<p>Fairly recently, I lost my job.</p>
<p>It was a weird moment. Especially waking up on Monday morning and realising I wasn’t needed at work felt incredibly weird, and slightly upsetting. I’ve found that the impact of the situation didn’t really hit until the start of the working week.</p>
<p>This post alone has taken more than a week to write, it’s taken time to get my thoughts down.</p>
<p>I decided I needed to create a strategy that would keep me positive and productive during this time. I wanted to avoid slipping into depression or just getting frustrated with applying for jobs and to maximise the amount of free time that I had available to me. I knew it was important that I found the right strategy.</p>
<p>So in this post, I wanted to share the strategy I’ve created and how it’s been going.</p>
<h1>Updating my website, LinkedIn and CV</h1>
<p>One of the first things I did was update my website, LinkedIn and CV. Which has honestly more difficult than I thought it would be. It was slightly embarrassing to be honest as I thought I’d never find myself in this situation.</p>
<p>It needed to be done as it would honestly reflect the situation I was in to future employers.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to when I can update it again when I have a new role, and to remove the ‘open to work’ ring on my profile picture.</p>
<h1>Taking care of myself</h1>
<p>Self care is still very important during this time, so I’m getting enough rest and engaging in activities that bring me joy and relaxation.</p>
<p>I’ve also found it important to speak to my family. Finding the time to speak to my wife or parents has been very helpful throughout this difficult time. If there’s anyone else going through the same situation, definitely go and speak to anyone that you’re close with. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by a supporting family during this challenging time.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve found that writing helps as well. I’ve been running this blog for nearly five years now and it’s been a great hobby to have. Not only do I enjoy running and maintaining it but also it’s been a good way to destress and to distract myself.</p>
<p>Plus, I’ve thought of a few upgrades and improvements I can make to my site, which is great.</p>
<h1>At my desk by 9AM</h1>
<p>I’m still treating each weekday as a work day. So I’m at my desk by 9AM, ready to work. Reason for this as I not only want to maximise the day as much as possible, but I wanted to avoid staying in bed for most of the day. I found it was easy to stay in bed and that could impact my mental health.</p>
<p>So I made the effort to set my alarm to the time I normally do. And so far I think having this habit is good to have, having a routine has definitely helped with me being productive and active through a work day.</p>
<h1>Train</h1>
<p>I wanted to use my free time effectively and efficiently as possible. So I decided to enrol in some online courses to boost my skills in areas that I’m interested in. At the moment, I’m working my way through a data analyst course on YouTube created by the <a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/">freeCodeCamp</a> charity (which has been a fantastic course by the way).</p>
<p>I’ve also been spending some time practicing my new and existing skills. Turns out there are a few areas that I needed to revisit. I tend to store course notes in Notion so I can revisit them later and this has proven to be extremely useful during this time (on a related note, the ‘Ask AI’ feature in Notion is very handy when searching notes on training courses I’ve done)</p>
<p>I have some future blog posts planned on what I’ve been doing and learning recently so keep an eye out for those posts in the near future.</p>
<p>Plus, I’ve been investigating potential updates to my other projects that I have, such as <a href="https://github.com/JB-26/super-blog-starter">Super Blog Starter</a>. Which is a project that I haven’t been able to work on since February, so it’s good to make time for these projects again.</p>
<h1>Apply for jobs</h1>
<p>It seems obvious but it’s worth mentioning. One of the best things to do is to search and apply for jobs when it comes to addressing any worries or anxieties.</p>
<p>I’ve created a Excel spreadsheet to log which jobs I’ve applied for (it even has drop down choices for several fields), just so I can keep track where I’ve applied to and the status. I might share the spreadsheet to help others who are looking for a new job.</p>
<p>I’ve been using resources such as LinkedIn and Indeed when it comes to finding job postings.</p>
<p>Once I have a new job, I plan to create a <a href="https://sankeymatic.com/">Sankey diagram</a> of my overall experience in finding a job.</p>
<h1>Reflect</h1>
<p>At first, I didn’t really feel the impact of the situation. I think I kept myself distracted from thinking about it over a weekend. But I knew I had to spend some time thinking and reflecting on the experience and ask myself questions on what I learned from it, what the positives were, etc. I’ve found it’s important to take the time and think about the experience, as it can give guidance on what to do next.</p>
<h1>Did this plan work?</h1>
<p>It’s been just over a week since I lost my job and I think the strategy I created has been working well so far. I’ve applied for (at this time of writing) twelve jobs and I’m hoping to hear back from regarding my applications soon.</p>
<p>I haven’t found a job <em>yet</em> but I imagine things on that front will change soon.</p>
<p>If you are currently hiring for a business analyst, a data analyst or a test analyst, then please do get in touch and let’s have a conversation.</p>


How I’m staying positive and productive during my job search

<p>When I started my second IT job eight years ago, I was 26 years old. I still had so much to learn, in both technical and soft skills. I hadn’t had much experience in soft skills, and within the first few weeks of working at the job, I organised a meeting to discuss something. I sent out a meeting invite with the title of the meeting, the time and the location.</p>
<p>One of my colleagues I had invited declined the invitation, I was confused. Why? The invite had everything someone needed to know. I thought the title explained everything.</p>
<p><em>Or so I thought…</em></p>
<p>My colleague told me that they wouldn’t accept a meeting that was empty. My meeting invite was blank. And that’s when I realised that to someone else who knew nothing about the issue, this invite wouldn’t tell them anything about the meeting at all! If you work in IT, you probably have also had a meeting invite without a description appear in your inbox.</p>
<p>I went back to my meeting invite, updated it, and the invite was accepted. Crisis averted. I ended up writing basic descriptions for each meeting from then on. Were the descriptions the best? Probably not. But it gave the attendees enough information about the meeting.</p>
<p>What got me to write this post was something that happened recently. A colleague that I worked with shared something that I’ve never heard of before when defining meetings, my colleague shared that a meeting invite should have the following; Purpose, Process and Payoff. Coincidentally, they also didn't like empty meeting invites.</p>
<p>These three points should define everything someone should know about the meeting. But what does each point mean?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Purpose -</strong> What is the purpose of this meeting? Why are we all here? Give a description that informs everyone what the meeting is about. Share some links to JIRA tickets or confluence pages as well.</li>
<li><strong>Process -</strong> How is the meeting ran? Is there going to be any demos? Give an overview of how and who is running the meeting.</li>
<li><strong>Payoff -</strong> What will everyone get out of the meeting? Will anything be resolved? Describe what the outcome of the meeting will be.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here's an example:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Purpose -</strong> to discuss the findings following the spike we brought into our sprint.</li>
<li><strong>Process -</strong> I will walk through a confluence page and share my discoveries with the attendees.</li>
<li><strong>Payoff -</strong> Feedback will be given, questions will be raised for further investigation, attendees will gain knowledge on what was discovered on the spike.</li>
</ul>
<p>You could expand this invite more by providing a link to where the results of the spike are located, diagrams and more.</p>
<p>I’ve now started to get into the habit of defining the purpose, process and payoff whenever I create a meeting invite. I think it’s definitely helped me in taking the time to clearly define what the meeting is about, what will happen and what the outcomes will be. I’ve found it to be a good way in being more organised, it’s an improvement to how I used to write meeting descriptions.</p>
<p>But what are the main reasons why you should define a process for meetings?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Inform -</strong> People need to know why they’re being invited to a meeting. I originally thought for years that just providing a meeting title would be sufficient, but it isn’t.</li>
<li><strong>Organise -</strong> Taking the time to define these three points will help you organise the meeting, making you look more professional and resourceful.</li>
<li><strong>Prepare -</strong> Using the three points will allow yourself and others to prepare for the meeting, in case anyone needs to bring a set of notes or something. Plus, it allows you to prepare the ‘process’ step of the meeting.</li>
</ul>
<p>Although this should help you to define better meetings, it’s important to remember to avoid having too many meetings or long meetings. But that is an entirely different topic altogether.</p>
<p>If I could go back to when I started work, I’d definitely share this process to defining better meetings. It’s something that University didn’t teach me, or prepare me for.</p>
<p>Are you ready to redefine your meetings? Start by implementing the Purpose, Process and Payoff framework in your next meeting invite. Don’t forget to share this post with your colleagues - because better meetings start with us. If you implement Purpose, Process, Payoff, let me know how it goes!</p>


Purpose, Process, Payoff! How to define better meetings

<p>I’ve said for the past few years I’ve wanted to start a podcast in a few of my ‘year in review’ posts. And today, I’m finally delivering that goal!</p>
<p>I’ve been listening to podcasts since I was 14 years old and I’ve always been fascinated with broadcasting since then. I’ve had this idea that I wanted to start a podcast for years, I remember wanting to get this podcast starter kit I saw on Amazon when I was a teenager, but I never got it.</p>
<p>This isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to content creation, I’ve previously had some experience in making YouTube videos <em>years</em> ago, but I’ve never created a podcast.</p>
<p>So, I’ve been thinking more seriously lately about starting my own podcast. It would be a fun hobby to have and learn new skills as well would be a plus.</p>
<p>But, what would be my podcast be about?</p>
<p>I had a few ideas at first, and one that did stick was something called “Josh On Tech”. It was going to be me talking about the latest tech news and my thoughts.</p>
<p>But what would be the hook? Why would anyone want to listen to me? I honestly couldn’t give an answer. Plus, there are plenty of podcasts about people talking about tech. I’d be entering a very crowded market.</p>
<p>So I decided to rethink, what would be a fun and interesting podcast that would be exciting for me to work one and entertaining to listeners? That’s when I had a lightbulb moment; what if it was about me researching and explaining a topic that I know nothing about? I’m not an expert in <em>everything</em> in the world, so it would be fun to learn new topics! I enjoy learning so this would be great for me. That’s when I settled on the title; “Stuff I don’t know!”</p>
<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wUrI5Zz.png" alt="Podcast logo"></p>
<p>Next, there are two important questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Where will I host my podcast?</li>
<li>How will I record my podcast?</li>
</ul>
<p>For hosting, I did plenty of research and narrowed it down to the following providers:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://transistor.fm/">Transistor</a></li>
<li><a href="https://redcircle.com/">RedCircle</a></li>
<li><a href="https://rss.com/">RSS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.acast.com/">Acast</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I settled on Acast as it has a pretty good free tier (and soon Acast will be part of the <a href="https://podstandards.org/">Podcast Standards Project</a>)</p>
<p>Next, I needed equipment to record my podcast with.</p>
<p>I ended up going for the following key pieces:</p>
<ul>
<li>FDUCE SL40 microphone</li>
<li>FiFine audio interface.</li>
</ul>
<p>And in terms of software, I’m using GarageBand, the free software that comes with a Mac (which is <em>very</em> good, I'm honestly surprised of how much it can do)</p>
<p>If you’d like to listen, check out the <a href="https://stuff-i-dont-know.vercel.app/">website</a>.</p>
<p>Now after visiting the website, you might think <em>“I wish I had a cool website for my podcast!”</em></p>
<p>Well, good news, now you can! With my new project, <a href="https://github.com/JB-26/super-podcast-starter">Super Podcast Starter</a>, setting up a website for your podcast is easy!</p>
<p>Be sure to give it a spin!</p>
<p>This blog will continue, but it may not updates might be slower than usual. I’ve got plenty of topics that I want to blog about.</p>
<p>If you listened to Stuff I don’t know, let me know what you think! I’m happy to receive feedback.</p>


Introducing my podcast - Stuff I don’t know!

