Blog

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

Rants

The Mandalorian and Grogu (spoilers!)

Categories Movies, Rants

It's been a while since I've had a Star Wars film to review! After having one every year or two, it's now been almost 7 years (!) since The Rise of Skywalker.

On Friday, we saw The Mandalorian and Grogu, the film spin-off from The Mandalorian TV series.

Apparently, this movie was born out of a season 4 that never happened, and to be honest, the movie does feel like 4-5 episodes of the show condensed into a movie.

I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not, but watching the movie, you could almost draw imaginary … Read more →

A Bluesky Feed Appears

Categories Internet, Rants

After properly giving Bluesky a go in late 2024, I permanently moved off Twitter in early 2025. That followed an Elon-induced deterioration of the platform in the preceding years, where it generally became a worse place to be, including comments being riddled with clickbait (and for a while, hardcore porn!) after comments were incentivised for money.

In 2023, I even had to remove the longstanding feed of my 'Tweets' on this website, because Twitter started charging money to access its API.

So, for the better part of the last few years, I have largely enjoyed Bluesky as a … Read more →

New NAS. Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying, Became a Hypocrite, and Bought Another Synology

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology

After being vocal about Synology's new (hopefully temporary) drive compatibility restrictions for their 2025 NAS models, I've gone and bought one anyway. I got the Synology DS925+, which has replaced our trusty DS418play that's been faithfully serving our home since 2018.

Yes, I'm aware of the hypocrisy. No, I'm not proud of it, but after looking at alternatives and weighing up the options, I decided that at the current stage of my life, pragmatism won over principles in this instance.

Goodbye to another workhorse

Our DS418play has been an absolute workhorse for the past 7 years. It's handled … Read more →

20 Years of Blogging!

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life, Rants

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. 🙂

Also, for the record, this post is number 980! 🚀… Read more →

Buying an iPad

Categories Rants, Technology

Although this blog has become less 'editorial' in recent years, I still like to look back on my opinions from years (or decades! 😳) past to see how they hold up.

I'm the type of person who has no problem admitting when I've been wrong or mistaken with something I've said or done in the past. I believe it's a crucial part of how we can grow (both personally and professionally) to be better people.

After a recent hospital stay that was primarily caused by a salmonella infection, it became obvious that using my phone for entertainment in hospital was … Read more →

Console Purchasing Wars: Xbox Series X

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Rants, Technology

Last week, I finally got an Xbox Series X! I say 'finally' because despite working for a Microsoft company (I even have a Microsoft employee ID and email address), I have no special access (or pricing) to any Microsoft hardware.

Like everyone else desperately trying to find one, I've had to watch Twitter stock alert accounts, ring around tonnes of stores, and do everything else to try and secure a console ahead of scalpers. Even though the scalping price on eBay isn't too exorbitant—roughly about 25-30% above the retail price—I've refused out of principle to take that easy way … Read more →

Why I Have Always Hosted My Own Blog

Categories Geekery, Internet, Rants, Technology

I started this blog in 2004. Since that time, there have been a lot of changes in writing and publishing your own online content.

To give a bit of perspective, back in January 2004, WordPress had only (by a matter of days) hit 1.0, and still wasn't really a thing yet. Back then, it was really only Blogger (newly acquired by Google), or older services like LiveJournal that allowed you to have a blog. To give even more perspective, even MySpace wasn't really a thing yet.

So, in the 16 years that I have maintained this blog, I have … Read more →

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (spoilers!)

Categories Life, Movies, Rants
Rise of Skywalker banner

Here we are, at the end of the Disney 'sequel trilogy'. The whole thing has been a bit of a weird and unexpected experience. A bit of history first:

I first watched the original trilogy as a child, mainly on VHS tapes. I did not see the movies in a cinema until 1997 at the age of 14, when the Special Editions were released theatrically on the 20th anniversary of the original movie.

The prequel trilogy marked my coming of age. I was 16 when Episode I came out, and 22 when Revenge of the Sith was released.

So for … Read more →

Working on a MacBook Pro

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology, Work

Regular readers could be forgiven for thinking that I have an anti-Apple bias. Although I'm definitely not a fan of the company, I'd like to think that I am mostly objective when it comes to my views.

I've been pretty consistent in my position that I would never buy an Apple computer for my own personal use. The price-to-value return for my own circumstances isn't justifiable. I like the flexibility and customisation of Windows/Linux PCs, not to mention things that are practically impossible on a Mac, such as high-end gaming.

The one area where I use what I'm given (although, … Read more →

Solo: A Star Wars Review (spoilers!)

Categories Movies, Rants

Solo posterApparently, some people actually read my Star Wars reviews, and I've been a bit slack writing this one up.

If you asked me what stories I'd like to see in the Star Wars spin-off movies, I'd have to say a Solo origin story wouldn't have been very high on my list. Combined with the reported production problems that resulted in the original directors canned in the middle of the shoot, I didn't have very high hopes for this movie.

My overall impression after seeing Solo: meh. It wasn't a bad movie by any stretch, but nothing really struck me … Read more →