zkbro

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W15

2026-04-12 19:29

It's been a while. I've been in a slump. I won't write about it here. I've tried, but it is too complex for me to put into coherent words. I've been writing privately because it doesn't need to make sense and I can just stop mid thought. I mean I could do that here, but it'd be a waste of your eye space. I will drop these themes though:

However, I must've turned a corner this last week, as I've started to look at things within my control that can get me back on track. They're small things, but I think they are keeping me sane. So this is those things.

Homebrews

I've ramped up my kombucha (bigger vessel, more yield), started fermenting ginger and making ginger ale, and kicked off a sourdough starter again (not quite ready for baking, but it sure is alive). Not only are these things delicious, they are very fun to watch them bubble and grow, and they are very inexpensive ways to eat and drink nice things.

Volunteering

I went to a tree planting day just around the corner. We planted natives along a steep bank. It was a genuinely nice day with nice people. A few familiar faces from Council (my previous job). It was really nice to catch up with them, and to meet some other locals. I got there early to help with the set up, moving weed mats, tree guards, buckets of compost and plants into place.

I have started contributing more to OpenStreetMap data of my local area. A couple of times a while back I loaded CoMaps and was a little annoyed that there were some points of interest missing which I needed at the time. I didn't do anything about it, but just switched to Google Maps and didn't load CoMaps again for a while. Rather than ignore that shit, I've started to act on it. If I am going to advocate community-led tools like CoMaps and OpenStreetMap to friends, I want to do my part and be involved.

Selling my shit

I finally sold my paraglider. I've had it on the market for over a year, come close to selling it a couple times, but the cost was always just that little bit too much, or buyers only wanted the wing or reserve by itself. I gave in to a low offer because I just wanted it out of my garage. The buyer was excited though. He just finished is PG2 certification the day before so he was stoked he's got a full kit to get going on his own. I'm really happy it's with someone who will get some use out of it now.

On a roll, I spruced up an old manual push mower I had in the garage, posted it on marketplace, and within 10 minutes had it sold. Again the dude was so happy. This made me happy too.

My clutter gives me anxiety. I don't own stuff. Stuff owns me. By freeing me of these things I have more mental space. I don't have a huge deal, but big things like those take up space and I feel guilty that I don't use them. I'm looking at a guitar in the corner of my room right now...

Reading

I've picked up reading again. I canned a book I was struggling through and went for books I know I'll enjoy. Currently I'm reading A New Green History of the World by Clive Ponting. It's kinda old (this is a 2007 update of his 1991 release), but it is very interesting so far.

I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk ****, The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel *** and The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitaki Koga ****.

Simplifying a blog

I'm getting over having to think about a blog vs quick-post, I've offloaded my activities to another site, and I don't write lists or update my crop-log any more. I've never utilised tags, but I figured out how to do it when I created my activities site. I also like very few things on the screen. So, I have created a new style which has just a main page, an archive page, and tags pages:

I haven't decided if I'll just replace this site willy nilly or move to a new site completely. I never intended to hang onto "html-chunder" for as long as I have. I named it that because thats what it was when I started. I was just spewing code into HTML until I figured out a style I wanted. It eventually got to a state that I was happy with, but I never got around to changing the domain name.

The time is right now. I am changing. My site should change with me. I might leave this one as is, and write a parting post, and start on blog.zkbro.com or something.

I've also renting out the spare room again. It is a young couple only for 2 weeks. They are good folk to talk to and very tidy and respectful.

So what has made me feel a little better? It must be the interactions with people (folk at the tree planting day, housemates, marketplace peoples), simplifying things (blog, decluttering) and doing some basic stuff (reading, homebrewing). I will try and remember this for future me.