<p>I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of <strong>another</strong> year (and I'm another year older, turning 31 is terrifying). Where did the time go? And on this post, I’m going to try and answer that question. Plus, a quick look into what I want to do in the new year. So let’s jump in on what I’ve done this year!</p>
<h1>This year</h1>
<h2>A new website</h2>
<p>After using Gatsby and Netlify for 3 years, I decided to change to NextJS and Vercel. The new website is much faster, has a new look and features that I’ve been wanting to implement for a while such as pagination, tags and a search bar. Plus, the performance is much improved.</p>
<p>Vercel also provides some great analytics (for free) so I can see what posts are popular. And so far, I'm enjoying working with NextJS! And the tools and features on Vercel are great, especially the analytics on views and performance.</p>
<p>And speaking of the new website, I also launched…</p>
<h2>Super Blog Starter</h2>
<p>Shortly after launching my new website, I launched Super Blog Starter, a starter template that anyone can use to get up and running with a blog of their own.</p>
<p>It’s very much in development, but anyone can go ahead and start contributing if they wish. However, it is in a state where you could clone the repo, make some changes and deploy to Vercel. It’s been a fun side project to work on and I have plans to improve it next year. Things I want to do include adding automated tests of some kind. I’m hoping that it reaches the big 1.0.0 release next year.</p>
<p>If you’re curious about the project, go ahead, clone the repo and give me some feedback!</p>
<h2>A new job</h2>
<p>In September, I started a new job as an Application Analyst, which means that I left the software testing role after nine years. I have some posts that go into detail about why I left software testing that I’m working on, which I plan to publish at some point early next year.</p>
<h2>Owning a home for a year</h2>
<p>It’s crazy to think that I’ve owned a home for (just over) a year. And in the first year of owning a home, I’ve assembled a lot of furniture, put up mirrors, blinds, curtains and installed some security around the home.</p>
<p>The house is <em>slowly</em> starting to feel more like a home. I’m hoping to make some more progress on it next year. Getting a wardrobe is top priority, as well as getting some pictures and turning the spare room into a guest bedroom instead of a dumping ground.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that next year I’ll be busy with the house.</p>
<h2>The lows of 2023</h2>
<p>The cost of living has been the major low point this year. From food to fuel, it’s been a very expensive year. Plus, having a new home added more expenses from fixtures to furniture. I haven’t been able to put anything into savings which is something I want to do next year.</p>
<p>The cost of living has impacted my mental health as well, so improving my mental health is something I want to tackle next year as well.</p>
<p>My mental health in general hasn’t been great these past few years, for various reasons. I’m hoping that it improves next year and it's something that I want to address.</p>
<h1>The next year</h1>
<h2>A new car(?)</h2>
<p>My current car (which is also my first car that I’ve owned) is a <a href="https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/viva">2016 Vauxhall Viva</a>. I bought the car, brand new, with my own money and back when I bought it, I thought it was the greatest car ever made . Especially since I had just got my driver’s licence.</p>
<p>But next year, I would’ve owned it for <strong>eight</strong> years and now I want to move onto something that’s better in <strong><strong><strong>every</strong></strong></strong> way possible. My main complaints with my car are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Boot space (because it’s incredibly small, I can’t even go to Ikea in my car and the boot can’t hold the weekly food shop, I frequently have to use the back seats)</li>
<li>Power (as there is <strong>no</strong> power in my car, it struggles to get to 60mph)</li>
<li>Lack of a decent infotainment system (I did have the option to get one when I first bought my car, but I turned it down and I regret it every time I drive my car).</li>
</ul>
<p>So next year, I would like to trade my car in and get a new car. For my next car, I want the above addressed but also I would like to buy an electric car.</p>
<p>In terms of a car I would like to get, I have eye on the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.byd.com/uk/car/seal">BYD Seal</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hyundai.com/uk/en/models/ioniq6.html">Hyndai IONIQ 6</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hyundai.com/uk/en/models/all-new-kona-electric.html">Hyundai Kona Electric</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mg.co.uk/new-cars/mg4-ev">MG EV4</a></li>
</ul>
<p>So we’ll see what the new year brings, I would very much want to get a new car (as it’s slowly driving me insane).</p>
<h2>A new phone (?)</h2>
<p>So not just a new car, but a new phone. My current phone is an iPhone XS, and after five years of reliable service, I’d like to upgrade. Also, my battery on my phone is not good, it has a maximum capacity of roughly 75%. And the average day to day use is just awful.</p>
<p>Plus, over the years the performance and cameras have greatly improved. So I’d like to upgrade to a new phone when I can next year.</p>
<p>But what phone will I upgrade to is the big question. I’ve seen a lot of foldable phones be released and I’m quite tempted to get one. So maybe next year is when I’ll switch from iPhone and go back to Android (again).</p>
<h2>More furniture for the home</h2>
<p>Although I’ve made good progress on my home so far, there’s still so much to do.</p>
<p>The main bedroom needs a wardrobe and another chest of draws for starters. Then next on the list is to work on the guest bedroom (and actually make it into a guest bedroom, rather than a spare room filled with stuff I need to unpack). And finally, just do some more decorating.</p>
<h2>Attend a conference</h2>
<p>I’ve never attended a conference (on anything) before, and next year, I would like to attend one (hopefully somewhere in the UK) in the next year.</p>
<p>I need to research on conferences I could attend, so if anyone knows any good technology conferences that are happening in the UK next year, let me know!</p>
<h2>Play more games!</h2>
<p>So I got a Steam Deck for my birthday back in October, and it’s a fantastic device. It’s got me back into playing games and I want to play more games in the new year. So maybe I’ll write up some more posts about it.</p>
<h2>Read more books</h2>
<p>I said this last year, and I’m saying it again this year. I’m going to read more books!</p>
<p>I read a few books last year, but not as many as I had hoped. So next year, I want to improve that. I'm getting a few books for Christmas to get me back into reading.</p>
<h2>Exercise more(?)</h2>
<p>I want to improve my fitness and I’m hoping next year, I can find the time to exercise more. Maybe I’ll get an exercise bike of some kind and work in it multiple times a week. I'm hoping this also improves my mental health.</p>
<h2>Start a podcast(?)</h2>
<p>Starting a podcast is something I’d like to do. I’ve been listening to podcasts for over 15 years and why not start one for fun? It would be cool to pick up some skills in audio editing. So who knows, maybe 2024 will be the year I start a podcast.</p>
<p>I’ve done some research into podcast hosting providers, what I can use to edit audio and microphones. Maybe it’s time to actually start a podcast.</p>
<h1>Wrap up</h1>
<p>And that’s another end of year wrap up post in the books. It’s crazy to think that next year will be the fifth year of me blogging, and this blog has changed a lot since I started it.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, and I hope to write more posts like this for many more years to come.</p>


End of year wrap up - 2023 edition

<p>I turned 31 recently (that’s terrifying in itself), and for my Birthday I got myself a Steam Deck. I’ve had my eye on one for ages and I finally decided to get one.</p>
<p>I’ve had it for about a month and for this blog post, I wanted to share my thoughts on the device.</p>
<p>In short, it’s a fantastic device. It’s something that’s made me get back into playing games again.</p>
<p>If you’re unfamiliar with the Steam Deck, it’s a handled PC that runs Linux (SteamOS that is based on Arch), which has an APU developed by AMD and has other features such as a gyroscope.</p>
<p>I recently went on a flight to Atlanta and the Steam Deck kept me entertained on the whole flight (thankfully I had a power socket on my seat). I would normally bring my Nintendo Switch, but this time I opted for my Steam Deck. The fact that I can bring a handheld PC on a flight is crazy to me.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t have the newly announced OLED model (terrible timing, but not worth the upgrade). I’ll be talking about the LCD model of the Deck.</p>
<p>I’ve been playing the following on my Steam Deck so far:</p>
<ul>
<li>Warhammer 40K: Boltgun</li>
<li>Final Vendetta</li>
<li>Aperture Desk Job</li>
<li>Inscryption <em>(which is phenomenal)</em></li>
<li>RoboDunk <em>(an unappreciated gem)</em></li>
<li>Fate - Samurai Remnant</li>
<li>Cult of the Lamb</li>
</ul>
<p>There are plenty of games I need to play on my Steam Deck, I have a long list of games on my wish list and in my backlog.</p>
<h1>First impressions</h1>
<p>My first impressions were how light the Deck is, the good build quality, and after playing Aperture Desk Job, how powerful the hardware is for the cost, the APU does a fantastic job. So a very positive first impression!</p>
<p>The trackpads are also great. They’re responsive and the haptic feedback is a nice touch as well, but I have found that sometimes when using the trackpads in desktop mode, it can be tricky to highlight multiple files or folders.</p>
<p>I also liked the fact that the Deck shipped with a hard case, which is great for travelling. Again, I took it with me on a flight and the case protected the Deck during takeoff and landing.</p>
<h1>Performance</h1>
<p>I’ve been very happy with the performance of the Steam Deck. Games have been running very well, without any major slow downs.</p>
<p>Sure, you can hear the fan spin up when things become graphically intense, but that doesn’t distract you from playing games. I’ve found that playing 2D games (like Final Vendetta) didn’t cause the fan to spin up that much.</p>
<p>I can’t really comment on the battery life as I tend to play the Deck in bed or connected to a power supply.</p>
<h1>Software Compatibility</h1>
<p>The Steam Deck runs on Linux, and a large majority of games on the Steam Library <em><strong><strong><strong>aren’t</strong></strong></strong></em> compatible with Linux. This is where Proton comes into play. Proton comprises of tools such as Wine, to make it easier for Linux users to simply press ‘Play’ on a game.</p>
<p>Now, not every game doesn’t work despite Proton, but developers do make an effort to update their games to make it compatible with the Steam Deck. Popular games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 is compatible with the Steam Deck, and several older games in my library such as Alan Wake are compatible with the Steam Deck. Proton is being worked on, so compatibility with games will only improve over time.</p>
<p>Plus, there is also the APU developed by AMD which is also receiving support. Valve have been providing support for the Steam Deck by bringing new features and improvements.</p>
<h1>EmuDeck</h1>
<p>I’ve recently been playing around with <a href="https://www.emudeck.com/">EmuDeck</a>, a handy tool that sets up emulators, and adds your retro games as non-Steam games. And it’s pretty fantastic. Having your retro games added as non-Steam items, with their own cover art and banners is a nice touch.</p>
<p>And EmuDeck handles configuring aspect ratios, themes, shaders and more with ease.</p>
<p>I’ve played around with Dreamcast, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn so far and the performance is pretty great. I need to spend more time with it and configuring it.</p>
<p>Importing games can be a bit weird if it has multiple discs. I’m still thinking of a good way to import my copy of Biohazard 2 as each campaign has it’s own disc, and EmuDeck thinks it’s the same game twice.</p>
<h1>Accessories</h1>
<p>The Steam Deck is a PC. And that means you can plug in USB accessories via the USB-C port. The only experience I have had with accessories is transferring my retro games over via a CalDigit USB hub and it worked with the Steam Deck.</p>
<p>I need to get the Steam Deck Dock and see what the experience is like when the deck is connected to a monitor or a TV (as I have a feeling that me and my family will be playing more of Jackbox Party Pack over Christmas)</p>
<h1>Wrap up</h1>
<p>I haven’t scratched the surface of what the Steam Deck can do. There are still plenty of games that I need to play on the Steam Deck (and the Autumn sale certainly is tempting me with some big discounts on games). I also need to check out the Heroic Games Launcher as well.</p>
<p>So would I recommend the Steam Deck? If you’re someone who is familiar with Steam or brand new then absolutely. Valve have been updating the Deck and it can recently support for HDR if supported by the external display for example.</p>
<p>I find that the Deck is probably the better buy for the price as well. Especially when compared to it’s competitors such as the ASUS ROG Ally and the newly released Lenovo Legion Go.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to diving into the Steam Deck more over the Christmas break!</p>


So, about that Steam Deck...

<p>I don’t often talk about my tastes in music or even what podcasts I listen to, so I thought I’d type up some of my favourite albums and podcasts.</p>
<p>Hope you enjoy this slightly short blog post, I’ll be back with another longer post soon! <em>Who knows, you may even find something new to listen to!</em></p>
<h1>Music</h1>
<p>I’m not so sure how to describe my taste in music. It’s wide and varied, and when I was younger, I didn’t have much taste in music. I didn’t really care for music I guess? But over time, I started to pay attention to music.</p>
<p>So here’s a small list of some of my favourite albums.</p>
<h2>Hotel California - Eagles</h2>
<p><em>I know this looks like one of the most chosen albums ever but hear me out.</em></p>
<p>This was my first vinyl I bought after I listened to the album on Spotify. I often listened to this album when I was at work or while I was working on my hobbyist programming.</p>
<p>I’d honestly recommend this album to anyone, even if you’re not into rock music.</p>
<p>Apart from Hotel California, my favourite tracks are Victim of Love, New Kid in Town, and Life in the fast lane.</p>
<h2>Blade Runner - Vangelis</h2>
<p>My favourite movie of all time, with an equally amazing soundtrack. The music to this movie certainly grabs your attention. The main title is my favourite track on this album.</p>
<h2>Blackstar - David Bowie</h2>
<p>David Bowie’s final album is certainly a striking one. Blackstar and Dollar Days are my favourite songs on this album.</p>
<h2>Random Access Memories - Daft Punk</h2>
<p>The soundtrack of summer 2013! Get Lucky still remains a favourite song of mine.</p>
<p>And hey, the 10th anniversary of this album came out recently! I need to pick it up at some point.</p>
<h2>Royal Blood - Royal Blood</h2>
<p>If I were to pick an album that got me to pay attention to music more, it would be this one.</p>
<p>Every single track is fantastic. Personal favourites are Figure it out, Loose change, Little Monster and Ten Tonne Skeleton.</p>
<h2>R.E.M - In time: the best of R.E.M</h2>
<p>I remember listening to this in the car when I was 12 or 13 years old and this is a great album to listen to. My dad introduced R.E.M to me. Brings back plenty of memories for me.</p>
<p>My favourite tracks on this album are; Man on the moon, Bad day, Losing my religion, and Orange Crush.</p>
<h2>Nothing but thieves - Nothing but thieves</h2>
<p>I discovered this band by looking through some recommendations on Apple Music, and this is a great album. Nothing But Thieves has grown on me to become one of my favourite bands to date.</p>
<p>My favourite songs are Itch, Wake up call and Painkiller.</p>
<h2>How will I know if Heaven will find me? - The Amazons</h2>
<p>Another band I recently discovered, The Amazons. Their latest album is worth a listen if you’re a fan of rock.</p>
<p>My favourite songs are Bloodrush, Northern star and In the morning.</p>
<h1>Podcasts</h1>
<p>I’ve listened to podcasts since I was a teenager. I think I first started listening to them in 2007, and the idea I had a downloadable radio show which I could listen to at any time was mind-blowing to me back then. I honestly can’t tell you how many hours I’ve listened to podcasts. <em>Plus, I honestly would like to launch my own Podcast, it seems like a fun hobby to have.</em></p>
<h2>CAGcast</h2>
<p>This was the first podcast I <strong>ever</strong> subscribed to, I saw one of the hosts YouTube video of unboxing a PlayStation 3 in Japan and decided to checkout their podcast. Been listening to this show for over 15 years! A fun video game podcast for those who are interested.</p>
<h2>Brad &#x26; Will made a Tech Pod</h2>
<p>Brad Shoemaker and Will Smith (not <em>that</em> Will Smith) started this podcast in 2019 with the purpose of discussing a new technology topic each episode.</p>
<p>It’s an entertaining podcast that goes deep into technology. Highly recommended to those who want to learn more about technology.</p>
<h2>Fire Escape Cast</h2>
<p>Dan Ryckert, Mary Kish and Mike Mahardy have created a very entertaining video game podcast. Give it a spin if you’re looking for a fun discussion on video games and life in general.</p>
<h2>The Jeff Gerstmann Show</h2>
<p><em>Jeff Gerstmann is still a threat!</em></p>
<p>Jeff has been working in the video game industry for such a long time and it’s great to hear Jeff’s views on video games. Jeff is an excellent podcast host, if you’re looking for an in depth discussion on video games and talks about life, definitely check out the Jeff Gestmann show.</p>


