of the human observer and learning. I crave conversations for…
Watching De Explainerr (2025), Every Banned Book Explained in 14 Minutes , has me thinking why are books (or movies…) banned. In all but the most extreme cases books and movies are banned either because: one group wants to retain power over another, or one group is fearful of another. The challenging of social, moral, political or religious norms are the usual "reasons" given to hide the true…