About 1 in 12 rams (and a similar proportion of ewes) show a strong preference for other sheep of their same sex. To save them from being destroyed by breeders, this German farm is rescuing them and adding them to their queer flock.

Dan of ritual.sh has produced an absolutely epic 88×31 button generator; well worth playing with if you're into that kind of thing.

It turns out that I get nostalgic about technology in the same way as I get nostalgic about music. Here's some things that take me right back to being nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen years old.

Tonight I learned that when my electric car gets down to 5% battery, it sounds an alarm.
And that when it gets down to 4% battery, it sounds a louder alarm.
And that when it gets down to 3% battery, it engages 'limited performance' mode and shows a picture of a tortoise.
And that when it gets down to 2%, and you've already turned off the heating and the radio and you're wondering how much power the windscreen wipers are using... that's when it stops showing you it's estimated range.
Fortunately, I then only had half a mile left to go. But for a while there it felt a little bit hairy!

Bitterly cold and starkly beautiful, this morning: West Oxfordshire is blanketed in an impenetrably thick freezing fog. It’s quite pretty, though I’m regretting not bringing my gloves out with me!

I've been enjoying playing Chain Words, from eclectech, intermittently, since it came out in November. If you've not given it a go yet, and you like a word game that's a bit different, you should try it!

I recently finished reading Clive Barker's Imajica for what I think is the fourth time. It remains one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I'd love to tell you why.

For complicated family reasons, 2026 isn't off to a great start so far. Maybe the folks who are pretending like it's 2016 are on to something, after all?

Not kink-shaming anyone, but I’m not sure I want to go to the ‘toilets viewing area’.

The younger kids' taekwondo school put on a free 'new years workout' class this morning. It was pretty awesome.

My watch says my heart rate averaged 146bpm, peaking at 169bpm. It's possible I'm not as fit as I used to be. 😅

But at least I don't feel like I might die, like I did during the 'dads go free' promotion last year. Progress?

After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked.

A video version of my recent joke about why I'm so tired, which was also made available in article and podcast formats.

As part of my efforts to reclaim the living room from the children, I'm building a new gaming PC for the playroom. She's called Bee, and - thanks to the absolute insanity that is The Tower 300 case from Thermaltake - she's one of the most bonkers PC cases I've ever worked in.

Blades in the Dark (and other Forged In The Dark-based games) use a highest-value-from-D6-dice-pool mechanic to resolve actions. I was looking for a visualisation of the resulting probabilities, but couldn't find one... so I made my own.

Terence Eden's maintaining a list of websites that are presented as, or are wholly or partially available via, plain text. Obviously my own text/plain blog is among them, and is as far as I'm aware the only one to be entirely presented as text/plain.

Tintern Abbey’s looking especially beautiful in the fresh snow, this morning.

Our dog has decided that the perfect place to lie down at our holiday accommodation is… on a staircase whose carpet is the same colour as her! I’m grateful for her very-visible blep… or I’d have tripped over this camouflaged pupper several times already!

I was in these woods anyway, seeking GC10N80 and figured I'd come hunt for this cache too. A quick find; my geosense spotted a candidate hiding place right from the main path, and I turned out to be right.

This puzzle cache, undiscovered for 20 months, made for one of the most satisfying geocaching expeditions I've ever done.

Hiked over from Catbrook on the way to a cache up Pen Y Fan and stopped by these beautiful waterfalls on the way. So glad I did!

Kai Koehler reminds us that D&D 5e is far from the only TTRPG, with a tight dissection of its specific characteristics so that they can be compared to other, perhaps more roleplay-heavy, games and systems. They include some suggested ideas for other games, too, a couple of which I'm strongly-inclined to try out!

The geopup and I, on holiday from West Oxfordshire and staying nearby, came out for a morning walk in the ice and snow today.

Our little Frenchie's tiny legs made the work of climbing the stiles on this path a little challenging, but with persistence we were treated to a wonderful view of the sun broaching the horizon over the valley at the North end of School Wood.

Soon the cairn was in sight, and what a brilliant spot for a cache! Signed log, and dropped a travel bug that's come all the way from Texas to continue its journey. FP awarded for bringing us out this way.

The geopup and I absolutely chose the right time to come up here on this wintery morning. The sun's ascent over the valley whenever we escape the cover of the woods is absolutely spectacular.

Found without difficulty SL, TFTC!

The geohound and I walked over from Catbrook this morning "the long way" - over the hill and woods, finding a couple of caches along the way - to this cache.

From both the cache type and my GPSr's map data I fully expected to find a post box here alongside the (decrepit) red phone box, but it's nowhere to be seen! Has it perhaps been removed?

In any case, the hint reassured me that I was in the right place and my geosense told me where to look. A disappointingly tiny cache container (where a larger one could have probably been placed) was soon found, caked in mud, and replaced as-found.

TFTC.

I'd promised the kids I'd dig up my (ten-year-old!) original HTC Vive VR gear and hook it up in the living room over Christmas. Roomscale VR, even running on decade-old kit, still rocks and is as immersive as ever!

Back at the Rollright Stones fire New Year's Day, per family tradition. This year the younger child counted 74, the elder 59. The curse that prevents you counting the same number twice continues!

I think the dog’s back paws were cold this evening. The giveaway was when she tucked them into a convenient nearby trouser pocket.

I don't get much time for videogames, so when I find the opportunity to complete not one but two games within a single month, you know my recommendation of them holds some weight! Let me tell you about 'Egg', and 'Dispatch'.

Went to a West End theatre wearing my “Slamilton” t-shirt. In this corridor, during the act break, a stranger spotted it and did a double-take. “Is that…? wait… that’s not Hamilton!”, they said. I seized my chance. “It’s Slamilton,” I replied. “You know: ‘Who slams, who jams, who tells their story.'” And then, after a […]

Boxing Day breakfast (of champions (of leftovers)).