And now for something completely different

Some of my favourite albums and podcasts

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1518780664697-55e3ad937233?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;q=85&#x26;fm=jpg&#x26;crop=entropy&#x26;cs=srgb&#x26;w=6000" alt=""></p>
<p>Hey! Remember when I wrote that post about the long eight year journey to buy a house? Turns out I’ve now owned a home for <em>half a year</em> so I decided to do a follow up post on what it’s been like. In fact, I can describe it in one word:</p>
<p><em>Busy.</em></p>
<p>Owning a home is one thing, but when your first home is a new build, the amount of work that you have ahead of you is a lot. Plus, since I lived with my parents for eight years after graduating, I didn't have much furniture of my own. So the amount of time spent assembling and buying furniture was going to be higher than expected.</p>
<p>There’s been moments where I've gone <em>“I don’t have this? How come I don’t have this? I thought houses came with this.”</em> My wife has had similar thoughts as well, especially when we realised that we'd need to buy bathroom mirrors and towel rails.</p>
<p>But slowly, things are coming together. It’s starting to feel like a home and not an empty shell of a house that’s for sale.</p>
<p>In terms of permanent fixtures, there’s so many things to buy. Here’s a list of things that I’ve bought that are a permanent fixture:</p>
<ul>
<li>Blinds x3</li>
<li>House sign</li>
<li>Curtain rail</li>
<li>Hand towel rail x3</li>
<li>Bathroom mirrors x2</li>
</ul>
<p>And for furniture I’ve bought:</p>
<ul>
<li>Kitchen table, chairs, bench</li>
<li>Coffee table</li>
<li>TV bench</li>
<li>Curtains</li>
<li>Mattress</li>
<li>Bed frame</li>
<li>Side tables</li>
<li>Bathroom cabinet</li>
<li>Console table</li>
<li>Chest of drawers</li>
<li>Free standing Mirror</li>
<li>Lamp shades x9</li>
<li>Ring alarm system (<em>it’s honestly cool, I'm tempted to write up a post about it</em>)</li>
</ul>
<p>And in terms of what I need to buy:</p>
<ul>
<li>Wardrobe (probably the biggest purchase)</li>
<li>Keylite blinds (yes, special blinds) x2</li>
<li>Vanity table</li>
<li>Pictures</li>
<li>Bed mattress for spare bedroom</li>
<li>Bed frame for spare bedroom</li>
<li>Side tables for spare bedroom</li>
<li>Curtains for spare bedroom</li>
<li>Extra office chair for my wife</li>
<li>Garden furniture</li>
</ul>
<p>As you can see, there is a mountain of work left to do.</p>
<p>There’s probably some things that I’ve forgotten from this list, and thinking about it, I could probably put more furniture in the bedroom (as it’s quite big, even bigger than the bedroom my parents had when I was a kid!). Maybe add a table in a corner somewhere with some draws to create some more storage.</p>
<p>Decorations is also another thought (and something else I need to spend money) to make the place feel more like a home and more complete. I'll need to purchase plenty of pictures, objects etc to decorate the home. All of this will take time (<em>and money</em>)</p>
<p>The garden is another problem, the grass is getting long so I need to buy a mower and cut it. When I first moved in, I needed to let the grass grow so the roots would grab the ground, and with the wet weather, I haven't found the opportunity to cut it. Plus, with the summer months approaching it'll be good to have some furniture so me and my Wife can eat outside (plus, handy when entertaining guests).</p>
<p>In terms of how much I’ve spent, I don't have an accurate answer but roughly I’d say somewhere between £2K and £3K. Furniture is pretty expensive, and I’ve been buying mine from Argos and IKEA most of the time. And with paying a mortgage, bills and cost of living, I would’ve liked to have done more but have been unable to.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed working on the house, it’s great to turn an empty house into a home. Working on the house has been a priority and has taken time away from other things (like updating this blog and working on my other hobby projects!).</p>
<p>I’ve also written up some key points that I’ve learnt about owning a home.</p>
<p><strong>Take your time</strong></p>
<p>At first I thought I could get majority of the house ready in a couple of weeks. I was <em>hugely</em> wrong. Turns out buying and assembling furniture takes time. I will say, I’m quite good at assembling furniture now. But it's taken me plenty of attempts to get good at it.</p>
<p>You still need to measure for furniture, plan out where everything will go and organise which rooms have the highest priority. All of this takes time, and think of it as a sprint, not a race.</p>
<p><strong>Budget it!</strong></p>
<p>Can you believe how expensive furniture is? The cost of lampshades took me by surprise. I had an idea of buying plenty of furniture and then building it over time. Turns out, that plan wouldn't work. I can only guess that the cost of living crisis played a part in why furniture is so expensive. I know that I'll need to save up over a few months so I can buy a wardrobe (<em>which are very expensive</em>).</p>
<p><strong>Research</strong></p>
<p>So the windows I have in my bedroom are so unique that they have their own <em>unique serial numbers</em>. Yes, that's not a lie. Each window has their own unique serial number (no firmware thankfully, yet). And if you guessed if these special windows require special blinds then you are correct, and the special blinds are very expensive.</p>
<p><strong>Focus on the essentials</strong></p>
<p>When I first moved in, I didn't really know what room to work on first. So I decided to work on the essential rooms first (like the main bedroom having a bed to sleep in, etc). Once that had been done and I could live day to day I shifted my focus on quality of life improvements.</p>
<p><strong>Make time for yourself</strong></p>
<p>You can get burnout on constantly working on furniture etc, so do take a break. It's something I've learnt the hard way.</p>
<p><strong>Accept help</strong></p>
<p>This is another lesson that I've learnt the hard way. Sometimes, you need to accept help. And getting help can get jobs done quicker. Plus, it's good to get the perspective from someone else.</p>
<p><strong>More time on the blog and hobby projects?</strong></p>
<p>I'm hoping I get some more time to myself. It's been a very busy six months and as more of the jobs I need to do around the house go down, I hope I can spend some time enjoying living in my house.</p>
<p>I'm tempted to book a two week holiday so I can focus tackle the bigger jobs and hopefully take some time off to relax. I haven't even looked at updating the F1 2023 Data Analysis project or PyTorch, so that's something I want to look at. Plus, I've got several in progress blog posts that I'd like to finish!</p>
<p>And that's a wrap on this short blog post. Hopefully I'll post some more interesting content in the near future.</p>
<p>See you next time 👋</p>


Owning a home six months on

<p>So, <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/2023-01-28-next-computer/">recently</a> I bought a new computer. I ended up buying the M2 Mac Mini. And I also ended up moving away from Windows after using the operating system for over 20 years.</p>
<p>After using it now for a little over a month now (closer to two months), I decided I’d share my experiences of using it. This isn’t my first Mac, but it is my first Mac that uses the Apple silicon.</p>
<h1>What I love about it</h1>
<h2>Performance</h2>
<p>This Mac is <strong><strong>fast</strong></strong>. I’ve read plenty of reviews that talked about how fast it was but when you start using it yourself, it’s a mind blowing experience.</p>
<p>The Mac Mini I have has an 8 core CPU and a 10 core GPU.</p>
<p>Getting my site running locally with Gatsby takes seconds, not minutes. Firefox loads up instantly. Loading up large images in Pixelmator doesn't tax the system. I could go on, but the main point is that the M2 is a fantastic System on a chip! I haven’t had an experience where I needed to wait for something for more than a couple of seconds.</p>
<p>Applications that are built for the new Apple Silicon have fantastic performance. And the number of applications that are built for Apple Silicon are increasing.</p>
<p>The performance alone is a major reason why you should consider this Mac Mini if you’re in the market for a new computer.</p>
<h2>It’s so quiet</h2>
<p>My old Windows desktop was loud, and the fan was incredibly noisy. There’s also the noise from the PSU as well which would hum in the background. But this Mac is whisper quiet even when running PyTorch to create tensors, Gatsby and more. I’ve never heard the fan spin up once.</p>
<h2>It’s compact</h2>
<p>It’s the most compact computer I’ve ever owned and I think it’s great that I can put this computer just about anywhere. It doesn’t take up much space on my desk.</p>
<h2>Backwards compatibility</h2>
<p>Switching to an ARM based Mac brings the question of software being compatible. Thankfully, Apple has that covered with Rosetta 2 - a translation layer for applications that haven’t been compiled to ARM.</p>
<p>I haven’t had any issues with running any application yet. To be fair, I’m late to the party when it comes to joining the M based Mac club, so a majority of the applications that I use now have versions that support the newer Macs.</p>
<h2>Quality software</h2>
<p>Speaking of software, the number of high quality software available for the Mac is good. This isn’t just the software that is included on the Mac, but applications such as Pixelmator Pro and PDF Expert are fantastic to use on the Mac.</p>
<p>Plus, the new Macs are compatible with iOS/iPadOS software as well (since iOS/iPadOS devices used ARM SOCs) so you can install your favourite iOS application on your Mac. Which is a neat feature. However, the experience isn’t always great as sometimes applications aren’t designed for Macs.</p>
<h2>Value for money</h2>
<p>I know this sounds odd, considering that Macs are very much a premium product, but the Mac Mini is the most affordable Mac to buy. And given it’s shipping with the M2, it’s a fantastic machine for the money. The base model starts at £649, which considering you get the M2, it's a very good price.</p>
<h1>What I don’t like about it</h1>
<h2>The built in speaker</h2>
<p>It’s awful. I don’t know why it’s there. Who honestly uses it? Please don’t use it, it’s horrendous. It sounds like nails on a chalk board.</p>
<p>Out of everything bad I can say about the Mac Mini, the built in speaker is probably the worst part about it.</p>
<h2>The M2 Pro model is the only model with 4 Thunderbolt ports.</h2>
<p>I wish the other models had more than 2 Thunderbolt ports. Having two ports is limiting, especially since I’d like to switch to a USB-C monitor at some point.</p>
<h2>All the ports are on the back</h2>
<p>When I say all the ports are on the back, I mean that <em>all</em> the ports are on the back. This means if you want to attach a USB drive or something, you'll need to reach around the back of the Mac. I kinda wish they put at least one USB port at the front.</p>
<h2>Storage options aren’t great (and the upgrades are expensive)</h2>
<p>Sure, you can configure the Mac to have more storage, but the price you pay for the extra storage is questionable.  If you’re looking for a Mac Mini with 1TB of storage, you’ll be paying an extra £200 for it. The upgrades for RAM are also pricey.</p>
<h2>Installing other operating systems is an odd situation</h2>
<p>At some point, Apple will stop supporting the M2. Which leaves the question of what could you do with your Mac? Installing Linux would be an option except it isn’t fully supported yet. There is the <a href="https://asahilinux.org/">Asahi Linux</a> project which is making excellent progress (it’s currently in Alpha). In the future, I imagine this won’t be an issue.</p>
<h2>Bring your own keyboard (and mouse)</h2>
<p>When you buy a Mac mini, you have to provide your own mouse and keyboard. The mouse isn’t a major issue (well, the Magic Mouse is terrible) but the keyboard is a different situation. The keyboard is different on a Mac as the icons on the keyboard are unique and different than a keyboard for Windows.</p>
<p>The keyboards that Apple sell aren’t cheap (and the keyboards with Touch ID are <em><strong><strong>very</strong></strong></em> expensive) so be prepared to buy a new keyboard.</p>
<h2>Playing games is an afterthought</h2>
<p>So Apple is making <em>some</em> attempt to bring more games to Mac, especially announcing games like No Man's Sky was coming to Mac. But it doesn't have the large library that Windows (and even Linux, thanks to ProtonDB) have. And so far the number of AAA games available on Mac is very low.</p>
<p>Sure, there is Apple Arcade, but the games available on Apple Arcade are designed to work on iPhone and iPad, not just Mac. Plus, Apple Arcade requires a subscription.</p>
<p>But for my needs, I'm more tempted to pick up a Steam Deck at some point since I travel a lot.</p>
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
<p>I’ve been really enjoying the Mac Mini a bunch. It suits my needs perfectly and I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface of what it can do.</p>
<p>Should you consider getting a Mac Mini if you’re in the market for a new computer? Honestly, yes.</p>
<p>The performance of the M2 is the major draw here, so if you’re looking for a capable computer than can handle productivity tasks, then this computer should be on your list. Considering you can get this from £629, it's a computer that is great for productivity and general use.</p>


My thoughts on the M2 Mac Mini

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1629138144227-c157c21e1674?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;q=80&#x26;fm=jpg&#x26;crop=entropy&#x26;cs=tinysrgb&#x26;w=7200" alt=""></p>
<p>For years, decades even, I thought I was always going to use Windows as my main operating system. But recently, that’s all changed as I decided to make the switch to something different.</p>
<p>I’ve been writing and editing this post for a few years. Jumping back and forth between what my plan was going to be for my next computer (at one stage, I was pretty convinced that I was going to go with a Linux build).</p>
<p>My current (or previous?) build was done seven years ago (back in 2016), and it was a good build at the time:</p>
<ul>
<li>Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.00GHz (Skylake, four cores)</li>
<li>16GB Dual-Channel RAM @ 1499MHz</li>
<li>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (MSI)</li>
<li>The OS (Windows 10) runs on a Samsung SSD 750 EVO 250GB</li>
<li>Whilst everything else is on a 1TB Seagate hard drive</li>
</ul>
<p>And now that Microsoft have released Windows 11, which I was thinking of upgrading at some point.</p>
<p>But Microsoft had <em>other</em> ideas.</p>
<p>My CPU doesn’t support TPM 2.0 so I can’t upgrade to Windows 11. Frustratingly - the next CPU generation from my current CPU supports this. I still think that this requirement is a little dumb and poorly made. Not everyone has a CPU that has TPM 2.0. It kind of feels like Microsoft is forcing people to upgrade.</p>
<p>And it seems many on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/r4tx9v/comment/hmivn9t/?utm_source=share&#x26;utm_medium=web2x&#x26;context=3">Reddit</a> are in the same situation as I am, in response to an article on <a href="https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/barely-anyone-has-upgraded-to-windows-11-survey-claims">TechRadar</a> reporting that not many people have upgraded to Windows 11.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Windows 10 is still supported. But only until <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-home-and-pro">2025</a>, so I need to upgrade within the next two years (who knows, maybe Microsoft will extend it to a later date like they did for Windows 7). By 2025, my current setup would be nine years old so I would very much hope that I would have upgraded by then.</p>
<p>At this point, <em>if</em> I wanted to use Windows 11, I would have to get a new CPU and a motherboard. Which if I’m going to be doing that, I might as well buy new RAM, a GPU, a power supply and so on.</p>
<p>But building a new PC has become expensive. I also don’t have the time to build a new PC (and I don't really have the space for a giant PC tower anymore, I was looking for something for more compact.)</p>
<p>With this in mind, I decided to seriously think about what I needed from my next computer. Since buying my first house, my current setup is a 2020 MacBook Air. It’s a great little machine, but more recently I wanted a desktop. I prefer using a desktop than a notebook, I prefer using a monitor with a dedicated keyboard and mouse (do I sound old saying that?). Plus, I wanted something that was slightly more powerful. When working with Gatsby projects, data analysis/science in Python, I needed something which a little more power.</p>
<p>My current PC build is more geared towards playing games, but since getting an Xbox Series X (game pass is fantastic and worth the money), having several retro game systems and a Nintendo Switch, I won’t need a computer with a top end GPU. I was looking for something with a more powerful CPU. A GPU would be an added bonus.</p>
<p>My thoughts also turned to what operating system I’d want. I’ve been using Mac OSX at work and at home for a while and I found it to be better than Windows for what I do. I’ve bought several MacOS applications which I use on an almost daily basis as well so I’m somewhat invested in the Mac ecosystem. I did write a post about <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/2023-01-07-mac-apps/">Mac Software</a> recently.</p>
<p>Plus with Apple’s move to using their own silicon, the idea of buying a Mac desktop seemed appealing. The reviews of the new Macs with the ‘M’ series have been very positive. The move to use ARM based SOC has been interesting to see (and competition is always a good thing. More innovation is always a good thing).</p>
<p>For a while, I was thinking of going for the new iMac, or the M1 Mac Mini or even the Mac Studio. But as time went on, I decided to wait for new updates on the Mac Line. The Mac Studio was just a little too expensive for me and I wished they made a 27 inch iMac. A large display with the new 'M' series SOC would be fantastic.</p>
<p>Just recently the new 2023 <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/mac-mini/">Mac Mini</a> with the M2 chip set (8 core CPU and a 10 core GPU) had been announced and it caught my attention. A compact computer with an M2 SOC for a good price? Sign me up! I had a lot of vouchers saved up over my Birthday and Christmas, enough to buy the Mac Mini and a few accessories! I ended up getting the Mac Mini, a <a href="https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/products/keyboards/mx-mechanical-mini-mac.html">Logitech MX Mechanical Mini Keyboard</a> and a <a href="https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/products/mice/mx-master-3s-mac-bluetooth-mouse.910-006572.html">Logitech MX Master 3S Mouse</a>.</p>
<p>So, what do I think of my new Mac Mini? It’s a fantastic machine. I’ve owned it for under a week and I’m starting to think this has been my best computer I’ve owned in a very long time. The performance has really taken me by surprise. When I ran this website locally on my old desktop, it would take over a minute to get running, and just under a minute on my MacBook Air. But on my new Mac Mini, it takes just over <strong>two seconds</strong> to get up and running. It’s wild to see how fast this machine is. Plus, it’s also very quiet which is a nice surprise. I haven't done any data analysis in Python yet which would push the M2. So when the next season of Formula 1 starts, I'll be building more data frames in Pandas and see if the M2 is quicker at running multiple cells in a Jupyter notebook.</p>
<p>The price of the new Mac Mini is also what caught my attention. The new MacBook Pros are now starting at over £1.3K for the M2 model and starting at £2.1K for the M2 Pro models. Those are expensive machines. But for the Mac Mini, it starts at £649 (and even cheaper if you can get the education pricing). And that’s honestly great value. All you need is to bring your own keyboard, mouse and display (and if you have your own mouse, keyboard and display, then even better!).</p>
<p>Another unexpected benefit I found after I bought this Mac, I discovered a bug with this website. Turns out there was a display issue with larger displays and this has been fixed!</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a new computer, be sure to include the Mac Mini on your list.</p>
<p>But what’s next for my office? (Yes, my own office, I own a house now!)</p>
<p>My office is still a little barren. It needs some blinds, furnishings etc. So there is still a lot to do so I’ll be chipping away at it over the next few months. But a few of the things I want to get are:</p>
<ul>
<li>HomePod (maybe?)</li>
<li>New monitor that supports using USB C</li>
<li>New speakers</li>
<li>A couple of pictures.</li>
<li>Blinds</li>
</ul>
<p>Over time, the office will be looking great! I’ll write up a post about it in the future.</p>
<p>Drop me a message if you have any suggestions for something that would be great in a home office.</p>


