2026-02-12 22:19:00
I was listening to a recent episode of The Rest is Science (fantastic Podcast, by the way - go listen), and in this particular episode Michael and Hannah were discussing boredom. At one point in the episode, Michael mentions an experiment where Dutch scientists put a hamster wheel out in the wild.
The theory goes that we humans put a wheel in the hamster cage to provide the little guy with some stimulation, as they can't go running around the woods any more. But the experiment had some interesting findings:
Not only did the wild mice play with the wheel, but frogs, rats, shrews, and even slugs also interacted with it—suggesting that running on wheels might fulfill an innate desire to play rather than being just a captive behavior.
-- ZME Science
It seems that mammals have this innate desire to constantly stimulate their mind. Ipso facto, Michael states that "the internet is a hamster wheel". With a smartphone in your pocket, and services like YouTube Shorts, it's almost impossible to be bored in this day and age.
I wholeheartedly agree with Michael on this, and it's a term I intend to steal. I'm trying to be better with my smartphone usage at the moment, so will be able to step off the hamster wheel...hopefully. So far so good, but it's only been a couple of days.
Do you see the Internet as a hamster wheel?
2026-02-11 20:52:00
Apparently this is a thing now, so I'm gonna join in. 🙃
2026-02-09 06:42:00
I read this post on Manu's blog and it immediately resonated. I've been spending more time than I'd like to admit staring at my phone recently, and most of that consists of a stupid game, or YouTube shorts.
Manu said:
If you also want to cut down on some of your phone usage, feel free to join in; I’ll be happy to include links to your posts.
As a benchmark, my screen time this week averaged around 2.5 hours per day on my phone and 1.5 hours per day on my tablet. That's bloody embarrassing - 28 hours in one week sat staring at (mostly) pointless shite on a fucking screen.
I think my phone usage is more harmful as it's stupid stuff, whereas my tablet is more reading posts in my RSS reader, and "proper" YouTube (whatever that is). I think reducing both and picking up my Kindle more - or just being bored - will be far more healthy though.
So count me in, Manu.
2026-02-09 00:30:00
In my last post I introduced Pure Blog and ended the post by saying:
I'm going to take a little break from coding for a few days, then come back and start migrating this site over to Pure Blog. Dogfoodin' yo!
Yeah, I didn't take a break. Instead I've pretty much spent my entire weekend at the computer migrating this site from Jekyll to Pure Blog, and trying to make sure everything works ok.
Along the way there were features that I wanted to add into Pure Blog to make my life easier, which I've now done, these include:
As well as all this, I've also changed the way Pure Blog is formatted so that it's easier for people to update their Pure Blog version. While I was there, I also added a simple little update page in settings so people can see if they're running the latest version or not:
Finally, I decided to give the site a new lick of paint. Which was by far the easiest part of this whole thing - just some custom CSS in the CMS and I ended up with this nice (albeit brutal) new design. The way I've architected Pure Blog should allow me to very easily change the design going forward, which is just fantastic for a perpetual fiddler, such as myself.
OK, that's enough for one weekend. I hope publishing this post doesn't bring any other issues to the surface, but we shall see.
Message from future Kev: all my automation worked as expected! 🎉
Now I really am going to take a break from coding. This has been so much fun, and I continue to learn a lot. For now though, my brain needs a rest.
Oh, if you're using Pure Blog, please do let me know - I'd love to hear your feedback. The reply button below should be working fine. 🙃
2026-02-07 03:29:00
The keen eyed among you will have noticed that things have been quiet around here recently, and that's because I've been working away on a new project: Pure Blog.
Pure Blog is a simple PHP based blogging platform that has a lovely little CMS in the background to help you manage your content. Everything is based on Markdown, and all the content is stored in plaintext files, just like an SSG.
Well, dear reader, back in September I announced my Jekyll CMS, Hyde. After continuing to iterate on Hyde, I got to thinking about whether I could build an entire blogging platform that works in a similar way.
You see, having Hyde has been a breath of fresh air. Everything is right where I want it, and I'm in total control, but I do still have to battle with Jekyll from time to time. So around late October, I decided to start experimenting with building my own blogging platform.
Pure Blog is the result.
I've tried to keep what I consider to be the essentials, while also trying to keep things lean. Here are some of the features that Pure Blog has:
Here are some screenshots and a video of the back end so you can get an idea of what Pure Blog looks like:
Pure Blog Dashboard
Pure Blog editor
Pure Blog is open source and available for download from GitHub. You can also find out more about the project over on the project website.
Please bear in mind that this is v1 software. I've been squashing bugs for a couple of weeks now, and I think I have caught all the major ones, but if you find any issues, please leave an issue on GitHub.
I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of what I've built here, and I've learned so much during this process.
I'm going to take a little break from coding for a few days, then come back and start migrating this site over to Pure Blog. Dogfoodin' yo!
Is it professional grade software? Nope, because I'm not a professional software developer. But I think it works really well, and it scratches a technical itch for me. If you find it useful too, that's fantastic.
2026-02-02 02:45:00
I've thought about this topic more generally before, but this one is specifically about blogging.
This blog is by far the hobby I have sunk the most time into over the last 13-ish years, and I'd like to think I'll continue as I head from middle age, to old age. Let's say I live until I'm 80, I will have spent over 50 years of my time on this earth writing content here at kevquirk.com.
I don't want all the hard work to disappear in a puff of smoke once I snuff it, so I've been thinking. Could this blog become a family heirloom?. Could I pass this site on to one (or both) of my sons and have them continue to write here?
They wouldn't even need to continue to use kevquirk.com. They could write on their own domain(s), and just redirect this one.
I like to think that many of the other long-time bloggers out there might want the same. Maybe one day it’ll be normal to leave our blogs to our kids?
I do think it's something we should consider. I'm part of the first generation that grew up online, and most of us are still very much alive. But as time marches on, more of us are going to leave behind these digital epitaphs.
I'd love it if my sons took up blogging when they're old enough to (that, and riding motorbikes!). But they're their own people, and may not want to. If that’s the case, I just hope they'll agree to keep my waffle online for a little while once I’m gone. 🤷🏻♂️