Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

20 Years of Blogging!

It just felt like yesterday that I posted the 10-year commemorative post, but here we are at 20 years already. 😬

Yep, 20 years ago today I posted my first ever blog post (although, back then I used the term blog 'entry').

The 'recent' post commemorating my 40th birthday did a good job of summarising most of the big events of the past 10 years, so I won't repeat them again. πŸ™‚

Also, for the record, this post is number 980! πŸš€… Read more β†’

2023: Year in Review

7 blog posts this year; I think I'm pretty happy with that 😁. Could be better, but could be worse.

Generally, 2023 felt like the first sorta-getting-past-COVID year, despite me getting COVID for the second time at the start of December.

There's no 'List of Tweets' blog post this year, because Elon removed easy access to the Twitter/X API for that kind of thing. Plus, the Twitter integration on this blog has been removed for the same reason.

Anywho, let's try something new for this end-of-year post in addition to listing the blog post highlights.

Health stuff

Health-wise, I had … Read more β†’

Backups and Docker on the Synology NAS

Synology DS418play NAS overlaid with a heart eyes smiling emoji

There are very few devices that I'm an absolute fanboy of. However, one series of devices that I remain consistently satisfied with are the Synology NASs that I've owned. Over the past 12 years, I've only owned two of them: a DS211+ since 2011, and a DS418play since 2018.

The former was only retired when I needed bigger storage volumes and needed a 4 disk NAS. The latter continues to be an absolute mainstay of our home network for the better part of 5 years, without showing many signs of age.

Last year, when we needed more storage … Read more β†’

40

Today is my 40th birthday. Yay, I guess? πŸ˜†

When I started my 30s ten years ago, it was far from certain that I was going to make it to this milestone. So, two children, one new career, two jobs, three built computers, five mobile phones, and a replaced liver later, I'm glad to have made it.

The past decade has gone by quickly, but I'm also a much changed person from 10 years ago: like, literally; I don't even have all the same organs from then. It's been a ride. I've had some … Read more β†’

2022: Year in Review

5 blog posts this year; a 25% improvement on the 4 I did last year! πŸ˜†πŸ˜­

For me, 2022 carried on from where 2021 left off: COVID still dominating my non-work life, but despite my best efforts, the virus did eventually catch up with me in the middle of the year (shakes fist at children bringing things home).

Although I thankfully did not have serious complications immediately from the exposure, I did have gastro issues soon after, which saw me hospitalised twice. The Drs eventually found out why I've probably had ongoing stomach pain for the 18 months previous: ulcers … Read more β†’

Tweets for 2022

Tweets for 2022

These are my tweets for 2022 (sans replies and retweets).

With all of the Elon Musk Twitter craziness over the past few months, who know if this might be the last time I do this! (FYI: you can also find me on Mastodon here: https://hachyderm.io/@lucascosti)

All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the Twitter API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

  • PC vs console gaming 🧡 https://t.co/G0KDWHbHFa "When I manage to salvage an hour to relax and play video games, *that* is what I want to do. And it's really opened my eyes to why so
Read more β†’

Getting COVID

A positive COVID antibody RAT test
My positive test

After almost all the restrictions for COVID were relaxed earlier this year, we tried our best to remain COVID-free. We wore masks everywhere, stayed away from large social gatherings, and disinfected and sanitised everything coming in to our house.

Toward the end of last month, I received my 5th dose of the COVID vaccine. Because I'm a transplant recipient on a lot of immune suppressants, as per the government medical advice, I had 3 vaccine doses for my primary course as well as two booster shots (one at 4 months, and another for winter).

Despite our best … Read more β†’

2021: Year In Review

😬 Only 4 blog posts for this year. A clear all-time low.

2021 was a bit nuts. The COVID-19 pandemic continued, and life rolled on. The first third of the year wasn't too bad: there were barely any cases in Queensland, and not many in Australia in general. Life seemed sorta normal in Brisbane.

That didn'tβ€”and was probably never going toβ€”last.

In the past couple of weeks, after the great vaccination numbers in Queensland, the handbrakes have been taken off in terms of trying to keep the virus at bay. This is probably fine for regular vaccinated people, but for … Read more β†’

Tweets for 2021

These are my tweets for 2021 (sans replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the Twitter API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

Read more β†’

Using a Cheap(ish) Android Tablet as a Digital Photo Frame

Like any regular family, we've taken a fair bit (probably too many) of digital photos over the years, especially since the kids came along.

I've dutifully put them all in organised folders on our home NAS, and of course, made sure that it is all backed up.

However, when do we actually look at our photos? Hardly ever, unless some special occasion prompts us to have a look back in time.

So, I thought I'd look into getting a digital photo frame that we could put in our living room and would randomly display photos directly from our … Read more β†’