My next computer 👨‍💻

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1611262588019-db6cc2032da3?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;q=80&#x26;fm=jpg&#x26;crop=entropy&#x26;cs=tinysrgb&#x26;w=4800" alt=""></p>
<p>As I’ve been using Mac OS more, I’ve been spending more time trying to find good software that is <em>designed</em> for Mac OS. I’m not talking about applications that been built with frameworks such as <a href="https://www.electronjs.org/">Electron</a> or <a href="https://flutter.dev/">Flutter</a> (I’ve done a course on Flutter, it’s a nice framework!)</p>
<p>I’m talking about applications that are built <em>for</em> for Mac OS. Applications that can leverage the hardware and software in a Mac.</p>
<p>If you got a Mac over the holiday season or are just looking for some new Mac applications, check out this list of useful Mac applications that I use.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.raycast.com/">Raycast</a></h2>
<p>I discovered Raycast fairly recently and it has now replaced the default ‘Spotlight’ application on my Mac.</p>
<p>Need to know what the day will be in 4 weeks time? Raycast will know, but Spotlight will struggle with the query. Want to see your schedule across your calendar and Teams? The ‘My Schedule’ feature will show you that. I also find that the emoji picker</p>
<p>I found the tutorial very approachable and it really gets you to go ahead and play around with what Raycast can do.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.raycast.com/store">store</a> is a nice feature and a core component of Raycast, it has some great extensions for services like <a href="https://www.raycast.com/nhojb/brew">Homebrew</a>, and <a href="https://www.raycast.com/hmarr/bear">Bear</a>. Just being able to open Raycast, type in ‘brew’ and I can see a list of commands to view my installed packages, outdated packages is great! Also handy for searching my notes in bear.</p>
<p>Another handy feature Raycast offers is the ability to use built in commands for Window management. You can also create your own hotkeys so you can move your windows around even faster.</p>
<p>Raycast has some developer <a href="https://www.raycast.com/developers">documentation</a> as well for those who want to create some extensions.</p>
<p>It’s free to use which is fantastic. If you own a Mac, give Raycast a chance, you might find it to be your alternative to finder.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/">Pixelmator Pro</a></h2>
<p>Photoshop is pretty expensive these days. And like most software now, everything is a subscription. It’s wild.</p>
<p>I wanted to see if there were any good alternatives out there that weren’t tied down to a subscription model.</p>
<p>Turns out, there was; Pixelmator Pro!</p>
<p>This application brings professional image editing to everyone. From colour editing, RAW photo support, draw and illustrate, and designing. Plus, there’s the handy feature of using machine learning to enhance photos automatically (and from my experience, it works really well!).</p>
<p>In it’s latest update, Pixelmator even supports movie editing!</p>
<p>I tend to use Pixelmator now for most of photo editing needs. The software receives updates and the website has plenty tutorials for new users. The tutorials definitely make working with Pixelmator less daunting.</p>
<p>Pixelmator Pro is available as a one time purchase of $39.99.</p>
<h2><a href="https://pdfexpert.com/">PDF Expert</a></h2>
<p>I surprisingly work with a lot of PDFs. I don’t know why or how, but I do (I guess the PDFs creep up on me when I’m not looking). And it got to a point I needed a dedicated application that could handle signing, working and editing PDFs. I discovered PDF Expert and have found it to be excellent for PDFs. PDF Expert is also available on iPhone and iPad.</p>
<p>From editing, merging, signing and exporting, PDF Expert does it all. It’s also very fast, since PDF Expert runs on Metal.</p>
<p>PDF Expert has some good videos and documentation explaining how to perform certain tasks in case you get stuck.</p>
<p>PDF Expert is available to buy for a lifetime licence for £119.99 (Mac only), or as a subscription (for Mac, iPhone and iPad).</p>
<h2><a href="https://nova.app/">Nova</a></h2>
<p>One of my major complaints with Visual Studio Code is it’s performance. It’s <em>slow</em> every time I open the application, a project or whatever. I think this is mostly due to the electron framework (but in several cases, I need to use Visual Studio Code for working with Jupyter notebooks, I want move away from Visual Studio Code eventually)</p>
<p>But anyway, I wanted to find a code editor that takes advantage of the hardware and software of a Mac. That’s when I discovered Nova.</p>
<p>Nova is developed by Panic, the same company that released the new handled console called Playdate (I <em>really</em> want one) and have been developing Mac software for a while now.</p>
<p>The speed of Nova is fantastic. Opening projects is very quick, it handled opening my Gatsby project in a few seconds.</p>
<p>The editor itself is good for highlighting syntax, showing you if you’re working within a tag, for loop etc. Nova has support for plenty of languages.</p>
<p>Nova recently upgraded Nova to version 10, with improved parsing, performance, Tree-sitter extensions and more. Being able to debug your code is a great improvement!</p>
<p>You can add tasks to a project (such as being able to build, serve, etc), which is great if you’re working with frameworks. In fact, I’ve created several custom tasks for Gatsby in Nova.</p>
<p>Nova may not have a wide library of extensions that Visual Studio Code has, but the number and quality of extensions is growing. Panic does provide documentation for those who are wanting to write extensions for Nova.</p>
<p>Panic does a good job of providing regular updates for Nova.</p>
<p>Nova is available to buy for $99 (which includes a year of updates).</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2022/12/apple-launches-freeform-a-powerful-new-app-designed-for-creative-collaboration/">Freeform</a></h2>
<p>So, Freeform is actually developed by Apple and is available not just on Mac, but on iPhone and iOS. The reason why I’m mentioning Freeform is that, for a free application, it’s absolutely fantastic.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to create some mind maps, plan out a project with friends, Freeform is great. Only downside is that this application is only available for iOS, iPad OS and Mac. So if you’re wanting to work with people who don’t own an Apple device, you may need to look for an alternative.</p>
<p>Freeform is available for Apple devices for free.</p>
<h2>Wrap up!</h2>
<p>And that’s a short list of Mac applications that I use! If I find anymore Mac applications that are worth mentioning, I’ll create another post.</p>
<p>If you know any good Mac applications, let me know.</p>


Turns out, Mac OS has some really good software

Mac apps that I use

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1526199557860-5bbeb6cb5769?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;q=80&#x26;fm=jpg&#x26;crop=entropy&#x26;cs=tinysrgb&#x26;w=4800" alt=""></p>
<p>Is it really the end of the year already? I can’t quite believe it myself! Where did the year go?</p>
<p>Similar to what I did last <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/2022-01-08-year-review/">year</a>, this post is to share what I’ve done this year. This year has mostly been more focused on major real life events, such as <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/2022-07-30-buying-house/">buying a house</a> and getting married. I (somehow) managed to find the time to work on some projects and make updates to this website.</p>
<p>Let’s dive in with a summary of what I did:</p>
<ul>
<li>Upgraded this website in various ways….
<ul>
<li>Went from Gatsby version 2 to version 4…</li>
<li>…and then went from Gatsby version 4 to version 5</li>
<li>Changed the background colour</li>
<li>Created the Archive page</li>
<li>Created the About page</li>
<li>Added new images…</li>
<li>…reduced the size of the images</li>
<li>Added a new font</li>
<li>Using FontAwesome icons in the footer…</li>
<li>…and ended up swapping out the Twitter icon for the Mastodon icon</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Worked on the season 22 Formula 1 project (and added ALL Grand Prix results)!</li>
<li>Became a registered Scrum Master!</li>
<li>Got married!</li>
<li>Bought my own house!</li>
<li>Travelled to the USA twice this year!</li>
</ul>
<p>Let’s talk about these points in more detail.</p>
<h2>This website</h2>
<p>My website has changed quite a bit this year. In fact there have been over <em>100</em> commits to the website repo this year!</p>
<p>Plenty of changes this year. Most of the changes were backend but I did add a new about page, archive page, along with new photos.</p>
<p>Going from Gatsby version 2 to version 5 was a big jump. One of the biggest improvements I’ve seen is that the build times for the website is much better when working on it locally.</p>
<h2>The Formula 1 2022 season data analysis project</h2>
<p>This is a project that I’ve worked on over the year, and it’s something that I’ve really enjoyed. The repo on <a href="https://github.com/JB-26/f1-2022-analysis">GitHub</a> is filled with data for anyone who wants to take a look and start some analysis of their own.</p>
<p>Building the logic and refactoring it has been a good learning experience for me. I’ve never worked with data types like time delta until this project!</p>
<p>There’s still plenty of opportunities to do some more data analysis until the 2023 season.</p>
<h2>GitHub</h2>
<p>This year alone I’ve made over 270 contributions on all my <a href="https://github.com/JB-26">repos</a>! It’s quite clear when I was on holiday when you look at the table (to be fair, I was travelling a lot this year).</p>
<p>Maybe next year I’ll break 300 contributions?</p>
<h2>Real life</h2>
<p>The two big life events of this year has been getting married and buying a house. Both of these events happened within a few days of each other AND I was able to do this before I turned thirty (by less than a month). I also don’t recommend completing your house purchase while in another country, that is tricky to manage.</p>
<p>It may have taken me <strong>eight years</strong> but I did buy my own home before I was thirty. The process of buying a home is a wild ride. It’s something that I don’t want to do again for many years.</p>
<p>Moving house has been a challenge in itself. I have been kept busy by building furniture, getting services (like gas, electricity, etc) setup, cleaning, organising and more. It’s tough work running a house. There’s still plenty of work to do, I need to get curtains, blinds, wardrobes and lamp shades (I’m pretty sure there’s more I’ve forgot to mention).</p>
<h2>Plans for 2023</h2>
<p>WIth the new year, I have the following challenges I want to tackle:</p>
<ul>
<li>Read more</li>
<li>Work more on Data Analysis/Data Science</li>
<li>Make some more improvements to this website (redesign maybe?)</li>
<li>More blog posts, on things other than programming. Like what software I’m using etc. Maybe even books I’ve read!</li>
<li>Work on the house</li>
</ul>
<h2>Wrap up</h2>
<p>It’s been a crazy busy year for me. I’m kinda hoping 2023 will be slightly quieter, but also more productive. For now, I’m looking forward to an Ikea free Christmas break.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, see you in 2023! 🎉</p>


End of year wrap up - 2022 edition

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1623043453741-11aef9cb59b5?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxzZWFyY2h8Mnx8ZmxhdHBhY2t8ZW58MHx8MHx8&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=900&#x26;q=60" alt=""></p>
<p>Recently, me and my <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-pruitt-1086b6175/">wife</a> been assembling flat pack furniture in our new home. <strong>A lot</strong> of flat pack furniture (I’ve created quite the collection of Allen keys). We've had so much cardboard that we've had to use a bin that's at a nearby supermarket that allows people to recycle cardboard and mixed paper.</p>
<p>And during the fun process of unpacking and then assembling furniture, I actually learnt a few important lessons in regards to problem solving.</p>
<h2>Patience is part of problem solving</h2>
<p>I have a lot of patience when it comes to most things. But assembling furniture however, taught me that having patience is part of the process in understanding something. I ended up spending a lot of time reading the instructions of the funiture before I start building it.</p>
<p>It might sound odd, but trust me on this.</p>
<p>It takes patience to understand what you need to do <em>and</em> how to do it.</p>
<p>I bought a set of two matching bedside tables (both look great by the way), and once I had an understanding of what I was doing, assembling them was pretty simple! In fact, I probably spent less time building the second one than I did on the first one, as I was familiar on how to build the bed side table.</p>
<h2>Take a break (and then come back to it)</h2>
<p>The biggest lesson came from one flat pack which was a bench for a dining table. Early in the instructions, we had to attach a stretcher to a right and left leg. Seems simple enough. But the instructions however told us to screw <em>into</em> the wood on the bench leg from the stretcher.</p>
<p>That didn’t seem right to me. But after checking the instructions, that really was what needed to be done.</p>
<p>But after several attempts, it wasn’t working. The screw wasn’t going into the wooden leg properly. The attached leg and stretcher was loose and wasn’t stable.</p>
<p>No way would that be safe to sit on.</p>
<p>After spending thirty to forty minutes, me and my wife agreed to take a lunch break.</p>
<p>During the lunch break, I was able to think and recharge. And that moment of being away from it provided me with a brain wave.</p>
<p>And when I got back, I had the complete bench assembled in no time. I had the idea of assembling the furniture on the floor instead of a box of another flat pack, and that made all the difference.</p>
<p>I guess being away from the problem provided me with an opportunity to think about the problem clearly.</p>
<h2>Get a second opinion</h2>
<p>There were a few times when I needed to check if I was doing something correctly. And on a few times, I needed that second opinion from my wife. I could've made some terrible mistakes!</p>
<p>When we were building a TV stand, I wasn't too sure which way the partially constructed furniture should be facing. Was it with the wood facing <em>towards</em> me or <em>away</em> from me? The instructions weren't the best quality as the paper was slightly faded.</p>
<p>But after discussing the instructions with my wife, we were able to understand what was needed to be done. For those wondering, it was with the wood facing towards me.</p>
<p>I've honestly learnt that sometimes it's better to get a second opionion, you never knew what you might have missed.</p>
<h2>Team work!</h2>
<p>Some things need more than one person, and that's what I found on a few flat packs. I did try and attempt it by myself but I quickly found that I needed some help. And sometimes, when you get help, the problem that you're working on could be solved faster. Plus, you can learn some new skills along the way.</p>
<p>It also helps to take note of the instructions, especially when the instructions state that two people are needed to assemble the furniture.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>And those are the lessons that I've learnt so far from assembling flat pack furniture.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what the moral of this blog post is, maybe buy and assemble more flat packs to learn a lesson in problem solving? Maybe!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that after this move, I am never going to want to go through another flat pack ever again.</p>
<p>Well, until the next move.</p>


How I learnt more about problem solving thanks to assembling flat pack furniture

<p>Hey! 👋</p>
<p>It’s been a while! What’s been going on? A lot.</p>
<ul>
<li>I’ve got married!</li>
<li>I’ve completed my house purchase!</li>
<li>Traveled to the USA and back! (Ate a lot of food. One day I'll finish a meal at The Cheesecake Factory.)</li>
<li>Bought goods for the new house!</li>
<li>Made (slow) progress on a Udemy course!</li>
</ul>
<p>So I’ve been super busy these past few months. And things aren’t slowing down as…</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m moving <em>into</em> my new house</li>
<li>Getting furniture for said new house</li>
<li>Organising, internet, electricity, gas etc for the house</li>
<li>Getting ready for Christmas! (Where I fully plan on doing <em>nothing</em>. I’ve had an extremely busy year and I need to put my feet up.)</li>
</ul>
<p>On top of this, I’ve also managed to spend some time making some improvements to my website!</p>
<p>So, what’s new? Smaller images. A problem I’ve noticed recently is that the images I was using for the website were really big. And it made the performance quite slow when rendering the images (especially for users who have never visited the website before). Plus, the icons in the footer were impacted by this as the icons wouldn't render properly until the images on the page had finished loading.</p>
<p>So, the images that are used now are <em>much</em> smaller. So for new users, you won’t need to wait long to see an image on the website.</p>
<p>While I was updating the images, I decided to update the packages I'm using via npm.</p>
<p>Apart from some new fixes, what’s next? I’ve got a post about the meta verse coming up soon which I started working on before I got married, and a draft post about Mac applications that I use (which needs some more work). Plus, I’ve got some ideas for content about what I've learnt since buying a house (<em>and all the stress that comes with it</em>). Oh, and some tech related posts as well.</p>
<p>Until next time!</p>


What a wild few months (and what’s next)

<p>Hi! It's been a while! 👋</p>
<p>So recently, I’ve been <em>super</em> busy with buying my first home! 🎉 Yes, despite the ongoing news of house prices going out of control since the pandemic began I’ve been able to actually buy a house! I've recently exchanged contracts and am now the proud owner of a nice three bed semi detached home!</p>
<p>So this post doesn’t have much to do with tech or anything. This is mostly me complaining about the housing market and my long journey to buying my own home. When I was writing this post in Bear, it estimated that the overall reading time was just over <strong>10 minutes!</strong> So be sure to grab a snack, a drink and get comfortable, this will be a <em>long</em> read.</p>
<p>Since I graduated, one of the goals that I had was to be a home owner by the time I was thirty years old. Quite the ambitious goal all things considered, especially since the average age of a first time buyer is now <em>above</em> thirty in every region in the UK according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jan/22/average-uk-first-time-buyer-is-now-older-than-30-says-halifax">Halifax</a>.</p>
<p>So let’s start at when I began to save for my home, in 2014 (which feels like a lifetime ago, that's scary).</p>
<h2>2014</h2>
<p>2014 was the year that I graduated from University with my degree in Computer Science. But in the spring of that year, I was close to completing my degree and I was beginning to think about what I wanted to do once I had graduated. At this time, I was in Cambridge (as I attended University at Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus). Initially, I had this fantastic vision that I’d have an incredible apartment in the heart of the city, with out of this world furnishings and a good social life (basically, I visioned my rented apartment to be something similar to what Frasier Crane had in the TV show Frasier).</p>
<p><em>Then reality kicked in.</em></p>
<p>I realised that I needed to learn to drive, buy a car and also think about starting to save for a house deposit. And after looking at what the average salary was for a graduate, I soon acknowledged that my idea of replicating Fraiser’s apartment was nothing more than a dream. I recall creating a spreadsheet and calculating what I’d be spending per month and thinking to myself <em>“There’s no way that I can afford this.”</em></p>
<p>So, I began to rethink my plan. Where would be affordable to live, have a job and save all at the same time? The answer; my parents home in Milton Keynes. And so, after I finished my degree in June, I packed my bags and moved back in with my parents.</p>
<p>I didn’t know how long I was going to stay with my parents and I’m glad that they allowed me to move back in. I began to focus on saving money and learning to drive.</p>
<h2>2016</h2>
<p>Jumping forward by two years,  I had achieved one of my goals! I had learnt to drive and bought my own car with my own money (it was a new Vauxhall Viva for those who are wondering. I’m looking forward to getting a better car in the near future). Towards the end of the year, I ended up getting a new job which saw my salary increase.</p>
<p>I was able to join the share save scheme at the business and everything was looking up. I wasn’t concerned about buying a house at this stage, I had bought a car earlier in the year so I wasn’t planning on doing anything like buying a house, but the share save scheme allowed me to save for a house in the long term.</p>
<p>A few thoughts about renting a place did pop into my mind a few times, but I reminded myself that renting is not a good idea as I’d be throwing money away.</p>
<p>So for the next few years, I continued to work and save while keeping an eye on the housing market.</p>
<h2>2019</h2>
<p>In early 2019 I had an idea that I could buy my own home. So I decided to investigate and actually went out and did some viewings. I also discovered some new developments that were being advertised.</p>
<p>It was at this point I discovered that houses in my local area were starting to become very expensive. Milton Keynes is in a very fortunate geographical position as it’s very close to London by train and not far from places such as Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge. Plus, Milton Keynes has plenty of good opportunities and is home to several big companies.</p>
<p>There was one viewing which I will <em>never</em> forget for the rest of my life. There was this listing for a new one bedroom detached house. The photos looked good, had a spot to park my car, the house was in a good area and the price wasn’t too bad either. So I booked a viewing!</p>
<p>I went to the viewing to discover that the house in question was <em>incredibly</em> small.</p>
<p>It was so small that you’d have to fit a small dining table and chair <strong>under</strong> the stairs in the lounge. And even then you’d have little room to have a sofa or anything in the lounge. The bedroom was the best part, the ceiling was so low and slanted that I had to crouch to get around the room itself!</p>
<p>Then there was the kitchen and the main bathroom on the ground floor. The kitchen was small but the bathroom was the smallest room in this house. I’d say it’s smaller than bathrooms you’d get in a hotel. Since all the plumbing was in one part of the house, the door to the tiny bathroom was in the kitchen (which was also where the front door was).</p>
<p>I thankfully didn’t buy it but it made me realise that I wasn’t ready to buy a house <em>just</em> yet if all I could afford was a tiny, one bedroom house. So I decided to go back to saving.</p>
<h2>2020</h2>
<p>Then, the pandemic arrived and everything in the housing market in the UK was flipped upside down.</p>
<p>House prices skyrocketed in value as people began to seek bigger homes, which was partly due to working from home. On top of this, there was a stamp duty holiday, which only caused house prices to go even higher. If Brexit and a Pandemic were unable to cause house prices to drop, I’m not sure what would.</p>
<p>So, this left me as a first time buyer in a terrible position. There was no way that I could keep up with the current prices, no matter how much I saved.</p>
<p>I decided to go back to saving and rethink my strategy again and hope that house prices would somehow fall.</p>
<h2>2021</h2>
<p>The house market didn’t exactly go in my favour in 2021. Prices just kept going up as the demand for housing increased.</p>
<p>During this year, I completed the share save scheme I was part of which gave my deposit a huge boost. I was able to put down £52K for a house which was a huge accomplishment for me. I could in theory put down anywhere between 10% to 15% of a house and I had cash left in my main bank account in case I needed to put more down (and for solicitors fees etc).</p>
<p>So at this point, everything was lined up to buy a house!</p>
<p>However, despite my savings, there was one thing that didn’t go up; my salary. During my time in my second job, I never saw a pay rise (apart from <em>small</em> salary adjustments due to inflation) until roughly four and a half years of service. My salary adjustment was just over £400 at this point across four years. I went on several mortgage calculators to get an understanding of how much I could borrow, and the amount didn’t give me much confidence.</p>
<p>House prices in Milton Keynes only continued to go up, making buying a property in the area even less realistic. New builds weren’t an option anymore as demand increased.</p>
<p>So although I was deposit rich, I was salary poor. With house prices continuing to climb, I knew that I needed to increase my salary. Saving up for a deposit alone won’t be enough. I needed to be in a position where I could borrow more.</p>
<p>So I decided I needed to find a new job that paid me better. Which I found towards the end of the year!</p>
<h2>2022</h2>
<p>After securing my new job and working with my higher salary, things were finally falling into place. I started to look into buying a house a bit more seriously and even arranged some viewings.</p>
<p>But Milton Keynes continued to be unaffordable for me. The houses I could afford were very small and would be difficult to sell in the future. So I decided that I had to look outside of Milton Keynes, but also in a spot that’s a comfortable distance away from Cambridge Science Park.</p>
<p>There were some highlights in the news about the house market, shoutout to <a href="https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/kirstie-allsopp-burns-as-folk-show-what-properties-they-can-afford-after-cancelling-netflix-subscription-311416/">Kirstie Allsopp</a> for suggesting everyone should give up Netflix, gym and coffee so they can save up for a deposit. It made me laugh when I read that.</p>
<p>There were some early frustrations with house hunting. Some viewings I arranged would get canceled as the house had been sold after being on the market for <em>a day</em> (which is crazy to me).</p>
<p>My search to find somewhere affordable lead me to Northamptonshire (as anywhere <em>near</em> Cambridge was very expensive) and I found several properties that I wanted to view. There were plenty of new builds available which gave me confidence and it wasn’t too far from Cambridge Science Park.</p>
<p>And in May 2022, after months of searching and nearly a decade of saving, I found a new home that I wanted to buy and that I could afford. By the end of June, my mortgage application was accepted. And just recently, contracts were exchanged. The house itself should be complete by September.</p>
<p>It was an amazing feeling knowing that I can finally buy a house. I had saved up so much over the years and everything worked out.</p>
<p>I had to stay with my parents for <strong>eight</strong> years to buy a house, I didn’t have a choice. I knew that if I ended up renting a place after I graduated from University, there would be no way that I’d be able to buy a house. I’m not sure how many years it would take to save up for a deposit if I was renting. Who knows, I may have even ended up renting for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>That’s one of the worst parts about the housing market today, if you’re renting, it’s very difficult to get onto the property ladder. And don’t get me started on shared ownership, it’s just a scam (who thought buying 25% of a house so you can pay off a mortgage <strong>AND</strong> rent at the same time was a good idea anyway?)</p>
<h2>So, what did I learn?</h2>
<ul>
<li>The housing market is incredibly cruel to first time buyers. And worse if you’re renting.</li>
<li>Make your money work for you. Invest in ISAs and keep them topped up. Do plenty of research!</li>
<li>If moving back in with your parents is an option, consider it. There’s no shame in it! If you need to save money, then do it!</li>
<li>Build a spreadsheet of your accounts and workout how much you can save. Visualising your finances is a great way in understanding if there are areas that you can cut back on.</li>
<li>If you see a house that you like, call the estate agents ASAP. Houses sell very quickly so don’t miss out!</li>
<li>Bidding wars are awful.</li>
<li>There is <em>always</em> time for more forms to be sent to you that need to be signed (seriously, why is there so much paperwork?)</li>
<li>Take a copy of all of your bank statements covering six months. Give the mortgage provider as much info as possible.</li>
</ul>
<p>First time buyers need help now more than ever to get onto the property ladder. Demand for housing isn’t going to decrease any time soon. I was lucky to be able to live with my parents and save, but not everyone can do that. More needs to be done so that everyone can own a home (and I’m not talking about shared ownership here).</p>
<p>Despite the house market apparently <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61729890">“cooling“</a>, prices are going up. People need to remember that a house price increase, of any percentage, is still an increase. The average price of a house is now £289,099 (a new record).</p>
<p>Now that I own a home, I can finally stop complaining about house prices. I just need to find something else to complain about instead.</p>
<p>I’m excited about moving into my new home in a few months and filling it with furniture etc. Who knows, maybe I can achieve my dream of having a place that looks like Frasier’s apartment.</p>


And I didn’t even need to cancel Netflix to afford a deposit!

My long 8 year journey to buying a house and what I’ve learnt

<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/I8SL2OA.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>I can’t remember how I discovered <a href="https://www.appiconbook.com">the iOS App Icon book</a>, but I’m glad I did because the book was delivered to me this past week. So I thought I’d write a small post about my impressions with it (as I am <em>incredibly</em> busy with other things right now that are happening in my life).</p>
<p>The book is written by <a href="https://flarup.co">Michael Flarup</a>, who announced the project in 2018 and brought the project to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flarup/the-ios-app-icon-book/description">Kickstarter</a> in November 2021. I thought it was an interesting project so I backed it! And a few weeks ago, my copy arrived!</p>
<p>If you think about it, when you’re viewing applications on the App Store, Google Play Store, or even on the Home Screen on your phone, one of the first things you see is the application icon. It’s important that the icon stands out and looks beautiful (because you're going to spend a lot of time looking at the icon once the application is installed).</p>
<p>So let’s dive in!</p>
<h2>Quality of the book</h2>
<p>This book was printed and bound in Denmark by <a href="https://www.narayana.dk">Narayana Press</a> and the quality is fantastic.</p>
<p>The front and back cover and the spine feel great in the hand and the shiny application icon on the front completes the look. In my view, the cover represents the possibilities and hard work of people who work on icons. The cover is printed on 150g heavyweight coated paper with holographic diffraction silver embos.</p>
<p>The paper is printed on 170g heavyweight coated silk and you can feel the quality with every page turn of the book and all the icons just <em>pop</em> off the page. It’s a really good quality paper.</p>
<h2>The icons</h2>
<p>The book does an excellent job of showing off the amount of detail that goes into each icon. To be honest, you probably spend <em>a lot</em> of time looking at the application icon on your phone, tablet, Mac etc. So the next time you look at your phone’s home screen, take a good look at the icons!</p>
<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0hN1Nsn.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Some applications will change their icon (or even allow the user to change the icon), and the book shows how icons have changed (for some applications) over the years and it’s good to go down memory lane on some classic icons (especially the early days when icons had a 3D look instead of being flat and minimalistic)</p>
<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Lfj7msH.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Each icon in the book looks great and you should take the time to look at each one. You might spot a few details that you hadn’t seen before!</p>
<p>I also view the book as a source of inspiration on what colours work together, what’s on the icon, etc.</p>
<h2>The interviews and content</h2>
<p>This isn’t just a book about showing application icons, it’s also about the <em>process</em> of creating them and getting an insight into the people of how they create icons, how they got started and what their thoughts are on the process of creating an icon. It's great to see people from different parts of the world interviewed for this book.</p>
<p>Getting an understanding of how people create icons is an eye opener. It’s an opportunity to learn and get inspiration in design.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qe6P05k.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Michael’s introduction on how to get started with designing icons and core aspects is well written and inspiring. It gives you the push in wanting to pick up designing icons yourself.</p>
<h2>The extra swag!</h2>
<p>There were a few extra goodies included as well:</p>
<ul>
<li>A thank you note</li>
<li>A sticker (which looks great)</li>
<li>And an application icon stencil!</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/F8c7Sk2.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>The stencil is my personal highlight, it has a solid feel and can even work with the Apple Pencil!</p>
<p>Here's a quick demo of using the stencil with Pixelmator Pro, where I have mirrored the display onto my iPad (I am no means a professional icon designer!)</p>
<p>It’s a really nice touch for the stencil to be included in the book (I may even take a stab at designing an icon myself!)</p>
<p>I have yet to decide on where I will place the sticker.</p>
<h2>Should you get it?</h2>
<p>If you have an interest in software, iOS or UX/UI then you should get this book. The amount of care and attention can be felt in every page of this book, and that alone is why it’s worth considering buying a copy.</p>
<p><em>Disclaimer: I bought this book by contributing to the Kickstarter project. All my views in this post are my own. Photos were taken on a Panasonic Lumix G7 camera and edited in Pixelmator Pro.</em></p>


An interesting look at how people craft icons and how much work goes into making icons.

The iOS App Icon Book hands on impressions 📖

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1566936737687-8f392a237b8b?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&#x26;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=2340&#x26;q=80" alt="Electric scooters"></p>
<p>Electric scooters in the UK are in a weird area legally.</p>
<p>Currently, electric scooters are in a trial phase in the UK. But only if you live in an area that is part of the trial (see <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users#trial-areas">here</a>). If you live in an area that isn’t on the list, then it’s illegal to use an electric scooter (rented <strong>or</strong> privately owned).</p>
<p>I don’t know why certain areas are not included in the trial, it only adds to the confusion when people are out using electric scooters where it’s illegal. London is an example where certain boroughs have signed up to the scheme and the Metropolitan Police have confiscated <a href="https://news.met.police.uk/news/appeal-to-e-scooter-retailers-in-run-up-to-christmas-438581">3637 electric scooters</a>.</p>
<p>So if you live in an area that <strong>is</strong> part of the trial…</p>
<ul>
<li>Can you rent them? <strong>Sure.</strong></li>
<li>Can you use the rented ones in public? <strong>You bet!</strong></li>
<li>Can you buy one? <strong>No problem!</strong></li>
<li>How about using the one I bought? <strong>NO.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Indeed, you can <a href="https://www.halfords.com/scooters/electric-scooters/xiaomi-mi-pro-2-electric-scooter---black-439670.html">buy one</a>, but you can’t use them on public roads, cycle paths etc. This is because the government has branded electric scooters as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powered-transporters/information-sheet-guidance-on-powered-transporters">powered transporters</a>, so all the laws and regulations that apply to motor vehicles are applied to electric scooters.</p>
<p>Let’s go back to renting one! But before you can even rent one…</p>
<ul>
<li>You need to have a provisional or full <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users#driving-licences">driving license</a></li>
<li>The electric scooter needs to have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users#insurance">motor insurance</a> as well (but in the trial, this is covered by the company providing the electric scooter)</li>
<li>You need to be aware of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users#other-safety-rules-for-trial-e-scooter-users">rules</a></li>
</ul>
<p><em>As a side note, if electric scooters are powered transporters, won’t they need MOTs done every year?</em></p>
<p>The trial ends in <a href="https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/dithering-and-delay-on-e-scooter-trials-prompts-new-safety-fears/">March 2022</a> (which I’m not sure anyone is really aware of). Which will (probably) end up with a consultation phase before any laws are brought in. So who knows when electric scooters will be legal? Or even <em>if</em> they become legal.</p>
<p>With the trial ending in a few months, and seeing the usage myself, I thought I’d share my thoughts on if electric scooters are beneficial and the next generation of affordable transport.</p>
<h2>The good 👍</h2>
<p><strong>Reduces carbon in towns and cities</strong></p>
<p>An interesting challenge is to get people out of the car and using other methods of transportation. And it seems electric scooters are doing just that.</p>
<p>Lime <a href="https://www.li.me/second-street/lime-celebrates-car-free-day-and-eu-mobility-week-by-promoting-sustainable-transportation-worldwide">reports</a> that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Every 4 lime rides takes a car off the road.</li>
<li>Lime rides have prevented <strong>50 million</strong> car trips</li>
</ul>
<p>And Bird <a href="https://www.bird.co/blog/bird-riders-spent-100m-cities-saved-1m-gallons-gas-2021/">reports</a> that</p>
<ul>
<li>1.1 Million gallons of gas was saved in 2021</li>
<li>And $100 Million was spent by Bird users at local shops and restaurants.</li>
</ul>
<p>So electric scooters are good for the economy and the environment!</p>
<p><strong>Electric scooters are affordable. Rented or privately owned</strong></p>
<p>The cost of renting scooters is fairly low. Lime will charge £1 to unlock and then 20p per minute.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.spin.app/uk-city/milton-keynes">Spin</a> offer passes available where 1 hour costs £5 up to 1 month for £60 (where if there are 31 days in a month, that works out at roughly £2 a day!)</p>
<p>Sure, you can’t use a privately owned electric scooter but you can still buy one! And taking a look at Halfords you can get the <a href="https://www.halfords.com/scooters/electric-scooters/xiaomi-mi-essential-electric-scooter---black-439662.html">Xiaomi Mi Essential</a> for £349 (at this time of writing)</p>
<p>Having affordable, new transport is important. Electric cars are still expensive, and will be for some time. The new electric <a href="https://www.honda.co.uk/cars/new/honda-e/overview.html">Honda E</a> starts at an eye watering £29K. While a petrol powered <a href="https://store.vauxhall.co.uk/trim/configurable/corsa-5-door/">Vauxhall Corsa</a> starts at £17380.</p>
<p>When the ban on sales of petrol/diesel cars comes starts in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consulting-on-ending-the-sale-of-new-petrol-diesel-and-hybrid-cars-and-vans">2030</a>, electric cars need to come down in price dramatically in order for them to be affordable. This could be where electric scooters can provide an affordable and accessible form of transport.</p>
<p>As the technology becomes more available, the prices <em>should</em> come down.</p>
<p><strong>Plenty of rented scooters available</strong></p>
<p>There are three different providers around. In my local area; Lime, Ginger and Spin. There are always plenty of scooters available when I go out, so you won’t spend much time looking for one.</p>
<p>I tend to see that a majority of scooters are available in places such as the train station near me and the shopping centre (which makes sense given the amount of people who tend to go to these areas)</p>
<p><strong>People use them!</strong></p>
<p>For shared transport to work, people need to use it. And I have seen many people use electric scooters in my hometown. It’ll be interesting to see how  people will react when the trial ends.</p>
<h2>The bad 👎</h2>
<p><strong>People break the rules</strong></p>
<p>I’ve seen two people on an electric scooter many times and I’ve seen a few people ride electric scooters on the <em>opposite side</em> of the road. These examples of dangerous usage could cause safety concerns.</p>
<p>This is linked to my next point…</p>
<p><strong>Safety issues</strong></p>
<p>There have been reports of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55015277">crashes</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57913102">deaths</a> involving electric scooters.</p>
<p>Helmets aren’t a legal requirement but are encouraged (which just seems crazy to me).</p>
<p>Even Transport for London have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59579626">banned</a> them from their network after a number of electric scooters caught fire!</p>
<p><strong>Negative image</strong></p>
<p>Some will think that electric scooters are a nuisance and cause problems to pedestrians. I’ve seen first hand at how some riders of electric scooters don’t ring the bell to alert others to their presence.</p>
<p>However, the electric scooter providers do an excellent job at offering <a href="https://www.spin.app/safety">safety documentation</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Vandalism</strong></p>
<p>This was bound to happen, right? And Lime discovered this for themselves as people were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58680605">peeling off the QR codes</a> from their vehicles.</p>
<p>In fact, when Santander launched it’s shared bike scheme in my hometown back in 2016, the scheme was at risk as <a href="https://www.santander.co.uk/about-santander/media-centre/press-releases/milton-keynes-santander-cycle-hire-scheme-at-risk-as">bikes were being vandalised</a>. They said that over <em>half</em> of the bikes had to be repaired. This was about a year after the scheme had launched.</p>
<p>In 2019, a man in Florida was arrested for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49909732">cutting the brakes on electric scooters</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, this is probably one of the major weaknesses to shared modes of transport.</p>
<p><strong>You might live in an area where you don’t have electric scooters nearby</strong></p>
<p>I was using the Lime application and was searching for nearby electric scooters. I soon discovered that there are some estates that won’t allow parking.</p>
<p>This could be for a variety of reasons, but regardless, if you live in estate where you can’t find an electric scooter nearby, you may need to walk to another estate to find one (at which point, you may have gotten a taxi or a bus)</p>
<h2>What can be improved? 🤔</h2>
<p><strong>Stricter enforcement on those who break the rules</strong></p>
<p>If electric scooters are considered powered transporters, then riders need to be aware of the consequences should they break the rules.</p>
<p><strong>Wear a helmet!</strong></p>
<p>This <em>needs</em> to be a legal requirement. At the moment, it’s ‘suggested’ that you wear one. Which is pretty crazy if you ask me. An electric scooter can go up to 15MPH which is pretty quick, so you should be wearing a helmet!</p>
<p><strong>Keep the 15MPH speed limit</strong></p>
<p>I can’t imagine going on an electric scooter at 20MPH, that sounds scary! (I guess this goes with the point of wearing a helmet!)</p>
<h2>What next? 🛴</h2>
<p>What’s next for electric scooters? After the trial ends, it’ll be up to the government to decide.</p>
<p>I think with some improvements to the rules, electric scooters would be an excellent mode of transport. But there is a lot of work to do before electric scooters can become legal.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! 👏</p>


A solution to congestion on the roads or a menace to pedestrians?

Electric Scooters - the next affordable mode of transport? 🛴

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1467810563316-b5476525c0f9?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&#x26;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=2069&#x26;q=80" alt="New year"></p>
<p>Is it 2022 already? Where did the time go!</p>
<p>2021 was an interesting year for me, I had a busy and successful year!</p>
<p><strong>What I achieved</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Helped launch several new services and features at my old job</li>
<li>Got a new job!</li>
<li>Salary increased!</li>
<li>Completed more courses on Udemy</li>
<li>Developed an API and deployed it via Heroku (Python) and Azure (C#)</li>
<li>Learnt more about Postman</li>
<li>Built several smaller applications</li>
<li>Blogged more! (The only month I didn’t make a post was in February, which is an improvement on my efforts in 2020)</li>
<li>Made improvements to my website - now it has images for each blog post on the front page</li>
<li>Made 275 contributions on GitHub (I’m tempted to get my <a href="https://skyline.github.com/jb-26/2021">GitHub skyline</a> printed out!)</li>
<li>Learnt more about Python and Ruby</li>
<li>Took time to look after my mental health</li>
<li>Got engaged! 💍</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What my goals are for 2022</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Learn more about using web frameworks (specifically, Ruby on Rails)</li>
<li>Move to a new blog framework (possibly?)</li>
<li>Create new content</li>
<li>Learn more about automated testing</li>
<li>Complete more courses on Udemy</li>
<li>Move out!</li>
<li>Buy a new computer (maybe?)</li>
<li>Get married!</li>
</ul>
<h2>The lows of 2021</h2>
<p>Although I’ve achieved so much this past year, there were some low points as well.</p>
<p>The main low point is that I’m <strong>still</strong> living with my parents. I would’ve hoped that I would’ve moved out by now and at least renting!</p>
<p>Now, it doesn’t help that house prices have skyrocketed in value and this did cause a setback in my plans, but I’m hoping to move out this year at some point!</p>
<h2>What I’ve learnt for 2022</h2>
<p>A major theme for me over the past year has been learning new skills. I took the skills I learnt from a Python Udemy course and took it further by looking at a course on Flask for example. And these new skills allowed me to get a new job.</p>
<p>If there’s one lesson I’d like to share with you, is that taking the time to learn new skills has many benefits and now is an excellent time to look for courses online and start doing them. Even if you spend an hour a night learning, you will end each day with learning something new.</p>
<p>And for this year I want to continue learning more about development and broadening my horizons. More specifically, about web frameworks (it’s one thing that I’ve just never really worked with)</p>
<p>Another lesson I’ve learnt is to look after yourself. Not just physically but mentally as well.</p>
<h2>The future of this website</h2>
<p>Majority of the content that I make is blog posts, like this post you’re reading! The rest of the website honestly doesn’t do very much to be honest. I’ve been thinking of what the future of this website is and I’m leaning towards moving my content to <a href="https://medium.com">Medium</a> or revamping my website with using <a href="https://ghost.org/">Ghost</a> so I can grow my audience.</p>
<p>I’ll still continue to use the same domain - but I want to use a platform that is more geared towards content. So I can spend more time writing and less time building my website for one new Markdown page.</p>
<p>It’s crazy to think that I’ve had this website for nearly two years! But maybe a change is needed.</p>
<h2>New year, new content?</h2>
<p>Once upon a time, I used to make YouTube videos about retro games (you’ll have to go and search and see if you can find them!). And making videos is something I’d like to bring back but more focused on development, work life, interviews, etc.</p>
<p>These videos or audio clips will be embedded as part of my blog posts. I guess I want to be more creative with my work this year and find new ways for people to interact with my content.</p>
<p>Who knows, I might even launch a podcast as well. Because <em>everyone</em> has a podcast now (I mean hey, if you’re interested to talk about tech, life and other topics and want to do a fun, small side project with me then let me know! Let’s talk!)</p>
<h2>A new computer as well?</h2>
<p>This is something that I’ve been thinking about somewhat recently. My current computer is not compatible with Windows 11. Thanks to TPM 2.0 not being compatible with my CPU.</p>
<p>With Windows 10 being deprecated in <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/14/22533018/microsoft-windows-10-end-support-date">2025</a>, I only have 3 years until my computer stops receiving updates. Plus, my current setup is getting slightly long in the tooth.</p>
<p>So my thoughts initially went to building a new Windows machine, but the ongoing semiconductor shortage has made buying certain components <em>tricky</em>. The market for graphics cards continues to be a mess.</p>
<p>But then I thought on what I mostly use my computer for.  I mostly use a computer for programming in Ruby and Python, browsing the web, blogging and content creation.</p>
<p>And recently, I’ve been doing more work (both personal and professional) on a Mac. Plus, the new M1 SOC seems to offer excellent performance (who knows, maybe when I get a new computer the M2 will be available!).</p>
<p>I did think about going to Linux, but since I do need some software for content creation, I’ll be switching to Mac.</p>
<p>It’ll be weird going from Windows, something that I’ve used my whole computing life, to Mac. The earliest memory I have of computing is using Windows 95!</p>
<h2>Let’s go!</h2>
<p>So that’s how 2021 has been and my plans for the new year!</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, and here’s to a great 2022! 🎉
(And be sure to like and subscribe, that’s what everyone says now right?)</p>


Looking back at the highs and lows of 2021 and looking at the future

My year in review - 2021 📅

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/reserve/LJIZlzHgQ7WPSh5KVTCB_Typewriter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&#x26;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=792&#x26;q=80" alt="Blog"></p>
<p>There are a lot of blogs on the internet. Blogs began to spread in the late 90’s and haven’t slowed down since. Starting out as having single authors, blogs have grown to multiple authors and now are people’s careers.</p>
<p>There are different types of blogs ranging from personal blogs, corporate blogs and microblogging (think Twitter as an example of this). It’s crazy to think how much blogs have grown over the years.</p>
<p>Nowadays, anyone can start their own blog in minutes with services like <a href="https://medium.com">medium</a> in minutes. No longer do you need technical knowledge to get a blog up and running on the internet for everyone to see.</p>
<p>But here’s a question; <em>if there are so many blogs, why should I start a blog of my own?</em></p>
<p>Well, I was trying to answer that question myself a few years ago when I started developing this website. And what was my answer? In my view, blogs can now be seen as a way to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Share your ideas and views</li>
<li>A fun project for you to work on</li>
<li>Share tutorials or fixes for problems you have faced</li>
<li>Connect with others and grow your network.</li>
<li>Expand your professional presence</li>
<li>Learn new skills; such as getting your blog on a custom domain</li>
</ul>
<p>I can certainly vouch for all these points. Especially the last one. I’ve learnt so much about development since I started this website.</p>
<p>In fact, if it wasn’t for this blog, I wouldn’t have been considered for the role that I have. This blog demonstrated my interests and technical abilities, which helped me get an interview.</p>
<p>What’s important is to keep in mind is that your blog isn’t guaranteed to be a success or make money. If you want to blog, it’s because you want to. It will take time to build an audience, but it’s worth it.</p>
<p>If you’ve got this far and you’re tempted to start a blog of your own, then read on! I’ve put together a useful list of everything that I’ve used to make my blog. From frameworks that I’ve used to handy websites.</p>
<h1>Tools and resources</h1>
<h2>The framework</h2>
<p>There are so many frameworks out there for making blogs and websites. I’ve got three suggestions for you to look at. Each using a different programming language!</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com">Gatsby</a></h3>
<p>This website was built with Gatsby, so it makes sense for me to talk about this framework first.</p>
<p>Gatsby is based on React so if you’re familiar with React you will feel at home with Gatsby.</p>
<p>There are several reasons why I chose Gatsby:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is excellent <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs">documentation</a> and a great <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs/tutorial/">tutorial</a> for you to take a look at.</li>
<li>Plenty of good <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/starters/">starters</a> to take a look at.</li>
<li>Plenty of <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/plugins/">plugins</a> for CMS, UI, Analytics and eCommerce.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a href="https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/">Jekyll</a></h3>
<p>Once upon a time, I made a blog that was made with using Jekyll, and I hosted it using GitHub pages. This framework is based on Ruby, so if you’re comfortable with that then you should take a look at this!</p>
<h3><a href="https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/">Flask</a></h3>
<p>I have experience using Flask! It’s a microframework written in Python. If you want to see (a rather terrible) example, check out this example of an API hosted on Heroku <a href="https://mighty-cliffs-81365.herokuapp.com">here</a>.</p>
<h2>Websites</h2>
<p>If you don’t want to build your blog with a framework, that’s okay! There are plenty of options out there for getting a blog up and running. Here are two that I am familiar with the most.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting WordPress. It’s not the fastest tool, the most secure or <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-platforms">popular</a>.</p>
<h3><a href="https://ghost.org">Ghost</a></h3>
<p>If you’re familiar with blogs such as <a href="https://blog.codinghorror.com">coding horror</a> or <a href="https://www.troyhunt.com">Troy Hunt</a>, these are built using Ghost.</p>
<p>Ghost is an open source product that is funded by it’s users. It has a free plan, <a href="https://ghost.org/themes/">themes</a>, <a href="https://ghost.org/integrations/">integrations</a> and good <a href="https://ghost.org/resources/">resources</a> for you to get started.</p>
<p>The plugins available allow you to grow your audience and sell premium memberships. Plus, there is support for newsletters.</p>
<h3><a href="https://medium.com">Medium</a></h3>
<p>Medium has been in the blogging space for nearly ten years now. It has a lot of users, has support for custom domains and has program where you can earn money from writing. It also has it’s own mobile application.</p>
<p>With it’s large number of users (over 100 million), you’ll be able to find a following and grow your network.</p>
<p>However, with lots of writers comes the challenge of finding an audience and standing out.</p>
<p>Medium does come with some writing tools for you to get started and makes importing images and links fairly simple.</p>
<h2>Text editors and note takers</h2>
<p>It’s all well and good by having a framework but you need the right tools to put it all together right? Here’s what I use!</p>
<h3><a href="https://code.visualstudio.com">Visual Studio Code</a></h3>
<p>I’ve been using VSC for years now and it’s great. Sure, electron isn’t the best framework ever but the overall experience is still amazing for a free product.</p>
<p>I use VSC for working with Gatsby and it’s been great for that. Whether I’m working with JavaScript, CSS or Markdown files. VSC has support for them all, and the community has created some fantastic extensions as well! From supporting languages, themes to icons. There are plenty of extensions available for VSC.</p>
<h3><a href="https://bear.app">Bear</a></h3>
<p>I used to write all my blog posts in VSC. However, VSC isn’t exactly the best application for writing blog posts. It doesn’t check my spelling or grammar for example (which is to no fault of VSC, it’s a text editor not a word processor) so I wanted to find something that could export to Markdown, syncs between devices and has good support.</p>
<p>That’s when I started using Bear, and I haven’t looked back.</p>
<p>It has support for exporting your notes into many different file formats. Such as HTML, MD, PDF or even as an image. Bear also has a spellcheck, syncing between devices and more!</p>
<p>Sadly, there isn’t a version of Bear available for Android or Windows. But if you use Mac and iOS then you really should look into using Bear.</p>
<h2>Hosting</h2>
<p>Your blog needs to be hosted somewhere, so where? I’ve worked with a few services that you could use to host your blog.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.netlify.com">Netlify</a></h3>
<p>My blog is currently hosted on Netlify and I have nothing but good things to say about it.</p>
<p>Why use it? Here’s a few reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>Support for plenty of frameworks (including Gatsby!)</li>
<li>Connect your repo on GitHub (or GitLab!) and let Netlify detect what framework you’re using</li>
<li>Built in CI/CD</li>
<li>Free to use!</li>
<li>Add or register domains</li>
</ul>
<p>It also has some good integrations with GitHub. Especially when you raise a pull request when the Netlify bot will leave a comment and update it as the checks progress.</p>
<p>If you use a framework like Gatsby then you should use Netlify.</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.heroku.com">Heroku</a></h3>
<p>Another platform that I’ve used (which has an excellent CLI application). Heroku has support for many languages (Ruby, Python and Go for example) and you can get started for free!</p>
<p>Heroku also has some good documentation to help you get started if you are new to their platform.</p>
<p>If you use a framework that isn’t supported by Netlify, then you may want to take a look at using Heroku.</p>
<h3><a href="https://get.dev">Dev domain name</a></h3>
<p>This site uses the Dev domain name. If you work in development, why not use a .dev domain name? (Of course, you can use whichever domain you’d like)</p>
<p>Even WordPress have the <a href="https://wordpress.com/domains/get/blog">.blog</a> domain!</p>
<h2>Extras!</h2>
<p>Writing and managing a blog doesn’t stop with a platform, a framework. Here are some extra sites, applications that I use from time to time.</p>
<h3><a href="https://darioroa.com/codye/">Codye</a></h3>
<p>If you’re looking for a fun way to present your code, then checkout Codye for Mac. It takes your code and you can create an image to be used on blogs, documentation and even microblogging services like Twitter.</p>
<p>Free to use, also has an iOS application as well!</p>
<h3><a href="https://unsplash.com">Unsplash</a></h3>
<p>The images I use on blog come from Unsplash. The images hosted on Unsplash are free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. So it’s a great place to search for images that you want to use. Give it a look!</p>
<h3><a href="https://www.fontspace.com">FontSpace</a></h3>
<p>Every website uses custom fonts, and FontSpace is a good place to get free fonts that you can use on your website!</p>
<p>I have a <a href="https://www.fontspace.com/collection/commercial-c970mmy">collection</a> which has fonts that you can take a look at and download for yourself to use if you wish.</p>
<p>I hope this post has given you information and maybe even a bit of confidence to start your own blog. Go forth and blog!</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! 👍</p>


Why you should start a blog, good resources and more!

Why start a blog? 📃

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1510074377623-8cf13fb86c08?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&#x26;ixlib=rb-1.2.1&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=2072&#x26;q=80" alt="Empty desks"></p>
<p>No matter where you look, the ‘Great Resignation’ is everywhere on major news sites, blogs and social media.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-the-great-resignation-how-employers-drove-workers-to-quit">The BBC</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/great-resignation-quit-job">Wired</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/10/08/the-great-resignation-is-a-workers-revolution-heres-what-real-leaders-must-do-right-now/">Forbes</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/the-great-resignation-and-what-it-means-for-your-career/">Reed</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/03/us-jobs-report-june-trend">The Guardian</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/great-resignation-quitting-job_n_6126ad06e4b0231e3697c4fc">HuffPost</a></li>
<li><a href="https://time.com/6111245/young-workers-quitting/">Time</a></li>
<li>Even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Resignation">Wikipedia</a> has an article about it!</li>
</ul>
<p>Originally coined by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-everyone-is-quitting-great-resignation-psychologist-pandemic-rethink-life-2021-10?r=US&#x26;IR=T">Anthony Klotz</a>, a professor at Mays Business School, the Great Resignation has been a part of shaping the future of what matters to us when it comes to work and careers. Whether it’s better pay, benefits or an improved work-life balance. Many simply quit because they’re burned out.</p>
<p>In case you’re not aware, the Great Resignation is where workers around the world have quit their job (<em>what a shock</em>). And the impact of this? Well, according to the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/august2021">Office of National Statistics</a>, there was a record number of job openings exceeding <strong>one million</strong> for the first time.</p>
<p>In America, four million people left their jobs in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-quit-job-openings-record-vacancies-labor-department-2021-6?r=US&#x26;IR=T">April</a>. Followed by <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm"><em>ten million</em></a> jobs available in August.</p>
<p>And a study from <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work">Microsoft</a> shows that forty one percent of the global workforce is considering leaving their current employer in the next year (along with some other interesting statistics).</p>
<p>So The Great Resignation is in full swing, with no signs of slowing down. I think the image used in this article by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/13/we-quit-the-great-resignation-era-has-begun-at-a-boiling-hot-branch-of-burger-king">The Guardian</a>, of where all the employees at a Burger King restaurant have quit sums the situation well.</p>
<p>Over the past year, I’ve seen the impact of what the Great Resignation has had on me and my thoughts on it. I’ve seen first hand at what a resignation (and multiple resignations) can do. I recently resigned from my last job myself so I’ve been thinking about this recently.</p>
<p>So this week on my blog, I’m going to be looking at The Great Resignation from two perspectives. From watching people leave to being a leaver myself.</p>
<p>Now you might have read a few articles about this topic and might be thinking “Oh no, I’m not reading this! Go back to talking about code!” - but hear me out! I’ve seen this happen over the year and I think sharing my perspective as someone who has left a job and seen the impact of it might be interesting.</p>
<h1>On watching others leave</h1>
<p>It’s weird seeing a lot of people leave. You can’t help but have a sinking feeling as you watch the number of people on your team start to decrease. It’s hard to not have negative feelings as you see people that you’ve enjoyed working with leave.</p>
<p>One of the main things I’ve experienced is the feeling of being left behind, how the morale and mood among colleagues decreases with each leaver. Plus, there’s the fear that the workload would increase after people leave. This comic from <a href="https://workchronicles.com/with-great-responsibility-comes-greater-err-never-mind/">Work Chronicles</a> sums it up well.</p>
<p>This article from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210915-turnover-contagion-the-domino-effect-of-one-resignation">BBC Worklife</a> is something that I’ve seen first hand. Resignations can spread like <em>wildfire</em>. As soon as a one person leaves, the thought of leaving just pops into everyone’s heads. And from that point on, it’s only a matter of time until another person resigns. And then another person, and so on.</p>
<p>But it’s not just the <em>number</em> of employees leaving. It can be if <em>certain</em> employees leave that may push others to do the same thing.</p>
<p>It would get to a point where you could say ‘another week, another leaving card’.</p>
<p>The low morale and negative mood can also play a role in causing people to leave. Why would you want to work in an environment that takes a toll on your mental health? It also doesn’t help if your workload becomes unmanageable.</p>
<p>Then there is the situation on <em>where</em> people want to work. Now, working from home isn’t for everyone. There may not be enough space to work from home or you may want to have a dedicated working space. Regardless, how a business approaches this can cause people to resign. And I’ve seen this be a reason for leaving.</p>
<p>When you take the factors above into account, it’s no surprise that people are leaving their jobs. Employee retention is now more important than ever before.</p>
<h1>On leaving</h1>
<p>I worked at my last job for five years, and for me, leaving it was a very hard thing to do. After being there for so long and getting used to working with my colleagues and being able to know so much about a system, a change like this is kind of scary.</p>
<p>Not just scary for moving job but also moving job in this new world of work. Although I’ve worked from home for over a year now, there are some parts of being in the office that I’ll miss.</p>
<p>The situation of me leaving didn’t really hit until a few days before I was due to leave. Being with a business for five years is a long time. So starting from the beginning and not knowing much about what I’m working on is going to be an interesting learning experience.</p>
<p>One aspect of leaving I didn’t anticipate was the amount of handover work I needed to do. Being someone who had knowledge on several systems, I had a lot of documentation to write, meetings to organise and questions to answer. It made me think of what would happen to the team once I had left.</p>
<h1>What can companies learn from this?</h1>
<p>I always believe that there is an opportunity to learn from experiences, and the Great Resignation is no exception.</p>
<h2>Listen to your employees</h2>
<p>Seriously, taking the time to listen is important. You can’t improve unless you take the time to listen.</p>
<p>So organise a group meeting or even a one-to-one and just listen. You may not like what you hear but it’s important to understand what is causing your employees to leave.</p>
<h2>Take action and improve</h2>
<p>Following from the previous point of listening, take action. And don’t leave it too late, do it as soon as you can. Showing progress is important so your employees know that you’re taking feedback seriously and are taking steps to improve the working environment.</p>
<h2>Repeat! (And keep repeating!)</h2>
<p>These steps should be a continuous cycle. Just don’t do one round of feedback, make collecting feedback from employees something that happens often.</p>
<p>You could:</p>
<ul>
<li>Send a survey out once a quarter</li>
<li>Have a weekly meeting to share what’s being worked on</li>
<li>Be available for a conversation with your employees</li>
</ul>
<p>What’s important here is that this process leads to actions that are implemented. Don’t collect feedback and do nothing, keep people in the loop on what’s happening.</p>
<h1>What can we learn from this?</h1>
<h2>Your mental health is important</h2>
<p>The study from <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work">Microsoft</a> showed that:</p>
<ul>
<li>One in five global survey respondents say that their employer doesn’t care about their work life balance</li>
<li>Fifty-four percent feel overworked</li>
<li>Thirty-nine percent feel exhausted</li>
</ul>
<p>These stats are <em>terrifying.</em> No wonder people are leaving their jobs!</p>
<p>Companies around the world need to pay attention to the mental health of their employees.</p>
<h2>Remote working is here to stay (whether you like it or not)</h2>
<p>The study from <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work">Microsoft</a> shows that over seventy percent of workers want flexible work options to continue. I’ve seen people find new jobs where they work remotely and that was a major selling point to them.</p>
<p>How we work has changed forever and employers need to realise that. If you look on job sites such as LinkedIn, you can now filter down jobs if it’s on site, remote or hybrid.</p>
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
<p>This past year has been a year of change for the workplace. Businesses have learned that they need to do more improve employee retention and I hope that businesses continue to improve.</p>
<p>I think The Great Resignation is a once in a lifetime event, the pandemic has  shown that people can be productive when they are working from home as well as in the office (the future of the office is a separate topic altogether, I wrote about that a few months ago, why not give it a <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/2021-09-05-the-new-office/">read?</a>).</p>
<p>Retaining employees is now going to be the next big challenge for companies. It won’t be about competing with companies in the local area, it’ll be about competing with companies <em>around the world.</em></p>
<p>People have had time to evaluate what matters to them, and now businesses need to take the time to listen, engage and act. It’s more important now than ever before.</p>
<p>But when will The Great Resignation come to an end? I’m not sure myself. We could be in for many more resignations to come yet. In fact, I saw this interesting article on <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/era-boomerang-employees">Wired</a> that those who left may end up wanting their old jobs back.</p>
<p>We’ll have to wait and see if this happens.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! 👏</p>


From watching people leave, to leaving myself. My thoughts about this ongoing event and what we can learn.

The ‘Great Resignation’ - what can we learn? 🤔

<p>I was recently thinking of what applications I use every week. Why I use them, when I use them, should I use them and so on. There are plenty of applications out there now, all trying to find their way onto our home screens. Just because there are a lot of applications, doesn't mean that they're <em>all</em> good.</p>
<p>If you think about it, there are <em>loads</em> of applications on the App Store for iOS devices. But how many of them are of a decent quality? How many of them are worth downloading? In my experience, for every good application, there's a few bad ones.</p>
<p>So I thought I'd share in this post, a list of the applications I use across all my devices and why. You might find a few that you might want to try yourself!</p>
<h1><a href="https://signal.org/">Signal</a></h1>
<p>Out of all the online messagning applications out there at the moment. Signal should be the one you should use.</p>
<ul>
<li>Uses end-to-end encryption</li>
<li>No ads</li>
<li>No trackers</li>
<li>Not owned by Facebook</li>
<li>Works on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Linux!</li>
<li>You can see their applications on <a href="https://github.com/signalapp">Github</a></li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ul>
<p>Do check it out, it's a fantastic application!</p>
<h1><a href="https://discord.com/">Discord</a></h1>
<p>If you're looking for a community and speak to others, then Discord is the application for you!</p>
<ul>
<li>Great design, consistent across platforms</li>
<li>Lots of communities</li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://todo.microsoft.com/tasks/en-gb/">Microsoft To Do</a></h1>
<p>Out of all the to do applications out there, I like what Microsoft has created.</p>
<ul>
<li>Nice design</li>
<li>Works on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS</li>
<li>Sync your lists across devices</li>
<li>Each list can have it's own theme</li>
<li>Print, Email and share lists</li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://www.spotify.com/uk/">Spotify</a></h1>
<p>An application that needs no introduction, a great application for listening to music and podcasts!</p>
<ul>
<li>Lots of songs and podcasts available</li>
<li>Available on the web, mobile and desktop</li>
<li>Good design</li>
<li>Free tier available!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://apolloapp.io/">Apollo for Reddit</a></h1>
<p>I've used plenty of third party Reddit applications. I've even used the official Reddit application. However, none of them can beat Apollo!</p>
<p>Developed by former Apple employee, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristianSelig">Christian Selig</a>, this is a fantastic application to view Reddit.</p>
<ul>
<li>Built from the ground up for iPhone and iPad</li>
<li>Great performance</li>
<li>Regular updates</li>
<li>Fantastic UI</li>
<li>Free, with paid tiers (it's worth paying to show support!)</li>
</ul>
<p>If you use Reddit, you'll want to download Apollo! Out of everything on this list, Apollo is my most used application.</p>
<h1><a href="https://tapbots.com/tweetbot/">Tweetbot</a></h1>
<p>An iOS exclusive application, now on version 6! It uses a subscription model that won't be for everyone's taste, but I'm happy to support the developers.</p>
<ul>
<li>Great design!</li>
<li>Works well on iPhone and iPad!</li>
<li>No ads!</li>
<li>Lots of themes and settings. From the font, font size and behaviours.</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://1password.com/">1Password</a></h1>
<p>I used to be a fan of LastPass but then I discovered 1Password and I haven't looked back. If you're in the market for a new password manager (or even looking for one to begin with), you may want to take a look at 1Password.</p>
<p>There is no free tier for 1Password, but I think it's worth it.</p>
<ul>
<li>Available on mobile, browsers, and desktops</li>
<li>Really good design that's consistent across platforms</li>
<li>Stores your 2FA keys!</li>
<li>Has great features such as sharing passwords securely within a link to those who don't have 1Password</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/">Visual Studio Code</a></h1>
<p>How could I not include this here? I'm a fan of VSC! In fact, I wrote a post about my setup last <a href="https://joshblewitt.dev/blog/tour-of-my-vsc-env-16-10-2020/">year!</a></p>
<ul>
<li>There's an extension for <em>everything</em></li>
<li>Regular updates</li>
<li>Big community</li>
<li>There's a web version available too!</li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/">Firefox</a></h1>
<p>My current web browser of choice is Mozilla Firefox. It's performance has improved greatly over the years and it has some great features such as picture in picture mode.</p>
<ul>
<li>Good features such as picture in picture and screenshots</li>
<li>Lots of extensions available</li>
<li>Good performance</li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a></h1>
<p>I'm not a fan of Google. So my search engine of choice is DuckDuckGo!</p>
<ul>
<li>Doesn't follow you with adverts</li>
<li>Has a good mobile browser too!</li>
</ul>
<h1><a href="https://bear.app/">Bear</a></h1>
<p>I've been using this recently and Bear is a very powerful note taking application. A lot of the features are locked behind a paywall but I think it's worth looking into if you're wanting a decent note taking application.</p>
<ul>
<li>Optimised for Mac and iOS devices</li>
<li>Can export to MD, PDF, HTML, DOCX and more!</li>
<li>Lots of themes</li>
<li>Syncing with other devices</li>
<li>Apple Pencil support on iPad!</li>
<li>It's bear-y good (<em>sorry</em>)</li>
</ul>
<h1>That's a wrap!</h1>
<p>If you have any application suggestions, why not post them on the tweet I shared or on the LinkedIn post?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! 👏</p>


Applications I use all the time from productivity to viewing content!

What applications do I use?

<p><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1531407676318-76cf12fc69a1?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxzZWFyY2h8MTd8fGZhaWx1cmV8ZW58MHx8MHx8&#x26;ixlib=rb-1.2.1&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=500&#x26;q=60" alt="Office worker"></p>
<p>Let's be honest; Nobody wants to fail and nobody wants to make a mistake. It's embarrassing, it makes you feel bad, some colleagues may talk about you and the list goes on.</p>
<p>And yet, as humans, we all fail and all make a mistake at least once in our lives - it's basically guaranteed.</p>
<p>Heck, even I have made mistakes and have failed during my career!</p>
<p>In my view, making mistakes provides some of the best lessons. Which is why in this post, I want to talk about why we worry about mistakes, what we can learn from them and what you can do if you make a mistake.</p>
<p>So if we all know that everyone makes mistakes, why do we fear and worry about it so much?</p>
<p>I got inspiration for this post after viewing (the very good) webcomic, <a href="https://workchronicles.com/failure-post-mortems/">work chronicles</a>, on this subject. I've been in situations where I've seen both scenarios play out.</p>
<ul>
<li>The situation is seen as a learning experience</li>
<li>The situation becomes a race to find someone to blame (or to run and hide!)</li>
</ul>
<p>The comic above illustrates the exact reason why we fear failing so much at work; the response from the management. There are plenty of <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=motivational+quote+on+failure&#x26;t=newext&#x26;atb=v267-1&#x26;iax=images&#x26;ia=images">motivational posters</a> claiming that failing means __F__irst __A__ttempt __I__n __L__earning or some other 'inspring' quote from a CEO and yet, when we make a mistake, there's always the fear of getting in trouble.</p>
<p>The fear of failure is also called 'atychiphobia' (something I didn't know until I researched this topic!) and there are plenty of artilces out there which talk about the fear of failing.</p>
<p>But failing isn't just in the work place. It's outside of work as well. I highly suggest you watch this <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/astro_teller_the_unexpected_benefit_of_celebrating_failure">TED Talk</a> which talks about celebrating failure.</p>
<p>People need to <em>remember the human</em> in these situations. Making a mistake isn't a crime, but not learning from it is a serious oversight.</p>
<p>Don't beat yourself up if you fail. If everyone was sacked for making a mistake, there would be a lot of unemployed people in the world!</p>
<p>So, what can you do if you make a mistake? I've thought about this and decided to make a post of useful tips to help should you need it!</p>
<h1>If you've made a mistake...</h1>
<h3>Keep calm</h3>
<p>Keeping calm is essential. It will allow you to think if you're facing pressure and not think negatively. Remember - everyone makes mistakes!</p>
<p>If you want to calm yourself down, try breathing deeply and focusing on something else. Applications such as <a href="https://www.headspace.com/">Headspace</a> can really help if you're struggling to keep calm.</p>
<h3>Take note of what you can learn for next time</h3>
<p>You should always take the opportunity to learn from what happened. Write it down or take a note in an application of your choice or wherever. Just make sure you take a note of what you've learnt from the situation and what you will do differently next time.</p>
<h3>Remain professional</h3>
<p>At all times, remain professional. You don't want to make the situation worse and you don't want to impact the relationship you have with your colleagues.</p>
<h3>Focus on your work</h3>
<p>Don't let background noise get to you. Focus on the task at hand. In my experience, focusing on work can help you organise your mind and keep you calm.</p>
<h3>Don't dwell on it</h3>
<p>I let one situation dwell on me for a long time, even after the situation was resolved. And honestly, don't worry about it. Once the situation is resolved, move on.</p>
<h3>Try again</h3>
<p>Don't let one failure damage your confidence. Try again, there is no harm in trying and applying what you've learnt.</p>
<h1>If you see someone make a mistake...</h1>
<h3>Don't make fun of them</h3>
<p>Seriously, don't do this. It's a horrible thing to do and unprofessional. You wouldn't want someone to do that to you, right?</p>
<h3>Don't bring it up (again and again)</h3>
<p>Nobody wants to be reminded on their mistakes, so don't do this. It'll impact your relationship with your colleagues and it looks unprofessional.</p>
<h3>Give support if needed</h3>
<p>If your colleague needs some help, and if you can help them, then help them. It might be in an area that you have experience in!</p>
<h1>If you're management...</h1>
<h3>Remember the human</h3>
<p>At the end of the day, everyone is human. Everyone makes mistakes. Listen to your employee and understand them as much as possible. Having someone understand you is incredibly important.</p>
<h1>So why do you need to fail?</h1>
<p>Although nobody likes to make a mistake - it happens. And you know what? Those failures can provide some of the best lessons that you'll never forget. You may come across the same situation in the future and you'll be ready for it.</p>
<p>Those situations give you experience and knowledge that you can use in the future. In some cases, you wouldn't get that knowledge or experience from a book or a course.</p>
<p>So don't worry if you make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Learn from it and move forward.</p>
<p>I just wish that managers would be more understanding. I get that there are deadlines and deliverables, and when something goes wrong it isn't ideal. However, taking the time to listen, understand and see how your employees learn from the situation will bring more benefits in the long run.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! 👍</p>


Sometimes, failing provides the best lessons

Joshua Blewitt

Posts tagged with Life